12 Days of Christmas Cards

Around my house I am constantly looking for ways to consciously anticipate Christmas.  This habit is one of the ways that I try to keep the real meaning of Christmas present in my mind and heart as well as in our family.  As such, we've celebrated Advent and the 12 Days of Christmas for the past few years.  Sometimes loving friends bring gifts every night for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, sometimes I've made the 12 Days of Christmas gifts for others, and usually we celebrate Advent with Bible readings and other Christmas thoughts while lighting candles on our wreath.
 










This year I wanted to provide a small gift to the ladies I've regularly attended women's Bible study with.  When Lori at SaintsRule! made this beautiful card, inspiration was born.  The design allowed for quick assembly line type production and was perfect for creating 36 cards in rapid succession- the only way this gift was going to come together during this busy season.






















Like any good craftaholic, my first stop was Hobby Lobby where I picked out four coordinating papers (those on the card at the left here).  When I returned home realizing that this wasn't nearly enough paper, my first thought was to return to Hobby Lobby and see what else I could find.  Then I returned to my real life where we don't own a money tree but do own a Scrapbox.  Shamefully, it's like my own mini-store.  So I went shopping and found all the other lovely Christmasy papers that were languishing in my stash.
 









Thus, these babies were born.  I've captured images of the six different designs that I created from the papers.  I made six duplicates of each attaching 12 different verses to the cards.  The verse frames were printed onto cream cardstock and cut using my Cricut.  The technique is similar to what I used here.  This can be a little tricky, but with some trial and error, very doable.  The trick I suppose is to learn to let a piece or two of cardstock go when the cuts don't exactly line up to the printed sentiments.  All paper layers were inked on the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  The twines were taken from the stash- again, who needs a craft store when you've stored all your various leftovers.  It is remarkable how well the colors coordinated.

I punched a small hole at the top of each card so that the recipients could re-use these cards as gift tags and I purposely didn't seal the envelopes they came in so that they could also be re-used as cards.  They are open faced- no folded "card" behind them.  I chose verses based on this list online, but modified them slightly to fit/match the version and intention of my gift.  A handwritten note encouraged these ladies to open and read one per day until Christmas Eve and to contemplate the wondrous gift of our savior in anticipation of the coming birthday celebration for Jesus.    Our last study for this year was the day before the 12th day before Christmas.  It was perfect timing.  Now, if I get my act together, I just might share the other 12 days of Christmas that I'm planning for my niece and nephews.  These 12 Days will be delivered Christmas Day to be celebrated after Christmas and will include gifts that are a little more concrete for the littles.  We'll see how these last four days of anticipation play out for me.

Andie