Its always been a struggle for me to find a packaged set of Christmas cards that I like. The style of card I prefer is anything but traditional. When a Christmas card has a black background or anything out of the norm, yet remains in a cool Christmas spirit, I’m hooked. So this year I thought to myself, why don’t I make my own, the sort of cards I would like to receive? I do send out a lot of cards each year and therefore usually do rely on the packaged sets. I’ve vowed to make Christmas cards my ‘thing’ each year, even when I can’t send out birthday wishes or anything else throughout the year, Christmas is my one time to remind all my “faraway” friends that I care. I vowed this year to fix my distaste with mainstream Christmas cards and create my own.

Simmering in the creative Arizona juices this Winter, not only did I gear up for my card making, I got serious about my crafting tools! Deciding to go with my signature “Gear” style for once, I found a nifty little boxed set of gears for about $4 at Michaels, and invested in my first glue gun. I also bought a small pink tool set for jewelry and leather making.  I bought a big stash of steam punk and Tim Burton themed paper and designs, various Christmas sticker sets, and with the Nightmare Before Christmas somehow on the brain, as you can see, I came up with some very different and unique card ideas.

Each card ended up being completely different from the others. Without following a template, it really let my scissors go where they needed to go to make some really odd shaped cards. But indeed, that was the point. These cards are non-traditional cards. Perhaps they aren’t even supposed to make sense. The glue gun was the biggest advancement to this crafty workshop in the extra bedroom, and contributed to a large amount of gingerbread men, heavy-duty paper, little metal clocks, scandalous red ribbon, and the signature gears.

          If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.

           Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t.

          And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?

Usually I leave my creative card making for individual birthday cards, and after over 20 of these hand made babies, its easy to remember just why I don’t make all the Christmas cards myself every year. I even sealed each individual envelope with a drop of K.