Christmas Card Recap, Part Two

So, continuing on a theme, I have more Christmas cards today. You were all so great to hang with me and my last (bad photo) photo-heavy post, and I hope you have the strength to do it again.

Getting on with it--

I made this-

Playing around with some older dies here. My favorite part of this one is the embossed stamping on the ornament die cut. Can you make out the cabin in the background? Kinda tough to see, really (I had to point it out to Charlie, who had it in his hands), but I love it. The rest of the card is okay. This was definitely an early trial...

Next--

Okay, so this is the stamp that the cabin came from. Can you see it on the other card now? Anyway, TONS of fun sponging this guy, and the inside is even better--

I just LOVE this for some reason. Maybe the red lettering?

Anyway, I liked it so much, I made these--

I really liked these.

So, in a totally different vein, I decided to try some water coloring techniques, and I came up with these--

I love pink at Christmas, especially with gold. These were fun, but I am slow with them. They need LOTS of drying time!

The next few were fun, fast, and easily reproduced.

 I like the two different red papers used to make these deer.

I mish-mashed up all kinds of things on these, but I really love Julie Ebersole's Christmas sets from Ellen Hutson, and cutting the sentiments into little pieces like that made me smile. And, foil paper, because shiny.

Moving along, I liked this one where I played around with repetitive stamping--

And, to literally wrap this up, these two, that were inspired by a Kristina Werner card from a few years ago--

I thought they were kind of silly, really, but my champion Charlie loved them, so...

ANYWAY--

Okay, I was going to do one more post with the last couple of cards, but I'm just going to add them.

These are the Hanukkah cards--

 I love white pigment ink on dark card stock!

Home, community, world religions, candles, winter parties...Get it?

Next year, I will need at least six Hanukkah cards, so my designs will have to expand greatly. I have just a few stamps for this, so creativity will be key!

AND FINALLY--

The thank you cards looked like this--

I love this Winter Wishes stamp set from Stampin' Up! The sentiment is from Another Thank You, also SU.

Okay, so, again, so sorry for the lousy photos; its what I get for waiting until the VERY last second to take pics. Some cards weren't worth showing here, which is sucky for me, because the cards themselves were pretty nice.
Oh, well, there's always next year...

And, hopefully, I'll post before then!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Death by Red

Well, not my death, though you'd have been wondering; it's been so long since I ventured into Blogland.

I don't blame you for wondering.

Well, Christmas came and went, and so did the cards and things that come with it. I made  record (for me) 80+ cards this year! Some of them were pretty darn good; I was happy, overall.

HOWEVER--


I realized at the LAST possible moment before needing to mail everything that I hadn't photographed ANY cards!
I really like to have a record of them all, even if I don't blog about them. It is really nice to see creative progress, as well as maybe revisiting an old idea that you think you can make better, or even just make MORE of.
Anyway...I grabbed my camera, and hunted for a spot in our new home to take some photos.
Yeah.
That.
Well, long story short, I ended up with a corner with weird lighting and a RED tablecloth as a background.
BAD IDEA. So bad...For whatever, reason, the red background really messed up everything, from focus to saturation...weird and terrible.

Anyway, I have a few cards to share, and away we go.
I made these--

This card was based on an idea I saw somewhere online, and I apologize for not remembering the source. Maybe Kristina Werner? I always like red on white, not just for Christmas, so this little group of every tiny Christmas stamp I own was lots of fun to make. I made a small bunch of these.

This idea actually came out of this card (or is it the other way round?)

I like the glow effect from sponging over the images a bit. And glitter pen is always nice, too!

I made a BIG group of cards I could sort of pump out quickly. They looked like this--

A close-up--

And the one I salvaged after smearing the heck out of the bottom of it--

Not a bad save, right?

Another small group of cards, using Lawn Fawn and Wplus9 stamps and dies with some Tim Holtz dies--

I love that green stripe paper, and adding that small bit of ink blending behind the sentiment (Papertrey Ink) piece really gives that simple oval some real presence. I just LOVE those greenery dies.

And, finally (for now)--

ARGH! BLURRY!!!

MORE blur--

I absolutely love this idea, using a die cut popped up in the middle of a sentiment. I think these some of my favorites. I am sad I don't have a good close-up of these, but you can get a good idea from the group photo.

I will be back soon with more, I promise!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday, whatever wonderful means to you during that time!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard