Santa Sacks

Hola!  I hope everyone is doing well.  I've been absent for a while, but not because I haven't been crafting.  In fact it feels like that all I've been doing over the past month or so.  I wanted to share one of my newer projects - Santa Sacks!  Someone in one of the many Facebook Silhouette groups posted these a while back and I was instantly captivated.  

A girlfriend and I set out to make a bunch for our kids and relatives.  For some reason we just can't do anything half measure.  It can't be one - it has to be twelve.  At least that was what I was up at at last count. Warning - this is going to be a very heavy picture blog post.

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Christmas Bell Shakers

I have been wanting to make another set of shakers that use the mini bells I bought.  The last set had bigger bells so I had to make a pretty good size shaker area in terms of depth so you could actually hear the bells.  And then I discovered smaller ones at the store!  The results are these look more like my typical shakers.  Love the way they turned out.

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Christmas Tree Shaker Cards Redux

Round two!  I used a flourish tree and paired it inside a circle and added it to the top of a flourish frame.  I love when I can combine several different shapes to make something like this.  Makes me feel like my money at the Silhouette store has been well spent. 

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Noel Shaker Cards

The Silhouette online store has some great files that are easy to turn into shakers.  I found this Noel file and thought it would be great as a shaker.  Several offsets and compound paths later and I was ready.   This card is actually pretty big - it's a little over six inches wide and over 4 inches in tall.  I really loved making a larger Christmas card.  It makes it easier to write a good long note.

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Jingle Bells

And the parade of shaker cards continues!  These next two took quite a bit of time to make, only because I had to make the shaker box fairly thick so that the bells would actually jingle.  I spent a lot of time at my Cameo cutting out chipboard.  And of course today, I find smaller bells at a different store.  Figures right?  I thought I was done with this one, but I might actually revisit this design and make a few more now that they don't have to be so chunky.  

I love the way they sound.  Too cool!

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jingle, tree, cheer, ornaments, egg nog . . .

And the Christmas card parade continues.  This most recent set of cards is scrap lifted and inspired by this Christmas card I found on Pinterest.  I haven't played with my sewing machine much lately so it was fun pulling it back out.  I also pulled out some Christmas stamps that I had yet to use.  This set is from Technique Tuesday and Ali Edwards.  I went into my stash to find other Christmas embellishments.  I had to actually hunt those down I've been using so many.  I knew I would make a dent in that Christmas bin eventually!

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Christmas Shaker Cards

My love of Christmas cards has yet to wane.  Brandy is so happy.  I have also caught the shaker card bug.  I've made one or two over the years but for some reason I have been making a bunch of them lately.  Here is my first Christmas version.

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Christmas Again!

I told you there were more cards.  This is set No. 2.  I decided to try to make some inset cards.  Again inspired by Pinterest, but a decent enough departure from the original.  As I mentioned before, I still have plenty of Christmas themed supplies left.  I made four of these babies and gave them to Brandy.  She says she can never have enough Christmas cards and she's planning on taking (and using) every Christmas card I make over the next month or so.  But she has put in a bit of sweat equity so I am not complaining.

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Christmas in August!

My card swap group has run a few Christmas card swaps recently and I decided to participate in one. My best friend Brandy will tell you that I am not really big on Christmas.  I have a huge bin full of Christmas paper, embellishments, ribbon, etc. that stays hidden for ten and a half months out of the year.  I never feel the urge to pull it out, and as Brandy puts it, get started early.  

So the swap got me going.  Brandy and pulled out the Christmas bin and we started making cards.  This card design is actually a pretty pure scraplift from Pinterest.  I made ten of these for my swap group and Brandy and I made twenty of these for her to take and send to whoever her heart desires.  

She says she has to take advantage of my Christmas card making mood while it lasts.

There is more Christmas to come!  This is the first set of many.  And sadly, I still haven't put as much of a dent in that Christmas bin and I was hoping to.

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On the Tenth Day of Christmas with DCWV . . .

Okay, am I late!  Seriously, this post was supposed to be up yesterday and in all of my Holiday prep I totally forgot.  I am terribly sorry to anyone who was confused!  What I should have said, and will say now is 

On the 10th Day of Christmas with DCWV, my true love gave to me:

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!