Making a plan for sending cards for a year

I haven't bought a greeting card in almost 5 years! I have loved sending something made by me that means so much more. Unfortunately, like many of us, I have the challenge of getting my cards made and actually sent to the recipient in a timely manner.  Ooops, there goes another belated birthday card was said way too often this last year. So, I am prepping things ahead of time. Thanks to my sister-in-laws gift of a calender for 2012 with all the birthdays in the family on it. All I have to do is add my husband's side of the family and than I will get the envelopes all addressed and put them in order of when they need to be sent and put them in a basket with my book of stamps and pen ready.  The other side of it is actually making the cards.  So I created two cards that could be used for birthdays or any other kind of celebration that will be availalbe to make at the next Project Playground on January 29th.

I was playing around with a window card I created using the Art Philosopy cartridge which hasn't come out of my machine for any other Cricut cartridge since I got it in October. I love all the options that can be used for both scrapbooking and cardmaking.  I created this window card with Rectangle #8 and some cut out stars. There's a star adhered with foam tape on the inside that shows through the window but I made it a suprise and put the sentiment strip over it so when you open it you get this...

I added the sentiment "happy birthday" with the Classmate Alphabet stamp set but you could add any type of sentiment like "celebrate" or "congratualtions". Than I created this easy card using the November stamp of the month Cherish the Day. Although, it's no longer stamp of the month you can still get this stamp set and utilize it throughout your year.

Now, that I have a couple of masculine cards for those male birthdays coming up in the first few months of 2012; it's time to get back to the girls... I got the new catalog and am SO in love with the new paper sets! Can't wait for payday so I can get some ordered and start creating with the new stuff!