card | andpins

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I hope that you have a relaxing holiday and a very festive New Year.

With my to-do list barely shrinking, I decided to go a bit simpler than our Christmas cards have been in the past. I printed one of my favorite photographs from the year, pulled cards, paper and leftover envelopes out of the basement and added some colorful washi tape and I am completely smitten with them. The quilt featured happens to be my first solo quilt, the one that I hand tied.

Do you mail holiday cards? If so, are your’s handmade? Some of the cards that I saw in stores this year almost swayed me away from handmade.

May I present to you…

…our 2012 Christmas Cards!

For me, the holiday season begins before Thanksgiving when I start thinking about my Christmas cards. For the last few years I have been designing and making my own, trying each year to top my previous one. I’ve done a custom illustration and stamp embossing among other things, some were more successful than others.

I have been seeing the washi tape trend and have been dying to use it somewhere, so I picked some up at the Paper Source in reds and greens along with my cards and envelopes. I got home and had an epiphany, fabric…it will have the same visual feel as the washi tape but give a more tactile and three-dimensional look to the cards. I raided my fabric stash and some strips of red fabric, green fabric, white thread, my sewing machine and card stock later I have my 2012 Christmas Cards completed!

I hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas. We are hosting a holiday dinner party this weekend and I cannot wait to share the menu with you next week!