T Stands For Christmas / Winter Infinity Card, Christmas Tree, Dog Mug And Seagull

Hi friends!

Happy Tuesday!  Well last week didn’t work out as planned.  Turns out my cold was actually flu and I spent most of the week in bed with flu symptoms and exhaustion (having to move all that wood didn’t help!)  Apologies for not getting around to everyone but I was flat on my back and had no energy to even eat never mind switch on a computer.  Let’s just say, it was not a great week.  It’s not completely gone yet but at least I can function.  I did no art at all, and got really behind with posting my Christmas cards too which means that they will probably all arrive late now, especially the overseas ones.  By Sunday I felt well enough to write out some cards and do a bit of catch-up journalling but I really had no energy at all. I had to keep taking breaks just to sit down and breath.  Much much later than planned, I also managed to put the tree up but I was just so tired that it almost didn’t happen.  I had to keep talking myself into dragging out the decorations, assembling the tree, finding batteries for the lights etc – versus the much more appealing option of putting the box back upstairs and having a lie down.

The fact that Miss Lily has her eye on that silver star and won’t leave it alone (that’s why she’s on top of the bookcase), and her brother, Mr G, is constantly trying to eat the branches at the bottom of the tree makes it all worthwhile doesn’t it? haha at least the cats appreciate my efforts!

Today’s Art . . .

For today’s art I am taking a break from showing all the journal pages for all the daily challenges I am doing/was doing, and instead I am showing you a set of “infinity cards” that I made for my book group friends before I got sick. The above photo may look like four different cards but they are in fact all different sides of the same card – and I made five of them, which considering each card has four sides, was a lot more like making twenty cards than it was making five cards! Bear this in mind if you want to try it!  It was very time consuming!  I always try to do something different to the rest of the cards I send out to everyone else, and I had in my mind some kind of interactive card – my initial thought was a concertina card that they could open up and display as Christmas decor – but then by chance I came across this post on the Paperartsy blog from a few years ago, and thought that this infinity card would do the trick!   In the blog post Etsuko references this post on how to cut and assemble the basic card which you can then decorate as you choose.  That post has all the details you need to be able to make the card, plus a handy video.

I used a couple of the same Lynne Perrella stamps that Etsuko used but not all of them, plus I added in other stamps from Alison Bomber and Scrapcosy to make my non-traditional Christmas/Winter cards.  Here is how the card looks when it comes out of the envelope – side one…

Then it opens up like barn doors to reveal the second side…

Then this opens up top to bottom to reveal the third side…

And then the third side opens like doors again to reveal the fourth side…

And finally the fourth and last side opens to take us back to side one again.
If you’ve never seen one of these cards in action, and I know my non-cardmaking recipients haven’t, I made a short video to show it works…