Holiday Thank you Notes

After some of my cards made their way around some parents, I received a custom order for some thank you notes. Since, I still needed to make several thank you notes for our family/friends I combined the two. I kept the same design/layout switching from horizontal to vertical at times and changing out the ribbon, embossing folder, and sentiment occasionally. Enjoy!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and great '08 and is ready for an even better 2009! I want to add a couple of new things to my blog and just hope that I can make them materialize. I already have an online store at ETSY and some people have asked if there is a way to just add a "FOR SALE" section to the blog...I will look into that after the 1st of the year....stay tuned.

Holiday Cards

Today was the last day of school and I was there pretty much there, the whole day helping out with the Holiday parties etc. For one of the parties, I was in charge of the activities and I needed to come up with some craft ideas for the kids. I came up with having the kids make 4 holiday cards of their choice. I used some special holiday images that I printed and they cut them out and matted them to c/s, then they added decorative strips or whatever they liked. I was going for the more simplistic approach with the cards since we didn't have a lot of time. Here are my quick samples to give you an idea. The kids then donated some of their card creations to a local nursing home and could take home the rest if they liked and use them or save them. They were a big hit!

Quick Cards

Saturday morning I was running out of time and had to quickly create a gift for one of the CCD teachers. A nice set of note cards feauturing an oldie but goodie SU set: Terrific Tulips did the trick. I think I am doing the same design for their teachers as well....we will see once I get into the stamping mode this afternoon. This set uses 2 step stamping and I easily created the entire set of 10 cards in 15 minutes from start to finish including tying the bows and packaging them with a nice ribbon into a gift bag.

Kids Project - Post It Note Holder

I had my Jr. Stamper's over this evening to finish making some additional holiday gifts for their family/friends/teachers. These are their Post-It Note Holders...same sketch/layout for all, just different papers/cordinating c/s etc.

Sorry for the horrible lighting...I was in a huge hurry to get pix before they walked out the door :)

Christmas Card

This card isn't one of mine, but I just had to share it because I LOVE how it uses the sizzix snowflake die.

Stamps: Best Yet Hostess Stamp Set
Card Stock: Pacific Point, Shimmery White

Inks: Pacific Point, Versamark Pad
Accessories:
Stampin Dimensionals
Punch 1 3/8 Inch Square
Sizzix Originals Snowflake #2
Sizzix Big Shot Machine
Stampin Emboss Powder Iridescent Ice
Designer Brads Filigree
Snail Adhesive Permanent

Kids Class Projects

This weekend I had some of my junior stampers come over and work on holiday gifts for their family/relatives/teachers etc.

They made an assortment of awesome photo holders and sets of note cards. The photo holders idea came from my super talented friend Karen M. - Thank you!!!

I let the kids pick out whatever papers they wanted to work with and then coordinated with them on the colors that blended. These are their creations.

My Christmas cards - Round 2

Here's another set of 3 of the cards that I used this year...

My Christmas Cards

I have actually gotten a few emails from my friends far and wide asking me "What are your Christmas cards going to look like?" and LOL - "where are they?" Well, I am happy to report that the cards have all been done (a long time ago too!) Back in January of 2008, I promised myself to do 10-12 Christmas cards a month so I wouldn't be "rushed" at the end of year. Considering everything that has gone on, I am SOOOO glad I did. I don't even know if I would have had handmade cards this year if I hadn't done that!

My cards normally go out in EARLY December...we are talking the first week...well, I am totally behind this year. I started including either a holiday photo or photo card in with my actual handmade cards a couple of years ago. We didn't get the picture taken until Saturday night...I quickly uploaded it to Sam's Club and ordered my photo cards online. I picked them up today and started addressing the envelopes...needless to say...my cards should be going out this week :)

Anyhow, as to my handmade holiday cards, I have around 10 different designs that are going to be utilized this year, so I will share them all here this week. (1 or 2 may be repeats from a stamp camp etc., but the majority are new and fresh designs.)

I hope you enjoy them!

SU RETIRING STAMP SET LIST !

It's that time of year to say "goodbye" to numerous stamp sets that SU is retiring. While it is sad to see so many great sets go, just think about all the exciting and new sets that will come out in January! PLUS....you can get an extra 10% off your retiring sets if you purchase them prior to 12/23/08!!

Also: if your order is over $70 get FREE SHIPPING!!
You can check them all out online, by going to my SU website at:

www.juliesaylor.stampinup.net

Then click on the SHOP NOW button on the top right.
Then click on the bottom middle picture where it says "TIME TO RETIRE" to view the retiring sets.

Sympathy Cards

One of my SIL's just recently requested I make her some cards for her Christmas gift, so I need to get that started ASAP...not to mention finish Christmas shopping, go out and chop down our tree, put up the tree, put up decorations, yada, yada, yada. I am sooooooo behind schedule on everything it isn't even funny. We lost about a week here when we all got ill & DH is still not 100% :(

Anyhow, back to the cards I need to do...now you would think that I could/would just go down and start pulling stuff that I have already done through my YEARS of cardmaking. Nope, not gonna do that. (LOOOONG STORY!!) Believe it or not, I am thinking that I will most likely use my Cuttlebug so I can whip out a nice variety and hopefully quickly too. I figure if I can get 4 cards done each day, I will have 20 on Friday. Here are my 2 sympathy versions I did tonight featuring the retired SU set Terrific Tulips. It is one of my "oldies but goodies" set that I will NEVER get rid of. It is absolutely perfect for so many different occasions. (In fact, you just might see me use it on MORE cards later this week for my SIL!)

Scandinavian Season

A great card sample that is made extra special with all the layering. Just by embossing the main image and adding some layers, that's a great card. Card credit goes to J. Levy

Stamps: Scandinavian Season
Card Stock Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Designer Series Paper Ski Slope
Inks: Versamark Pad
Accessories: Ribbon Taffeta Whisper White 3/8 Inch
Embossing Powder Silver

Festive Idea - SU Cookie Tin

This holiday season become the favorite neighbor on the block when you deliver yummy holiday treats in this festive tin. The tins are "while supplies last" and priced at an incredible $3.95 each. It is called the "Empty Punch Box Tin" and is Item 114673. You can place your order by going to my website: wwww.juliesaylor.stampinup.net and clicking on the "shop now" button in the upper right corner.

Fall Winter Sampler Promotion

Dec. 1 - January 18

In the Fall Winter Sampler Promotion, spend $20 and get 20% off any stamp set from the Fall Winter Sampler Catalog. To see the Sampler Catalog, click the orange title/link above or copy/paste the link below into your browser:
http://www.stampinup.com/us/documents/Sampler_US.pdf

Sets from the Fall/Winter sampler are:

Item # Description Retail 20% Off
111564 Flight of the Butterfly $31.95 $25.56
112911 Vuelo de la mariposa (Spanish Flight of the Butterfly) $31.95 $25.56
111676 Puns from the Past $27.95 $22.36
111660 Just Jawing $25.95 $20.76
111624 Dreams du Juor $18.95 $15.16
111700 Thank You Kindly $13.95 $11.16
111714 Wow Flowers $12.95 $10.36
112955 Flores llamativas (Spanish Wow Flowers) $12.95 $10.36
111600 Bella's Bloom $12.95 $10.36

Snow Swirled

I love this set since it can quickly create so many different styles of beautiful Christmas cards. This isn't one of my creations, but I am definitely going to use it for several cards in the future. Enjoy!