It's nearly that time of year again!

Every year I promise myself that I will do something about Christmas over half term, and very rarely does anything happen! With that in mind I got my Christmas stamps out and started to look at them. I also promise myself that I won't spend any more money on christmas stamps - I don't manage that either! I know I am going to buy at least one Christmas stamp at Doncaster (Stamp Magic show) next Sunday. It will be the Holly stamp from Lavinia stamps. By far my most popular christmas card last year was this one (above) using a mistletoe stamp from Lavinia. Very simple, quick and easy. The holly stamp is a very similar design. I decided to have a little play with one or two stamps that I haven't used much yet and came up with this. It features the words to ' In the bleak midwinter' and is a Graphicus stamp. I'm not convinced it works on that background paper. I might have to try again with something a bit more subtle!

I was also drawn back to the Michelle Zindorf blog and decided to try her Moody Tree card. My brayer technique needs some serious work, but I think I'm getting better. This looked pretty dire until I layered it on black and silver and then it suddenly looked loads better. The Stamp is also a Lavinia stamp. They do a range of beautiful trees.