Special Christmas Cards

I needed to make some special cards for friends and fellow crafters. Here are a couple I was quite pleased with. It hasn't been easy to take good pictures in these dull weather we have been having.

First of all the card I made for my crafty friend Jo.

This card uses the beautiful Websters Pages papers and I must acknowledge the inspiration I got from Paula Whittaker's Cardcraft Creations blog (see the link to the right) to use the papers in this way. I cut out the corner designs from the Snowflakes and Feathers paper, using a scalpel - I am a nervous user of craft knives, but I did OK! I backed these corners onto the lovely warm peachy snowflake design on the reverse of the paper. I added embellishments of some distressed sheet music, a little wooden fretwork Christmas tree decoration, some articificial ivy and holly and some Prima hydrangeas with pearl centres.I finally added a stamped sentiment from a Waltzing Mouse Stamps Christmas set on another piece of the Websters sheet, cut out with a nestie.  

The next card was made for a swap between Graphicus Guild members, where those who want to take part are randomly allocated a person to swap with. This is the card I made to send.

I used a fabulous Bo Bunny snowflake paper, that was sent to me instead of another BB paper I had ordered - I couldn't complain, this paper is luscious!

I used a butterfly stamp from the new gorgeous Elusive Images Patchwork Butterfly plate, embossed in Moonglow Teal Obsidian powder onto parchment. I then added some fine transparent glitter and some little silver gems. After cutting out the butterfly I made some wire antennae, tipped with pearl beads. 

I matted the whole design onto dark blue and then silver mirri board. The sentiment is from another company whose name I have forgotten! Before stamping the sentiment, I stamped a very pale blue background with an Eluisive Image snowflake stamp, although that doesn't really show in the picture. This was cut out with a nestie, a few tiny transparent stars added and then matted onto another nestie shape cut out of teal stardust card.

I finally added some chipboard snowflakes decorated with glass glitter and teal organza ribbon. As the card was so heavy I decided to decorate a little easel to match.

I loved making these cards knowing they were going to other creative people who would appreciate the effort that had gone into them!

Christmas cards!

I must confess to having a serious aversion to making Christmas cards early in the year. What I had perhaps underestimated was that having made most of the birthday cards for my family and friends this year, there would be more people expecting a handmade card. When I worked it out I thought I needed well over 20 - and I am not a fast card maker - oh dear!!! I needed to get my ideas in order!

Anyway, in the last 10 days or so I have got my act together and made a reasonable number. I never enjoy making a batch of the same design, so I have done a bit of a mix and match. Here are three of the design types I worked out.

First of all I used the lovely Sugar Nellie limited edition Cherub stamp. One version uses the hearts in the original design in a rather pink, girly version.

The blue design uses a little Elusive Images snowflake to adapt the design slightly, with a computer generated sentiment. 

Both versions have been coloured with Coloursoft pencils and highlighted with very fine glitter.

The next designs used some warm coloured backing papers from Websters Pages, K & Co and Bo Bunny. I used various Nestie shapes and stamped a Hero Arts sentiment and edged with stamps from an Artifacts set of fir branches. I finished off with this lovely green and cream gingham ribbon - my favourite of the year and a couple of Prima hydrangeas.

Finally, I used a snowy cottage stamp from Sleek Designs. Again, I used a Nestie shape to mount it and added a computer generated sentiment, backed onto Websters Pages and Basic Grey Wassail papers. This is a simple uncluttered design, but I felt it worked nicely. 

At least I have made a good start now. I need to make some more, but hope I can reach my target and get them in the post very soon, so as not to disgrace myself completely!!!!