I knew this would happen...Christmas is sneaking up on me, and I have so many little things yet to finish. I realized last night that I should have mailed Christmas cards a week ago. Even if I get them into the mail today, I'm not sure they will arrive by Monday. Oh, well...I won't let that stop me! With the advent of email and text messaging, people don't get much 'real' mail anymore, and I want to be a person that doesn't stop sending cards (and letters) just because.
So, I need to make some cards, FAST! Lucky for me, my sister sent me a box of mostly Christmas stamps about a month ago. Great -- something new in my stamp collection to use!! She found them for a dollar each at a thrift store...some still with price tags and never used! After looking through my idea book, this is what I came up with.
I started by cutting 8.5" by 11" blue cardstock in half lengthwise, to make the card a 'top fold' style. After folding the cards in half, I used Versamark ink to stamp the large snowflake (Hampton Arts, studio 6) in the upper third of the card. I tried out several different colors of embossing powder, and decided to mix my own custom blend. I used two parts Silver Pearl by Personal Stamp Exchange, and one part each white by Jo-Ann CraftEssentials, and Pearl by Judi-Kins. The blend of finer powder (the silver) and coarse grains (white) created a happy accident...my snowflakes look 'distressed.'
I worked assembly-line fashion...after cutting and folding all of the paper, I stamped all of the snowflakes, and sprinkled them with embossing powder. When I was finished stamping, I went back and tapped off the excess embossing powder, and heat-embossed each card, one after another. I made a template from a scrap of cardstock (green in the photo) and traced the shape on the inside of each card front. Using scissors, I cut each card, to give it a shorter, rounded front. 
It's hard to stamp a greeting on dark paper, so I wanted to add a white liner inside the card. To dress it up, I decided to run it through a dry embossing folder. I just wanted the bottom 2 inches of cardstock embossed, so I inserted the cardstock only that far into the folder. I trimmed the liner to 5 1/4 " by 4", so it was a smidge smaller than the card. The result was exactly what I had in mind.
I added a greeting (Stamp City, 1999) and the cards were finished! It took me less than two hours to create 24 cards!
Well, they were almost finished. Someone once said 'Artwork isn't finished until it is signed.' A long time ago, I found a stamp with my name on it. Now, everyone who gets one of my cards knows that I took the time to make it myself.
Need to make about 30 more cards to finish up my mailing list...you can bet the next design will be a simple as this one!
Even if you aren't on my mailing list, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!
Loved the card! Thanks for sending me one!
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