White Christmas

 Feeling guilty about having so much paper, including various Christmas papers, I decided to make my own Christmas cards this year.  However, knowing that most people just toss out their old cards, this gave me pause, imagining my creations in the blue box with old flyers and cereal boxes, or being used to light a fire, or in the garbage can next to the turkey carcass.  (Just for the record, I save any handmade cards I receive!)  Most people have no idea how much time or care goes into making things yourself!

With these thoughts in mind, I concluded that my cards would need
to:
1) Be quick to make
2) Use inexpensive materials
3) Not look quick and easy

I went onto the internet looking for inspiration, and saw quite a few designs for "white on white"  cards.  What a great idea!  Not only did I have white cardstock, it saved me from the AGONY of paper selection, plus it looks classy!   Luckily I had some green cardstock for the leaves, so I didn't have to leave the house to buy any additional supplies!  (Apart from the white ribbon, once I discovered I only had enough to make 4 cards). 

The background was stamped using a Stampin' Up embossing folder.  The poinsettia and label are both from Spellbinders.  The glimmer on the poinsettia leaves is Lumiere paint (pearl white), and centres are mico beads.

Of course, I still have all that Christmas paper left.....

Calendar Considerations

For the past few years, I have been making the Basic Grey Calendars.  You may recall the concerns I had with matching the photos to the cute captions that BG supplied in the form of die cuts and chipboard stickers.  Well this year, it appears that Graphic 45 heard my teeth gnashing, and answered my prayers with a new set of papers with the calendar-preoccupied in mind.

I won't go into how nice the papers are, or what I'm going to do in regards to layouts (to be honest, I don't have a clue at this time!).  If I'm lucky, I'll be starting it in late December.  I still have to figure out some way to bind the pages together, which brings me to my next point.

Graphic 45 does have a Easle Albums for 12x12 or 8x8 layouts.  I almost bought one, until I realized SOMETHING.  The monthly foundation pages are 8x8 or 12x12, the exact same size as the easle album base pages, which includes the wire binding.  This means that you would either have to trim the foundation page borders off  to fit the papers (not going to do that!) or figure out some way to undo the binding, cut binding holes in the foundation paper, and rebind it (way too much work).   I notice that the easle albums are not shown on the G45 webside with the Place in Time papers, so maybe they didn't intend them to be used together.   I'm thinking I may just cut some kraft paper 8 1/2" x 8", and bind it myself with my Bind-it-All. 

Now I just have to decide on what photos to use....

UFO UPDATE:  The afghan is coming along nicely, but I have put it aside for now to work on Christmas cards (yes, for this year!).  I have made 16 cards so far (from kits, which should have made things quick and easy, but it didn't) and hope to make a few more with designs I have scrap-lifted from the internet.  No more kits.  Too many directions to follow.

Until next time....