Christmas Is Coming...

Well, it's dark outside and days are getting shorter (and sadly it's getting impossible to find enough daylight for card photography...). That can only mean one thing - Christmas is coming! Forget your pumpkin spice lattes and yellow leaves, and start panicking. As usual, despite the promises you made to yourself, you didn't start your Christmas card crafting in the summer. By now, you thought you would be finished with the little buggers. And by you, I mean me (and maybe also you?). 

I have to admit, I'm not much of a Christmas person, apart from the food. The only Christmas decorations we have in our house is a table runner with elves and some fairy lights in the living room. We haven't had a Christmas tree for at least the last three or four years (all those pine needles around the house...) And every year I try (and fail) to inspire my family to a Christmas without presents. There are no kids in the family, so my logic is that all we need is good food and a chance to rest and relax. But as a card crafter, I do feel the responsibility to send out home-made cards. After all, wasn't that how we all (well, me at least...) justified this hobby - "This way I won't ever have to spend money on cards ever again". Well, true, I'm not spending £5 on that pack of Christmas cards. Instead, I spend hundreds of £s all year long. That worked out great, didn't it?

I was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the Reindeer theme over at Crimbo Crakers. I'm also linking up with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything goes. Getting there, one card at a time!

Card: White 250 gsm card, Neenah Solar white, scrap of black card
Patterned paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh In The Snow, Perfectly Plaid Christmas
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Toboggan Together and matching dies, Christmas Unicorn
Ink and colouring: Tsukneko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Dies: Lawn Fawn Forest Border Die, Stitched Nesting Circles, Everyday Banners, Stitched Rectangle, Merry Christmas Border

Gingerbread Man Parade Tag

I cannot resist the cute little gingerbread men, they seem to feature in a lot of my Christmas crafting this year. When I saw the current inspiration tag over at Tag You're It, I knew I wanted to make a tag with a row of gingerbread men. I was also inspired by the gingerbread image over at Inspired by All the Little Things. I'm also linking up over at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is Tag You're It and PDE Linky Party where the theme is All Tags.

Card: 250 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Holiday Party Animal, Christmas Unicorn

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics 

Dies: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It, Merry Christmas border die

Other: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Christmas and Let's Polka in the Dark paper, red ribbon, twine, a gold sequin and adhesive rhinestone from my stash

Warm Christmas Wishes

I had a huge bunch of Lawn Fawn stash on backorder and then they all arrived all at once. The weird thing is that my work has been taking everything out of me lately, so I haven't been able to create anything - and all that stash has just been hanging around on my desk. That is, until I saw the inspiration images over at Curtain Call and House of Cards. I knew exactly what I wanted to create based on the sketch over at Just Add Ink. I'm also linking up over at CAS on Sunday where the theme is Christmas and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes.

Card: 250 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Argyle Backdrops, Holiday Party Animal, Love You a Latte and matching dies

Paper: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Christmas, Let's Bokeh in the Snow

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Scalloped Rectangle Stackables

All I Want For Christmas...

I'm still not really getting into this whole annual leave thing, all I'm doing is stressing over work I should have done before going on leave and stressing about the leave coming to an end. Today I have tried to distract myself from all the destructive thoughts by cleaning the house and trying to be a bit creative. I'm continuing to work on my Christmas card stash, this time using the super cute Winter Unicorn stamp set. I guess it's not a surprise that I can't resist anything unicorn related. 

I was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch as well as the Geometrical shapes theme over at Lawnscaping. I thought all the square frames would fit the theme quite well. I'm also linking up over at CASology where the theme is Cute and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Neenah Solar white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Paper: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Christmas
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Square Frames

Snow Cool Penguins

It's been a good week with a lot of my backorder Lawn Fawn stash arriving. Don't we all love a good happy mail from time to time. I had so much fun playing with the cute penguins from Lawn Fawn's Snow Cool stamp set which I used for the first time. I also thought the penguins would mix perfectly with the skating penguin from the Winter Penguin set. The snowy background stamp just calls for a wintery scene complete with some trees in the background and some snowy stitched hills completing the scene. I also couldn't resist creating a frame using the Perfectly Plaid Christmas paper set, another new and unused set. I think my Christmas cards will definitely have a penguin theme this year, they are too adorable in their hats and ear muffs. 

I am linking up with the new challenge over at Lawnscaping where the theme is to add texture. I have added lots of stitching, the heat embossing for the snow and the linen textured background card as well. I'm also linking up with the new challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Stamp It. I'm also linking up with Darnell's 7th NBUS challenge which sadly ends today, but looking at the gallery over there at least a lot of NBUS in craft rooms across the world has now gone to being ex-NBUS. Last but not least I'm linking up with Crimbo Crackers where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm linen textured card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Snow Cool, Winter Penguin and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Pine Needles, Chipped Sapphire, Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Copics 
Dies: Lawn Fawn Forest Border, Stitched Hillside Borders, Stitched Rectangle Frames, Scalloped Rectangles
Other: Ranger clear embossing powder, Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Christmas