Christmas is coming...

...and my stock of cards is very small! Here are four that I made recently and I have two more of the white ones also, but I really need to get busy soon. 

Catching up slowly...

Another sea themed card but rather different for my daughter.  The central image is by Creative Stamps and the single dolphins at the top by Rubber Stampede; the panel was coloured many years ago using (I think) various Ranger Color Washes and I added some sponged ink to make it more marine blue and less grass green. The patterned piece at the bottom is a strip of blue holographic plastic - I bought several strips long ago when a craft shop was closing down and don't think I've ever seen it since (one of those 'must haves' that goes out of fashion as quickly as it comes in). I punched the top edge with a Martha Stewart punch whose name escapes me and then added clear gems as bubbles. To be quite honest, I really struggled to make a card at this time and was thankful that it turned out even half decent.

Two weeks later I was still struggling to create and I 'cheated' with an easy cut-and-stick design for my niece's birthday, using images from Making Cards magazine. I had two pretty background papers in my stash and with the use of old and new Spellbinder dies the card came together quite satisfactorily.

Finally, there was yet another Golden Wedding celebrated by friends (I think that's 6 in about 18 months). Using the trusty Centre Step template by Get in Shape, a couple of Memory Box dies and a couple more Spellbinders for the aperture and trim, a sheet of pale gold card for the base and another of matt gold for the images, the entire card came together in about half an hour. That was after a dummy run which proved the difficulty of attaching those very fine flower stems securely but invisibly, and the advantage of having an aperture edge behind which some good old fashioned sticky tape is concealed!

Hellooooo....is anyone there?

It's been a long, rather difficult six months - nothing really dire but one of those periods when it takes all one's efforts just to stagger along from day to day. I won't bore you with details but suffice to say I hope I shall be back to serious crafting very soon; I haven't wanted to bother with card making for a long time but am beginning to feel the itch just a little. This is the first card I've made since July and the result of trying something completely different to stimulate my interest. Although I've made plenty if stitched cards before I haven't used beads as an integral part of the design, but I love the finished effect. I have now bought many more patterns from this designer, Emelie, and stitched/beaded several with Christmas cards in mind. I'll try to mount them properly in the next few days and show them on here as soon as possible.

 Meanwhile I'll include one of three cards I made for family birthdays in July: here's  a sea themed easel card for my sister who loves seahorses, made with papers from Making Cards magazine and tiny brass charms. I'll make a separate post tomorrow to show those I made for my daughter and niece, since I'm having a spot of bother sorting out all the changes Blogger has made during my absence!