Christmas 2021 - A Whole New Approach

Hi Everyone!  Hey, look at me getting the 2021 Christmas blog post out well in advance of the holiday!  Wow, who am I?  Well, its still me, but I'm fully retired now.  No more part time at Costco.  All done!  Catching up on my sleep still, but man, it is super nice to know I've got all the time in the world.  

The craft cave is my happy place, even more so in the times of Covid.  It was July when I started these.  I couldn't bring myself to go through my stash and plan a pile of cards like I normally would.  Covid and Costco wore me down. And, let's be honest, the stash is LARGE.  Overwhelming, is a good word.  I was thumbing through my papers, because that relaxes me but giving the stink-eye to everything else.  

I found a few sheets from Photo Play Paper's Christmas Cheer collection.  I didn't have all the designs, just a few, but the Internet never disappoints, right?  A quick search and boom! Two collection packs as well as an ephemera pack were on the way.  

This is NOT like me AT ALL.  Limiting my color pallet, using stickers?  Who am I?  But, I have to admit, it was kind of fun.  In the end I did fish out a couple of stamps and a die cut or two from the aforementioned overwhelming stash. I used some paper twine to embellish here and there, but that was it.  Every card is the same size and uses a cream colored base.  I added in some red and green card stock for a little more color pop, and at the very end, judiciously dabbed glitter glue here and there to bring up the sparkle.  

A total of 41 cards were made from just these 2 packs plus 1 ephemera pack.  Sure, sure you can look on their website and get ideas for how they put cards together, but what fun is that?  Me, I just entered the flow and kept going.  

Some of these are odd, no doubt about it.  There were a LOT of clothing items in the sticker packs, hats, mittens, coats, boots, skates.  Too many, really.  I managed to make a wreath of hats and mittens on one card, using up all of those real fast, and used one coat and boots on another.  After the 41st card (the one with three pairs of skates) was finished, coats and boots are the majority of what is left on the craft room floor.  Still, it was fun, and I was humming "Its the most wonderful time of the year" for hours while the magic happened.  

Without further ado, here they are, 5 and 6 to an image, so you'll have to click to embiggen to get a good look.  No two are exactly alike.  

Christmas 2020

Ok - Better late than never!  It's Valentine's Day and I'm finally posting about last Christmas' cards.  It's been kind of hard.  Between the insanity that is our national political scene and the pandemic, I guess I'm a little out of focus.  Ah welll...

This first one was inspired by what I see in the stores lately.  It seems the greeting card companies are going out of their way to make store bought cards look hand made.  They have lots of die cuts on them and a greeting, but somehow they never seem to lose that massed produced look.  This card is composed completely of die cuts.  The little gingerbread people and candy in the window box got stamped and embossed and then die cut, but that is the only stamping and inking in this entire card.  It was not much fun to put together, I must say.  The dies are for the most part very intricate, and a lot of picking went into getting that snowflake background free of it's moorings once it was cut.  Likewise all the ferns and leaves in the window box.  I'm thrilled with the results, but it just wasn't any fun.  I made 8 of them.  That's it.  I think it looks better than anything you can find in a store, and I guess that's what I set out to prove with this one, so, I win!  :)

Apparently the window box full of Christmas Cheer was a theme.  That's what this one reminded me of when I got it all together.  I was using up some scraps of things so there were only 2 or 3 of these made.

This card was probably started 6-7 years ago when Washi Tape really hit the paper crafting scene.  Some of the strips on the card are washi tape attached to white card stock and then fussy cut out to have a border, and some are stamped images of ribbon, fussy cut out with the same kind of border.  I had a habit of not wanting to throw out scraps, so when I had a pile of white, I stamped it or taped it and made these strips, thinking one day I'll use them in a card.  And here it is!  I amassed a pile of the little strips and laid them down to make the background.  An easy way to turn cardstock that's not Christmas themed into something that is. 

The Bee themed card has become a staple in my repertoire.  Although, I did not actually keep bees this past year.  Its a) expensive to keep buying bees and b) heartbreaking when they don't survive the winter so I took a break.  I left the hives up in the hope of enticing a wild swarm, but got nothing.  I'm not really thinking I'll be a bee keeper again any time soon, but you never know.  I will keep up with the Bee themed cards because its fun and unusual, and I've amassed a LOT of bee things in the craft cave.  So, with that said, here is BEE MERRY for 2020.

Another theme I do just about every Christmas is a the Sugar Plum Fairy.  I don't know why I love her so, but she gets me and I like making them so here is the 2020 version of the card.  I think only Andrea Sitzman has a full collection of them all, if she keeps them that is.  For some reason, I send her family one every year I make them.  Now, I don't expect people who get my cards to cherish them for posterity.  If you toss them when the season is over, I am not offended.  I made them for selfish reasons and send them to you all to make room for more.  I have this blog to archive all the designs over the years.  So it's all good.  

Last but not least is the Santa card.  I like Santa.  Who doesn't?  I think one year I combined the Santa card with the Bee card and it said Bee Jolly.  There are no rules.  Again, using up some scraps cutting those zig-zags by hand, made for a fun background.  I believe on some of the cards I had Santa Claus, but the Claus kept falling off.  Santa was stamped and embossed to a shiny red finish before being fussy cut.  It's not always easy to get something to stick to that shiny surface. 

 As I noted earlier, it's Valentine's Day.  There are a couple of Christmas cards in the shoebox of happiness for 2021, but not enough by any stretch of the imagination.  I don't feel like making them.  I have some ideas laid out, but they are not speaking to me just yet.  I did make 10 Valentines, but will save them for 2022.  When the pandemic hit last year, it was closer to St Patrick's Day, so I made a pile of those.  I'll send those out in March, and save the Valentine's for next year when I will probably skip St Paddy's.  

One thing I am still making are Halloween Cards.  I did the Halloween post on time last year and haven't stopped churning them out.  So it's highly likely that Halloween 2021 will be the big card submission for this year.  I may skip Christmas cards entirely in 2021, we'll see.  July may come around and I'll get out the tinsel and glitter and see what happens.  Who am I kidding?  There will be no glitter.  Especially not in the heat of summer.  Ick.  

Best and Kind regards to you all - 

A.