Friday, October 12, 2012

Some Early Holiday Crafting Inspiration

First of all, I just want to thank each and every one of you for your comments and emails on my last post.  I was overwhelmed and might have even shed a tear or two!  Thanks so much for inspiring me to keep blogging.  You mean people actually read my blog??  The most surprising thing to me is that you like my everyday life / out-and-about posts.  When I post those, I always wonder if people just skip those posts and only read the crafting/scrapbooking posts.  I guess for the most part, that's not the case!

Last year I embarked on an overly ambitious "Handmade Christmas", where I planned out tons of handmade gifts.  You can see my Handmade Christmas board on Pinterest here.  Not all of them came to fruition, but I did make 40 handmade trifold holiday cards that took FOREVER to make (like, seriously, 25 hours), and I made several holiday papercrafting kits as well.  I thought I would revisit them again on the blog, since I still enjoy looking at them and a lot of my blog readers are new this year. 

First, the cards.  I made 40 trifold cards.  The front of the card consisted of a strip of patterned paper, a diecut scalloped circle, a punched circle with stamped character, and a stamped sentiment on the bottom.





















I actually made many different ones, which was why it took me so long!





















I designed a personalized paper ornament in my Silhouette Studio software and cut them out with my Silhouette SD machine.





















The inside of the trifold card has a stamped sentiment on the left, our photo with a belly band greeting in the center, and the cut paper ornament on the right.





















You can see more photos and explanations of the products I used, and my process, in my blog post last year:  Anatomy Of A Holiday Card.

I also created a few paper-crafting kits and gave them away to crafty friends.  I think these were a big hit.  :)  Everything was handmade by me.



















































































































You can read my post last year "Handmade Holiday Crafting Kit" for more information on what I included in the kit.  I had originally intended to make my own kit for December Daily, and made extras as gifts for my crafty friends.  But I've come to realize that December Daily might not be the best kind of project for me.  Because I work in financial analysis and accounting, December is one of the busiest months for me.  Besides the fact that we don't even put up the tree until a couple of days before Christmas, LOL.  Oh well, I think I'm not the only person who LOVES to look at Christmas papers and stamps, but doesn't actually use them that much.  :p  I hope you found some early holiday inspiration in this post.  Go forth and create some holiday cards or mini books!  :)

13 comments:

  1. Kit was a huge hit. Yes! And your card is still proudly displayed on our china cabinet. My turn to send an awesome card this year. I have it all planned out...in my head. :)

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  2. Hi there
    I ment to comment yesterday but it I was too busy. I don't usually comment because I am usually on my iPad or iPhone. As you mentioned before typing on these things can be a PITA (pain in the a**). I have a long list of blogs that I read. Yours is one that I read, not scan, and look forward to. I read it because I love your ideas, PL post but most of all you are from San Diego. I live in San Diego and look forward to you showing me parts of San Diego I was not aware of. My list of places to go check out keeps getting longer and longer. Sigh, I really should get out more. So even though many of us do not comment we are lurking :). BTW great idea on the Crafting Kit. Unfortunately I have no crafty friends. They like to receive them but not do crafts. This year I am making my own Christmas Cards. I have already started, a big shockaru. I have an idea for you Shrinky Dinks!!!! I don't have a silhouette but I have a die cutter. I die cut ornaments out of the shrinky dinks, stamped them, colored them and baked them. My cards will include a personalized ornament. Anywho, if it continues to be fun I encourage you to continue blogging. I will continue to lurk and comment once in a while. Have a great weekend.

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  3. Wow! I am SO impressed that you're already working on Christmas cards :) I don't know that I'll even get them out this year!
    I wanted to stop by yesterday, but didn't have the chance. I usually read your blog-and others on my Google Reader during breaks when my boys are doing their schoolwork (I homeschool them), so I don't often have a chance to comment.
    I really appreciate your blog and I LOVE reading about the fun things that you & Todd do! I hope that you'll keep doing it :)
    Thank you so much!

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  4. Thanks for reporting your handmade chrIstmas. I love your silhouette ornament. Now that I am a proud cameo owner, I hope to get my craft on this holiday season.

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  5. Thanks Christine for this early holiday inspiration.
    I´ll make handmade cards again, this year - so I´m thankful for each inspiration.

    And by the way. I loved and still love the holiday card I got last year from you. It´s still (yes really, with all the others) at the presenting line on our wall.

    ;-) and I so much hope to get one of your fantastic cards this year again ;-)

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  6. I loved your tri fold card last year and I look at it again and still love it. Seeing your kit full of such pretty stuff is getting me excited about making our holiday cards. I only have about 12 to 15 made and so I have more than 100 to go. I guess I'd better kick it into high gear, huh?

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  7. Love your kits, I can see why people would love that gift!! Your cards are adorable too. I am going to tackle the december daily this year but idk how well it will go for me either because we don't decorate our apartment that much for christmas & then we go to arizona a couple days before christmas & spend the holidays there...where everything is very christmasy, but we will be away from home so I won't have tons of space/time for crafting! I am going to try it though & maybe it won't be entirely christmas oriented...but I feel like once I start project life I won't want an additional december album so I'm going to do it this year only...at least for awhile.

    Linda

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  8. Christmas inspiration early is just what we need. Heck, the local Lowes, Sears Hardware and Acme are all decked out in holiday regalia!

    I love that silhouette ornament. So lovely and I wish I had one to make my own ornament.

    The kits are a great idea. This year you could have a give away...haha just kidding.

    On to think about our card.

    Julie

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  9. Still the best card ever! I'm planning on using the kit this year to document the holiday with my 3 nieces. I'm thinking a mini book of sorts. Fingers crossed. It will be my first.

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  10. I actually haven't started making our holiday cards this year, but I have the photo picked out and have the basic design idea in my head. Hope to use the stamps I already have instead of buying more this year! :)

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  11. I LOVE making my own home-made Christmas cards every year. In fact, I always take the 1st week in December off work, specifically so I can craft to my hearts content, all day, every day!!! I reckon if you set up a "production line" of sorts, you'd be able to get your cards created in half time. It's all in the planning / preparation. Hahahaha!!!

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  12. I remember these cards from last year, and thinking how amazing they looked and how much work they looked like. I haven't had the energy to do handmade cards in several years but I am always hoping someone will send me a few. I hold on them as special and happily I am lucky enough to get a few each year.

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  13. You are not alone... I am a definite holiday paper/supply aficionado, yet I don't find the time to use them.

    I am also guilty of not commenting, but I do enjoy your blog and your project life posts. I personally would love to see more pages where you combine traditional pages and PL pages :)

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