One of the nice things about taking part in the Daily Marker colouring challenge is that I get to make my pile of printed digi stamps a bit smaller. Or at least I do on those occasions when I remember to check how many I have before printing a whole load of extras just in… Continue reading Reindeer pair
Another small batch of Christmas cards; unlike recent batches, these are not all identical, but they are made with the same techniques and layout. I've used Brusho before, but mostly in the "add Brusho, spray with water and fingers crossed it looks okay" way. These were a bit more controlled. The technique was inspired by… Continue reading Christmas splash of colour
I picked up this clear stamp in the run-up to last Christmas, but I never got around to using it. I rarely buy "scene" stamps — I generally prefer to build my own scenes — but I thought this was cute. The card layout is simple: a layer of matching patterned paper, a strip of… Continue reading Winnie’s Christmas wreath
Well, my plan to have finished all my Christmas cards by the end of October was utterly derailed by me not making any Christmas cards at all in October. In fact, I only made one card of any sort in October and that one really had to be made as it was for my mum's… Continue reading Aurora Christmas hair
Soon I'm going to run out of blackberry images to use of cards for my mum, but not this year: I have one digi stamp left unused. I decided what I was going to do for this year's card quite a few weeks ago, but, of course, I left it until the last week before… Continue reading Birthday blackberries
Another bit of unloved stash taken down off the shelf and put to good use. I bought one of the Kaleidacolor multicolour ink pads ages ago out of curiosity; I think I maybe did a test stamp with it on some scrap paper, but I've never used it on an actual project. And then I… Continue reading Pink and purple embossed flowers
I was tidying my computer desk the other day, working my way down to the bottom of a pile of crafty bits that had ended up balanced on the corner, when I came across a stamp set I'd been lucky enough to win in one of Kathy Racoosin's colouring giveaways over on Instagram. Rather than… Continue reading Pink embossed flowers
And this is my absolute favourite of all the Christmas cards I've made so far this year. Another thing that nearly went in the bin but ended up working out really nicely. I thought I'd have a go at doing a snowman on kraft card, after all, white stands out on kraft, whereas on white… Continue reading Snowman on kraft
This is probably my favourite of the batches of cards I've made so far this year. When I saw the poinsettia edger die I just couldn't resist picking it up and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It's a simple design, though inlaying the poinsettia flower was a bit fiddly and… Continue reading Poinsettia inlay
This is another card made out of the bits left over from creating the small batches of Christmas cards (1, 2, 3, 4). The stencilled panel was originally going to be layered with the smaller panel on the holly flourish card, but I wasn't happy with how that was looking. Instead, I used it as… Continue reading Wooden snowflakes
For the first one of these I made, I stamped the tree as a silhouette in black. Now, I quite like that one, but my other half declared it to be "creepy and deserving of a ghost story", so I stamped the rest in green. Unfortunately, the colour change decision was made after I had… Continue reading Single Christmas tree
This was one of the last of the Christmas cards I made in August and it was based off the first element I made when I was playing around with ideas for the batches of cards. I'd inked and stencilled a sheet of card with holly and die-cut a couple of postage-edged panels. But I… Continue reading Holly flourish
This is one of the two Christmas dies I bought for this year's cardmaking; I do like border sentiment dies and there is enough detail in this one that the rest of the design can be fairly simple. I divided the card into three sections: sentiment, trees and snow. Because I was going to make… Continue reading Field of Christmas trees
There's this lovely detailed snowflake swirl in one of the Polkadoodles stamp sets I picked up for my Christmas card-making and I really wanted to use it for one of my batch cards. At first, I hit the white space problem, i.e. I am rubbish at placing single elements on a card in a way… Continue reading Merry Christmas swirl
Much as I hate the idea of even contemplating Christmas when the temperatures are hovering around 30°C, there is one thing I have learned from experience that I hate more and that is making Christmas cards in December. To be honest, I'm not that keen on making them in November either. Way too stressful. So.… Continue reading Latest work: Christmas in August
Crafty Rat 