christmas cards

 

For the past three weeks, I have been happily creating Christmas cards for an arts and crafts faire I attended as a vendor last Saturday. I made about 170 cards to sell...something I have never done before.

 

That, my friends, is a load of cards.

 

I have a difficult time with repetitious activities (read: I get bored easily), so I limited each design to no more than 12.

 

 

 

 

 

This was one of the Christmas designs, created for the sale, but also shared at TwoPeas for a challenge. I've often been asked if I always embellish the insides of my cards--and I don't have a solid answer. Sometimes I do, sometimes not.

 

I do think it's important to have a space inside that's appropriate for writing a personal message, so I do always enclose a white layer on the inside to make that easy to do, especially when the base card is a color that would make it difficult to write on and read.

 

Occasionally, I will carry a design element from the front to the inside, like you can see in the second photo. Nothing too fussy, just a basic image. In this case, a little repitition is a good thing and easy to accomplish. I prefer to keep all the dimensional embellishments on the front of the card for the most impact.

 

I deeply enjoy card-making, even after such an intense few weeks of productivity. One of my favorite ways to add a touch of dimension without adding much difficulty to the mailing process is the use of self-adhesived, foam "pop" dots under certain elements.  Two of the ornaments on the front of this card are attached with foam tape to give them just a little lift off the surface. I also used a thick embroidery thread to "hang them". I'm not so fond of levitating ornaments. An ornament should be hanging from something, don't ya think? :)

 

If you don't want the bulk of adding thread, like on the red card, you could easily use a white ink pen to draw the hangers.

 

 

Here's one more for the road...Christmas will be here before ya know it. For the blue card, I just used a pen and ruler to draw in the hangers.

 

All the supplies on these two cards are from Stampin' Up! The ornament shown on the red card is from the newest holiday catalog and it has a coordinating punch to make cutting out those ornaments a breeze. The stamp set is called Christmas Collectables.

 

 

 

Couting the days,

Sarah