Prelude to the Holidays

In my previous post, I discussed how creative prompts, which can take the form of challenges or exercises, light the creative fuse. It seems appropriate to follow up that post with the results of this month’s Blogging Business Artisans challenge, Prelude to the Holidays. LeAnn of Pasqueflower Ponderings challenged fellow team members to come up with a holiday-themed project:

October! It is time to start thinking ahead to the holidays—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year. They will be here before we know it! This month, I challenge you to create a holiday-themed item. It could be a new listing for your Etsy shop, a holiday decoration for your home, a costume or special accessory for a holiday gathering, or a gift you intend to give to a friend or loved one. Since ‘prelude’ is a musical term, you could also make something music-themed if you wish.

The timing was excellent for LeAnn’s challenge. After the holidays last year, I thought about developing a “12 Days of Christmas Recipe Exchange Book,” but hadn’t fully fleshed out my ideas. Well, there’s nothing like a challenge to help an idea come to life!

My initial thought was that I would design 4-inch by 6-inch recipe cards for the book, using minimal embellishments so that there would be ample space for the recipe itself. I pictured cards with a narrow stripe of holiday-themed paper along the top of the cards. I planned to insert the cards in Teresa Collins Pre-Punched Page Protectors like the ones shown below. However, to my dismay I discovered that when you remove the pages from the package, you have to peel them apart and that is when the risk is greatest of tearing the pre-punched holes. Never mind that the package warns you, “Pull apart gently.” I did, but I still ripped a page.

I began re-thinking where the stripe on my cards should be, and then it occurred to me that I could include a top-and-bottom stripe if I reinforced the pre-punched holes. I folded a one-inch-wide strip of paper lengthwise, adhered Scor-Tape to it, and covered the pre-punched edge of each page protector. Then I added a second strip to the bottom of each page, purely for decorative purposes. This was the result.

The covers of the book came next. I embellish most of the books I make with a flower, but because this book will likely get a lot of handling, I decided to adhere a fairly flat flower. I used a Poppy Stamps Blooming Poinsettia steel craft die set to cut out the petals, leaves and stamens. Because the die pieces are very small and have a tendency to move as they go through the Big Shot, I used the new Sizzix Magnetic Platform to keep them in place. I love this gadget!

Before I adhered the flower to the book, I outlined the edges of the petals and leaves in gold with an Elmer’s Metallic Painters marker, and emphasized the veining in the petals with  an At You Spica pen, and the veining in the leaves with a VersaMarker watermark pen.

This book is ready to be listed in MisterPenQuin. I suspect others will follow!

© 2013 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.