Top 10 Christmas cards from 2018

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the twixt Christmas and New Year lull if you are lucky enough to get one. This is our first day of downtime when we have no visitors and are not visiting anyone else, so I am having a pyjama day and taking some time to go through my lovely gifts and send some thank you cards.

I have also been looking back at the blog and have selected my favourite Christmas cards of 2018:-

I really love the simplicity of this Nativity scene and used plain black card to enhance the silhouette design. I paper pieced the halo and then added gilding flakes to the background to give a gorgeous golden glow. I also love that pretty sentiment from Clearly Besotted.

You can find the original post here.

I used the Crafter's Companion Christmas Deer die for this card, but I snipped off the deer and just used the trees to frame the picture. The cute little girl on her toboggan is from the MFT Dashing By stamp set.

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If I had to pick only one Christmas card that I made this year, I think it would be this one. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with those adorable Clearly Besotted robins and I really like the frames within a frame look. I have a few old PTI background stamps that are smallish strips which are easy to repeat stamp to make a background of any size. This star one and the polka dots are so useful.

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I liked this card because I used the non-Christmas Harvest Mouse stamps from MFT to stretch my stash a bit. I used the reverse stamping technique to create mice that could face each other, and added Christmas presents to their hands to hide the apples they are holding.

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If you need quick, easy to replicate cards, this one could fit the bill. The So Many Snowmen stamp from Mama Elephant leaves a big smile on my face, and the large stamp is quickly coloured because most of it needs to be left white. A quick trim across the top was all that was needed before it could be attached to the card.

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I'm a big fan of monochrome cards and this design appeals to the CAS side of my soul. This lovely ribbon tree stamp from Woodware has been in my stash for a very long time and I never tire of inking it up.

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This is another Clearly Besotted card using a frame die from MFT, but this time I used the cute Christmas Pudding stamp and die set. I love Nuvo Drops but I usually make the drops on a non-stick mat and glue them to my card once they are dry so I can select ones with a good shape and similar size. I was really brave here and went directly to the card for the berries on the holly sprigs.

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I love how the cut and emboss folder from John Lockwood frames the little woodland and deer scene on this card. The birch trees are from Clearly Besotted and the deer which I fussy cut are from Mama Elephant.

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This is another card that was quick to put together and would be good for mass producing. The elf is from the MFT Santa's Elves and I fussy cut it before discovering that I also had the dies tucked away in my stash - a clear sign that I need to spend some time sorting through and organising my supplies! 

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Finally, this is a card made with elements my kind Teamie Stephanie sent me. That cool Santa trying to look incognito in his shades while keeping a beady eye on us, coupled with that sentiment, really cracks me up! 

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Well, that concludes my look back at 2018 and I wonder what styles and techniques will inspire us all next year.

I would like to thank you for your visits and the lovely, encouraging comments you leave. I've made so many wonderful bloggy friends over the years and I really value the support and inspiration you give. Who knows what next year has in store for us, but I wish you all a healthy, happy and creative 2019.

Hugs

Carol x