Good morning and welcome to the next month of my Crafty Christmas Collaboration series! I missed last month for personal reasons but I’m back for May! If you missed my first Crafty Christmas Collaborations you can find them here! Basically the idea is that I know I need to start working on Christmas cards pretty early in the year in order to be ready with enough cards by late November…but I wanted to find a way to make it more interesting! 😉
Each month a crafty friend and I will send each other something to help make a Christmas card…it might be a watercolored panel, a few die-cut images, a few stamped images, embellishments, etc. At the same time we will use the same items to create our own card and we won’t share what we’ve created with each other until after the cards are finished. And don’t forget to check out the bottom of my post for details on how you can join in the fun and enter two giveaways! My May guest is the wonderfully talented Karen Baker!
Karen has an amazing eye for design both in her crafting creations and her graphic design work! She is the mastermind behind the logos for two of my challenge blogs: Where Creativity Meets C9 and A Blog Named Hero! And recently she has been absolutely blowing me away with her gorgeous watercolored cards! If you don’t follow her on Instagram, you definitely should! 😉
This is what Karen sent me:
And this is what I created:
I’ve had my eye on those adorable yetis from My Favorite Things for awhile but hadn’t picked them up yet so I was super excited to see them in the envelope! I colored him with copics then applied a little clear spectrum noir sparkle to the light bulbs and added a dot of glossy accents to each bulb. I decided to keep it simple and allow the interesting color palette and sparkles to be the main focus! I adhered the coverplate die from Lil’ Inker Designs over the glitter paper and then adhered it to a card base. Finally I trimmed the sentiment down to a fishtail banner and used foam mounting tape to adhere the sentiment and the yeti!
And this is what I sent to Karen:
And this is what I created:
Definitely a little out of my comfort zone but I like how it turned out! I colored my reindeer with copics and then colored the edges of the die cut with a navy blue copic marker. I trimmed my patterned paper down to strips and adhered them to a navy blue cardstock panel. Then I stamped the sentiment from Festive Wishes above and below the patterned paper with versamark and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder.
I adhered my reindeer with foam mounting tape and then added sequins and seed beads in a loose wave around the patterned paper. I’m so glad Emily shared the tip about coloring the edges of die cuts because I love how that looks against the patterned paper!
I love how we both sent each other holiday critters and I ended up with two very different cards! I can’t wait to see what Karen created!
I wanted to find a way to include as many crafty friends as I could so I’m including a link-up that will last ALL year long! Please use my cards or any of my previous collaborator’s cards as your inspiration and link-up a holiday card! You can use the color schemes, layouts, specific stamps and dies, or techniques for your inspiration. Include the Crafty Christmas Collaboration badge at the top of this post in your post and link to the month you’re using for inspiration for a chance to be included in the big Christmas giveaway. After the final post on December 25th, 2017 one lucky entry will win a $100 gift card to the crafty store of their choice! To make it a little easier to play along you can head here to find all the previous posts and the link-up!
And each month I’ll have a smaller giveaway featuring one of the companies I used on that month’s card. This month I’m giving away a $25 gift card to My Favorite Things to one lucky commenter! Please leave a comment on both my blog and Karen’s blog for a chance to win! I’d love to know your thoughts on this series! Please leave your comment before 11:59 PM EST on June 24th, 2017 and the winner will be announced during June’s collaboration!
Finally, last month’s winner of the $25 gift card to Lawn Fawn is:
Lisaerica, please send me an email via the contact button in the menu above and I’ll get that out to you ASAP!
Thanks so much for visiting and have a wonderful day!
Interested in the products I used? To make them easy for you to find, I have listed them below. (Affiliate disclosure can be found here). Your purchases help keep my blog running and I thank you for the support!!
Very cute ideas! I really love the snowflake cover panel die. It makes for a great looking card with minimal effort. The yeti is adorable also.
This is one of the neatest card making ideas I’ve ever seen! Sharing is a great way to keep from having to buy everything you see and want, but can’t afford. You get to make a card outside of your own supply box. Love it!
What super cute cards! I love how each month you and your collaborator make such great unique cards using the same materials! Great inspiration!
Wonderful cards. Never too early to start the holiday cards.
Delightful cards! I love the cute yeti with the snowflake background and fun sentiment! The collaboration posts are fun, and I’m looking forward to heading to Karen’s blog to see what she has come up with! Love the reindeer card also!
Your cards are both
so cute and love the
sequins on them.
Carla from Utah
Your cards are so very cool! Love that tip too about coloring the die edges. Thanks so much for inviting me to collaborate with you!
Very cute. I like the shiny lights and snowflake background on the yeti card and the addition of the sequins on the reindeer card.
I love this series you have going..just need to find the time to actually sit down and create. I am not good like you and can not think of winter cards in the beginning of summer! Love your cards today especially the CAS design with the deer. Looking forward to seeing what Karen did.
Love the Yeti card! The reindeer card is wonderful also! Thanks for the tip on coloring the edges. I can see they really make a difference.
This is a fabulous idea and so fun to see the different designs
Great cards! Love the reindeer and the card design. So pretty!
I think this is such a fabulous idea! I think we all make so many holiday cards so it’s just a great way to get ahead come December! Your cards are both so adorable. Love that gorgeous coverplate with the Yeti. And I love the pretty design of the reindeer and all the sequins.
Eeek! That yeti with the Christmas lights couldn’t be cuter and the snowflake cover die is perfect with him. I love the turquoise, red and white color combo as well…and can’t wait to see what Karen came up with .
What a fun way to share supplies and motivate each other to work on Christmas cards! It’s really fun to see how you both use the same images for completely different designs…and they are all so darn cute. Love the yeti and that pretty coverplate. Off to see Karen’s projects now!
Awww!!! Love your cards!!! Too sweet and cute!!!
such a great look with the colored die cut edges! Great tip!
Super fun cards!
Just doing a wander through your blog (inspiration seeking…and I always find a spark!), and realized I hadn’t commented on your marvelous collaborations with Karen. Your reindeer is delightful, but today, the Yeti is the star of the show for me! Seriously…how cute is he, nestled in a wintry wonderland and tangled with Christmas lights. Charming! Given I live near the Canadian Rockies, it only makes sense I have a ‘soft spot’ for ‘bominables’ *grin* I’m saving all your challenges…and yes, I will be the one scrambling in November to get cards done. At least I’ll have your – and your guests’ – creativity to guide me!
Hugs~carol
beautiful cards 🙂 love the use of navy colored cardstock!
Yay! I’m so glad to see more of these posts! I’m getting lots of inspiration from you and your awesome guests. 🙂