Royal Mail Christmas Wishes

 The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #126 is now live!   As always Anything Christmas Goes so I hope you'll join us!  We love to see your cards and be inspired by you and I hope I can inspire you a little!

This is my latest creation, a small token of respect to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  Say what you like about the British Royal Family (and plenty of people have been saying quite a lot lately) -  Queen Elizabeth II was a remarkable woman who dedicated her entire life to public service and always with grace and dignity.  Her grace and dignity will be sadly missed in today's world!

 With all the talk about the changes that will be made now there is a change of monarch - the coins, the stamps, etc. - my mind wandered to the little red mail boxes populating kerbsides up and down the length of Britain which are all emblazoned with the monongram of the late queen.  Will they be replaced?   "Royal Mail" was privatised a while back as I understand it so would they replace them with ones bearing the monogram of the new king?  I doubt it!

But it got me thinking that with a few tweaks, this "Briefkasten" die from Charlie & Paulchen could be used to make a Christmas card and pay my respects to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the same time!  I'd been meaning to break out this die anyway in the run-up to Christmas because sending and receiving Christmas cards has always been one of the delights of Christmas for me - I would write our family's Christmas cards from my early teenage years (mum bought me a "calligraphy" pen just for the purpose - what a clever mum)!

I cut three mailboxes and stacked them up for dimension. and ran around the edges with Black Soot DI!  I just cut out a gold "E" and and "R" from the smallest alphabet die set in my collection.  The II in the middle were negative pieces left over from the "R".  It really should have had a crown above the II but I didn't have anything that small.  However the top of the mailbox has a sort of crown which I cut again from gold, trimmed and added to the top.  

The "queue" of letters trying to get to the mailbox were cut from two dies from the same set.  They have little heart and star cutouts so I backed them with a piece of red card and popped on foam tape.

My biggest problem was finding a sentiment to go with it - "Merry Christmas" seemed too trite!  I decided on this sentiment from Waltzing Mouse Seasonal Flourish which seemed to strike the right tone given the sombreness I was trying to convey - though it is very large and quite tricky to accommodate!  I suppose a sentiment isn't always necessary but I like to add them!

I'm entering my card in NBUS Challenge #43 because I used this NBUS "Briefkasten" die.

I'm so glad you visisted my little corner of the internet and I do hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you take the time to leave a comment I am especially grateful - not only will it brighten my day, but it will also let me know you were here and how to find you! 

Kate