Christmas in July. . .a little late!

I just realized I still have this post in my file. . .and it has never surfaced into the blogosphere!

So. . .ignore the title, and here was my "Christmas in August" ideas.

Yes, you read that right. I have learned from the past. There is no time to create Christmas cards prior to the Christmas season, and I had a wave of creativity one lovely day in August, so this is what I did: I made Christmas cards.

Maybe you can guess. . .it was a Pinterest idea. Well, I should say it was based on a pinterest idea. I saw cards made out of paint chips (similar to the ones at the bottom of this post) and decided I should search the web for some tree ideas. I found a gift tag (blog here) that looked similar to the tree I made, but decided to make mine as a whole card, thinking I could put a family photo on the back. Which never happened.

But here it is:

Here are the cards--done on the right, works in progress on the left.

(Stamps from Michael's clearance, ink was Staz-On, ribbon from my left-overs stash, paper from Activity Village website and my stash)

 

And below are some other cards I tried to make.

They are very, very pink. Cute, but VERY pink. Sparkle too, but VERY pink!

(stamps from Stampin Up)

(stamps from Michael's clearance bin)

 

Thank you to my many trips to Home Depot, where I was {seriously} considering painting the guest room one of various shades of green, but never did, and then considered painting a hallway pink, but never did--and didn't want to waste the chips so I crafted instead. (Am I justified in this?!?!)

a few (more) cards. . .

Oops! I realized I already had a post started about some cards I had made, only I never posted it! So here are a few more pictures of some super simple cards I've made using scraps (see my last post about a few cards). I don't have any of these cards anymore. . .they were all sent out!

(This top one I made during GEMS once. One of my girls couldn't focus long enough to get through a whole lesson, so we started making cards together so she was being "creative" and using her hands. I figured if we were sending out encouraging cards to her friends, family and people in the church, maybe she was still learning all those important God-lessons that she might have learned through doing the full lessons.)

I love this one. . .simple, easy, but kinda cute. . .and I like the pink and green combo.

A few cards. . .

I don't claim to be a super-great card-maker or scrapbook-creator like some of the people I know and the blogs that I visit occasionally, but I enjoy doing it, whether they turn out okay or not. I was pretty proud of myself for getting my baby's scrapbook all done by the time he was 15 months. It is not nearly the size of my other kiddos, but it captures all that it needs too!

In the last little bit I have been trying to make cards out of the "scraps" I've collected. My dutch thriftiness says I can't throw out something that can be used in the future, so I figured it was about time I tried to use some scraps, to see if they were even useful! In addition to that, a friend of mine let me borrow her huge box of Stampin' Up sets, so, I figured I had to be able to create something if I compiled all the resources!

So here are a few. . .

And a few more. . .

Another thing I've been trying out is using the stamps to make"pop-ups" (or whatever the correct term for this is!) and using one of those blending brushes for watercolour pencils. I may be 10 years behind in stamping techniques, but I have had a few pockets of time before I need to head back to work, and I thought I would take advantage of it!

Christmas Cards

Each year--especially on my mat. leave years--I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to have the kids help me make Christmas cards this year?" And for some reason, I never can remember what I felt like after the last time I did it! Because if I remembered how I felt afterwards, I know I would swear never to do it again!

But this was one of those years. . .when I forgot, and was so filled with the happy thoughts of involving my children in such a formative experience (yah, right!).

This first one was easy--making gift tags and candy treats. Punch the corners of old cards, poke a hole, tie some string. My kids can do that, I could handle supervising it all, it was gangs of fun.
And then came time for the cards. . .again, it was wonderful. I printed off some ornament pictures for them to colour. . .little did I know that my son would be so particular about how he coloured and my daughter thought brown would be perfect for EVERYTHING! Oh, how I tried to encourage them. Oh, how I reminded myself that it was their work and they were proud of it. Oh, how I really wanted it done my way!

But I resisted. Cut them all apart, had the kiddos help with the punches, had them help with some stamping, had them help with the mounting, had them help with gluing, had them help with the glitter pens (their favourite part), had them help tie knots and bows. . .had them help teach me LOTS of patience!!!

My side of the story: frustrating! It started out great, but a project like that is bound to get frustrating with a 5 and a 3 year old! And the time and effort that went into it! Phew! I thought they would never get done!

But they all got done, they got put into envelopes, and most are delivered (except for family and some neighbors, which my kids wanted to do).

And. . .I'm glad they are done. . .and deep down, buried under all the frustration and chaotic memories, I think I am glad they were involved. I'm hoping that they will remember this not as a frustrating ordeal, but a way that they can be involved in giving a "gift" to someone. Hopefully one day down the road, they will get what it means to "serve" other people. And hopefully it was just plain fun for them. . .which I think it was, because they keep begging to do more and trying to make some of their own (as I clean up all the messes!!!).

Here they are working away. . .

And here is a random finished project. . .a true labour of love for all of us! Is this the most beautiful card a person will get this Christmas? No, by no means! But a lot of work went into it, and. . .it was fun!

Whether you receive this card or not, we wish you all a very merry, blessed Christmas!

a {quick} card

i'm out of "extra cards".
(you know, the ones you make just to have around for extra occasions?)
i really need a card-making day or evening.
little A was doing well a few nights ago, trying to master his roll and commando crawl, so i took a small peek into the old scrapbooking box.
this is just a card i pulled together for my little nephew's baptism
i was looking in my "scraps" bag and came across all the right stuff to make this little card.
(which was great because who has time to actually do card-making anymore?!?!?)

Help with the Baby Cards

Here is our little guy . . . just had to show off this picture.

It has taken me FOREVER to get little A's announcement cards done! I started them before he was born, knowing that afterwards it just wouldn't happen. All I had to do was mount his info and a picture. How hard is that?



With free time being pretty non-existent, I enlisted the help of my ever-so-helpful kiddos. Here is our little set-up:

E enjoys helping me "scrapbook." (Even if it just means taking the sticky corners off!) Afterwards he had to make a card of his own. . .he wrote "I like it when mommy feeds Aaron." He wanted to sent this card to his friend. So far we have held onto it. . .not sure if his friend needs a card that says that!

Here is the front:

Here is the inside:

Now to get them addressed and in the mail. Wonder how long that will take! :)

X-mas Cards

So. . .I finally had some free time. . .and I didn't spend it on school work or course work. While E was out putting up Christmas lights (single-handed-ly, of course. . .and notice the Holmes on Homes influence? He needed his safety strap to go on a ladder. . .however it goes nowhere. . . )
. . .and J was helping him. . .

. . .so that eventually it would look like this. . .

. . .I got a few essentials ready

and decided to do some card-making! My friend had told me that her Christmas cards were all done, and I was kinda jealous! So, now I had a few free moments. . .

I'm not very good at coming up with original ideas when making cards, so my inspiration came from a card from the past (Thank you, Tara).

Here was my first try. I wasn't completely happy (and sorry the camera's colour was so bad!) The Christmas paper (Christmas Baroche from Michael's) just wasn't Christmas-y enough for me, and it all turned out really red.

My next try was this one. . .(can't remember the name of the paper, and it is all gone right now, but its from Michael's too). I like this one better. (Stamps are from Stampin Up and Michael's--can't remember the name of the set, either. I bought it used so it doesn't have the cool name sticker on it). We'll see if i get around to any others. . .