Another Christmas Card....only 38 or so to go!

Hello all!

I'm trying to make up for slacking already on my New Year's Resolution. Well, it wasn't exactly a resolution, more of a loose goal. I hate New Year's Resolutions because they never seem to work out and then you get frustrated with yourself. Anyway, my goal for the year was to make, on average, one Christmas Card a week. Doesn't sound too hard does it? Yeah, well, factor in a 4 year old, a 6 month old, strep throat, a full time job, etc., etc. and so far this is only the second card I've done and January is pretty much over! Oh well, I'm making a little bit of progress!!

Anyway, I made this cute little card using an adorable Phindy Image. I just love this snowman and his cute little friends. The best part about this image is that it takes no time to color! You have to love that when you have a clingy baby!!

Oh, and here's my exciting part.....last year (sounds funny to be saying that but technically December was last year) I ran into a bit of a dilemma. I had made my Christmas cards to be the A1 size. That's the general size I make and the easiest for me to get envelopes for. Well, then I had my kids Christmas pictures printed and guess what, yup, they were bigger than the envelopes! Sooooooooooo, I scrambled to find bigger envelopes. Then the cards were too small for the envelopes - it was a mess! So, this year I decided I would make all of my Christmas cards bigger to solve that problem. Then I realized that I would have to buy bigger envelopes and guess what, they cost more! I'm on a tight little budget and that was going to eat up basically my entire crafting budget - not good! Well, I went shopping for the after Christmas Sales and saw that you could get REALLY cheap Christmas Cards especially if you're not picky about what they look like. I bought 3 boxes of really ugly religious Christmas Cards for a quarter a box. Each box has 24 cards in it. I gave the cards to the ladies I work for (they make their own envelopes, I'm too lazy for that!) and kept the envelopes. Now I have 72 envelopes that cost me basically a penny each! That's a bargain!!!

So, here's the card that I made using the sketch from Phindy's Place Challenge Blog. I think it's a pretty cool sketch. I used ribbon (the brown thick one) that my friend Lynda gave me. She got BOXES of ribbons and lace that were being thrown away at work and she shared some with me, isn't she sweet?? The papers were all from a scrapbooking kit my brother's girlfriend got me for Christmas (I just love her and the awesome presents she gives me). I added little rhinestones in the center of the flowers. I had bought them at Walmart a few weeks ago and wasn't sure what I'd do with them but I had to have them, now I'm glad I do, they add a nice little sparkle.

This card is for the following challenges:

Phindy's Place Challenge Blog: Sketch Challenge

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog: Bling It Up!

Tip Top Tuesday: Fabulous Flowers! - There is a fabulous tutorial on making your own flowers on their blog. Now, I did not use their tutorial for this project but I'm thinking I'm going to have to give it a try one of these days!

Stamp Something: Winter Somethings