Christmas card with Seeing Stars and Gifted

Good morning - and it's another very crisp Monday morning in Buckingham! Christmas preparations have started in earnest here - and, for those that are interested, those Christmas puddings made the whole house smell fabulously festive and are lucky to have been stored away intact! I'm not going to share the recipe until I've tested it on Christmas day but, have no fear, I'll be testing it REALLY thoroughly - possibly with cream AND brandy butter!

I'm a bit of a fiend for the traditional at Christmas but there are times when traditional isn't appropriate. Today's card belongs in that category!

Seeing Stars is a stamp set that's got me quite excited. I love it because it's a bread-and-butter set - one of those ones you can use for almost anyone or anything. It's a set that you can guarantee is not going to spend a great deal of time un-inked. And at £21.95 for a set of 8 - that's just £2.74 per stamp!!! - it seems to me to be an absolute bargain! Why not buy it with the fabulous Clip Assortment at £7.95 and be entered into my draw to win a fabulous Christmas gift? (Click here for details.)

Here's how to make this card:

• Colour the polka dot background and the sentiment on the Gifted stamp with a Cherry Cobbler marker and stamp on a scrap of Whisper White card stock. Use a stamp-a-majig to stamp stars above the sentiment using Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry. Trim around the image using a trimmer.
• Cut a piece of Bravo Burgundy card stock slightly larger than the image panel and take 'bites' out of the corners with a 1/4" circle punch. Attach the Gifted panel to this with dimensionals and add a library clip.
• Cut a 9cm square Whisper White card blank and stamp the front with a random star design.
• Attach the Gifted panel to the centre of the card front.

Supplies
Stamps: Gifted, Seeing Stars
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink
Card stock: Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy
Other: Cherry Cobbler marker, library clip from the Clip Assortment, 1/4" circle punch

This weekend we bought The Family Jigsaw. Every year we buy a Christmas jigsaw from a charity shop or goodwill store with a nostalgic image on it - it has to be something like a Christmas market, or a picture of Victorian skaters, or an Edwardian family welcoming family from a steam train in the snow. We start the puzzle from the beginning-ish of December and we all add pieces as we pass, with a view to completing it before Christmas. It's become a part of our Christmas celebrations and we do usually manage to complete it! It may seem mad to do something so time-consuming in the frenzy before the holidays but I consider it therapy amid the mayhem and it's one of those things that brings us together. You might like to try it!

Thank you for popping in today. There'll be more Christmas inspiration here tomorrow if you have a spare minute. Hope to see you then!