Already???

Two things about the "Already??" title above.  First: I haven't blogged since May, so you may think I'm making fun of myself with a hint of sarcasm. But that's not really the intent of the title. It's the second thing: I've begun the Christmas card marathon. Not sending them ... making them. It's only August, but I know myself too well to believe that I can start doing this after the busy-ness of fall begins. In just two short weeks, the evening trips to church will begin again so that the bell choir can start its practices. We always take a breather during the summer. Then, from what I gather, there will be more projects just around the corner at work which will likely keep me away from my humble abode more than I care to think about. The weekends are starting to fill up already. Labor Day weekend is reserved for a trip to Ohio to meet my new great-niece (grand-niece?); something I am looking forward to. October will take me away for a weekend to a high-school class reunion.  And, by the way, I've seen some pictures of my classmates, and they look like they've aged. Have I?  I'm going to bury my head in the sand on that one! Then, of course, there's Thanksgiving. I'm planning a trip to Minnesota to visit with my niece E, her husband J and their covey. I really want that to work out. It's still in the early planning stages, but I haven't been up there for four years. That's too long between the visits that I so much enjoy with them. Thankfully, they have traveled south to see us.

So anyway, this afternoon I decided I would begin a little assembly line for some cards that could be put together fairly easily.  My dining room table is going to look like a tornado hit it for a while.  First there has to be an idea. So I looked through my Christmas stamping stuff, and ran across a Penny Black stamp that I've had for a few years called "Winter Berries." I don't remember if I've used it for Christmas cards in past years, but I really like it.  I also have some Cotton White StazOn Opaque that I've been trying to figure out how to use. Since the stamp isn't a "line" stamp, I thought perhaps I could use the StazOn on black card stock for a snowy look and add a little color on top of it. My plan was to add a hint of green with Distress Ink. Well ... the best laid plans ... and all that jazz.  This one ended up NOT being an easy, assembly line type card, so it will be a one of a kind.  Here's how it went:

I stamped the Winter Berries randomly in a circular pattern to resemble a wreath (the stamp itself is just a branch of leaves and berries -- not a circle).  The photo below shows a hit of the green Distress Ink on the paper underneath the black card stock, but it wasn't showing up enough on the white StazOn.  So I tried a couple of green Copic markers, but that wasn't the look I wanted either.

I hadn't decided what I was going to do with it, but I knew I could make it work. I also knew my final product would be a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card (black base), so I put aside the coloring decision for a while and began cutting my DP and card stock for the layers. The green DP is 5 3/8" x 4 1/8"; The red is 3 1/2" x 4 1/8", and I cut the stamped image (hard to see here) down to 3 3/4" x 4".

I thought I might try Stickles in random areas to glitter it up but leave the snowy effect of the StazOn. What I hadn't thought of is that the Stickles are in a box in my attic room, and I'm too lazy to go up there and dig through everything. Then I spied my Sakura pens, and I thought, "Hey! That might look okay!"  So I tested a green and a red on a piece of black cardstock scrap, and knew I had found the solution. I had intended to add the color in a few random places, but I ended up liking the look so much that I colored the whole thing. Now only a tiny bit of the StazOn shows up, so I still don't know how I'm going to use that. I'll figure it out for another card at some point.  Anyway, here's the final product.



One down ... ?? to go.

Merry Christmas in August!!