Reindeer Prancing & Dancing!

After my abysmal failure with getting 2020 Christmas cards made and sent to friends and family, other than my four children, and I was probably only successful with those, because I always make a gift pocket inside their cards to hold their Christmas checks...basically the "packaging" to hold their present.  These four cards were all one design with four different colors that I made just two days before Christmas.   

As the New Year approached and I was still in my funk, I woke one morning and was just fed up with my down mood that had persisted during all of the holidays.  I was really upset with myself and "kicking myself in the hindquarters" for not forcing myself into my craft room to make Christmas cards.  I felt that I had pushed by depressed vibes onto everyone else and not cheered them up if they needed it by getting happy mail at Christmas!  I vowed never to let another Christmas go by without me making and sending my cards, because with all my surgeries for my knees and hands in the previous three years, I had missed other Christmases as well.

In early January, I pushed myself into my craft area and gave myself a good talking to.  I made a wonderful New Year resolution.  I would stay in my craft area and make enough cards to cover family and long-time friends for Christmas 2021 (that would be around 70 cards) by the end of January; I was not allowed to make other cards; and I was not allowed to put what Christmas materials I had out away until I finished.  To help me out, my first two designs were alternative designs off the October 2020 Paper Pumpkin, "Joy to the World."

YAY! I completed my resolution, though I fudged a little on "other cards."  After I got over 3/4 of the cards finished, I had a few sympathy cards I felt I really needed to address...so I cheated a wee bit.  I spent many, many hours and literally a minimum of three weeks of January continually at my craft table getting my 70 Christmas cards finished, except for their inside design and verse.  I developed about 15 designs and made four to six of each.  This blog post is for my fourth card design, which is a take-off of an unfinished 2019 card kit from my Stampin' Up mentors, Daralee Peterson and Luci Kirschbaum.  Its design was originated by Dar, and I modified and embellished upon it, changing it to make it my own. 

The original design only had two layers and both were the same color...Very Vanilla.  I exchanged the Very Vanilla cardbase for one in a lovely, soft navy, called Blueberry Bushel, plus added additional layers in copper foil and Pretty Peacock.  I colored the stamped berries, peeking from under the foliage framing, with Copic markers to match the blueberry cardbase.  I added clear embossing and glitter to the Pretty Peacock foliage framing, and added an embossing folder design to the dashing deer.  I enlarged single layer sentiment, changed its shape to a double fishtail flag, and added a double fishtail blueberry mat layer beneath.  I moved it from a right off-center position, centering it up below the framing.  To finish, I Copic-colored rhinestones to match the color of the Pretty Peacock cardstock and added them to the four corners of the vanilla layer.  I am really pleased with all the colorful paper and embellishment additions.  It is so pretty and sparkly!  Take a peek below at my finished card:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up Products:  Cardstocks--Blueberry Bushel, Pretty Peacock, Very Vanilla; Foil--Copper; Pattern dsp--Brightly Gleaming Specialty; Stamps--Frosted Foliage, Itty Bitty Christmas; Dies--Dashing Deer (2018 Hol.), Frosted Foliage (2018 Hol.), Stitched Rectangles, Lakeside Dies (sentiment banner) (2019-20 Annual) (coor. stamp: Lilypad Lake); Rhinestones (Copic-colored).  Other:  Spellbinders Mystique Embossing Folder.  Size: 4-3/4 x 6-1/4 inches.