As we are starting to get closer to fall, I pulled out the Autumn Leaves bundle to play with. I had a lot of fun stamping my own background! This uses Pecan Pie, Crumb Cake, and Very Vanilla.
My friends are making this card this weekend at my Stamp-A-Stack. If you are local and interested in attending classes, please let me know! You can see my calendar of events here – https://nicolebstampin.stampinup.net/
The background Very Vanilla was stamped with Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie to create the background image. The leaves were die cut and adhered with glue dots. The Label was Gold Embossed and adhered with Dimensionals. I just realized that my photo does not include the embellishments that I added to the card. I love bling so they add a nice extra pop. You will see those in the video.
Please share your fall creations!
Video Demonstration
Cardstock Cuts for this project:
Pecan Pie – 11″ x 4-1/4″ card base scored at 5-1/2″, 5-1/2″ x 3-1/2″, Leaf die cuts
Very Vanilla – 5-1/4″ x 4″ panel (inside card), 5-1/2″ x 3-3/8″ panel, Label die cut
Iconic Celebrations 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper – Two 5-1/2″ x 3/4″ panels
Crumb Cake – Leaf die cuts
Golf Foil – Leaf die cuts
Stampin’ Up! products used to create this project:
I love Christmas but I do make other cards too. This butterfly card uses one of my favorite techniques, rock-n-roll.
The butterfly is done with the rock-n-roll technique. First stamp in the butterfly in the Petunia Pop. Then roll the the edges of the butterfly in the Summer Splash. When you stamp the image, you will get the two colors, one on the inside and one on the outside.
The background 3″ x 3″, first emboss it with the Changing Leaves Embossing Folder. then cut it into 1-1/2″ squares. This breaks apart the image to create a fun motif!
Cardstock Cuts for this project:
Basic White Thick – 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ card base scored at 4-1/4″
Basic White – 5-1/4″ x 4″ panel (inside card), 3″ x 3″, 2-1/2″ x 2″
Stampin’ Up! products used to create this project:
One of the tasks for August is to clean and organize your craft room. I like to “spring clean” my craft room before I dive too deeply into all the different craft projects I like to do for the holiday season. This year I went a bit further. I moved my craft room to the bigger bedroom to be able to make it an office as well. I am in heaven with my new room!
The best organization for craft rooms can be found at IKEA and Stamp-N-Storage.
Kallax shelving is great for storage. I added drawers and bins to help with my organization. I also added a cat bed for my babies. The filing cabinet holds all my cardstock. In Florida, you have to protect your papers from the strong sun.
Meet Little. One of my beautiful babies that things my photo cube is a bed for her. Notice she is NOT using the cat bed I put in.
Stamp-N-Storage has pieces that fit in the IKEA Kallax Shelves. I love the ribbon holder!
The tables and drawers are IKEA as well. I love all the table space I now have. I even have room for someone to stamp with me. You can see that I have my computer set up too. I no longer have to share the office with my husband!
DVD holders are great for storing stamp sets and dies. I use the kitchen bars from IKEA to hold my punches. I have my Stampin’ Blends in Stampin’ Up! storage and the ink, markers, and re-inkers in the Stamp-N-Storage holder.
There is the tour of my craft room! As a project manager and crafter, I LOVE all the organization! So, I give you the challenge. Get your craft rooms ready for all our holiday crafting!
I love to bake. When I was a kid, I used to do a marathon baking weekend where I would make dozens and dozens of cookies in one weekend. My parents would pay for the ingredients, and I would bake. Then they could be used as gifts, taken to parties, or just enjoyed by us.
With age, the marathon baking weekend became more and more exhausting, so I started looking for shortcuts. There are many recipes out there that can be made ahead at different stages and then frozen for up to 6 months.
Full disclosure, I made my August Make Ahead Cookies in July. Mostly because watching Christmas movies made me want some 😀
These Gingerbread cookies are my favorite. I prefer soft and chewy Gingerbread and not the crispy Ginger Snaps. If you are like me, I highly recommend this recipe from Our Best Bites. https://ourbestbites.com/gingerbread-cookies/
My husband and I made and decorated 120 Gingerbread cookies. 100 of them went into the freezer and the other 20 were enjoyed immediately. I decorated these before freezing. Icing will go from glossy looking to matte when frozen but with these guys, I don’t mind the matte look. So, in December all I need to do is remove them from the freezer and put them on the plates!
I hope you take my advice and start your baking. Post what you decide to make and share recipes and pictures! Know that sometimes recipes will have you freeze once the dough is made and some before decorating so be sure to pay attention to this.
In August, it is all about planning your craft projects. As you have seen in a previous post, I have already begun designing my Christmas cards. I will finalize all my designs this month but will post them over time for you to see. I will also share my craft gifts that I am making.
Christmas Card List
This is another document I created once and then just keep up to date. I created an excel spreadsheet with each person I want to send a Christmas Card to along with their mailing address. I send to around 200 people so I group them into categories also so I can filter by these categories when I review the information each year.
If you have not picked up on it by now, I am a very organized person. As a Project Manager, I track all aspects of a project and this project is no different. In my spreadsheet, I also track which card design I send each person. I shared that I create many different designs each year and I love nothing more than sending a different card to people that might see someone else’s card. I assign out the designs and track them year to year. This way, if I have leftovers from one year, I can make sure not to duplicate the design to someone the next year. I know, this might be taking it too far. You can feel free to disregard this section if you wish 😉
Gift Giving
Spend August continuing to develop gift ideas for your list. I don’t necessarily start buying gifts, unless it is something I see that I will not be able to get later (I love gift shopping when I travel). But every time I have an idea I record it, because I KNOW I will not remember it later.
I also make sure to inventory what I might have already purchased (remember the trips in the first half of the year?), I add these items to my master gift list. I try to keep gifts I buy early in the same location. This is a lesson learned when I “lost” gifts and was not able to find them until after Christmas 😦
The Full Checklist
If you are anything like me, you are frustrated right now because I am only sharing the tasks for the month, and you want to look ahead and customize it in advance, so you are ready. I get it. So here is my full project plan for Christmas.
There are items on here that may not pertain to you and there are probably tasks missing. Remember I am in Florida so there are no tasks for building a snowman, snowball fights, and snow angels. Though I miss those items I would prefer to be warm and not have the tasks of shoveling the driveway and hanging lights in the cold. I do really miss being able to cuddle up in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa but wait until you see what I do!
Throughout this Christmas planning, I would LOVE to hear all about your traditions and the tasks you add or change to prepare. I hope I can learn from you as well! So please comment and share! I would also LOVE to see pictures of your creations 🙂
I started this blog a little late. Christmas in July is over, but that is when I kickoff my Christmas preparation. I love the holiday’s and I always want to do everything. For a while I tried to do that in the “normal” holiday time and found myself more stressed out instead of enjoying the holidays. That is when my project manager hat came out. I began planning my Christmas so I could do everything, do all the craft projects I wanted to do, and still get to enjoy the holidays. I have followed my plan for many years now and I feel I am very successful in doing it all and having fun too.
I decided I wanted to share my Christmas Project Plan with others so that people like me can have just as much fun at Christmas time. Today I am going to share with you my checklist for the month of July. I will share the August checklist in a separate post and then throughout the month I will share with you some of the ways I accomplish these tasks.
In July you are just setting up the plan and your notebook along with your master gift list and establishing how much to spend on each person. And of course, watch Hallmark Christmas movies to put you in the mood!
Gift List and Budget
I am an iPhone user so all my app suggestions will be for an iOS platform, but I know other phones have similar apps if not the same for the different platform. For my Master Gift List, I use the free app, “The Christmas Gift List”. However, there are many apps out there so find the one that works best for you.
Whatever app you chose, you should at least be able to:
List the people on your list
Set a budget for each person
Set a total budget and be able to track progress so you don’t overspend
Be able to track ideas, purchased, wrapped, given or shipped
Other items I like in my app:
Group people (Co-Workers, Friends, Family, etc.)
Be able to see previous gifts given
Carryover ideas to new events
Provide views for: who has no ideas recorded, gifts need to buy, gifts need to be wrapped, gifts need to be given or sent
Share the view with someone (my husband though I don’t think he uses it)
I have a second app that I use. I have a passcode on it and use it to track gifts for my husband 😀
Set Up Planner
For my planner, I used to have a paper planner. As a crafter, I built it like a scrapbook.
If you are a fan of paper, here are the templates I used. They are in 6″ x 8″ format for a small scrapbook. I printed them on thin cardstock and used sheet protectors for the divider pages.
Over time, I moved my planner to Microsoft’s OneNote. I made each planner section a section in my notebook and then each year is a new page so I can see what I did the prior year and modify as I learn what works better for me.
This gets you through July! I will post the August Checklist soon so be sure to Subscribe so you get notified when I post.
Hello Crafters! Today I have for you my first Christmas card design of the season. As it is August, I like to design my different Christmas cards so I can purchase the materials and begin working on them. This way I can complete them early and not have to worry about them as I get closer to the holidays.
Video Demonstration
Few More Samples
I loved the Iconic Celebrations Suite so much I made several other cards using the same Card Layout. This really shows the versatility to this Suite. Who doesn’t love a product that goes a long way!
The colors used for this Thanksgiving Card are Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow, and Old Olive.
The colors used for this Winter Card are Misty Moonlight, and Mossy Meadow.
The colors used for this Valentine’s Day Card are Cherry Cobbler and Moody Mauve.
The colors used for this Birthday Card are Moody Mauve, Misty Moonlight, and Crushed Curry.
Cardstock Cuts for this project:
Mossy Meadow – 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ card base scored at 4-1/4″
Iconic Celebrations 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper – 5-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ panel, Iconic Imagery die cut
Basic Beige – 2-3/8″ Circle Punch
Basic White – 5-1/4″ x 4″ panel (inside card), Iconic Imagery die cuts
Cherry Cobbler – Iconic Imagery die cut
Stampin’ Up! products used to create this project:
Hello and welcome to my brand-new blog! I’m thrilled to have you here as I embark on this festive journey of celebrating Christmas all year long.
Who Am I?
I’m Nicole Black, a Project Manager and a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator. My love for Christmas and crafting has inspired me to create this blog as a hub for everything holiday-related. Whether you’re a fellow Christmas enthusiast or just someone who enjoys crafting, you’re in the right place!
Why Start Planning in July?
You might be wondering why anyone would start planning for Christmas in July. Well, to truly enjoy the holiday season, it’s essential to be prepared. By starting early, you can:
Reduce Stress: Planning ahead means you won’t be scrambling at the last minute. You’ll have time to enjoy the festivities and spend quality time with loved ones.
Get Creative: With plenty of time on your hands, you can explore new crafting ideas and perfect your Christmas cards and decorations.
Stay Organized: A well-thought-out plan helps keep everything on track, ensuring that every detail is just right.
What Can You Expect?
On this blog, you’ll find:
Crafting Tips and Tutorials: I’ll share step-by-step guides on creating beautiful Christmas cards, decorations and gifts, using Stampin’ Up! products and other crafting materials.
Project Management Strategies: Learn how to manage your holiday projects efficiently, from gift planning to organizing events.
Holiday Inspiration: Discover new ideas to make your Christmas celebrations memorable, from DIY decorations to festive recipes.
Personal Stories and Reflections: I’ll also share my personal experiences and favorite holiday memories, hoping to inspire and connect with you.
Join the Journey
I’m excited to take you along on this holiday adventure. Whether you’re here for crafting inspiration or project management tips, I hope to make your Christmas season as joyful and stress-free as possible.
Thank you for stopping by, and I can’t wait to dive into the festive fun with you. Stay tuned for more posts, and let’s make this Christmas season the best one yet!
I am a project manager by day and a crafter by night. I love Christmas and want to do it all every year. I will share with you how I do it and enjoy it too!
