Christmas Cards - Surrounded with Music

I've been considering how to share the many ideas that flooded my mind when I saw the challenge at the Path of Positivity: Surround Yourself with Music. I especially identify with the idea of "surrounding myself" when it comes to music. I've worked on several Christmas cards to express Christmas joy using a music theme because singing carols was always a big part of my life.

As a child we would have a children's choir to sing in church Christmas programs. In Girl Scouts, we sang carols and served cookies to elderly folks in nursing homes. As a teen I sang in school choirs and learned I could sing alto to the familiar carols and popular Christmas songs. My mom would have my friend who lived next door, a soprano, come over so the two of us could serenade her acappella with Christmas songs. Our amazing music teacher taught us so many songs with a Christian message back then. My friend became a music teacher and greatly influenced my music choices. While living there I fell in love with classical music and keep that on in my car to relax me and in my craft room  to inspire my artwork.

In college, a professor convinced me I was a soprano and taught me how to stretch my vocal chords, which helped me in the years I taught in Christian schools. I was the teacher who led the children's singing in Christian programs in two of the schools.
When I was a teacher in public school, we would put classical cd's in our computers to play soft classical Mozart to help the kids calm themselves and focus. It really worked! It does the same for me, now, too!

It's probably no surprise, then, that I keep a separate box of just music related papers and embellishments to use on crafts.  Here are two cards I made celebrating music and Christmas! This first one uses CTMH Beary Christmas paper and an old carol from the back of a Graphic 45 paper I had cut up. Since it was called "The Holly and the Ivy," I embossed the top with a holly embossing folder.

The second one uses papers from long-retired Mistletoe papers and a more recently retired PML card of carolers, all from CTMH.

I hope you, too, find that music uplifts your spirit when you need it and find wonderful ways to enjoy Christmas carols this season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm sharing this post with the following challenges:
Aud Sentiments #194 - Christmas + A Sentiment (2nd card)
Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Anything goes with a CTMH product
International Art & Soul Challenge #22 - Buttons and Bows (first card)
Moving Along with the Times #59 -  Christmas Animals (2nd card)
Path of Positivity Challenge #53 - Surround yourself with music (optional)