Countdown to Christmas #4- Homemade Christmas Cards

As I said in Countdown to Christmas #1, I’m making most of our Christmas Cards. A few years back while surfing the ‘net, I found this interesting method of making cards or decorating scrapbooks- Iris Folding. The “iris” in the Iris Folding refers to the eye of a camera- the aperture. The iris of a camera is a series of movable blades that open and close to increase or decrease the aperture. The pattern in Iris Folding looks similar to the blades of the camera. I found a few different patterns for the cutouts and then went crazy for the pretty papers. You usually need three or four different color schemes for this to really come out nice. So I surfed again to see where I could buy papers.

What was I thinking?

Sitting at my desk that year, I flipped over my Avon calendar- the one calendar I keep on my wall at work. I’ve been getting an Avon calendar for 10 years from my consultant (and friend) Sharon Love. Isn’t that a great name? Great name, great lady- she always took care of my Avon needs, when I had them, and then for Christmas gave me a calendar. Then she got laid off. We’re still in touch, but in the meantime, another consultant (and friend) started giving me the calendar. Thanks Nanette! It’s such a pretty calendar- close ups of flowers…

Hey, I thought to myself. What if I used the calendar for my papers? I ripped January through October off and started cutting. The card came out beautiful!

Okay, I think I’m onto something. To practice, I used a Lia Sophia jewelry catalog to make a heart card for Soulspeak’s beautiful wife, since she was the one who sold Lia Sophia. Look at me! I’m recycling! Once you cut the piece and fold it, you lose what it actually is, and it gets all abstract. Perfect. I’ll use my old catalogs.

The only problem now is I’m saving way too many catalogs.

This year, I picked the bell pattern to send to everyone. I’ve been doing the Iris Folding at work (I run a lot of very LONG routines) and I assemble and decorate the cards at home. I’ve only used the Plow and Hearth, LL Bean and The Smithsonian catalogs for the cards so far. Can you tell? Getting there...
Before assembly
Finished product

I was thinking about holding crafting classes as a way to make a little extra money. What do you think? Would you take a class in Iris Folding even though there are tons of tutorials out there on the Web? I’ll see what kind of response I get from the cards. Maybe the soccer girls could make them for next year’s craft sale fundraiser.

So if you get a one of my cards this year…act surprised!

0 comments:

 

Copyright © 2009 Inner Pieces Designed by csstemplatesmarket

Converted to Blogger by BloggerThemes.Net