Cards Cards Cards

After the first six bleak months of 2018 when I was barely able to leave our bedroom and made nothing more than a handful of birthday cards I did not see myself being able to make any Christmas cards at all.

But, time went on and things improved and I decided I simply could not bring myself to buy cards from a shop (and there are some beauties out there!) so thought I'd make a few cards at a time and see how I got on.  Got on quite well, actually, and made around 150ish ... not quite as many as usual but better than I expected to do.

Tim Holtz came to play ... well, at least his products ... and I did a variation on my much preferred tag cards for the family and close friends.  

So, still a tag but opened to please those that do not think my tags to be "proper" cards

Afraid it didn't occur to me to list the products I used ... the *s*n*o*w* was Finnabair's modelling paste through Tim Holtz's *S*n*o*w*cap stencil and Falling Stars stencil and then sprinkled with Glamour Dust. I used his Home for the Holidays thinlits dies by Sizzix and his Stampers Anonymous Christmastime stamp which stamped in red and then clear embossed.  .

Loved the crispness of the red against the white so then made a batch of my more regular tag shaped cards to add to the pile of general Christmas cards.

For the next batch I did my much loved swishing and swooshing of distress ink - the fabulous oxides this time - Black Soot and Hickory Grey splodged on my craft mat and spritzed with water and  Tim's (we've met -  I had a hug so am on first name terms now!) manilla tags were dragged through and left to dry and then water droplets distressed them even more.

Same stencil as before and the sentiment this time was from the Festive Overlay stamp set.

The last batch were a date with the Big Shot die-cutting trees, deer and logs but these came together quite quickly once that task was done.

Swished and swooshed the background again ... normal distress this time and old paper and antique linen spring to mind ... maybe with a bit of bundled sage thrown in.   Stamp was Tim's Music & Advert stamped using Versafine Clair Pinecone - added a little red bow that was flat enough not to incur the higher postage rate.

Then two final cards for the Great-nephews ... first our darling Henry - the three and a half year old whirlwind that keeps us all on our toes.

I saw the *s*n*o*w*man stamp on a friend's post and she very kindly stamped some out for me as it is a stamp I am unlikely to use in the future.

It did mean doing the dreaded colouring-in but, hey, if you look closely I even did shading!!!!!  

And then came Rex ... two months old on Christmas Eve