Christmas Card Strategy and A Muse and a Little Give-Away

As I stamped on Sunday, I realized that I needed a strategy for making over 100 Christmas cards quickly and without going insane. I decided to try to make at least two cards using each Christmas set or stamp I own...two cards that look very different. Also, I'm trying to keep them all one layer, though if a design requires layers, I'll add them.

Here are the first two cards I made using this strategy and A Muse's Snow Crystals set.

The first card uses a speckled blue-gray cardstock and Marina Mist (SU) ink. Three sizes of pearls are a serene and interesting accent for these beautiful stamps.

The second card uses a little masking and is reminiscent of nordic sweaters with its cream card base and Cherry Cobbler ink.

Which do you like best and why? Just for fun, I'll send a random commenter a package of pearls! Give-away deadline is Thursday at midnight, East Coast time.

Felt Poinsettias and a Reminder

Today's cards came out of yesterday's delightful make-out session with product.

I'm sorry. Was that too much information?

The product was a package of Hero Arts Felt Poinsettias I bought in a moment of weakness and have hoarded for several years. You don't have any fabulous unused products like that lying around, do you? Of course not. You're more sensible than I.

These felt die cuts are extremely high-quality, unlike the premade paper poinsettias I made out with first and whose end results shall remain unviewed by anyone in cyberspace or the real world. The paper poinsettias were poor quality; they looked like some small critter had nibbled their edges so the cards looked nibbled, too. When I moved on to the felt poinsettias, I managed to use practically the whole package on just two cards, which felt very efficient. (Did I just make a bad pun?)

Even better, I don't feel the need to buy more simply because the results are so lumpy and hard to mail. But they sure are pretty!

Hero Arts Felt Poinsettias come in packages of three colors (burgundy, red, and white) with two shades of green for the leaves. I layered two flowers together to get a richer, more dimensional look: the burgundy on the bottom and the red on top. The white poinsettias, of course, just got layered together.

Break out some unused product and give it some love this week!

Simplicity Tip: You can get a very similar look without the bulk of felt using a daisy punch and two shades of red card stock, a shade of green card stock, and a brad. White and cream might look lovely, too! The end result will be less textured but will carry the exact same punch for design that the felt poinsettias do. Of course if you own a die cut machine and daisy dies, you can create your own. But I don't die; I punch.

A Reminder: 52 Weeks of Mail is going strong! I hope you're sticking to your resolution of sending more snail mail. This is week seven, and I know I've sent out far more than seven cards, despite all the craziness in my life. With Christmas coming, this challenge will be LOTS easier, don't you think?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink Signature Greetings (faux handwritten sentiment) and Silent Night (verse)
paper: Papertrey white
ink: cherry cobbler (SU)
accessories: Hero Arts Felt Poinsettias, small antique gold brads, glue dots

If You're Anything Like I Am...

you probably have a lot of specialty papers lying around unused, unloved, uncut. "Oh, that's too pretty to cut!"

Hogwash.

Specialty papers are most often found in the art section of big box craft stores or in fine art supply stores. They generally come in very large sheets on tilted paper racks, although some scrapbook paper companies produce them in 12" x 12" sizes or smaller.

One thing I've learned since I started papercrafting is that specialty papers stick around a LOT longer than the latest Basic Gray collection. Art paper suppliers are less given to trends. You can buy the same velvet paper I bought ten years ago today at Hobby Lobby. Rice papers are always around, too.

So instead of hoarding specialty papers, use them to make pleated ornaments for the holidays!

It's hard to tell from my stellar photograph (not), but this is red velvet paper. In real life, it looks fabulous and feels even better. I scored it on the back to pleat so I didn't damage the pile of the velvet.

Green ornaments on trees don't show up well unless they are light green or very glittery/shiny. This is what I call rice paper (not sure it that's the real name, though). It has interesting, slightly shimmery fibers in it.

Finally, we have some silver faux-leather paper, which adds texture and shimmer to the ornament.

There are plenty of online tutorials on making these beauties, but here are a few additional tips to help you out.

1. Use a glue gun. It holds the best of any glue I tried.

2. Score the folds, then punch the edges (I used Fiskar's Threading Water edge punch), THEN fold the paper.

3. I used strips that were roughly 21"-22" long and 2" wide, which gave me lots of pleats. But this isn't a souffle recipe. Vary as needed for your own purposes.

4. The snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch, and the scalloped circle is from Marvy.

5. You could use these as gift tags, too, but definitely tell people they are ornaments. You don't want these beauties ending up in the trash. Instead, make a whole set for someone as a gift. That was my plan before the Great House Sale of 2011. Now, I'll cut myself some slack and just wait until next year.

That must be the sanest decision I've made in the past two months.

A Gift-Wrap Philosophy: Part Two

As some of you may remember, I love the traditional colors of Christmas but sometimes feel the need to break out and try something different, something rad, something rebellious, something edgy.

Yeah, I'm such a bad girl.

*snort*

One thing I love about my new Gift-Wrap Philosophy is just how flexible it is, allowing for lots of variety in styles and colors. For those of you who tolerate mass-production well and can't stand non-traditional colors for Christmas, today's post may not be of much value, but for those of you who, like me, would rather bleed from your eyeballs than mass-produce, well, here's a fun way to put some variety into your Christmas packaging!

Tropical fruit-slice snowflake stamps and sentiment from Hero Arts

Note how the sentiment makes excuses for the tropical colors. And the bling makes this so sparkly and pretty!

Retro colors of Brilliance inks and Hero Arts Stamps

I love aqua and orange and make at least one card with them every Christmas. The Brilliance inks are shimmery and I added a spot of Stickles in the center of each snowflake to kick it up a notch. This is a less expensive option than rhinestones, but remember if you're sending packages to the troops overseas...no glitter allowed!

Stamp by PTI.

Memento's gray ink makes me swoon and fills me with joy. Paired with this shiny silver and shimmery white ribbon, it's a stunner. Who knew gray could be so fabulous! BTW, adding a bit of bling to the center of each snowflake would be even more fabulous.

Stamps by PTI. Orange baker's twine.

Using quintessential Christmas icons in totally fun colors keeps the theme clear while allowing for rebellious color choices.

Stamps by PTI. Glitter by Doodlebug.

Finally, blue isn't exactly a non-traditional color, but it is pretty. Very pretty!
And that's it for Christmas tags this year. I'm considering making angel cookies to give to neighbors this year, and if that happens, I'll share that packaging as well. Otherwise, it's time to get cracking on Christmas cards because oh holy sugar plums, I've only got about 30 and need 130.

It's time like this when Clean-and-Simple Design is sooooo my friend!

How many holiday cards have you made? How many do you need?

A Gift-Wrap Philosophy: Part One

Simplicity takes a lot of work. Stripping something down to its essentials, making the essentials look interesting and pretty, and getting a design's balance just right take time, patience, and perseverance.

Sometimes, however, the design gods hand you an idea so simple and quick that you wonder what the heck took you so long to figure it out.

After years of fretting over gift wrap, I've hit upon a minimalist philosophy so simple and so perfect that I'm sure I can't be the first to hit upon it.

The philosophy can best be summed up by the equation T + R + WP = FABULOUS, where T is a simple, colorful tag, R is coordinating ribbon, and WP is white paper.

Papertrey Mendhi Medallion, Hero Arts sentiment

The first sample is a tag I made months ago and shared already, but I combined it with a red ribbon edged in gold...one I bought to use years ago and never did.

Papertrey Holiday Treats

This tag shows how those nugget label stamps can be used as borders on small tags. For this tag, I'll write the name of the recipient on the front, rather than the back. In brown ink to match the gingerbread man!




Hero Arts

Rick-rack or other interesting trim can add interest to a super-simple tag.

Papertrey Holly Jolly

For someone special, add bling to the tag. Yes, it will end up in the trash, but seriously, it's Christmas. That green satin ribbon is so soft and rich-feeling, it just demanded a blinged-up tag.

Papertrey Sign Language

Tags can be any shape or size you want. Here, I took left-over strips of cardstock and turned them into long, narrow tags using simple images and bling. The white ribbon with its red stitching was the perfect accompaniment!

What are the advantages of this philosophy? Well, let's count them.

1. You only ever need to buy white wrapping paper, although if you want some variety, kraft wrapping paper will work well, too.

2. You can express your creativity through the tag, getting as fancy or as personalized as you want. Plus, you can use odd scraps of cardstock for your tags.

3. Christmas tags can double as ornaments, too!

4. You can use up that massive stash of ribbon you have sitting there, being hoarded. Or you can buy spools of ribbon when they are discounted and let the ribbon inspire your tags.

5. No more searching for baby wrapping paper or kid birthday wrap or Mother's Day wrap or graduation wrap at the last minute. All you have to do is make sure you have stamps for every occasion, which, let's face it, is HUGELY more fun.

6. If you keep a stash of white gift bags in assorted sizes and tissue paper (either white or assorted color packs as you prefer), the ribbons and tags work equally well for awkwardly-sized or hard-to-wrap gifts.

7. This style of gift wrap lends itself to additional embellishment if time and inclination allow. Adding pine-cones, jingle bells, sprigs of holly or picks of artificial fruit, foliage, berries, etc., to Christmas packages, party favors to birthday gifts, and such work well. But only if you want to embellish.

What are the disadvantages of this philosophy? Well, there's only one I can think of, and that's finding good white wrapping paper that is opaque enough. Perhaps one of you has a suggestion, but the the white at HL and M's can be seen through, so when necessary, I've started wrapping a strip of it around the gift box first, then wrapping the gift.

But I'd much rather have truly opaque white paper to wrap gifts.

What do you think of this Clean and Simple Gift-Wrap Philosophy?

Happy Thanksgiving and a Super-Simple Christmas Tag Tutorial

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers. Today is one of my favorite days of the year and I wish the spirit of gratitude and appreciation for blessings we feel today would live as strongly all year long. I'm so grateful to each and every one of you who takes the time to read my maunderings and special thanks to those of you who comment, either here on the site or in emails. Y'all keep me going.

For today, I wanted to share a super-simple tutorial for making a large number of small tags quickly. As I say every year, our family likes to acknowledge all the many people who help with our children...the aides, therapists, special education teachers, regular teachers, and others. When you have a child with special needs, you cannot raise them alone...all these professionals make a HUGE difference in your child's life.

Grateful doesn't begin to cover it.

The sheer numbers of these special people in our lives are overwhelming at the holidays, especially this year when our personal lives are so chaotic with the house sale. In years past, I've made card sets for them, but this year, I knew that would not be do-able. The kids enjoy making these sugar plums every year, so I decided we'd just acknowledge each special person with a sugar plum this Christmas and then do something extra-special at the end of the year, when we will be moved and have more time.

Our sugar plums this year will have white candy coating; red, white, and green sprinkles; and white candy sticks (rather than craft sticks shown on the Family Fun website). Over the years, I discovered that tying curly ribbon or such around about a hundred sugar plums is BORING, so last year, I used red pipe cleaners cut to size with a single jingle bell threaded onto them. (Pictures of ours this year will be forthcoming....)

I've never attached tags to the sugar plums before. We've always just handed them out to the boys' friends and to neighbors. But for the teachers and therapists, I wanted to have a simple tag to attach to the pipe cleaner. The boys can put their names on the backs of the tags for a bit of personalization.

These stickers, found on sale at Michael's a few weeks ago, are the perfect adornment for my mass-produced tags. They even already have a little spot of bling! Y'all know I hardly ever use stickers or other prepared embellishments on my projects, but these seemed too cute to pass up.

I used my tag punch to make 24 tags out of Papertrey Ink's stamper's select white cardstock (nice and thick).

After afixing the stickers to each tag, I used a 1/8" hole punch and craft floss to finish the tags.

Here's the finished product. So easy, so cute, so FAST. The pipe cleaner can be threaded through the floss loops for easy assembly when the sugar plums are packaged.

The lesson of today's tutorial is that if you use the right products, mass production of simple tags can be incredibly easy and so fast that it hardly gets boring at all.

She's Back!

What a relief! The house is ready (mostly), the sign is up, and now we just have to wait for someone to buy it. We still have some work to do, but the urgency is past. That means crafting time!

Of course, it's hard to find anything in my craft room. It's "staged," which translates as rearranged for attractiveness and the appearance of spaciousness. It is not arranged for crafting convenience. See.

The room looks huge compared to its pre-staging arrangement, especially when the chair is lowered and pushed under the table. I took out my second table, so my paper trimmer is propped under the desk and my scor-pal is on the desk.

It looks fabulous, but because stuff got stuffed wherever I could stuff it, I'm having a hard time finding some, uh, stuff.

That's not getting in my way, though.

We'll start my return to Simplicity with photos of the mustard seed ornament.

The base is gold shimmer paper given to me by kind reader Lisa. That paper made about 50 ornaments, and I used assorted other colors of shimmer card stock for the remaining 50.

The star is from Silent Night and the sentiment is from Everyday Blessings, both by Papertrey Ink. The ink is Ancient Page Saffron, which ended up being a perfect match for the shimmer paper. The center of the star features a single mustard seed.

The back isn't fancy. I printed these on the computer. An easy tip for doing this in Word is to create a text box with a border. Put your text in, format and size the box to as needed, and copy it to fill the page. After you print, cut just inside the lines of the text box, and you've got the perfect size!

The finished size of my ornaments is 4.25" x 3".

I've not sent many cards in the past two weeks. Can't let all those Thanksgiving/Gratitude Challenge cards go to waste, so I'll be filling them out tomorrow and mailing them Friday. Better late than never.

In closing, I want to thank Janet R. and Nicole P. for sending me cards. The cards, emails, and comments y'all have sent my way these past two weeks have really helped me during the craziness. Thank you ALL, and have a very happy Thanksgiving!