Ho Ho Homemade

I love making things at Christmas. I love making personal presents for people at Christmas. Sometimes I forget how long that takes. I saw on the HBO TV show, 'Treme', (Tre-may) that Mardi Gras participants in New Orleans begin making their costume for next year the day after the Mardi Gras parade is over. I am never that long-sighted. Usually around Thanksgiving I get some ideas for gifts then realize that the lace-knit scarf I am attempting to complete is only 3 inches long. This year I realized I just had lots and lots (a whole lot) of scraps of paper that I had practiced printing on for possible collage/mixed media projects. I also had leftover pieces from old projects. Plus I had been demonstrating meat tray printing (seriously, save those styrofoam trays) from a class I taught last month and decided to have fun with those. It is the simplest form of printing and can be done by drawing a simple image on the styrofoam with a ball point pen (press hard) then brushing paint over the surface and stamping on paper.  A little black marker outline for accent plus a dot of gold ink and....Voila! Christmas card!

 I have to admit I love quick results. It's so instantly gratifying that you can afford to toss the prints that are smudged or less than perfect. But a little imperfection is also what makes this technique so charming.

I was originally making little mini quilt Christmas cards but they take quite a bit longer. So far I have made exactly one:

 So I went back to paper cards. A little paint, glue, and sparkle. Some easy carve block prints put to good use. After that I will have to sort out who gets what card. I may run out. I might have to go back to the drawing board.