Christmas Cards

It's that time of year, when I put away my normal projects and get out my Christmas supplies. I've learned to start early if I plan any Christmas projects, and since I've now set a precedent of homemade Christmas cards I try to get those done first. Maybe not quite as many homemade ones this year, I'm going to try to limit it to people who I know truly appreciate them, so I still have some other kinds of Christmas projects left in me. This is a sampling of ones I've made this year - people have suggested that I just design one and make them all the same, but I just can't get myself to.  I'm sure it would be faster, but it would take the fun out of it I think.

I make very few cards these days, but they take me back a few years to where this whole art journey began - happening to see a copy of Stamper's Sampler (a Somerset magazine) in a Barnes & Noble, and looking through it and realizing what could be done with stamps. Then a few weeks later I decided to walk into a store I'd been curious about called The Paper Garden, and it turned out to be a wonderful store full of paper and every kind of stamp imaginable. I decided it was meant to be, bought my first stamp and went home and played with it and made my first card. Now, many many stamps later, I don't use them as often, less as a focal point and more as background for larger projects, but I still love them...