Christmas Cards!

I love to get pictures of our friends in the mail at Christmas time!  I also love to make my own...anything I can!  This year we are actually sending Christmas greetings in three different "formats," which is part due to my blog-searching for free offers from companies like SeeHere and MyPublisher, and partly due to the fact that I just love to make things with paper.  So, today after I baked cookies, two cakes, and a cheesecake all to put in the freezer in preparation for our big party this coming Saturday (more on that this weekend!), I sat down to see if I could get what has been brewing in my head, to actually look good on paper.
My thought was to cut out Jesus in a manger, and put a pretty piece of paper behind it to show through.  I even went to my favorite paper store and purchased a darling little Christmas flower print, but things evolved a bit differently...

First, I borrowed my mom's Christmas clip art, and found a good manger.  I held it behind my card stock and up to the window to trace it (it would have been easier to use my mom's fabulous light box, but I wasn't at her house today...), and then I cut out around the trace with an Exacto knife.  I didn't realize that it would pop up like this, which isn't what I had had in mind, but kind of fun nevertheless.

Then I cut that first card in half, so that I could just use it as a guide for my cutting, instead of tracing each one first and having to erase pencil lines.  I slipped the next card behind the cut one, and cut around the design.  This time I wasn't pushing quite as hard, and not all the lines met, so the manger stayed in place.  I could have broken through every piece, but I decided that I kind of liked the way the cut lines looked, as is.  Aware that the manger had the potential of looking a little like an animal without explanation (even though I know people should have the context...), I added Luke 2:11.

The lighting isn't the best here, but this is the finished card.  Inside is the simple greeting "Merry Christmas."  Don't worry, I'll find another use for that Christmas paper I purchased!