Yeah, I know I'm coping out by putting all the rest of these into just one post, but around here is where I started the blog and I'm going to just link to the ones that are posted here. Deal.

2005 was the year Monica got me into scrap booking, the evil bitch. It was a short-lived hobby that lasted exactly long enough for The Dormouse to grow to reach the table and get into every piece of paper and scissor I ever owned or thought of owning. I then put the hobby away for... oh... eight or ten years.

I spent a lot of time making cute handmade cards out of cutouts and buttons. Apparently forgetting my previous vow to never make a Christmas card the required gluing again, I made a winter scene with snowflake cutouts on decorative paper, then I hot glued three different sized buttons onto the card to make a snowman. The inside of the card said, "It's wintertime... button down the hatches." I know. Waaaay to cutesy a card for me. I have looked everywhere but cannot find a single example of these cards. If you have one, I would really appreciate it if you would send it back to me... even if it's just so I can scan it and return it to you. It bugs me that I'm missing it in my Christmas card annals. And before my husband comments with some snarky remark about my anal-retentiveness, I'm not anal-retentive... I'm a complete-ist.

Edited to add: Hey looky there, someone did keep it! It's probably no surprise that a person with whom I share DNA kept a Christmas card from three years ago. Sad, really.


I'm just now remembering that every single one of these cards was completely different. This tires me. It also appears they didn't hold up in the mail well.

2005 was also the year I re-vowed to never do a Christmas card again that required a lot of gluing as after this venture, I no longer had finger prints.

2006 was the first year I re-posted a Christmas card on this blog. You can see it here.

This one is probably the card I've made that is the most talked and appreciated among my family members. Unfortunately, it will probably be the last to fit into that category.

2007's card was not posted on this blog because it was very conceptual in nature and didn't lend itself to blog posting. I no longer have a complete version of the card, but I can give you the gist of it. We created a "build your own snowman" card, where the front of the card was cutout and attached on the inside of the front to show through the cutout was this:
Then on the inside of the card, was the following poem:
For years now, we have labored
To make your Christmas card
We've stamped & glued & photographed
And worked our scissors hard.

This year we need a rest.
We hope you'll help us out.
Just take what we've enclosed here,
And you won't go without.

A decoration for your tree
Was our cunning master plan.
So use the pieces that we made
To build yourself a snowman.

We wracked our brains for other ways,
We covered all the outs and ins.
But all that we came up with
Was this snow job from us has-beens.

Happy Snowman Making!

Then you could take out all the pieces and put it together. Like so:



Some of my friends and family members (who shall remain nameless) made inappropriate snowmen and sent me pictures. Shame on you all! Also, if you still have the pictures, please send them to me again because I lost them and I want a copy... you know... because it was so childish and totally not funny at all.

Edited to add: ...and of course some of those nameless people had those pictures handy and immediately sent them along too. The difference between me and them is I may have saved all this stuff, but I wouldn't have a clue how to find it in under six months.



Ironically, this "do it yourself" card, was more work than all the other cards I've made in the past ten years... combined. I clearly needed more than just a "no-gluing" rule.

2008 was one of my favorites. Here it is.

OK - there you go. That's an entire decade - give or take a couple of years - of Christmas cards. If you want to see this year's card, tune in tomorrow.

Merry Christmas Eve.