That is what the Creative Carte Blacnhe team want us to use as inspiration for December 2016 !
So here’s my holiday ear-worm:
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Written by Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, as sung by Judy Garland in the film "Meet Me in St. Louis"
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now
(Alternative lyrics, requested by Frank Sinatra circa 1957 because he thought the originals were a little too “sad”)
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
So hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now
There’s a story behind this one. I know that it was first sung by Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis” but when it started sticking in my head was back in 1994, on September 29, when Rosemary Clooney guest-starred in an episode of ER’s first season (“Going Home”). She played Mary Cavanaugh, an Alzheimer patient who takes a liking to Carter. She believes it's still 1948 and tries to get Carter to appreciate the music of her day. On December 15 of the same year, she returned in “The Gift”, same character, same illness and she closed the episode with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. From that point on, this was MY FAVORITE Christmas song, EVER!
Now I’m not sure which version Rosemary sang in that episode - I suspect it was the SInatra version as that is the one most her post 1950. However, given the year we’ve had (broken wrist dying car ... among other things), I’m opting for the one in the movie here… and muddle through somehow!
I made a card (don’t I always?) because it was easier to do one-handed (my wrist is improving but I still have no hand strength to speak of and the wrist isn’t very flexible so carting heavy tools like die-cutting machines and paper cutters around isn’t easy…).
I started with a music background on a scrap of distressed ivory card which I masked (with the shape traced from the outline of the sentiment stamp), using a medium grey ink and blended “Antique Photo” Distress Ink on the edges to age the image. I then stamped the sentiment in red ink… After trimming the scrap to fit my card front, I matted it on metallic card, added some wire holly berried and leaves:
- Stamps: Stampers Anonymous “Mini Doodle Greetings” (CMS287); Hero Arts “Music Background” (CG222) and “Kelly’s Warm and Cozy” (CL996)
- Inks: Altenew Crisp Inks “Moon Rock” and “Ruby Red”; Distress Ink “Vintage Photo”; Versamark
- Embossing Powder : Creative Beginnings “Gold regular”
- Papers: The Paper Copay Value Pack Note Pads “ivory”; scraps of distress ivory, metallic gold and forest green card
- Embellishments: Paper Bliss “Swirl Holly” (39053-PE-000)
- Tools: MISTI; Stampin’ Up! 1 1/4” circle punch
- Adhesives: Scotch Tape; Glossy Accents; Viva Las Vegas “Miracle Tape”