The Constant Scrapper

If I'm not scrapbooking I'm thinking about scrapbooking!

Cards

I made it + I mailed it

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I really don’t make cards often enough!

I think I usually have so many scrapbook layouts planned in my head that I don’t pause from those often enough to whip up something different. Honestly, I’m also intimidated by the small size of cards compared to my usual 12 x 12 layouts. There’s very little real estate to work with, so I feel that every detail has to be right to make it work.

But I really need to change that because this was fun!

I stepped out of my comfort zone to make this card so that I could participate in Lisa Spangler’s “Make-It + Mail-It” challenge. I mailed it off to an old friend of mine who gets my corny side and will appreciate my silly pun. 🙂

OrangeUSweet_Daquila-Pardo

My card for Lisa Spangler's "Make-It + Mail-It" challenge

Thanks, Lisa, for motivating me to make a friend a card. Orange u sweet!

Oh Christmas card, oh Christmas card!

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I remember reading once that uber-organized crafter, Becky Higgins, designs and creates her Christmas cards in July. Then in December she just adds the family photo and they’re done. Wow. I would love to be able to get my cards ready that far in advance, but honestly I just can’t get into it in July. But every summer since reading that idea I think to myself, “I should design this year’s Christmas card now so I’m ahead of the game.” But who am I kidding?

I’m pretty slow at crafting, so when I announced last weekend that it was time to start my Christmas card-making project, Matt moaned. He’s been through this with me too many times to look forward to it! He suggested, “Can’t you just buy cards to send, like normal people do?” To which I proudly replied, “I’m not normal. I’m a crafter!” And I immediately began tearing my hair out over my design.

The right Christmas card design is not easy to conjure. In my opinion it should include the following characteristics, if at all possible (which is why it’s such a tall order for a scrapper who seldom makes cards, like me):

  1. It should use a good cross section of your many Christmas scrap supplies (so you feel justified in buying them all!).
  2. It should be relatively flat so that it’s easy to mail and doesn’t require extra postage.
  3. It should sparkle like the season.
  4. It should come across as heartfelt and cozy.
  5. It should be complicated enough to impress your receivers without being so complicated that replicating it in numbers is painful.
  6. It should make you feel proud to sign it.

So with my list of prerequisites in mind, here is this year’s effort. I went for a vintage/shabby look, combining the subtle distressing in the design of the patterned paper and the old-fashioned Santa image. The supplies I used include glitter patterned paper from the Oh Christmas Tree collection by My Mind’s Eye, stamps from the Classic Holiday set by Inkadinkado and a Martha Stewart edge punch.

Our 2010 Christmas card

Our 2010 Christmas card