Sunday, December 31, 2017

Handmade Christmas Cards Received 2017

I received several lovely cards this year, some with sparkle, some with foil, many with lovely handwritten messages inside. Three cards I received were handmade.

The first handmade card of the season was this one from my sister-in-law and family. We learned the z-fold box card in class. We had a use your holiday papers crafting day and she used that opportunity to do a bunch of stamping with the intention of making a large batch of this style of cards. She did the stamping (and the colouring, I believe), but her 11-year old son helped with the rest.
Here's another angle so you can see the dimension in this card.

The next one came from my mother-in-law. She used a paper tole kit to make this dimensional snowman scene.
The reindeer bust is a die cut. Here's a closer look at the snowman.

The last of the handmade cards to arrive was this delicate, die cut holiday wreath from a family friend.
This one has the sentiment heat embossed in white and lots of little rhinestones sprinkled throughout the wreath. Here's a closer look at that.

I appreciate ALL the cards we got over the holidays, as every one means someone was thinking of you, but I recognize the amount of effort that goes into handmade ones. I wanted to show them to you since maybe they will give you ideas for your holiday cards next year.

As we say goodbye to 2017, I hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous 2018!

Monday, December 25, 2017

Christmas Diorama Cards

Merry Christmas!

This year, I made several shadow box cards or, more properly named, diorama cards. These are little 3D scenes. The cards fold flat for mailing but pop into a box shape to display its dimension. These ones were A6 sized (6.25 x 4.5 inches when flat).

These are the first three I made.

I used a bunch of new purchases on these cards: The snow globe (by Creative Expressions), the village (by Your Next Stamp) and the snowman (by Yvonne Creations with birch trees from Lawn Fawn).

The penguin was the easiest (penguin stamp by Close to My Heart). I did stamp the snowflakes in the background. If I used patterned paper, I could have made the card faster.

I loved the snowman but it took the longest by far. It cut and embossed the bits but it was one solid colour. I coloured all the bits with my Copic markers. It was not easy to achieve definition in the snowman's body. It was also not easy to leave the thin lines in the snowman's hat. If I do that one again, I might try paper piecing the scarf and hat. The village was the most colourful, so I chose to make many more of that one.

On the next version of the village, I used Snowtex on the houses and trees. Snowtex is an opaque, bright white, textured medium. It dries hard and reminds me of popcorn ceiling plaster.


To show you the 3D nature of the card, here's the top view where you can see the 4 layers achieved with 2 benches between the front and back of the box.

You can see some of the dimension in this picture:

The last version I made for this year included my new Creative Expressions woodland creatures stamp and dies set, plus my Lawn Fawn birch trees. I made this one for my mother-in-law who likes deer. It took too long to colour the deer and trees so I only made a couple of those.

I really enjoyed making these cards this year. I will have to make some more in different themes.

I wish everyone a healthy, happy Christmas time and a prosperous new year!