Six Christmas Cards Today

 Brrrrr. There is a very cold wind blowing through Ontario and it is bitter cold, at least to me! I managed to get all my Christmas cards made and in the mail today so that’s a big ‘whew’. Joe was shocked at the cost of mailing cards now so now he understands why so many people have given it up. Which, to me, is a shame because who doesn’t like to receive a card!  This is going to be a long post so get comfortable!

 But first, the backgrounds.

                                         
    These are the backgrounds I made by dipping and moving them around in various Distress inks; drying them; dipping again: and repeat until I liked them. Water was splattered on and then dried to make those lovely white splotches - one of my favourite things to do on backgrounds. I know what you are thinking - these look like a hot mess and I’ve lost my mind. Nope, these turned out exactly like I wanted them and when you see the cards you will understand.

    I had six of these pre-printed vintage Christmas images that were a free download on the Internet. They were all in the same colour ranges - pink/red and green and a bit of blue - so the backgrounds were made to pick up those colours.  Then I just cut all the images down to size and ran a gold Bic pen along the edges....but they were all mounted differently.

Here are the cards.

 Santa One

    This one didn’t have a lot of colour on the left side so a wide strip of red, same as the card base, was added about 3/4 of an inch from the edge. That grounded the image. I punched a red circle, again, the same card stock as the card base, and die cut a gold scalloped edge circle. The red was glued to the gold and then small gold peel-offs were added to the centre of the red one.

  Bunnies

   The bunnies needed a red strip down the left side as well but this one is only about 1/2” wide. I just used the left over bits I had on hand. This time I die cut some leaves; added VersaMark ink with a VersaMark pen and then heat set them with white embossing powder. The circle with Santa on the  top left was from a page with many images in various circle sizes that matched the large rectangle images. It was die cut and the edges inked with the same Bic gold pen. A fancy vertical gold peel-off was added to the right. 

  The Little Girl

    I loved this image of the old-fashioned girl and I think this background suited her just perfectly. More die cut branches; some with embossed white for snow were added to the right top and then a gold die cut star was added. This image was mounted on a red base first and then onto the background. The fancy vertical peel-off sentiment was added along with a few peel-off gold stars and the tree.  

  Angel 

    The image was mounted on red with a very think border showing. I found that fancy green with gold flecks in the stash which came from an old Christmas card. I thought it picked up the green tree so it was added down the left side. This time I decided to die cut a long border from the same red as the card stock as the base card and added the same vertical peel-off sentiment. But it needed something else. There was a small piece of the green strip left over so I die cut both ends and added them to just stick out from under the red. Perfect.

 Santa Number 2.

 This image was mounted on red cardstock and then glued to the card on an angle…why? No reason, I just felt like it. Then I punched another red circle and die cut another gold one and added ‘25’ in gold and glued that on. The same peel-off sentiment was added to the right side along with some left over peel-off bits.

  Girl in White.

    This image was again glued to a red cardstock with a very tiny border showing and then onto silver glitter. I used a fancy holly peel-off on the top left corner that brings your eye down to the girl. The same fish-tail border was cut but this time I added white glitter to the edges to pick up the white in her coat and the glitter paper she is mounted on. This time the peel-off sentiment is silver.

  Whew! That was a long post.  Well, do you think those backgrounds I created worked well with the images? Or are they still a hot mess in your mind?

    That’s all for a cold Friday on December 9, 2022. Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend everyone and if you an extra smile, pass it on to a stranger. It may be the only smile they receive all day.

  Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds.This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.