WOYWW - 125 OK, I know Christmas is coming - fast!!

It is that time of the week again, the first of the two Wednesdays in this week (there must be two or the time is flashing by even faster than I thought). so it is time to bare all - well, not all, but our desks in all their glory.  What is on my desk this week is rather a lot of stuff.  We went over to Webbs of Wychbold last week and, of course, it would have been rude not to wander round Hobbycraft, and even more rude not to buy something.  So you can see a couple of packets of white flowers with gems on, ready to colour in, and a little storage box with coloured and textured flowers.  They are on the left.  On the right you can see some of my Silhouette pens, which I have been using a lot to draw some of my cards.  In the middle you can see a pile of recycled toppers from previous cards, ready to use in some way.  On the far left you can see one of my Really Useful Christmas boxes, full of stuff, decoupage, peeloffs etc.

 I have finally given in to the Christmas rush.  I got the two really useful boxes out at the end of last week and had a good sort through.  I had a bag of recycled toppers from previous year's cards, all shop bought.  A couple have been turned straight into new cards by cutting them and folding them.  As you can see, they are both robin pictures with out of focus backgrounds.  I found the centre on each side, and cut the top half of the robin with my trusty finger blade (Fiskars) and then folded the card at that point, so that it will stand up.  I still have to work out how to do the inserts, which will help to strengthen the finished card.

I have also had the Silhouette out again with the pens, rather than the blade.  The tree design is one I bought from the Silhouette site.  I used the coppery Silhouette pen to draw both the tree and the Happy Christmas, the filled in the design with Sakura glitter pen, then dug out all my gems to decorate the trees.  I am quite pleased with them, they are simple in style but still have that glitter we all want at Christmas.

I have just added the new Silhouette Cameo to my Christmas list - it looks awesome and is bigger than the previous machines, and will take 12x12 papers/card.  I prefer the Silhouette to the idea of the Cricut, as you can use it to create your own designs and you are not limited to buying expensive cartridges.  The software is continually updated to supply what we as crafters want.

I have used some of the toppers I recycled from previous year's cards, and added a bit of a twist to them with peel offs.  I am determined to use more of what is in those boxes this year - I need the space for other things.

If you managed to get all the way down here, thank you for visiting me.  Please leave a comment. I really do value your opinions.  I would also be grateful if you would visit a friend of mine, Debbie, who is just starting to get her blog up and running.  She would love to hear from you all, although there may be a problem with her being able to leave you comments - we have not sorted that bit out properly yet..   You will find her at  http://acrafterslife.blogspot.com/
When you have done that, it is time to head over to http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ Julia's blog where you will find loads of other desks to wander round.   Have fun.