Christmas cards 2012

With years I am learning that the best thing I can do is to prepare in advance, so I made my Christmas cards in November and had them mailed in early December. There're so many things I want to do with my kids in December: bake cookies, make cards, prepare a fun night, give gifts to friends and teachers, I pray I have peace to do all this and help them with school at the same time.

I am keeping my activities down: "Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind" Ecclesiastes 4:6. I treasure the peace God gives me especially when I loose it. In this passage I am reminded that I loose tranquility when I burden myself with too much - "the two hands full of toil". This year I finally have this Nativity set by Hero Arts called The Greatest Gift. As soon as I came up with an idea of using vellum pockets for my Christmas cards this year, I was inspired. The central image and sentiment were stamped in on go and heat embossed in copper on vellum.

The glitter and sequins give a pleasant swoosh sound if you shake the card. I "accidentally" caught some sequins while stitching and made some matching vellum tags.

The cards turned out tricky to photograph. Finally after the 3d or 4th attempt I was able to get a decent shot after taking it outside on my balcony.

At first I wished I had more beige colored vellum, but I realized the advantage of mixing and matching different colors and backgrounds like I used to pick fabrics for my quilts. My husband and kids watched a comedy and I worked on my cards watching them enjoy and laugh at the movie.

These tags were made from the many panels I made using markers and distress inks when trying to find a perfect match for this card. Thank you for visiting! Have a peaceful December!