Hello everyone! I’m back after spending the last few weeks travelling in central Europe, and busy readjusting to normal life! Summer is now behind us (although it’s still quite warm here in the South East of England) and Jan has challenged us to look ahead to Christmas for our new theme at As You See It. I can’t tell you how many Christmas cards I’ve made, but it’s over 40 – you may remember that I was making at least one every week through the year until I headed off on my holidays! Clarity Crafts are also busy counting down the days to the festive season, so I’ve gone with their Christmas Retro Candle stamp for a fairly simple design.

I started with a 5″ square of premium card and stamped two of the holly leaves from the Big Blooms set, then covered them with the pre-cut masks that some with the stamps. I could then stamp the retro candle into the centre, all with black Archival ink.

Next was to colour the images with my Polychromo pencils – I took inspiration for the colours from one of the cards in my Colour Cube, and smoothed out the pencil shading with Dorso oil and a blending nib.

I then simply added a mount of dark green companion paper and attached then topper to a 6×6 card blank.

So, how is your seasonal card making coming along? We’re giving you the perfect excuse to either get started or add to your stash at As You See It, and we’d love to see your creations in our gallery.