A Jolly Snowman

I still have a few Christmas cards to share although I'm going to try and concentrate on more general cards as I don't think I need any more seasonal ones at present.  I just had to have a play with this jolly snowman, a die which sort of fell into my basket recently even though I didn't desperately need any more dies 😉.  He is popped onto a split background, the top part of which has been embossed with a snow effect.  The fur on his hat, the sentiment and the edge of the larger oval have all been treated to some Glamour Dust to give some sparkle.  Colouring was done using alcohol pens.

PS: I've just remembered I meant to take this one along to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge  #81where anything Christmassy is called for

 Oval dies - Tonic
Embossing Folder - an old Sheena Douglass one, no longer available
Snowman, Tree and HO, HO HO - unbranded dies

Ribbon Technique

 I've done my homework for the Snippets Playground latest challenge and apart from the card blank everything else used came from my Snippets collections.  I thought I'd try a twisted ribbon effect I'd spotted recently which looks quite effective although as it turns out was quite straightforward to achieve (thanks to YouTube).  I trimmed a snippet of white card into a strip to fit the height of my card blank and also cut some half inch strips of DSP in two designs for the 'ribbons' and set about gluing them in place  before cutting another strip of card in a toning green to back the border strip. I do like a technique which looks clever but isn't difficult to do 😉.  A snowman was stamped onto another white snippet, coloured and then cut out with an oval die.  This was backed with a red layer slightly larger.  A computer sentiment die cut into a banner shape and that's it - my Snippets homework completed and all from Snippets.  As usual some great prizes for a lucky winner at the end of the fortnight.

Papers for 'Ribbon' - Snippets of a retired Stampin' Up Christmas range
Snowman - stamp from a magazine gift set
Colouring - Polychromos pencils
Oval dies - Tonic
Sentiment - produced in Craft Artist on the computer

Playing I Spy

 The theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge is **I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'B'** and after a bit of thought I decided to go along with B for BOOKS and also BIRTHDAY.  I started by die cutting and colouring the books followed by a bit of head scratching as to how I was going to put them onto a card, finally coming up with the idea of cutting a table to hold the open book.  I then cut an aperture in a square of card to fit my card and backed that with a piece of cream card on which I'd stamped a dictionary page which I thought was an appropriate background. The frame was popped up with foam tape and the table partially hidden behind.  Just a stamped a birthday greeting and that's it - my offering for the Allsorts challenge this week.  I imagine that if all these books were piled onto the table it might collapse under the weight 🤣🤣

Stitched effect Aperture - die from Paper Roses
Table - die from Gummiapan
Books - unbranded dies
Background - Dictionary page stamp from Stampin' Up (retired)

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)