January Christmas cards: Merry snowflakes

It’s been very challenging to feel merry with all of the “immigration enforcement” activities and the resulting chaos that is happening in Minnesota. (I use that phrase loosely as that doesn’t seem to be the government’s goal anymore.) People, regardless of their immigration status, shouldn’t be afraid to leave their homes to go to work, school, or even the grocery store. People shouldn’t be stopped or detained based on the color of their skin. It’s all stressful and overwhelming, so I haven’t done much crafting at all this month. I did, though, manage to make some January Christmas cards a few weeks ago, and I figured I should post them before the month ends. I made two different designs with snowflakes and the phrase “be merry.”

For the first design I used some wrapping paper from a Christmas gift I received. I usually try to remove wrapping paper carefully so I can reuse it. But I loved the colors and style of the snowflakes on this paper, so I decided to use it to make some cards. I used a stitched rectangle die to cut out background panels for six cards and then glued the panels to light gray card bases.

I had a hard time choosing a color for the die-cut sentiment — nothing seemed quite right. Then I remembered I had some holographic card stock, and that seemed perfect. For each card I die cut “be merry” (Lawn Fawn) out of the holographic card stock and out of the same light gray as the card bases. I layered the two pieces together and glued them to the card bases. I know the sentiment is a bit hard to read, but I love how it reflects different colors. I finished each card with a few silver sequins.

For the second group of snowflake cards I used the Snowflake Soirée products (The Greetery) — stamps, layering stencils, and dies. I started by using the layering stencils to make a bunch of light blue and mint green snowflakes (some of the images are one color, some are two-tone). I cut them all out with the coordinating dies and then spritzed them with shimmer spray.

I divided up the snowflakes for four cards: two light blue and two mint. I stamped the sentiment “be merry and celebrate the season” in the lower-right quadrant of each card base using coordinating ink. I glued four snowflakes onto the front of each card and stamped smaller snowflakes using white ink and the coordinating stamps. I finished the cards by adding a rhinestone to the middle of each die-cut snowflake.

Wishing us all peace in this chaotic world,

2026 desk calendars

Now that the holidays have passed and everyone has received their 2026 desk calendars, I can share them here. I didn’t start making my calendars until December, so I had to keep the designs fairly simple. I made three different calendar styles: one with ink blending and die cuts, and two versions with patterned card stock as the base.

For the first style, I used masking stencils to ink blend a square near the top of each white panel. I added a bit of splatter then stamped a sentiment and added a die-cut shape. I matted each calendar sheet with coordinating card stock.

For the second design I used a pack of floral patterned card stock and added a layer of vellum to each panel. I added a word die cut from gold card stock near the top of the vellum, glued the calendar sheet underneath, and finished with a few gold sequins.

For the final design, I used a pack of patterned card stock in neutral colors with copper metallic accents. I stamped a sentiment for each page and die cut it with a circle die. I used a variety of embellishments, including buttons, doilies, and punched or die-cut shapes, and matted the calendar sheets with either dark brown or copper card stock.

Thanks for stopping by!