Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Quick & Easy Christmas Cards, Ideas and Links!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Quick & Easy Christmas Cards
Other Fun Christmas Projects
Win Some Christmas Goodies
See More DT Samples on Monday!

Happy Thanksgiving! I love this card I found on Spiltcoast that Miss Lucy created using our Autumn Cotton Scraps! This image and the one of the turkeys driving the car with the caption 'Look who is coming to dinner' are two of my favorites on this set.
I must admit, I feel more in the spirit of celebrating Thanksgiving now than I did in the middle of October, which is when we celebrate it here in Canada. It seems too early to do it mid Oct, we still have warm sunny days and flowers in the garden here on the West coast. It feels like perfect Fall weather right now, so I feel ready now - plus it seems like a great time to kick off the Christmas season. So, to all our American friends - have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones!

Quick & Easy Christmas Cards
With everyone’s busy schedules I thought I would post some quick Christmas card ideas today. Our Christmas Image & Journal Notes Booklet is a big hit with card makers right now because all the images make it super easy to create pretty cards quickly. You can add a little glitter or some bling with embellishments and stamp a sentiment for the inside and you’re done!
Okay, I admit not every sample here is 'quick & easy' but they are all inspiring!
Here is a pretty card that Vivian Peters from our design team made and I love the way she added the pine branches and cones with the glitter ! You can see more details and another card HERE on her blog.
DT member Pam Hooten created this adorable card. The image is from our Christmas Booklet and the paper is from our Earthy Paper Pad. I also see a little border flourish stamp from our Mini Memories Stamp set.

Tanya Ilnicki created all of these fabulous vintage cards and tags mainly using stickers from our HVS – 925 Heavenly Christmas stickers along with a mix of stamps including the ‘Postcard’ stamp from our Journey stamp set. If the image won't click on larger, please click HERE.

DT member Vicki Chrisman and her sister Jan taught a 'Quick & Fun Christmas Cards' class recently using images from our Christmas Image & journal Note Booklet. Here's an adorable snow family card from their class and you can see more cards HERE on Vicki's blog.
Joanne Allison (angelnorth) is also hosting a fun challenge over at Splitcoaststampsers.com this week to create a Christmas card without using any of our Christmas theme products. Challanges like this are a fantastic way to get you to brainstorm ideas and take them to the next level! You can check it out here! and to join in get the details here

Our Seasonal Booklet is still one of our top selling titles with over 90 images covering all the seasons as well as many popular celebrations. There are 5 pages with Christmas images.
Design team member Anna Wight used this image of the Nimble Nicks from our Seasonal Booklet to create this wonderful Christmas card below. I'm not certain of the paper she used but it looks great paired with this image.

These little Nimble Nick kids are so popular, Cindy our graphic designer, added one to our Vintage Christmas Clear Art Stamp set and DT member Michele Kovack used him on this very cute card she stamped with details here on her blog. I love the colors on this card!

If you want to create gift tags to dress up some yummy gifts, these ones that Lisa Zappa created using our Little Chef Clear Art Stamp set are adorable! This is one of our small stamp sets but it has lots of creative possibilities for adding personality to cards, tags, scrapbook layouts and recipe books!

Janel Brown, one of our talented past design team member, made this sweet little tree decoration with a photo of her granddaughter matted on fishing line sandwiched between 2 pieces of mini chipboard from our SweetChips Mini Frames.


Wow, check out this great Christmas wreath I found over in the Splitcoast gallery that Dayna (woollyba_baa) made using images from our booklet and the Santa from our Winter Cotton Scraps!

Here are some sweet little tags from the make-n-take that Marisa Grosson ran for 2 days at the BC Creative Expo last month. I’ve misplaced the photo file for the cards she made right now but I will post them Monday.

Check out this sweet little Christmas outfit that Heidi Blankenship made using one of our Sweetchips Little girl outfits, paper, stickers and the little holly branch stamp from our new Christmas Joy Clear Art Stamp Set. You can see the inside of the dress, more photos and get the details HERE on Heidi's blog.



Our design team ladies are working on some wonderful new samples that they will post Monday and link to each other, so be sure to come back and check them out! You can read more about it and enter to win some Christmas goodies here on Vicki's blog.


Wishing you joy & creativity
Sandy Redburn
owner

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

New DT Member, New Samples, CK Show & More!

A. We have a New Design Team Member!
B. New Stamp Set Samples
C. Check Out This Fun Challenge
D. Come See Us at the CK Show in WA this Weekend!
E. Otis – Our Mascot – again!


We have a New Design Team Member!
I’m so happy to announce that we have a new design team member! It’s Michele Kovack who was a past guest designer for us and she has continued to create so many wonderful samples. She really earned a spot on our team!

Michele has two children, an eleven year old son and a 13 year old daughter. She’s been married 14 years and has a pug named Bruno. She’s been teacher for 11 years and is currently teaching 5th grade. She is also on a few other design teams and keeps super busy between her family, work and addiction to paper crafting!
Check out some of these fabulous samples Michele has created! You can see more of Michelle’s work on her blog here and get more details on our blog here soon, as she will be posting them and the details shortly.
I love these two cards she created using our Coffee & Tea Clear Art Stamp set. I think she may have also used the cherry from the Kitchen Classics set and added some clear embossing, which looks really cool!
Michele made this adorable card using an image from our Childhood Image & Journal Notes Booklet

New Stamp Set Samples!
Our talented design team has been busy creating some really wonderful cards using our two NEW Clear Art Stamp Sets Snow Bunnies and Christmas Joy
Anna Wight stamped this sweet card and you can see more close up samples and get the details on her blog here. Anna also sells our stamps in her ebay store!
Pam Hooten from our design team created this little masterpiece with the Snow Bunnies set and it looks like she had a dark photo day but you can see the glitter looks fantastic on this card! You can get the details and see more on Pam's Blog HERE
I Love the warm colors of this card that Vivian Lynn from our design team captured in this card she created with the Snow Bunnies stamp set. You can see it and a very pretty card she made on her blog HERE!

Check out this fun card design team member Lisa Zappa made using the same Snow Bunnies set. I love the way she stamped the mittens across the bottom of the card! You can see more details on Lisa's blog HERE

How about this wonderful card that Heidi Blankenship made using our New Christmas Joy Clear Art Stamp set. This set is so versatile, allowing you to build and create so many combinations. The embossing on this card and the snow accents she added make it pop! You can see more close up photos and details HERE on Heidi's Blog.

Marisa Grossan from our design team used also used the Christmas Joy stamp set to create this beautiful card by stamping the small holly branch over and over to create a wreath. I love they way she matted it and gave the berries a 3D finish. You can see more details and other cards on Marisa's blog here.
Darlene, over at Splitcoast has issued a new fun challenge to create a card using any of our products with punches and not only can you see the great gallery of samples HERE, you can join in the fun and get the details here! Michelle Woerner submitted this beautiful card using the snowman from our Winter Homespun Cotton Scraps and I thought it was perfect for my post today.

Come See Us at the CK Show in WA this Weekend!
I hope to meet some of you this weekend at the CK Scrapbook Show in Bellevue WA if you can make it to this show! It’s a big, busy FUN show and Vicki Chrisman from our design team is flying in from Nebraska to run our Make-n-Take table! Come create a Christmas card with her using our vintage Christmas images or one of our new stamp sets!
We are bringing lots of everything to sell and TONS of eye popping – inspiring samples that our design team has created!

Here are a couple of photos from this past weekend when we attended the BC Creative Expo here in Vancouver BC. I was so lucky to have two fantastic ladies run our make-n-take table! Theresa was our teacher on Friday and Marisa (you can see at the table in the photo below) taught on Saturday. Everyone’s cards turned out FANTABULOUS!

Here I am at the demo table getting to play. See what I mean - lots of inspiring samples from our design team fill our entire booth!

Otis – Our Mascot – again!
Lastly, I had to share another photo I came across that Chelsea recently took of our dog Otis, who adores car rides. He looks so nostalgic and blissful! Let’s hope she wasn’t driving the car when she took this shot!

In my next post I’m going to do a big spread on Quick & Easy Christmas Card Ideas. So, come back and join us!

Wishing you joy & creativity
Sandy Redburn
owner

Our Online Store Locator
Our Shopatron Store


Crafty Secrets
http://www.craftysecrets.com/
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817