Last of the Tags and Happy Christmas

This Christmas Eve has been very relaxed with no work and no major shopping left to do. So when my older son asked me to make some gift tags to put on his pressies for us, I made made them straight away, and since I had all the bits and pieces out, made ten more for next Christmas. Now hopefully in 12 months time I'll remember where I've put them!

Here are the first three tags I made today with a Docrafts die that I have used so many times this year in the lead up to Christmas - love it!

Die - Do Not Open Tag (Docrafts)

The tags were mainly made from card scraps. I used one of the new techniques that I came across and loved this year - inlay die cutting. I'm submitting these tags into Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes Challenge.

Now I’m off to do a bit of preparation for tomorrow so I want to wish you a very Happy Christmas and hope that you will enjoy good health, happiness and lots of inky fun in 2015!

Secret Santa Swap

Over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group a number of us took part in a Secret Santa Swap and sent a Christmas card, a Christmas ATC and a gift to the person we were playing Secret Santa to.

Char in the US received the parcel I sent to her, so now I can show what I made for her. First up is the card. The background snowflakes were stamped with faded jeans distress inks and I applied lots of diamond stickles to the die cut snowflakes.

Supplies - Stunning Snowflakes (Hero Arts), Eliza and Kate snowflake dies (Simon Says Stamp), WPlus9 Woodland Wreaths and Spellbinders Fancy Tags One

Next up is the shaker ATC I made. Every time I make an ATC I just want to make more and more of them - it's fun working with the small area.

Supplies - Snowman and Snowflakes (Hero Arts), Woodland Wreaths (WPlus9) & Snowflake embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Now I want to share the fabulous package I received from the very talented Maria in Russia. This is Maria's photo of the amazing card and ATC she sent me as well as the wonderful goodies - I'm such a lucky girl! Thank you so much again, Maria, I am absolutely thrilled with everything:):)

Snowy House Jar

I wanted to play along again with Hero Arts' Deck the Halls Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's Bling It On Challenge and used an empty jam jar and some stamps to make a holder for a night light candle.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Snowy House & Christmas Reindeer

I started by making snowdrifts which encircle the jar and added shimmer with a layer of diamond stickles. After stamping and cutting out the house I cut out the windows and added a vellum backing so that the candle light would shine through. I coloured the vellum with a yellow maker so that there would be a warm coloured glow from the windows when the candle is lit.

After colouring the rest of the house I added lots more stickles and nestled it in the snowdrifts. The trees were stamped on patterned paper and some gems were added.

My camera doesn't seem to like taking photos in the dark but this is what the jar looks like when the light is dimmer.

At the moment I have an unscented candle in the jar but will use pine and cinnamon scented night lights in it too.

Oh Christmas Trees

No doubt like lots of you I'm fairly busy in the run up to Christmas but am enjoying all the preparations. Maybe one of these years I'll start my Christmas preparations a bit earlier than usual! Anyway I think I'm nearly there with the cards I want to make this year but took a little break away from card making to join in on Hero Arts' Deck the Halls Challenge.

I love little felt decorations so decided to make some to pop on my tree using dies from Hero Arts Merry Christmas Tree stamp and die set. To start with I die cut felt Christmas trees and then die cut green felt circles (from the same Hero Arts set) and a red heart.

Dies - Merry Christmas Tree (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Then I decorated the trees with buttons, stitching, sequins and gems. After the trees were complete I added either ribbon or baker's twine between the tree front and back then stitched the outlines and added wadding before finishing the stitching.

As I had the Christmas tree die out I decided to make another card with a removable decoration.

This time I used up lots of green scraps by putting them in rows of strips, cutting and then cutting again to make a patchy background. After die cutting the tree twice I sandwiched ribbon between the two trees and added buttons to finish. Then I added the tree to the embossed background with glue dots so that the ornament can be removed and used.

I was determined to use up every bit of the scrap background I had left over from making the tree so ended up die cutting shamrocks to put aside for next St Patrick's Day using a sweet die my friend Linda gave me. I've definitely never been this far ahead of myself before for a celebration!

Die - Shamrock (Impression Obsession)

November CCC

It has been a little while since I participated in one of Deborah Nolan's fun CCCs (Card Chain Challenge) but was delighted to get a chance to take part in the November CCC. It was great fun making a card and receiving a card but best of all was getting to know my lovely CCC swap partners Dagmar in Germany and Betty in the US.

Deborah always gives us plenty of choices for the Challenge. Maybe one of these days I'll actually get to combine a few of these choices but this time I went with the CCC sketch. As I'm in full Christmas card making mode naturally enough Dagmar ended up with an early Christmas card:)

Stamp set - Woodland Wreaths (WPlus9)

I love the Woodland Wreath set from WPlus9 so wanted to use it on the card for Dagmar. To start with I embossed a wreath of berries and then stamped two types of wreaths from the set in different shades of green. I found that the berries ended up being a more vibrant red by doing it this way instead of embossing the berries on a wreath that had already been stamped. Then I stamped the bow, layered it and added a little heart shaped gem. After that I went mad adding stickles to the berries and bow. Christmas is always a good excuse for a bit of sparkle, isn't it?:)

Recently I picked up Docrafts cable knit pattern embossing folder and used that on a strip of kraft card. After embossing the panel I added touches of white ink.

Here is the gorgeous card I was delighted to received from Betty - I just love it and the way she combined so many of Deborah's themes.

Betty, thanks again for the gorgeous card and yummy sequins you included with it:)

Here on Deborah's blog you can see all the CCC cards that when whizzing around the world last month. If you'd like to sign up for the next CCC Challenge you should pop over to Deborah's blog on the 7th December to join in on the fun.