we're going POSTAL...

...but in a GOOD way... at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight! thanks to a brilliant suggestion from our lovely guest star lela meinke, we're embracing all things postal and mail related, with a few different options for creating your cards:

create a holiday card which includes postage, faux postage or postal images 

(mail boxes, stamps, postoids, cancellations, postman, etc)

OR 

create a holiday postcard 

OR 

create a holiday card with a matching (decorated) envelope

i went with option one in the form of "postal images" by incorporating a scan of the front and back of one of my treasured vintage postcards, which was sent to a pair of sisters by their aunt in bethlehem, pennsylvania, on december 7th, 1907!*

(copy of a vintage 1907 holiday postcard from my collection, front and back printed on kodak premium photo paper and staples brand ivory colored inkjet cardstock, respectively; patterned paper: autumn leaves, echo park, basic grey, jenni bowlin; fabric ribbon (from leslie, ta!!!): webster's pages; (partial) floral stem: prima; "believe" sticker: sandylion; red sticky-back pearls: kaiser; distress inks and tools: ranger; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine)

i used kimber mcgray's card challenge sketch at two peas this week, which i think you'll agree is rather fab:

i was excited to learn that this fortnight the anything goes challenge blog is featuring early christmas, and the creative card crew are also clebrating christmas cards with their challenge #18 ... because of course i am ALL OVER that, lol! my fellow year-round xmas card makers at the holly jolly christmas challenge are calling for christmas florals, the use of which is never a problem for me; actually i have a hard time NOT putting flowers on pretty much everything i make, whether holiday-related or not! (this might explain why i find "guy cards" so much harder to make: no flowers, no bling, no bright pink... whatsa girl s'posed to DO??!) :) :) :)

i do hope you will take some time to check out the fabulous eye candy involved at all of these fine challenge sites, and don't forget to stop over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to leave some love for stephanie's and lela's absolutely gorgeous takes on our postal hijinks! whilst you're there you can read all the challenge details and see a photo of the prize that one lucky cardmaker will (appropriately enough!) be receiving in the mail at the end of the fortnight! enjoy, darlings!

*strictly speaking, when it comes to collecting vintage postcards, the pristine, unsent ones are actually worth quite a bit more; but i really love and prefer the ones that have been written on! in this case "aunt ruth" has sent a christmas greeting to "dear little helen and cora" to remind them they must "do what santa claus is telling all the children to do" so that he will come and visit them later in the month! i will gladly forfeit the physical perfection of an un-mailed version every single time, in exchange for such a wonderful little glimpse into someone's life, a century ago! ♥♥♥