2010 Christmas Cards

When you go as ridiculously overboard as I do every Christmas, you can't do it all in a month. It takes a lot of careful planning. So every year around this time, I make my Christmas cards for the Christmas up ahead. I only came up with this plan a few years ago, but Holy Cow is it the best idea ever. All the Christmas papers and stamps are on sale, and I have more time in the week after Christmas than I could ever hope to find throughout the rest of the month.

When I'm done, I just pack them away with the rest of the decorations. Then when the decorations come out, I just have to worry about getting a recent picture and sticking them in the mail.

Here's 2009's card
and here's 2008's.

Last year's card was a little too labor intensive. I got a little carried away. So this year I'm keeping it more simple.



Here's what you'll need:
Cardstock that is printed on both sides, cut down to 6" tall by 9" wide
Cardstock in a solid contrasting color cut to 4" wide by 1/2" tall
Stamped and embossed center image (I'll explain)
Stamped and embossed interior image (ditto)
Tulle cut off the spool about 4" wide

This style of card is called a gate card, meaning the sides fold in and meet in the middle. So the first step is to score 2 1/4" in from each end. I love the scoring blade on my paper trimmer, but you could also use a bone folder.

When you make as many cards as I do, you have to keep your costs down however possible. Adding even one brad jacks your cost up like crazy when you have do it 100 times. So I try to stick to paper wherever possible, and stamping is really cost effective when you're talking bulk.

You'll need two embossed images. One is for the front and center of the card. It really doesn't matter what stamp you use, but something with a greeting makes sense. Mine is about 2" x 3" which worked out really nicely. I stamped it on a shimmery cardstock, embossed it with glittery red powder, and then cut the paper out to the size of the stamp.


The other image is for the inside of the card, to add a little something once the photo gets put in place. You'll want to keep it on the small side so it doesn't compete with your family pictures. Mine is about 1" x 3/4". I stamped it on coordinating cardstock and then cut around the outline. Tape it to the end of your 4 x 1/2" cardstock strip.


The rest of the interior stuff will be done in photoshop when I get our family pictures done. I envision this little decorative strip separating the photo section from the newsletter section.

Now back to the front of the card.

Bunch up the long side of the tulle, and staple it to the right side of the gate we created earlier.


Then take your center front embossed image and glue one side of it down on top of the tulle, arranging it so that it's centered when both gates are closed. I used a liquid glue for this. Any other adhesive I tried wasn't strong enough to make it through the tulle. The liquid glue may warp your paper, so I'd recommend using a thicker cardstock for your embossed image, but anything else and the embossed piece will just fall off in the mail.

There's nothing like feeling like you're on top of things. It doesn't happen often to me, but every year when I pack these cards away I relish in a little gloat, feeling like at that moment, I am ahead of the game.

Snowfall Tree Skirt

Before I put Christmas away for good, I thought I'd share one last project I finished off this month that didn't fit it with all the Woodland tree stuff.



Last year's new tree was my snowfall tree, and like always I put off the tree skirt. I used Amy Butler's tree skirt pattern and added a million and a half sequins in different sizes and colors.



This tree is in the very worst place in the house for photos, so the color is awful, but I used a white flannel as the base and a silver crepe backed satin as the band. I wanted the sequins to be as reminiscent of snowfall as the rest of the tree, so I used a bunch of different sizes in silver and white and kind of a clear iridescent color.

Tree skirts are so not my favorite things to make, but I just love the finished result.

2009 Year of Pleasures #50, 51, and 52

Somewhere along the way I seem to have missed a couple of weeks, but that's OK because this month brought a whole lot of pleasure.

#50

Atti loves his dad so much. Bear was trying to set up the Christmas tree and Atti scooted over to help by slobbering all over his face.


But he didn't seem to recognize him under the beard and glasses. Even dad couldn't make Santa OK this year.


#51

We spent Christmas Eve with Bear's family, and this was the first year with a kid's table. My default instinct is to protect Atti and hover when he deals with typically functioning kids, keeping him with me and helping him to interact as much as we can, but this time we strapped him into a booster and stepped back. He did great.

It was totally one of those "My baby is growing up!" weepy mama moments.


#52

Atti's still so young that we really wanted to keep presents to a minimum. The extended family spoils him with toys anyway, so we really don't need to add much to keep him fully stocked.


Plus he's got this full-time fuzzy playmate to keep him occupied.


Our big splurge for him - and it was a big splurge - was this crazy robot Elmo that sings songs and blows kisses and tells stories. We never would have spent so much money on a toy, but we're hoping that it will help his development. Robot Elmo blows kisses and waves bye and uses his hands in all kinds of ways we're hoping will rub off on him.

He and Gizmo have been equally fascinated.

Merry Christmas

From our Christmas card this year:









Merry Christmas!

Woodland Tree

I raced to snap some pictures in between present making and present wrapping, so they're not exactly magazine worthy, but I think you'll get the idea anyway.


Since this is my fourth full sized tree, I had to go a little smaller. It's a slim 5 footer, and it fits nicely behind the couch next to the sliding glass door.



Thanks so much for following this tree along with me. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas surrounded by everyone you love.

Glittered Ornaments

My last ornament post! Phew!

This one should really barely even count as an ornament post since it's hardly a tutorial. But I figure that Martha has done demonstration after demonstration on how to glitter something, so maybe I should point it out as an option.


I went to the dollar store early in my planning, and scooped up anything that fit my theme, knowing that it didn't matter what it looked like as long as the shape was recognizable. Everything looks good under glitter.


I mean, aren't these birds just the mangiest looking things ever? With those creepy bulbous eyes?


But covered in glitter they give me a really great punch of color.


This is the loan mammal on the tree, done before I thought about the implications of that. I tell myself that this is fine because the scale is so off, and because I'm a maniac and no actual animals were harmed in the making of this tree.


I cut this deer out of fun foam, just like I did last year's snowflakes and this year's bats. It's just a great technique. Then I covered it in glue, and poured glitter all over it.


Here's a simple pattern for any last minute ornaments. Just click on the picture to get to flickr, click on "all sizes" and then download the original side.

There. Woodland tree accomplished! Eventually I'll address a tree skirt, I always put that part off, but for this year I am completely out of time for fussing with decorations. I'm still frantically making presents.

And by the way. If I cave again next year and decide to make a scrapbook for someone? Please. Please, dear readers. Someone smack me around until I come to my senses.

Acorn Ornaments and Moss Balls

I googled from one end of the internet to the other looking for inspiration for an acorn ornament, and I ran into the same problem every time. If you have an acorn cap, you can make loads of great stuff. But it all hinges on the acorn cap.

And I live in San Diego. Oak trees aren't exactly lining the streets. Palm fronds, yes. But no acorns and no acorn caps.

But I think I solved it anyway.


For the acorn part, I balled up a bunch of wool yarn until my ball was about 2 inches in diameter. Then I took the balls I made, put them inside a pillowcase so my washing machine wouldn't eat them, and washed them with tons of soap and the hottest water I had. Then I did it again, then I ran them through the dryer so they came out thoroughly felted.


I decided to make the acorn cap out of polymer clay. I know it seems scary if you've never worked with it, but this part is easy. I worked the clay in my hands until it was nice and soft, and then I rolled it up into a ball that was around 3/4" wide.

Flatten the ball into a disk, and then begin pinching the center to bring up that little point. Rub your fingers over the clay to smooth out your pinching marks, and then poke a large needle through the point to make room for an ornament hanger.

While the clay is still wet, try it on your wool acorn, and bend it into position. Then bake according to the directions on the package, and when they're cool, glue onto the wool piece.


By this point I was running through my checklist of all the materials I wanted represented on a Woodland tree. Mushrooms, acorns, dirt, twigs, berries, leaves, wood...but I still had to deal with moss. So I thought it would be appropriate to pull out the old "Just glue stuff to a ball" style ornament.


I've learned to always paint my object first before I treat it with anything. When you don't, you either have to live with white styrofoam peeking through or do a million coats.


I found these sheets of fake moss at a floral design store, and just gluing them didn't really work. They were too heavy. So I cut a couple of rectangles and started pinning them to the ball with dressmaker pins. This worked out great. It was totally secure, but it still left all the little stray bits free to look all mossy. I pinned the rectangles onto the ball almost like how a baseball is sewn together. One rectangle going vertically, and the other going horizontally. But it was completely forgiving. In some places where I cut it short I just added more and it blended right in.

Stuffed Bird Ornaments

With the exception of a glittered deer I made before I thought the whole thing through, I didn't put any animals on this tree. I was thinking about doing some cool things with faux fur, but then I decided that was kind of morbid. In my imagination this was a tree the animals from Bambi decorated for their own celebration, so with that thought in my head, hanging animals just seemed gross.

Birds, on the other hand, actually belong in a tree.


Using the pattern I'll include at the end, I cut out two pieces for the body and two little wings. Then I used a quick zigzag stitch to applique the wings in place.


I sewed the two pieces together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leaving open about an inch of the belly to turn the whole thing right side out, and leaving open the end of the tail.


I opened up a little bit of the sewing on the head so that I could insert a loop of ribbon for an ornament hanger. I tried to do this part as I was sewing the pieces together, but it was a pain. Nothing would lay flat, the hanger kept getting in the way, so I just said forget it and added an extra step. Turn the bird right side out.


Now here's the part that was interesting. Open the tail and fold the edges in about 1/4 of an inch. Stuff in a small piece of batting so that the tail becomes perpendicular to the rest of the body. (I'm so not a Stuffie maker, so I was way too proud of myself for finding such an easy way to add a little dimensionality.)


Topstitch the tail closed by sewing a triangle. Start in the middle of the base of the tail, go out to the edge and across, and then back down to your starting point.
Stuff the bird and close her in your favorite method. Mine is fabric glue since it's just a Christmas ornament.



To download the pattern, click on the picture to go to flickr, then click on "all sizes" above the photo. Download the original size. Although you could really print this simple pattern at any size you wanted to make a whole flock of different sized birds.

Velvet Leaves

Years and years and years ago, inspired by the Carol Duvall show and all the embossed velvet projects she features, I made this garland consisting of a gazillion embossed velvet leaves I glued on to wire and braided together. When I brainstormed what would be on a woodland tree, I knew that I'd have to revisit this project.

* Oh look! Here it is. Complete with TERRIBLE pictures. Either I've gotten better at picture taking this year, or last year I was just LAZY!

Being a MUCH better crafter this year than I was ten years ago when I made that sad garland, the finished project looks WAY better this time.


Cut two pieces for each leaf you want to make. I folded my fabric wrong sides together and cut them both out at the same time to get as close to an exact match as possible.


Run a bead of hot glue down the center and place a length of floral wire into it. Watch those fingers!


Run a little more hot glue around the edge of the leaf, and place the other leaf piece on top.


To stop any shedding the velvet might want to do, and avoid dealing with hemming anything, and to add one more opportunity for my beloved glitter, I ran a line of fabric paint around the outside edge of the leaf. I know you probably hear fabric paint and shudder at the thought of puffy atrocities, but if you apply a thin coat then all you'll see is the glitter and you'll still solve all those other problems.

To put them on the tree, I grouped a few together and then twisted their wires around a tree branch. For a garland I just braided the wires together.



There's nothing special about my pattern, I just drew a bunch of leaf shapes so you could use whatever pattern you want, but I thought I'd share mine just to make things easy. Click on the picture to get to my flickr account, click on "All Sizes" at the top of the photo, and then download the original size.

Twiggy Stars

I still have so many ornament ideas that I'm going to have to post twice a day until Christmas, so I'm going to try and be brief. I don't think it will surprise regular readers to hear I went overboard again. Go figure.



If you live someplace relatively rural, you could probably make a fabulous Woodland themed tree from what you found in your backyard. For us suburban or urban types, even finding stray branches can be a challenge.


I found this bark covered wire in the floral section of my craft store, right next to the wreath making supplies. I've never worked with it before, but now I can think of all kinds of things I want to make with it - including just wrapping it all the way around a wreath form.


I didn't measure anything, I just cut off a hunk and started bending, so all measurements are pretty much educated guesses.

Cut off about 2 to 2 1/2 feet of wire. Make your first bend about 6 to 8 inches from one end.


Open that bend to about a 45 degree angle, and bend again about 3 inches further up your wire.


Bend again about 3 inches further, crossing the rest of the wire underneath the first side of the star's leg, and then out through the center of the star to cross over the top of the other side.


Bend again, going under the first wire it crosses, and over the next one, meeting the other end and forming the last leg of the star. Twist the wire together to close it off.



Leave a gap big enough for a tree branch, and then twist the wires again to make the hanger. Cut off anything left over.


I figured that since I was making stars, it would only be appropriate to make one big enough for the topper, too.


I made this the same way, except instead of that final twist, I cut one end off and twisted it around and out of my way, and then I took the rest of the wire and coiled it around so it could sit on that tippy top branch.