holidays – Sowing Crafty Seeds

Christmas Cards 2013, part 3

In part one, I shared how one stamp could be conceptualized differently by several people and in part two, I demonstrated how one of my stamp concepts changed and improved over time. In this, the final Christmas 2013 post, I give you several different cards I made sporadically throughout the season.

I was inspired by a lot of amazing handmade cards on websites like Pinterest. In particular, I wanted to emulate ones that used 3D effects such as presents that look like real boxes. I came up with this:

I would have liked the presents to look more like boxes but I think they came out pretty good. The card as a whole didn’t have the finished look I wanted, but not bad for a first attempt.
xmastree&presents (2)x

The downside of a project like this was the time it took to make each little box. I actually got several orders for Christmas cards (thank you everyone who bought them!) and I needed to focus on the designs that I could duplicate easily.

However, I was also inspired by some Victorian postcards I found last year and I designed a few more one of a kind cards.

The golden snowflake was a woodcut that I painted and then heat embossed.

By this point, I felt pretty confident in what I wanted the finished products to look like. I revisited the Christmas tree stamp from the first card and gave it a new look.

I had the opportunity to make A LOT of cards in a short time and therefore improve my skills through practice. If you look back I think you can see the difference.

Some final thoughts: All of my cards are made by hand, but I do use some designer papers and store bought embellishments. My goal is to rely less and less on those things. At the moment, I do not own a Cricut or die cutting machine or anything like that. The cut-out the cherub and the bird with a hat images above were done with scissors. Yes, it was a pain in the butt – BUT, it was well worth it.

Thanks for reading,

Leann

Christmas Cards 2013, part 2

In my last post, I shared how my friends and I each created a unique card that began with the same stamp. A great way to spend a Sunday with friends!

However, most of the time I craft alone as I’m sure many of you do. I’d like to demonstrate how one stamp and a concept can change and improve over time.

Here is the first card I made using my new Owl in a Santa Hat stamp:
hoohoohoo1

As far as techniques go, I used one snowflake stamp with Antique Linen distress ink and overlapped that with the owl stamp in Forest Moss distress ink (although any two inks could work, I think distress inks are more natural looking and easier to blend). I used some letter block stamps to add “Hoo Hoo Hoo” separately. I made the snowflakes along the bottom with a punch and added some rhinestones and a gold star for embellishment.

What I like about it: The stamps and the “Hoo Hoo Hoo” message are fun and exactly what I imagined they would be. I also love the antiqued quality of the color scheme as opposed to the bright red and green (and now blue) that are ubiquitous around the holidays.

What I don’t like about it: The main image is off centered because I didn’t allow enough room around my stamps for cutting a rectangle. I’m big on balance. Also, it feels a little flat and less than what I wanted it to be. In other words, meh.

But look what happened when the second batch came out:

Definite improvement! I think my mom had just given me a huge bag of ribbon and lace and I found some great stuff to match my color scheme. Also, I made these cards AFTER I got together with my friends to make the Kitten in a Santa Hat cards. Having other creative people around really helped get my own creative juices flowing. I don’t know if I would have thought to cut out the owl and make it 3D otherwise.

All the positive feedback (and subsequent orders to buy them!) inspired a third round of cards with this theme.

I incorporated more contrasting shapes and pulled those “Hoo”s up off the flat surface to balance out the 3D effect of the owl. It might be hard to tell but I also distressed around the edge of the owl and tree image.

Compared to that first card, these feel finished, refined, balanced, and just plain old pretty. I think it says a lot about our potential as crafters, and as people in general, how much things can change and improve in a short time if we open our minds to it.

And to all the people who’ve told me that they “aren’t creative” after seeing some finished product of mine like this, I say: This end product took time and practice as well as the inspiration and support of my friends and family. Not to mention the hours I spend researching different products or techniques and then trying them out for the first time only to completely destroy a project. It happens. You learn from it and keep trying.

I still have one more Christmas Card 2013 post so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

– Leann

Christmas Cards 2013, part 1

Hello friends! This is a long time coming and so I’d like to jump right in. I’m going to start by posting some older content while I work out the kinks of organizing this new website. You may have seen some of this before, but new stuff is on the way!

I have been meaning to post something about the holiday card workshop I hosted in December for a small group of my friends. We each created a unique look even though we started with the same stamp: an adorable kitten in a Santa hat.

A fun detail: Sarah’s card showcases the stamped paper we all used. We created it ourselves by stamping the cat in one distress ink color and overlapping it with a snowflake stamp in a lighter ink. The cat detail colors were added individually with markers.

I wanted everyone to use “Meowy Christmas” but I was outvoted.

And finally, my own set. Mind you, I had more time to finish these up after the party was over.

Not bad for a few ladies getting together to make cards for the first time. I am very proud of what we all accomplished and hope to have more workshops in the future!

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