holidays by hand

rachel over at Small Notebook is one of the six hosts of the Holidays by Hand Festival every tuesday for six weeks. this past weekend aunt karen and I were crazy crafters. after visiting Archiver's Holiday Extravaganza weekend, I was able to put together my holiday cards and a few other goodies. those of you who know me, know I'm a card freak...I love the process of making cards, writing letters, and then sending cards. I just love a hand written note, so many times I give cards as gifts. I try to keep my creating easy and simple and leave all the ornate embellishments to the professionals. I hope these card ideas are a few you can copy and use this holiday season.

our journey begins with our supplies scattered on the dining room table:

blank cards, stamps, stamp pads, paper, ribbon, and the cricut Project #1
Holiday Postmark Note Card

I started with plain white cards {from Michaels}, santa claus lane paper, 1.5" green circles, thin strips of red card stock, and a 12.25 stamp. I found this stamp set at Archiver's in their Hot Spot section. I assembled all the pieces together as shown in the card picture and added the postmark stamp to the envelope as well.don't forget to add your own personal signature to the back of your cards...hallmark does it-you should too! this is from my favorite stamp set from Close to My Heart-Made by Me.

Project #2
Winter Wonderland Card Set
I again started with plain white cards, a winter wonderland sheet of scrapbook paper, and the matching page pebbles. Cut, mat, glue, and embellish with the pebble. All done!

Project #3
Joy Card Set

Used that same pack of white note cards, 1.5"red and green circles cut on the cricut, white letters spelling JOY, and jewels for the holly. no big deal here.

Project #4
Gift Tags

I just used gift tag templates to cut out tags; added a few rub on letters for the 'to' and 'from', and we'll call them finished.
Project #5

Picture Block Ornament

**sorry for my poor photo quality. our camera isn't the best in low light...and it's night time...so I can't go outside and photo.**

this was the project I was MOST excited about completing. my inspiration came from Becky from her Christmas projects done in 2007. my supplies included: 2" wooden blocks, holiday papers, craft paints to co-ordinate with my paper and cut to fit on my wooden blocks, pictures of my special family members cut into 1" circles, decoupage medium, eye hooks, and ribbon for hanging.

I started by sanding and cleaning my wooden blocks.

I painted my blocks green to co-ordinate with one of the colors in my holiday papers.next I chose and cut the photos of my boys to feature on the ornaments.
I then decoupaged the paper onto the block then the photos. then the waiting...and waiting...and waiting for it to dry!
After they were dry {okay semi dry, not completely, because I'm so impatient}, I added the eye hook and ribbon.
and now I can't wait to make the other ornaments!

and Project #6 is still in process- a Christmas Scrapbook, so check back over the coming weeks to see how it turned out!

thanks for stopping by! and special thanks to rachel for being our host!