More Cards

Today I am doing what I love - stamping! I decided to try some more snowman cards. First, here is yesterdays card (again):





I don't own any snowman stamps. So when I decided I wanted to make a snowman I hunted through my stamps for some circles. I was thrilled to find two different sizes; however, I needed a third for the head. Since I didn't think I had one, I pulled out the letter "o" from an alphabet set I have. I wasn't happy with the result - I colored the middle in but it is more opaque than the rest of his head. There were other things I thought I could improve on too, so I got to work.

I had actually put my stamps away yesterday (gasp!) So I had to find my circles again. In the process, I found a third, smaller circle. Perfect! Here is card #2:



There are several things I like better about this card. For one thing, I decided to start with white paper, so the snowman looks white, as a snowman should. To be honest, I did 3 or 4 similar to this. So far this is the only one that I have mounted and put onto a card. I was getting a bit bored with the same picture, so I decided to try something a little different. Here it is, and it is my favorite snowman card:

I copied the swirl idea from this blog. (This is probably my favorite stamping blog. The woman is an artist. She travels around the country teaching classes. I would like to go if she ever comes near me. In the meantime, I am trying to learn from her online.) I really love this card. I really got stuck though when it came time to put a sentiment on it. I don't own many Christmas stamps. I have just 2 with words. They are "Silent Night Holy Night" (from which I've been pulling Silent Night on my other cards) and "Let's Welcome Jesus". Neither worked here. I do have a stamp that says Merry Christmas on part of it; I have been using that on my family Christmas Cards. However, I could not find that this morning! So I used "joy". I think it works okay. It feels a little disingenuous though, because snow doesn't actually make ME joyful. It just makes me cold. Oh well, I think a lot of people think snow and snowmen are happy, joyful things, so this will have to do.

One more note for any "crafty" readers. A few months ago I bought a Xyron thing-a-ma-jig. I got the 5 inch version. It is one of the best things I have ever purchased for making cards. Now I can make cards on dark colored cardstock but insert a white or vanilla piece for writing. I run it through the Xyron to get adhesive on the entire thing. Also, any time my front pieces get too heavy I run them through the Xyron for total adhesion. I love it!