8th Advent Window - Woodland shaker

 It's fairly well known that my garden is over run by Rabbits, which is the inspiration for today's card. This design would look equally as effective with the doe or fox from the set too.

Stamp Set: Nature's Beauty

Ink: Smoky Slate

Card stock: Silver foil, Whisper white, Peaceful Place Specialty DSP, Window Sheet

Accessories: Oval Die, Beautiful Trees die, Subtle shimmer sequins.

Although this card is intentionally toned down, 

as some friends have had a challenging year, 

the sparkling sequins really lift the scene when shaken ;-)

Cardmaking for calmness,

GenGen xxxx

7th Advent Window - Snow in Aus!

 As you may know, some of my family live Down Under in Australia, and as they experience summer temperatures at Christmas time I can't resist sending some sort of snow inspired card. this year it's this . . . 

This is the gorgeous Peaceful Place Designer Series Paper, with some silver ink stamping from the Merry Snowflakes stamp set at the base, and silver foil card stock for the silver edge and for the So Many Snowflakes (Star) with central pearl.

Keep it simple,

GenGen xxxx

6th Advent Window - Season Sparkle

Stamp Set: Sparkle of the Season

Card stock: Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent, Silver Foil

Ink: Soft Succulent

Accessories: Seasonal Swirls Dies, Soft Succulent 1cm Sheer Ribbon

I love this understated set and die, 

it can be as intricate or as pared back as you choose it to be. 

It is already set for retirement, but I'll continue to use it ;-)

Steal some time to craft in the chaos,

GenGen xxxx

5th Advent Window - Stitched Star

 There is always part of me that likes tiny things, 

so this is my miniature card 3"x3".

Stamp Set: Tidings & Trimmings

Ink: Evening Evergreen

Card stock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Evening Evergreen, 

Tidings of Christmas DSP, Gold Foil

Accessories: Stitched Star and Christmas Trimmings dies

Keep sprinkling a little Christmas magic,

GenGen xxxx

4th Advent Window - Scandi Inspiration

You know sometimes you have an idea of a design, but it won't completely formulate in your head? Then when you're food shopping a similar image pops up in the form of a festive napkin . . . 

As my initial idea was for a simplistic Scandi red and white design, this napkin allowed me to come up with this . . . 

Stamp Set: Snowflake Wishes

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: Stamparatus to facilitate printing 12 card fronts, 

and retired red ribbon with Christmas kisses ;-)

Keep on Crafting Christmas,

GenGen xxxx

3rd Advent Window - Winter woodland

 With the wonderful Llandrindod Card Club I also did an autumn card with this stamp set, but took along this option to show a really scaled back and simple Christmas card. The Welcoming Woods Distinktive stamp illustrates depth and simplicity.

I used some of the Silver Foil Speciality Pack as a background for the simply stamped Grey Granite ink stamped image, with silver ink for the snowflakes and some of the free Sale-A-Bration glimmer paper for the added snowflake ;-) (die from Stitched Snowflake dies)

Keep yourself calm with Christmas Card making

Gen Gen xxxx 

2nd Advent Window - Merriest Moments

The wonderful ladies of Llandrindod Card Club invited me to my only workshop of the year in October and it gave me the perfect excuse to explore the possibilities of the Merriest Moments Bundle

Here, I've used the Merriest Moments Hybrid embossing folder for the white base card, the Evening Evergreen base was cut with the outline die before embossing, which then fits into the embossing folder, and I've detail cut the vellum top layer before embossing it too.

I simply added printed and die cut Holly leaves (in Evening Evergreen) and Poinsettia (in Cherry Cobbler) with red rhinestones, and a scrap of whisper white for the central sentiment cut out with the stitched die.

I thought perhaps seeing the dies, hybrid embossing folder and stamp set would illustrate the potential of this bundle - when you simply pencil colour the embossed image it can pick up the detail of the embossing. For a simplistic card you can simply leave the embossed image plain. The coordinating stamp set and matching die means you can also increase the detail and layering of the design.

Keep on Christmas Crafting, Gen Gen xxxx