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)

Santa's Sleigh

 Santa's sleigh appears to have been hijacked by everyone's favourite bunny 🤣.  I was hunting around for items to pop into this lovely sleigh and I die cut a parcel and a candy cane, then had a rummage in the oddments pot on my desk and came up with a left over Christmas tree and a bit of greenery.  Who should also be in there but bunny so I thought 'why not' and here he is playing at being a Santa's little helper.  I've used some of my favourite design paper and a die cut skyline scene; finally adding a fun greeting.  This one was cut once in red and again in gold so that I could carefully trim the baubles to layer on top.  So that's another Christmas card to add to my collection - don't seem to be able to stop making them as ideas pop into my head each time I trawl through my box of seasonal crafty items.

Background - printed from Season's Greetings CD Artylicious
Skyline - die from Memory Box
Sleigh - Gilded Sleigh die from Memory Box
Parcel, tree and candy cane - Sizzix dies
Bunny and Ho Ho Ho - unbranded 

CAS Christmas

 As I seem to be on a roll making seasonal cards I thought I'd take this one along for the November challenge at Stamping Sensations where the theme is ** Get Ready for Christmas**.  The little winter village scene is a triple layered image using three matching stamps in different colours.  It was stamped onto a snippet of white card and popped behind an aperture which was then surrounded by the die cut sentiment.  Lovely prize this time so good luck to all who enter.

Village scene - stamps from retired Stampin' Up set Classic Cloche
Sentiment - die cuts received from a generous friend last Christmas

Ho Ho Ho

 I've been lucky enough to have some happy post to open two days running - firstly I won a prize in a recent Allsorts Challenge and yesterday an envelope arrived from a generous friend who'd decided to share some mirri card die cuts with me.  As we seem to be hurtling towards December I thought I'd use one of them to make a Christmas card - well what else would you do with 'Ho Ho HO' die cuts 🤣🤣.  I went through my box of Christmas-themed items and right at the bottom came across the Santa die which I've had for some time and I know for a fact he certainly didn't get used last year which should tell me that maybe I have too much 'schtuff'.  Found a left over tree in the little oddments pot on my desk and set about assembling the card using a piece of patterned paper as a background.  Snippets were used to cut the white circle which I embossed with falling snow, then cut a narrow border circle because it appeared a little flat.  I decided the words could maybe have a backing layer so I cut one freehand from some matching red card.

Background - printed using a download from Buddly Crafts
Santa - from a set of three by Tonic, probably discontinued
Tree - from a Tim oltz Sizzix die set
Snow Effect - discontinued embossing folder from Creative Expressions