Welcome to my crafty blog. It’s been such a busy week, and I haven’t had much time for crafting, but got my act together yesterday and had a crafty session with my friend Jean vian Zoom. Today’s card uses the Stampin’ Up ‘Coming Home’ stamp set and coordinating dies from the ‘Trimming the Town’ suite, which I’ve completely fallen in love with after being inspired through an online class with Joanne James, aka The Crafty Owl. I’ve used the design from this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the layout (https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/).

I started by stamping out two of the houses, the trees and the wreath from the stamp set, and then coloured them in using SU Stampin Blend alcohol markers. I used Poppy Parade & Misty Moonlight for the houses with Soft Suede for the roofs, and Old Olive for the trees. (Thanks to Joanne as well for helping me improve my blending & shading with these pens). Once coloured, I die cut all the pieces

I then brushed some pale blue ink across the upper part of a piece of white card (I used ‘Broken China’ Distress Ink) to give the illusion of sky, and stamped the sentiment from the ‘Poinsettia Petals’ set.

All I then had to do was attach the die cuts to the card using foam pads. I used pads of different depths so that they weren’t all on the same level, and there was a bit more dimension. After sticking the topper to a 6×6 card blank, I finished by adding some ‘diamond’ Stickles glue across the houses and trees to give a bit of a snowy effect.

I’ve still got lots more Christmas cards to make – and I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping yet! Time to get myself into gear I think…