Saturday, November 15, 2008

Today . . .It's All About WHIMSY!

Now that I'm getting into the "Christmas Cardmaking Spirit", I'm trying to challenge myself to make at least one card a day. . . .

I know that may not sound like a very ambitious goal to some of you seasoned cardmakers out there, but given how SLOW I am with my cardmaking, and the fact that I'm usually flitting from one project to another here around the house, one card a day is sometimes about all I can manage.

Today's card is all about WHIMSY, and features a sweet little handcut and paper pieced reindeer. I developed the pattern for this deer a couple of years ago, starting with a purchased embossing template and then making a few modifications to the design and adding my own facial features and pen detailing.

As I was looking through my supply of Christmas and Holiday themed papers and embellishments yesterday, I found this little reindeer that I'd almost finished from last year, so I decided to make him/her into a card once again for this year. I just finished the card today.

I've done several handmade cards using this little reindeer, but each one, of course, ends up being slightly different, depending on the particular combination of cardstocks I use, and how I decide to further embellish the deer.

For this rendition, I used a lovely Christmas-themed patterned paper, with the words "Just Believe" printed in various fonts in red, blue, and white, on a shadowy moss-green background. Pulling from the colors in the patterned paper, I used my favorite textured Bazzill cardstock in white and a pale shade of blue.


To add some uniqueness to this particular reindeer, I threaded two tiny red star-shaped buttons through very narrow gauge goldtone wire, hand twisted it into several spirals, and attached it to the reindeer's antlers.

Outside text is computer generated and printed in red on plain white acid-free cardstock.

And for a little more pizazz, I embellished the card with several small round gone tone brads.

This is a 5" X 7" card, and like all my cards, fully lined with an additional layer of plain white lightweight acid-free cardstock, so there's plenty of room for the giver to write their own personal note.

I guess I tend to favor this size card (rather than the smaller "invitation" size card), because I do so much paper piecing and this size allows me more room to fit my designs.

I hope to be featuring a few more of my new card designs in my Blog posts over the next few days . . . .and hope I won't be boring you to tears with these blog entries! My life right now is a little boring, and I really don't have much more to post about except my cardmaking.


But come a week from tomorrow, Lee and I will be enroute to the United States "heartland" (Kansas), to spend some time with my mother and sister over Thanksgiving. So, I'm hoping to be able to post some travel pics around that time and share some photos from the homeland of my youth!


Until we meet again . . . . .may you find and embrace Whimsy wherever you can.

4 comments:

cabin + cub said...

Very cute cards + blog! :)

Kathy said...

I am in awe each time I look at another one of your cards! You have such talent. They are amazing. I could never get tired of reading about them. Oh, and as far as the rowing and ballet go...the comments on my blog have inspired me to start checking into some options. Thanks for visiting and followi

My Inspired Reality said...

I am into whimsy, love your card:)

Veggiemuse said...

this made me smile