Blue houses made with Artful Dwellings die

Christmas is definitely coming now. Christmas lights have been turned on and Santa is in his grotto in town. I have started making my presents now which are increasingly handmade. I think the older I get the less interested I am in buying more 'stuff' for people or myself. There is so much mass produced nonsense available and things all start to look the same in the shops. A handmade gift is always unique and has much more meaning. You are giving your time, sharing your imagination and creativity. You are sharing your sense of that person as you make something that is just right for them. I think it is time well spent and much more fun than Christmas shopping.

I usually come up with ideas for a few types of  gifts that suit lots of my friends and family. I have started off with an accordion that can be a decoration for Christmas, an elaborate card or an all year decoration.  Once its folded up it is also is very easy to post. This is great for people overseas. Having lived in England Australia and Canada I post a lot at Christmas.

I used the Tim Holtz Artful Dwellings die to cut coloured card stock in a range of blues. Each house shape was cut individually using a piece of card accordion folded so it lay just inside the edge of the cutting blade on both sides. This way the top and bottom cuts through but the two side edges are left intact to produce a connected continuous row of houses. Once I had lots of the four different shapes cut out I had a stamping feast. Using lots of blue inks including, Versamark Momento, regular Distress, Archival and  Powder Puffs chalk ink.

The edges are all distress inked to finish off. I think I might add some treasure gold or silver to some of them to make them more festive. I didn't want them to be Christmas themed as it seems a shame to have to put them away most of the year, I think the blues give them a wintery feel.

The rows are all the same shape but I overlapped them and glues different shapes together to produce a few sets that were longer and mixed up the house shapes. 

I really enjoyed making these and it gave me a chance to use lots of lovely stamps that have been neglected, I think I will do some more Christmas coloured sets next and use lots of my Christmas stamp sets. My non crafting friends often complain about the Christmas preparation and think I begin  very early but I think anyone who enjoys crafting knows it is a joy to have such a wealth of reasons to spend more time at my desk. Hope you are getting lots of time at yours too.

I'm linking up with:

Happy Little Stampers  November  anything Goes With a Die Challenge. This challenge always gives me a great prompt to get out my old dies.
and Frilly and Funkie whose latest challenge is "Tis the season for gift giving."