Keeping Christmas {Dashing through the Snow}

I'm so excited to share my Keeping Christmas project with you today! The 25th has a way of creeping up on me, but it is always such fun to plan and prepare for Christmas. If you've been following this series, you know that this is my second year doing this and the first year of the Keeping Christmas Inspiration Blog Hop! The rest of the team has some fabulous inspiration to share with you today as well so make sure to stop by and give them some love!

 Kelly Lunceford (you are here)

Anita Madden 

Broni Holcombe (off this month)

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth 

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger

 This is one of those projects that is just delightful from beginning to end! I couldn't wait to make some of the darling Dashing Through the Snow: Sleigh Die. They are beyond adorable and I can't wait to give them as gifts this Christmas. I used the Dashing Through the Snow: Pickup Die the other day on THIS project that you can check out in case you missed it! These dies are SO fun to use!

As soon as I saw these sleigh dies, I thought how cute they would look with a sewn "Santa Sack" inside. When I was buying the fabric for THIS project, I found this "Christmas post" fabric from Riley Blake and snatched it up knowing how perfect it would work for my Santa sacks!

The sacks worked up lickety split...so much faster than a papercrafted item {shhhhhh...don't tell anyone I said that} No, but really, I could make one in about a minute and that is cutting, sewing, turning, pressing, and pinking! The fabric is cut 4 by 6 inches. I used my pinking shears for the top for a no-fuss, easy edge.

I used one of my all-time favorite Christmas stamp sets for the tags;  Santa Stationery! I did an entire Keeping Christmas post last year using this set that you can see HERE. I am hoping to do something similar this year, but I realized that I made that in June of last year and the clock is already ticking for getting it done for this year! Anyway, back to the tags. I really like that it had the same postal/delivery feel that I was creating with the project. Everything worked so well together!

I made 6 sleighs in total; 2 pink, 2 red, and 2 aqua. I decided to make some matching 3 by 3 cards to tuck inside the sleighs. I do this quite a bit when I make a gift like this. I like to be able to write a little something to the recipient and often times these get taken to school and left on a desk when the teacher/secretary/principal/aid is not around and this way they know who it is from. 

 Each card measures 3 inches by 3 inches. I used the "Santa's Official Nice list Declaration" sentiment from the Santa's Stationery set. The little holly berry is from the new Merry Mug stamp set. It was the perfect little pop of cheer on each card!

 You can see the pink sleigh ensemble in this photo. These sleighs are so incredibly easy to assemble. I got a little crazy with all of the embellishments for each sleigh. I have mentioned about a bajillion times how much I love the Christmas Craft section at Hobby Lobby. The holly berries and candy cane are all from that section.

I also couldn't resist adding a wreath to the back of the sleighs as well to highlight the sentiment. The sentiment on the sides of the sleigh as well as this one are from the Dashing Through the Snow Sentiments stamp set. Each "vehicle" die set comes with the dies that you need for the coordinating sentiments.

You can see the red sleigh ensemble here. I kept this one very traditional with the red and green. I didn't use the postal fabric in this set either. It was too much red and I really like how this plaid looks to lighten it up!

The sleighs actually are able to hold more volume than the pick up truck. My mind was turning with all of the fun Christmas possibilities. These little sacks are the perfect size for a gift card as well as some treats or gifts. I'm also thinking of making some of my traditional Holiday Handwarmers to tuck into these sleighs. 

The sleigh runners are die cut three times and glued together to create stability for the sleighs. As I mentioned earlier, they can hold a bit more volume, so you want to be sure to reinforce the runners. 

I got a little carried away, as per usual, and added some silver Nuvo drops to give the runners some added detail. These were so fun to make and I can't wait for Christmas to give these away to friends and family! Thanks for fluttering by!