Monday, November 25, 2013

Christmas Papercrafting 2013

My dear friend K had another one of her magical crafty play dates yesterday - our third annual christmas card making extravaganza.  What's a play date without a theme?  K chose Pretty Pink Shabby Chic Holiday Papercrafting Affair.  She dressed up her house is all sorts of pretty vintage pink adornments for our pleasure.  (just about making her husband run screaming from the house!).
No - this is NOT a pink tree.  it is a WHITE tree with pink feather boas.  How pretty is that?  Seriously - her husband did run screaming - in search of a football game...
 Here kitchen was set with places for us 6 ladies to play and chat.  With blue statin, and pink organza and bling decorating the railing and windows.
The family room was laid out with our afternoon tea and a roaring fire greeted us. The TV was tuned to the christmas carol channel.
This cute little tree IS pink!
 I prepared little goody bags to share with the girls.  Each pink striped bag was garnished with a vintage Paris postcard, some grey seam binding ribbon tied around a gunmetal clip.
Inside were some papers from my stash, plus a vintage christmas card, some birdies and jewels, and a pretty woodcut angel doll from Artchix.
 K also gave us all some new toys.  at each of our place settings was a glue roller, some die cuts, some jumbo pop dots and some BLING!
 
K put out some of her supplies for us to use - i took advantage of some of these little coloured pearls you can see below.
 After a morning filled with a frenzy of 6 ladies making cards and decorating envelopes it was time for lunch.  K set a beautiful table with pink and silver accents
 Each of us received a mini shoe ornament as a memento of our girl bonding.  At last year's event we got a little "glass slipper".
Lunch was yummy with a persimmon and fennel salad with candied bacon to start.  then a pecan crusted salmon, green bean bundles, scalloped potatoes and a carrot jello mold. 
K was going for a recreation of this vintage looking meal!  I think she nailed it...!
Ok - yes - we managed to do more crafting after lunch.  I brought my suppies in a vintage wicker tote and a cute cloth bag from artfest.
I went to Once Around in Mill Valley to get some inspiration for my cards this year.  I picked up this assortment of teal and blue cards in two sizes.
Last year after the holidays i picked up these music cards from Pottery Barn on clearance.  I thought these could be the base for some cards.
I used jumbo scallop scissors to trim the edges and added some sepia ink.  i punched two holes near the top corners to hang from ribbon.  But that's as far as i got. 
 Next i took a bunch of blank cards and made these.  i used green scroll-y scrapbook paper cut to size as a base.  I added copies of vintage postcards with a bird theme and cut them out with scallop scissors.
 Here you can see those pretty little pearls - each attached with a tiny glue dot.  I also added some sequin leaves.
 Next i took a few little blue cards and added a sheet of soft printed scrapbook paper cut to size.  Something else will be added on top - just not sure what!
 For these cards - i took the same robin's egg blue blank cards and added a piece of flocked decorative paper.  I LOVE how these turned out - especially when paired with the deep teal envelopes.  They too might get a final doo-dad to make them a smidge more festive.
 For these i cut ornament shapes from a piece of scrapbook paper and attached them to the card with the large foam pop dots K gave us.  I think i'll add some string to make them really look like they are hanging.  a little stamp (from K's collection) adds a nice touch.
Among the toys K put out for us to play with was a embossing machine.  I used regular card stock to print a bunch of sentiments which i cut out and glued to some of the cards shown above.
 Around 4 o'clock we took a break for tea.  On one table was an assortment of cookies and scones.  Some of them were sugar free for anyone with dietary considerations.  How thoughtful!
For those of us with a sweet tooth, however, we were not disappointed with this beautiful and delicious coconut cake.  there was a lovely assoirtment of teas (i had pink rose velvet!) and dainty emboridered tea napkins to place on our laps.
After tea, we were each given one of these cute envelope bags. inside were a pretty notebook, a mini sewing kit (one we think we can sneak on planes) and a delightful vintage hankie with festive embroidery.
What a magical day we had.  And i made a good start on my christmas cards.  Thank you K!
 
Check out last year's play date HERE.
And here are my cards from 2011 HERE

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