My friend Karen had her annual christmas card extravaganza this past weekend. It had a theme (of course!) of Christmas Red and Winter White. Here we are beside her two hand made trees.
Here is the adorable invitation she sent up for the party - yes an altered Altoids tin!
She encouraged us to dress in the theme colours.
One tree was made with miles of red velvet ribbon and the other a dripping willow tree with white lights and red balls.There were even MORE decorations around the house. Check out last year's party HERE.
Here are the little presents i brought for the ladies. I wrapped them simply in white deli paper with red velvet ribbon and a glass candy cane.
Inside the tins i placed some bling - sticky gemstones and pearls. Here's how i made them.
Here are just SOME of the supplies Karen put out to share with us. If we brought nothing, she had us covered.
Of course there was coffee, pastries, fruit and yogurt when we arrived. But in addition she served a delicious luncheon - including this tasty and beautiful citrus salad with pomegranates.
She made us individual chicken pot pies and an arugula salad with dried cherries and goat's cheese.
For my cards this year - i decided to make the base from pretty scrapbook paper - the heavier weight card stock. I made good use of Karen's generosity with her supplies! I designed a simple pattern of trees in a landscape format.
I cut down the scrapbook paper from 12" x 12" to 9" by 7 1/2" to fit perfectly into a standard business envelope when folded in half. this was to avoid having to fold up my annual christmas letter to fit. A simple tri-fold and i'll be done.
I usually like to do a simple design that i can crank out pretty fast. But i still want it to be nice. I cut 100's of "trees" - in triangle shapes from coordinating papers. Sticking mainly with a blues and greens palette. a splash of red thrown in here and there.
Here they are work in progress all stacked up.
After a few more hours of play, it was time for tea! karen made this impressive layer cake with a white chocolate frosting.
Inside was even prettier! and theme appropriate - of course! Red velvet cake and cheesecake. luckily we all got a second piece to take home!
During "tea time" Karen gave us all a little gift bag.
Inside were three festive napkins which had been coated with resin - which transforms them into a mica like material, suitable for collage. there was also some rose soaps, a little calendar, a notebook, a music rubber stamp and some chocolates.
My friend Z gave us each a vintage christmas card and a little vintage photograph, prettily packaged in a vellum envelope with lace trim. The colours were perfect with the theme of the day!
Our friend M owns a bead store and brought some of her "bead soup" - a box filled with assorted bead for us to choose from. Sunday (after the party on Saturday) i made this necklace with the beads i had selected. I used waxed linen thread and simply knotted the thread between the assorted green and amber beads to create separation. it turned out long enough to wrap two or three times.
Since i got out my bead things - i went ahead and made this one as well!
I didn't get any pictures of the Christmas cards the other ladies made (just so much going on!) But my friend D made these eclectic new year's postcards and offered us each one. They look just like one of D's quilts all laid out together.
She has such a talent for collage and mixing patterns and themes.
I, on the other hand, stick to pretty and predictable! Here are the 44 cards i made all lined up on my dining room table. A veritable forest of christmas tree shapes.
Oh - must confess. there is ONE card that was upside down when i glued on the trees! OOPSIE! so i just added a few more triangles, some sticker balls - and now it is a festive holiday banner!
It goes without saying that our friend Karen is UNBELIEVABLY talented at throwing these parties. her hostess skills, her cooking and her decorating are over the top. We are truly blessed to have her as our crafty buddy. She knows just how exactly make us feel special. Including giving us SHOES! well, ok, just one shoe - this pretty sparkly red one.
Thanks Karen!
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