… Silent Night

I’ve got another card for my post at the Card a Day Blog! The theme of the week is Christmas ornaments, and this card reflects one of my favorite ornaments… I bought 24 tin stars from LeeValley (search for victorian ornaments), and have had them on every Christmas tree since.  I didn’t want to lose one to a card, but I looked through my recycled stash, and found a star a similar size that I got from a quilting gathering (yep, another interest LOL).  The rest of the card is all Christmas wrap, cut and taped on with double stick tape.  I wrote the …. silent night with a Pen-Touch Extra Fine Point metallic ink pen. I just needed to remind myself to keep things simple at this time of year, and remember the silent night that made it all possible.

Now as promised, some recycling card tips I use:

1. Cut out parts of the images for embellishments… simple ones are best, unless you like doing fussy cuts with really good scissors. My favorite types are snowmen (easy!), although if the background is plain, you can cut out with a narrow border around the image too.
2. Sort out your old cards and pieces of paper in color types…. reds… greens… blues… etc. It really helps find the right ones.  I also use zip lock sandwich bags to sort some special papers that I want to keep from getting dog eared in my stash box.
3. Once a year, trash your stash (well, that’s what I should do, as my stash is much too big, but I do make an effort to go through my stash of cards and cut out the unnecessary parts of them and throw out the ones I don’t think I will use. 
4. Sort by season and occasion. 
5. Don’t forget the Flyers… I’ve got some great cards just utilizing junk mail! Remember the post I did here using a Boston Pizza ad?

I love recycling cards, it helps me get a designers eye when I see all the different designs out there. If I’m stumped for ideas, I look at some card sketch sites or my stash of cards to get my creative juices flowing.
The main thing is to keep having fun, and don’t worry about being perfect (or the card!). 
Enjoy your day!
Remember that the Card a Day Blog has a challenge going on for November…. for more information on it, click here