Class in the Post

 I treated myself to another class in the post from the lovely Jenny - see her blog HERE.  I've made up the three cards and will probably put the gift box together later on.  Two of the cards were only A6 size so I've adapted them slightly to make them a bit larger. Obviously we can't always purchase every new stamp and die set, tempting though they are, so having a class like this is an opportunity to use some lovely Stampin' Up products without adding even more products to the crafty stash.  That's another three cards for the Christmas box.

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Penguin Fun

 Can't seem to get away from making Christmas cards and of course the tidy up hasn't really happened either 😉😉.  A couple of penguins at play in the snow today.

Side-tracked!!

I decided to have a bit of a tidy up and to take a break from making Christmas cards, at least for a short while, but you know how it is.  I kept coming across bits and pieces which I'd maybe die cut and not used, papers and card just crying out to be used up and also stamps and/or dies which I'd taken out to use because there were ideas buzzing around in my head.  The result is that I now have a few more Christmas cards to pop into my box and the desk remains in a state of 'Christmas Chaos'.  Too hot for tidying today as the heatwave seems to have returned - any excuse 

The die used on these two cards was one which I won in one of the grand Christmas prize draws on Pixie's Playground Challenge - must have been about three years ago I think and I'm ashamed to say when it arrived (just after Christmas) I put it away ready to use for the following year's cards but somehow that didn't happen.  Shame really because it is a super one to use and quite fun - at least it has had two airings so far this year.  It would be a good one to use for 'batch-baking' although that is something I very rarely do.   More little white 'dots' saved from the first one (see my previous post) 🤣

  Noel Die - from L'il Inkers
Papers and Card - ,mostly from my large snippets box

Snippets Playground Challenge #411

 There is another challenge this time in the Playground for Ruby's Memory - read all about it by following the link and maybe have a go to be in with a chance of winning some great Halloween goodies.  I imagine pretty well every card maker will have a supply of 'snippets' to use - we can't bear to throw out even the smallest pieces!!  For my card I've cut into a sheet of design paper for the main background and used a card blank but everything else came from my snippets mountain, even down to the tiny dots used as flower centres.  I have some dies which cut out rows of tiny holes around shapes and I save all the tiny dots  and store them in small zip-lock style polybags - sad or what but it is a sort of compulsion which some of you will understand😉😉.  I promise you these are the smallest pieces which I 'save'!!The white circle was embossed with 'falling snow' before adding the wreath and the tiny flowers.  Snippet of a different patterned paper was placed behind the circle and I've added a die cut bow and star.  No greeting on the outside of this card because it says 'Christmas' I think.

Wreath - die from Tonic (just the leaves)
Flowers - Tiny flowers dies from John Next Door
Bow and Star - dies from a magazine freebie set (not recent)
Embossing - Falling Snow folder from Stampin' Up 

Deer in the Woods

 Yet another card for my Christmas collection, again using a variety of dies from different suppliers.  I started with a square cut to fit the card blank (blue layer) then a smaller frame in light cream pearl card using two different dies.  Next was a piece of paper printed from a favourite CD which I don't think is available any more but has been so useful over the years.  I then cut the trees and the two deer, stamped a greeting and die cut into a label shape before assembling everything together layer by layer onto a kraft card blank.

Frame - dies from Tonic and Creative Expressions
Trees - an unbranded die purchased last year I think
Deer - Sizzix die set
Background - printed from Season's Greetings CD Artylicious
Greeting - from Contempo Christmas Stampin' Up (retired)

A Different Scene

 While the snow globe die set was on my desk I fished out yet another of my magazine freebie die sets and made a  scene for another Christmas card.  Different colours, different scene, variety is the spice of life! Time now to tidy up and put a few things away before taking out items to use for my next project. No ideas going round in my head at present but hopefully something will come to mind.

Snow Globe - Crealies die set
Scene - magazine freebie set from Christmas 2019
Words - stamp from the same freebie set
Sleigh in the Sky - stamp- from an A4 Christmas stamp set, again a freebie

Peace on Earth

Working my way through my seasonal crafty stash and this time I've tried combining a large snow globe die with a magazine freebie set from 2018.  I wasn't quite sure how they would work together so I had a sort of dummy run using some odd pieces of card and paper to try out a few ideas and I finally decided that I needed a circular die as well which would fit behind the aperture in the globe (which cuts only one layer) so the various layers of the scene were die cut from three separate circles before being layered up onto a grey whole circle (the sky).  This was finally assembled using a mixture of thin foam pads and glue to account for the different thickness.  The words were stamped and embossed in silver.  I'm so pleased that the idea which I had in my head actually worked out and I think there could be a few variations being made using other small die sets within the snow globe.

Snow Globe - die from Crealies a few years ago
Nativity Scene - freebie die set from magazine Christmas 2018