Christmas card designs for 2012

My friend Sharul came over and we made a few Christmas Card designs for this year.  She is going to give the ornament punch card to her in-laws.  I am thinking of making more of the stocking punch cards for this year's Christmas mailing list.

Update: several of my green inkpads dried out and will not give me solid impressions.  This is because my home is very dry during December.  Afterwards, I bought Ranger's ink refresher for $5 in a spray bottle.  This is a money saving tip for those times when the inkpad is just dry and does not need to be reinked.  It may also prolong inkpads for which you don't have a matching reinker.

Juan's custom camera case

   
I made a custom camera case for Juan. Juan seemed happy with the finished product made to his specifications.  It is designed to be used with the case on. Lense cover and viewing front opens selectively. His right hand fits in the right side of camera case (stretches) to fully operate all buttons & dials.  It's also water resistant.
The strap is covered in cushy double layered neoprene. It is machine embroidered with Juan's name.  Embroidery already has a stabilizer backing, and was easy to sew.

It took almost 2 years, because I had to learn about sewing neoprene and had to test several snaps, reinforcement materials, and lots of ribbons and binding materials.  There were a LOT of trial and error!

It uses 3 mm neoprene, Pellon super heavy duty stabilizer (reinforce body), heavy duty snaps and regular sew-on snap for one-side (the original heavy-duty snap was too strong).  Button holes for strap connection were reinforced inside.  Button hole stitching had to be hand reinforced.  The machine will not feed properly on satin stitching due to stretching of neoprene.  All exposed edged were enclosed in ribbon or binding mostly by hand.

I am never making another project requiring intricate sewing using neoprene.  It's fine to make simple bag-type covers for a laptop or a iPhone using neoprene, because it is just one seam and does not have to accommodate differently shaped pieces and different stretch and stiff properties.

Re-purposed Thanksgiving cards

Hello, I needed quick Thanksgiving cards, but was all out of them. I re-purposed existing thank-you cards.

The only additions were the turkey stamp in bronze embossing, then cut to fit inside existing squares, and the "Give Thanks" greetings.  I stamped 3 pumpkins in light color on the last card as a background.  Hope this will give you some ideas on re-purposing cards made for other occasions.  Jennifer. ;-P