Book Review – A Homemade Christmas

RRP $14.95

aking something with your own hands—whether it’s a plate of just-baked cookies, a handcrafted stocking, a homemade wreath, or a hand-folded origami ornament—is a great way to connect with the true meaning of Christmas.

From holiday decorating to gift giving, A Homemade Christmas is chock-full of projects, recipes, tips, and helpful hints that are guaranteed to add a homemade touch to your holiday season. Open this charming volume to any page and discover a wealth of practical and easy-to-accomplish ideas for a homemade holiday:

• create personal, distinctive holiday greetings

• deck the halls with festive, handmade trimmings

• cook simple but memorable homemade dishes

• make unique, handcrafted gifts

• share the joy of the season with friends and family

Packed with inspiration and how-tos for ideas that are family-friendly and eco-conscious, festive and meaningful, A Homemade Christmas will put homemade back into your holidays!

Read These Next

This wonderful island beach has a lighthouse, waves and sailboat floating by, all cut with dies from colored cardstocks. There’s also a fun stenciled bubble background. I love the golden paper for the light beams and gold embossing for the sentiment! Learn more at the Spellbinders blog.

It’s July and around here that means Summer is in full swing, the kids are out of school and lots of people are heading out for a vacation, many going to the beach so it’s a fun time to incorporate the beach in your handmade cards. Beachy designs work well for many occasions, of course wishing someone a safe and happy trip but also for Birthdays, Thank You, masculine designs, Thinking of You, anniversary and so much more. Let’s take a peek at some fun On the Beach ideas to get you inspired.

Below each photo you’ll find a link, click it for more details like products used, tutorials, and techniques.

This amazing card from Channin looks like real sand but she used a sandy embossing powder for this realistic look. Over top she placed stamped beachy accessories like towel, hat, sandals and glasses, all water colored with ink pads. Watch her video tutorial at the Hero Arts blog.

Silvia used a trendy faux postage style for her fun card filled with everything you need for a great day at the beach. She used layering stencils for the images, stamping a few postage cancellation over top and dies for the postage edges. The splatter she added gives the cool feel of splashing water and gritty sand. Learn more at the LDRS blog.

What’s better than having a cool treat on the hot beach? Not much, right? This darling card from Amy has a cutie in her bathing suite enjoying an ice cream using products from Sweet November. She used Copic markers to color in her stamped girl and background, adding a fun sentiment. Take a closer peek at A Thousand Sheets of Paper blog.

The new “Here Comes Summer” line includes dies, stamps, rub-on and papers, all perfect for a cool beachy scene like this Beach Hut Card. Most of the images are die cut but there’s a few stamped details and a sentiment included too for a card design with loads of depth and dimension. Find this new collection at Tonic Studio.

There’s so much wavy movement on this stunning card from Enza! She used dies and Ombre’ paper for the water and sunny, sandy waves for the backgrounds. In the center circle are lots of fun die cut beachy items, a few gold gems and below is a golden heat embossed sentiment. Learn more at the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog.

This Hippo is cool as a cucumber at the beach on this awesome card from Jennifer. She used dies for the palm trees, I like they are in white to not distract from the focal point, and a fun stamped hippo (both from Whimsy Stamps) on a beach towel. Distressed edges on the papers add some fun texture too. Take a closer look at the Just 4 Fun Crafts blog.

These mice are getting their beach house ready for the Summer on a darling card from Kathrin. She used dies and stamps from Lawn Fawn. Notice all the dots and splatters on the tan cardstock, it’s an easy way to create the look of sand. I spotted her idea on her Kruemel2812 Instagram page.

This awesome card from Elaine reminded me of a recent SNL sketch “Goth Kid on the Beach” 🙂 Even Goths like to hang out at the beach maybe just dressed a little differently. Her Oddball stamp from Stampingbella is in red, white and blue (colored with Copic Markers) for July 4th! Watch a coloring video at the Marker Geek blog.

This cool cat on the beach with his large sand dollar is a fun shaker card. Farhana used bubble pattern paper for the background, adding some tan for the sand under the stamped kitty and included little fish for the shaker bits. Learn more at the Newtons Nook blog.

These stamped seagulls are having a beach party on a wonderful card from Jasha. I love the funny pun of a sentiment and all the layers of matts and frames, this is a terrific way to fill in space on a card that has a smaller focal point. Find more details at the Art Impressions blog.

Colored cardstock with a white core gives a great white edge when torn like Tammy used as waves on her quick and easy beachy card. She added small stamped dots for texture on the sand, a stamped sentiment and a few die cut shells subtly colored with markers. Find directions on the Stampin’ Savvy blog.

If you aren’t able to make it to the beach this year I hope you’ll still have fun including on your cards!

-Heather

You can shop some of our affiliate companies mentioned in this blog here:

You can find Lawn Fawn products here on Amazon and over at A Cherry On Top

Comments

Nicole McGuill says
September 21, 2010 at 8:39 am
I love you guys… however when I clicked through I did expect to see a book review rather than Amazon’s product description. I very much enjoy these types of books and would have like to hear what you personally though of the content. Maybe a better title would have been “New Book Release” or some such thing. Thanks for listening.

Read These Next

Comments

Have you read?