Homemade Christmas Cards

Getting ready for the craft show has kept me pretty busy, but I still wanted to make my Christmas cards.  I think that it's a nice touch to make my cards each year.  I know, most people are going to e-cards, or not even doing them.  I have revamped who received cards though.  Those that send a physical card receive them.  Simple. I used to send them out to everyone I knew, but decided it wasn't worth the cost.

 

Here's one of the cards that I made.  They vary, because I used double sided paper and the pack had several different patterns.

I did the cards in steps, so here's the piles of partial pieces waiting to be assembled in my living room.  I even got Mr. Right involved in the process!

 I had the pieces that I sliced off the papers to make the back ground fit.  I made a mistake on one of the cards, and to cover up the smeared stamp, I used one of these strips to cover it up and try again.  Then I realized that I liked it better that way, so I slid the strips onto all the cards I had already made.  A little more work, but I liked them a lot better!

I made up these white cards with the Stampin' Up Hostess Stamp set "Warm & Wonder."  I earned it as a host.  I went through the stack and stamped the trees in Old Olive and then put the ornaments on in Real Red.  I put two dark trees on each card and then stamped off more trees without re-inking.  It gives the appearance of the trees being at different distances.

Inside the card, I used Old Olive to stamp the sentiment and one more tree.  I was able to put both stamps on the clear block at the same time and stamp both stamps at the same time.

Here's how I started with the card fronts, but ended up covering the Christmas Greetings with strips of the paper, and then re-stamped the Christmas Greetings.

One trick that I often use in Scrapbooking to use more of my paper and to make my albums lighter, is to cut shapes out of the background behind the picture.  I did this to get the flower behind the reindeer.  You never see it behind the tree cards.

Here's what the back side of the ribbon and background looks like.  I just used scotch tape to take the ribbon down.

I used foam adhesive to raise up the flower and reindeer stamp on the front.

Here's what the strip with the greeting stamped on it looks like.

Another finished card.  I was one short for the background (because when I was trying my first one, I used a whole sheet of back ground paper to cut a flower out), so I pieced together some of the strips to make the background.  It looks a little different, but it doesn't really matter.  I actually like the greeting on the top of this one.  Too late to change them all this year!  (Although, I did think about it!)

 

I have no affiliation to Stampin' Up, but liked their papers this year for the holidays.  The flower and 1 1/2 inch circle were cut with Creative Memories Makers (which are no longer available - sorry!)  Oh, I stamped the deer with Espresso ink.  I'm running out, so that's why they look light, that will be my next purchase, refill!

 

Let me know what you think.  I have ordered a family photo to put inside, everyone will sign the card, and then address them all, hopefully before Christmas!  Oh, and still pondering doing a Christmas newsletter.  I might just skip it this year to save time and money.  What do you do for Christmas cards?