Sunday, October 18, 2009

An Unusual Christmas Card

This card is a joke...literally. Can you figure it out?



Look at the letters. There are 25. Which one is missing?

There's NO __! Say it out loud. Can you hear the joke? Scroll down....

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The idea for this card comes from old-fashioned printers' holiday cards. Printers set type to print alphabet sample sheets without the L and sent the sheets to other printers for Christmas. Several years ago at the Maryland Renaissance festival, I purchased a framed No L alphabet that was printed on a replica of the Guttenburg Press.

BTW, it was fascinating to see the craftsman, in period costume, print a sheet on the press. We are so spoiled with ink jet printers and laser printers and copy machines. Printing used to be hard work!

Writer/editor geeks like myself love all things typographical, so this card is destined for a writer/editor friend of mine who will TOTALLY get the joke and love it just like I do.

If you want to try your own No L alphabet, consider using your computer to design it and printing it off. As a general rule, I don't print things for my cards (a personal hang-up I don't expect anyone else to share), but it would be a great way to eliminate the tedious stamping required. Or just go find cool alphabet stickers like I did.

About the card: It's 5 x 7 to accommodate the large size of the alphabet square. The colors are old olive and pomegranite, which perfectly match the funky K & Company stickers. I had a selection of colors for most of the letters, so I tried to arrange the colors somewhat randomly. This is fun, but I'm going to try stamping instead to get all the same color and see how that works. Stamping all 25 letters might be a pain, though. I'll let you know!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: SU purely pomegranite
paper: PTI white, SU pomegranite and old olive
accessories: letter stickers (K & Co), ribbon, dimensionals

15 comments:

  1. Love it!!
    Great card that will make a great talking point.

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  2. It took me 2 minutes to figure it out. I'm a dope. But very fun and clever!

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  3. mmmmmm, you and your 'printer' friends have a weird sense of humour!! LOL!! But I do think it is funny too....maybe the communications gal at our office will get a kick out of this...I think I'll make one for her!! :-) Thanks for the inspiration. I'm not sure I'd get it anywhere else LOL!!

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  5. another fun card! i love the non.traditional christmas colors since i tend to be stuck with red and green. i always like what others do, but i struggle to use them myself. very clever and your friend will love it!! thanks again for sharing. marty ferraro

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  6. I totally appreciate this kind of have humor! Good luck with stamping all of those letters! Hope you have your samj ready!

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  7. Thanks for making me chuckle Susan! I love printing and just adore typefaces. I always consider myself fortunate to have been taught how to use an old fashioned printing press in 'the history of printing' module during my libraianship degree course. It took me ages to work out all that octo/verso stuff so that your pages get printed in the correct order... Jo x

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  8. What caught me at first was the unusual layout. But after I caught on to what you were doing here, I just thought you were weird. (just kidding, I love your sense of humour, it is off beat and fun)
    The card is clean and simple and perfect, like everything you post here.

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  9. I must be on a slow day as it took me ( wont say how long ) to get it but when I did I knew who I would send this card to straight away.
    She will find it very funny after She tell me off for getting by alphabet wrong, (shes a retired teacher).

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  10. I got it before I read your reveal. Very clever. And I like the use of the sticker letters. I have a lot of those that have never been used.

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  11. Cool beans ... I made a similar type one for a "Christmas in July" card too - not a great pic (s/be navy and silver but the silver reflected ... such is life!) but replaced the "L" with a tiny snowflake stamp. I've a few alphabet stamps so I must try, try again!

    Your Saturday card ROCKS too - TFS!

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  12. Thank you ... finally a great way to use those stickers that always seem such a good idea when you buy them but in reality never quite gel!!! (on my cards anyway...)
    Only you could make alphabet stickers look great and CAS.
    TFS
    PS must have a quirky mind - got the joke straight off ....

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  13. Very cool and very clever. The perfect card for a literary person I think, or someone who likes a puzzle.

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  14. There's not another soul who could make an alphabet card look interesting and gorgeous. What a perfect choice for the layout and the bow color. You blow my socks off EVERY day. You, using stickers? Never thought I'd see THAT day!

    I'm not confessing how long it took me to see that the "L" was indeed missing. :-(

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!