Old-Fashioned Xmas

This fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we're celebrating the look and feel of Christmas long ago by making cards with an old fashioned feel. You might incorporate actual vintage paper or lace, or use any of the many beautiful vintage-inspired papers and embellishments on the market; even a stamp or illustration with an old-fashioned vibe as your focal point will work ... whatever feels like vintage to you! Here's what I made:

vintage bits: jingle bells sheet music from an old songbook, german scrap bells; plus a red doily that may have once been my mom's so shhhhh don't tell her lol; patterned paper: authentique, basic grey; kraft cardstock: the paper co; flowers: prima; velvet leaves: 7 gypsies; inks for edges: ranger distress in old paper, antique linen and frayed burlap; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, scotch gluestick, gluedots, sewing machine 

It's no secret that I love --and tend to acquire-- plenty of genuinely older vintage paper and illustrations. In fact, I started my Etsy shop, Just Enough Stuff, partially as an outlet for all of my *extra* bits and bobs. So this week I'm super happy and proud to be offering a little prize from my shop to a randomly chosen cardmaker who links up with us this week! (Hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ for details.)

Meanwhile, about my card: I was inspired by this week's Sketch Saturday (#562) because that funky-cool angle is just so intriguing! It took me a couple of tries and a bit of trimming to get the right shape, but once I did, I loved how it looked! 

My top tip for working with flimsy or fragile vintage paper is to stabilize and strengthen it before I start, by backing it with some thin cardstock. My favorite adhesive to use directly on vintage paper is a Scotch Create Gluestick, which I apply plentifully to the whole entire surface, especially around the edges. I place an old catalog or some scrap paper UNDER the paper to which I'm applying the gluestick, so that I can run the stick out over the edge, ensuring that there is plenty of glue at the very very edge. Trust me, this is crucial. If you want to use a more modern adhesive like a taperunner or Xyron, apply it to the modern paper, NOT your flimsy vintage sheet music! (A tape runner used directly on old, lignin-full paper will often lift a layer of paper, rather than apply a layer of adhesive. Ask me how I know...) Once your vintage paper is backed with cardstock, however, you can pretty much treat it exactly like modern cardstock... so go ahead and diecut, punch, glue, etc with abandon! Alternately, you can scan your vintage goodies and print them out on modern paper. This gives you the advantage of being able to use them again and again, plus... you can re-size them to fit whatever project you're working on. Because it's nice to have options, right?

Why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see Stephanie's card plus... details of the *prize* (if you like that sorta thing, lol?) and start planning your own version of "An Old-Fashioned Christmas"!