Christmas cards...the beginning...

This post has been a long time in coming, as I've been making Christmas cards like crazy, but haven't yet had the time to put the pictures up on my blog! Making them like crazy because I've had a self-imposed deadline to get 50 cards done for my mom who has ordered them for Christmas, and knowing that once we move, my craft room will temporarily be in disarray! So I really wanted to get them all done as of this week...and I'm proud to say I'm almost there. Only 5 more to go! But I'm trying to finish the last five AND move at the same time...a challenging proposition. So the rest of this post will be limited on words but contain lots of pictures of all the cards I've made so far. For posterity, it's always nice to keep track of what I make each year! (and there will be more to come, as I haven't finished cards for my own use yet!)

When I made cards for my mom, I made them in sets of 6, so I gave her 5 and kept one for myself. That way, I'm slowly building up my own stash, and I still get a bunch done for my mom all at once. Making duplicates in sets is great because it maximizes my time, and because I vary each one just slightly, I still get the gratification of using a variety of stamps and having each one be a unique creation!

There will be a lot of pictures in this post, so just keep on scrolling! :)

This first set of cards were made with Papertrey's Candy Cane Christmas stamp set ~








And here is another "set" of cards that I have made...they are not all from the same stamp set, but all the paper is from the sei Christmas Mint collection (this is a retired collection, but still so pretty! I bought so many Christmas paper collections a couple of years ago, that I still have more beautiful Christmas paper than I'll ever use in a lifetime, so I can't bring myself to buy any more, even if what I have isn't the "latest, greatest" thing. S.E.I doesn't show this collection on their website anymore, but I've included links to two digital paper kits in this collection that you can still buy, just so you can see what the paper looks like) Stamp sets are all from Papertrey: Believe, Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers, Big & Bold Holiday Wishes and Bells & Boughs (sentiment only).



Papertrey Believe, with the sentiments from Big & Bold Holiday Wishes. I did a lot of coloring with Copic markers on these:









The only stamping on these 2 cards is the sentiment, from Bells & Boughs.



I LOVE the Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers stamp set. You have to be prepared to spend a lot of time on these kinds of cards, because they really require a lot of coloring (which I did with Copic markers), so don't expect to create these "en masse", but the results with this set are amazingly gorgeous!






I guess that should cover it for this post...my next post will be of another set I created while inspired by this month's Papertrey Blog Hop color combos. Til next time...