Christmas Time.. no wait, New Years!

Where does time fly? It seems I only just finished the last post [in November] and it's already almost New Years Eve!

I thought I'd post a few of the Christmas cards I made this year.. granted, there were not many of them given I made 40 invitations to dad's surprise 70th birthday (say tuned) which was also in December.Therefore this year, those who got gift vouchers for Christmas, got a card to put them in (sort of to make up for the non-gift). Does anyone else feel guilty about giving vouchers? Even though I know some prefer them, I always have that pang of guilt that it wasn't thought out enough.

Anyhow, I managed to snaffle one of those gorgeous 'dasher' stamps from SU. I love it, I'm not sure how they managed to pull off a design that's both ornate but still CAS at the same time, but I'm not complaining!

I made two versions of this card, the simple stitched one and the distressed one. I would have taken photos of the inside, however yours truly managed to write in them before taking the pics!

The base cardstock is from SU - 'Cherry Cobbler' (CC) it's my new favourite rich red colour, and teams well with all my neutrals.

I simply stamped it once on Whisper White in Cherry Cobbler ink and mounted it with the CC cardstock on Kraft.. oops Crumb Cake. The faux stitching is still pierced holes with the matt pack with the white unigel signo pen run over them. For a little bling I added some rhinestones on the curls of the antlers which i thought gave he otherwise very simple design a bit of oomph. I also tied kitchen twine around the central image before mounting it with dimensionals which i think helped ground the reindeer a little.

For the next card, I took the same idea but tuned it sideways and distressed the edges for my nephew to make it a little more masculine...

The background was a distressed snowflake rubber stamp I received as a Christmas pressie from a colleague which was very sweet. It's from the Tim Holtz collection of a company called Stampers Anonymous. I'd never heard of them before but its really good quality deep etched rubber and Simon Say Stamp sells them. Other than the Stampin Up goodies, I pretty much buy everything else from there. Even though it's an American site, given how well the Australian Dollar is doing, and how efficient their shipping of orders are, I usually have my orders within less than a fortnight and for a flat rate of $15 for shipping only. Hard to look that particular gift horse in the mouth!!!

I stamped it using Kraft ink, which I am still raving about. Previously, I would have used Versamark, but this leaves a much crisper image I think without compromising the subtlety of tone-on tone. The sentiment makes me smile because I was all bummed out that I didn't have any cute Christmas sentiments, and I'm very partial to those half printed, have script/handwritten ones. I scoured my collection for something, and low-and-behold, I found this little gem amongst the SU 'Best Yet' set. (From recollection, it may have been a hostess set) but I never really noticed it... until now that is! Isn't it sweet?

The little itty bitty snowflakes are from one of the little single stamped in the 'short and sweet' sentiment set. Again, one of those looked-over stamps in a set I use often. So seriously, go back through your stamp sets, and try to look at those ones you usually pass over .. it's super-rewarding to find some gems. It's almost as good as buying a new set, but free!

I hope you like these and that Christmas found you and your families in good health and spirits and with less indigestion than I! (what is it about Christmas lunch and totally over-eating every time, no matter how many times you tell yourself, not this year!?!) hehe

Take care these holidays, and hope Santa was good to you all! x