D.O.T.S.

Does anyone remember the company Dozens Of Terrific Stamps?  This was one of those trendy crafting parties my mother and her friends used to throw when I was in elementary school (I googled the company and it looks like they went under in 1992 to give you some perception of time. Damn I feel old).  My mother was always gifted with creativity and artfulness, and although I love these same things, gifted, I am not.  My brother was the artist amongst the two of us (he created some BEAUTIFUL pottery in high school that I wish I had more of).  Anyway, growing up, my mother, brother, and myself went through all sorts of crafting phases and all of the remnants are stuffed away in boxes somewhere in my parents’ house.

So about two months ago when my college friends and I decided to get together to do some cookie baking, I volunteered the idea of making some Christmas crafty stuff as well.  We had originally planned to hit up a Michaels (does anyone in Brooklyn know where the hell else I can find craft stuff?) upstate and get felt to make stockings.  A few weeks before meeting we decided to abandon that idea and I offered to raid my mothers stamp collection so we can all make handmade Christmas cards.  And raid I did.  I would say about 50% of her old stamps were of the holiday variety and she still had tons of printed paper and embossing powder.  $100 later at Michaels and I had 6 new inkpads, cards, envelopes, a 12 pack of crazy scissors, and the Martha Stewart Embossing Gun (the gun is totally worth the money vs. using a blow dryer or toasting oven for safety and efficiency).  I overspent, but I haven’t been in a craft store in so many years, I was overwhelmed with excitement.

So in between baking on our Saturday, we cleared the table to get crafty.  Here are a few examples of the cards we made.

A few nights ago while I was wrapping gifts I realized I didn’t have any tags, so I decided to make some!  A simple picture on one side, a nice holiday message on the other, some tape and some ribbon and I was done!

I tried to emboss the white – but it ended up looking a little flat and translucent. I remember there was some sort of powder that actually puffs up like a marshmallow that I’ll have to get for next year.

I love the contrast of the gold on the teal paper – a little hard to read if you look at it at the wrong angle, but I figure people are only looking at these for a split second anyway.

So about 30 cards and probably 30 tags later and I’m all done with Christmas!!  Happy Holidays!