Nutcracker Advent Calendar

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

It's challenge time with my friends over on the CCEE Stampers challenge blog. Lynn Mc Auley, our challenge hostess for the month finishes off the challenge for the year with one last challenge. We will be back in January with more fun challenges.

Christmas Around the World 

For the CCEE Stampers’ final challenge of 2021, I would like for our stampers to select a country or culture other than their own and feature a unique element in that country or culture’s Christmas celebrations to feature on their cards.

Germany seems to be responsible for many of the Christmas traditions that have been adopted in various countries over the years. Three that come to mind are Christmas Trees, Advent Calendars and Nutcrackers. For my project today I decided to combine the Advent Calendar & Nutcracker.

For the Advent Calendar portion of my card, I used Scrappy Tails Craft's Advent Calendar Add-On and Slimline Bird House Pop Up Card die sets. For the roof I used the Christmas House Roof Add-On die set which allowed me to add the snow and Christmas lights to the roof. 

The Advent Calendar Add-on die set, also includes the number dies which I die cut from gold cardstock and adhered to the front of each of the doors of the calendar.

When you open the doors each day from the 1st December it reveals a Christmas related image or sentiment. I used small stamps from various stamp sets in my collection, including some from past Hero Arts monthly kits.

I wanted to make this special, so I decided to add a Nutcracker to each side of the Advent Calendar. The Nutcracker is also from Scrappy Tails Crafts from their Slimline Nutcracker Spinner Add On die set.

There is an additional die set which includes a panel to join the back and front of the Advent calendar together, however I didn't buy that set. So I used the joiner from the Slimline Snow Globe Pop up Card die set.

I backed the Nutcrackers with a die cut red nutcracker panel, so it blended in with the back of the card. I added a sentiment to the back using one of the stamps from Stamper's Anonymous Handwritten Holidays sentiment set.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog (goes live 12 AM EST) to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs:

Anne Harmon

Liz Williams

Lois Bak

Lynn McAuley

Maryann Einam

Kelly McKown-Santi

Happy Anniversary

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing an anniversary card I made for my hubby as we are celebrating 46 years of marriage today.

I received my Hero Arts November Card Kit a few weeks ago and made the advent calendar card using all the stamps dies included in the kit. When I was thinking about what to do with the add on stamps/dies I purchased at the same time which can create another version of an advent calendar I decided it might be fun to create a card for an anniversary.

I stamped the Hero Arts Presents background onto white cardstock using VersaMark ink and White Embossing Powder and then used a variety of blue Distress Oxide inks to create an ombre effect to my card.

I then used the coordinating die to die cut the image so that all the presents can open to reveal a message.

I added a few hearts to some of the presents as well as white gel pen and aqua shimmer pen and finally some red Nuvo Drops.

I used a variety of stamps to add messages and images behind each of the present doors, some of the sentiments/images are from the Hero Arts November Kit and the others are just from other stamp sets in my stash.

For the inside of my card I used Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop-up die to create a pop up card. I also stamped one more present background and colored using Distress Oxide ink. I cut the image in half vertically and attached a piece to either side of the card.

Supplies:

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. Please note I only use and share products I love.

Advent Calendar Card

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing a Christmas card I created using the Hero Arts November My Monthly Hero Kit. When I ordered this I wasn't expecting to receive it in time to use it this year as postage from the USA to Australia normally takes at least 3 weeks and at this time of year could be even longer. I had one parcel take 4 weeks just to come from Sydney to Brisbane which really used to only take a few days. Anyway Hero Arts sent the kits FedEx Economy which meant it only took a week to reach me, so of course I had to play with it. Thank you Hero Arts!!!!!!

Unfortunately this kit has been sold out, however there is a similar stamp and die set which can be used for both Christmas and birthdays etc, which I have linked in the supplies in case you are interested.

I stamped the large ornament background stamp onto white cardstock using VersaMark ink and embossed it using white embossing powder. I then used Distress Oxide inks in various shades of red to create an ombre look. To add the dates onto each ornament I used the gold embossing powder which was included in the kit.

Finally I used the ornament die to die cut the panel. This die die cuts the ornaments, leaving the top of each ornament attached to the background so you can open up each of the ornaments to reveal what is stamped underneath each ornament.

On a separate piece of white cardstock I used the ornament die as a guide to where to stamp each of the images also included in the kit. I stamped the images in red, green, brown and yellow inks and then added Nuvo Drops to a few of the images in Red Berry & White Blizzard.

For the inside of the card I created a pop-up card using the pop-up die included in Karen Burniston's Explosion Pop-up die set. I used white cardstock for the inside which I colored using the same colors as I used on the ornament panel on the front of the card.

I stamped a second ornament panel onto white cardstock and embossed using white embossing powder and colored using the darkest red Distress Oxide I used on the front. I then cut the panel in half to add to the top and bottom edges of the card.

For the sentiment I used Karen Burniston's Merry Christmas die which I die cut using red cardstock. I adhered it to a rectangle panel which I adhered to the pop-up panel.

Supplies:

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. Please note I only use and share products I love.