Thursday, April 02, 2015

Stash busting Christmas cards

 I have been working on Christmas cards for a bit now and in the process have found a little stash of supplies that have made short work of creating these cards.  It is amazing what ends up in a box when  an artist person has to make their space presentable in a hurry!!  Not exactly sure when that particular event took place but it was a boon to getting caught up on my Christmas cards for this year!!
The top three cards:  On the left - embossed ornaments.  This embossed layer was empty in the middle and I was finding it hard to find something that would work inside the space so I simply trimmed both sides off and added plaid ribbon there instead and glued all three pieces to a green layer.  I adhered it to a large white card and added a stamped layered greeting and I was done!
Middle:  This embossed layer had a greeting stamped on the front that really did not work so I turned it over and added a strip which I have trimmed from a commercial card using decorative scissors.  I sponged it a bit with green ink before I glued the greeting to the bottom of the embossed layer and trimmed the ends even with the sides.  I layered it onto a dark green cardstock leaving a small margin and glued this element to a large off white card front.  
Right:  I love this embossed tree but it really fill the space so I decided to punch JOY with my letter punch set and added a couple lengths of silver cording just above the greeting and just below the tree branches.  I used double sided tape on the back to keep them in place.  I had intended to let the green layer show through the letters but in the process of assembling the card I had a scrap of red on my desk and decided to see what it would look like behind the letters.  Excellent!!  So I glued it in place before I glued my embossed layer to the green layer which I glued to a large white card front.  
 Left:  I love the look of white on white so I layered the snowflake embossed layer to a large white card front, added the greeting which is embossed on vellum using silver embossing powder and was just sitting in my stash!!  I used double sided tape behind the words to adhere it to my embossed layer.  It still needed a bit of something - so I added a silver fabric snowflake embellishment using a large glue dot.  Done!!
Right:  I decided to use this colour printed vellum greeting on this embossed layer so I cut the right hand side into a flag end used a piece of double sided tape to glue it to my embossed layer.  I used a piece of striped gros grain ribbon cut at a diagonal to cover the edge of the greeting and down the left hand side of my layer.  I layered this piece onto red and then onto a large bright green card.  
Left:  This embossed layer features round ornaments and the left hand side was blank.  I found a piece of ribbon just the right width for that space and glued down a piece using double sided tape.  I flagged the bottom end and then layered it onto red cardstock and then onto a large green card front.  I found this perfect round greeting in my stash and adhered it with a square of 3D foam tape.  Done!!
Right:  I was able to use another strip of the same ribbon on this card.  I layered the embossed piece onto red, added my ribbon and attached both ends to the back of the layer using double sided tape.  Next, I added the whole layer to a large navy card front.  I found this greeting in my stash, trimmed it down, layered it onto green and attached it to my card using 3D foam tape.  Done!!
Making cards with a stash of found elements was wonderful.  I expect this must have been leftovers from a class so lots of the work had already been done.  
So this added another 7 to my stash!!  27+7=34!!  I cannot believe how many cards I have managed to make up in the last week or so!!

Therese