Here are some miscellaneous card that I made for Christmas. Some of these were kits that I modified to convert them to a more "me" card, mostly to add more laying and more colors to the overall look, which in turn, englarged them as well. To start, here are a few more snowflakes, and then there's a whole group that I colored with my Copics. Its fun to look back and see what I was doing for cardmaking back in late 2011, and specifically what my Chrismtas card looked like then.
More snowflakes!
Again, more snowflakes!
A little holly for the Christmas season!
Critters from the cold visit at Christmas!
Critter #2 fresh from the ice and the cold!
Can't have Christmas without peppermints, and my gosh, their ornaments too!
This was the first year that I tried to make homemade Christmas cards for half of those to whom I usually send cards. I successfully made about 21 card, but I only posted about four of them to my blog. I will attempt to post a few more now. . .some four years later! It's interesting to look back on card I made four years ago and see changes that I have made in my cardmaking skills and designs. So, here goes!
I will call these cards my 2011 snowflake cards. There are six cards made from a card kit that I purchased from a cardmaking instructor, Angela Kelley, who used to teach at my sister's scrapbook store in Redding, California. (Just a note: my sister closed her store in May 2010. . .the economy was not kind to "Mom & Pop" stores from 2008 forward).
I took Angie's card kit, and first, I decided I wanted to enlarge them a bit and add more pattern to each by adding more layers. I added two more patterned layers to each card by adhering the bottom pattern to a larger white card base than the one provided for the cards. (In the early days of my cardmaking, I usually always used a white card base but applied a pattern to cover it fully on the front for the mat layer that was actually visible.) With the present cards, I used at least a 1/4-inch mat edge for each pattern, basically framing the original card front's design onto these two new layers. This process not only enlarged the cards, but also added more coordinating patterns and interest to each card as well.
On this card, I rotated it 90 degrees and made it a horizontal card instead of a vertical card. I mounted the sentiment oval on the lower left and added rhinestones to the upper left panel for balance.
To enlarge this card, I used the polka dot layer provided only under the top two-thirds of the card front instead of the entire card and then added a muted stripe at the bottom under the ribbon. I also added two mat layers under the sentiment and two new 1/4-inch mat layers under the new card front.
Again, to this one I only added two 1/4-inch mat layers under the card front instead of just using the white cardbase provided.
On this card, I actually cut the first layer down a bit, so that I could add a third layer of plaid and be able to have my plaid cut where I wanted it to be. (Sort of like using the same thought process cutting plaid fabric for a skirt front and a skirt back so the plaid side seams will match perfectly horizontally when sewn together.) I then added the two 1/4-inch edged mat layers under my plaid as on the other cards mentioned above.
This card only had minimal changes. . .I added the two 1/4-inch mat layers under the card front instead of just using a white cardbase.
On this final card, I trimmed down the card just a bit so that I could add my two 1/4-inch mat layers under the card front. I actually like the shortened rectangle that almost looks like a square now. To me, before it was just a little bit too wide for its height before.
Now, we have advanced a year. I remember that this year, I was determined that I would try making all my Christmas cards from my own design. This would not be so difficult to do since at that time I was only making eleven cards for my mother, mother-inlaw, my children, and my children's in-laws. I did case one card I saw in a cardmaking magazine, because I just absolute loved it, and posted it to my blog already. You'll find it posted August 14, 2011, entitled The Last of Chrismtas 2010! In case you want to take a peek, this is the link: http://chatterboxcreations-1.blogspot.com/2012/04/the-last-of-christmas-2010.html.
I found some chipboard Christmas embellishments at WalMart that year when their Christmas stock was first put on the shelves, and I will make note. . .I have never seen that WalMart has had this type of chipboard embellishment again, which I find somewhat disappointing. With these little gems, I was able to fashion eight different cards, with totally different Christmas themes. Here is a peek at three that I have never published. . .throwbacks to 2010!
This one used a variety of paper patterns. The sentiment, Believe, was die-cut from the bottom trim on the Christmas paper used for the main body of the card. I tied little bells to the bridge of the red-checked ribbon bow, and triple layered the sentiment with plain and scalloped circles using my Spellbinders dies.
This one was almost entirely the WalMart chipboard embellishments with two layers of coordinating patterned paper and two layers of satin ribbon layered on top of each other. I added the little red rhinestone to the tree's topper. I thought this card was an easy card, but pleasing when finished.
This one is my final entry from the WalMart chipboard embellishment group. With this one, I just found some Christmas papers that I thought coordinated well with the little chipboard Christmas tree. I added a sentiment with a scalloped mat layer in a color complimentary to the striped paper, and add blue grosgrain stitched ribbon to match the blue in the presents under the tree. The bow looked a little bare, so I popped on a white plastic snowflake from my Christmas embellishment stash.
My final entry on this post is a card I challenged myself to make from this particular collection of Christmas papers. I've had these papers in my stash for two years and had never felt the least inclination to use them. As a matter of fact, I had asked myself more than once why I bought them! The difficulty is that all the colors in every sheet in the collection are non-traditional Christmas colors made up of pinks, golds, yellows, blues and aquas, and a whole gaggle of non-Christmas greens. I used three different patterns from the collection and found this little felt, padded snowman's head that I thought went nicely with the paper colors. I even made the card sentiment by fussy-cutting words found on a fourth piece of the collection papers.
I thought I would post some of the Christmas cards I have made in past years that I have never posted to my blog. Some of them are cased cards with little modifications, some are cased with lots of modifications, and some are of my own design.
I remember thinking when I first started making cards that I really didn't like little A2-sized cards as they looked more like a note card and usually "nice" card were much bigger. So, if I was going to take all the time and effort to make a card, I wanted it to be viewed as a "nice" card; thus, it had to be larger. So, it seems that every time I looked at a card design, I always looked at it through that lens, and even to this day, I still find myself using that lens. I now realize that what I really are different colors, patterns, and layers, and the size doesn't always matter. Therefore, I find myself modifying a design that I actually really like, by adding layers, which often increases the size of the card as well.
I guess in introducing throwback cards, the best place to start is at the beginning. . .so with that said, the following card is one I cased just a few months after I started making cards in late 2009, and I then modified and enlarged it. I remember thinking: I'll never be able to design and come up with my own cards from scratch! It's just so difficult to pick all the right papers to coordinate with one another, and then figure out what embellishments look best! The card on the left is my cased and modified card, and the card on the right is the original card:
(cased by Carlene Prichard) (original design by Angela Kelley)
Size: 5-1/2" x 7"
You will note that I used the background paper of the original card as a smaller layer on the larger SU Chocolate Chip carstock card base. I distressed all my edge, rounded some corners, offset my sentiment label to right of center, and added a larger white satin ribbon with a brown velvet ribbon. It does give the card an entirely different look.
