Catching Up with Christmas

The deer design was copied  from one on Pinterest but with my own twist (the original was white with red, on a rectangular card). The snowflake was inspired by a friend but is sufficiently different for her to earmark it for some of her next year's cards. Finally,  the bottom one is well and truly my own original work! This stamp is one of a series by Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps and I deliberately chose it to go with the Memory Box holly die which I've had for a few years. I also made a couple of cards using the companion  'Silent Night' stamp and nativity dies by Cottage Cutz but although they were supposed to be only experimental in the end I sent them without scanning first. Never mind, I have at least two more of these carol stamps and plan to make most of next year's cards with them so will be able to show them later.

All three designs lent themselves to production line assembly (I made 5 deer, 12 snowflake and 5 holly) but in the process decided that my beloved Cuttlebug is showing signs of the hard life it has led and maybe it would be nice to have one of the larger die cutting machines. I did some research, found what I thought I wanted was on special offer so mentioned to my husband that I intended to treat myself....only instead it was transferred to Santa's Grotto (a.k.a. the loft) when the courier delivered it and I still have to wait until next Friday before trying it out. You know - the Christmas present which I ordered but do not know anything about ;) So I can't tell you that it's the XCut Xpress which has a dial to adjust pressure instead of using plates and shims of differing thicknesses. A friends saw one in a craft shop and was very impressed....I hope I have made the right decision, but I shall hang on to my trusty little green Bug, just in case.

If there should be any readers out there still, I send greetings to you all and wish you a very happy, healthy and crafty new year.