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. 

A Curio Christmas

A few weeks back i spent the day at my friend Karen's house for yet another fantabulous play date.  Along with three other crafty friends we enjoyed Karen's gracious hospitality and all created dozens of Christmas cards.  I got off to a quick start with this kit i picked up at Ross (of all places).  It is the Curio collection from Basic Grey papers.  I just loved the assortment of vintage patterns mixed with flowers, birds and butterflies.

Here are how the 8  cards looked made almost exactly like the kit!  Needless to say  - i was WAY ahead of my friends, although it wasn't really fair since all my pieces were pre-cut!

 

Because i loved the papers so much, before the play date i ordered a 12x12 kit from the same collection online. It came with some matching stickers and borders, and even a page of letters.

What i loved most about these papers is that they were DOUBLE -SIDED! - think what cool cards these would make!  (the card kit above, is NOT double sided, they are plain white inside, but still quite nice!)

You had to think hard about which side to put on the outside they were so darn pretty.

I did a bunch of 8 x 4" tall cards.

And i did some 5 x7", a couple of squares.  Since i had an assortment of envelopes, figured i would mix it up!

As you can imagine, created cards out of 12 x 12" paper leaves alot of nice scraps.  Check out this lovely pile!

 So, i had no choice but to make more cards!  I used a stack of pale olive green card stock Lucie gave away at the play date to create standard 5 x 7" folded cards.

 I paired up two or three coordinating patterns amongst the 24 or so cards.

 Then i glued them all on in a pleasing patchwork.  Perhaps not the most "christmas-y" of pallets, but the soft pinks, greens and browns all worked so nicely with the card stock.

 Then i added embellishment with stickers, lace, birds, butterflies and flowers.  On some i added "merry christmas in copper embossing, but i found melting the embossing powder caused the cards to curl and separate.

 When i counted up all my cards i had about 50 - but i need 60-70 to cover my annual christmas card list.  So i turned to this cute bird themed kit i picked up at Anthropologie.

 It contained 24 postcards, three rubber stamps, red ink, and a stack of cute stickers.

I used plain cream card stock, folded in an 8 x 4" card.  I bordered the postcards on some more scrap Curio paper and glued to the top of the card.  On the bottom i added a snippet of sheet music and some ribbons and more embellishment.

 I would have LOVED to add three dimensional objects like buttons and charms to these cards, but in the interest of safe (and cheap) mailing, i went with all flat embellishment.  Now i just have to write a personal note inside each one, stamp and address the envelopes and we're done for another year!

Deli paper envelopes

I have to thank Phyllis for this cool idea. She took a class with me a while back and learned how to make hand painted deli paper to use in collage. She took this a couple of steps further and made a really artistic envelope for her christmas cards. Gee i really wish she had sent it to me before i sent out my cards in boring plain white envelopes (albeit stamped with blue and silver snowflakes...!)

So i thought i would show you all how it is done. Deli paper is plain thin white paper used to wrap sandwiches at the deli, duh!? You can buy it around here at Smart and Final - try a jumbo store in your neck of the woods, or possible Costco. It is CHEAP - about 1000 sheets for like $8 bucks. I use it to paint with cheap liquid craft paint - it is a lot of fun and absolutly fool proof.
For this project i just used dye ink and some rubber stamps. First i stamped random images in one colour, then another stamp in another colour.

I did about 4 stamps in total. I think Phyllis did 5. My stamps all came from the doller bins at Michaels.

Next take a new piece of deli paper and either paint or use ink pads as i did direct to paper. Just randomly swirl or pounce on the paper. Paint gives a more dramatic effect of course - but i wanted to do this quick and not make a big mess on the computer desk.

My hubby will appreciate that.

Next glue to the two pages together - just use glue stick. Deli paper glues beautifully as i always say. It is great to use inside altered books for that reason.

If you have an envelope template - use that to cut out your envelope shape. if not, just wrap your card with the paper, and glue it where the paper overlaps, being careful not to get glue on your card.

Trim the corners at the bottom and glue the flap shut.
Trim the top and glue shut. The two pages glued together give the envelope a nice weight. And the painting the insides is an added treat for the recipient.
Address the envie right on the paper, or you could use a sticker.Add your return address, a stamp and drop in the mail!