But I thought I would share with you some of the things that keep me very busy each Christmas, so that you know why I don't have the time to make lots of handmade Christmas cards.
This year I have been very busy working on this Nativity scene. I am certainly not NO artist and painting doesn't come easy to me, but every year I try to create something new to go on a display board in school.I use lots of different crafting techniques in my displays especially if it means it reduces the amount of painting I have to do.
On this scene I used the the weathered wood technique on the stable, so no painting at all involved there.I used a Versamark pen and gold embossing powder to do the gold highlights in Joseph's outfit and the straw in the manger.
I stamped and heat embossed the bottom of Mary's dress in gold.
This Christmas tree was created by cutting out several large tree shapes folding them in half and sticking them together in a pile and opening them up when dry.
Then I painted all the sections dark green and stuck on my decorations.
This tree stands approximately 2 1/2 foot tall.
You will notice I used the Bliss stamp set here to create the wallpaper effect. I normally use real wallpaper with a small print, but I didn't have any so I improvised.
The brick work, I cut up a piece of fun foam to the size of the bricks I wanted and stuck it to some thick card and used it as a stamp but with paint rather than ink.
The stocking are felt trimmed with white fur and stuck on thick paper to make them a little stiffer.
Santa's glass is rolled up acetate and cellophane which is held together and decorated with silver peel offs.
The mince pies, I made from air dry clay.
I printed off some small pictures and cut out sections of wrapping paper to make the mini Christmas cards on the mantle. This Year I added Merry Christmas in as many different languages as I could find. for a closer look click on any of the photos then click on them again once you have the larger view.
