THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS SPIDER

One Christmas, long, long ago, a poor, penniless widow had no money to buy her children Christmas gifts but she so wanted them to have a tree. After putting the children to bed she cut a tree down, placed it in the house and decorated it with fruits, nuts, and cookies she had baked. Then she cleaned her house in preparation for the most wonderful tradition of the year, the coming of the Santa Claus bringing gifts for Christmas.  Afterwards, she went to bed, exhausted.

Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had fled their corners and gone to the attic. When the family was asleep, the oldest and wisest spider suggested they creep out of the attic and sneak into the room to see the decorated tree that towered so high.  They scurried along each branch, admiring the woman’s homemade decorations. Everywhere they went, they left a train of dusty grey web, until finally the entire tree was covered with it.

When Santa saw this, he was happy that the spiders had seen the tree, but he knew the mother would be brokenhearted about its dusty grey appearance. He reached out and touched the webs and miraculously they all turned a lovely shimmering gold and silver. On Christmas morning the family awoke to such a lovely sight and all were happy. It was a beautiful sight to behold, a tree glittering in tinsel!

And so, it has become a custom of the Christmas season to decorate your tree with tinsel and to have a spider among the other decorations.

Now isn't that a lovely legend?  

I have used this story as the theme for my entry into the Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz.  This is the sketch:

and here is my card :

I printed the legend directly onto the vintage print DP, and the base card is a yellowish mustard colour. I used a punch to decorate the top edge of the DP.

As embellishments I beaded two spiders directly onto the cardstock (with a sparkly star sequin underneath).  I have beaded ants straight onto cards, but spiders are something completely new to me  ... and I love how they have turned out!

I would like to add this card to the following challenges:

EMERALD FAIRIES CHALLENGE, #30, 'PUNCHES/DIES'

FLOURISHES, TIMELESS TUESDAY, #183, 'BUTTERFLIES, BEES, SPIDERS, OH MY!'

MY TIME TO CRAFT, #185, 'CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST'

MAKE IT MONDAY, #103, 'ANYTHING GOES'

TAMMY'S SCRAPIN' CORNER, #24, 'ANYTHING GOES'

THE CRAZY CHALLENGE, #127, 'ANYTHING GOES'

THE PINK ELEPHANT, #162, 'CREATE YOUR OWN EMBELLISHMENTS'

CARD CUPIDS, 'ANYTHING GOES'

JUST KEEP ON CREATING, 'CHRISTMAS IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER'

SPARKLES FORUM CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE, #19, 'PUNCH IT'

JOANNA SHEEN CHALLENGE, 'TOTALLY SENTIMENTAL'

STAMPIN' SISTERS IN CHRIST, #153, 'SENTIMENT ONLY, NO IMAGE'

CHALLENGE UP YOUR LIFE, #76, 'CHRISTMAS IN SUMMER'

CRAFTYMESS, #15, 'WORDS, NO IMAGE'

CARD MAKIN MAMAS, 'TRY SOMETHING NEW'

CRAFT ANN'S, #72, 'CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST'

INSPIRE ME FRIDAYS, #72, 'ANYTHING GOES'

JELLYPARK FRIENDS, 'SUMMER BUGS' (CHRISTMAS IS DURING SUMMER HERE IN S/AFRICA)

DELIGHTFUL CHALLENGES, 'PUNCHES AND DIES'

luv'n huggz

Jen Leeflang

Durban

South Africa