Wallpaper, Christmas, and free stencils

Hi all,
One thing I forgot to mention in the last post was to check out your local charity shop. Check the sale rail for unsellable clothes that might be great for craft, but also see if they sell reject wallpaper rolls. My local one does, for 25p each! That's lots of paper. Here's a pic of a few that I picked out - the pink one with gold sparkles is especially useful.
Right, Christmas looms, as do Yule, Kwanza and, well, every culture/religion's winter festival. It's a Festfest, basically, and that means lots of cards for the people you aren't emailing. The card on the right is made entirely from some crackers that were pulled last year, and some of the box that they came in. So it's all co-ordinated and looks quite traditional. One for a respectable friend, I think. If you don't use environmentally-unfriendly things like crackers, you probably know someone who does - ask for their waste, and make them a card as a thank you.
The next card is a design I came up with when my cat attacked my Christmas tree. The person I'm sending it to has a feisty marmalade cat, hence the colouring; the trimmings actually came from a crafter who said rather shamefacedly that she kept buying things but never got round to using them. Thankfully she gave quite a few bits to me rather than throwing them out. If you see what looks like a corporate-made embellishment or paper, that's where I probably got it from. I thought these bits were a nice way to finish a card that is otherwise made of scrap. It tends to get a giggle from cat-lovers - I know lots of those. If you aren't good at drawing shapes then I'd suggest using the shapes from Christmas junk mail as guides - for instance one gets loads of Santa, reindeer and sleigh images, and plenty of stars too. Cut them out and simply draw round them. Or check the internet for copyright-free images to download; there are quite a few sites offering free stencils. This one is utterly brilliant and if I ever become rich and whimsical I shall send them wads of cash: http://www.spraypaintstencils.com/ . Really, a great crafting resource.
Love to all,
Jehanine x