Christmas Birds ........

Good morning .......

Welcome to the middle of the week.  Not quite sure what happened to Monday and Tuesday but, here we are, and I'm hoping to spend the day in my craft room ..... whoo hoo!!  Lets hope it's a productive one. 

I thought it was about time I made a real start on some Christmas cards,  as it's only about six weeks until the beginning of December ........ eeeek!!  It's a good excuse to play along with this month's CAS Christmas Card Challenge too.

The theme for October is ...... Christmas Birds 

I do love a cheeky little robin or two, or three ..... and seeing as this gorgeous stamp flew into the craft room recently I couldn't resist playing along

I saw this stamp a few months ago on Bonnie's Blog (Stamping with Klass) and I fell in love with it.  I don't think they're actually robins but ......... depending on what colours you use on them they could be any type of bird.

I think they make cute little robins .......

Stamped and heat embossed in gold, and then coloured using Distress Inks and a waterbrush.

I stamped a snowflake onto the background and heat embossed in white and I created a mask to cover the birds.

I then applied Distress Ink over the background ....... around the birds and over the snowflake.

The white embossing acts as a resist to the blue ink, so once I was happy with the depth of colour I polished off any excess left on the snowflake and finished off with a sprinkling of Chunky White Embossing Powder to give the look of falling snow.  

With the Chunky White I simply sprinkle this where I want it to be (it's great for covering up small mistakes!) and then I heat set from UNDERNEATH so that it doesn't all blow away.

A festive sentiment stamped underneath finishes everything off nicely

I loved how this turned out so ..... I have three for the Christmas box!  Lets hope the festive mojo is in the mood for playing again today.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

Just to add to the festive spirit it's the Christmas Preview evening at my favourite garden centre tonight.  We might just pop in and have a little look at what they've got this year ..... there's always room on the tree for more pretty decorations!

Cheerio until next time ........

Products used:

Stamps: The bird stamp is from Impresssion Obsession (E19968); Most Wonderful (sentiment set - Clearly Besotted); Snowflake from my stash

Inks: Distress Inks - Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Gathered Twigs, Evergreen Bough, Festive Berries, Fossilised Amber; Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Versamark ink

Others: White Embossing Powder, Gold Embossing Powder (WOW!); Chunky White Embossing Enamel (Stampendous)