Christmas Card Making Day 2013!!! - post #1

Our 6th Christmas Card Making Day

in Lancaster County!!! 

Yayyy!!! 

We had a WONDERFUL day creating Christmas Cards in late September!! 

 THANK YOU to EACH one of you that joined us this day!!  We enjoy making this day a special event of Christmas card crafting each year!!! 

To start our day, everyone registered when they walked in the door and then they were directed to the goodie bag table.  J Devyn greeted them there, and gave them a special bag that they would later put their created masterpieces (cards) inside.

Inside each bag was a variety of pre-cut Cricut pieces that were cut with our NEW Artbooking Cricut cartridge!

Here is a sample of the pieces that were included in each bag. 

One of the WONDERFUL features of CTMH Cricut cartridges is that many of the Cricut cut images, have a stamp set that coordinates with it!!! 

For instance, the doily stamp in the bottom left corner(shown above)…this shape was cut out with the Artbooking cartridge, and then we stamped the beautiful doily on top of the cut out piece!! 

This is just ONE of the EXCLUSIVE (you can’t purchase separately) stamp sets that is included in the Artbooking Bundle!!

There were ALSO pieces in their bags to create the 3x3 card shown in this picture. 

This card incorporated one of the new OVERLAYS that make the Artbooking Cricut Cartridge unique to itself!!

These were all the Cricut pre-cut items in everyone's bag.  In their spare moments throughout the day, each person took time to come back up to this table to stamp their tag, card, banner, etc. and then could take those items with them.

Next, each person created a TAG to attach to their bag.  This would help us know whose bag is whose! J

TAKE A LOOK at the variety of tags!!

The tag shape was cut from (that famous) Artbooking Cricut cartridge.

The stamped images came from the new stamp set called Candyland. 

The small wording “Merry Christmas” comes from a FAVORITE stamp set called “Holiday Tags”. 

The place where we meet is an older fire hall, complete with interesting, decorative, 50’s wallpaper! J

How did our day work??

We had 5 tables around the room.  Each table had a group of 6 ladies. This group of ladies stayed together the entire day as they rotated clockwise to each of the 5 tables, creating a new item at each table.

Our sessions were 30 minutes long, so we created 5 cards in the morning, and 5 cards in the afternoon for a TOTAL of 10 cards created during the day…plus the tag, and goodie bag items J

Let’s take a look at the beloved – DOOR PRIZE table!

Each person at Card Making Day went home with a door prize!  It may have been a handcrafted item, or a product from CTMH…there were MANY items to chose from!!!

The GRAND PRIZE of the day was the Frosted Card Making kit!!!  With a retail total of $24.95, EVERYONE was excited at a chance to win!!!  Everyone’s name was put into the pot – to have a chance at WINNING this kit and the final prize was drawn at 3:30 that day!!!

If there was any extra time throughout the day…we had a table set up in middle where anyone could stamp sentiments inside their cards, on their envelopes, etc.

*****A new, exciting part of Christmas Card Making Day this year, was the opportunity to purchase handmade cards! 

My team of consultants donated these cards, and then 100% of the proceeds went to Operation Smile!!

Here you see a few attendees taking time to look through the donated cards from my fellow teammates!  Thank you so much ladies for the card donations…and a HUGE thank you to those that purchased the cards too!!

We raised a total of $86 for the kids at Operation Smile!!!  Wahoo!!! 

Close To My Heart is partnered with Operation Smile^®, an organization that provides free, life-changing surgery that repairs smiles and reshapes lives, one child at a time. 

If you’d like to learn more about Operation Smile please CLICK HERE and know that you are welcome ANYTIME to round up or donate money on any CTMH order that you place!! 

Here are a few more displays that we had set up to create our Christmas atmosphere….

and finally…a HUGE thanks goes to our kitchen crew of the day. 

We had breakfast snacks (homemade donuts!) and the “traditional” lunch of taco soup with a variety of side dishes to compliment this treat. 

Many of us helped in the kitchen throughout the day, but Darla & Aymee were the ones that kept everything going!  We couldn't have completed this day without you two!!!  THANK YOU!!

I hope you enjoyed the quick view of what our day was like…

I ENCOURAGE you to check back here at my blog in the near future  J to see details on all TEN items we created during at our Christmas Card Making day!!!!

Blessings to you for a wonderful week!!

Krista J