The Man Himself

Didn't expect to get time to get another post in before Christmas, but here I am!

Each year we think up a theme for our Christmas decorating, food, etc - and this year we chose the man himself, Santa Claus. So our Christmas dinner menu is food that is full, robust and heartwarming and we have plenty of red and white items around.

The other day I found a garden light at my local $2 shop which I couldn't resist buying and yesterday I glanced upon a large glass vase I have - and the two items clicked together in my head as an idea for our Christmas table centrepiece. Luckily, when I tried it out, my idea came together first time (hooray!) and produced our very own North Pole:

And yes, you do recognise those snowflakes I am sure - from the Snow Swirled set which I have stamped on with whisper white craft ink (rotate pressure on the stamp a little as you press the ink on to the rounded surface of the vase).

I also saw a very simple idea on Pinterest that I have used to dress up the dining chairs a little - here's a photo of one of those:

And our Christmas dinner menu is inside this little holder made with the two tags die and stocking punch:

Materials used:

• card - midnight muse, crumb cake, real red, basic black, glitter card
• other - two tags die, Big Shot, stocking punch, dimensionals
• non SU - brick wall embossing folder, corner rounder punch

Just little things to make our day even more fun. Hope you are enjoying preparing for Santa too!

Thanks for popping in.

Cheers
Kez

Tag, You're It

You ever have one of those days when you're really slow at figuring things out and deciding what goes with what? I had a day making Xmas tags on Friday and I think it took me about 2 hours to make my first one! DD19 - who up until now has not been even the slightest, teeniest-weeniest bit crafty - actually make a bunch of tags too! Whoot!

Anyways, here's what I have to show for my marathon. Some of them I'm happy with and some not-so-much, but I'll show them to you warts and all. I made good use of my two tags die and stocking punch with this first batch. I especially love the elf stockings but they were so fiddly I only made one pair!

Then more two tags die with a variety of other shapes for decoration:

This last one tickled me. It's the first time I've made one of those trees (DD19 loved it so much she made one of her own) and I loved adding it to the peekaboo frame with a message underneath:

But I've only made 11 tags - mmmm, around the same number still to go I think! Guess what I'll be working on today?

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers
Kez

Very Merry

It's our last Christmas Stamp-a-Stack today and here are the two cards we'll be making:

Materials used:

• stamps - Beautiful Season, Best Yet
• card - cherry cobbler, basic black, watercolour, very vanilla, crumb cake
• other - large oval punch, scallop oval punch, aquapainter, sponge daubers, dimensionals, non SU embossing folder, Big Shot

Materials used:

• stamps - Stitched Stockings, Many Merry Messages
• card - cherry cobbler, very vanilla, old olive, Jolly Holiday DSP (retired)
• other - stocking punch, dimensionals, alphabet dies, Big Shot, square lattice EF

Is that cute or what? Idea cased from Kathy at Stamping Still.

Now, much as I love making Christmas cards, it will be nice to have a break from them for a while - until I have to make the special family cards, that is!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Hung With Care

You simply cannot help but LOVE SU's new Stocking punch and I've been having a play with it - and the matching stamp set, of course! Here's a couple of fun cards:

For this one I embossed the stockings with the petals aplenty EF and coloured the flower centres with a white gel pen. White glitter card has been used for the stocking tops, but the shimmer doesn't show in the photo unfortunately.

Materials used:

• stamps - Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Bells and Boughs
• card - old olive, real red, retired Xmas DSP, non SU white glitter card
• other - petals aplenty EF, stocking punch, white gel pen, Big Shot, gold brads, real red taffeta ribbon

Here I've used the versatile square lattice EF on my backgrounds for a bit of texture.

Materials used:

• stamps - Stitched Stockings, Short and Sweet
• card - real red, whisper white, garden green, Holly Berry Bouquet DSP
• punches - scallop trim border, stocking
• other - dimensionals, square lattice EF, Big Shot

If you missed buying these during the promotion last month, you'll want to put them on your Summer mini catalogue wish list, trust me!

We are all slowly catching up on lost sleep around here and with three classes in the next week I'll have lots to show you soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez