More Handmade Christmas Cards

I have a few more handmade Christmas cards to share with you.  All the cards were made with retired Stampin' Up! images.

For my first card I created a simple nativity scene by using textured card stock to make a "barn".  

I created a frame by cutting a large square in the white card stock base.  The images were stamped, colored, and cut out then glued to the black card stock.  The star was done the same way except I added some glitter glue and popped it up on dimensionals.

For my next card, the star and sentiment are from a Stampin' Up! set but the image was just googled off the internet (free coloring pages), printed, colored in, then cut out.

I cut the star out of glitter paper, then I added some crystal clear glitter glue around the sentiment.

For this card, I stamped the background image and sentiment directly on the card stock, but the Joseph and Mary figures were stamped separately, colored in, cut out, and glued on the card.

I put crystal clear glitter glue on the stars in the sky.

I even did the inside of the card too, but this time I colored the Joseph and Mary images in with pencil so they wouldn't bleed through on the other side of the card stock.

And finally, here's some easy peasy cards I mass produced.

I just stamped a sentiment and simple Christmas tree image on the card and added a little sparkle with glitter glue.

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas cards!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

The Devil's Punchbowl

Last week I finished my summer travel series to Minnesota's North Shore and now I'm going to share a few posts of our fall hiking adventures.  

Every Sunday, weather permitting, we went hiking after church.  We went to some familiar places, but we also found a few new places to hike like "The Devil's Punchbowl".

The Devil's Punchbowl is a nature preserve located in Menomonie, Wisconsin.  The "bowl" was carved by water over the course of thousands of years.  What you see at the bowl depends on the season, in the spring you could see water flowing over the edge into the bowl, and in the winter there are fabulous ice formations.  We were there in fall, and there was no waterfall, but we could definitely see water seeping from the rocks.

There are two short trails leading to the bowl.  The first one, gives you a view from of the bowl from the top.  The second trail takes you right into the bowl.

This is the view from the first trail, looking down into the bowl.

Now it was time to descend a lot of stairs down into The Devil's Punchbowl.

The bottom of the bowl is very muddy.  I did not bring appropriate footwear, so I stayed close to the stairs while hubby ventured further.

The punchbowl was deemed a "scientific study area" in the 1990's as it is basically a mini ecosystem with cliffs, waterfalls, underground springs, and other incredible natural features. 

The stairs were just re-done, and I must say they did a fabulous job!

I really enjoyed our little stop at The Devil's Punchbowl, but I'd love to see it in other seasons like spring/summer where I can see the waterfall and lush foliage and rare fauna, or in winter to see the amazing ice formations made by the water.  We might just have to go back!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

Gingerbread Men Christmas Cards

I've been trying NOT to send out Christmas cards anymore.   Between the time involved with making my own Christmas cards, plus the cost of Postage and Handling, it just seems an unnecessary added stress to the holiday I don't need.  On the receiving end, my Christmas cards have been getting less and less every year.  I think this is due to the older generation dying off (those are the die-hard Christmas card people!),  and the younger generation just doing the annual social media holiday post.  I always feel obligated to return a Christmas card to aging relatives who are not on social media, and if you have any of those loved ones in your family, I highly recommend sending them a snail mail card.  It will mean the world to them to get a warm holiday greeting in the mail, along with an updated family photo.

Nevertheless, despite my sad attempts to not send out Christmas cards, whenever I get a Christmas card in the mail, I still feel obligated to return one.  Here are a couple of cards I made using some gingerbread men I had in my stash.  The gingerbread men were die cuts I had made with the grandchildren on a previous project.

I cut the gingerbread men using a Circuit machine then just adhered him to a piece of coordinating designer paper.  I then cut a sentiment banner, stamped a sentiment, and adhered it to the card using brads.

My next card is an example of how you can still use broken die cut pieces to create a card.  For whatever reason, these gingerbread men didn't cut out well, so I used just a small portion of them on my card:  just the undamaged pieces.  I put them in film frames (also cut with a circuit) and added some fun sentiments stamped on black paper with white craft ink.

I adhered all the frames to a fun Christmas designer paper and added another sentiment to the bottom frame.

After a decade of seeing a declining amount of Christmas cards, last Christmas I received more Christmas Cards than ever...so much for me NOT sending out Christmas cards anymore.  I ended up scrambling to make more Christmas cards, which I will show you next week.

This year, I am once again NOT planning on sending out Christmas cards.  We will see how that goes. 😁

So what about you?  Do you still send out Christmas cards?  I'd love to hear from you.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!