Four Calling Birds Envelope and a Somewhat Out-There Christmas Card

Welcome to my spot on the

Let’s dive right in!

Does it bother you, all the advertising we still get send via USPS? Toyota must have truly wanted me to buy another car since the dealer spent bucks on a 10×13 inch red cloth envelope! I saved it to put a stencil on it.

I left the mailer inside in case some of gesso bled through as I was covering the writing. It took 2 coats. I was PATIENT this time and let the one side dry, then painted a green telephone handset and cord (good grief are these phones vintage yet?) to cover the bit of writing on the other side, and a pine tree top at the opposite end for my birds to perch on.

You’ll need stencils with birds so you can stack ‘em facing different ways. I used Gwen Lafleurs’s Cardinal for the base, Mary Beth Shaw’s Scandinavian (that’s what I am calling it) bird from her Stencil Club set next, then 2 little birds by Cathy Nichols—one from StencilClub, one from Peace.

Back to the envelope side with lots of gesso. I stenciled holly in the corners and stenciled “4” as a “2”. The post office elves will need to hand cancel this envelope. (They did not stencil perfectly – my sponge was too wet – but they’ll do.)

Guess what fits pretty perfectly as an upcycled card in my big recycled envelope? StencilGirl’s large stencil mailer. (Ok, I had to trim it a little!)

Now I must admit, because I coordinated our hop, I saw what the team made first and in one of the thumbnails I, being a sound-minded and certifiable science fiction fan, saw a UFO and a little heart bodied alien sailing down. Thank you Torrie Gass, I could not get the image out of my head all this past week! Peace is a cool stencil! That top ornament looks like a little hot air balloon, there seems to be a paw print, an accordion heart, to say nothing of the flowers, feathers, leaves and sweet bird.

Back to my over-sized card: I covered the front of the mailer with ephemera papers then washed the front in hues of blue (Paper Artsy Glass Blue and Frosting Glaze) atop the small Windswept Tree stencil by Cathy Taylor—little aliens needed a place to land!

On my card, it has just begun to snow, courtesy of Night Sky Mini stencil by Lesley Riley.

I stenciled the alien ship with Gold All Purpose Ink.

The little alien parachutists did not look quite so much like the vision in my head, so I made them alien comets (aka snow beings) and gave them bodies with a couple other parts of the Peace stencil  using green and red and white acrylic paint. I embellished the snow beings and their ship with a white Uniball pen. 

It was at this point that I went back and embellished feathers, feet, and eyes on the 4 calling birds.

See, I digress… 

Christmas is coming,

the goose is getting fat,

please to put a penny in the old—

Oh! We aren’t caroling yet? But I like caroling.

Fa la la la la—

The backside of my card, you ask? Scrapbook paper from my stash and my name and date. Unexciting.

Interior? I drew a line in pencil and stenciled Vintage Ornaments all the way across the top. Then I drew on them a bit with Inktense pencils. (Seriously, I think these would look great along the top of gift bags too!)

I used Mary Nasser’s Longitude and Go Your Own Way, plus the teardrop from the small Vintage Camper Trailer  stencils for the “from our home to yours” message then embellished using paint, pencils and pens where needed.

Ten! I think this is the most stencils I have ever used in one project. More stencils = fun choices!

Click to discover more Christmas and Hanukkah and patterned stencils for your holiday projects!

May you sing outside the box this Christmas and may snow beings bearing stencils carol in your head! Carol

But wait! There’s more!

Speaking of hopping, if you have landed here first somehow, be sure to check out the rest of the StencilGirl Creative Team Holiday projects and, if you like the ideas, we’d love it if you shared our hop with your friends!

Comment by midnight CST in the USA on November 8^th and we’ll randomly choose a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate winner. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win. We’ll announce the winner on our Facebook Page on November 9^th.

Here are links to all the fantastic, magic, merry, holiday projects:

Karen Gaunt

Tina Walker

Torrie Gass

Cindy Gilstrap

Sherry Canino

Sandee Setliff

Kiala Givehand

Janet Joehlin

Belen Sotelo

Louise Nelson

Debi Adams

Carol Baxter  (You are here.)

Wishing you happiness!