I am horrible at getting Christmas cards out. I think I've done them about 3 or 4 times in my life. I always intend to but I just never get to it. I don't know if that makes me selfish or lazy or what, but at some point you just have to own up to certain things about yourself. I am not a Christmas card person.
Here's something else I have to own up to. This is a box of 6 blank water color cards. Look at the tag!
Do other people have crap like this? I have carried this thing from Texas, to New Jersey, to Idaho since 1994! That's 14 years! It makes me question my sanity. What's crazy is that I'm not a hoarder or pack rat at all. I purge on a regular basis! But for some inexplicable reason I have held on to this item through the years, the apartments, the cities. I have packed it into countless Ryder trucks and U-Haul boxes.
Which I why I am thrilled to tell you, not only have I made Christmas cards this year, but the destiny of that box of 6 blank, well-traveled, watercolor cards has finally been realized.
I saw this great Christmas card project on Bethany Actually (via The Crafty Crow) last week and it completely revved me up about making cards! Cheap, easy and great looking all in one? Sign me up. Plus many people had been suggesting tissue paper gluing as a great art project for kids on my art supply giveaway post so I was already thinking in this direction. It was a perfect storm.
Huck loved the project and I think we'll be trying to make more things with this method in the future--I'm thinking birthday cards, gift tags, gift wrap for small packages, you could even make an ornament using the technique.
Supplies:
Big piece of tin foil
Elmer's Glue wash (Elmer's glue mixed with water)
A sponge brush
tissue paper in various colors
scissors
In the original project the tissue paper was cut into postage stamp sized squares but I thought Huck could be more involved if we just tore the pieces into odd small shapes. I used a variety of colors but doubled up on red and green so that no matter how we cut it, the end product would have a Christmas-y feel.
I showed Huck how to "paint" the glue on a section of foil and then start sticking little bits of tissue paper. He caught on fast and became completely focused on the task almost immediately. I made one, too. We listened to a great Christmas playlist my sister made and I tried to work slowly, at his pace, just enjoying the time together. It took him about an hour to fill in an 18" long piece of foil.
Along the way, we used the sponge brush to stick down any flyaways and then did a wash over the whole thing at the end. Then we let them dry.
Later that night I cut the collages into trees and used spray mount to put the trees on the cards. Since there were only 6 of them in the box I also used some other special papers (and various mismatched envelopes) I've been carrying around for almost as long.
I used the new watercolor crayons for the inside message so that Huck could come along behind me and watercolor them.
And this message on the back as an added touch.
We'll use the trees from my collage for business cards and the ones from Huck's for family.
Now, the really hard part...addressing and sending them. I know I'll get out the ones for business and probably the family ones but whether I can get my act together to get them out to friends too is still questionable. But as Stephen keeps reminding me, I have the best "get out of jail free card" of all this year. And at least I used those damn blank cards, finally.
