Sale-a-bration with a Christmas twist

It's Friday already and the launch of Sale-a-bration and the new spring/summer catalogue next Tuesday is getting closer! Have you made your list? And checked it twice?! (Luckily it doesn't matter whether you've been naughty or nice!) Talking of Christmas, I've been making Christmas cards with some of my Sale-a-bration sets. Come and see:

Don't these banners from Banner Blast work well for a contemporary festive card?! I had a look at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown for inspiration and the challenge there is a monochromatic card with ribbon and one rhinestone - I think I've covered that here!

There are lots of different styles of banner in this free set, one of which has a coordinating punch - and yes, that's available as a freebie too! I've 'suspended' my banners from a strip of taffeta ribbon and topped it with one of the Expressions thinlits dies. I've learned (the hard way!) that with these fiddly shapes, backing my card stock with multi-purpose adhesive sheet before cutting gives me a self-adhesive die-cut that's clean and easy to attach to my project. Have you spotted the gem?

Here it is - embellishing the star! As well as a variety of banners, there are three useful bitty shapes in this set: a flower, a heart and a star.

I had a look at my other 'go to' Christmas card challenge too, Merry Mondays, and found this gorgeous inspiration photo there.

Well of course I had to have a go at that too (keeping my fingers crossed that no-one would pop round and find me still in my PJs!)

I stamped my Dictionery background stamp into a mask made with one of the Labels Collection framelits, placed a strip of natural ribbon across it and topped it with a fussy-cut flower from the beautiful Petal Parade Sale-a-bration set. Its stylised shape reminded me of a pine cone!

Can you see that I've stamped it three times and layered it up? It's quite effective in real life! I stamped a couple of the stars from Banner Blast and added another of the die cut sentiments.

I'll also be linking these cards up with the Rudolph Day challenge and saying a big thank you to the lovely Sarn for getting me going early with this year's Christmas card stash! Edited to add: Oops - I'm a day early so I'll have to link up tomorrow... might be the first time I've ever been early for anything!

Here's what you'll need to make these cards

Stamps: Banner Blast, Petal Parade (Sale-a-bration freebies), Dictionary

Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Real Red, Early Espresso

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Real Red for the die cuts

Other: Expressions thinlits die, Labels Collection framelits, Big Shot, Banner punch (Sale-a-bration freebie), Real Red 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Naturals ribbon (retired, cotton ribbon is similar), Basic rhinestones, paper snips

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,

but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

While my older two children are in the middle of exams, my youngest is at the stage where he's choosing which GCSEs he'll be doing. We had a really good talk about it yesterday evening and he seems to be pretty clear about the subjects he wants to do, even though he has no idea what  career path to follow really (since being a chat show host may not work out at first!) It seems ridiculous to me that we were talking about his life as an adult when he turned up for our talk with a pair of underpants on his head and left doing an excellent impression of a snail!

Thank you for joining me for Sale-a-bration sneak peeks this week. Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you very soon.

Hugs,