Patchwork Christmas

I have been itching to start making Christmas cards (I salute those of you who are well along this path - but this is early for me!) Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week is patchwork which was the perfect inspiration for me.

I absolutely love the Graphic 45 Christmas papers so I knewI would start there.  They remind me of home spun fabric. The first thing I did was cut up A LOT of paper into 1" squares.

When I started I was going to use 1/2' squares.  Three hours into the project I was awfully glad I chose the one inch size! I started playing with designs and finally decided to use a simple pattern of squares on edge. In fact it's simple I can't find the name for it! Once I had them all cut up they reminded be of the beautiful quilts of Marsha McCloskey called Blended Quilts. I've made a couple of them and throughly enjoyed auditioning all the fabrics. However, they take a LONG time to complete. Hence why I'm drawn to paper - you can actually complete things.

Once I started laying them out I had some floral designs which helped me decide on the type of embellishment I wanted to use - flowers.I had these beautiful small prima roses and I paired one with some Ideology leaves I had melted embossing powder on (thank-you for another great way to use the products you already own Tammy Tutterow).  

I also used some alcohol ink on a metal tag, and a Tim Holtz Rub-on. To Becmake sure the squares lined up nicely I cut 1" strips of red paper and glued all the squares onto the strip. It also helped add more depth to the card. Because I wanted it to look like patch work, I used a micron pen to make some dashes between the squares and then around the entire design. 

As I was making the card, I had one of my sisters in mind. She once spent 12 hours making a beautiful birthday card for a member of the family....so happy this didn't approach that time schedule. 

Hope there is magic in your life!

In addition to SSS, I'm also entering this in the Try It On Tuesday color explosion - seasonal!