When it comes to Christmas cards, I like a design I can replicate without it taking too much time, but that looks like I put in more effort than I did....   So the two new Giant Outlined sentiment dies from Lawn Fawn were top of my shopping list on the latest release and I've had a quick play with them today.  

First off, I wanted to also use the new Unicorn Embossing powder, but I didn't check it out before I used it, and assumed it was clear and sparkly, where as it's more opaque white and sparkly!  So whilst this first card is not what I planned, I do actually like the results so went with it.  I simply die cut Giant Outlined Oh What Fun from white card, popped out the letters and coloured them with copics in teals and greens and then embossed over the top with the Unicorn powder.   Whilst the colour isn't as prominent as I expected, it is still there, and it sort of reminds me of iced gem biscuits.  To turn it into a card and I just popped the white onto a cream base card for soft contrast from the white and then I decided I wanted to add the Santa from Avery Elle's new Ho-Ho-Holiday stamp as he really looks like he's having fun.  Here's where the controversy comes in - I did my Santa green to match my letters.  Now it might seem odd, but the red does only come in the last Century with a certain brand of soft drink's marketing, before that the Santa character was one of Scandi myths and legends and often wore greens and blues!

I did decide to go "traditional" red on my second card - this time I used Giant Outlined Merry and Bright Die, again cut from white, but this time I also cut it from some striped paper in reds and teals.   I popped it on a cream base card again and covered up the "&" in the die with the Santa so added it back in with a stamped version instead.   Doing this method of infill means you get two quick cards as you can do the paper outer with the white letters filled in.  Same if you did it from two different coloured cards and swapped them over.  No waste and two super-speedy cards.

For card three I wanted to use the letters but not the frame as I like the quirky shapes, so I die cut the Oh What Fun die once more from white card and coloured the letters again with the copics in the same sorts of colours as card one, this time without the embossed layer.  I used The Greetery's Frosty Flakes stencils to add some sparkly detail to the corners of my square base card with the Unicorn powder instead.   Then more Santas's in blues and greens bring it all together.

This did leave me a white frame - so waste not want not, I pulled out another cream base card and this time just used two different stickles - crystal on the snowflakes and icicle to fill in the letters.   I really love the icy finish this gives so am leaving this one to speak for itself without adding a Santa (although I might try colouring one up in creams just to see what he'd look like.....)

News from the Store

Things will be a bit odd again this week, with the bank holiday tomorrow and a second day of Royal Mail strikes on Wednesday.

We'll be using the "down time" to get all our orders in for the early September releases so in the next couple of weeks you can expect new (and restocks) from:

• The Greetery

• Waffle Flower Crafts

• Altenew (the last 4 releases plus an upcoming one)

• Mama Elephant

• Colorado Craft Company

• Concord and 9th

• Lawn Fawn restocks will be ordered but it may be a while before they process our order as they will still be super busy from last weeks release.

That's all for today 

Happy Crafting!

Tara