Snowy Scene

 Whilst I do enjoy making more elaborate cards, I find that many people much prefer to have cards which are flatter and therefore more economical to send through the post so I do try to make a mixture of both.  Looking through my stock I realised that many of mine are more suited for hand delivery so I've decided to go for some 'flatter' ones.  I've not added any words to this CAS one because there are people who don't celebrate Christmas as such but would still like to receive a card and this one speaks for itself 😉.

Curvy Die - unbranded
Background - printed from Artylicious Season's Greetings CD

CAS for the Playground

 I'm later than usual for the Playground challenge but the days seem to have speeded up recently - or maybe I've become slower 🤣.  Anyway here's my homework for this week and this card was inspired by the CAS style employed by Chrissie.  As mentioned by Di I am indeed a follower (subscriber) of her YouTube channel and tune in for my daily 'fix', her videos are so watchable and informative.

 As usual everything apart from the card blank  came from my Snippets mountain.  The background was an offcut left over from another card, always plenty of white snippets around and the deer were cut from snippets of kraft card.  I cut a square frame using dies with a stitched effect and used another square snippet which I embossed using a small E/F with a winter scene.  Deer were die cut and a sentiment produced on the computer and that's another Christmas card for the box.  The theme for the current Allsorts challenge is **stitching, real or faux** so I'm popping over there with this card as well.

Background - paper printed from a Buddly Crafts download
Square Frame - Noble stitched squares Creative Expressions
Winter Scene - embossing folder from Crafter's Companion
Deer and Sentiment Tab - dies from two retired Stampin' Up sets

Trees

 This card was inspired by seeing some made by the talented Jo Rice who is a designer for Lavinia stamps.  I've more or less CASE'd hers but using different colours of ink. I think this design would also suit other occasions with appropriate sentiments added.

Tree stamps  - Lavinia
Inks - Distress Oxides in three shades, also Versafine Clair for stamping
Sentiment - stamp from a magazine giveaway set which I've had for a long time 

Great Minds ...

 They say that great minds think alike and if you look HERE you will see what I mean 😉.  I was very fortunate to receive some ready assembled Santa heads recently and I decided to put one of them onto a card.  I decided on a DL layout with the addition of the decorative Ho, Ho, Ho which I die cut in silver to match one of the layers of the background.  The pearlised layer was embossed using a snowfall E/F which I managed to extend so that if fitted the DL shape seamlessly.  A quick and easy result without having to fiddle with tiny die cut pieces.

Santa - From Etsy - Gift from a generous friend
Ho, Ho, Ho die - unbranded
Snowfall Embossing - E/F from Sheena Douglass (no longer available)

Santa Cats

I was planning to have a little break from making Christmas cards when I heard that I'd been lucky enough to win a prize in the special Cat Lovers Christmas challenge and sure enough a package arrived through my letter box containing a stamp set from Inkylicious who were one of the generous sponsors.  Of course I just had to have a play and have actually made two cards using these fun stamps - just love the twist on the words which I didn't  spot until I'd stamped it 😉.  The first one was made using a piece of watercolour card from my pile of 'inky play' pieces which I think was done with either Pixie Powders or Brushos.  For the second I started with a blank piece of smooth white card and blended purple ink after first masking off the moon..  Two slightly different effects but using the same stamps.  I eventually managed to get a snowy effect on the branches after trying several white pens, none of which seem to work particularly well.  I had to resort to using a Posca pen but would have really preferred something with a much finer nib.  I think I might add a little sparkle with some Glamour dust - not quite decided yet 😉.

The stamp was used 'as is' for the first card but I extended the branches for the second with a bit of repeat stamping

Time Flies!

 This week just seems to have flown by even more quickly than usual and with not much being achieved by yours truly 🙄.  Luckily I have a card which was made in the previous week and which is just right for the current Allsorts Challenge where the theme is ** Christmas Time **.  Quite a simple card but a happy one with these little penguins dancing in the snow.  Where would we be without our die cutting machines and dies I wonder - just a stamped greeting added.

EDIT:  I've just had a lovely comment from Dotty Jo pointing out that the unusual colour scheme of this card would qualify it for entry into the Christmas Kickstart challenge this time so the penguins are dancing over there to join in along with the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers

Penguins and background - unbranded dies
Sentiment - from a retired Stampin' Up Christmas stamp set

Snippets Playground

 There's a new challenge in the Playground and inspiration from Sarn in the form of two super ATC's - of course there is also a lovely prize to be won by one lucky winner at the end of the two weeks.  Just follow the rules - there aren't too many - use some of your Snippets and enter a project.  Simples 🤣.

I have to admit to using a whole piece of designer paper on this card, but it was a 6" x6" piece so not much left over.  Other than that, and of course a card blank, everything else on this card came from my Snippets mountain.  An aperture was cut into a square of card which was trimmed to be slightly smaller than the DSP and the butterflies had been die cut from snippets some time ago and were languishing in the pot on my desk which holds all sorts of treasures, mostly surplus to requirements on past projects but they do eventually get used.  A computer sentiment was die cut and layered onto another matching snippet and that's it my Snippets card for this challenge.

Background - DSP from Stampin' Up Butterflies range (retired I think)
Butterflies - Brushstrokes Butterflies die set from Sizzix (Tim Holtz)