The last Christmas cards of the year

I wanted to make some photo cards for Simon's doctors and therapists.
This peppermint wheel stamp from WMS Faux Fun Circles seemed perfect to frame my angel's face.
The December Christmas Card Challenge was to use green (I'm thinking Lynn was taking it easy on us so close to the big day), so I made the card up using as much green as I could manage.
I used WMSC128 as inspiration for the first one I made up, creating little ornament banners either side of Simon's photo frame, adding a little colour and highlighting the red and green he was wearing in the photo.
The little green ornaments on the left were stamped with the tiny snowflake stamp from the WMS Compliments of the Season set.  As with all WMS stamps it is exquisitely detailed and stamps and embosses beautifully.  A memory box icicles die cut border seemed perfect to finish it off.

Card à l'orange

I have been putting off the July Christmas Card Challenge for some time now.  I had hoped to try adding some real orange slices to a card but I had a few problems there - they'll look and smell great hanging on our Christmas tree but they just weren't right for cards.
Anyway back to this card.  I've had this paper for over a year now waiting for something special to use it on.  My friend Ruth bought it on a trip to Venice.  I have a whole A3 sheet of it and intend making a few more cards for all my Irish friends here in Luxembourg - because of the orange and green colour scheme and because those birds remind me of images from the Book of Kells.
There was an ornate oval shape in the patterned paper which I thought I would go well with the one of my new WMS Ornate Ornaments stamps.  I don't have the 2012 ornament dies yet so I've just cut it out by hand - which was quite easy so I might not bother buying them now.
Before I go any further do you like that little Christmas tree on the ornament and stamped along the bottom of the envelope.  Well I thought it looked like a Christmas tree anyway.  Turns out it's a snowflake leg and Claire will show you how to create the most exquisite snowflake using it here.   That woman's genius never ceases to amaze me !

I have fussy cut the surrounding pattern to give it depth, as this side view will give a better view.  The border die and smaller embellishments are from Spellbinders Persian Accents - yes not very Irish but it had the oval shape I was looking for.  A little orange organza bow et voila.








As I was assembling the ornament I thought it would be neat to make it detachable and usable as an ornament on the tree or something.  So I stamped another image, attached it to the back (sandwiching the ribbon for hanging) and attached it to the front of the card with a little blutack so it's easily removable.
Here are the two sides of the ornament.  I've stamped a greeting behind the ornament so it won't look to empty with the ornament removed.





This is actually the 2nd card à l'orange I made.  This one was inspired by the brilliant sketch this week at WMS.  Originally I had the image in the middle which was pretty ordinary really, and I didn't think to add a border on the bottom.