April Christmas Cards

I got back from New York City today and I am exhausted! So, here is just a photo. I'm sure you can see the rest.

Penguins and Snow Men

I don't have much time to post since I am working on my tax returns so I will be quick. Yes, I know. I am way early for my tax returns but we already had all of our information and I hate doing them, so I decided to go ahead and get it over with.

Now, on the Christmas cards. I really liked having all of my cards ready to go by November 15th last year which is why I am doing Lynne's Christmas Card Challenge again this year. I got two new Christmas stamps from the Michael's dollar bin and decided to break them in. For the most part these cards are all similar with tiny details being the exception. I loved the polka-dotted paper from last year and since I am following a strict budget this year, I must use stash as much as humanly possible.

Here is the cute little penguin. I added red ribbon along the middle of the card to break up the papers and turned the image to add emphasis on the main image of the card. Here are all three penguins. Notice the small changes like different hat colors and different ribbons on the card.







Here are the snow men. There are also slight differences between these two cards. I like the snowball-like ribbon and thought it fit well with my snow dudes. We had another challenge added to this month but I finished these cards a couple of days ago (notice my slow uploading time?) so I might get a little creative sometime this weekend and make a few cards using the challenge. I have a busy weekend. Saturday is my sign-ups for Team in Training and I promised my pooch I would take him to the Dog Park. He really enjoyed his first trip last week and I think it is a good idea for him to interact with other dogs.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you like my Snow Dudes and Mister Penguin.

Lots of cards

If you followed my blog last year, you will remember me participating in a monthly Christmas Card Challenge. The gals at RCS and I are at it again. My goal is to complete 5 Christmas cards a month so I am not frantically trying to get my cards done on December 1. Each month, a participant also posts a challenge to go along with our Christmas cards if we want to participate. Here is the challenge for January:

I know for me, when I look at my stash, I can get a tad overwhelmed,
so challenges and ideas help me focus.

Remember - these are just to provide some inspiration or a little
extra fun - they are not required, and there is no pressure!

Here is the first challenge you may wish to incorporate when making
your CCCs.

"Cleaning up"

I know some of you may be super organized and already have everything
put away after the Holidays - but for any of us that have extra small
bits of wrapping paper, small bags, Christmas cards from that distant
relative that you don't want to keep, but you like the design of....or
even a spare ornament hanger you found in the carpet....

Find a way to incorporate those last few bits of your 2008 into your
first set of 2009 cards.

I didn't have anything lying around as I had all my Christmas cleaned up by the 2nd of January. In a small apartment, you can't just leave things like that lying around or you won't have a path to walk. I did however, keep to all scraps/stash to make my cards. I did 5 of the same card with the only difference being the sticker found in the bottom right corner. These are simple and not too Christmas-y for those friends that don't celebrate. I found last year I didn't have enough generic wintery-type cards for some friends so I am hoping these work this year.





I also got a few thank you cards finished. Five down, only 20 more to go.

Three of this one: Each card has different photos of flowers, otherwise they are the same.





Two of this one: These are identical.