Hi everyone!
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season and spending time with those who matter most. I am very grateful and lucky to be surrounded by family and friends this holiday season and plan to cherish each day.
If you've been following my blog for the past few years, you know that I typically do a Countdown to Christmas "25 Cards in 25 Days" holiday card series. Well, this year is no different... except for the fact that I decided to bring the series to my
Bubblegum Paper YouTube channel instead of posting on my blog each day. I know many of you subscribe to my channel and follow me there, so I hope you've had a chance to see some of the cards from the series this year. However, since the original series launched here on my blog, I felt it was necessary to recap all the cards in one GIANT blog post... so here we go!
You can find the link to the full playlist of all 25 videos on YouTube
here.
Note: for materials used and directions for each card, please watch the corresponding videos on YouTube by clicking on the images.
Card #1 | Mama Elephant: I kicked off the series with two new products from Mama Elephant: Pix's Happy Holiday and Wooly Winter stamp sets. These proved to be very popular stamp sets throughout the series.
Card #2 | Lawn Fawn: I then headed "Home for the Holidays" with Lawn Fawn. I didn't really go home... in fact, I haven't been home all year. This is probably the first calendar year in my life that I haven't been back home (due to health reasons). Luckily, my family was able to come to California.
Card #3 | Lawn Fawn: This day happened to be my aunt's birthday, so I combined the holiday cards with a "Season's Tweetings" message to wish her a happy birthday.
Card #4 | Simon Says Stamp: Occasionally a sketch out an idea and then it takes a turn or gets "improvised" during the creation process. That's what happened in Day 4, so I ended up with not one, but two cards.
Card #5 | Avery Elle: Once again, reindeer seemed to be popular throughout the series. I incorporated reindeer from various stamp companies, this first of which was Avery Elle and their North Pole Pals stamp set.
Card #6 | Mama Elephant: Feliz Navidad! This card contains another one of my random stories. My friends and I love singing Feliz Navidad whenever we hear it on the radio.
Card #7 | Simon Says Stamp + Mama Elephant: This was one of my more elaborate card creations because it was a POP-UP card! My favorite Lunar Animals stamps from Mama Elephant made their holiday debut in this fun pop-up card dedicated to my aunt and uncle who were celebrating their birthdays. Yes, this too was another "story" card.
Card #8 | Mama Elephant: This card started with a simple sketch and ended up becoming one of my favorites of the series. Perhaps it's because I absolutely love the Pix bunny character from Mama Elephant... and pink and purple never cease to amaze me.
Card #9 | Lawn Fawn + Avery Elle: I changed it up a bit and made three Christmas tags using a combination of stamps from Lawn Fawn and Avery Elle. The scripty Merriest sentiments from Avery Elle are so cool!
Card #10 | Lawn Fawn + Avery Elle: This was a new technique I decided try with the Avery Elle Santa Stamps and Dies from their "North Pole Pals" stamp set. I used the coordinating die to make a window. This card, was the first of many that could be considered "quick and easy" for making multiple sets.
Card #11 | Taylored Expressions: I went with an elegant holiday card incorporating the Taylored Expressions Shade Tree cutting plate with some blue and silver glitter paper. I was channeling my inner
Frozen theme that day.
Card #12 | Lawn Fawn: This was the first appearance of the Lawn Fawn Penguins. I'm surprised I didn't use them more often, but they were fun to color nonetheless. I did manage to use the "Snow Cool" stamp set a few times in the series.
Card #13 | Concord & 9th + Simon Says Stamp: This card was one of the cards I sketched early in the series because I was sooooo excited to figure out how the Take a Bough dies from Concord & 9th worked. It took my a little longer than I expected to make the card, but it was so much fun and now I can replicate the card in record time.
Card #14 | Mama Elephant + Doodlebug Design: My Simon Says Stamp December 2016 card kit came earlier in December, so I decided to crack it open for this card. Once I saw the super cute Doodlebug Design products and Mailbox Doodle Pops, I knew I had to combine it with the Mama Elephant "Incoming Mail" stamp set.
Card #15 | Lawn Fawn: I mixed it up again and instead of creating a standard A2 greeting card, I made two different mini gift cards with matching envelopes. I used the Oh Snap and Cheery Christmas stamp sets from Lawn Fawn along with the gift card envelope die from The Stamps of Life.
Card #16 | Simon Says Stamp: I started falling behind schedule with work and everything, so I needed a quick and easy card to help me close the gap. The deco tree dies from Simon Says Stamp were perfect for this occasion.
Card #17 | Mama Elephant: This card also served as a quick and easy card and helped me close the gap on my backlog of cards, but it also served as a mini teaser to Card #18 which also featured the Reindeer Games stamp set from Mama Elephant.
Card #18 | Mama Elephant + Lawn Fawn: This was an interactive SPINNING card. I sketched the original idea for this card back in October when the Mama Elephant Wooly Winter stamp set was first released. I knew I wanted to incorporate the little wanna-be-reindeer lamb with the reindeer from last year's Reindeer Games stamp set. The result: this spinning card that was super fun to make. I laugh every time I see the little lamb's red nose!
Card #19 | Mama Elephant + Lawn Fawn: In case you haven't noticed, I tend to use a lot of Mama Elephant and Lawn Fawn products. They go great together and their little stamp characters are always so cute. For this card, I use the Mama Elephant Playful Pups stamp set and paired it with some holiday accessories from Lawn Fawn.
Card #20 | Lawn Fawn: It's hard to believe that it took me a full 20 cards to make my first shaker card of the series!! There were so many times before Card #20 that I said to myself, "oh, I can turn this into a shaker card." Given the amount of foam adhesive I used in each card, multiple shaker cards was definitely possible.
Card #21 | Simon Says Stamp: I turned to the Simon Says Stamp card kit once again to make this super easy no die-cutting card. Stamp masking is a technique I typically use whenever I don't have coordinating dies for a given stamp set. That's why you see me using this with a lot of Simon Says Stamp stamp sets because they come in a card kit, typically without coordinating dies.
Card #22 | Paper Smooches: Once again I was falling behind in my video posts, so I needed a quick and easy card to help me get back on track. These stockings dies from Paper Smooches came to the rescue!
Card #23 | Mama Elephant: For my last few cards, I had to make them ahead of time because I was heading out of town but I wanted to have some kind of story or theme with each one. So I figured I would make one that represented me and my boyfriend, one for my family and one with Bubblegum. This is the card that incorporates me (rabbit) and Rob (mouse) and it also includes two of my very favorite stamp sets from Mama Elephant.
Card #24 | WPlus9 + Mama Elephant: This card is a greeting from my family to yours. I used the WPlus9 garden buddies (one of my few stamps sets with people) and incorporated some snapshots of my family.
Card #25 | My Favorite Things + Mama Elephant: For my final card, I am once again incorporating some kind of Bubblegum theme. This year, I chose the Gumball Machine die from My Favorite Things. This card is dedicated to all of you... my blog and YouTube subscribers. Thank you for your support and feedback throughout my crafting journey. I appreciate it sooooo much!
So, I wasn't kidding when I said "Giant Recap" right? That completes 25 Cards in 25 Days for 2016. I wish you all the very best in the coming New Year! See you in 2017!
Best,
Christina
