Archive for December 1st, 2011

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December 1, 2011

May Your Holiday Shine

May Your Holiday Shine, a Christmas CardThe first card (click on the image to see a larger version) in my 25 Holiday Cards Challenge pulls together techniques that I’ve learned in the last month or so. I incorporated both the homemade glitter paper that I made and I used the watercolor technique to fill in the tree.

Here are the details:

  • Background: Homemade white glitter paper
  • Main image background: Curly Label Punch in Baja Breeze, with a drop shadow centered at 0,0.
  • Trees: Row of Trees from the Lovely as a Tree Stamp Brush Set, in Basic Black
  • Middle Tree: Watercolor technique with the Splatter from the Extreme Elements Stamp Brush Set, in Handsome Hunter, with opacity adjusted in a few stamps to create the look of depth.
  • Decorations: Circle Punches, resized, in various shades. Star from A Holly, Jolly Christmas Stamp Brush Set in Whisper White
  • Gift: Gift from Jolly Bingo Bits in Whisper White with Brilliant Blue Square and Circle Punches behind.
  • Sentiment: Typed in the Lucida Calligraphy font.

 

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December 1, 2011

The 25 Holiday Cards Challenge

When I was in high school and my younger siblings were in elementary school, I would spend the weekend and days before Thanksgiving piecing together homemade Advent calendars. I would gather poster paper, glitter, construction paper, glue and all the old Christmas cards I could find and spend hours each night while they were in bed creating a family calendar.

These homemade things were anything but polished, but I loved the process of planning out something for each day and waiting eagerly for them to open each door and see the image inside.

I have a collection of Advent calendars now, mostly from Hallmark, which I put up to mark the days from December 1 to Christmas Day. It’s fun, but not quite the same thing. Last year, a friend on DeviantArt told me that she was participating in (as I remember it anyway) a challenge to take and post a Christmas photo each day, from December 1 to December 25.

Stacked Santa Boxes (6th of 25 Santas)The idea captured that Advent calendar lover in me, and while I was never going to produce the kind of professional-quality photos she does, I decided to try something similar. I would have a bit of a scavenger hunt to find and photograph a Santa for each day. The result was The 25 Santas of Christmas. They’re not the best pictures, but they all make me smile.

It’s now December again, and I’m kicking off another challenge for myself. Each day, I’m going to try to post a holiday card that I’ve designed in My Digital Studio. It seems like a more difficult challenge than just taking photos, so I’m allowing myself to focus on just having 25 cards designed by December 25th. If they don’t go up every day as I’d like, that’s okay.

So prepare for a flurry of cards from me, and if you’re interested in tagging along or trying a smaller challenge (12 cards of Christmas?), please do!

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