Christmas may be over but certainly not the cardmaking! I find myself dishing out at least 50 cards every Christmas and I always end up buying commercial ones when I run out of homemade cards. Trying to create lots of Xmas cards in a short space of time and especially at a busy period inevitably results in stress which I could certainly do without. Hence, this year, I decided to prepare myself by creating a certain quota of Xmas cards each month to ensure I have enough to send off at the end of the year.
It would be too easy to simply turn to a Xmas stamp set but hey, I've got time on my side and decided to try to create cards using non-Christmas stamp sets. So having looked through my Banana Frog sets, I picked out a few to play with.
My first card made use of It's All About Hearts stamp set. I stamped 3 heart shapes and turned them into leaves of a Christmas tree. A chipboard star, stamped with with a swirl from the Swirls & Butterflies set top the tree. The entire background was sprayed with glimmer mist to give it a shimmery look.
My second card consisted of 'baubles' which I used from Matryoshka Dolls. I stamped on 3 different patterned papers, cut them out and applied a gem in the centre and used them as baubles. The sentiment, from Retro Greeting, was encased in a journaling box from Swirls & Butterflies set. The background pattern in the journaling box was done using a heart background from It's All About Hearts.
Finally, my last card was created using 3 sets of BF stamps. The word 'Xmas' is from Steelfish Outline (lower) large set, the word 'merry' came from Retro Greetings and the swirls and butterfly is from Swirls & Butterflies set.
The cards were created using non-Christmas stamp sets. I always like to explore how stamps can be used in different context. All the above stamp sets can now be purchased directly from Banana Frog site. There will be more exciting events coming up so check back soon! Happy stamping!
wow beautiful cards
Posted by: Karen Haywood | February 19, 2010 at 01:15 AM
beautiful cards, and that is a great idea, although I don't think I'm oragznized enough to do so!!lol!!!
Posted by: Helen | February 19, 2010 at 09:04 AM
Such a wonderful set! I love this card, too - so cheery. I need to get busy!
Posted by: Hampers | February 19, 2010 at 09:32 AM
Loving these cards...
Does this mean i have to be thinking Christmas... mmm should do really..
Beautiful cards very inspiring
Caroline x
Posted by: Caroline Jeffery | February 19, 2010 at 09:12 PM