Handmade By Mirella: Get Cracking On Christmas 2021

16 September 2021

Get Cracking On Christmas 2021 - September

Hi Everyone,

And so it is September already! My 6 year old recently asked me, how many days until Christmas, and I realised that it's just around the 100 day mark now, wow! Time really does fly...

If you are new to Get Cracking on Christmas, please check out Jenn's blog here - she is the master-mind behind this initiative, and is the best one to explain it! :o)

Today's cards were inspired by a piece of patterned paper that a friend of mine gave me. They are three very easy designs, mostly made out of die cuts, and some small bit of stamping/heat embossing/splattering or simply doodling. Funnily enough, the third card was made out of scraps I was considering throwing away, and I think it's actually my favourite of them all now!

For the first card, I was planning to use only die cuts, but in the end I opted to lightly stamp the deer image - I think it looks better that way. I added some "scenery" detail with a white coloured pencil, snowflakes stamped with VersaMark Ink, and there is some golden detailing on the deer itself (see close-ups). A delicate gold heat embossed sentiment, and voila - ready! Apologies for the not so great photos - the weather has not been kind here recently, plus somehow my camera got confused with the limited colour palette on the card!

The second card is probably the closest one to the patterned paper that inspired me in the first place - I couldn't believe it when I saw these little tree clusters amongst my stamp sets (by the way, I tried to link to all the sets used at the bottom of the post... I am sorry, I used a random mix of stamp & die sets, to match the ideas I had in my head...you definitely don't need them all to create a similar look - challenge yourself to see what you have in your stash & use that! You might have to, since some of the sets are retired already, LOL)!

And finally, the card made of "scraps" and leftovers... I was doodling on these trees purely for fun, as I was then going to throw them away... In the end, they helped me create my favourite card for today. One woman's trash can be the same woman's treasure, as it turns out, LOL!

Here is the patterned paper that I used for inspiration. Now I challenge you - create something inspired by this patterned paper, and let me know in the comments where I can see your makes!