Making Christmas Cards

Reba got me thinking about Christmas Cards. I've been making my own Christmas Cards since the mid 1960's, and it has been a wonderful way to send a personal holiday greeting to all of our friends. I started out by making silkscreen prints, but gave up on that method finally: the solvents were very bad to work with, increasingly hard to get, and the water-based alternatives didn't work as well for the prints I was making. Since I'm a biologist and botanist, all my cards have been related to plants with some holiday connection; thus I needed a method that would present the color and detail of the subject well. The mistletoe, done in colored pencil, was the image for last year's card. The clubmoss, Cattleya orchid, and red maple are images from Christmases past.

Now I use either colored pencil or watercolor to make the images for my cards; then I photograph or scan the artwork and then use a high quality color printer to make giclee prints on card stock. I order the cardstock (and matching envelopes) from a supplier of high quality paper.

Here are a few images used on past Christmas Cards:

I was inspired to start making cards by a friend of my husband's parents named Oley Speaks, a composer and songwriter who every year composed a Christmas Carol, printed the music, and sent it as a card to his friends. I can remember thinking that this was one of the nicest things someone could do: give something of themselves to others at the holiday season.

More Printing Photos...

Well, I'm finally back with a few more printing photos! I hope this will give everyone a little bit of an idea of the process. This first photo shows the carved block on the left with it's matching printed card on the right.

After ink is rolled onto the carved block, paper is then laid on the face of the block and pressure is applied to transfer the design.

Coming up next.......Christmas cards!

~Reba's Prints

Printing Cards

With the dawn of a new season, comes the change over from garden and outdoor activities to replenishing my craft inventory. To give you an idea of what I'll be working on in these colder months, I've put together a sampling of some of my printing blocks and cards, highlighting part of the printing process. I am now busy at work on a selection of Christmas cards which I hope to share with you soon!

~Reba's Prints

P.S. For one reason or another, I'm having some difficulty uploading all the photos I wanted to share with you in this post, so I'll try publishing them in my next post. Thanks for your patience, and please check back again soon!

Rag Rugging - The Beginning -Equipment

When the rug braiding workshop was cancelled, my mission of using up old clothes and leftover fabrics for a rug disappeared. Or did it? I had heard about rag rugs, but what were they? I think I have found a new way to recycle old cloth, and there is someone else in the NEK who does this, too! Rag Rugging. This is done with enormous crochet hooks and one inch strips of fabric, or heavy yarns or fabric and yarn together and on and on, what ever one can dream up. So here is what I have come up with so far. Don't forget, Youtube, you can see what this is immediately. I am going go be a while. So...first we have the tools: electric scissors, cutting mat, good cutting shears, cloth cutting tool and rulered straight edge with handle. Rolled balls of the cut strips keep things tidy. Next, cutting tips.