SSS Monday Challenge "Celebrate!" and A Vintage Journey ends with a "Merry Little Christmas" December Challenge... Part 2: Deck The Cards!

 

This is Part 2- I guess it's the part where I say "See ya next year," lol. Actually, that's pretty close to the truth as this will be my last posting until after January 1, 2021. It's been quite a year, and I know you've heard just about everyone comment on that. No less here; I'm ready to be sooo done with COVID19 and get back out there to being with my friends and family once again. I missed way too many things in order to still be here and enjoy it more, so that vaccine had better work it's duty. Some folks are more afraid of the shot, but with me...what's one more when you do shots every week and your legs have all the tiny bruises to prove it? As long as it works, and the side effects are minimal (I also have the worry of 21 medications it may interact with); the pain of another shot- myeh! 

Missing my friends and family has inspired me with this set of makes. Each one is meant to be a gift in itself to bring a smile to its receiver. My church Besties (whom I did take gifts to and finally get one-on-one time with) each will get one, delivered with the help of one passing them out for me (in just a few hours from this typing- 'my' church time is during the video repeat in the afternoon). And the set of 4 3D-embellished that are the same/yet different, were delivered to my next-older brother, Gordon.

Gordon is only 2 years older than me, & grew up delighted over decks of cards- still enjoys them- collecting different kinds of decks (we both especially enjoyed the tiniest decks of cards from the gumball machines), or drawing his own. Among the favorite drawings he's ever done for me-, hung for over 20 years in my hallway. I finally scanned them and set them into packages for safe keeping. I can use the scanned photos of them for decor or even in my crafts as printed out grey/B&W photos to color, or just to use as is for embellishments. I even won Tim Holtz's The Tags of 2013 with them...my second year of 5 years doing Tim's "Tags of" line for each month. (Yeah.. *sniff-sniff*...that set of challenges ended, too. I must be a jinx, or what??) I thought it'd be fun to make some "Christmas Cards" to share since I was keeping the Part 1 cards "A 2020 Christmas Carol of Cards" for myself. People- who are the important part of life- are the inspiration for most of my makes.(Hmmm...my FurryKids are included in that, also!)

                       So, here we go; Part 2 of the Cards...

              (These first photos are the same as in Part 1 but added once again.

                  For texted details- click on the link in the previous paragraph above.)

             (Begin new photos which complete the "How To" for the Part 2 Cards.)

I rubbed over all the stenciling and then used a paint brush with dabs of water,

to smear the TH Antique Linen Distress Crayon for some depth.

I chose another route with this Distress Inking...

More of a different colors layering to look like a fog kind of appearance.

You can see the brightness of it in the following photos below...

Some TH Metallic Spray Stain in Tarnished Brass- for a gold look that was brighter. 

I cleaned the nozzle out for a fine spray to work,

but then the 'blotches' on the paper towels from the cleaning, caught my eye.

I decided to do both: I 'blotched' the spray on some cards by sticking the nozzle close up,

and kept it at a distance to spray more like sprinkles.

The effect was actually pretty cool- you can see here how different

they all look rather than from plain sprinkle-spraying.

Then, it was time to embellish- I got out quite a few of my fave TH Christmas dies,

as well as the TH Paperie "Blackout".

After cutting all the die cuts, I sanded each piece very carefully,

and also chose more 3D embellishements (such as TH IdeaOlogy Icicles-

in which this is the old retired Icicles and Showflakes).

I do have the new Icicles, but have yet to open them- till I get done with these.

Part 2: Deck the Cards!

I did keep the backs, yet again. 

The set done with 3D embellishments- for my Big Bro, Gordon.

Can you see the TH IdeaOlogy Snowflakes peeking out?

Don't worry about that heavy-handed Glossy Accents...it's officially "ice" here. LOL

This is probably one of the cutest ideas I've come up with- admittedly- even though I detest snow.

My Grandbabies all got snowglobes with their photos inside, this year.

Our younger Son always had a love for them- still having kept a real globe

from the Christmas his Grandma Larimore (my late MiL) gifted to him.

The Grandbabies have 'starter' globes; very kid-friendly that are not glass.

All gift-wrapped and ready to make smiles happen!

These sets are being entered into the same challenges as Part 1 set:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge; Celebrate!

and

the very last challenge that will be held for

A Vintage Journey: A Merry Little Christmas

      Once again; THANK YOU! for joining me during this very strange and challenging year. I look forward to more Challenges, but hopefully not from COVID19! May you also be inspired enough to rise to the challenge of creating something that you can call your very own handmade project...

              ... And come ENJOY THE JOURNEY with me

                                              in 2021!

             Stay SAFE, Wash the HANDS. Wear the MASK,

                                 HAPPY BLOGGING, &

                      Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

SSS Monday Challenge "Celebrate!" and A Vintage Journey ends with a "Merry Little Christmas" December Challenge ... Part 1: It's a 2020 Christmas Carol of Cards!

     

   Merry CHRISTmas!! No, I don't think it's too late to say that, not because it's only 2 days post, but because the very fact that CHRISTmas celebrates the birth of The King of Kings means that we proclaim His birth- as well as His sacrificial death and Resurrection- every single day of the year. Immanuel means "GOD with us", and HE is! Let's face it, folks, like it or not: if you celebrate Christmas, then you are celebrating the above Holy Birth, and aaaaall the rest. Yep. But that's not meant to be boastful; only praising! And when anyone celebrates with, the more reason to be merry! 

     Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog chose to make Celebrate! their theme for the week of December 21st, and it's perfect for what I was busy with in the background of the holiday. I've stopped making Christmas cards altogether, since it took literally a full month to get them done and out. They were not handmade as most Crafters would think, but rather works of photographic art. I would compile a file on my computer of "Best of" photos that included all the happenings of our family during that year. If the photo didn't 'say it all', I'd add a bit of text (yeah- that was a real stretch for me to keep the text simple, lol!) someplace next to the pic. It really did fill an entire half-fold card since our family not only did quite a bit, but our boys were pretty successful all around in everything they did. That's not a brag; we were BLESSED and we know it! It was a huge undertaking; the creating of the template, the card itself with it's printing, folding, enveloping/licking, and stamping (I spent several years doing all these 3 things while on my treadmill, no less!), and the ultimate addressing (eventually printing after years of hand-addressing), pre-sorting for the US Post, and finally....the cost of a single stamp beat me out. Actually, it was the death of my late Mom-In-Law that helped it come to an end, since most of our cards can be hand-passed at church. I even made up an alphabetized box for church, so that everyone could easily find their own cards, as well as pass them out. It was my MiL who loved the cards I made. It was actually years before I knew this. I was sitting with her and mentioned thinking of ending the work it took to make the cards, when she said "Oh, but I LOVE your cards!" I was floored as she went on to explain how the usual 'Christmas Letter' became a thing of bragging words, whereas the photos I showed helped her be a part of 'reliving' the year in it's best places. So I kept on, and her unexpected death in February 2011 just helped my decision to end the cards. All of this comes to mind with the 10th year we miss her- in 2021.

  Meanwhile, A Vintage Journey has issued a message along with the December Challenge, that this will be the last. Ever. For now?? I mean, c'mon, people...I'm feeling like every Challenge Blog I've tried to enter in 2020 (getting out of my 'only this one' box) has stopped in one way or another. (Previously was Mini Album Makers Challenge which stopped mid-year.) I can honestly see the point, though: I am totally awed by the amount of sheer work that goes into making up a challenge- let alone going through all the entries via social media in so many forms now. I cannot imagine how anyone would think it "fun" to do that kind of workload just for everyone else to have all the fun creating just one (or more if they choose) project. These crafters/Lead Designers/people-with-the-patience-of-a-saint are just downright AWESOME!!!! But then....Crafters are just that, and more. So, while I just got the gumption earlier this year to join this elite group of Challenge makers/takers, who am I to say plans otherwise? I can only give a huge shoutout of 

                                           THANK YOU!!!

for the memories of all the stunning work- which still appears not only on Pinterest, past blog posts of A Vintage Journey, and - I am totally unashamed to admit; my own files of photos of the makes along with the names of the makers, which I can refer to and look up their latest for more inspiration or help. I am grateful ALWAYS for the Journey in which I have been BLESSED to be able to tag along- even if it was considered by Twitter as "creeping". I PROUDLY CREPT on your makes!! (LOL) I wish I could type in every name here- but I know I'd miss someone. So there you are: if you were somewhere along with me in A Vintage Journey...I THANK YOU! Please accept my humble last offerings...

    Part 1 of my Cards... "A 2020 Christmas Carol of Cards"

(And MANY THANKS to all the Tim Holtz Addicts folks who made ATC Cards from a deck of playing cards- or their own ATCs from which the inspiration came! You know who you are!)

I started out by playing with a full deck.

;)

I really wanted to keep the backside the way it is: pretty old and well used.

The gesso job I wanted needed to be LIGHTLY done.

I really wanted the card itself to show through- at least for now.

I did the entire deck- thinking if I wanted to cover any of them more, I could do it as I crafted them.

So here's the first batch lightly covered...

you can see I was fighting my usual "coat it thick" habit.

Not only did I forget all about those end-of-year-finds from last Christmas,

but the new TH Stencil Deco Arch came in from an order to The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Also in that order was TH CRACKLE PASTE!!!! 

Can you tell I am excited to finally get my pallet knife on this stuff?!

It's already got a good hunk used out of it at this typing.

I went through both drawers of my inks to pick out some faves that would layer well together-

in my own humble opinion, anyway...

...and started layering up.

This was the result of the backgrounds so far.

I had saved most of the scrap pieces (the inverted cuts) from the We Three Kings Tags

from the TH Alterations Die Cathedral Arch in hopes to use them for later projects like this.

And from the ending photos, below, I can't wait to use more of them in 2021!

The TH Paper Dolls were chosen at this point since each had to fit inside the

cards and also be able to show the backgrounds a bit in each.

I set the pieces up according to what the card was planning to show as part of the story-

as well as match the Paper Doll in each.

Here's a point where I finally just did what Paula Cheney suggested: simply DIP IT!

It's been a fight for me- the Tim voice kept saying in my head

"C'mon, you know you want to..."

as if reading it in his CCC Volume 1 for the first time.

So I did it.

And that was EASY and FUN!

I cannot say if it should be done with every project- but this one used similar shades of color.

Then....the TH Embossing Glaze came out again.

The backgrounds before adding any embellies- here you can

see the darker colors of TH Regular Inks of Forrest Moss on the green for some depth. 

Some Freebies! Everyone's gotta love getting freebies from The Funkie Junkie Boutique !

And these little paper embellies came in handy for this make.

While I do have the TH Alterations M&S Die Set Mini Clock/Camera,

I chose to use the one that came with my order from Linda.

Adding some embellies along with colors for the Paper Dolls.

That light set FINALLY sees use, and after I found out it was not a 'sticky';

I want more for next year! It came as a clearance at Hobby Lobby, so...we'll see.

And this is the story...

It seemed to fit this very strange year of 2020.

The Card of Christmas Past: Pre-COVID19, we gathered together and ate off each other's forks.

The Card of Christmas Present: COVID19 pretty much put a stop to the little girl's

lit-up bus ticket trip to her Bestie's house for Christmas.

That's why this is a 2-fer-1 Card- it must be correctly socially distantanced.

The Card of Christmas Future: We WILL gather again!

We will- GOD willing- celebrate together once again. Perhaps not in time for 2020, 

but that gives us all the more reason to celebrate CHRISTmas every single day!

Just in case you're wondering if I did anything to the backsides...lol

Part 1 ends here- but not before I comment

THANK YOU!

for all the nice comments on ALL my projects throughout the year!

Every little thing adds up and even those peek-ins are a boost of inspiration!

THANKS to everyone for all the wonderfully SWEET prayers, thoughts, and wishes

for my ChiefHubby's new life adventure of Retirement...

I sometimes wonder if I should try paying someone to hire

a handicapped, sickly worker (aka ME)

in case HIS retirement drives me crazy?? In any case, I yelled to him the words

of wisdom I've often shared with anyone who needs to hear them:

"GET A JOB OR GO TO SCHOOL!!"

My own kids love me for that imparting of words to them. LOL!

Stay Tuned-

for Part 2

and - as always-

Stay Safe, Wash the HANDS, Wear the MASK, &

HAPPY BLOGGING!