Wednesday, November 18, 2009

12 Cards of Christmas - Card 1

It's time again for my 12 cards of Christmas! This is my third year doing this, and this will be the 50th Christmas card on this blog... wow, that's a lot of yuletide joy!
This year, many of the 12 are Stamp-a-Stack cards, which means they are simple designs that are easy to mass-produce. I've been running Christmas Stamp-a-Stacks since July, so lots of my ladies are totally organised now, and have all their Christmas cards made. Not me, however! I always feel like I have to come up with something totally fresh and new for my own Chrissy cards. This year's design is going to be really clean and simple (emphasis on the SIMPLE!).

At my classes I often do one design in traditional Christmas colours, and use non-traditional colours for the other design. Here I've used the Tree Trimmings set from the Spring Mini Catalogue (a bargain at $24.95, and only available until the end of this month) Very much non-traditional colours here: Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Kiwi Kiss! I really like these colours together.
For two of these cards, I have hand-drawn the string, using a Basic Grey marker (not as stark as black) and a ruler, and for the other one, I used the 'string' stamp in the set. The swirls are from Baroque Motifs, and the 'Season's Greetings' is from Many Merry Messages. It's a Christmas greeting set that I have used to death. It has handy Christmas greetings that can be used both for the front of cards, and for a verse inside as well. I've found it to be a very worthwhile investment.
The other greeting "a very Merry Christmas to you" has been very handy too. It's from "Best Yet" Level 1 Hostess set, and it fits beautifully inside the Large Oval punch. I couldn't decide what colour to stamp it in, so I used 3! I used my markers, and coloured the two ends first (Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red) and then the middle part in Elegant Eggplant. It's always a good idea to colour with the darkest colour last so you don't contaminate your markers.

I'll be back again with Card 2 tomorrow!

Materials (all Stampin' Up!)
stamps: Tree trimmings, Many Merry Messages, Baroque Motifs, Best Yet
ink: Elegant Eggplant, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White Craft
card: Elegant Eggplant, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Whisper White
other: Wide oval, Scallop Oval, Large Oval, Designer Label, Basic Grey marker, Pumpkin Pie marker, Rose Red marker, Elegant Eggplant marker

4 comments:

  1. These are beautiful - yes I too now have the problem of making something completely different for our family cards this year - something no-one has seen yet ... looking forward to the next 11 cards - hoping to find some inspiration :o)

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  2. Mornin' Marelle - just checkin in for the day! lol

    Absolutely LOVE this lot of chrissie cards...........I think you will definitely be helping me out with getting mine made! I'm in a bit of a creative funk at the moment.........I think making all those boxes really took it out of me! roflol

    Have a great day......and remember to have that quiet cuppa!

    Luv Karen
    x

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  3. Gorgeous cards, Marelle,
    I would never have put those colours together, especially not for Christmas cards, but I will have to give it a go.
    Thank you for the inspiration,
    Chris

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  4. Love them Marelle! TFS!

    ReplyDelete

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