And so it is Christmas!!

I wish all my online friends a very Happy, peaceful and safe Christmas period and a wonderful year in 2010. May Santa bring you the pressies you wished for too. Thank you to all the lovely friends who sent me Christmas cards and greetings. They are all on display right now. Also a big thank you to everyone who comments on my blog -much appreciated.

My husband and I will be on our own tomorrow - the first Christmas Day for a number of years now and we are going to find it hard being away from our family. There will be phone calls though and we have presents to open.

We received a great Christmas present already - rain!! 95 mls since Sunday and it is looking clean and green outside. It is very hot and humid and I am sure there is more rain on the way.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS everyone!!

Polar Bears

Here is a Christmas card that is not very traditional but I really like it! I watched a U tube presentation of Heather Summers and she made this card. I cannot get to her blog as it is a Typepad one and for some reason my server will not allow me to get to Typepad blogs - grrrr.

I just thought these punched bears were so cute and I always jump at the opportunity to use my punches. I used SU confetti white card hence the specks you see.

The SU set I used was Snow Swirled and the background card and ink was Bordering Blue. I sponged the edges with Basic Grey and lightly distressed them. The baby bear's head is raised with Dimensionals. A very simple card to make and it is a lot of fun too.

My craft room is still very upside down but I am taking my time and packing things where they will be staying permanently - well more or less as I am sure I will shift some things around later. I will post a photo when I have it all tidied up. We are waiting for the builder to come for a day to put up my bench top and drawers and overhead cupboards in there.

Winter Post skaters

I love this card of Christine's and so have made one very similar. Thank you so much Christine for the inspiration - your work is beautiful! All Stampin' Up! products used here except for the punched out branches - they are punched with a Martha Stewart punch and Prisma pencils were used for the shading. The ovals were cut out with my Nestabilities.

I used Riding Hood Red, Kraft and black for the colours and Craft White to stamp the snowflakes on the layers.

This is most certainly a contrast to my last card but I am enjoying the variety!

Snowmen

Here is today's effort again using a couple of the MME papers! I have a real hang up about using too many patterns together and so I am not so sure I like this card but it looks better now I have layered the upper patterned paper with plain card. I am happy enough with it to show it on here!

The card and ribbon are from Stampin' Up! and I have used Nesties and a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I have no idea where the snowman came from - just an unmounted in my stash!

Tomorrow I start moving some of my stamping goodies into their new home - how good that will be!!

Naive Santa

Well here you go Leigh!! I have used some of my MME papers!! This little naive Santa stamp is one that my friend Nancy from the US sent me and I coloured him in with Copic markers.

I sponged all the edges with Distress ink and finished it all off with a BIG bow LOL!! I was going to use Flower Soft for the white parts on Santa but decided I would lose too much of the outline so just went over them with the SU white gel pen. The wording comes from a Papermania clear stamp set.

Father Christmas

I am home after my days away - home to the relentless heat so I wilt every day. Subsequently no stamping has been done but here is a card I had half finished on the retreat weekend.

Thank you Leigh for the image - not sure even who makes it but it is a perfect stamp to stamp in vintage colours. I had bought some lovely papers when away so picked these with my favourite purple shade on them!!

The carpet layer is putting the carpets in the bedrooms today - just a grey colour so nothing exciting about them but I was thinking of the practicality of them. So then I can start moving some of my stamping stash etc into my craft room drawers and cupboards.

A Christmas Case!

I often look at this blog because America makes lots of cards using House Mouse stamps. If you scroll down the page, you will see the card I have CASED. Both Leigh and I think it is a beautiful card and one a little different to the traditional Christmas card. So using what I have in my stash, this is my version!

The picket fence and leaves are Martha Stewart punches, the house stamps are Martha Stewart, the scallop edge punch is Stampin' Up! as is the gold embossed tree from the Season of Joy set.

The wording is from a Papermania clear stamp set.

Tomorrow I am off to stay with my Mum for a few days and also to go to my grandson's birthday party. He especially wanted to talk to me yesterday to ask me if I was coming LOL!! How could I not go - even if it is a six hour drive to get there!

The new house is progressing well. Things like the sink, wash basins, towel rails etc were going in today so not long now before we can move in. I can start filling up my craft cupboards and drawers now if I want to!