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Many things I'd planned for this month didn't quite happen as planned, including blogging, finishing a new design for my Christmas cards & actually mailing any cards...except a lucky few that went with parcels. I'm hoping to send some out anyway, but if this doesn't happen, please know that I send the best of wishes to all my family, friends, customers & blog buddies for a wonderful Christmas & new year.
Even though Christmas is becoming a memory, I thought I'd share some final Christmas projects with you. These could easily be adapted to suit any other occasion too!
Christmas SAS Card – Crazy for Pomegranate
This was the 2nd card from my last Christmas card SAS in November. The colours are purely pomegranate, river rock & old olive & I used part of the tree image from Crazy for Christmas, which is one of my very first & favourite sets. (It's also 20% for a few more days off this month – see this post). At the class, all the ladies made versions with the bauble & present stamps in the set, which looked great too....the colours are off a bit so it doesn't really do it justice (what is it about river rock?)
Christmas Gift Ideas Class
These are the projects we made at my Christmas Ideas class on 6 Dec.
First, we all made my fave patterned paper gift card folders using some 'Dashing' designer paper & stamps from 'Big Bold Birthday'.
The second project was a co-ordinated gift box, tag & gift card. Here are two I made:
I wanted to show everyone how quick & easy it is to custom make boxes to fit the gift you're giving using a couple of different box making techniques. The box base (15 x 15 x 5cm, or approx 6 x 6 x 2 inches) & gift card are cut from one A4 sheet. You could also make a tag from the leftover, but I needed just a little more for the oversize tag we made. The lid was from part of a 12 x 12 sheet (with plenty of leftovers). If you'd like any other information, or the pattern template for the box & lid, just drop me an e-mail.
Card: purely pomegranate, river rock, old olive, very vanilla
Ink: purely pomegranate, old olive
Accessories: pomegranate double stitched ribbon
Tools: bone folder (distressed edge)
Gift Folder
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
This was my favourite of all the projects. It's a little card folder with 3 love note cards & envelopes. Isn't that paper scrumptious...& did you see the square scallop punch? This was also where I got the idea for 
This is a matchbook type card, complete with edge scalloped with the new scallop edge punch. It's such a simple card, but I think the textured cardstock, metal tag & ribbon make it really special.
This is a long tent fold card. We used the flower stem to make the branch for birdie....& I know I'm not usually a big tearer, but I really like it here.
Finally, I made some more love note cards with the leftover scraps. There's something about fiddling about with little bits of paper that I really like. 
The card folder is filled with 4 co-ordinated note sized cards & envelopes (which are just a little smaller than normal size cards). I've continued my pink theme with 'Pick a Petal', & 'Loves Me' designer paper (retired) from last year's Summer Mini. The folder is purely pomegranate card & of course the ribbon is pomegranate double stitched. 
A big thank you to 
Of course, you can always provide my details to your partner, friend or family member too, if you'd like to receive one yourself. 
Of course, I can also make a Christmas themed folder if you'd prefer...note to self -must make some more to post!
It doesn't seem that long since our big day, but when I look at our wedding photos, we look soooo young...so apparently it wasn't yesterday. All I know is that I adore him as much, & probably even more than I did then. It's also a big month for Damien, as it's his birthday....& the big 40 this year too! I'll show you his birthday card another time. Both of these occasions have meant card challenges for me, as I generally struggle a bit with masculine cards. For this card, I decided to use the 'Always' set from the Spring Mini catalogue, teamed with some close to cocoa designer Prints paper. It's a very simple card, but I thought it turned out quite elegant & Damien liked it, so I'm calling that a win. 
While I'm on a river rock roll, I made these 2 cards last Saturday morning with some scraps I had left on my desk after cutting all the SAS kits for my last class. 
They literally took about 5 minutes each & I really liked how they turned out, so I thought you guys might like to see them too (helllooo to those who are still following my irregular posting). The greeting in both is from 'Occasional Greetings' – a must have set IMHO.If you have any questions about anything, just drop me an e-mail.
This the extra simple version – just add some striped 'Dashing' paper, a strip of olive & 'Season of Joy' greeting stamped in real red. I've added some real red brads too, which we didn't do in the class... Sorry, I forgot to take a pic before I added them!
This version has some extra stamped detail, but is still very quick....& I looove that spot & stripe paper! I stamped another greeting in old olive, then punched & cut out some of the elements & mounted them on the real red greeting with dimensionals.
I surprised myself with this one, as the colours are not generally really me, but I do like it. The base is river rock (not that you can see it on the front).The river rock mat has been lightly whacked with the edge of my bone folder, which creates a kind of elegant distressed look....& is very therapeutic. Otherwise it's all very simple....& very easy to mass produce. Like 'Season of Joy, the 'Holiday Harmony' paper is only available until the 30th, so let me know if you'd like to order some.