Saturday, October 1, 2022

September Christmas cards: Fun with patterned paper

I know I'm a day late posting my September Christmas cards. Last month was a total blur. I ended up getting a job in an elementary school at the beginning of the month, worked two days, and got COVID. Sigh. I was out for a week, went back and felt like I was starting all over. And there were issues with the school district's payroll and HR departments getting me (and other new employees) set up so I can actually get paid. With all that and other life stuff, September felt like one big struggle. I didn't get a single blog post done -- and I had been on such a roll in August! Oh, well.

Back to the important part of this post: Christmas cards. I didn't have a lot of physical or creative energy in September, so for this batch of Christmas cards I decided to finish up a pack of 6" x 6" patterned paper that I've had for quite awhile: Christmas on Market Street from My Mind's Eye.

I had about half of the paper pad left, so I started by cutting most of the sheets into card front-sized panels and accent strips. I mixed and matched patterns and then glued the papers to card bases in a variety of coordinating colors. I used several different holiday-themed word dies for the sentiments and decorated the cards with various trims and sequins.

These types of cards are always ones that I expect to finish quickly -- and yet that's never how it works out. I hem and haw about the layout, colors, embellishments, etc. So even though these look like quick and easy cards, I spent a lot of time on them.

For this last group of cards, I used the leftover paper pieces to cut strips, squares, and trees for some different layouts. The top two cards are 6" x 6" instead of A2 size, so they will need extra postage (or hand delivery). I think my favorite cards from this whole group are the cards with the group of three trees.

Thanks so much for stopping by. It happens to be World Card Making Day today (Oct. 1), so I hope you have some time to get crafty!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering what had happened to you, as you hadn't posted your usual Christmas cards for September. Glad to hear you are ok! I'm not sure which card I like best as they are all great! I do like all the colours though, they are very "Christmassy"! I like the word dies, especially the "Peace" one! I like that style of writing.
I hope you are feeling much better after having Covid, so far I have avoided it!
Hope you got my email:-)
Hugs from Sunshine.

Anonymous said...

Hope all will go better for you now in the new month! The month's cards look great - the large sentiments are a perfect focal point. I like the "Joy" sentiment. I think all of us could use more joy in life and I think that's a card that could be appreciated by everyone this holiday season. I'm going to keep that in mind for holiday cards. I don't make many, even so, I struggle sometimes for ideas - thanks for the inspiration from your posts.
Judy

Andrea said...

Thank you, Sunshine and Judy! I always appreciate both of your thoughtful comments!