Friday 16 January 2015

Upcycling Christmas cards

To be honest, I didn't find that 2014's shop bought Christmas cards which were sent to us were as good a prospect for upcycling as in previous years - purely in terms of upcycling potential I hasten to add! Which means I'll have to just work harder on making Christmas cards from scratch this year :)

But, I did keep a few to upcycle and this card, for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge -' Inspired by a Christmas Carol or Song' was made using one of those very cards. The song/carol I chose could be one of several, particularly. 'Deck the Halls with boughs of holly' and/or 'Oh Tannenbaum':
I used:

- A5 cream card stock with gold embossing round the edges

- a piece of gold mirri card, topped with a piece of holly patterned card (no name but it's very much like KanBan)

- the front of a Marks and Spencer card, sent by a friend, die cut using a die from the Spellbinders 'A2 Distressed Edges' set and then mounted onto a backing of straight cut deep red satin mirri card

And that was it! The in-house critic said to resist adding anything else.

This card does show how great the Spellbinders 'A2 Distressed edges' dies work with more traditional images. Remember, there's a set of these as this week's prize in the Snippets Playground over here! But you only have until 11am UK time on Saturday.

Di
x

24 comments:

  1. Your house critic was spot on. This needs nuthin' else to be as lovely as can be. The deckled die was perfect for the image, and loving that background holly paper with your image. Great recycling, and terrific interpretation of the challenge theme too. TFS & Hugs

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  2. Would never realise it started life as another card. That red mirror card has certainly come into its own here. I managed to keep quite a few to reuse but they are all small cards and I need to have one 6" square for a project . Bother! Hugs Mrs A.

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  3. Love this deckled die for a distress look and holly backing paper are very nice, you recycled it beautifully!

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  4. A great card Di - some great upcyling! I've got a few cards in my upcycling box but, like you, don't think it's as many as the previous year.
    Kath x

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  5. It's fab! I struggled with upcycling too, but managed to get a few tags made out of them, which is something at least :-) x

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  6. Fabulous upcycling Di, the deckled edge cut image looks perfect with the red border and holly card xx

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  7. Fab piece of recycling here Di. xxx

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  8. Very pretty, love he recycling. I have a pile of cards off to one side of my desk to go through too!!

    Hugs
    Brenda

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  9. Lovely card there Miss. I found that many didn't lend themselves to be recycled. Mine are in a bag awaiting sorting...bit like me really!
    Hugs
    xx

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  10. Great bit of upcycling....lovely card Di

    Anne

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  11. What a pretty piece of upcycling Di and the deckle edge die is perfect! I love the way the holly in the topper is matched beautifully by that backing paper and the gold mirri frames it wonderfully, and the IHC is spot on as it definitely needs nothing more. x

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  12. Fab upcycling Di and I love that edge. Have a wonderful weekend huggles Sue xx

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  13. Love this idea...awesome card! Have a great weekend!

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  14. What a fabulous Christmas card Di! I love that you recycle your cards, and I've been inspired to try to too. lol We will see how it goes for me! Hugs, Brenda

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  15. Oh wow Di this is again another one of your stunning creations truly beautiful l love it!!

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  16. Lovely card, Di - thanks for sharing for CHNC challenge 211 (don't forget you could enter too for CHNC challenge extra for January) x

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  17. Great use of the re-cycled card and as my cards were arriving I thought some would make good recycled cards but then once I'd taken them down I thought otherwise. But to be honest I have enough stuff that I haven't used yet to make Christmas cards with so do I really need to re-cycle.
    Come away, come away with William Tell........ do you remember that, just playing the music on Radio 2.

    Ah well, sometimes it's great to be an Oldie.

    Kath x

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  18. I kept enlarging this card and going back to look at it. It is really beautiful. I remember when I was a young girl how we had bubble lights on our tree that looked like these. Makes a gorgeous tree and your card just shines like that.

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  19. What a great recycled card Di! I really like the gold & red mats, and those deckled edges add to the beauty in such a special & pretty way! NJ!

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  20. Fabulous card and fabulous recycling too!
    I will do Miss, thank you Miss as I've not managed much craftiness this week! But I will be back, soon! xx

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  21. Fab recycling, Di. I love your mirri card borders.
    That edge of bling just makes the whole card extra special.
    Caroline xxx

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  22. So glad I introduced you to the distressed edge dies! Lovely card. I've saved mine this year inspired by you to do some up cycling
    Linby x

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  23. I agree with this year's (last year's?) cards not being all that exciting for upcycling. I'm seeing a trend of photo cards with pictures of the family. I think that would be downright odd to recycle.... I'm gonna have to think that one through. I like what you did here though. This card is no slouch and has lots of loveliness to look at. Have you checked out the faux tiling technique Mrs. A posted? That's a fab idea to recycle Christmas cards. I might try it myself.

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