Holiday Cheer Blog Hop

Welcome to the Holiday Cheer blog hop. This special set is designed to make Christmas ornaments. However, true to form, you'll be getting something different here. The stop before mine is Michelle's blog. The entire hop is a circle, so keep going until you get back to where you started. If you get lost, head to Melinda's blog for a full list of participants.

I make around 80-90 Christmas cards every year, so I'm always looking for ways to stretch my paper purchase. The following cards all use the Mix-In paper from the Nov-Dec catalog (which went live two weeks earlier than planned due to customer demand).

This first card uses a strip of 3x1 paper, which means I could make 48 cards from one 12x12 piece of Mix-In paper.

The colors are Evergreen and Mint. I used both the Stitched Rectangle and Stitched Oval Thin Cuts as well as the Mint Shimmer Brush to accent.

My second card uses a 3x3 square of paper from the same pack, so I could get another 16 cards with this design.

Here I used the Stitched Square Thin Cuts. As with the above card, you have to line up the Thin Cut with the paper carefully to make sure you're getting the stitching all the way around. Because my purpose was to get as much use out of one piece of paper as possible, I was willing to do the fussy work of lining up my Thin Cut with the paper.

My final three cards all use a 4x4 piece of red plus a 1.25 x 4 piece of kraft paper from the Mix-In pack. With careful planning, I can get 3 cards from each piece of red cardstock, adding another 27 cards to my stash.

I started with the 4x4 piece of red cardstock and centered the stitched circle frame from the Circle Shaker Card Thin Cuts set on top. This thin cut set us used on the ornaments, but you must purchase them separately; it's not included in the kit. I figured, if you're getting it for the ornaments anyway, you might as well get some more use out of it. Once I cut the circle, I had three pieces of red cardstock.

Here's the first card I made using the 4x4 piece with the center cut out.

The wreath is stamped in Toffee and the sentiment is stamped in Candy Apple. The only extra thing I added here was a teensy, tiny piece of white cardstock to add a border between the red and kraft papers.

Here's the second card using the stitched circle frame.

I stamped the December 25 image in both Candy Apple and Toffee ink, cut them both with Micro-tip Scissors, and glued the Toffee partial image over top of the Candy Apple full image. I also used my Micro-tip Scissors to cut a small fishtail in the kraft paper to create a banner.

Here's my final card.

I cut 1/2 inch from the edge of my kraft cardstock and glued it to the right hand side of the card while glue the other piece on the left hand edge. Once my circle with the sentiment goes over the top, no one knows it's two pieces of paper instead of one. I stamped the sentiment then cut it out with Stitched Circle Thin Cuts.

And I still have two pieces of Mix-In paper left!

Okay...yes, I used a lot of the stitched thin cuts which are pricey to purchase all at once. So don't. Get one set at a time. I'm getting a total to 91 cards with just under four pieces of Mix-In paper. They aren't fancy cards, but they are more personal than anything you can get in a store (and I can do all of them while watching football). I'm ALL ABOUT justifying my purchases. I haven't purchased Christmas cards in ages, but the last time I checked, they were around $7 for a box of ten. What I've showed you here is the equivalent of nine boxes of cards. That would be $63 I'd spend with nothing to show for it at the end. Why not take that $63 and spend it on craft supplies? Get the stamps and paper first, of course, but then start adding in the thin cuts as your budget allows. Once you have them, they are good forever.

Now you're off to Darlys' blog. And don't forget to visit the Flash Sale going on until October 26, 2019 at 3pm Mountain Standard Time. That's another great way to stretch your crafty dollars.

Until next time,
Becca