More Christmas cards

I'm really enjoying these MME papers. This card is another simple layout.

The next card was originally inspired by a card in the Stampington gallery which I fell in love with when I first started crafting. It changed along the way and is now nothing like the card that inspired it. It is an A5 gatefold card. I don't have a good picture of the front as it didn't want to stay closed. But this is one side of the gatefold .

The base card is brown and I have scuffed the edges with gold ink. The inside looks like this.

Where did that come from?

Another one of those cards that sneaks up on you while you're doing something else. It is actually quite shimmery but you can't really tell in the poor lighting. Sorry about the shadows (and the wacky wavy angles). Silly time of day to be stamping, let alone taking pictures!

Still rollin'

This card was based on one I had bookmarked as 'inspiration' and randomly drawn out of the hat when deciding what to play with today. You can see the original by Lynda Benden here. I started by choosing my colours but couldn't decide what colour card I should use for the main oval image. I had to edit the pic to get rid of the slightly green tint on the oval as it is actually pale gold pearlescent card. Unfortunately the editing has made the pink card look more intense than in the flesh which is a shame. I wasn't sure about the gold with the pink and burgundy at all until I stamped part of my image on an offcut of the card, trying to find the right ink. I was blown away by the Brilliance Cosmic Copper. I was really convinced I didn't have any Brilliance inks as I keep this little one with my Versamagic Dewdrops. I was triply(?) thrilled because it looked just as good defining the edge of the embossed background and and also printing the greeting on top of the Cuttlebug embossing. I felt so cheeky even trying it. I'd already printed the greeting on an unembossed piece of card to use as Lynda had. But as my greeting is bigger it didn't balance very well with the raised oval. I think this works better as it doesn't detract from the oval image. Since I took the photo I have added some pink gemstones like Lynda's.

I'm pleased with the card but wouldn't make these in batches for Christmas because of the time taken trying to line up three layers of stamping. It has worked pretty much but the reindeer almost looks like he is running downhill, which wasn't part of the plan.

First Christmas card of 2009

Nothing like starting early!

Last year I couldn't wait to make something that wasn't a Christmas card as soon as the season was over. This year I still have so many Christmas stamps and materials I didn't get the time to use that my engine is still running. So I thought I'd make a few cards and put them away for next year.

I've been intrigued recently by all the good results that have been achieved by using browns and blues together. Lynn Robinson-Hunter is a real master of this. So when I decided my blue card needed a touch of colour round the edges I took a deep breath and followed her lead.

The flourish greeting and background flourishes are from Inkadinkado's Winter Trails. The Snowflake and star are from Elusive Images' Angel and Trees. You might just be able to make out in the photo a couple of touches of the clear Stardust pen. Oh, and the ink used for edging is Antique Linen Distress.

Christmas Cards

Time to blog my cards now that they should all have been received. I'm intending to start on next year's cards as soon as possible. Considering all the materials I bought I'm ashamed to say I made only 20 cards this year. I spent far too much time experimenting when the cards should have been long posted. That held up all of my other Christmas preparations and I have plenty of other excuses for being disorganised without adding another. It's a lesson well learnt and should stand me in good stead in future. I am resolved to change my approach as well. I'm going to make a stock of backgrounds and other elements during the year so that I am not doing everything from scratch at the last minute.

This was my favourite card this year and I made several with different coloured backgrounds. The stamp is from the Elusive Images Hearth and Home themeplate and the background and decoupage leaves are from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD. My non crafting family wondered how I'd made the edging. It is in fact a corner punch from Circa Design.

This card came a close second. My favourite version was all shades of blue but sadly, I sent that without taking a photo of it. The background is inked with Adirondack Purple Twilight and Stonewashed and DI Faded Jeans. The stars and snowflakes are from the Elusive images themeplate Angel and Trees. The Winter Wonderland greeting is from Elusive Images Christmas Reflections and the lacy icicles are from Elusive Images Damask Squares. The snowflake centres are Candy Dots from Pebbles Inc. It's hard to tell from the photo but there is subtler printed insert which shows behind the punched edge.


This was a simple card I made early on after buying the Inkadinkado Winter Trails. The little charm seemed made to go with it. The snowflake background is a printed paper from the Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD and the text is from Elusive Images Angel and Trees themeplate.

I stamped this pear tree a lot of times trying to work out where the partridge should go. I think the clue is there somewhere. The stamps are all from Elusive Images Partridge in a Pear Tree themeplate and the background is from Artylicious Seasons Greetings.

This Sarah Kay "Joy of Giving" stamp stole my heart as soon as I saw it and reminded me of my pre teen days when these kind of images were originally in fashion. The cards I made saw my earliest experiments with colouring. This image was 'watercoloured' with inks and markers and a waterbrush but I'd love to try colouring and blending with pencils. The greeting is computer generated and the background paper is Dovecraft.

This card was made with the wreath from the Hearth and Home themeplate. I stamped and embossed in gold detail EP then coloured it with Sakura pens. The background is from a DCWV set.

Swirling into infinity

How many swirls or flourishes is too many? Lucky for me flourishes are still hot. But I'm not sure what will happen to my stamping when they go out of fashion. Let's hope that's a long way off because I've just got two more luscious stamps from the US. They are both Inkadinkado, a make I haven't used before. I've been playing with them for most of the day and have had a eureka moment with my Glimmer Mists. I wondered why I wasn't falling in love with them like everyone else. Now I now what I was doing wrong. I just wasn't using enough! I have only three colours, Deep Plum, Candy Apple Red and Iridescent Gold. I never had any intention of using them all together but today I did and got this fantastic rich mix.

The image is embossed in Sparkle n Sprinkle Rust Fizz which gives a lovely sparkly finish.

The pale card the image is matted on is actually an apricot colour glitter card. Dodgy combination maybe but it seems to work, although on the photo you can't see the apricot colour, the glitter or the sheen of the Mists.