So Christmas is 6 months Away. . .

and I have started on my cards! Honestly, I probably won't make another until after Halloween (my favorite holiday!) but, I like to delude myself sometimes. One of my very favorite things about JittoBear is their "alternative" items.  They make things for the quirky, a tad off crowd as well as the standard chipboard die cuts. I have had this adorable chipboard cut since I began designing for JittoBear and I am so glad I finally got a chance to use it. I truly think this fits my style, don't you? Cute little cared with a cute little attitude ~

 
What I Used to Make my Card:
Bite Me JittoBear Chipboard
Kraft Card Base
KaiserCraft paper from Yuletide Paper Pack
Distress Paint in Gathered Twigs & Fired Brick
Golden Acrylic Paint in Quinacridone Red
Birds Cards Cut File - Santa's Hat Circle (I only used the Santa Hat portion)
Ranger Glossy Accents
Scrap of Red Cardstock
Scrap of White Cardstock

First, if you have an electronic cutting machine, like a Silhouette, you HAVE to go to Birds Cards and take a look at the amazing cut files that Bird shares FREE! And the designs are always so cool!! OK, the first thing I did was gesso the

chipboard (truthfully, I had gessoed this a long time ago) and decided what colors I wanted to paint my gingerbread man and the saying.  I used Distress Paint in Gathered Twigs for the happy little bitten gingerbread guy and Fired Brick for the saying.  I was happy with the brown paint, and I liked the matte look on the gingerbread, but, I wanted a more red red for the saying. So, I broke out my acrylics and painted over the Fired Brick with Quinacridone Red. I like the shine of the acrylic next to the matte of the Distress Paint.  I have also decided no more gesso on the chipboard unless I know I need it - lemme tell you, that white stuck out like a sore thumb and I saw new white spots every day I looked at it! I think I finally have them

all covered, but if you see one, don't tell me! I used one of Birds Files for the Hat, it's called Santa's Hat Circle, ungrouped the files and just used the hat.  Cut the hat out of red cardstock and the trim and the pom pom, glued it together and then used Glossy Accents  to cover the red part of the hat.  It felt the hat needed a little pop since the card is so brown.

Next step was picking out the background paper. I wanted a holiday themed paper, but, I  didn't want it to over power the chipboard.  And no Santa's or anything jolly - just wouldn't fit.  I found the paper I used in the KaiserCraft Yuletide Paper Pack. I don't have the exact name of the paper as it was cut off

long ago, but I felt the music background added something as well as being subtle enough to not overpower the gingerbread man.  I like all the textures on this card; the shine of the acrylic paint, the matte of the gingerbread man and the pop of the hat.  Well, there you go - my first holiday card of 2015.  Now I must go back to making the birthday cards.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the gingerbread man! Please consider becoming a follower on my blog - I am trying to get 100 new subscribers in 2015. Blessings, Christi 

I would like to enter my Gingerbread Man Card in the following challenges:
Ink on my Fingers - Sunday Stamper, #358, No Stamping
Natalie & Amy's Challenge - (M) #33, Christmas
Brown Sugar Challenges - #139, Anything Goes
Loves Rubber Stamping - #154, Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door - wk of 6/2 - 6/8, Always Anything Goes
ABC Christmas Challenge - K is for Keep it Simple

Whew, finished just in time for our daily storm!! Stay safe everyone!! :)

Craft Room Challenge Blog - Wedding or Anniversary Card

I had a completely different card all set up for today, but it seems my computer has lost the files! I love it when that happens – NOT.  Anyway, I whipped up this wedding card to make up for it. Better late than never! Please pop over to the Craft-Room Challenge, get inspired and enter your own card or project! I hope you enjoy it!

What I Used to Make this Card:
Birds Cut file of Wedding Cake & Stand (cut on my Silhouette CAMEO)

Square Card Base 5 ¼ x 5 ¼ in White

3 papers in different shades of white (classic white, light Kraft & antique (or vanilla) white)

Decorative piece of Chipboard (mine is Basic Grey)

Love by Definition – SU! Background Stamp

Love Stamp (unknown manufacturer)

Distress Ink in Antique Linen & Brushed Corduroy

The stamped background

I began by stamping the “Love by Definition” stamp on the center of the card using the Distress Ink in Antique Linen.  I didn’t want the background of the card to be white along with everything else, so I thought this gave it a little oomph.

Ribbon Flowers

Then I set about cutting out the cut file from Bird.  I searched her site for the actual cut file but had no luck in finding it. But, if your heart is set on using this cut file, I am sure she'd be able to find it for you!  I divided the cake and the stand; using the plain white cardstock I cut out the stand, then I used a light Kraft color for the cake base, and finally vanilla (antique white) for the top pieces of the cake.  I assembled the cake (although I suspect I may have done it wrong) and then cut some ribbon flowers off the ribbon. I adhered the ribbon flowers with glue and set the cake aside.

I stamped the word “love” on plain white cardstock with the Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.  I chose a piece of chipboard that would both fit the word and on the card; inked all around the edge with the Brushed Corduroy Ink, trimmed the work and attached it to the chipboard.

Finally, I glued the cake to the card base and the chipboard as well.  It really only took me about a half an hour, and it came out looking like it took much longer, I think.  It’s amazing what you can do when you are pressed for time!  Thanks for stopping by! Christi

There is plenty of time for you to enter this challenge at the Craft-Room Challenge blog - you have 2 whole weeks!!

I am entering my Wedding Cake Card in the following Challenges:
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes
Charisma Cardz Challenge - Anything Goes
Pile it On - #27, Add Some Flowers
Sister Act - #64, Anything Goes
Creative Moments - #46, Anything Goes, Twist = Celebration
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges - #185, Anything Goes
Paper Crafting Challenges - Anything Goes

Bah Humbug!

I made this card for Country View Crafts  December challenge called Bah Humbug.  I was lucky enough to win the October challenge and they asked if I wanted to be the Guest Designer for the month of December.  As soon as I heard the challenge theme, I signed right up! It took us a while to get all the details together with the time difference and all, but we made it work!

To make this card you will need the following materials: 

• 1 piece of white cardstock
• 1 piece of black cardstock
• 1 pieces of red cardstock
• “When Santa got Stuck in the Chimney” cutfile by Bird
• 1 piece of cardstock to stick the card onto - optional (I used the light blue to simulate the sky)
• Pop Dots - optional (if you don't stick the card onto another piece of cardstock you don't need these)
• Wendy Vecchi’s Bricks Stencil
• Wendy Vecchi’s Archival ink in Red Geranium
• Distress Marker in Fired Brick
• Distress Ink in Walnut Stain
• Adhesive of your choice

 I put the card together by doing this:

1.  Cut “When Santa got Stuck in the Chimney” cut file card by Bird 3 times:

1 in white cardstock, 1 in black cardstock & 1 in red cardstock (I used my Silhouette CAMEO, but she makes files so practically any machine can cut it or if you need to you can access the file in Adobe (pdf) and hand cut it). Also, now that I know how to put the card together I wouldn’t need to cut out 3 entire designs but I find for my first time it is easier to have all the options available (and as you’ll read, this was a good thing).

2.The black cardstock is what I used for my base card and where I attached all the pieces.  

3. Before I added the chimney base, I stenciled bricks on it using Wendy Vecchi’s   Bricks stencil & Wendy Vecchi’s Archival Ink in Red Geranium.  Because the color was so subtle, I outlined the bricks with Tim Holtz’s Distress Marker in Fired Brick.

4. Then I attached the top of the chimney & the snow that goes on the top.

5. I then edged the chimney with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain to give it some depth.

6. For some reason I could only find one of Santa’s pant legs in red, so I took the red base card and cut his legs off and used those instead. Then I put the snow on the legs in between the pants and his boots.  I think a bit of glitter would look cute to sparkle up the snow (I may do this later). 

While you don't have to add the card to a base I thought since I am going to mail this (in fact, the person should have it by now!) I wanted the card to be a bit sturdier so I attached the cutfile card to the light blue cardstock "background".

Monster inspecting the card without the backing

And the finished card!

I can feel Santa's frustration about being stuck in the chimney - I know I feel that way sometimes when the crunch of the season is upon us! But, if it isn't done by today, then it isn't going to get done in time (that's my theory anyway) and I can always make Happy Winter cards and such for the people I didn't get to.

I wish all of you good health, good cheer and a wonderful holiday and a happy New Year!