They say confession is good for the soul. Hmm. I usually feed my soul chocolate to help it to feel better. But maybe confessing should be my new diet plan. Certainly if I traded chocolate for confessions I’d be sure to drop a couple pounds, right? Right. And since there are still about a gazillion calories worth of leftover Halloween candy in the kitchen, I had better start owning up to a few things. I’ll start with something quirky.
I collect twist ties. Not in a weird put-them-in-a-shadowbox-for-display kind of way but rather in a baggie-full-of-them-stashed-in-a-kitchen-drawer kind of way. Why you ask? Well, because they are one item you can’t buy a package of at your local grocery store. Ever tried? I have. And it’s fruitless. So I deliberately save them in an effort to keep freezer burned veggies at bay.
Whew! They were right. That felt good. I’m ready for some more.
This next disclosure is a scary one to put out there in the paper crafting cyber world. It could cause a call for my “creative license” to be revoked. But I hope that in this season of peace and love, I will be granted amnesty. Here it goes.
I don’t send handmade holiday cards and, you better be seated for what’s next, I have been known to not craft my annual holiday party invitations. I know. Gasp! It’s unthinkable. It’s appalling. It’s downright wrong. But I have my reasons.
My foremost excuse is timeliness. If I were to make my holiday cards from scratch, it would be St. Patrick’s Day before they arrived in everyone’s mailboxes. Yes, the green color scheme would work, but people generally know the difference between a holly leaf and a shamrock.
My other rationale is tradition. I don’t do Black Fridays. There is not a discounted TV big enough in this world to entice me out of my warm bed at 3 AM the day after Thanksgiving. But put holiday cards, invitations, wrap and ornaments on sale for 50% off the day after Christmas and I’ll brave rain, sleet and snow to be there at the crack of dawn elbowing my way to a coveted spot in line. My mom instilled this annual behavior in me and we often go together; one to grab the goods, the other to steer and guard the cart. Over the years we’ve become a well-oiled machine. Synchronized swim teams even envy us.
But before you demand that I turn in my Herma and Cutterpede, let me defend myself. I do have holiday card and invitation crafting abilities. In fact, I’ve made quite a few over the past eight years. They’ve just all been for classes I’ve taught; but nonetheless, I do have skills. Here’s a picture of a card I made last year for proof.
See, I can do it. I just choose not to do it en masse. What I do choose to do is to embellish and convert store-bought boxed cards into more personable and usable sets. That’s my compromise. So when I’m out there the Day after Christmas jockeying for a good deal, I look for cards and invites that I can quickly and easily enhance or re-purpose.
Here are some examples of cards that I added embellishments to.
I started with this plain invitation.
And by adding a ribbon tie to the cover, the card is now much more elegant and perfect for a holiday dinner party.
This snowman card was screaming for some glitz.
So with a few dabs of glue and a sprinkle of clear glitter, the snowman now gleams with a festive brilliance.
It seriously only took my about a minute to add the glitter and wow, what an impact it makes.
I also love to convert holiday greeting cards into invitations and thank-you notes. This can be a great way to use up leftovers from past years. Here are a couple of ways to do that.
This card started with a regular holiday greeting on the cover.
I printed a thank you sentiment on coordinating cardstock and punched it into an oval shape. I then attached the shaped sentiment with foam adhesive and viola, a quick and easy thank you card.
Most times the holiday thank you cards are not on sale the Day after Christmas so this conversion is a perfect way to save some cash. Just look for cards that are blank inside and have an outside sentiment that can be covered without too much hassle.
Here is a leftover card from my last year's mailing. It would make the perfect invite to a holiday ornament making party.
By trimming off the "love" sentiment and adding a handful of hot fix jewels, this card is now ready to beckon guests to a fun filled afternoon of merriment and ornament crafting.
So I guess to coin a phrase from a popular TV network’s food franchise, I do things “semi-homemade”. I may not start from scratch, but I believe the results are appreciated just the same by the recipients. At least that’s what they tell me. Who knows, maybe they’re just humoring me.
I hope by exposing the rather quirky and shocking sides to my underbelly, which is also very soft and wiggly from all the “soul searching” chocolate I’ve eaten through the years, that I have given you the courage to start a project NOT from scratch. I hope that you will seek out and find cards and invitations that are conducive to further embellishing. And that you will enjoy the conversion process, turning the store-bought into the semi-homemade. It’s addicting and I’m sure will eventually emerge in your other holiday and yearly party planning.
But for now, I’ll see you in line at the “gold crown” store the Day after Christmas. My mom and I will be the two ladies with matching wet suits and sequined bathing caps. Watch out, we both throw a mean elbow.
~ Elizabeth (ekb)