May Christmas cards: Fa la la

I’m back with my May Christmas cards, and I made it before the last day of the month. Amazing! I had an idea of what I wanted to make this month, but once I got out the stamps and started planning, of course it morphed into something else. Here is the end result:

Since it was a fairly simple design, I ended up making eleven cards (an odd number, I know, but it was ten plus my practice one). While I’m not a fan of mass producing cards, this design worked pretty well for an assembly line. I did all the stamping, die cutting, embossing, and spritzing, and then I just needed to assemble the pieces and embellish the cards.

The background of the cards is Toffee card stock (Taylored Expressions) embossed with the Pinewood Planks embossing folder (Stampin’ Up!). But before I embossed each panel I rubbed the Toffee ink pad over the raised side of the folder. The ink really helps the woodgrain texture stand out. I also spritzed each panel with Peeled Paint Distress Spritz (Ranger) to add a little shimmer. When they were dry I adhered each panel to a white card base.

For the focal image, I stamped “fa la la” from Big on Christmas (Concord & 9th) with Pear ink (Taylored Expressions) on white card stock. I die cut it with an Elongated Oval Blanket Stitched die (Pinkfresh), which was the perfect size and shape. Using foam tape I attached the ovals to the card bases.

To embellish each card I added a snippet of burlap trim and green velvet trim in the upper left corner. I used my Tiny Attacher (Tim Holtz) to staple the trims. I love the extra texture and detail from the trims and even the staple. I wanted a little pop of another color, so I added three red sequins on each card.

I didn’t take a picture, but inside the card is stamped “… la la, la la la la” and “merry Christmas.” I’m happy with how these cards turned out even though it’s completely different from what I had in mind. 

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Graduation cards

This year I have three cousins graduating from high school, so I needed to make a few graduation cards. With the exception of a sentiment set I bought not too long ago, I don’t really have any grad-specific stamps. That meant it was time to be creative!

For the first two cards, I chose a travel/adventure motif and focused on using some prints from an old pack of patterned paper from Stampin’ Up! For the card on the left I chose two Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand patterns. On one of the pieces I stamped images from the Traveler stamp set (Stampin’ Up!) using dark brown ink, cut it out with a deckle-edge die, and adhered it to an Early Espresso card base. I used a strip of the second pattern to stamp the sentiment, matted it with brown card stock, added some twine, and used foam tape to attach it to the card. I finished with a few metallic enamel dots.

For the card on the right, I didn’t stamp any images. Instead I arranged three pieces of patterned paper in a modified grid on a Sahara Sand card base. To break up the largest blue piece (which is printed with airplane schematics, though it’s hard to see in the picture), I added a small strip that looks like a city map. I stamped the sentiment on a fifth piece of patterned paper, matted it with black card stock, and added a blue card stock triangle at the upper left and lower right corners to look like photo corners. I finished the card with a light splatter of Distress Spritz in Antique Linen and a few enamel dots.

For the third card, I wanted to do something book- or reading-themed. I had the perfect stamp set from a My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts) from last year. I love this tree image, with all the books and other images worked into the leaves and branches, and I think it works well for a graduation.

I stamped the tree using Toffee ink on a panel of Toffee card stock (Taylored Expressions). I wanted to stamp the sentiment over the tree, but I had to play around a bit to figure out the best way to do that. I finally realized that embossing the sentiment gave it enough “oomph” to help it stand out. (I used VersaFine Onyx Black ink and clear embossing powder.) I did stamp the sentiment a little too far to the left, so to help the balance I added the image of the stacked books at the bottom.

I debated adding color to the tree but eventually decided I liked the neutral look. Instead I lightly splattered some Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleedproof White and added a few sequins. I rounded the corners of the Toffee panels and adhered it to a sheet of shimmery black paper. Finally I attached the whole piece to a white card base.

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April Christmas cards: Honk for the Holidays

I know we’re a few days into May, but I still need to share my April Christmas cards. (I finished making them over the weekend, but most of the work was done in April, so I’m still considering them my April cards.) This is a fun batch of cards featuring some festive geese from the Honk for the Holidays stamp set (Unity Stamps).

Aren’t they fun? I wanted this set (and the coordinating Halloween set) as soon as I saw it. I don’t buy a ton of Christmas products because I already have so much, but I didn’t have anything like this, and I’m a sucker for cute animal stamps.

Since I started making these cards at these cards at the end of the month, I didn’t have time for anything too elaborate. So I started by stamping each goose twice on white card stock and cutting them out with a stitched oval die. I did quick and easy coloring with alcohol markers and used a gel pen to add a little sparkle to each image (the Christmas lights, the star on the tree, Santa’s buttons and belt buckle, and the reindeer antlers).

I wanted to give the focal image a little more “oomph” so I matted the white ovals with scalloped black ovals. They still feel a little blah to me, though. Maybe I should have added a bit of shimmer mist or something.

For the card bases I used Toffee card stock (Taylored Expressions’s version of Kraft). I adhered a 2” x 4” piece of red patterned paper to the bottom of each card base. Above the patterned paper I repeatedly stamped a couple of the punny sentiments from the stamp set.(My favorite is “ Ho-ho-honk.”) I filled in the open spaces with a little snowflake stamp from my stash.

Using foam tape I attached each oval to a card base. I wrapped hemp twine twice around the card front (below the oval) and tied it off in a bow. Finally, I finished each card with a few gold sequins. 

I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cards, but I added a white panel stamped with “Waddling in a winter wonderland.” 

Now that I’ve finally shared my April Christmas cards, I’d better get my act together and work on my May cards so they’re not late, too!

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