Christmas Snowflakes

Well I don't have any new Christmas cards to show today! I've spent the past few days "bulk making" some of the cards I've already done, ready for a couple of craft fairs I've got coming up soon. So I thought I'd take a break from that and have a go at something different! I had some of this tall slim notepads left over from last year and decided to do something with them. I spent most of the day working on this first one, but now its finally done I like it! So I decided to use the same layout for the others but just changing the colour scheme.

It opens up like a book and inside there is a small wallett flap for you to tuck things into! I've also decorated the top strip to finish it off.And the Red & White version! I'm not sure which one I like best, but I think this red/white one is quite striking. I think I may do a few cards like this too. Today I had a sudden flash of inspiration! It doesnt happen very often, so I thought I'd better get on and make these before I completely forgot I'd even had the idea! They are simply tea light holders, using re-cycled baby food jars. I saw one on the Elzybells blog back in the summer which had little flowers stuck all over it so initially I wanted to stamp some holly or christmassy images and stick them all over the jar too, but it turned out to be way too fiddly so I decided to use the same snowflakes as the notepads above! I've created a little handle using some craft wire and finished it off with some ribbon and adhesive stones. I have to collect some more jars now as I think they'd look nice in pairs or a set of 3 maybe.

And finally! a little birdhouse tree decoration. I've had this made for some time now, but kept forgetting to photograph it. It was inspired by the Papertrey website, who have a free template, for personal use. You can find it here! Its such a sweet little touch. I might have to make a few more for my tree.

More Christmas Creations!

You might remember this chap from a couple of posts ago! Well I've really struggled to make a card with him. I had a flick through some of my old cards to see if any of the layouts inspired me and this is what I've finally come up with! I printed the sentiment using paint shop pro. The Santa's list is part of a great stamp set I picked up recently in Hobbycraft, called Holly Jolly Christmas by Hampton Arts. It must be an old set as I've not been able to find any cards made using these stamps or anywhere else that sells them!

And another version, using one of my old layouts. I've decided to keep the colour scheme to all of my cards fairly similar this year. It saves on buying lots of different papers etc and I like to have some sort of theme to my Christmas cards.

I saw this card on Julie's blog last year and absolutely fell in love with her poinsettia. I didnt have a go at it last year, but was brave this year so have given it a try and am quite pleased with the result, although it was a little time consuming. I love the idea of using the paper ribber tool for the petals. I tried to vein them using my embossing tool, but they didn't look as effective. So a big Thank You Julie for your inspiration! I wanted to keep the card very simple, so as not to take the attention away from the poinsettia so have based the card on one I made last year, only I like this one better!

A Close up of the poinsettia!

I think this next card is probably my favourite of the christmas cards so far . I was so pleased with how this little punched penguin turned out! I've stamped some snowflakes onto some Kraft card for the background, then used a few torn strips of heavy vellum with the edges glittered as the snow. The sentiment is stamped from my new Hampton Arts Set. The large snowflake is a Cuttlebug Die, which aslo comes with a matching embossing folder too! All quite simple again, but quite effective. I think the orange brad just finishes it off, taking the colour from the penguins nose!

I've been crafting all day today and I've only actually made two cards! I have been playing around with a box template as I'm planning on making Christmas Cookies to give as a gift this year. The first box was a bit big and the second one was about the right size but the cookies are a bit too big! I made a test batch yesterday, like the ones you get in Tesco's or Millies Cookies, the slightly gooey ones! I'm thinking that I might be better off making a slightly smaller cookie as' I'll get more out of the mixture and these are little on the large side! Delicious though!

Thats all for now, I'm afraid. I'm off to re-create some more of these cards ready for a couple of craft fairs I've got coming up, and to finish off working on my cookie boxes! I may have to test a few more cookies first though!

Thanks for stopping by and reading.