It's that time of year again - time to get out the glitter!

I have already shown you some of my offerings for this year, but I had the Silhouette out again this week for another idea, and decided to get some cards out of it at the same time.  I think this design comes from a CD called Crystal Dreams, and is so effective when left simple.  It is cut by the Silhouette from pale cream card, and then mounted direct onto what I call Mary blue card (a cross between Mary's cloak and the night sky).  the sentiment was silver but coloured with the Dufex pens to tone with the blue card.  You can cut out the camels too and add them to create more depth if you are not posting the card.

This second card is also created with the use of the Silhouette to do the cutting.  The image is from  an old Christmas card we had ages ago, and I put it away.  when I looked at it again, I thought it would make an excellent decoupage, with the addition of white Flowersoft on the top of the postbox. 

With all these designs, I take them into the Silhouette software and trace the cutting lines on the screen, and then let the machine do the hard, time-consuming work for me.  I think I shall be doing a bit more to this design with some brayering to the background to darken it up a little.  Watch this space.

This was from another old card I found amongst my mother's things, and I gave it a similar treatment to the previous card, with the addition of some glitter on the snow.  Again this is all saved in the Silhouette files, so it can be recreated at will. 

I use the Silhouette a lot for cutting my decoupage when I have a design I particularly like.  I found I started to look differently at photos to see where I could cut to create the different layers.  The new software makes this much easier and more accurate.  When I get a bit more time to play, I have a few photos to convert in the same way.  If they work I will post them for you to see the results.

If you read my post from earlier in the week, you will have see that I had a bad day, and a minor strop, especially about people who bash cars and vanish without owning up.  Since then, we decided to have the work done ourselves, rather than go through the insurance and all the hassle that creates.

I also cheered myself up by spending a bit more crafting money.  I decided last year that, rather than spend a fortune travelling to the NEC, paying the exorbitant car park fee, and the entry to the show, I would spend that money on goodies that I could keep.  So it ended up as a couple of Barbara Gray's stamp kits - the Split Tree Kit and the new Joy Kit, plus the odd one or two new Adirondack ink pads to build my stock, a some of the new thin nibs for the Promarkers.

After struggling this week to find enough room on my workdesk to create anything, I have had a major tidy up, blown the vents of the computer to get rid of some of the gathered dust, and just moved a few things.  As a result, I now have more room than I had originally.  I can also see the top of both printers, and I have no tottering heaps of stuff.  Result!!!!  I have also finished all the cards needed for October.  Another result!!!!  Tomorrow, I have given myself permission to play and see what happens, that is, once I have put together a couple of simple Christmas cards (only a case of mounting the toppers).  Wha-Heyy!!  I might get up early tomorrow - exciting!