Monday, June 15, 2009

More Christmas in June

I make approximately 200 Christmas cards each year. Roughly one hundred go to the troops overseas for their use, and I send the rest to our family and friends.

That's a lot of cards for someone who does not generally make multiples. No, I'm not obsessive; absolutely not. Um, really.

Here's how I do it. I usually pull out a set of stamps and play around with different color schemes, tools, techniques, etc., to mix things up and keep from boring myself to sleep. I may make a couple of cards with one set, or I may make a dozen cards. Very rarely, I may make three or four of the same card, but usually, each one is at least a little different from the others.

Sometimes, cards made with the same set are very different, as with these two cards using Papertrey's Snowflake Serenade set.



For the red card, I edged the stamped panel with a gold metallic pen and added gold half-beads to the dots on the Peace image. Still not sure I like this one, but it's not bad, all things considered.


The blue and white card is my favorite of these two. The colors make me happy (red just doesn't convey "peace" as well as blue does), and I love that Martha Stewart border punch. The blue gemstones are more harmonious than the gold beads in the red card because there are five of them rather than four...I really prefer odd numbers, and adding the snowflake let me add a fifth gem. They balance this card nicely.

What do you think?



9 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Susan! I love the colors on both, and the gold pearls and border punch make each one pop.

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  2. Very pretty! Wow you make 200 cards at Christmas!! Its so wonderful you send some to the troops too...I bet they LOVE getting them...I love both of them I cant pick which one I like best...Have a wonderful week! Hugs...Cookie :D

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  3. Although blue is my favorite color, I vote for the red--more CAS and traditional Christmas color. Hard to make a bad card with Papertrey stamps.

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  4. I love them both!! I've been itching to make Christmas cards these days!! You are tickling :-)

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  5. They both look so elegant. If I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be the blue one because of the color combined with the word peace.

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  6. I can't believe you make 200 cards! I make 50 and I get overwhelmed by them. Of course I do them all at the last minute at one time. I'm sure spreading them out over the year like you do makes it a lot easier to accomplish. And I'm impressed that all your cards are different.

    I like how you got two different looks with the same stamp. Although I do like the red, I agree that the blue really says "peace" more. I also like the sentiment paired with the border punch.

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  7. Lovely cards. Love the sentiments too :o)

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  8. I agree that the Peace goes better with the blue, but I still think the red card is lovely also.

    And I don't think its four gemstones are unbalanced. That card is actually very symmetric and balanced. You have the word "Peace" large and centered, with some text on the top left and the bottom right, and two gold dots on the left and two on the right. Very balanced. And beautiful.

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  9. Susan...I love them both! And I think I may need to get that set!

    Since I am not much of a "bling" user, I would have tried both without the gems. Maybe the red one needs to be without bling...the gold is scattered too much????

    I don't know, maybe I'm speaking out of ignorance. They're both beautiful.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!