Whether it is homemade cards, gift tags, or gift wrap there is a lot of making and giving this time of year! We encourage you to show us your homemade holiday goodness this week. While we are focusing on holiday cards, we welcome you to share whatever you may be making and giving this holiday season! Check out all that our design team has dreamed up this week for inspiration.

Emma is dreaming of a white Christmas.

Christmas is such a magical time of the year and with this in mind and with so many new and exciting products on my craft desk, I wanted to create a winter wonderland scene on my card using a combination of the Tim Holtz Stacked Snowflakes die, Holiday Greens and the gorgeous deer from the Styled Woodlands stamp set. The snowy background is created from Distress Stains and the Falling Snow Stencil.

Ashli was inspired to make a gift for someone special this week.

Sometimes you need a little more than a card for someone, but less than a full blown gift. A mini book card is perfect for such a time! Using the adorable deer stamp from Carta Bella, I embossed my image, then accentuated it with some Gelatos and Watercolors. My sentiment was stamped in gold to complete the look. With extra pages sewn in, this creats the perfect little mini book for my kids to draw in, making a lovely little card turned gift!

Suzz is in full swing creating holiday cards!

I have been busy creating holiday cards using the vintage Stampers Anonymous Santa Sketch. While playing with a mix of Heidi Swapp color shine Gold Lame and Ranger Distress Spray Soot I ended up with splatters of ink on my mat. I love using up my leftover ink and I quickly laid a sheet of white cardstock down on the ink splatters. Stamping the santa and adding a few Idea-Ology Christmas remnants gave me a quick and easy holiday card. One more down and a only a few more to go.

This year, Michelle opted for a more playful holiday card.

I’ve loved playing with my Zig Kuretake Watercolor set this year. But could I stamp with them? You betcha! The deer from the Styled Woodlands set took on a fresh, modern look with the playful, creamy colors. I also used them to paint the background paper textured with Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste. This deer is Merry, indeed!

Sandra Mouwen really enjoys making Christmas cards

I started earlier with my Christmas cards this year, just to be safe. I love making them, but I’m also glad when they are done! The first one is the example, and I’ll tweak it here and there along the way. Then I make the rest in steps. Cutting the kraft packing paper into cardsize is one and stamping with Memento Fog ink the Silhouette Christmas stamp is the step that followed. Love the 25 I made glittery with the Festive Berry Distress Glitter. It pops!

Mona was in the mood for creating a metallic shimmery textured Christmas card.

I’m all about texture and metallics this holiday season! Using Texture Paste along with a Layering stencil makes for a beautiful textured background. Randomly sprayed metallic Distress Spray Stains adds a beautiful shimmery appearance highlighting all the intricate stenciled detail. I completed the card with a gold embossed Mini Holidays 4 image that really compliments the metallic background.

Anna-Karin made a Christmas card with neutral colours this week.

I wanted to keep it simple and make a card that can be reproduced more than once. I used some new Christmas Simon Says Stamp Exclusive stamp sets. The stamping was done with Potting Soil ink and I coloured the images with Inktense pencils. The background is made with ink and stencils.

Meihsia created a card with a colorful gingerbread house as a sample for her children to make some holiday cards for their teachers.

My children wanted to make some fun and colorful holiday cards for their teachers so I created this card as a sample. The image was stamped with Tim Holtz Gingerbread House Sketch Stamp, and colored with Distressed Markers and Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue. It is easy to make and kids love it.

Andrea went in a dotty direction with her festive holiday card.

I usually cringe at flashcards as they bring back all sorts of nightmarish math memories, but these Tim Holtz Holiday Flashcards are the exception to the rule! They are so perfect for all sorts of holiday projects. I paired them with this great Merry Christmas die from Simon Says Stamp for just the right loopy cursive look.

I (May) need a bunch of gift card holding cards, asap!

With a little help from my trusty white embossing powder, a new favorite Tim Holtz stamp set, and some leftovers from my desk I was on my way to completing a fun card in no time! I love all the festive designs of gift cards now, and even more I love recycling a paper cup holder into a gift card holder! December is here, and I’ve got (gift) cards to mail!

For more inspiration click on our design team’s blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects. Leave them a little comment love while you’re there so they know how they’ve inspired you too, if you’re so inclined.

As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by random generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday December 7th Eastern time. We will also be choosing some of our entries to put in the spotlight – a special honor where we talk about why we loved that entry in particular and award a special badge too! For the full rules, read the “challenge rules” posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

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