Monday, November 21, 2011

I'm Baaaack (and just in time)

Well, I had a very productive time away. Got my first batch of 30 holiday cards done - YAY! The next 30 will not go this quickly, but these were made using some very old Oriental Trading window cards I've had since Missy was at that school age where I bought stuff for PTA projects and such.

I know I haven't ordered from OT in years. And I had to make a flyer for my neighborhood, so when I got out my Christmas stationery box to get paper for that flyer, I spied the window cards and told myself, either make something with these or throw them out.


Last year after the holidays, I'd moved all of my Christmas supplies to a large box, thinking that I could work on holiday cards through the year from it. HA! Great idea, very bad execution. I did not touch that box all year. Til now.

Armed with these card blanks, I pushed myself to find creative ways to decorate them with what I had. It was not easy, at first. And those star windows were not my favorites. But I forced myself to quit preconceiving and just have fun.



And in the process, I impressed myself a few times with my resourcefulness and embrace of the unconventional.
I was very afraid that using stickers and such on shiny card stock would look childish and amateurish. But, none of them look that way. Almost all of these cards are nice enough to give to anyone on my list. The cards that I'm least in love with will go to those on my list who don't really appreciate the handmade card or I'm not that close to. (That'll probably be the star cards, but even among those I do have a few faves.)

At any rate, I kept things simple and clean on purpose. My main goal was to get 30 made and under my belt. Using up so much of my black hole stash was a huge bonus. It felt so good!

4 comments:

teri said...

What beautiful cards!! I love the window style and the quilted effect!

Jennibellie said...

30? Wow, very busy. Beautiful cards! I put away things like that too, always with good intentions to use them lol nevermind. Thanks for sharing, Jennibellie x

Dianne Adams said...

Well...I'll try again. For some reason, I can't leave a comment. Anyway...love the fact that you have 30 cards done already! I always have good intentions to work on projects during the year but before you know it, the year is up and I haven't done a thing. Love the snowman cards.

Dianne Adams said...

Gee, this is the third attempt at leaving a comment! I don't think google likes me :) I'm so impressed you already have 30 cards finished and ready to go!! Love the snowman.