A Divalicious Xmas in July

Welcome to the Creative Scrapbooking Divas Christmas in July Blog Hop!
It may not feel like snow outside in the northern hemisphere, but if we get started on holiday projects now, we might be ready by December--we would love for you to plan and play along!

Please join us as we share with you the wonderful holiday projects of CSDivas. Comment on our blog hop thread starting Saturday, July 9, 2011 to begin!


If you are just joining us now, you can go to Luisa’s blog to start at the beginning so you won’t miss a hop stop and be eligible for the blog hop prize.

Here is the CSDivas DivaliciousXmas in July Blog Hop Grand Prize:

To earn a ticket you need to:
1) Live a comment in each of the hop stops.
2) Leave a comment at the CSDivas blog when you are done.

After done that, you can earn extra tickets by:
a) Become a follower of our CSDivas blog!
b) Become a Fan of our Facebook Fan Page
c) Add a Xmas project to Mr Linky below

Our Tour List:
Luisa - Creative Designs by Luisa http://www.creativedesignsbyluisa.com/
Sandy - ScrapBook Blessings http://www.scrapbookblessings.blogspot.com/
Stephanie – The Magic of Ordinary Days http://todaysmagical.blogspot.com/
Jessica- Jessica's Blog http://jessicascraftshaque.blogspot.com/
Yolie – Just Yolie, Just Create http://www.justyolie.com/
Vanessa – Creating Sensations http://creatingsensations.blogspot.com/
Alecia - Welcome to Alecia's http://freakalecias.blogspot.com/

Since I focus on Cards and Cricut at CSDivas, I wanted t do Xmas cards for this blog!!!!  I have to admit, (gasp) I just started.  I try to at least have an idea of what I want to do but I've been putting it off, until now, lol!

Last year, I did a paper piecing card from cuts I made from my Cricut.  I only had to make 4 cuts, a little chalking, some stickles and I was all set. The hardest part was designing my card.  But when I put it all together, it made this beautiful winter scene...

This year I wanted to do a joy fold card.  They are one of my favorites.  You can find the tutorial HERE.
The hardest part was figuering out how I wanted to design my card.  Once I got that down, the rest was history.  I was able to complete 12 cards in a hour and that was with all my "MOM" interruptions!

My biggest tip is to do all your cutting, folding and stamping prep work first, assemble second and embellish third.  It is like an assembly line. 

Now you're ready for the fun part, putting you card together!!!  Here it is the family card for 2011...  It ended up being a vertical joy fold card.

 With a little bit of a easel card twist, lol.

 But I think... very cute!

Plus at the bottom, I can add a little note to the out of towners!

TIPS FOR YOUR XMAS CARDS....

1 Start making your cards NOW!!!!  Decide if you want it simple so you can mass produce and send out to everybody or if you just want to make a dozen and give to extra special people and family.  I tend to do the second.  I buy my cards after Xmas and save them for the year.  Then I fill those out to give to people out of state or just friends etc.  I make about 12-15 craft Xmas cards for close family and friends.  I adverage about 35 cards every Xmas.

2 Cut anyone off the list you haven't talked to or heard from in over 3 years.

3 Before Thanksgiving hits and officially kicks off the holiday season, write out your cards.

4 Buy stamps for your cards right after Thanksgiving. Many stamps are festively-themed at this time, and the lines will be shorter at the post office the earlier in December you go.

5 Set a deadline to mail the cards by the first weekend in December. This will put them out of your hands in plenty of time for you to get started on the rest of your holiday season preparations.

6 Try to keep track of who you get cards from during the holiday season. Keep all evelopes with return addresses you receive in a separate basket and sort through them after the New Year, making a note in your address book of those you received from. This will make the process of figuring who to send to next year a bit easier.

Divas—don’t forget to comment here on the main CSDivas blog when you are done!
We would love to see what you come up with for Xmas!!! Please post your entries using Mr Linky by July 12th 7 pm eastern, for two tickets to be entered to win the hop prize.

If you leave a comment on my blog here and CSDivas blog.  You can win my little Rak too!!!!

Thanks for hopping and have a very merry Divalicious Xmas!


(Remember: post a comment at the blog hop thread and let us know you've left comments on all the Diva blogs for a ticket to win, thanks! )
http://creativescrapbookingdivas.blogspot.com/