This past Saturday, we had a blog hop to celebrate a week of holiday releases beginning with a Merry & Bright December 2016 Card Kit reveal, our Advent Plus mini exclusive reveal, and ending with a very special Limited Edition Holiday 2016 card kit from Simon Says Stamp. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the hop, click here to view the first post. I think you’ll find loads of holiday card making inspiration!

Congratulations to all of the blog hop winners! Thank you for hopping along with us and taking the time to leave feedback for the designers in the form of comments along the way :) I know they really really enjoy hearing from you!

Simon Says Stamp’s winner is: Betty Adkins!
Tim Holtz’s winner is: Heather Lynn!
Shari Carroll’s winner is: Rema!
Kristina Werner’s winner is: Dolly!
Debby Hughes’ winner is: TeenaLee!
Nichol Spohr’s winner is: Sheryl H!
Laura Bassen’s winner is: D.Ann C!
Yana Smakula’s winner is: Barbara Lassiter!
Jessica Frost-Ballas’ winner is: Christy Q!
Wanda Guess’ winner is Gail Scott!
Nina-Marie Trapani’s winner is: Maaike!
Heather Ruwe’s winner is: Susan G!
Amy Rysavy’s winner is: LaDonna Shelly!

Winners, Congratulations! Please check your inboxes for an email from us with a $50 gift card! If for some reason we couldn’t access your email, please email [email protected] letting her know you are one of our Blog Hop winners for the the Special Holiday Release Week Blog Hop, and she will issue your gift card upon verification. Thank you again for hopping along with us!

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by today! We are so pleased to welcome back the always creative and fantastic Yana Smakula who dug out some fun critters (Stacking Animals) we released earlier this year and dressed them up for Christmas! She used the scarf and antlers from the Christmas Cats set and topped it off with the Falling Snow background and Joy die for a sentiment. Be sure to watch the video and enjoy!

Watch the video:

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Hello crafty friends and Happy Monday! It’s Nina-Marie here with you today and I have a fun, kid friendly project to share with you this week, featuring Neat & Tangled stamps and dies!

What I love most about today’s project, is that it is so easy for kids to get involved with… I know when I was a kid, how much I loved when my mom would put together a Christmas craft project that her, my siblings and I could work on together. It was great family time, and SO much fun. Those are great memories! Usually we would make ornaments and then gift them to friends and family members as gifts. It is fun to look back now and see all the different things we created and the creativity of a child’s mind!

The ornaments in today’s video are just as fun for both kids and grown-ups alike to work on! They feature the new Santa’s Wonderland stamp and die set, as well as the Little Baby Jesus stamp and die set (again, both are from Neat & Tangled). Having the coordinating dies makes this design so much easier to create, so I encourage you to pick up the dies for these sets (or any other stamp sets you are using as ornaments) if you don’t already have them.

I did Zig Clean Color watercoloring on these images, but keep in mind that you can use ANY medium for this project. Colored pencils (even your kid’s Crayola pencils!), markers, watercolors… the sky is the limit! If you are interested in the color combinations I used for these images, I have them listed here:

• Santa: Geranium Red 029, Tea Rose 220, Flesh Color 071, May Green 047, Marine Green 400, Yellow 050, Beige 072, Blue Gray 092, Warm Gray 2 900
• Baby Jesus: Mustard 067, Shadow Mauve 303, Flesh Color 071, Tea Rose 220, Mid Brown 065
• Reindeer: Oatmeal 064, Beige 072, Flesh Color 071, Geranium Red 029, May Green 047, Mid Brown 065, Tea Rose 220, Shadow Mauve 303
• Snowman: Shadow Mauve 303, Mid Green 046, Olive Green 043, Deep Red 260, Mustard 067, Tea Rose 220
• Penguin: Blue Gray 092, Geranium Red 029, May Green 047, Yellow 050, Mustard 067, Shadow Mauve 303, Tea Rose 220

To make these ornaments a bit more sturdy than one single piece of paper, I layered up four die cut pieces (three plain white die cuts plus the watercolored die cut image). Because these ornaments will get handled quite a bit (we want them to last for a very long time!), I feel that taking the extra time to layer multiple die cuts together is worth it. Also, this allows you to sandwich the a ribbon (or you can use string, baker’s twine, etc. to act as a hanger) between the die cut pieces, which hides the hanger and keeps your ornament looking cute and clean.

I also think adding the date to the backside is a smart idea because it will allow you and your kids to look back and remember when you created these cuties! And make sure your kids sign their names on them too! :D

I hope you will check out the video below on how I created these ornaments! Thanks so much for stopping by and spending some time with me today… I will be back here on Wednesday with some more holiday gift giving inspiration (hint: it is not ornaments, but rather something a bit more like cash… just sayin’!) See you then!!!

WATCH THE VIDEO:

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