December Expressions!

I'm working nights this weekend - with a fresh layer of snow on the ground and sub-zero temperatures, it's always a fun time in Orthopedics! Add to the masses, all of the people who suddenly have to have their surgery done NOOOWWW NOW NOW NOW NOWNOWNONONOW because their deductable is met for the year, and things get pretty hairy!!! Oi!

The Expressions kits from ETM are out and wow are they fabulous this year! The paper is so cute and textured - I love anything that is textured. The paper in this months' kit feels like WALL PAPER! Srsly. . . you just gotta feel it. Pet it. It's good huh? Daisy Bucket papers are new to me. But I will definitely be watching for them in the future!

Kim had the awesome idea of focusing this month on MAXIMIZING your paper, and boy do I have some fun ideas for this. Check them out. . . Here are the cards that I made with this months' kit. I have also vowed to try to do a video tutorial each month to go with the cards. . .and I'm gonna do it. . . as soon as I am on my days off again. So check it out. . . here are the cards for now and I will be seeing you all soon on the YouTubes. :)

This first card was done following one of the card maps from Page Maps. . . I do love to follow those cute little designs! Note here how I maximized my use of paper by adding a coordinating paper to make an envelope liner. . . I also used a strip of the patterned paper instead of ribbons, and used a hole punch to make dots instead of using brads or eyelets. You can always use these tricks in a pinch! And since they are from the paper provided, they are a perfect match!

Kim threw in the cutest, fattest piece of green ric-rac I have ever seen to this months' kit! I stitched it down to the paper and made a coordinating tag out of one of the rub-ons. I do love the letter stickers that we got this month. You can make your cards say whatever you want!

Ahh, maximizing the paper. . .I used a strip of the red paper to make a ribbon and bow for this present card. You can do this easily any time you need a ribbon but don't have one to match. Just loop pieces of the paper and fasten them with tape, or a brad, as shown. I added a tag, and made a matching address label for the envelope. Cute, cute, cute! I love these patterns!!!

This is one of my favorite cards from the kit - I used the chocolate brown patterns with the red. I was all sorts of proud of my "Chocolate Covered Cherry Card" Until my son came along and noted that it looks like a Hostess Cupcake. Well, I'll be darned, it does! Somebody is going to get a box of cupcakes this year, with this card. I bet my son wishes it was him. :) I used some of the left over brown paper to line the envelope, and covered ALL surfaces of this card - both sides of the fold - out flaps, and even the back of the card with the brown, Hostess Cupcake Paper. Fun!

Here is that cute fat ric-rac again - I stitched it to the card with a strip of the candy stripe ribbon too. That was Kim's idea. . . she is so wise. :) I also love these big circle patterns - they are great for making big tags - ornaments - and I think that I will even stamp some and use them as gift tags for Christmas Presents! Did I mention that this months' kit includes an acrylic "To: and From:" stamp that is going to be so very useful all year long? It's the best thing since. . . Christmas.

I think that one of the things that I love best about this months' kit is the diversity of colors that Kim has picked with the papers. Reds, greens, blues, browns, and even these cute pink and turquoise colors - Here I go using strips of the patterned paper again in place of ribbon. This card just makes me happy! Pink and blue for Christmas! Who knew? I love it!

Stay tuned for this months' tutorial on how to make THIS card - It's too hard to show in a photo how amazingly fun this card is. It opens, and opens, an opens again and again, like a game! You can easily use up all of the rest of your paper this month making this really cool never-ending card. I will show you how - it's easy!

Thanks for stopping by - I am off to catch a few winks before my night shift starts again. . . hooray!