The 12 Crafts of Christmas - Day 11

** Please welcome our latest contributor, the fabulous Don from HR! Today's post is his handiwork - I just uploaded it for him while we work out some technical difficulties. Hooray for Don!  - Holly  **

On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: festive custom stationery!

I settled in with lots of craft supplies, determined to produce some of my own cards to send out via snail mail to my friends this Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had just purchased a set of blank cards from Fabric.com and couldn't wait to see how they turned out. Armed with a set of markers, ink pad, my favorite owl stamp, ribbon and cardstock, I flipped on Wheel of Fortune and got stamping. Surprisingly, my efforts turned out well.

For the owl card, I pulled together all my green and blue markers and started to color. I used an olive green ink for the owl stamp. This makes a great "anytime" card. The hearts on the card could be changed with any color markers or even adding glitter (I was not that ambitious).

For the "you make a difference" card, I rubbed my blue ink pad over one of the cards to create a variance in color, which was shown to me from one of my fellow crafters at work, Michelle. Then, I used crafting glue to adhere my ribbon and card stock to the card. I did use a little too much glue (oops), but my candle sat on top as a weight for the night ensured that the card was good to go this morning.

For the "Heartfelt Thanks" cards, I plan on using this at Thanksgiving to send out to relatives. I purchased small craft jewels to embellish the stamps that I had purchased online, along with a maroon and brown ink pad. After using the stamps on the card, I attempted to use some glue dots for the jewels, which did not turn out well. I ended up moving to the craft glue to ensure the jewels stick to the stationary. This was the most time consuming part of the card creation. On the bottom of each card, I added a foil leaf that I had saved from last year (my mom is infamous for adding confetti to cards), attached with craft glue.

For the remember card, I used a tree stamp from my collection, along with some sticker ribbon and a "remember" stamp.  I was attempting to create a more serious card with this endeavor. I accidentally messed up the first time I laid the stamp down with the olive green ink. Instead of tossing the card, I re-stamped it creating a look of multiple trees in the background. I laid the black sticker ribbon in front of the trees, trying to create the illusion of a wrought-iron gate in front of the trees. Finally, I added the "Remember" in black ink.

As always when you are stamping, make sure you clean your stamps between ink changes and after you are completed.