Cards Complete!

So, I told you about this idea I had to make Christmas ornaments for my holiday cards. First, as I mentioned in the last post, the book A Christmas Story by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched provided the patterns for adorable embroidered ornaments.

On Saturday, my sisters were to arrive around noon with their Christmas card supplies ready to create. That morning, I still wasn't quite sure how my cards were going to come together. I had the ornament part under control, but not the cards.

I purchased some foamy double sided tape and figured I could make a frame for the ornament - with the foamy stickies creating just enough space between the frame and the card - so I could slide in the ornament. But I needed a little something to fancy up the frame - just a little, not too fancy.

Off to the internet, where I purchased some wreath clipart from pccrafter.com. Did a little magic in Photoshop, then printed the illustrations onto heavy paper and started cutting out the circle frame shapes. Found some more clipart for the message inside the card, and downloaded it, quick as a wink!

Photoshop to the rescue one more time - if the card recipient takes the ornament out of the card, the card would look fairly plain, so I scanned the ornament images from the book, printed them, and placed those images under the frame.

Well, all this creating can make you hungry, so my sisters provided some appetizers and some bread and I made one of my favorite recipes, Rachel Ray's Spaghetti and Meatball Stoup! Everything gets thrown into one soup pot, so the clean up is quick. Instead of using spaghetti noodles, I substitute small pasta shells. Yum, yum, yum!!

Now that the cards are done, I have to find some time to mail them! Please pass the postage stamps!

Joan