Christmas Cards I Save!

Traditional Japanese objects that are part of
Oshogatsu New Years celebrations

Christmas Cats!!  I actually bought the long accordion fold card
and saved it to display every year.  The little cards on the left: I
bought a box of these cards and send them out jurdiciously to those
who I think love and value cats; the littlest one was sent to me.

I used to do the One-of-a-Kind Show at the Chicago Merchandise Mart
every early December, and received this Christmas card from them.  I
love the scenes of downtown Chicago and the bright colors.

LaVonne Marshall used her painted
watercolor papers to collage this
Christmas tree long ago.

Japanese cranes from my mother-in-law
in Tokyo.

As I mentioned in my previous post about Japanese Pop-Up cards, I save the really unusual ones, especially if they're handmade.  This group are mostly multi-fold accordion style.  I set them up all over my main floor so that in the white landscape of winter (really bright from all the ambient light reflecting off the snow) or the dark overcast days and blizzard conditions (like today), I can see them.  And I have to admit I keep them out until I know that the snow and ice are really thawing, the sun is getting higher in the sky and the intensity of light is greater.  So hope you enjoy these, too.  (The cat ones are my favorite, of course!)

The accordion fold cards are inspiring me right now as I am working on a piece for my Lakeshore Fiber Arts Guild's brown bag challenge which will be accordion folded but a hanging piece (vertical) rather than a horizontal standing form.  That post to come.  Actually the next post will be about handmade ornaments.