We are delighted to be doing K & Co products again. I'd almost forgotten how stunning their papers are! As soon as I saw these gorgeous Glad Tidings papers I just had to have a pack. No photo can possibly do them justice.

Little Musings from Personal Impressions have just released some delightful Christmas stamps which I just couldn't resist. This little fairy has to be my favourite. She's perfect for Christmas crafting but coloured in bright spring colours she can be used all year round. Being a thrifty crafter I always try to choose Christmas stamps that don't need to be packed away each January. It seems a shame to invest in a stamp that can only be used for a few months of the year.

These deliciously deep colours of the K and Co papers are divine and so I wanted to use the same colours for the Little Musings Fairy so that it perfectly co-ordinates. A lot of card stock will crumble after adding too much ink so I've used Hero card, with its high gloss finish it doesn't soak up the ink and you can keep adding more and more to achieve these wonderful deep hues.

I've gone for a Rich Cocoa Momento ink pad instead of my usual black as this gives the image a softer more subtle edge. Despite the high gloss card the Momento ink dries almost immediately but I put the image to one side for a minute or two just to be on the safe side.

Colour one section at a time and then move onto a section that isn't adjacent to the one you've just done so that you are never working on two adjacent sections consecutively. This will allow the ink time to dry between colours and should prevent them from running into one another.

Give each section a colour wash in the lightest shade. Go over the areas you'd like shaded with a second coat of the same colour and then a third coat. Move onto a darker colour and add more shading, working quickly while the ink is still wet. If the colours don't blend nicely go over the whole area with the lightest shade again to blend them in to each other.

When your colouring is finished leave it to dry completely while you make your card. Start with a 14cm square base of stunning deep red K & Co paper. Cut a sheet of the delicious green berry paper to 13.5cm square and round the corners. Ink the edges in a pine green either by running them along the surface of an ink pad or running the edge of brush pen along each edge of the paper. Stick the two sheets together using double sided tape.

For the background I've used XCut's excellent value flower die and cut the largest size once in pale green paper and once in deep red. Both pieces have inked edges and then to soften the edges further I've added a very subtle dotted line around each of them. The colours I've used are almost a perfect match to the papers and so you can hardly see the lines, which hides a multitude of sins! But it does make the die cut shape look less "sharp" so it's worth taking the time to do. The two shapes have been offset and stuck together with double sided tape.

Oh the greeting was fun! The greeting included on the stamp sheet is a long one and not right for this layout in my opinion. So I've messed about using scraps of paper to mask of some of the words and make the greeting fit onto the two small die cut flowers. I tried to just ink the word needed but it's impossible to avoid the others completely. So I've positioned the stamp block over the paper and just before pressing it down I popped a flat scrap of paper over the part of the shape that would be printed with the unwanted word. Thank goodness for clear stamps, this would have been impossible with traditional rubber stamps.

I love love love this flourish die by Tim Holtz. It is an investment but oh what a useful one! It's made this simple layout look oh so special with just a couple of flourishes cut from scraps of the red K & Co paper. I spent some time slotting them behind and pulling them in front of various parts of the design for some added depth. They are held in place with a couple of carefully placed Glue Dots.

The card is assembled using double sided tape and 3D foam pads for added dimension. Before sticking my fairy in place I've attacked her with glitter and glitter glue. The fur trim on her hat is straight forward PVA glue with glitter sprinkled over it. Anita's Tacky Glue bottles come with very fine applicator nozzles for precise application. I didn't want her wings to be covered in glitter or the lines of her bell to be covered up. So I've squirted a blob of glitter glue onto some scrap glossy card and then used an old paint brush to paint the areas with glitter glue. I've spread it very thinly over the wings to give them just a hint of glitter.