My FIRST CHRISTMAS CARD for the season!

Well, I'm afraid I'm a bit late, compared to many of my cardmaking colleagues, in getting my FIRST Christmas card of the season done, but at any rate, here it is!

The evolution of this card is a case, for me, where the patterned paper provided the inspiration for the card design.

When I saw this lovely paper in Roberts Crafts last week, it practically "yelled" out to me, "Oh pleeeezzzeee.....Make me into a Christmas card!"

With the pale blue background and the feathery-like snow covered trees and falling snow design, this patterned paper seemed a perfect start for a handmade Christmas/Holiday-themed card.

So I snatched up several 12" X 12" sheets (you can never have enough scrapbook paper, you know!) and set about finding a shade of blue textured Bazzill that would coordinate with it. I knew that I would be using white Bazzill too, but I always have some of that on hand.

What I had initially hoped to do was to develop a paper-pieced tree design to match the trees in the paper, but alas, that wasn't to be!

I tried time and time again to come up with something that looked like the feathery upswept branched trees in the paper, but hours later, after countless discarded attempts at a pattern, I decided that the design was a bit TOO complex for a paper piecing, at least for me! (Not to mention that none of my most loyal card buyers would want to pay what I'd be asking for a handcut, paper pieced tree design with a hundred or so pieces!)

So, I settled on the idea of making a simpler paper pieced tree design, cut from white textured Bazzill. Even THAT took me some time, given the fact that I'm really NOT an artist, and drawing is an effort for me!


But, I'm nothing, if not perseverant, so I did manage to come up with a reasonable pattern that (I think) looks like a snow-covered tree and at least coordinates with the underlying patterned paper.

The final paper pieced tree consists of two pieces and I have outlined the edges of each with crystal "Stickles" to add some pizazz to the simple design. I glued the tree to the underlying paper with strategically placed glue dots, allowing the edges of the tree to curl up a bit for a slightly 3-D effect.



For the outside message on this card, I used my color printer to print out "Merry Christmas" in blue on plain white cardstock, then chalk shaded the edges in light blue.

I mounted the text block first on a layer of the newly purchased blue Bazzill, and then on a layer of white Bazzill, which I also edged with crystal Stickles.



SO, here is yet another story of how one of my cards came to be. And now that this one, my first Christmas/Holiday card this year, is done, I think I'm finally beginning to feel a hint of the Christmas Cardmaking Spirit!

Until we meet again . . . . . .I wish you gentle times, just like falling snow.