Vintage Christmas !

Hello ! I have something a little different for you today. I have been working on some samples that I have made for my class; they are going to be making  Christmas cards, with the emphasis on distressing and vintage ! Some cards are inspired by the Victorian era but I love the 1920's and have used some lovely images from that era too. There are lots of sites which allow free downloads of vintage ephemera and these are good to use as a main focal point for your card.

I concentrated on adding lots of layers and punched lace edges to a cream card base. This card features a doily which I stained with a wet tea bag, some designer paper, some stamped holly leaves and an insert made from some very old tracing paper.

The rossette is made from paper ( 30 x 3.5 cm, then punch the edge ) which features MOP buttons and I've added a snowflake and stamped sentiment and edged with a platinum glitter.

These little 1920's children were printed onto vellum and cut out and then using vellum tape applied over the paper; I really like this effect as it is very delicate and pretty, as you can see I couldn't resist adding a little glitter !

I love Toile de Jouey and this was the inspiration for this card which uses red and tones of cream/stone. The red card base is layered with some red and stone parchment printed paper and then a torn punched layer of more paper, followed by the  Santa topper cut from a sheet of designer paper. I added in a stamped and cut out holly image and a Merry Christmas stamped sentiment. 

This message strip is easily cut from card and rolled around a pencil to coax it into shape. These cards always look good with a bit of bling, beads or glitter, but keep the aged effect by not choosing anything too brash.

For my last card I started with a cream base card and punched the edge and then inked about 1-2 cm in from the edge in red. Then I cut a piece of paper printed with vintage tape measures the same size as the front of the card and tattered and rolled the edges before adding some stamped red holly leaves, inking the edges in sepia and blinging with more platinum glitter. When added to the card it reveals the red underneath.

Two more layers of paper in green and red were added before popping on the topper and a punched lace edge, oh, and a green gingham bow !

Vintage cards from the Victorian era through to the Twenties and Thirties were quite detailed , so add lots of layers and fancy edges to get the look. These cards are actually quite simple in concept but take a little time to make as they are labour intensive with all the edgings and distressing effects, plus there is quite a lot of measuring ! 

I have more simple vintage style cards to come featuring lovely 1920's Christmas images, so do stop by and check out this space soon ! To find your own toppers try searching - ' vintage Christmas ' , ' 1920's Christmas ' , ' vintage Christmas children ' , ' Victorian Christmas ' and you can always use the word ' postcard ' in your search because many cards then were in the form of postcards.

Until next time, thank you for your visit !

Hugs Jane x