Christmas Eve Creating with Crate Paper

Merry Christmas, my dear blog friends! I hope that you are having a lovely day so far. We went to see Mary Poppins this morning, and it was fantastic! Emily Blunt was the perfect pick for Mary Poppins, and it was just as magical as the original. I am sure she made Julie Andrews proud.

The other day while organizing my craft studio, I came upon a rather large stash of Christmas product that I had tucked away and forgotten about. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I am not one to let products go to waste, especially when they are as cute as these are! So I spent Christmas Eve day crafting the time away, and it was perfect. Christmas Eve & Christmas aren't the easiest days of the year for me, but I do find something calming & serene about creating scrapbooking style. And in the end...I have 15 more cards to add to my Christmas collection for next year.

I know for most of my posts I have all the products linked up for you, but this one will only have the essentials. This is the Fa La La collection from Crate Paper, which was their Christmas 2017 collection. So, it isn't available any longer. All of these cards could easily be created with other products though, and I am challenging you to do just that!

I challenged myself in so many ways on these cards, and I just adore how they turned out! I challenged myself to use as many of the products in this collection as possible. I had the following items from the collection: 6x6 paper pad, diecut ephemera pack, & buttons. I also have the gold puffy stickers & gold glitter stars added in from this year's collection.

I also challenged myself to not cut any full sheets of cardstock, and only use half cut sheets that needed to get turned into card bases. {I'm desperately trying to dwindle down these loose half sheets, as I don't really have a great place to put them. From now on...cards will be made in twos. Lol!} Absolutely no diecutting, but I did pop in a tiny sentiment here & there when I felt it was needed...only with black ink. And finally, I did allow little extra bits of trim & doilies, and the use of a border punch.

How about we get to all of my cards? You've got a lot to look at, as there are 15 of them. Lol! So, I will try to keep my words short & sweet. This set of cards features my favorite, which technically was one of the last made. I used the scrap strips of the papers, and punched a lacy border to the edge of each one...and layered as shown below. This is my absolute favorite of them all...I might keep it for decoration next year. Lol! The lacy border punch is one I've had for years, all the way from back when Martha Stewart had a line of scrapbooking product (does she still? I have no idea).

Up next is a trio of cards that focused on more of the red & black in the collection, plus gold glitter of course!

Here is another trio using the more pinks & mints! Fun fact: the Joy card in the lower left was the first card I made yesterday! But my favorite of these three is the one with the birds. :)

Here is another trio using the bolder colors. Of course, I love the red & black buffalo plaid in this one...I do live in Minnesota, dontcha know? Lol.

These are the final three, with have lots of minty green on them! These were some of the last few I made, and while not my favorites...they do complete the collection well.

Do you want some tips on how I create scrapbooking style? The first thing I do is pull all my papers out of the 6x6 paper pad. This way I can easily flip through them, and grab the sheet I want. When I planned my new craft studio, I made sure to include a super long desk, which is really helpful when creating in this style. I can now lay out all of the diecut ephemera pieces, along with any of the other embellishments from the collection. This keeps them visible and within my reach. I know not everyone has a super long desk, but you can also place them at the head of your desk, and create in the part closest to you. Finally, make yourself focus on what you've laid out, and not on what you might have in a basket, drawer or shelf away from you.

What a fun day I had yesterday, creating all of these cards! And I've already gotten a head start on cards for next year!

Well, that is what I have for you today! Don't forget that I have a GIVEAWAY going on, so comment on that blog post if you'd like! I have update my Crafty Sales page with the latest promos as I get them, so be sure to check it out! Before you move along with your day, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. I hang out on Instagram a lot, and share my work in progress in my stories...along with REALLY cute photos of my dogs! :) And of course, I would love for you to subscribe to my YouTube Channel. My channel has been pretty quiet recently - I am right in the middle of reorganizing my entire craft area...so it is a bit disjointed. I have given myself a deadline of the end of December to get it completely finished, with my new studio area ready for video creation!! So, there will be a TON more videos in 2019. So thank you for bearing with me until then!

INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK

 

You are going to see a new option up there....Facebook. I go back & forth on this a lot, but I was looking through my personal FB page the other day...and it was cards for days. It doesn't leave room for what I want my personal FB to have on it - personal photos & such. So, I have created a FB page for Lea Lawson Creates again. I would love to have you join, and be sure to subscribe to notifications so you don't miss out on anything. I would like to make the page interactive, and a way that we can actually hang out...so if you have any ideas on that, I would appreciate it! 

I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your Christmas!

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