Close Your Eyes and Think of Christmas

Yesterday afternoon I  decided I needed to make Christmas cards. Everything else could wait: doing something nice suddenly seemed important. So I hopped upstairs, because I knew I had a couple of sheets of lovely red patterned paper and a little house stamp set aside from my November Gossamer Blue kits, for this very activity.

I like to do something  with a house motif every year, so as soon as I spotted this little stamp I knew where it was headed. Next, I found I had some tiny leaves already stamped and cut out on my desk, so I started playing about and this is what I came up with.

I went into production:

All year I save up my scraps of white cardstock in case I need them for Christmas cards (and after Christmas I force myself to get rid of the little pieces I haven't used, so I can start collecting all over again). As I have absolutely no talent for stamping, and admire very much those who do, I often stamp and then trim so I can safely bin the rejects without also having to bin the project.

A big background stamp I can just about manage: here it is. It's been in my collection for years now, so I've lost track of where it comes from; but I thought it would work as a base for my cluster. Then, a bit of stitching for a border: you can see that I placed my beginning and ending place  where I knew it would be covered by a leaf; and that, after making a first card, I decided to add two rows of stitching to the next batch.

Looking again at my first card, I thought it needed a little sparkle, so I went back to it and added some tiny, sparkly stars from Felicity Jane. Is it finished now? I'm not completely sure. But it's a start. And I still have that red patterned paper to play with..