Shake-it-up, Santa!

Hidy Ho Ho Ho, crafty peeps!

Well, I got all the gifts wrapped!

Yay, me!!!

But, I must admit...by the time I got to the last one...it got REALLY sloppy. Heck, by the end, I wasn't even searching for boxes that would fit. I just wrapped the gift itself, no matter how irregularly-shaped it was.

I like to call it..Free-form wrapping: Unburdened by the box!

I also got my Christmas cards out.

Jonathan and I made Christmas cards this year. It was a 5-day process.

I kid you not.

I had a rough idea of how they would look...a "basic" idea. But, you know me, as we worked on them their design kept evolving. I could NOT have done this without Jonathan's help. He's quite the sous crafter! (that's like a sous chef--only without the hat). He's pretty handy with the adhesive gun now!

I finally got to the point where I just shoved them in the envelopes and called them done.

I ordered up some really cute stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn especially for our cards this year.

Here is the outside of the cards we made. Pretty unassuming, isn't it? White on white embossing with a little cut-out character in the lower right corner and a simple stamped sentiment.

But, open it up and it's a whole other story.

Wait for it....

We made little snow-shaker ornaments! They slide out from under the ribbon so they can be hung on a tree. You can't tell, but I used my new Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens on the "Let it Snow" sentiment. They really are the EASIEST way to add sparkle to your projects.

We did the cards in one of 3 different colors: lime, turquoise, red.

We used LOTS of different embossing folders for the inside background. And each ornament is unique! No duplicates! I colored all the images with my trusty Prismacolor pencils.

 On the back of each ornament, we stamped a sentiment, added a date, and signed our names. It's all sparkly too...though you can't tell. Then, we added a little removable tag that lets everyone know they are actually ornaments that can be removed from the card.

Here are most of the ornaments hung on a little tree!

We had fun...but they took F O R E V E R to make! I'm not sure my studio is going to recover any time soon! It's Christmas craft Armageddon in here right now...like a nuclear bomb hit Santa's workshop.

We were only able to make 25 of these little gems. We didn't have time or funds to make and send more, so, I apologize if we didn't send you one this year. It doesn't mean we don't love you. Not at all! Next year, we're starting in October, so we can make them for EVERYONE!

Ingredients:

• Ready, Set, Snow stamp set (Lawn Fawn)
• Ready, Set, Snow dies (Lawn Fawn)
• Ready, Set, Snow shaker add-on dies (Lawn Fawn)--if you're gonna make these into shakers...you really need this set. 
• Joy to the Woods stamp set (Lawn Fawn)
• Toboggan Together stamp set (Lawn Fawn) 
• Winter Scripty Sayings stamp set (Lawn Fawn) 
• Large Tag punch (Stampin' Up)
• Prismacolor Colored Pencils
• Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens (Crafter's Companion)
•  Embossing folders (Sizzix and Cuttlebug)
• White crystal glitter
• ribbon
• craft foam (6mm thick)
• cardstock
• Memento ink
• Sentiment stamps

These cards were handmade, with love, by those two folks listed above.

I'd like to enter this in the following challenge(s):

•  Lawnscaping Challenge: Merry Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp: Die Crazy