Batch Baking for Rudolf Day

It is Rudolph Day again already - the 25th of the month, when Sarn over at Stamping for Pleasure, challenges us to create at least two Christmas cards.

We had some sad family news this week so I wanted something to take my mind off it and keep me busy, and I immediately thought  - colouring. I love my copic markers and I find colouring very theraputic, so I hunted through my files for a couple of Christmas digi stamps I bought from Mo Manning's site a while ago. This time I even had the foresight to decide which dies I would be cutting them with, so I sized them correctly and spaced them on the page with enough gaps to cut them properly. (I nearly always forget to do that). I printed each design five times, and spent a couple of peaceful evenings with soft music in the background, and just my fluff-ball Arwen to keep me company, while I coloured them all.

My first design was a little drummer boy, and I coloured the five images in a variety of colour combinations. 

Then it was time to turn them into cards. I sorted through my snippets and picked five pieces to cut the mats with a nestie die, (I am not sure what number it is). The images were cut with an original rectangular nestie. Then I went to my Christmas snippets box and chose backing papers to go with them. Some of them have joins in them, but I managed to hide most of the seams with embellishments. (Actually I messed up the colouring on one image too, and could only salvage it by fussy-cutting it and gluing it onto a plain rectangular background, but I bet you can't see which one it was in the photos).

Last year, our choir sang the song 'Little drummer boy' at our Christmas concerts, so I took one line from the song, printed it on the computer, and mounted it to match the main image, using the smallest die from the same set. By the time all five were done, I had used up some papers and elements that had been in my boxes for at least ten years!

For the second image, three carollers, I used the same colours each time. This time I chose a new Nellie Snellen die for the mats, again cutting it from oddments of card. I made base cards to match the mats, and for the backing I embossed some white paper from my always overflowing white off-cuts box. I particularly like the siwrly snow corner folder which came in a starter pack when I bought my eBosser machine. It is by Crafters Companions, and is part of their 'The Snowman' collection. 

I also used some embosscilicious folders. I made some of the cards square and some rectangular,  and on some I added a lamp-post cut with a Marianne die. On each card I highlighted the embossed snowflakes or stars in the background with a little stickles glitter glue. The word stamp is from a See-D's set, and the banners are from a big bagful I was given a few years ago. So now I have a second set of five, different but similar cards, a useful addition to my growing collection.

I shall link this up to Rudolph Day over at Stamping for Pleasure, and as the children are all swathes in hats and scarves, I will also link the to Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 169; All wrapped up, and to Pixie's Snippets Playground.