Mr Frostie Christmas Cards 2025

 When I first saw the Tim Holtz Mr Frostie stamp set, I fell in love!  I waited until this year to include it on my Christmas card - Simon Says Stamp created dies to match!  Then I saw Kristina Werners Christmas products at Concord & 9th - heaven!!!

My hubby helped me mass produce this card.  Actually, he's helped the past few years and we make a great team.

Mr Frostie was stamped on a firm white card stock, his head and his scarf with Tuxedo Black ink.  To make it easier for mass production, I made sure that all stamping was on one 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece that would fit all die pieces = one pass through the die cut machine.  The scarf was colored with Copics BG11 and BG32.  His nose used YR04 and YR07 and blush was RV52.  Next was Elegant Holiday Greetings, stamped with Versafine Onyx Black, sprinkled clear embossing powder and finally melted with a heat tool.

Using Exact Vellum Bristol, I added a blended background using Ocean Breeze and Sparkling Raspberry with those fabulous Pinkfresh Studio one inch brushes.  Then using the Snowflake Season Background Stamp and Misty Coast in my Misti the entire 4 x 5 1/4 piece was stamped.  For even more dimension, I used Snowflake Season Die, the big one, and ran that through my Anna Griffin Empress Elite.  Once I had a bunch of them cut, I placed them carefully on a spray box and covered them with Imagine Sheer Shimmer Spray in Sparkle.

Now time to assemble.  The sparkly snowflake was carefully glued and trimmed to fit. Then the background piece glued to the Accent Opaque 120 lb card base. Next the embossed sentiment was attached with Foam Tape leaving room for Mr Frostie.  His scarf is attached and he also was glued down.  I thought this card needed more sparkle - so I pulled out a glittery watercolor palette and using a water brush I added orange shimmer to the bottom of his nose and a gold color to the hat buckle.  Last but not least, Crystal Stickles added flat dots over the entire background.

Affiliate links used at no cost to you.  Not all links are affiliate, I just want to share what I used.  All products were purchase by me unless noted.  I don’t sell anything nor am I employed.  This is my hobby and I hope to inspire you to play :)

Clothes Make the Man Christmas Card

So, yeah, I've been missing and this is sooooo late but I promise I'll work on being more attentive to my blog!  

At the last Stamp Show I went to, I found the "perfect" stamp set to do my Christmas Cards and I really do love it.  This was last June-ish.  Now, I make 60+ cards each year to mail out.  The company I bought from said they had just placed a huge order for dies that they would soon be selling on their web site.  Great!  60 cards, no problem!  I'm not sure if the die deal went through or their web site is just difficult to navigate - but for the life of me, I could not find dies anywhere.  Now this may be operator error for me and I am in no way blaming anyone!  I was now on a cut it out by hand mission!  I started in September, and kept a "cut it" pack near me at all times.  In my spare time, I cut; on a road trip, I cut.  I don't mind cutting so my hands stayed busy - busy hands can't snack!  I figured the the die probably wouldn't cut everything the way I wanted so hand cutting was in the plan.

All paper was purchased at Hobby Lobby (on sale, of course).  The clothes were all stamped on cardstock and cut and pieced back together, felt like paper dolls lol.  The "fur" has Wink of Stella for shine and all the buttons and metal elements is done with a Signo Uniball Gold Pen.  The sentiment was printed using Magnolia Sky Font and another standard font (sorry I no longer have the file).  This card is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 and I did not want to pay double postage on that size envelope so I went to Office Max and bought A9 Greeting Card Envelopes.  This size fits a 8 1/2 x 11 paper folded in half.  There was extra room, about 3 inches, but I did not hear of any problems going through the mail.

Thanks for taking a look.  Have a great day.

Hero Arts Kit Card

So I recently found out Hero Arts offers a Monthly Card Kit and was tickled as can be!  Was really bummed out when I missed the September Card kit because it was really nice.  I jumped on board with the October Card kit and here's the card I made.

It is my very first shaker card and I'll admit to watching a few youtube videos to find out the tips and techniques.  I'm thinking a few more videos might help!  When I make this card again, I'll put the snowdrift more forward and put foam tape to keep the sprinkles from falling down into the bottom.  I have loads and loads of the goodies left to make more!
Have a great day and keep on crafting.

No Peeking Christmas Tag

Over at the Waltzing Mouse Blog, is a sketch challenge and this is my entry for it.  I used Santa Clause is Coming to Town stamps, Spellbinders Fleur de lis Accents, Fleur de lis Motifs and Labels 21.  The Christmas wrapping paper that I bought for this year is red and white stripes so that's why I chose these colors.  The fibers are all from Michaels and the thread type fiber has a bit of sparkle to it.  A teeny bit of black stickles are used in the dots after No Peeking.

Christmas Album in a Jiffy Tutorial

If you are like me, you take loads of pictures during the Holiday Season. To keep this large group of photos “tamed” to a reasonable project I’ve been doing a Christmas 8x8 album for the past 4 years. In each album are pictures from a Family Party, Celebrating at Home, at My Mom’s and at My In-Laws. I like to bring these albums out at Christmas Time to reflect on years past.





Today I’m going to share how to do an album in one day. Do I recommend doing it in one day - NO! But I broke mine up and got it done it two days. It is a very simple design but can easily be jazzed up to suit your style. Working in Mass Production Mode helps speed things along.

1. Purchase your album and measure the size of the protector. I say this because first I purchase a “Recollections” album (Michaels Brand) and it fit a page slightly less than 8”. Unfortunately I didn’t do this first and then ended up buying an American Crafts after I had all my pages done. It fit’s a true 8x8 page.




2. Select a group of papers to work with. I chose Dasher from Basicgrey and since it is an older pattern I got the collection for $6. (Score)




3. Chose your background papers. My choice was white cardstock and I trimmed 60 sheets to 8x8 saving the extra pieces. The ½ inch piece makes great journaling spots. Once you have an idea of how many pages you’ll end up with you will know how many papers to trim.

4. Cut your 12x12 inch papers into 2”x8” pieces. Using the picture as a guide you should get 8 pieces out of each sheet. You will need one 2”x8” strip per page. I also used edge punches on some of my pages.

5. Ink all your edges. If you’re not an inker, disregard.




6. Now for the pictures. Separate them by event, for me, that means four piles.





7. Time to trim your pics! If you are working with 4x6 prints most of these will need to be trimmed. Your best pictures can stand on their own for a page while most pages will have 2 pics. Some pages, maybe even 3 if you really crop them. Remember you will need to leave room for embellishments and journaling.

8. Organize your trimmed pics into the order you want them scrapped.




9. Embellishments - Choose wisely! I stick with a few edge punches, ink, die cuts and maybe a bit of bling. For me, and these albums, my style is simple and clean.

If you have access to a die cut machine: choose a few dies and cut a bunch in complementary cardstock and remaining pattern papers. Then ink them up!

 

If you don’t have access to a die cutting machine, then consider prepackaged coordinating stickers/chipboard.




10. Time to assemble! Start with your cover page, whatever floats your boat. Then take your blank background 8x8 papers, two at a time, select 2 2x8 strips and arrange strips at either outside edges or top or bottom. You will be looking at a two page spread at a time. Chose pics from your first event in your chosen order and start laying them out. Proceed laying out two page spreads until you have them all laid out. If you are happy with the order then it’s time to glue REMEMBERING that you still have journaling and embellishments to add.

 Yes, that's my oldest daughter, in all her splendor!  lol
11. Add your die cuts. I’ve tried different adhesives and for die cuts I like using Scotch glue. Again remembering that you still have journaling to add.

12. The Hard Part, at least for me. Journaling! I take those leftover ½” by 11” strips (from the 8 ½ x 11 cardstock) and write my journaling on them. A quick outline and then paste them down.  Spellbinders makes some wonderful nesting scalloped ovals that are perfect for journaling.

13. Slip your completed pages into your album.

Here are a few examples



Last Bit of Tags

I think these are my favorites!  Martha Stewart just does an outstanding job on her punches and this Jingle Bell just makes me Happy!!!!  Target had this silver shiny paper for the bells.  Jillibean Soup, Christmas Chestnut Soup Collection paper and I'm really getting some use out of my Tag punch.  Trim is from Bo Bunny Noel and the snowflakes are from my stash.  Teeny tiny 1/16 inch ribbon fits in the jingle bell and that came from Michaels.  By the way, each sheet of 12 x 12 paper made 18 tags.

More Christmas Tags

More tags made yesterday, this time using pp from Jillibean Soup, Christmas Chestnut Soup Collection and tag punch from Clever Lever.  Bo Bunny Noel trims were used along with Martha Stewarts Loops Punch.  The bright orange paper I had needed to be toned down so I used a little Stampin Up Ink over them.  Then it needed a little sparkle so out came my Stickles.  Left over snowflakes added just the right touch.  A few of these got a leftover Creative Memories Sticker.

Christmas Tags

I had some big fun making these tags.  You see, scrapping is always fun but scrapping with your best buddy makes if BIG FUN.  My best buddy Becky came over yesterday and we had a ball making tags.  This pp is Trim the Tree from OctoberAfternoon and my Clever Lever tag punch came in handy.  I used some leftover Creative Memories Stickers, Paper Studio Brads and Bo Bunny Noel Trims.  Of course I inked the edges.