Introspective vs.Abundance

I had to laugh when I saw these two cards side by side. They really represent the way I feel about the two upcoming holidays. To me, Thanksgiving has always been about appreciating your blessings in a quiet, introspective way. Christmas, on the other hand, is a time for kids (big ones,too) to get their wishes fulfilled in an over-the-top, sugary, abundance.

The autumn card was made simply by folding an 8-1/2x11 neutral cardstock into four parts and cutting off the upper right quadrant. Then I cut a window in the two layers of the card front. A Mountain Idea skeleton leaf was lightly glued between a slightly translucent vellum paper (back) and a translucent vellum paper (front). The vellum sandwich was then taped into the card window. The word autumn was then stamped on the front of the card.

The super embellished card is gaudy but cheerful. My favorite part is the gingerbread man that was made by stamping the image onto a piece of cork sheet and decorated with glitter (use white drying glue) and Stickles. I also think the glittered punched loops really give the card a feel of icing on a gingerbread house. I found that punching one loop corner first and then doing the edges and then another corner is easier than doing the corners first and trying to line up the in-between loops. The scalloped felt ribbon (Martha Stewart) was embellished with Stickles and a mini ornament with the hanger snipped off. Right now in Ben Franklin Crafts there are lots of mini candy ornaments that can work well on a card like this. The American Crafts company has designed a glorious array of 'sweet ' papers (available at BFC) with foil and glitter accents which should inspire you to craft, craft, craft! Click on the photo if you want to see the details on the cards. Thank you for visiting and I hope you'll come back soon!