Scripty Santa

I just gotta say...making Christmas cards is hugely fun for me. I'm still learning but that's half the fun of it!

On Sunday I made one Christmas card to cover both the Christmas Cards All Year Round August challenge (kid's Christmas) AND the current Jingle Belles  challenge, based on Stephanie's awesome sketch.



I know...everybody else manages to get at least 5 challenges out of each card, but I'm just a beginner. Here's my Santa card, doesn't he look like he's having fun??




And since this little Santa actually pivots, I only glued down the rocking horse portion. That way kids can move him around...and this is what Santa looks like if someone slipped a little rum in his eggnog. But now I'm torn...do I really want to give this to a kid to demolish?? Hmm.

Unscripted sketch #171

I work with several non-profits and two of them involve support for US soldiers stationed overseas. Based in Folsom, Support4Soldiers, sends care packages to soldiers in Afghanistan at Christmas and the 4th of July. It's a great cause and a wonderful group of people to work with. And the letters of thanks from the soldiers are very touching. I'm sure they appreciate the snack foods and personal hygiene items, but mostly I think they are happy to know that people at home are thinking of them.

The group was recently contacted about a soldier who was severely injured by an IED explosion. He is now stateside and we were asked to reach out to him as he goes through a lengthy and difficult healing and rehabilitation process. Support4Soldiers has sent him a special package of goodies and many of us are sending him cards and letters as well.

I used this week's Unscripted Sketches challenge above as inspiration for my card to this soldier.

I also work with Baking GALS, a nationwide group of folks who send packages of home-baked goodies to soldiers every month. I am going to start sending a homemade card along with my home baked cookies on the next shipment.

Oh Christmas Sketch...

I was so excited to start the new Jingle Belles challenge yesterday (as always). I had plenty of time and an idea of what I wanted to do. Here's Stephanie's sketch, which is a great template to work with.

But no matter how many ways I tried it, I just could not get a look that I liked (I'm pretty sure it's because the snowflake paper I chose is too busy). I tried a GAZILLION ways of framing my embelli-flake, putting it on a tag, different color and shapes of die-cut card-stock, but it just doesn't float my boat. No matter...I had fun trying and someone will be getting this baby in the mail in December anyway! I did manage to make a birthday card and a thank you card yesterday as well, which is pretty good for me.

Santa Baby

I had a blast with the current Jingle Belles challenge, to incorporate something you find at the North Pole, into a Christmas card. My first attempt ended disasterously when I decided to try adding stitching on my sewing machine, the first time I've attempted sewing on paper. It looks so easy when other people do it! I'll practice on scraps a bit before I try that again. I love it when I can use actual scraps, and all the paper I used for this card is leftover from scrapbooking, so I'm very happy. I also love this Tim Holtz die and this is the first time I've used it.

I'm working on my second...er, third...card now. Also trying a technique I've not tried before, so maybe it will get posted and maybe not!