The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Saturday, December 22, 2012

As Long as It's Festive, It's All Good

The last batch of Christmas cards I have to show you are a weirdly mixed bunch.  Some I think are just fine, and I really like them, while others are just, well, weird. 

Have you ever seen the M&Ms print ad for holiday M&Ms where they show the yellow guy and his all yellow Christmas room, and they say something like "some colors are just wrong for Christmas?"  (That is NOT the right quote, but you get the idea.)
Well, I decided I wanted to challenge that idea, since I am a big fan of non-traditional Xmas colors, and I came up with this--

Now, I actually HAD the image and the everything with the red border already made for another project that I ended up trashing.  I thought the snowguy was pretty cute, so I saved him.  Anyway, I grabbed a 4.25"x11" piece of yellow card stock, folded it in half, and then trimmed two inches off of the bottom of the front of the card, which I then border punched.  Then, to the inside, I adhered a 3" piece of red dotted paper, scalloped at the top (which doesn't show when closed),then stamped the pine cone branch-y thing (SU Lovely as a Tree), adhered the snowguy, and added the snowflakes.
 
The outcome?  Yeah....Yellow is really NOT the best choice for Xmas colors.  I think it's a nice and cheery card, but.....yeah.....
 
SO!  I grabbed my SU Loads of Love set, which is so cute, and something I like to use paper piecing on.  That truck can look so cool with the right paper!
I made this with it--
 
Now, I have the Time for a Tree stampin around wheel.  Not too much opportunity to use that one, but it's made to coordinate with this stamp set, so I used it to make my background.  I kinda need to re ink the thing, but I got lazy.  I think it looks ok.  So, I used some Old Olive DSP  to paper piece this truck.  The first stamping was done on black cs, and I stamped in Versamark and white embossed, for some good, BLACK tires!  Makes for shiny rims, too!
The tree is from the Lovely as a Tree set, and I decked it out with some pearls.  The border is done with Martha's branch punch from two different papers, which got stuck down with some help from my two-way glue pen.
This one is cute, but way too much work, I think.  Good for a family with lots of guys!
 
THEN!  One evening, I while perusing FaceBook, I ran across a post form my friend Jennifer Ingle (AKA Jingle) saying she got Martha Stewart Christmas things 70% off at Michaels, one day only!
Well, it was ten minutes to 8pm, and they closed at 10.  I live about 15 minutes away from Michaels, but you KNOW I grabbed my keys and ran out the door! 
I got some lovely washi tapes, and some snowflake stamps.  I WANTED some punches, but, alas, they were gone.  Wah.  However, I took my tapes, and I made these--
 
I used my SU Snow Much Fun set to stamp the cute snowguy, and then used inks and my aqua painter to fill him in.  My white ink is Colorbox's white pigment ink, and it has a wild look to it with the aqua painter.  Reminds me of that movie and book, The Snowman.

This one I'm not so sure of.  The bow is a great stamp from a show I went to in early December, and I cannot remember who makes it.  I stamped it in grey ink, then aqua painted it with red.  The water diluted it to a pink, but I didn't mind that so much.  I hit it with some stickles at the end to liven it up.
The sentiment is PTI.
 
So, also from the company I can't remember, I got this cool snow globe stamp.  I paired it with my Winter Penguin from PTI, and got this--
 
Cute, right?  Paper is from MME.  Somebody sells a die that does the folded flag thing I have here, but I just eyeballed it.
 
The last one was a happy accident card, that came about while I was making a little notebook to house punch templates from all my punches.  I wanted something I could hold over images and sentiments, to see if they'd fit.  I was getting quite the pile of white punch outs, so I decided to put them to work!
I came up with this--
 


 
The notebook pages were just barely off-white, so I mounted them with lots of foam adhesive onto a white piece of CS.  That's got a border of beige, and that's on an ecru cardbase.  I white embossed a small sentiment onto a tiny piece (PTI) and added some rhinestones.  I think this is pretty interesting to look at, myself.
 
SO! Those are my samples for this holiday.  I am working on a rosette banner, and if I ever finish it, I will show that to you!  I am going to take a break until after Christmas, I think, so I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday!
 
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

 

7 comments:

  1. Sigh...I just did NOT hit publish, and deleted my LONG comment! lol... I love them all, but my favorite is the YELLOW one!!! Your cards are always so happy and unique, that they are all special. Also, I want Santa to bring me a real polka dotted truck - love that! Great idea :) Thanks for sharing. Mr. Cardmaker, I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year! Hugs...

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  2. Very nice! I like the bottom one with all the punches!
    Well I like them all, but you know!
    Have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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  3. Richard....I totally LOVE how you explore so many fun and different techniques and designs!! I for one ADORE that yellow Christmas snowman! I think non-traditional colors are fun too...of course mine is usually pink! LOL Oh dang! Sometimes living on a mountain means I miss cool sales like that MS one! Looks like you scored some cute stuff though. And that white punchyoutyartsy one...that is so cool! (Yep...I make up my own words! LOL) I think it looks like a White on White Steampunk!!!

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  4. Oh for heaven's sake Richard! Your posts just leave me with my jaw on the table.
    I don't know where to begin!! I guess I'll say that I'm a complete sucker for paper-piecing and the truck was awesome! The last card left me breathless - so much detail!

    If I don't see you before then, have a wonderful Christmas!
    Hugs!

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  5. I am a new follower. Just want to say, love the truck one and the all white card, Richard. Thanks for the inspiration. Happy Holidays to you and yours.

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  6. Your cards are always so interesting and creative. I really love the last one. . .work of art actually! Wishing you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years! Best, Curt

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  7. I loved your white on white card you shared on Dec. 22. So, I naturally thought of you when I saw this challenge...



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