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

He'll Never Get Through That Door!!

 Following blogs and watching crafty videos can have consequences on the bank balance and this was the case here when I spotted this gingerbread house die set which I thought would be fun for Christmas and maybe even for other occasions if made in non seasonal colours.  Large enough to pop a little gift or a few chocolates inside but not too large that it uses loads of card to make it.  I cut out the gingerbread man with the intention of tying him to the top with ribbon but somehow that didn't work too well so I quickly glued him to stand beside the front door - immediately realising that he is larger than said door.  Never mind, we are allowed a bit of crafty licence I think. Each year I say that I don't need any more Christmas crafting stash but usually something or other is just too tempting.  I get the feeling that there should perhaps be a crafters' version of 'parental control' on our computers so that we are unable to visit sites which tempt us to buy even more 'stuff' 😉😉 - what do you think??  I'm not sure the designers and retailers would agree somehow.

Apologies for the poor photograph, not yet quite got to grips with the camera on my tablet.  I was so used to the old one but, like everything else, this seems to have become more high tech and complicated. A case of 'if in doubt read the instructions' I think rather than just 'winging it'. See edit below - third photo is the original not so good one!!

EDIT - I've taken two more photos using my camera this time - can't seem to delete the original though!!

Spellbinders Gingerbread House die set
Holly - dies from Joanna Sheen

Noel

 Still producing Christmas cards with a fairly simple one today using a selection of seasonal die cuts popped into little circular windows cut into a piece of white card, backed with a scrap of snowflake paper for a background..  I didn't think this one really needed a sentiment as the characters along with the green and red background speak for themselves.

Background - seasonal DSP from Stampin' Up
Characters - all from a magazine freebie die set which I've had for a few years I think

Plants on the Wall

 I had a session cutting out quite a pile of small die cut leaves and plant containers and believe me it took some time and of course I then had to assemble them before they could be used to put a card together.  I've used two different embossing folders, one for the finer detailed 'wall' behind the actual plants and one with larger detail as a general background, both cream card sponged with ink to bring out the detail.  All this certainly helped to while away most of an afternoon - time flies when you're having fun 😉😉

Embossing Folders - from Sizzix and Crafter's Companion
Plants and Pots - set of Botanical dies from Sizzix

 

Playground Challenge #410

Time for another Playground Challenge, do pop along to see the lovely card by a guest designer.  This card of course features the prize which is on offer this time around. 

My offering this time is another Christmas card and I've used lots of snippets but as they are seriously teeny-tiny there is no significant decrease in the size of my 'snippet mountain'.  The die cuts were a tad fiddly to deal with but I think the result was worth the effort and I reckon whoever receives this card will smile when they open it.

Character dies - Santa's Workshop die set from Sizzix

Igloo

 Yet another Christmas card to add to my collection, this time using an embossing folder and stamp set which came free with a magazine a few years ago.  White card was embossed using the igloo folder and then brushed lightly with ink to show up the detail.  Penguins and snowballs were stamped, coloured with alcohol pens and then fussy cut - looks as if they are having fun playing in the snow!!

Igloo and penguins - free gift from magazine a few years ago
Greeting - label dies from Stampin' Up
Snowballs - stamp0 and die set from Memory Box

Mixing it Up

I'm still ploughing on with a few more Christmas cards and I find it interesting to try and mix things up a bit by using dies and/or stamps from various sets to see how they can work with each other for a change. I rarely make more than one of any design although of course there are bound to be some similarities. The only thing I'm very careful about is returning them to their correct sets straight away so that I don't lose track of any of the often quite small items because that could be so annoying. For this card I've used the die which cuts three little windows and combined it with some stamps from a set of  penguin stamps which came free several years back.  No dies with these critters so as well as colouring there has been a bit of fussy cutting.  The trees were die cut as was the little label for the words and the final addition was a punched silver star. Colouring was done using alcohol pens

 Windows - die from Have a Hoot set Stampin' Up (retired)
Trees - from set of tree dies by John Next Door ( good assortment of sizes)
Critters - Magazine freebie set from a few years back