Hello yet again. I thought I would have time to craft yesterday, but the builders – still working on my bathrooms – were noisy, and my parents came over, so I didn’t have much time. However – today hubby went to golf early, the house was quiet………and here we have what I created in the nice and quiet and peacefulness:

This order of ‘Party Like a Panda‘ from Simon Says Stamp takes less than a week to me – and no added postage or customs…………a lot quicker than my sister in Canada even! I fell in love with this collection from day one and have been waiting for a chance to play with it.

I stamped all the images you see, masking the individual presents, stamping again and again, to create a pile or presents. I used a few favourite Copic combinations to match the colours from a challenge. I like when other people show what colours they have used, so I am trying it here. Is it helpful?

I stacked three rolls of double-sided sticky tape together to use as a container – I think that’s ingenious………….if I do say so myself!

Now for the cutting………….I don’t have the matching die sets. One new purchase is the Brother Scan’n’Cut CM900 at the Doncaster craft show the other week. I was thinking of the newer version with auto-blade, but as a card-maker, I think this machine will be more than suitable – I hope so! My time is spent on YouTube figuring it out – but it’s actually quite simple once you get your head around it…………maybe!!

I was nervous cutting this lot of images out, as I had spent a couple of hours colouring them – but – perfect! I added a little border around each image for some definition, as I knew the Panda would be standing in front of the presents, and I wanted him to stand out a little and not blend into the background.

The only thing I need to do in the future is think about the balloon strings, I must adjust the settings or something because it cut one of them off – so I drew it in.

I also forgot to put the white highlighter marks in initially, but the first photo above is including them – here are some without – and what a difference:

Challenges I shall be entering:

Color Throwdown – red, black, green, Kraft

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Bright and Cheerful

Die Cuttin’ Divas – anything goes with a die-cut (does the Scan’n’cut count?)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Just Add Ink – anything beginning with ‘C’ (Copics, Cake, candles)