Home Made Christmas Gifts

We did some home made Christmas gifts this year. Not many, but a couple for the people we knew would appreciate it.

This way it was economical and includes lots of love! For the grandparents and an aunt and uncle, I made apple butter. It turned out delicious, so I decided to make more for gifts. The recipe I used is here (as are the printable circles).

I added a bit of fabric I had and some ribbon (which is actually harder to tie than it looks) and wola! A cute and yummy gift! The only thing I ended up buying for these gifts were cloves, and I had been meaning to get some anyhow :}

Christmas Cards

I decided to make my Christmas cards this year without purchasing paper. Tammy, if you are reading this, you are not getting a sneak peak at your card~I made one special for you. It was a challenge, but I did it! I did get the stamp I used on the inside, but it was at a used stamp sale and was super cheap. So I used the paper I had on hand and went to work on a design. I came up with the cards below (well, this is a sampling, as I didn't include them all). The poinsetta is from Penny Duncan of Penny Duncan's Creations (yes, it's free). I did use less petals than she has in the file, because I liked the simplistic look (and I was making lots of them). There is a close up below. All of the flowers were cut in white and I inked and glimmer misted them myself (something newish for me, so I was kinda surprised at how much I liked them). It took forever for the bows to look half way decent, I hope they don't untie in the mail!

Simple and sweet, but I like them!

My family is so wonderful!!!

My family is so wonderful! They are supportive of my craftiness and my Christmas gifts certainly play into that. Last year my grandmother got me a Personal Cricut and I recieved cartridges from my (then fiance) now husband and my now mother-in-law.

This year my mother-in-law got me a slew, and I am talking tons (I might post pics later) of patterned scrapbook paper. Some double sided and all gorgeous papers!

My hubby got me [this deserves a drum roll] Sure Cuts A Lot!!!!! So I just installed it and played a bit. It widens my Cricut possibilities like 5 fold (cause 3 fold doesn't seem like enough). Rereading this, I don't think it shows my enthusiasm to it's full. The excitement is high, folks!

What does this mean for you? I will be searching for lots of free SVG file sites and sharing them with you along with my creations that will be awesome! I know Penny Duncan's Creations has a lot of free svg files, some I have already downloaded. She is both a beautiful and talented woman of the Lord and I am VERY thankful for her skills :) Thanks, Penny!

I hope everyone else is enjoying a very Merry Christmas and has a wonderful new beginning to a fabulous new year!

Gretchen+Christmas=Irony

If you've read any of the posts where I used Digi's With Attitude! Stamps, you know I adore Grumpy Gretchen. So I was thrilled to see her elvish form as this month's freebie.
The tag, which is hard to read says ' the most wonderful time of the year'. Perfect irony for Gretch! Like Gretchen? Digi's With Attitude! is sponsoring Glitterbabe's Challenge this week, and you can win free digis! Just use buttons, glitter and attitude.

A close up of Gretchen and her bling. One of my husband's friends was over while I was making this card and he said he wanted Gretchen on his Christmas card 'cause she is hot'~such a guy!

Challenges-
Glitterbabe's Challenge- glitter, buttons, attitude
Lots to Do- words
Papertake Weekly- sketch- I did my own spin, but you can see the layout
Stamp Something-Christmas
Whoopsie Daisy- girly

New Technique

I like to try new things every now and then, this card was the result of that. I think it turned out alright. Pretty good, for the first try, I guess. I'm not sure what this method is called~I got the idea from my mother in law while looking through her stash of past cards she had made (in bulk, I believe). The front:
The red and blue (dotted and solid red) paper was a double sided piece I had. In the future I would use a thicker piece. I added the black, it is by Amanda Blu. I'm not sure the brand of the double sided paper. The 'Merry Christmas' is written with my new Versa Marker (a wonderful, wonderful tool) and blue Distress Embossing powder. I got the VersaMarker from 1-2-3 Stitch for just over $5 (that included shipping and handling). I received it two days after it was ordered. I will definitely order from them in the future. I encourage you to check out their site, as their prices seem to be much lower than anywhere else (at least the items I was looking at). Image while opening:
Opened card. Fun, isn't it?! The image is from the wonderful Linnie of Whoopsi Daisy. She is simply darling!
The snowflakes on the bottom are a punch, it didn't have a brand on it~sorry!

Challenges:
Whoopsi Daisy Challenge-girly
One Stop Craft Challenge- Christmas Cuties
Stamp Something-Christmas
2 Sisters Challenge Blog-Non Traditional Christmas Colors

Christmas Tree

If you look closely, you will notice that the red paper is glittery. It is hard to see in the first picture, but more evident in the last one. I thought I was done with Christmas in July cards (as I had done a couple others), turns out, not yet! One last one for the challenge at Stamp Something.

Jumping on the Bandwagon-Christmas in July

Since I have discovered free digital stamps, I have been playing around with them, coloring and painting them, and I have made a few cards. Since everyone has been posting Christmas in July cards, I decided to take a few of the new digital stamps and make a Christmas card myself. Of course, since these were digital freebies, I have to give credit where it is due. The cat on the sled was from Becky's Happy Crafting Place.

The tree is a part of a digi from Pink Gem.

The digital images are painted with watercolors. The snowflakes are some old rub-ons (they didn't even have the brand on them anymore). And the sentiment was just a sticker I had (also old and no longer in the original package).

Hope you enjoyed viewing this as much as I enjoyed making it!