A Very Vintage Christmas

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven. Christmas is drawing ever closer, and I just wanted to share a card I made for my old friend, Helen. We became friends when our children were small and we still meet to go for woodland walks from time to time. I decided to use a neutral colour scheme for this card to evoke the winter woods where we take our walks and I should like to enter it for the current Our Creative Corner Challenge.

I have not made batches of cards this year, although I know many crafters find a 'production line' satisfying and fun. I have just felt more inclined to create a few cards for special friends and use the time spent crafting them as a meditation. For Helen's card I chose Bo Bunny paper for the background, distressing it around the edges with some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. This paper has a beautiful design of bare branches appearing through the mist.This reminded me of winter walks shared with Helen and our children, especially one year when there had been a heavy snowfall and the sun glistened on the snowy branches and seemed to create diamonds as we looked. I then took the Paper Artsy Mini 26 stamp, inked it up with Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil Archival Ink and stamped random script without a block to suggest a worn manuscript.

I had some card left over from stamping out snowflakes for another project, so I used this as a stencil and sponged snowflakes through in Potting Soil. I also painted some of the Bo Bunny paper with Paper Artsy Fresco paint in Caramel blended with Toffee and touched it with some Rose Quartz Treasure Gold. I punched some tiny leaves out of this and also stamped it with some of the script and then curled and Treasure Golded the edges. The leaves and scrap of what looked like a torn page, I put aside to use later, but again I used the card left behind as a stencil. The tiny brown leaves reminded me of the few last leaves that remain on the trees in the woods at this time of year.

I then got out my Big Shot and die-cut one of Tim Holtz's tags which comes with two book plates. I used the one that resembles a little frame, painting it with Paper Artsy Nougat edged with Cinnamon and decorating it with some little pearls and some of my punched out leaves. I coloured the tag with a blend of Nougat, Caramel and Toffee Frescos and a little Vintage Photo Distress ink around the edge and I then stamped it with the Lynne Perrella Christmas label stamp from LPC017 in Potting Soil and finished it off with some Gesso, an Old Gold Skeleton leaf and some pearls, after which I sprinkled it with some UTEE and just melted it to give texture. I stamped a rectangle of card coloured with the same blend of Frescos and  edged with Shabby Rose Frantage and Gesso with the wonderful Santa from Artistic Outpost's Snowy Woods plate stamped on it in Potting Soil. I found a die-cut leaf left over from another project and painted this with some Nougat and Chocolate pudding and then melted some of the Shabby Rose Frantage over it before applying some Rose Quartz Treasure Gold.

I added some cream hemp to my tag with a little Gesso and Rock Candy Distress Glitter to add a frosty touch and Frantaged the top corners of my card. I really enjoyed putting together the elements that went to make up this simple card, which suggested to me a Very Vintage Christmas. The wind was howling down my chimney as I made this and I could imagine those last few leaves swirling and dancing with flurries of snow-flakes as Santa passes by muffled against the bitter blast with his sack full of traditional toys. Thank you if you have stopped by Magpieheaven so near to Christmas. I have appreciated your visits so much since I began blogging back in April 2013. A Very Merry Christmas to my visitors and to quote Tiny Tim from Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' that so defined a traditional Christmas, 'May God Bless [you] Every One' in 2014!