Different ways to use a stamp

Hello crafting friends!

I have a couple of cards to show you today that use the same stamp in very different ways. One of the cards was a doddle to make and I banged out eight of them in an hour or two while chatting and crafting with a friend...

... The other card took practically a whole day and had me shrieking like a baboon as everything went wrong! Can you guess which is which?

THE FIRST CARD
This started with a greeting made out of some of the words in Stampin' Up's Merry Christmas To All. I arranged 'wishing you a' and 'Christmas' on a single block and stamped it in black ink, while 'Happy' went on a separate block and was stamped in red.

All the gorgeous leaves and branches I used to decorate around the greeting are from Uniko's Winter Foliage. This card was simple and everything went according to plan :)


THE SECOND CARD
I think the problem with this one is that I had only a vague plan for it! I started by masking off the edges of a thick card base. The remaining space was stamped in versamark ink with the snowflake from Stampin' Up's Winter Post (retired), then heat embossed with white embossing powder. The card base warped badly but I saved it by running it through my big shot a few times.

I used the fir branch from the first card to stamp over the embossed snowflakes, left and top, sponging a little extra ink round the edges for definition. The snowflakes were polished off with a tissue. I cut an off-centre square out of a card panel (it turned out to be in the wrong place so I had to do it again.) This was placed over the embossed card base and looked ok so I was encouraged to go on!

I then spent many ages of this world adding things, taking them away, trying a variety of sentiments which all went horribly wrong... until I ended up with this reindeer from the Winter Post set, a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said, and a little garland made with tiny circles punched out of shiny gold card with a cropadile.


CHALLENGES
As always, I am so grateful for all the wonderful challenge sites out there that inspire us all. I shall link both cards up with The Twofer Challenge, where the theme this month is Holiday Foliage and the foliage I've used in both cards is the fir branch. The second card was made using the beautiful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I shall also link it up with Perfectly CAS where the theme is Christmas; Jingle Belles, where we are taking inspiration from their header; and Festive Friday, where I've chosen Woodland Creatures, Leaves and Gold from the inspiration list.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
We are getting to that time of year where the light levels are shockingly low if it's cloudy, even at nearly midday. Of course that means it's nearly Christmas which brings with it friends and family, glowing fires and decorations, feasting and fun... so it's not all bad!

Are there things that you love about this time of year? Or would you prefer to hibernate until spring like a polar bear? Do let me know in the comments below :)

Hugs,