Here's a little scrapbook project that would be cute to give to a hostess over the holidays. It's by Little Yellow Bicycle and my students made this on National Scrapbook Day, October 4th along with 3 other projects. Everything is already printed and perforated onto a 12x12 sheet. You just punch out the album and fold it together. Add the circle tabs and any other personal touches you want to add and you have a quick gift anyone would love to get to document their Chrismtas day. The did on the front is Stampin' Up's Top Note Die by Sizzix and is embossed using Cuttlebug's swiss dot embossing folder. Hope you like it - I know my customers were tickled pink with the end result.

Alright this is the 2nd card I made using Stampin' Up's Accents & Elements, Season to Share. I tried to simplify the whole card process because that's the whole idea behind using the Accents & Elements stickers. I just took a kiwi kiss card base, used two of the borders, white with green and white with red. I left a small space between then where I wrapped the red silk cord around the whole front of the card and tied a knot. I then took the kiwi kiss square label and layered it on top of a piece of real red cardstock. Cut that out and added a shiny silver brad to each corner. I then took the oval sticker that says 'tis the season' and layered it on top of the square using dimensionals. If you purchase the kit or own it, you know that the kiwi kiss square has a white oval on it already that you could just stamp something right onto it. I then just took the Hot off The Press swirl template and added a few swirls - to sort of make it look like swirling snow, added the silver snowflakes and and a glitter pen over the swirls and that's it. Simple and cute. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have the Accents & Elements Season to Share and what you have done with it.

Stay tuned for more holiday ideas.

So I managed to muster up some creative juice and work on a couple of Christmas card ideas. I decided to open up the tin of Accents & Elements "Season to Share" and see what I could come up with. The 2nd thing I knew I wanted to use on my card was some textured cardstock so I chose riding hood red. The only problem is I only had a 12x12 sheet of the textured cardstock, so I cut out 3 cards - 2 at 4-1/4" x 11" and then the last piece that was left was only 3-1/2" x 11". I took that and wrapped it around a 4-1/4x5-1/2" piece of kiwi kiss cardstock and that's what made my card. So about 3/4" of an inch on the bottom of the card does not open. Does that make sense? The 2nd view you see on the right is the inside of the card. I wrapped a piece of Stampin' Up's grosgrain red striped ribbon from their holiday mini catalog, all the way around the back and to the inside flap. I then had some silver snowflake stickers I had picked up and put that on the top over the ribbon. The parts of the accents & elements I used are on the very top, there is a very narrow kiwi kiss scallop border and then of course, the white oval that says A Season To Share. I added "christmas blessings" from the "Chit Chat" rub ons and a small silver snowflake with a red sticky gem to the center. Finally I added a 1/2" piece of the silver adhesive cardstock that I love so much to the bottom of the card. The last view above is just the back side so you can see how I wrapped the ribbon all the way around.

2nd Christmas card being posted. The photo doesn't do this card justice and yet it was so simple. Supplies: cardstock - riding hood red, kiwi kiss, and whisper white. Ink: kiwi kiss and riding hood red. Misc.: swirl template from Hot Off The Press; Gold adhesive backed glitter cardstock; burgundy satin ribbon; curly label punch, mini library clip (of course), gold cord, and a clear stardust glitter pen.

Simple simple card. I love the sparkly glitter cardstock. It's so easy to use since you just peel and stick and yet, it sure adds a big punch to Christmas cards and packaging. The Merry Christmas saying is punched twice using the curly label stamp set and then the oval is cut out and mounted again onto kiwi kiss cardstock and then placed on the striped piece with a thin dimensional. The label piece is then attached to the front with a thicker dimensional. This card was made in my November monthly stamp meeting.

Well, hopefully from here on out I will be just posting Christmas projects to inspire you before the holidays. This is a Teresa Collins card. It comes perforated on a 12x12 sheet and the envelope that is pictured below comes along with the card. You get 5 miscellaneous tags to embellish the cards with but how simple is that for a Christmas card. And all for only $1.00 - your card and envelope. Of course I had to glitz it up so the December 25th circle tag has Doodlebug's sugared cardstock behind it and I cut that out using a scallop decorative scissors. A dimensional won't stick to the glitter on the cardstock, and yet I wanted it to be dimensional, so I punched a small hole (large enough for a dimensional to fit through and not onto the glitter and that way it gave the depth I was looking for. The last thing I did was stamp "MERRY" above the word Christmas which was already printed on the card. I put a self stick adhesive rhinestone over the "i" for Christmas and that added just the right amount of bling.

And we're off, so keep posted for more Christmas ideas and maybe a few gift giving ideas as well.

There's that library mini clip. Supplies used: Cardstock: Kiwi kiss, baja breeze and pink pirouette. Stamp set: curly label punch; Ink: chocolate chip; Misc.: curly label punch, brown wide grosgrain ribbon, library mini clip and Martha Stewart border/emobssing punch. (I love how it punches and embosses at the same time.

Some of you have already seen this one, it was a thank you card I made for the customers that placed a Stampin' Up order with me. Supplies: Card base is chocolate chip; Baja Breeze, Autumn Vine Designer Paper, and tangerine tango. Stamp Sets: Upsy Daisy and Circle of Friendship. Ink: baja breeze and chocolate chip. Misc. supplies.: dimensionals; 1" circle punch, 1/8" circle punch, crystal effects (to create page pebble on 1/8" circle) and stardust gel pen. Thanks for looking.

Supplies: Sahara sand card base, really rust and chocolate chip cardstock. Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing folder. Freehand cut a leaf - folded cardstock in half and then cut half of it out - this way the leaf was already scored in the middle too. It was a swirly patterned paper which gave a near color to the leaf. Of course I had to put glitter on the swirls. 1/2" wide strip of sahara sand cardstock attached with 2 copper brads. Used a mini library clip and tied with some copper twine. Finally I thought it still needed something so I took some metallic paints - they are creamy you apply with a stipple brush - in this case I put it on with my finger and it gives the card a cool shimmer to it.

I cased this card from Sparklegirl. You can find it on her blog here http://silkeledlow.blogspot.com/. I love the colors. She used a different snowflake stamp that I don't have that one, so I improvised and used one from last year that was discontinued. But I love the color combo of the Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red and Grey cardstock. I stamped the snowflakes on the background using riding hood red ink and of course had to sparkle them up with my Stardust pen. The snowflake in the center is embossed using silver embossing powder. Edges of white and red are distressed and then inked. Small pewter brad was added to the bottom. I used a jumbo eyelet and then wrapped grey taffeta ribbon around and then knotted in front. Finally I stamped Merry Christmas in Grey ink and attached a little rhinestone to the center of the snowflake. This may be one of the cards I send out this year.

This was the first Christmas card I've made this year. We made this at our October monthly meeting using vellum snowflake cardstock. The base of the card is Pacific Point (in color cardstock). I cut if off at 1" down from the top, attached a piece of the snowflake vellum to the inside, then attached it on the bottom of the piece of Pacific Point CS I cut off. I then used my cutter and cut the blue even with the back. I attached a piece of Silver Adhesive Paper (by Making Memories) to the bottom to add that little bit of glitz that I like so much on Christmas cards - it gives me an excuse to use lots of sparkly things and lots and lots of glitter. I wrapped a piece of white satin ribbon (from JoAnn's) around the top and attached it with a punched snowflake from white sugar coated cardstock (doodlebug). I added a little dot of red Sstickles to the center of the snowflake. Finally I stamped Happy Holidays with black ink on the vellum cardstock.

Supplies: chocolate chip, really rust and one of the designer papers - I believe it was Boho Chick from the fall mini catalog last year (the polka dot one). Anyway, I stamped the tree from Tree For All Seasons, then took a small piece from Autumn Vine Designer Paper and stared cutting out those little leaves on one of the sheets. I know - incredibly puttsy - but I musn't have thought it was too bad because I actually made 2 of these. I was pretty sick of these little leaves by the time I was done with the 2nd card. I also sponged the cardstock with close to cocoa before I cut the leaves out so I didn't have to distress them afterwards. That would be too tedious even for me. Finally, I stamped Happy Thanksgiving on a piece of Sahara Sand CS (last year in color), punched it out using the label punch. Then put that on a small piece of really rust cardstock, attached the brads and then cut out the really rust. Attached to front of card. Hope you like it. Thanks for looking. I hope I inspired you.

Supplies: I used two of my new favorite things - the curly lable and the mini library clips. LOVE - LOVE - LOVE these 2 new items. This was such a simple card. I embossed the kiwi kiss cardstock with one of the Cuttlebug embossing templates (I don't know the name of this one, but I'm sure those of you that look at my site will know which one it is once you click on the image). Anyway, I then simply stamped Happy Thanksgiving on a piece of green cardstock from the hostess sampler pack and then layered that over really rust cardstock. Punch 3 leaves and distressed those then assembled the card. Using the chocolate chip satin ribbon (from last year), I wrapped that around the kiwi kiss cardstock, attached the label with a dimensional. Then attached the mini clip to the top of that. sprinkled some leaves around it and that's it - It looks like it took a lot more time than it did. Take a little extra time and distress the edges of your cardstock. It really makes a big difference in fall cards like this.

Supplies: I used the large Fiskars embossing plate, the diamond one for the embossed image on the Sahara Sand (last year's in-color). I actually ran the embossing plate through my Spellbinders machine - worked out great. I then cut a circle in the center of it using one of the Spellbinder circles (one from the large set). Finally I punched a lot of leaves, distressed each one and then started layering them around the punced out hole. The top piece is raised with dimensionals. The ribbon is some of the chocolate satin ribbon from last year - LOVE that ribbon - too bad they stopped carrying that - wrapped a small piece of the striped tangering ribbon around the center and then attached it with a glue dot. It was still missing something so I glittered the center of the 4 diamonds at the bottom. It's amazing how much that little extra shows up on the card. Hope you like it.

Supplies: Stampin' Up's Autumn Vvine designer cardstock from their Holiday mini catalog. Leaves were free handed, distressed edges, folded in half and scored and then of course, glittered. Twin was added to the jagged border using the Martha Stewart border punch. This is an oversized card - not your normal 4-1/4x5-1/2"

Another two pages of the Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Album.

Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Album Class - this coming Saturday. Beautiful album - the photo doesn't do it justice.