Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Crafty Elves' Countdown To Christmas - September 2019 Edition


Welcome to the Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas!  Can you believe it's already September!!  And it's a very busy month around here... work deadlines and lots of crafty stuff going on... it's been so much fun!

If you're new here, then you'll want to know that my friend Debra Davison from Meticulosity agreed that for 2019 we would make a Christmas card a week and on the 25th of each month, we'd share the cards we've made that month!  And by December we'll have all of our Christmas cards ready to go!  We've both stuck to it and have a nice health pile of holiday wishes to send out.

Here's what I have for you today:


You may remember that in the beginning of the month I made a card for the Paper Smooches challenge for September and used the Wavy Wishes stamp set along with the Wavy Pattern dies.  That one was a little bit of a rainbow and after cutting the dies from all those different colors I had a whole bunch of leftovers!  So I created some backgrounds with them and have been sharing cards all month.  If you're interested you can find Wavy Card 1 here, Card 2 here and Card 3 here!  And this one makes 4!  I have a couple more to go too!

I love that Wavy Wishes includes a Merry Christmas sentiment!  I knew I wanted to use it for my monthly Christmas card post.  One of my fave stamp sets, Warm Hearts was just right to finish it up!  And of course my snowman has some coffee!  There's always a coffee cup in my Christmas Card post and always some kind of theme.  This time around the theme is Local Papercraft stores!  I'm so lucky and I have no less than 3 full blown papercraft stores and did you know that Paper Smooches' Artist and Owner Kim also has a Paint & Wine Studio not to far from me in Goodyear, AZ, called Our Creative Escape and up front in the studio there are some wonderful little giftie items, a Paper Smooches section and a limited selection of awesome papercrafting supplies.  It's an inspiring setting and lots of fun!

The rest of my cards today are made using an adorable paper collection called Gnome For the Holidays from another one of my favorite stomping grounds, Scraps of Love!  I picked mine up at the Scrapbook Expo and made a few quick cards for today:


This paper was designed by Scraps of Love and printed by Color Play.  The patterns are fun and there's even a plaid! #madforplaid  It also includes a 12x12 set of images that can be colored (on Copic friendly paper) and cut out (either in just a rectangle or fussy cut or cut with a Scan N Cut like I did!)  The flip side of that sheet has a random pattern that you can also choose to color if you'd like.  And Scraps of Love has some beautiful stamp sets too!  Most are Arizona themed and I picked the Christmas Cactus set!  The Cactus on this one is from the pre-printed images and the sentiment was stamped with the stamp set and fussy cut.  I used a polaroid die from A Jillian Vance Design to frame my images.

I'm playing along over at Double Trouble Challenges Something Plaid AND they are partnering with Use Your Stuff's Frames/Tags (which is also the twist at DT!)... I've used that awesome Polaroid Frame from AJVD!


For this one I stamped, colored and used my Scan N Cut to cut the images and fussy cut the sentiment from the Christmas Cactus stamp set.  I kept my designs simple and just added a few snowflakes from Lawn Fawn and sequins to embellish.

I'm playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge which is Stitch It (Real or not)... I have some faux stitching in my die cuts!

And the Collection also includes some journal card sized images perfect for a quick and simple bunch of cards!  I used just a few to make these four cards along with more snowflakes sequins and some twine:



Hoping to have some more local shop fun in my next post.

Now before you go I've been choosing one lucky commenter from each Crafty Elves post to win some Happy Mail!  And it's time to announce the winner from last month:

Theresa!

And we're doing it again!  Leave me some love so I can send you some!

Thanks for stopping!  Now be sure to head on over to Debra's blog to see what she's cooked up for you today... there is some real cuuuteness going on over there!!





13 comments:

MadeByMeghanK said...

I love that Paper Smooches Snowman! Darling Cactus cards too!

Lagene said...

Super FUN Christmas cards! I especially love the cactus with the Christmas lights!

Crystal O. Minkler said...

So many cute cards!!! Love them all!!

Suzanne Reynolds said...

What an adorable bunch of Christmas cards with all the cactus and elves...This year you shouldn't have any excuse for getting your cards out...and I'm sure all recipients will surely enjoy them. Thanks for sharing your adorable and pretty cards with us at Double Trouble and including that soft plaid in the background and sharing with Use Your Stuff.

Becca Yahrling said...

Such super cute and fun cards, Lisa. I love the cactus - kinda funny for a Christmas card - but it works so well. Loving all your fun cards using the wavy die by PS. Love being able to get so many cards from die cutting for one. lol

Debra Davison said...

Love all of your cards !! The cactus cards are soooooo cute !! Can you believe it's September already ?!?! So glad the Crafty Elves have kept up with their Countdown ....

Denise Bryant said...

Fun cards! I really love that snowman! Cute cactus card too! You're building up a nice stash!

Scrapper69 said...

More super cuteness!!! I love the cactus card... So different and fun!!!

Yay! My name was picked! I'll e-mail you later since I'm at work!

Theresa

Verna Angerhofer said...

Well, these are so fun and festive looking with your cactus cards. I love the snowman one too. Each card is so well designed and colorful.

Sue D said...

Lots of cute card designs. I like the wavy pattern on the first one and the use of the polaroid die on the cacti cards.

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

These are all ADORABLE!!! I love love love them!! And huge congrats to Theresa!!!!!!

jeanchaneyaz said...

You certainly have been busy! Each of these is so cute, but you know my favorite is the Paper Smooches snowman :) The plaids you used really compliment the images. Thanks for joining us over at the Double Trouble Challenge Blog!

Melanie R said...

I could never sort out a favorite from all these great cards! I always love seeing Paper Smooches - the snowman is so cute! The card you posted at our challenge puts a new spin on using a cactus. Thank you for joining us at Double Trouble.