Welcome! I have been working on Christmas cards for a few days. While I'm not fond of mass-producing, I knew that I really needed to just get some cards churned out, and my new Papertrey Ink O Holy Night stamp set was a great set to do this with! I kept them pretty simple, and I tried to keep them thin enough to mail easily, though the first few might not make the 1/4" slot test because of having two layers of foam tape.
Oh, yes, my counter was quite the mess! I had pulled out most of my old Christmas patterned paper pads, as well as some Bo Bunny 12 x 12 Christmas papers from last year, and I started cutting card fronts and a coordinating strip for a banner. Instead of stitching the edges on a sewing machine, I used my MFT Die-namics Blueprints 15 (for its 4-1/8" x 5-3/8" stitched rectangle), and my Die-namics Blueprints 13 (for its 4" x 5-1/4" stitched rectangle). I also used a Dynamics Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax for the banner on which I attached the sentiment panel, cut with a Spellbinders Labels set (both large and small).
The outside sentiments were mostly embossed, while the inside sentiments were mostly stamped with plain dye inks. I didn't have a dark green or red embossing powder or even a pigment ink in those colors, so I had to do a bit of finagling to get the green and red embossed inks. I stamped first in my Versamark pad, and then next onto the deep green or red ink pad, and I embossed with clear embossing powder immediately, before the ink could dry. The embossing wasn't as lofty on those as it was on the cards that had metallic embossing powder, but you can definitely feel it and see the shine. (You need to clean your stamp between each impression to keep from ruining your Versamark pad if you try this. So far I haven't noticed damage to my dye ink pads when I do this, but I do often re-ink them when I am finished.)
Next I looked for simple ways to accessorize each card, sometimes involving rhinestones for stars, little glass droplets, or metallic twine, but mostly involving a detail glue pen and fine glitter. (Yes, yes I have found glitter on my face a few times in the last week!) On the cards above, I've glittered the holly berries, the angel wings, and the stars (front to back). I love my X-Press It Fine Glue Pen for getting glue into really small areas. It's perfect for controlling where you want the glue to go--and you know how I like control! ;-)
Here is most of the stack--I think I finished nineteen cards using basically the same elements, but in different colors and with different little decorative touches. For the insides I used a strip of coordinating patterned paper at the bottom, along with the sentiment "May Blessings Be Yours This Christmas and Always" from the PTI O Holy Night stamp set. Now for the bigger challenge--getting to the Post Office. . .
Thank you for visiting today!
