Variations on a theme.

Last Christmas I decided to use a deer and tree theme for my personal cards. I made the cards using an  electronic die cut machine system that uses cartridges to create the various deer images from glittered papers. After posting some of the cards, I was very surprised and somewhat disappointed at the number of comments I received about the fact that I used an expensive machine that many crafters don't have or can't afford in this economy. The truth is that it’s not the media that’s important but the idea! The original deer and tree theme can easily be duplicated in a variety of ways without having an expensive die cut machine … it’s all about imagination! To prove my point here are some examples of holiday deer themed cards. All the cards start with a basic size 2A (4¼” x 5½”) white card.

Sticker Version

Although the original card was made using silver glittered paper, the sticker version uses two colored Sticko/E.K. Success stickers; which I overlaid on a light blue metallic strip of paper from The Paper Company. The text is from an A.C. Moore sticker sheet. The use of color makes this card, I believe, a little more masculine.

Rubber Stamp Version #1

For the first rubber stamped card I used a couple of Inkadinkado/E.K. Success winter scenery stamps side by side. To create the silver glittered effect of the original card I embossed the stamped images with silver embossing powder from Ranger. For the background I again used a piece of light blue metallic strip of paper from The Paper Company. The text is computer generated.

Rubber Stamp Version #2

So far the deer images have been small … so for the second rubber stamped card I used a Stampin Up! Single deer stamp. To create a ground line under the stamped deer I used an embossing pen. Again I embossed the stamped image with silver embossing powder from Ranger. For the background I used a piece of dark blue metallic paper from The Paper Company; which was the mounted a slightly larger piece of silver paper, also from The Paper Company. The text is from an A.C. Moore sticker sheet.

Die cut Version Version #1

These days many companies make dies and these are certainly a lot less expensive than electronic die-cutting systems. The deer family was die-cut using a Memory Box die from mirrored silver paper from The Paper Company, to continue the glittered effect. I mounted the die-cut image using raised adhesive dots and then framed it with silver sliver Design Line stickers from Mrs. Grossman’s. The star is a Hallmark sticker.

Die cut Version Version #2

The original idea was to show how motifs could be recreated … so I decided for the final card to recreate the sticker deer card using die-cut images. The deer family and background pine trees were die-cut from white paper using Memory Box dies. I colored the die-cut images Upper portions only) using Color Box Cat’s Eyes ink pads. The die-cut images were overlaid on a blue background. The text is computer generated.

So, next time you look at a card, don’t think about what you don’t have … think about what you do have!