No, they are not cheaper than buying them.
Yes, they are a lot of work.
No, they are not prettier than what you could buy.
Why do I make them? Because making them makes me remember what Christmas is all about. It is not about gifts or shopping or parties, although I enjoy all of those. Christmas to me is all about the birth of my Savior, Christ the Lord, and making and sharing my cards with those I love is a way for me to share my love of Christ. While I spend time planning, cutting, pasting, stamping, coloring, glittering, etc, etc, etc....... I think about how lucky I am to live in a country where I can share and celebrate my faith even if the day chosen to celebrate it is now filled with commercialism.
So my first step was to envision what I wanted my card to look like. I really did not want to go out and buy another new stamp because I have so many so I went through my stock and returned to one of my favorites. It is made by Stampendous and depicts the Holy Family standing gazing up at the Star of Wonder. Mary is holding the Christ Child and Joseph has his arm around Mary. I LOVE this stamp. I bought it back in 2006 and I don't believe that they carry it any longer.
I went to Joann Fabrics and bought some premade cards and envelopes by David Tutera. Then I went to a local scrapbooking store, Remember When, and found some paper that I loved.
We decided what we wanted to say on the inside of the card and Frank ran them through the computer.
Frank made a template for me
so that I would have the correct measurements for my paper. The first sheet covered the entire face of the card and then there were two more layers stacked on top of that. The last layer was made of black paper that I stamped with Versa Mark, sprinkled with gold glitter embossing powder, and used an embossing heat tool to complete the final layer. I then placed this in the center of the other sheets using 3d foam tape.
So this is one of the cards completed.
And here is another, using different paper.
I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. Do you make your own Christmas Cards?
No I don't make my own cards. I don't even send out Christmas cards anymore. I know, that is sad, isn't it? But yours are beautiful I love that stamp. And I so agree with you about the whole meaning of Christmas. !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYour plate is pretty full, Paula. Christmas cards are nice but they are a luxury not a necessity. Take good care of yourself.
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