Love Mittens

My Christmas card making ground to a halt in August but thanks to my friend Linda sending me some goodies from Hero Arts new Christmas release I'm getting back into working on my cards again.

Hero Arts' cute Holiday Mittens set reminded me of the long crochet chains my Mam used to make to string through my jackets and attach to my mittens to prevent them being lost. So of course I had to make a card using the pretty mittens from the set.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Holiday Mittens, Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Prints and Holiday Messages and Tags

I started by applying distress inks (broken china and salty ocean) to white card, spritzed with water and stamped the snowflakes in faded denim distress ink. Then I had fun colouring the cute little mittens and added diamond stickles to the centres of the snowflakes for a little sparkle.

Instead of crocheting a chain, I plaited thread and used it to connect the mittens. By using tiny pieces of a glue dot I was able to form and keep a heart shape in the plaited piece. Only 85 days till Christmas - I'll have to get cracking on making more cards!

I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamps Anything Goes Challenge.

Snowflake Card and Bag

I love using kraft, white and red on Christmas projects and as I still had Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes and Fancy Cut Christmas out on my table, I thought I'd make another Christmas card and a matching gift bag.

To make the card I white embossed the snowflakes on a panel of kraft card and applied white ink around the edges. After die cutting the sentiment out of the panel I die cut the sentiment again from glitter card and inlaid it into the panel. For some extra sparkle I added a sprinkling of gems.

Hero Arts - Hand Drawn Snowflakes and Fancy Cut Christmas

Next it was on to my gift bag. After die cutting the bag, I embossed snowflakes on the back and front panel. Again I used the inlaid technique and added some gems and baker's twine once the bag was assembled.

Hero Arts - Hand Drawn Snowflakes and Fancy Cut Christmas
Lawn Fawn - Goodie Bag Die

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge and the gift bag into Simon Says Stamp Wrap It Up Challenge.

Snowflakes Christmas Card Set

This year I seem to be far behind on making Christmas cards compared to other years so I think it's time to start making sets of quick cards to help speed up the process.

Stamp (Hero Arts) - Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Prints
Die (Hero Arts) - Fancy Cut Christmas

I can't seem to resist pretty snowflake stamps or dies and this year I'm delighted to have added Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Prints to my stash.

Distress inks - shaded lilac, dusty concord & faded jeans

The snowflakes on this stamp are so delicate and gorgeous looking and I also love that the stamp is large (6"x 6") so it's the perfect size for anything I want to make.

Distress inks - tumbled glass, broken china, faded jeans & salty ocean

To make the cards I started by white embossing the snowflakes onto squares of white card. Then I applied distress inks and spritzed with water. As I wanted the snowflakes to be the main feature on the cards, I just added the Christmas sentiments I had die cut using one of the dies from Hero Arts Fancy Cut Christmas .

Distress inks - barn door & spiced marmalade

The sentiments have four layers, the upper layer die cut from either glitter card or plain card which had a coat of diamond stickles applied and the three other layers are die cut from matching plain card. After adhering the embossed panels to card bases, using foam pads, I added some gems to finish.

Distress inks - shabby shutters & mowed lawn

I'm submitting these cards into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge . This weekend is a bank holiday weekend here so no work or school on Monday. Also the clocks change this weekend, so an extra hour in bed on Sunday or maybe that will be an extra hour of crafting instead! There's lots to look forward to this weekend. Hope you have a great weekend too:)