Some Holiday Cards

I have several posts today since our internet was down for nearly 48 hours and I accomplished quite a bit (for me at least) during that time.

This first card is a silly little fun something I whipped up this morning. I found the ‘forest’ image while rummaging through some unfinished pieces. I created this one last year. It’s based on an art project that one of the former pre-school teachers I worked with would do every year with her 4 year olds. The children would tear pieces of brown and grey construction paper (good for working fine motor skills) into long thin strips (tree trunks) and glue them onto a piece of black construction paper. They would then tear pieces of white paper and glue those pieces on top of and around the long tree trunks and sprinkle it all with a bit of glitter. I was always amazed how these little winter forest scenes…made by little 4 year old hands…looked like beautiful artwork lining the school hallways. So last year I decided I needed to try the concept and I have to say that I like the look of the children’s artwork better…probably because they weren’t trying so hard to achieve a certain look.

Anyway, I decided to take my piece and make it into a card. I added some reindeer and a sentiment, both from a Martha Stewart holiday clear stamp set. It needs a lot of tweaking, but for me it captures the essence of a snowy evening deep in the woods. (My husband is traveling with my camera and I had a hard time getting a good photo with this other camera.)

Penquins

I like penguins. I know they were all the rage a while back, and may now be passé, but I really enjoy playing with these two stamps.

This first card is made using a stamp by Dawn Houser for Inkadinkado.

I first stamped this penguin image several times onto white card stock in black ink and then cut out the images. I re- stamped the penguin onto white cardstock with red and green ink. I paper pieced the hats and scarves and added tiny pom-poms. I took 3-D glitter paint to the hats, scarves, the pom-poms and the snowy hills. The sentiment is from the Peace and Cheer set by Amuse. I like the swirling night sky effect created by the Making Memories background paper. The sentiment inside: “From we three Penguins”.

This second card uses a stamp I bought from the Paper Source. The stamp has five penguins in a row. After stamping in black ink I cut out four of the images and attached them to some Disney Swirly Sparkle paper. I added little scarves, hats and ties that I cut from colored cardstock, some 3-D glitter glue and star embellishments.

I was going for a more masculine look on this third card, which was created using some of that postcard sized cardstock from one of those bound tablets, but I don’t remember which brand. The tablet was a birthday gift from a friend this past summer and I’m just now getting around to using it. The dove and sentiment are from the Amuse Peace and Cheers set. After looking at the photograph of the finished card, I realize that I really need to invest in some nestibilities. I’ve been looking and longing, but just can’t seem to decide which set I want to start out with. (Note: I later decided to mat the sentiment circle, thus the additional shot.)

Thanks for stopping by!