I really first got interested in cardmaking around Christmas 2004 when I decided to make Cristmas cards for the first time. I had made few attemps to create cards earlier but, probably due to lack of vision, those attempts had remained somewhat pitiful.
The Christmas cards '04 didn't include much crafting, but then again, they were the first "proper" cards I ever made. And since there were about 20 cards to make, I didn't want to make anything too complicated. I folded black A6 card base to form a cut little cardbase. I chose black – although not a traditional Christmas colour – because it gave the card a nice graphic look, and lined the inside of the card with red paper, to give a bit of festive cheer to the card. The main (and only) embellishment in the card was the painted wooden reindeer figure I attached to the front.
For Christmas 2005 I was ready to try something bit more complicated. I was introduced to 3D decoupage at the craft fair and wanted have a go with it. I decided to make cards using robin themed 3D pictures. To set the red off better, I chose deep green card base. Thinking back, it might not have been the best idea to choose so detailed design, but the cards turned out quite nicely. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera back then, so I don't have a picture of them.
The Christmas cards for 2006 weren't very successful. I'm not quite sure how I ended up using mere peel-offs, but I'm not satisfied with the result. I coloured the two bigger Christmas baubles, but didn't quite achieve the glazed look I was hoping for. I think using transparent might have yielded better results. I added thin red border with felt-tip and added punched hollies to corners.
The first one has grey cardbase (I spent a while debating with myself whether grey actually is an acceptable colour for an anniversary card), which gives a nice background for the bunch of red roses. As music was recipient's dearest hobby, I searched a suitable picture of notes and printed it out. To frame it a little, I glued it on red mulberry paper and frayed the edges. I then carefully cut out a rose image from a decoupage sheet and attached it on top with foam pads, to give the card a bit of dimension.
Although (and because of) the second card had the same theme of red roses, I wanted it to have a bit different look than the first one. I took five miniature silk roses and tied them together to form a bunch. I then clued a scrap of white tissue paper around the roses as the wrapping paper. I cut a rectangle with rounded corners out of golden angelhair paper (my first and so far last attempt to use Fiskars ShapeCutter...) and glued it first onto white and then onto red card. I glued the panel onto a handmade straw-textured cardbase. Glueing the rosebouquet on the card was the trickiest part, as it was a bit heavy, but eventually I managed to glue it where I wanted it, so that the diagonal line gives a dynamic feel to the card.
