Small Christmas cards and big thoughts

Can I please moan just a little? I've been home with a cold, and it really does my head in. Such a waste of time to not be able to contribute at work, but also not being strong enough to do anything sensible while being confined to the house. I've spent the day just sitting on the sofa/lying in bed (alternating), having checked everyone's Facebook updates, watched bad daytime TV and then finally even cleaned my email inboxes. Going all the way back to the oldest emails in my inbox (which for my Gmail seems to be 2008). Most emails were just Paypal payment confirmations or Pinterest updates, but there were long forgotten email threads from people long gone (as in not dead, just gone from my life), trips already forgotten about and research papers never published. Oh wow what a trip down memory lane. Isn't it amazing how you forget about things. 

And isn't it amazing how those messages can bring back to the surface all the emotions you went through at the time? Some emails were from a time when I was going through some stuff I rather not remember. They made me feel really anxious, in fact so badly that I had to take a break from the email sorting as I was literally (and using the word literally in it's correct sense here) starting to break into a cold sweat. Many of those email conversations have now passed through the virtual graveyard of the trash bin, and been permanently deleted! 

How different wasn't life when people still wrote real physical letters? Of course you could destroy them too, but will there be any legacy for later generations? Will all our correspondence just disappear, digital photos disintegrate back into the bytes they came from? Not that I think there is anything particularly interesting to remember from my life, but what about the much more important people? Will anyone be able to write biographies in the future? Will they just be given access to a million emails, having to sort through the adverts and spam to find the really meaningful stuff? And will anyone write meaningful stuff ever again? Like the letters my Grandma and Grandpa wrote during the war, when he was out on the front line? Will those be replaced by messages consisting of unicorn emoji, smiling emoji, poo emoji? Rant over...

Anyhow, I haven't quite felt well enough to craft today but I did make some Christmas cards earlier. It's my second batch of quick and easy mass-produced Christmas cards. They were fun to make with lots of stamping, and then a quick and easy assembly process. I started by stamping small scenes using stamps from the Stampin' Up White Christmas set, and the the white craft ink dry. I then used a brush to add some Perfect Pearls to the scene to create a bit of shimmer. I die cut part of the sentiment from gold mirri card, and stamped the other part in black to create a contrast. All that was needed was then to just mat the card front onto gold mirri card and a small, square kraft cardbase using 3D foam pads. Without too much effort I had nine cards done in no-time, three of each scene.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - Light My Fire (starts - they are the same as suns after all...)
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - So Glossy (mirri card)
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
The Glory of Christmas - Add Glitter or Shine (mirri card)
Winter Wonderland - Anything Goes (second entry)
Christmas Cards All Year Long - Oh Christmas tree (it said make a card with a tree on it, not specifically a Christmas tree on it...)

Card: kraft card, gold mirri card
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas, Endless Wishes
Ink: Stampin' Up Whisper White craft ink, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Merry Christmas border die, Perfect Pearls