Repurposed Christmas ATCs

One of the ATC groups I trade in decided that repurposed Christmas packaging was a good theme for our trade this month. Sadly, in a fit of highly unusual (for me) organization and promptness, I had all of my Christmas stuff tossed or stashed BEFORE New Years' Eve.  I know...I'm a little shocked myself.  Lucky for me, one of my boys had a gift bag in his room full of nice, white filler. 

Snow immediately came to mind of course.  I also, as I do every year, have pledged to use my stash more. 

I've had this reindeer die for a bazillion years and it mostly collects dust.  Out it came. 

I love gel bead medium, but it's stashed in a drawer so it also rarely gets used.  Out it came.

A tray of acrylic inks is sitting on a shelf, but it's away from my working area and often gets overlooked.  Out came the blue ink.

Strolling through the aisles of JoAnn's last month I found myself standing in front of paper packs ON SALE.  There was a pack of cork paper - cool!  Not sure what I was going to do with it, I landed a pad in my basket.

I love how this has a bunch of texture on it.  I stamped over the cork reindeer with one of my fave Stampotique stamps and as I looked at it, it occurred to me that the swirls looked a bit like targets.  Oops!  Not what I had intended, but fortunately I had stamped with Distress inks so I just dabbed them a bit with a water brush.  A few gel pen highlights later and we were good to go.

The cards sat on my desk for a few days because something was bothering me about them; they felt unfinished.  This morning I realized it was the blank space in the corner and a little fir branch was just the thing.  Now they're packaged up and ready to be mailed.  Yay!

Wishing you a fab weekend!