Holiday Photo Card Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the Holiday Photo Card Blog Hop hosted by Darlene from LiveLoveCards! I’m SO excited to share this post with you! Thanks so much for having me in your line up, Darlene! I’m thrilled to be part of the hop. 

This hop is about holiday and Christmas cards that incorporate a personal photo. Darlene from LiveLoveCards creates one each year and this time, she thought to make a hop out of it! How fun is that? I love the idea. Make sure you hop around to all of the blogs featured in the link list at the bottom of this post. You will find lots of inspiration for your own Christmas cards! 

Here is what I came up with: 

I had a hard time choosing a photo for the card. I had so much ideas and photos. I first wanted to use a Christmas photo of my cats with a santa hat. But I then came up with the idea to use a photo of my Christmas cookies! I decided to combine this photo with a fabulous clear stamp set from Lawn Fawn called Baked with Love. It matches so perfectly! I first printed my photo with a white frame (it looks like it was matted on a white cardstock). I created a top-folded card base from white cardstock. I glued red gingham paper to the background and fixed my framed photo on top. I only placed glue on the center. If the edges are free, it gives more dimension to the layout. I squeezed the photo and the patterned paper with a stapler tool from Tim Holtz to add interest. Next, I colored the images from the Baked with Love set with Copic markers and fussy cut them with scissors. I fixed them to the background with foam pads. I die cut the Simon Says Stamp Merry Christmas die from black cardstock and fixed it to the background with Multi Medium Matte glue. The "wishes" sentiment and the star cookie are from the Lawn Fawn Sprinkled with Joy set.

I’ll send this card to a US friend with the recipe included. So I decided to share this with you too to celebrate this blog hop. I wrote and printed the recipe of these traditional Swiss Christmas cookies and will insert it into the card. I hope my friend will like it! Here is the recipe of these cookies called Mailänderli for you (click to the image to enlarge the recipe): 

  

If you like cookies, you should give it a try! They are so easy to make! I hope you like this "out-of-the box" holiday photo card using a picture of my cookies instead of my family LOL! Maybe you'll send your favorite recipes to your friends too?

***HOP PRIZES***

There are 9 amazing prizes to win thanks to our fabulous sponsors: 

Two yearly subscriptions to LiveLoveCards.com

$25 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp

$25 gift certificate to Ellen Hutson

$30 gift certificate to Altenew

MISTI (or mini MISTI!) from My Sweet Petunia

$25 gift certificate to Paper Smooches

$25 gift certificate to Lawn Fawn

$25 gift certificate to My Favorite Things

Winners will be selected at random from the comments left on each blog hop stop.  Be sure to leave a comment on each stop to increase your chances to win!  Leave your comments by Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 11:59pm CT.  The winners will be announced on LiveLoveCards on Wednesday, November 23rd, just in time for Black Friday. 

Here is the list of all the hop participants:

LiveLoveCards

Simon Says Stamp

Caly Person

My Sweet Petunia

Ellen Hutson

Kelly Griglione

Altenew

Cassie Tezak

Paper Smooches

Francine Vuillème << you are here

Catherine Bowen

Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me!

♥ Francine