Christmas is Here at Last!

Christmas is here at Last

        This was one of those cards that I didn't have time to do and send out. I loved the arrangement and the tones with the highlight of color on the tree. And for all my blog friends, I loved the sentiment.

Another picture I am fond of is this one from our friends at Fort Sills (take a look--->). There is a wonderful slide show on Operation Write Home's web site (www.operationwritehome.com). Go to the Mail room for the slide show... some of the slides are so touching, it has soldiers who are still on deployment having their Christmas in the field. It helps me and our other card makers identify why we are making cards for these heroes.
While we've taken time off from making cards; I have been busy, nevertheless. I was thinking about card patterns and new designs for this coming year.

What if we use this design from OWH and use our Valentine papers to make troop cards. OWH deadline is Jan. 31... so we'll have to get started in order to have some new designs ready. Remember card size is a little smaller than a regular greeting card ( 4.25 X 5.5). No glitter on these cards and use a very quick drying glue or double sided stick tape runner. All the information is on the OWH website.

  I thought..."What if we used some different colors for these valentine cards?" (These colors are great!)
Card Making Mag. features this as a color challenge not long ago. We could use these colors on the card challenge design and block in a background and add them as part of the bottom squares---a heart where the circle is located and our sentiment in the square where the OWH sign is. Why not try a card with these colors? Here a valentine-style card with a heart motif in these colors. What do you think?                  

    One of my goals for next year will be to explore other techniques and try other styles. So far in this first year we have been pretty basic, but I think we are ready to do more designing on our own and have fun with ideas and new challenges.  Take a look at your scrap drawer and see if you have any of those papers and colors left from last year. ( We'll put those scraps to work!)   
In the meanwhile, I want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season..... and last-but-not-least, if you are still procrastinating about making your cards, here's two vintage patterns

                                

for some ideas and eye candy.  And HO (x3),
Merry Christmas 
Gloria J. and all the Card Makin' Cuties!