Holidays are coming!!

Hi Everyone, well Christmas week is finally here.. And am I prepared?? Erm... Nearly! Sunday Night was Pinnacle Crafts Christmas Party.. After a treacherous walk in the Ice and Snow and a couple falls on the way we made it to the restaurant for 8 O'clock and partied the night away.. A great meal, great company and a great time was had by all with the Pinnacles HARD CORE finally calling it a night at around 5am!! Work hard, play hard I say!!I can't believe after making hundreds and hundreds of cards this year for the shop, lessons, blog, magazines etc I still have not made some for my nearest and dearest friends and family.. So before the meal on Sunday I managed to get my closest friends cards finished and out of the way.. I'm not sure if I work better with a deadline, but at this late stage you have to just go with what time you have!I cut out a circle frame from Plantin SchoolBook using the Roly Poly function this was cut at 4 1/2". I also cut from Blue Mirror card a selection of 1 3/4" leaves using the Speaking of Fall cartridge. For all of my cards I cut out around 500 leaves! Well I say "I"! The machine did it in no time at all!!Once cut, I applied each leaf to the cut out circle using Pinflair glue. Initially I applied the glue to each leaf, but this was taking far too long! so I just ran the glue around a section of the circle and applied the leaves. This took a fraction of the time.Once I had done 1 layer I went round with a second layer of leaves to make the wreath look a bit fuller.Once the project was dry I attached it to some White card stock using foam pads. A simple bow and Peel Off sentiment finished the projects off.Although my theme was Blue, one of my friends just loves purple, so I did a special one just for her...They really do look quite effective don't you think?One of the ideas I had that didn't/Hasn't quite made it onto a card yet is following the same theme, So for those who do not have a Cricut machine you can still achieve a similar result.I took a sheet of glossy White card stock and randomly applied some Alcohol Inks in some festive colours.. Water Melon, Pesto, Oregano, Meadow and my favourite "Lettuce"!!I punched out several leaf shapes using my leaf punchand applied them in the same way as before..Finishing off with a little bit of glitter in the centre.
As I said this has not made it onto a card as yet, but just playing around thought it would make an ideal stand for our candles on our Christmas table..My last card is for an Italian friend of mine. I used my Winter Woodland cartridge to cut out the the letters to spell Buon Natale (which I believe is Italian for Merry Christmas!).I used Red and Green Mirror card and White glossy card to form the Italian flag.I also cut out the letters in Black Mirror card using the shadow function which when put together with the coloured letters gave the them a more 3 dimensional look..A few punched snowflakes and job done..
Now all I have to do is get my immediate families cards done and I'm already for Christmas.. Hope you are too??

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Pinnacles..