A Little Flaky

I'm not referring to my scalp, or my personality (although some might argue the latter!). I'm referring to Christmas cards. I absolutely love snowflakes. So I couldn't resist the embossing folder or die cut strip from SU! Yesterday and today I went crazy playing with them.

Before I let myself play today, I managed to sweep and scrub my hardwood floors and apply 3 coats of finish, do a load of laundry, walk the dog, plant 25 mums, 42 bulbs, fertilize the yard, take my daughter to lunch, go grocery shopping, fix dinner (falafel--yum!) and of course, vote! Now I'm exhausted. But I love the cards I finished.

Coming up with names for my cards on my Etsy site (http://www.salutationsbysusan.etsy.com) is always difficult. Worse is describing them. I'm afraid I was too tired to be creative with either. I think I used up all my creativity in the cards themselves.

SILVER GREETING
This is probably the simplest of the cards I made. As such, it doesn't really need much explaining. The flourish and snowflake are embossed in silver. The ribbons are accented with aurora borealis flowers. Simple, but elegant, I think.

WARMEST WISHES

Another relatively simple card. This one uses the great new paper I mentioned yesterday. I embossed the paper with the new SU! snowflake embossing folder. I sanded it lightly to reveal the core. Then I used 2-way glue to highlight a few spots and sprinkled on dazzling diamonds (hard to see in the photo). A matching ribbon and stamped sentiment complete the look.

SNOWFLAKES AND POKLA DOTS

I decided that I needed to break out of the mold and use an unexpected color color for at least one of the cards. This one uses black to show some great contrast. The top half is stamped with SU! snowflakes in tone-on-tone. The bottom uses wax (crayon) resist. A black scallop punch backs the snowflake covered in dazzling diamonds. A black and white polka dot ribbon completes the look.

GOLDEN WISHES

See. I said the names were lame. But I like the card. Gold and ivory are classic Christmas colors, so I went to town with them here. The ivory card stock is embossed with the SU! snowflake folder. For all the remaining cards, I used the same method of glittering the snowflakes. I buy the packages of labels that are just 8 1/2 x 11 sheets to use for all sorts of things. I cut them apart to use with the die cut strip. Depending on the card, I either peeled the backing off the label and glittered the whole thing before running it through, or I ran the label through, peeled off the back, and then glittered it. The latter wastes less glitter, but can get tedious. The sentiment here is stamped in a gold metallic ink to finish it off.

MERRY AND BRIGHT

I wish the photo could do this one justice. The blue snowflakes are so beautiful! I just happened to have matching gems, so I was able to alternate the blue and silver flakes and their centers. The top half is navy blue stamped in navy. The bottom use the Cuttlebug Holly embossing folder. The silver paper behind the blue is a glitter card stock I picked up somewhere.

BLUE CHRISTMAS

Guess what? The SU! snowflake die cut is designed to create layered snowflakes. Who knew? Of course, once I discovered this, I had to try it. So, here I used blue and white glittered snowflakes. The background is simply white card stock with navy images stamped. I didn't like the length/look of any of my die cut tags, so I made one by corner rounding the ends of a strip of white card stock. Again, I wish you could see the glitter more. You'll just have to take my word for how shimmery it is!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

This card I didn't actually make in the last two days. I made this one last week to be part of my contribution to The Little Black Box. Be sure to check out this site. It is the coolest idea for both buyers and contributors alike! It's for all kinds of handmade items, not just cards.

O.k. So the card is done by sponging white pearl stickles onto a stamp then stamping onto the teal card stock. Another stamp was used to stamp in teal on the white, then torn and inked. The teal flakes are also highlighted with dazzling diamonds. The sentiment is embossed in white. Simple.

HOLIDAY WREATH

I got the idea for this just as I got into bed last night. Talk about frustrating! I wanted to get up and work on it right then, but since it was already 1 a.m., and I knew it would be a bit involved, I had to wait.

Once again I used the core'dination paper for the background. I embossed it with the SU! distressed texture plate, then sanded it lightly and distressed the edges. I was going for the look of an old door.

If you look closely, you will see that the wreath is actually made out of individual green glittered snowflakes! I love the look, but I have to confess that the card was a pain to make. Well, more just time consuming. I priced it accordingly!

I must say, though, that despite the labor intensity, I love how it turned out and was pleased with the idea.

No I really need to shower and go to bed. After all my physical labor earlier today, I have now added helping my son move furniture in his room and steam cleaning parts of his carpet. I'm a smelly sore mess! And I swear I'm not usually. Smelly or sore that is!