Heartfelt Blog Hop! Holiday Greetings

This fun November Blog Hop is by Heartfelt Design Team Alumni....and one lucky visitor who leaves a comment will win a 25.00 Gift Certificate!! Make sure you leave a way to be contacted!

Make sure to visit all the designers and see their creations!

Dina http://mamadinis.blogspot.com

Selma http://​selmasstampingcorner.blogspot.c​om/

Karen Taylor http://​www.creativeyearnings.blogspot.​com YOU ARE HERE

Olga http://​craftieodamae.blogspot.com/

Tesa http://tesasscrap.blogspot.com

Clare http://​clarespaperworks.blogspot.com/

Marsha http://​stampingdownsouth.blogspot.com/

Carla http://​www.carlasstampingspot.blogspot​.com/

Debbie http://www.debbieseyer.com/​my_weblog/

Linda http://​paynehollercards.blogspot.com

Today I am sharing a Christmas Card....but did you ever wonder.....

Did you ever wonder who sent the first Christmas Card?
A relatively recent phenomenon, the sending of commercially printed Christmas cards originated in London in 1843. Previously, people had exchanged handwritten holiday greetings. First in person. Then via post. By 1822, homemade Christmas cards had become the bane of the U.S. postal system. That year, the Superintendent of Mails in Washington, D.C., complained of the need to hire sixteen extra mailmen. Fearful of future bottlenecks, he petitioned Congress to limit the exchange of cards by post, concluding, "I don’t know what we’ll do if it keeps on." Not only did it keep on, but with the marketing of attractive commercial cards the postal burden worsened. The first Christmas card designed for sale was by London artist John Calcott Horsley.	Who sent the first Christmas card?
A respected illustrator of the day, Horsley was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman, who wanted a card he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a "merry Christmas." Sir Henry Cole was a prominent innovator in the 1800s. He modernized the British postal system, managed construction of the Albert Hall, arranged for the Great Exhibition in 1851, and oversaw the inauguration of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Most of all, Cole sought to "beautify life," and in his spare time he ran an art shop on Bond Street, specializing in decorative objects for the home. In the summer of 1843, he commissioned Horsley to design an impressive card for that year’s Christmas. Horsley produced a triptych. Each of the two side panels depicted a good deed-clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. The centerpiece featured a party of adults and children, with plentiful food and drink (there was severe criticism from the British Temperance Movement). The first Christmas card’s inscription read: "merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you." "Merry" was then a spiritual word meaning "blessed," as in "merry old England." Of the original one thousand cards printed for Henry Cole, twelve exist today in private collections. Printed cards soon became the rage in England; then in Germany. But it required an additional thirty years for Americans to take to the idea. In 1875, Boston lithographer Louis Prang, a native of Germany, began publishing cards, and earned the title "father of the American Christmas card." Prang’s high-quality cards were costly, and they initially featured not such images as the Madonna and Child, a decorated tree, or even Santa Claus, but colored floral arrangements of roses, daisies, gardenias, geraniums, and apple blossoms. Americans took to Christmas cards, but not to Prang’s; he was forced out of business in 1890. It was cheap penny Christmas postcards imported from Germany that remained the vogue until World War 1. By war’s end, America’s modern greeting card industry had been born. Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually, just within the United States. Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year.

Holiday Card:

Patterned Paper: My Minds Eye: Holly Jolly and Lost and Found

Cardstock: White 

Stamp: Heartfelt Creations: Innoscents Flowers 2 Pre Cut Set Product ID: HCPC 2242, Innoscents Flowers 1 Pre Cut Set Product ID: HCPC 2241, Golden Rule Supply: GRS 150

Die Cut Machine and Dies: Spellbinders Paper Arts: Grand Calibur™.  Product #GC-001, Blossom Two Product #S4-232, Big Scalloped Border Grand Product #S7-018

Score Board: Scor- it-all

Ink: Clearsnap: Archival Dye Full Size Inkpad Wicked black, ColorBox Fluid Chalk Inkpad Chestnut Roan and Dark Moss

Ribbon: Offray

Adhesive: Helmar 450 Quick Dry

Misc. Vintage buttons thread and Pin Back

To make the

Card:

1. Make card from card stock and ink edges
2. Cut printed panel slightly smaller than card, ink edges and attach to card
3. Cut grand scalloped border from paper using Grand Calibur and cut to fit edges of patterned paper ink and adhere.
4. Cut strip of paper and score it ever line. Ink and adhere to edge of grand scalloped cut die
5. Stamp the three middle size flowers out of red patterned paper and stamp one of the largest out of notebook print paper.
6. Using scissors cut out back petals
7. Ink large notebook paper flower Dark Green and all the red flowers with Chestnut Roan.
8. Place large red on top of green and adhere with Beacon Zip Dry alternating as you adhere largest to smallest.
9. Tie Vintage button with thread and adhere to flower center with Zip Dry.
10. Adhere ribbon behind flower and attach to card.
11. Stamp sentiment on cardstock and cut out. Adhere stamped sentiment to patterned paper, cut out and attach to side of flower as shown.

Thank you so much for join us today. Please leave a comment for your chance to win and PLEASE leave a way to contact you! Don't want you to miss out! Hop Ends  Friday Dec 2nd at Midnight Eastern

I would love for you to follow me here and Please let be friends!

http://www.facebook.com/messages/?action=read&tid=pMGRIdEj3EavTJ%2FnG8ghgQ#!/karentaylor1111

Have a fantastic day and until next time......be creative!

Karen Taylor

Want2Scrap Design Team Coordinator

Donna Salazar Design Team

Helmar Design Team

Scrapbook News and Review Staff