Christmas Stocking

I am loving the new pine cone die set from Marianne Design, and they work so well along with lots of other MD dies, especially these fronds I think.

It's taken me a while to put this creation together is I kept being interrupted by dogs, life and diy! Originally it was a tag but I got a bit carried away with the twiddly bits so have stuck it with 3d foam tape to make the card, although it is hard to see the original tag. The pretty patterned paper is from an old K&Co Classic stack, a bit flowery perhaps but the perfect colours for Christmas with the wine red, greens and creams.  I've inked the edges of the die and paper layers as well as the embossed areas of the die cuts with Versamagic chalk inks in Jumbo Java and Tea Leaves, you can see the effect on the pine cones and the leaf fronds.

Here's the card:

There are a couple of things I wish I could change, like the label should be around the other way perhaps but perhaps it's not noticeable .. .. and the stocking does look a bit lopsided as does the bird house - I got the tag a bit skewif there!  Apart from that though, I really like the way this one turned out.

These are the Marianne Design dies I've used:
stocking with heart and snowflake - CR1256
pine cones with branch - LR0286
leaf fronds - LRO245
ivy leaves - CR1213
bird and bird house - LR0205
flowers - CR1203, with stamens from LR0142 (large flower) and LR0122 (small flower)
tag - LR0187 with letters from a Joy alphabet die

The Charisma Cardz challenge blog have a Christmas theme running so I'll enter my card with them, and Crafty Creations' theme is for Christmas or American Thanksgiving - I've gone with Christmas then!

I am not getting around to blogging much at the moment, or crafting either.  I have been spending more time with DH, looking after the dogs and consequently going for walks, as well as getting to grips with the gluten free and dairy free way of eating.  I'm still updating my diary page if you are interested - this afternoon I am going to make a coffee and walnut sponge (DH's favourite) and a lasagna .. .. and see if my lemon drizzle cake will 'convert' although I will have to use yogurt in the mix.  I've been avoiding any dairy for the past couple of days and am happy to report no more excruciating tummy aches .. .. so it might be an experiment on the baking and eating levels to see what happens!