Super Quick Christmas Cards - Use up Your Stash!

I went to a garage sale in town last weekend. The home belonged to an elderly lady who had hired a company to go through and help her prepare her belongings for sale. When I got there it quickly became evident that she was a real shopper/hoarder. There were a lot of new things and a lot of duplicates. It really got me thinking. 

Recently I've had a few discussions over the concept of simplicity. People that have had to clean up family homes after they'd passed will often tell you they ended up having to throw a lot of stuff away. We came across the same issue with my mother and father-in-laws place. It was actually hard to do, but no one wanted it. Not even thrift shops. In our situation we were pressed for time as we don't live where they do, and the house had to be sold. 

With all that in mind I decided to make Christmas cards this year with what I had. No more new stamps or diecuts, no new papers or embellishments. Just use up what I had, even if they were simple cards. It's the thought that counts. Right? 

I pulled out this barely used paper pad by Recollections I got a few years ago on sale.

If you take a close look, you can see that not only are there background prints, but also some fun vertical prints and block prints. I chose some background prints and a vertical print for these cards.

 All I added was some pop up dots, some glue and double sided tape, and a bit of ink for the sides. That's it. 

I cut out panels for the front of the card. There was a strip of quotes at the top that I  trimmed and used for sentiments.

Then I measured out some background cardstock for the inside. I also cut some panels of white cardstock to write onto. 

I looked at my stamps and realized I have no Christmas sentiment stamps. I may have some digital ones, but I'll use them another time then. I'll just write these in. Here are the three cards. I could definitely embellish them with glitter glue or something else, but the fronts are already busy and so I'll leave them as is.

Using the same paper pad, I cut out a few of these blocks from another sheet.

In addition to being able to make cards with these, I thought these would make great mini cards for kids to make, or easy Christmas gift tags. Just cut out a white folded card base and adhere, or use as is with a hole in the top for the string. 

Many paper pads follow the same basic outline. You can often find pages that have vertical or block type prints on them that can be incorporated into cards or used as the main card focus. 

I'll most likely be making some special cards for people as well, but these are great in a pinch or for the kids or grandkids to give to their friends. 

It feels good to use up old stock!

Blessings,

Carmen