We had a wonderful time hosting my side of the family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We enjoyed that everyone could be with us. And we LOVED that my parents (shown in this photo below) stayed overnight and woke up with us on Christmas morning. It was a wonderful holiday!

Well…2018 is just a couple days away now. Are you ready? We were pretty blessed in 2017: our family National Parks road trip, our Thailand/Germany trip, our health, surgeries that went great, my husband’s new job,… We are looking forward to 2018 and all that awaits.

Today I thought I’d share with you several hand-crafted Christmas cards and gifts that I received. I wish I could share them all, but I’m thinking 36 photos is already too many for one blog post.

This first one is from Betty Mueller. I love the pearls and shimmer!

And look at how she added the cute Seasonal Chums reindeer from behind on the inside.

This is the coin purse from Guatemala that she sent me with her card. It’s so pretty! I keep it in my big purse and it holds my business cards.

This card is from Susan Greer. I love that she embossed the sentiment from the retiring Snowflake Sentiments set and all the metallics she used from the Year of Cheer suite!

This fun one featuring the Star of Light set is from Marciene Ingram.

The middle star shows from the front through a “window” AND on the inside.

Marciene also gave me this adorable gift made with the Santa from the Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set and a sentiment from the retiring Merry Little Christmas Labels set at the Demonstrator 5th holiday team event.

Speaking of that event, this is the gift that I got in the gift exchange. Isn’t it incredible!? Dawn Richard made it with the Crafting Forever stamp set and the Large Letter Framelit Dies.

That evening I was also given a container of chocolate and nuts from Kim Torkelson. She decorated the container with the retiring Foil Snowflakes, the retiring Season of Glitz Mini Gift Bows and the retiring Quilted Christmas Designer Paper. Yum yum yum!

And since I’m sharing hand-crafted gifts, I just have to share Vicki Spicer’s that she gave me when she came to assist me with some projects recently. Isn’t this stocking ornament chapstick holder adorable?! She used the Labels to Love set and the retiring Quilted Christmas Designer Paper.

She made the chapstick, too!

And here is Vicki’s Christmas card.

It’s so stunning with the Bethlehem Edgelits in the Silver Foil paper.

Nora Marin’s card below blew me away when I opened it. I love how she embossed the retiring Wise Men From Afar stamp set images on the Wood Textures designer paper.

This card crafted in traditional colors from Carolyn Serviss is so precious. And the images in the Hearts Come Home stamp set are some of my favorite!

Here is another stunning card from Pat Frank. This card features the Card Front Builder Dies very well. I’m bummed that these dies are also among the list of retiring products. I’ll be sad to see them go.

This beauty made by Verla Carpenter looks so good, I could eat it. Doesn’t it look as if it is sprinkled with sugar! I love all the details she put into it. The clear and gold accents on top of that beautiful blue watercolor wash is amazing! Thank goodness that Snowflake Sentiment stamp set is not retiring. I think I need to purchase it now.

This card by Elaine Mitzel featuring the retiring Quilt Builder Framelits is the perfect example of how you can replicate a digital photo card with our Stampin’ Up! products. And it’s even better than a digital photo card, because it has texture and it was hand-made with love.

I couldn’t quite capture the beauty of this one made by Susan Campfield. She used glimmer paper with the Large Letter Framelit Dies and the Swirly Snowflakes Dies for the “Joy” so it is much more sparkly than how it looks here.

And I love how she layered her sentiment on the inside.

Anita Dickson always sends beautiful cards. And this one is no exception. I adore the Pretty Pine Thinlits peeking out in the bottom left. This Merry Patterns set is a retired stamp set now, but it was available in a promotion back in September & October.

I love how Christy Bauer made her snowflakes from the Flurry of Wishes stamp set into a string of garland and then accented them with Rhinestones that she had colored with the Night of Navy Blends Markers. This is one of my favorite stamp sets, too!

Another pretty card!…I love how Mary Spelbrink carried her colors from the wreath over to the inside of her card, too. This stamp set is retired now, but I had to share.

And oooo!!! Another star card made with the Star of Light set. Thank you JoAnn Pollock. I love these images, the color combo, and your layout.

In this Christmas card, I adore how Jeanette Harrelson shadowed the bells from the Seasonal Bells stamp set with a gold foil layer. I looks like the bells are actually moving and ringing.

This card by Tami Woolley was super fun to open up. Yay! She made me a bridge fold card with the adorable Hometown Greetings Edgelits.

Brenda Cardinal’s card is very warm and inviting with her simple black and vanilla color combo and her strong focal point image that she stamped with the retiring Merry Little Labels stamp set and punched with the Everyday Label Punch.

And this last card by Carol Tyler stamped with the retiring Feeling of Christmas stamp set was another I was super excited to receive. It’s beautiful! And I love all the shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by today to see all the creativity I had to share with you.

Just a couple notes & reminders…

• Sale-a-Bration and the new 2018 Occasions catalog debut January 3rd!
• The Holiday catalog ends January 2nd. Grab up any retiring products you may want.
• December 30th is the last day to reserve your Stamparatus Tool if you want to get it in the spring and not wait until it debuts in June.
• I finally had time to open my December Paper Pumpkin kit yesterday. My alternate project ideas will come much later than usual due to the fact that my kiddos are home for the holidays and won’t get back to school until January 2nd.
• January 2nd is the last day to sign up for any product shares you may be interested in getting, because January 3rd is the date I will be placing that large order.