christmas cards...CHECK!

hi all!

pezza's party was super cute yesterday.  her teacher is really good and those kids are perfectly behaved in there!  i guess that is sort of a must if you teach right?  which is why i don't teach hahahah!  i also put some more faces witth the names i hear her talk about.  one little boy i was especially curious about, ernest.  she has a love-hate going on with him.  initially she adored him but as the year has gone on she sometimes she says she doesn't like him.  the reason?  he talks alot - meaning she can't be the one doing all the talking!  cuz if anyone talks alot it's HER!  hahhahha!  so she may have met her match in little ernest!

i am happy to say i got christmas cards done and mailed out this year!  yay!  i did something a little different though. First i made three large paintings for my mantle:

then i photographed them, edited and jazzed them up a bit in photoshop and printed them out onto cards - here are the two card fronts:

 

i got an Avery pack of notecards and envelopes - like labels - so all i needed to do was pull up the right template number in word to position the images correctly.  then i printed a saying and our signatures on the inside.  i love how they turned out!  however next year i think i may start earlier (bwa hahahahaha!!!) so that once printed i can add some more artistic touches to each individual card.  OH and if you are wondering how i did the fancy edges it is easy - clipping masks.  you can get them in any digi store online.  one of my favorites is Scrap Girls - loads of goodies plus extremely good tutorials on how to use the goodies!  here i used their Grungy Stencils.

as for the paintings themselves - i started with MDF like always - sizes are 18x12, 15x9, & 12x12.

i taped of the squares and painted them with Luminarte Primary Elements mixed with a glazing medium - gorgeous shimmering amazing paint!

once dry i sponged on some white across the entire piece

Next i saran wrapped on some gold acrylic paint across the entire thing

time for ornaments!  i drew them out and cut them from sturdy posterboard. 

i covered them with wrinkly tissue paper, fancy trims and even spirals of gardening twine and let it all dry completely

I painted them using more Primary Elements and glazing medium paints.  To bring out the beautiful textures i rubbed the surfaces very lightly with Viva Decor Inka Gold.  a great big florist bow on top finished them off!

and now i am off to do the last bit of prep work for my last kids mixed media class today.  they will be bringing home their three final boards - i sure hope the parents like them!