Thursday, November 27, 2008

Playing with Christmas card designs


Traditionally I use Thanksgiving weekend to make all of my Christmas cards. This started back when I was a Stampin' Up! demo and always offered my customers a free shipping/no tax coupon for orders placed during December. I would enclose the coupon in their holiday card but I needed to get it out early enough for them to be able to take advantage of it. So, my goal was to get my cards in the mail on the Monday following Thanksgiving. This year, I don't have that time pressure on me but I am still planning on working heavily on my cards.


So, last night around 11PM I finally decided to start playing. I came up with these two. I'm not sure if either will stick. I had a totally different vision for the pink one but I didn't have the Cuttlebug die I thought I did. Or, maybe I do and I just can't find it!


I used SU Pretty in Pink cs with Palette Toile Pink ink, cutie Pink pom pom trim, my oval Nesties, Green Stripes Holiday DP from the Swell Noel line (love the colors in that!) and my new CB embossing folder. The snowflake and pink brads are just leftover from a purchase from the last Creating Keepsakes convention I went to.


I don't know if you can see it but I dotted the snowflake centers on the Cuttlebug background and the tiny snowstars on the Peace & Love tag with some Icicle Stickles.


The Peace & Love stamp is from the Jolly Christmas set. I have an idea to use the adorable little animals from that set, which I'll try to get out later today but no promises!


It's a busy day, you know? But, as busy as today is, tomorrow is going to be busier! I've got the Black Friday special going on over at the store and Paper Craft Planet is starting their Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway. We're co-sponsoring Tuesday, Day 5 so make sure to check it out! FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!


The other card I came up with is this one, which uses Christmas Silhouettes. The DP is from the Christmas Cheer collection and is called Stripe Foil. The gold is so shimmery.

The cs/ink is Bravo Burgundy and Not Quite Navy (a VERY unloved color in my collection!) from SU! They were both excellent matches for the Stripe Foil paper.

The Peace greeting comes from PTI and the ribbon is the very gold and shimmery 3/8" metallic gold.

One thing I don't think you can see in the main image is the Clear Spica on the flowers of the deer.

I went over the white parts in the deer silhouette with the Clear Spica and it makes it ever so subtle and sparkly. I love the Spicas for that subtle effect when something like Stickles or real glitter would just be overkill.

The deer image is mounted on the long rectangle Nesties. Perfect fit, don't you think?

OK, I'm off to get ready for the big Thanksgiving events. The parade has been on in the background to start off my day, but now it is time to get ready! I hope you all enjoy your day and don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the big Black
Friday special
!!

Thanks for stopping by today and Happy Thanksgiving!!



2 comments:

Tracey said...

Beautiful cards!!

Carolyn Mustopa said...

Nice! I see you decided not to gold-emboss the reindeer, huh?