two-page tuesday: cards, cards, cards

Tonight's work started with some planning - namely, planning how to make good use of the Christmas cards I already have in my stash and figuring out how many cards I needed to make.

Finally! I've had these delightful photo-holding cards for quite a while, and this year, with one of our engagement portraits going into the Christmas cards we send, felt like the perfect way to use them.  I was also happy with the opportunity to use other cards I had on hand, as well.

But even with that stack of cards to use, I still have about thirty cards to make.  So tonight, I began working with a large bag of Christmas supplies that I worked with a couple of years ago, but didn't finish. (On the left, I also have the paper pack that I used in my December Daily 2011 album, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can create with it for cards.)

This is the type of card I love to make - so simple, and yet clear in intention. That I had enough to make three of them? Even better.

 I even had enough to make this vertical card with almost the same design.

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" - I was pleased with how I got to use this wonderful Santa sticker.

The maroon mulberry paper is something else I've had on hand for quite a while, harking back to my "I think mulberry paper is awesome and want to use it all the time" phase early in my scrapbooking days. (That the local scrapbook store carried it in so many colors certainly didn't help.)

 This did not turn out quite how I'd hoped - mainly because the pattern of the background paper is stronger, visually, than I thought it would be, but also because I used a larger card than I should have. Eh.  I still think it's fun.

And to end the night, I set aside the Christmas supplies...

...to make a birthday card for Mr. Baker Blonde. His birthday is tomorrow - eep! - so it will arrive slightly late, but I couldn't not send him a handmade card.  It just wouldn't have felt right.

And even though this is about cards, I can't resist sharing this funny music story, too.  Since I was going to work on Christmas cards tonight, listening to Christmas music seemed appropriate.  Yet when I found this particular album in my holiday collection, my first thought was, "I can't believe I ever felt like this CD was something I had to have."  My second thought? "Hey, why not put it in for a spin?"

40 minutes later, when it finished, I went to put a different CD in. Except that my computer wouldn't play it - or any other CD I tried. What?!  Either my CD player was expressing its disapproval of my musical selection (a la "Really? You made me play that? You don't get to play anything else tonight!"), or something's wrong with it.  Most likely the latter, but the former sounds more entertaining, yes?  We'll see how that goes.

Where I am: home
What I'm reading: the current issue of Experience Life magazine