Monday and January already feels like it's in full swing

Morning readers, 

I've been AWOL for a short while .... hubby got sick at the end of November, with what started as a cold for both of us (which I quickly shook off) but developed in to pneumonia for him and then ... after playing nursemaid and housekeeper for three weeks I came down with a (far less serious) chest infection myself, a little before Christmas. As you might imagine, our Christmas totally passed us by and we would probably have been eating soup or sandwiches but for the marvellous surrogates, who plated up and delivered our Christmas "meals on wheels", and a lot of family, friends and neighbours who so generously offered to do shopping on our behalf - thank you ALL so much, you know who you are, it was so appreciated. Thankfully, I am now almost fully recovered and hubby is well on the mend too - pheww, shan't mind if we never go through something like that again, we got familiar with the doctors and nurses at our surgery and a lot of the "gates" at our local hospital too!, no complaints once we got in to the system.

Needless to say lethargy and illness took its toll on us both and I even lost my creative mojo, even suspending blog posts for a short while but .... I've a make to share with you today ....... and I'm sure you are surprised to hear that it's a small batch of Christmas cards! Me too! Well, you shouldn't be .... I got some new Christmas stash and wanted to break the seal - I was a tad surprised by the size of the word "Christmas" so broke out the 6" square card blanks - not too many of those left now!

My batch of three 6" x 6" cards

One of my batch of 6" x 6" One Layer Cards
- perfect for mailing abroad

The front, back, inside and the front/back of the envelopes

Materials used:

• Three white, 250gsm, 6" x 6" square cards and matching envelopes
• Paper Artsy sentiment (from JOFY68 - Xmas 2023 - NBUS) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• Paper Artsy Star (from JOFY68 - Xmas 2023 - NBUS) stamped using Versafine Clair morning mist and cheerful inks
• Paper Artsy "Merry" (from JOFY65 - from 2019) stamped using Versafine Clair tulip red ink
• "Sunburst" Twinkling H2O used to water colour my stars ... however, once the twinkly paint dried I didn't care for the effect with the grey ink so ... I took my trusty "S" thickness Faber Castell pitt pen and traced around the outer stamped edges, MUCH better!
• Crystal stickles to bling up the large worded font

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. NBUS - challenge No. 58 - USE NBUS
2. Moving Along With The Times - challenge No. 162 - NEW CRAFT ITEM
3. Pearly Sparkles - challenge No. 91 - CAS (Clean And Simple)
4. Merry Little Christmas - challenge No. 54 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
5. Krafty Chicks - challenge No. 697 - STAMP ACT
6. Word Power - challenge No. 1 - ANYTHING GOES but the sentiment MUST be the eyecatching focus

I was also a TOP PICK over at the Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog, for challenge No. 53 - thanks so much peeps.