Christmas is coming - AGAIN !!!

Any crafter will tell you that it's never too early to make Christmas cards or decorations, so that's what I've been doing this past few days.

I love, love love stamping. No, not with my foot, though I HAVE been known to do that on occasion, but stamping-with-ink-on-card stamping :o) I'm not brilliant at it,  but I think, with practice I'm getting better. I have a HUGE collection of stamps & I've decided that this year, I'm going to make full use of them & will try to use a stamp on every single card I make, be it for Christmas, birthday, new baby, anniversary or whatever.

All the images I've used on the following cards  are from Penny Black. I absolutely LOVE Penny Black stamps. I'd rather spend money on them than on food or clothes !! :o)

This image is stamped with black ink & then coloured with Pro-markers. I then used an embossing pen to pick out where I wanted to use snowflake tinsel embossing powder & then heat embossed it. A couple of nesties, a bit of ribbon, some mirror card put through the Cuttlebug & some designer paper later &  I had my first Christmas card for 2012 :o)

This image was just as above - stamped & coloured with Pro-markers. Again, the bug & nesties came into force, a bit of background paper & a ribbon & card no. 2 was ready :o)

I love this stamp - there's something a bit Victorian-Christmas about a lamp post !! :o)

I wanted to keep this card simple  so I just used 3 colours - red, black & a cinnamon colour for the mouse. To give it a bit of *splark*, I used snowflake tinsel embossing powder, a glittery ribbon & silver mirror card.

This card was an experiment for me :o)  Normally, I'd stamp onto card stock, cut it out & then stick it on a card. But, today, I decided to go for it - stamp straight onto a card & then watercolour it. I must say - I'm quite pleased with the results :o)   I will, however, own up to putting a sentiment on where I stamped a greeting, but it smudged :o) THAT'S why I don't normally stamp  directly on to a card :o)

My trusty old Cuttlebug really had an outing today :o) This card is stamped, watercoloured, cuttlebugged & nestabilitie-d to within an inch of its life :o) I think it's rather cute - I LOVE the snowman image.

Now, this one I'm not too sure of. I stamped onto a nesty shape, watercoloured it & then used an ink pad to colour the nesty edges. I then sort of scuffed the ink pad over the nesty shape & image, but I think I might have been just a bit too heavy handed.

As well as making cards, I've been knitting tree ornaments. One of my nephews  has just moved into a bedsit & has requested a few for his tree. NOT that he has a Christmas tree yet, but at least if I get them done, they'll be ready for him when he wants them. HOPEFULLY he'll have a tree come Christmas 2012 !! :o)

This is a very simple Christmas tree - just knit a diamond shape, fold it in half , sew the sides, make a brown trunk, add a few embellishments & hey presto :o) The pattern is by YarnMiracle.

I really like this bell - it's a Jean Greenhowe pattern & it only took about 3 hours in total to make, so an evening's knitting :o)

This little parcel I just sort of made up as I went along. I knitted a rectangle, folded it in half, put some carboard inside to stiffen it a bit, crocheted a ribbon, added a silver ribbon & snowflake & that was it.

I LOVE this Christmas pud. I made one for myself last year & so many people commented on it. It's so life like, but it's quite time consuming & fiddly. The pattern is by Frankie Brown, who, in my opinion, designs some of the best Christmas patterns going.

And lastly - well done if you've managed to read this far without losing the will to live !! - a Christmas stocking. It's about 4 inches tall so a little something can be put in it on the tree.

My daughter asked me to knit her some fingerless gloves in Hufflepuff  (Harry Potter) colours & as I'm only half way through the first glove, I think I'd better stop Christmas crafting for a while & get on with them. If I don't, it'll soon be too warm for her to wear them & somehow, I don't think she's willing to wait till NEXT winter for them :o))