I feel, this year, that whenever I’ve gone to make Christmas cards, the stamp set I’ve reached for each time has been the Polkadoodles Christmas Gnome set. I don’t know why, either.

Not that I’ve used the actual gnome stamps from it, though. I seem mostly to have used all the other stamps – the snowflake moon, the trees, the stocking.

The gnomes, with their easy scenes? Nope, not used them. Which is odd, given how easy they make cards. I used them for last year’s cards, after all. Or perhaps that’s why. Been there, done that, want to try something else.

I spent a lot of time staring at the stamps, and rifling through the accompanying magazine, trying to find inspiration. Something new to do. Something that wasn’t just the gnomes.

In the end, I found an idea – such a simple idea, why hadn’t I come up with it myself?! – flicking through a card-making book in a service station WHSmiths. Amazingly, I even managed to keep it in my head until such a time as I could sit at my desk and make a couple of cards.

I had intended to emboss some fairy-lights through the stamped boughs, but I forgot until after I’d put on the gems for the holly and mistletoe berries. Oops. Next time, perhaps.

But I had such trouble with this set that I set it aside. I’d had enough, had no further thoughts for it, I didn’t like it enough. It would have to go.

And then.

I was playing with my next month’s stamp set for Christmas cards. A musical set. And I suddenly realised that the gnomes singing would work perfectly. A reprieve! And also, the error of my ways in dealing with stamp sets. Of course they can be used with other sets. I don’t just have to use one set per card.

You’d think I’d know this by now, but probably it is a fault of my preference for Simple Cards. Much easier just to use one set at a time and be done with it. Probably also why I can struggle sometimes for inspiration. To be honest, the magazines don’t always help much with that: they always seem to have such complicated sorts of cards. Very beautiful, but not five-minute makes.