The Start of the 2015 Christmas Card Challenge: January Christmas Cards

Hello!  I'm sure that during this time of year when everyone is trying to take down and pack up the last of the Christmas decorations that no one is interested in seeing Christmas cards.  And I assure you, neither I am.  I didn't even want to make them!  However, if I am to be prepared for next year, I have to start making my Christmas cards now.  As most of you already know, I play the Christmas Card Challenge on Splitcoaststampers where we make Christmas cards all year long so that were not stressed out during the busy holiday season.  I make five Christmas Cards a month so that I'll have around fifty cards at the end of the year.  I make a tall card:  4 x 8 so that I can fit a photo collage inside along with a Christmas letter.  I try to keep layers to a minimum so that they cost less to mail.

To make my cards I used a retired Stampin Up! set called "Festive Friends".   My sketch is from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge (SSSC248).  I made one card using the Santa Claus image and two each of the snowman and angel images.

 All the paper is from the DCWV stacks "The Christmas and Winter Combo Stack' and 'The Christmas Combo Stack'.  All the sentiments are from retired Stampin Up! "Christmas Words,  Star Studded Season'.

 I put Liquid Applique on all of Santa's fur trim.

 I added green adhesive crystals around the sentiment.

 For all three cards I stamped the image onto white paper and then colored around it with off-white Copic markers.  I did this since there was a lot of white in all three images, and it's hard to color the color "white", if you know what I mean.

 I added Liquid Applique to the snowman's cuffs as well.

 And this time I put blue adhesive crystals around the sentiment to match the paper.

 Spellbinder's Nestabilities were used to cut all the squares on each card.  In every card, the main image was stamped all three times, and I simply angled the square die to get a different viewpoint.

 I used a very light shade of blue on the angel's wings so that it would be a little more distinct from her white gown.

 And this time I used red adhesive crystals to echo the red dots in the designer paper.

My friend Vicki from Stamp Smiles started a new challenge called "Flashback Friday" which encourages us to use all our old, retired stamps.  I said that I would join her because all I use is old stamps.  I put myself on a stamp buying freeze long ago because I have more stamps than I could ever use in a lifetime and most of them have never saw ink.  Frankly, I think new stamps are just repeats of most older styles.  So often a company will come out with a new stamp and I think "Hey, I have  an old stamp that looks just like that,  I can use that one instead of buying a new one!"  I know the stamp companies don't want to hear that, but sorry, it's true.  I'm not going to make someone else richer by making me poorer.  I will use what I have.

What about you?  Are you constantly "in with the new and out with the old"?  Or do you just keep using the same old stamps like I do, or do you buy a new image once in awhile?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have a great day!  Amy