Hello there. Well it’s been another scorching day here in the South East of England – the hottest ever recorded! I thought I’d make another Christmas card, in the hope that if I’m thinking about cooler days I’ll stop noticing the heat… (it didn’t work!) This is essentially a one layer card using Claritystamps, although the adhesive gems probably count as a layer!

I started by using the smallest square of Clarity’s plastic embedders to create the frame for the scene. I attached the embedder to the front of a 5×5 card with a bit of low tack tape, then ran an embossing tool around it from the inside of the card. I repositioned it so it was off-set and added an additional partial frame at the top left corner, then repeated that at the bottom right.

I stamped the tree from the ‘wee folk Christmas’ set in ‘rustic wilderness’ Distress Oxide and the small boy in ‘shadow grey’ Archival. I added the cat from the ‘garden miniatures’ set on the other side fo the tree, again in ‘shadow grey’.

I grounded the scene by sponging the ‘shadow grey’ across a torn piece of copy paper, and stamped the sentiment at the top. I then added a few sparkly Glossies onto the tree, with a few more on the floor waiting for the boy to add them once he’s finished getting the star on the top.

I’m sure any cat owner will identify with this scene – he’s definitely just biding his time to play with the baubles when no-one’s looking!

I’ve managed to combine several challenges into this card as well. AAA cards‘ theme is ‘Christmas pets’ and Less is More have gone for ‘traditional Christmas’ – what’s more traditional than decorating the tree? TGIF have also opted for a Christmas theme, and Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge is ‘anything goes’ – the star heading for the top of the tree picks up their optional twist of ‘gold.