Let it snow!

Well I'd rather it didn't to be honest, I'm not one for the cold really. But that's the theme for a couple of challenges I'm entering this week. And since it's less than two weeks to Christmas (OMG!!!!!) and I'm not working this year (thanks to still being on maternity leave) and don't really need to leave the house particularly, well it might be nice to have a bit of white around for the Big Day. Be nice for the kids, anyway (that would be Caoimhe and Tim, since Teaghan's a bit little yet!)

I have a couple of contributions to Handmade Monday this week. First of all a couple of dozen mince pies, which, once shared around didn't go very far at all!

I'm not a huge mince pie fan, I can take them or leave them. But Tim loves them, and I think he'd have me making them every week if he could. I made these at my mum's. as I've discovered baking is not easy with a toddler AND a baby to entertain. So it was a case of 2 pairs of hands being better than 1. It also meant I got to play with my mum's new *gadget* - a pastry cutter, and I will be buying one as soon as I possibly can!

I also discovered this week that my lovely woolly hat is on it's last legs. For some reason it decided that it wasn't happy with being washed last time and became all big and mishapened, far too big for my head and not really much use at all. Not sure what happened, as it has been washed before, at the same temperature etc etc with no problems. But it meant that I had nothing for my poor cold head. I had a quick dig into my stash and a couple of hours work (over 3 nights) came up with this:

Saved a few quid and I now have a warm head!

So on to the challenges. I have my friend Sharon to blame thank for introducing me to the wonderful world of craft challenges and swaps. Cos I needed something else to spend my very limited free time on! In all fairness, it is a great way to get the old creative juices flowing, and is making me work the grey matter - not that I have much left now! I enjoyed making them, and that's what it's all about!

The first is for ATCs With Attitude, who have an Anything Goes theme. I wanted to do a wintry theme without it being Christmassy. I used some silver ink across the cardstock for the base and stamped on two snowflakes from a Christmas stamp set (free with a stamping mag last year) in red distressed ink  I added a bit of cardstock with a snowflake theme and some silver ribbon and rhinestone embellishments.

I have also entered this card into the Less is More challenge for a  Let it Snow theme.

I used the same inks and snowflake stamp, and added a stamped greeting.I had to stop myself from adding more to it but actually when I stepped away and went back to it 10 minutes later, I decided I like it as it is.

Don't forget to visit Wendy and see what everyone else has been up to, and I'll see you next time!