let the holiday season begin!

This extended weekend has been so laid back for me. I managed to do just about no homework over the break, which I suspect I shall be regretting about this time tomorrow. ;) lol. I do need to get working on a speech that I've got to give on Wednesday, but at least its already outlined!

Anyway, onto more pleasant things... As I hinted at in my previous post, I changed my Christmas card designs quite a bit. The stenciling just wasn't working, I was having enormously frustrating quality consistancy issues. So, rather than attempt to make it work, I just scrapped it and moved on. And spent about two hours trying to come up with some idea that wouldn't require new materials, take forever to do, and I wouldn't be embarrassed to send out. In the end, simplicity was the catch-phrase, as my final cards are very much inspired by the wall hangings I made recently.



Each piece of cream stock is punched with an awl, following the design and then I use perl cotton to "stitch" the design. Easy, simple and not too amateurish (...I hope?). :) The red stitching will all go on the gold stock and the green stitching on the red stock. I just need to finish these stitched pieces, affix them to the folded cardstock and work on designing the interior message/sentiment! Whew. I really like this project because its so much more transportation-friendly; I'm able to take a little stack of cards with me from room to room and work on while I watch a movie some evenings.

In a similar vein, I can up with this idea for cards the other day as well:



They're essentially just the front designs right now; I need to get color-coordinated cards to mount them on. Just a series of punched dots (actually, I just used some paint chip samples, like you can pick up at the hardware store!) glued to cardstock in geometric shapes and patterns. I'm thinking of experimenting with this idea using randomly patterned/colored papers, like those cut from magazines, mailings and found papers. Could be a fun form of functional, "grown-up" mosaics! ;) One thing I do know: I need to get a new hole punch! This one is ancient and a not terrible good at punching "clean" dots... :p Now what to do with all these cards I'm making... sell some maybe? (haha! Wishful thinking! lol! ;)

I'm currently hatching a plan for another holiday related project... hopefully it'll work out and I'll be able to share some pictures with you in the coming days. I'm really excited about this one, but don't want to spill the beans just yet. ;) There has been some amazing holiday preperations taking place all over blogland. Be sure to take a few moments to check them out and be inspired!

P.S. And a big thank you to those who have been dropping by to check out my blog and leaving such sweet comments!!