Christmas Cards, 2011 edition

I haven't been all that crafty or creative as of late, in part due to the craziness that is the new job and grad school. Last years family-imposed hand/home-made gifts was a huge motivation for crafting - I think I need to impose that on myself again in the future, simply to make my self do something creative on a regular basis! I really enjoyed making Christmas cards last year and decided to give it a whirl again this year.

I had already decided to do something in a tree-theme with some green origami paper and several stamps I'd bought through Paper Source - this store is one of my favorite sources of stamps, papers, funky gifts, their catalog is full of beautiful and colorful pictures. Further inspiration came as I flipped through a recent Paper Source catalog.

some trees and
some papersource catalog pictures

There was no shortage of fun images and seasonal sayings that made it onto the cards - gnomes, gingerbread men, wrapped-packages, wreaths, and more.  I used foam sticky tabs on parts to give a little depth; 3-D is all the rage these days, afterall.

action shot.
(clearly indicated by the scissors at the bottom)

The new stamps made an appearance, too, as did a snowflake paper punch that I picked up sometime in the last few years.

new stamps!

snowflake paper punch

I didn't make nearly as many as I planned, but a couple of dozen (a few were post-photo additions) was enough to make me feel like I'd done something creative!!

gingerbread men, elves, gnomes
and ugly sweaters

pine forests, wreaths, and
packages, tied up in string

Hopefully I'll get an earlier start next year and make enough for everyone. The nice thing is that I was able to use several cards stockpiled from Christmas' past to balance the cards I wanted to send. Apologies if you got a generic card - I promise you'll get a homemade one next year!

Happy Holidays to all!