As you may already know, I married into a huge family and have a lot of friends, which means I have many cards to create, each year, including cards for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, etc. With Christmas just over a month away, I have to make sure I have prepared enough cards and completed in time to be posted and delivered before Christmas Day.
A while back, I showed you the cards I made during a Creative Gathering event and also the painted silk card elements I have prepared for future cards. To date, I have made 26 cards, including the ones I made last weekend, when I completed 10 that were part of the Close To My Heart Frosted card-making kit.
In the kit, one receives paper & card stock, a stamp set, embellishments, & an instruction booklet.
I love the Close To My Heart kits because the instructions are very detailed, from the best way to cut out all the pieces . . .
. . . to the layout.
While I liked the different layouts, I didn’t love them, so I changed things up a bit to better accommodate my personal tastes.
The first set of 5 cards (above) required the use of a green paper, stamped with the border stamp that came with the enclosed stamp set. I am not very good at stamping over and over, so thought it would be easier to emboss the pieces with my Cuttlebug. I also did not particularly like the green, so switched it up with some dark teal card stock I had on hand. Also, the stamps were supposed to be in an ink colour I did not have, so I used my Versa Mark sticky pad and blue embossing powder, instead.
For the next set of cards, I pretty much followed the directions . . . .
. . . but, for some reason, ran out of the brown craft paper, so substituted a different paper for a couple of the cards. Again, I did not have the right ink colour for the background snowflake pattern, so I used a silver ink pad. Here are the two variations:

Which of the three variations do you prefer?
I find it impossible to say that I prefer one over the other – I do believe that you are getting better and better at this.
Thanks, Diane! I think it helps to get inspiration from other sources. I may not have thought to design cards like this if I didn’t get the kit. 🙂
Holy Toledo — I’m blown away by a giant was of TOTALLY IMPRESSED with your creativity!
Thanks, but I can’t take all the credit. It was a kit, after all, so most of the creativity was done for me. 🙂
So beautiful…
I better get started on yours!
I’ve got yours started, but still working on some aspects. 🙂
Uh oh. I’m gonna be outclassed for sure.
Don’t worry, I’m sure I will like anything you do. 🙂
Absolutely lovely!
Glad you like them! 🙂
Your cards are gorgeous!! 🙂
Thanks so much! 🙂
They are ALL uniquely wonderful, Sue! I’m jealous of your talent 🙂
Thanks, Christy. That’s sweet of you to say. I just mainly followed the directions, with the odd change here and there. 🙂
All I can say is that as I read this post, I felt sorry that I’m not on your Christmas card list. They are gorgeous, unique, thoughtful and beautiful. How can one choose only one of the styles? I thought you’d make them ALL. 🙂 I envy your talent and creativity. Well, actually, I also envy those who receive your Christmas cards. Beautiful work.
Thank you very much. You make me blush! I do hope all those on my list appreciate them as much as you. 🙂