Runs with CHRISTMAS Scissors

Do you hear what I hear? It’s Christmas carols. Do you see what I see? The Penny Black blog is decorated for Christmas! I wasn’t certain what my scissors and I would be doing today, but since it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, I’m in the mood for making Christmas cards! I guess the baking isn’t done yet; I haven’t spotted the cookies and fudge.

Christmas in August? No, but it is time to start thinking about making your cards, doing a few at a time so there is less stress in December. I’ve combined my Christmas stamps with stamps and dies from the Pocket Treasures collection. The stamps and dies in this release are versatile enough to be used for many occasions.

I’ve embossed the Decadence background stamp onto red cardstock and added the embossed poinsettia with a snowflake center. I added some “love” from the Texting die set.

Christmas cards give us a chance to be fancier than usual. It’s fun to add some bling, a few embellishments and die cuts. Bright red cardstock with velvet ribbon trim is very traditional for the season.

I’ve colored the patchwork bird from the Christmas Harmony set with Copic markers, added layers to his tummy and wing, and cut the “25” from the By the Numbers die. I love the non-traditional Christmas colors with just a touch of traditional green and red.

I’ve used the large medallion from the Dazzler stamp set as a background for the nativity cling stamp Peace on Earth. I’ve embossed the Peace die cut by laying it onto my VersaMark ink pad and then laying it into a little amount of platinum embossing powder for a metallic look. The figures are colored with Copic markers.

I enjoy taking my time creating Christmas cards … sometimes. There are other times I need to work quickly, in assembly line style to make multiples of the same design. Here are two cards that could easily be made quickly and in quantity.

For this card I stamped the woodblock stamp Song of Joy onto some shimmery gray-purple cardstock, mounted it onto a white card base and added the Merry Christmas sentiment. It’s easy peasy because Penny Black has done most of the work putting together this lovely collage.

The beautiful image Holly Concert could have been the only image on this card, but I wanted to add a little more interest. I used the house diecut from Shades embossed with platinum embossing powder using the same technique as described above. I added the bright pink Liquid Pearls and pop dotted the pink heart. Quick and easy does not have to mean boring.

I’m excited to have five cards done and ready to mail out in December. But a little fudge would have made the scissors go faster.

I hope my cards give you some ideas for making your own. When you have the luxury of time to spend on one card, enjoy the process of dressing it up. When you are short on time or have many cards to make, find a design that lends itself to the assembly line process. Do all of your die cutting at once, stamp and emboss all images, trim everything to size and then assemble. The Penny Black Christmas images look lovely when heat embossed and don’t always need to be colored or cut out.

It seemed strange to be making Christmas cards when the temperature is approaching 90 degrees. And then I remembered our friends “down under” who always experience Christmas during their summer month of December. It makes my brain hurt just to think about December being a summer month, and Christmas a summer holiday.

Well, summer or winter, Christmas is a special day around the world. We take time out from the ordinary to create something extraordinary. Christmas is also made up of memories of holidays past. I was blessed to have many years of Christmas with my kids, both when they lived at home and for some years after they left for college and then went on to create their own families. It wasn’t until we retired and became fulltime RV’ers that Christmas really changed for me. We no longer had a home where we could host the family. So now we gather at one house or another; maybe on Christmas or maybe a day that works better for everyone. The past two years we traveled to Evie’s house and this year we will be welcoming Evie’s baby brother… the ultimate Christmas present.

Cooper heard all the talk about Christmas and decided to be helpful in his own doggy way. Unfortunately, he forgot about the pre-lit tree.

“Isn’t anyone going to help me?”

It is time to put the scissors away, clean up my scraps and restore order to the work room. I will untangle Cooper and help him set up the other tree.

“All’s well that ends well.”

Oh, my! Look what I found under the red cardstock … a plate of fudge! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Shop for today’s featured Penny Black supplies:



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