Whew! Once again, I'm squeezing in my monthly Christmas cards just before the end of the month. This month I almost forgot to even make them. With Easter, a week of house-sitting for a friend, a few days of being sick, trying to figure out if I should sell my cards locally, and some of the dreariest, coldest "spring" weather I can remember, it has been a wild month. But I sat down yesterday and created a batch of cards in some bright, non-traditional Christmas colors.
I started with three bold jewel tones -- Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green, and Berry Burst (Stampin' Up!) -- and decided to pair them with the Christmas Trimmings stamp set (Wplus9 Design Studio).
The size and whimsical style of the ornament images worked perfectly with the Triple Peek-a-Boo Stitched Windows die (My Favorite Things). I die-cut the windows slightly above the middle of each card base and embossed the "merry & bright" sentiment in white below the windows.
Then I adhered a layer of white card stock inside each card and stamped the ornaments through the windows. For the first card, I was worried about messing up the white panel, so I used low-tack tape to just hold the panel in place while I stamped. Then I went back and permanently glued it down after I was done stamping. But I decided that the ornaments were easy enough to stamp -- and I wanted to save a little time -- so for the rest of the cards I just adhered the white layer and then stamped.
Inside the card I stamped a sentiment, making sure it was low enough that it wouldn't show through the windows. And I still have enough space to write a little personal note.
I wanted to add a little sparkle, so I used a gel pen to trace over the accents in the middle of each ornament; I wish you could see it in the photos. I finished off the cards with a few sparkling clear sequins.
Next month I'm going on a weekend craft retreat -- for the first time in several years. I'm looking forward to it, although I have no idea what I'm going to work on. But I will try to post pictures of what I create, so maybe I'll have more than one blog post in May. :)
Thanks for stopping by!
