Hello

Good morning all.

Still full of the cold here, although not feeling so yuk as I was on Tuesday, in fact from the neck down I'm fine! Sending hugs to those more in need of them than me.

Managed a quick card last night...well when I say quick it took all evening. I knew before I started what I was going to use, it seemed such a simple idea...SO why did it take several attempts to execute?? I don't even think I like the result!! I'm blaming the fuggy head!

Excuse the awful colours...I did get a light box off eldest for Christmas but haven't got around to working out how to use it, or finding somewhere to put it! Base card is a lovely plum colour. Stamps are from Stamplorations, all recent purchases and stamped for the first time with elderberry Memento ink. Shading has been done with milled lavender DI. Hello die is another new acquisition from Memory Box and I've cut it from the base first then inlaid a plain white one and layered up with the original one on top. A couple of gems finish things off.

Challenges entered:

Stamplorations Sketch #25

CMCC #53 - Colour Me...monochromatic

Stamplorations - stamps and ink

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #3 - use new schtuff

Crafting for all Seasons #93 "Ribbon, Lace and Pearls

Good morning all.

Well I finally succumbed yesterday to a stinking head cold...I never left my PJ's all day! If the shopping hadn't been delivered everyone would have gone hungry.

It's time for our first challenge of the year at CFAS and this time the theme is "Ribbon, Lace and Pearls". We're  looking forward to seeing all your makes. We're being sponsored by Digi Stamps 4 Joy who gave the DT images to work with.

I've opted not to use an image this time, instead I've done some book folding...it was on my list of things to try and after seeing Karon's entry for our last challenge I thought no time like the present.

The large tree is made with an old paper back novel I had recently read and the smaller one is made with an old diary. Both have been sprayed with my new distress spray inks (love these) in peeled paint, pine needles and picket fence with gold shimmer mist to add some glitter. Ribbon, lace and pearls from my stash. Tree toppers are Christmas tree ornaments. both trees are made the same way but the larger one has an extra fold which gives it a flat bottom

I pinched the snow people off Rudolph...he's back in the craft room awaiting a re-fit!

I really enjoyed making these...something to do sitting in front of the TV which doesn't require reading glasses!

Do pop over to the challenge blog to see the rest of the girls inspiration, you won't be disappointed.

Challenges entered:
Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent - anything goes with recycling
Altered Eclectics - anything goes
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - altered art/mixed media
All Crafts Challenge - anything but a card
Crafty Boots - something new (new technique and inks)
Not Just Cards - anything goes
ABC Challenge - A is for anything goes
Decorate to Celebrate - anything 3D goes
Party Time Tuesdays - anything goes
Inspiration Destination - anything goes

Birthday Wishes

Good morning all.

Trying to get back into crafting here...mojo is here but the room is heap lie on with stuff which doesn't yet have a home and a huge box in the middle of the floor, it really isn't conducive to creativity. I'm hoping to get some tidying up done today after Mr Tesco has delivered the groceries.

I did manage a quick play last night, after watching Liverpool win whatever round it was of the FA cup, and produced a birthday card for my nephew.

The circles dies are both from Memory Box, the sunbursty one was bought before Christmas and I just hadn't got around to using it. My second layer is silver mirri card which isn't showing too well in the photo. The interlocking circles was a sales purchase and I've cut it in both black and white card and filled in the holes. The birthday die is from Clearly Besotted and I've layered it up three times to give it some dimension. Wishes stamp is from an Imagination Crafts set. Gems from my stash.

Challenges entered:

Less is More - colour theme black, metallic plus one

Muse Challenge #99 - I used the die cut for inspiration

Simon Says Wednesday - anything goes

Virginia's View - clean slate (lots of white space)

Christmas Card Club "Clean & Simple in Red, White and Green"

Good morning all.

Hope everyone is well...woke with a sore throat yesterday and felt a bit grotty all day but hoping it isn't going to turn into something nasty.

Christmas decorations got taken down yesterday although they're still lying in the sitting room as no one got the boxes out of the loft! Laundry almost caught up on and the house hovered so hopefully I'll find time to sort the craft room out today.

Our first challenge of the year at the Christmas Card Club and I got to choose the theme so I set the girls the task of making a clean and simple card using my favourite colour combo for Christmas - red, white and green. Here is what I created.

Dies are from Spellbinders. Stamps are from Penny Black and were a magazine freebie. I've used red stickles to add berries to the wreath.

Last years's resolution was to finish my cards inside as I made them and I plan to continue that this year (this card is done), this year I plan to make use of all my un-inked stamps and unused dies...this card uses the fancy dies, wreath and circular sentiment for the first time.

Challenges entered:

CHNC Extra - anything Christmas goes 

CHNC - anything goes

Completely Christmas - anything goes + twist New Year Resolution

Winter Wonderland - favourite colour combo

Christmas Cards all Year Round - anything Christmas goes

Polka Doodles - tic tac toe (sentiment, image, die cut)

Crafty Catz - anything goes

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - new (New Year Resolution)

Crazy4Challenges - CAS

A Gem of a Challenge - new (resolution)

Favourite Card from 2014

Good morning all.

I hope you've all recovered from the festivities! It's still a holiday here in Scotland and the kids don't go back to school until Tuesday so we're not back to normal yet. We had a quiet New Year here with my Mum.

Today I'm showcasing my favourite non Christmas card from last year. The image is from Delicious Doodles and I coloured with promarkers. You can click on the link to see the original post.

Poppies

Challenges entered:

Clear it Out  - favourite card 2014

Artistic Inspirations - favourite project 2014

Deep Ocean Challenge - favourite 2014 card

Imagination Crafts "January Challenge - Anything Goes"

Good morning all.  I would like to wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous  New Year.

It's time once again for a new challenge at Imagination Crafts.

Our theme is always anything goes and the winner will receive a £40 voucher to spend in the Imagination Crafts Shop.

I've used another of the gorgeous Decoupage Stamp Sets - Snowman for this card which was made for my Mum. I do love this cheeky chap and this time he's all layered up...or should that be she?

 Image and sentiment have been stamped in versamark and heat embossed with silver detail EP (image three times). The background of the base image was washed over with silver aquatints and allowed to dry. Meanwhile I coloured up the layers with promarkers. Base was trimmed to fit a Spellbinder mat which I's cut from silver mirri card, then layers were cut out and added with foam pads. The hat was trimmed with Candy Floss Sparkle Medium.

I've die cut, embossed and inked the Falling Softly Die'Sire Create a Card die and layered onto silver mirri card. Dies are all from Spellbinders. Glittered snowflake is from Asda, ribbons, gems and pearls are from my stash. Apologies for the red snowflakes above the image...that's just my jumper reflected in the mirri card!!!

Here you can see all the layers popped up on foam and a peek at the finish inside. Definitely one for hand delivering.

Challenges entered:

CHNC Extra - anything Christmas goes

Craft-Dee Bowz - anything goes with a hand tied bow
Dream Valley - Christmas
Pile it On - anything Christmas goes
The Glory of Christmas - anything goes
A Gem of a Challenge - Christmas
CHNC - anything Christmas goes
Fussy and Fancy - snowflakes and ribbon
QKR STampede - santa or snowman
Winter Wonderland - fussy and fancy

Five Favourite Creations 2014

Good morning all.

Can't believe today is the last day of the year...where did it go?? We're going next door this afternoon for drinks and nibbles then it will be an evening indoors. Younger son is going to pick my Mum up whilst we're out and she'll probably stay until Friday. Eldest is away to the Isle of Bute with a few friends to see in the New Year, he does get about!

Debby is once again hosting her favourite five creations from 2014, this proved very difficult but here they are and I've managed to stop at five! Click on the titles to be taken to the original posts.

Vintage Tag

Love the gold metal magic against the distressed background and the pop of blue.

Artist Trading Block


A first for me and I love how it turned out!

Imagine, Dream, Inspire


I've really enjoyed my recent forage into mixed media and I'm sure you'll see lots more in 2015.

One Stitch in Time


Another first, this time on canvas...and again I loved how this turned out.

Meet Lilith


I fell in love with the images from PpinkyDollsArt and this was my first attempt at colouring one up.

A big heartfelt thank you to everyone who stops by my blog and leaves such wonderful comments, it does make this blogging lark very worthwhile. For those of you for whom 2014 hasn't been the greatest year I hope 2015 is going to bring better things. Enjoy the New Year celebrations wherever you are and however you spend them and I'll see you tomorrow with my first project of 2015.

My Five Favourite Christmas Cards 2014

Good morning all.

I hope everyone enjoyed a peaceful Christmas whatever you were doing. We had a quiet one...I had to wake the kids up and it was lunch time before we had opened our presents! We ended up eating at about 4pm then enjoyed a lazy evening in front of the TV. We also had a very quiet day yesterday.

Debby is once again hosting her Five Favourite Christmas Card event so I decided to join in.

It was very difficult to pick just five from the seventy or so I made but here goes.

Winter Wonderland

This was my card for hubby - snowscene stamp is from Crafty Impressions, trees and sentiment from Clearly Besotted and landscape dies from Lawn Fawn.

Merry Christmas

Stamps are from Penny Black and were a magazine freebie. I love this tree and have used it a few times since I got it.

One Stamp, Two Ways

Another favourite tree stamp, this time from Clearly Besotted...stamped and heat embossed before the background was inked. Snowflakes and sentiment were magazine freebies.

Christmas Reindeer

The image is a Penny Johnson stamp from Stampavie. I decided to just colour the nose and added glossy accents to make it shine. Kept this for one of the kids and made two more similar cards for the other two.

Fa la la la la...

Stamp is a magazine freebie, die from Memory Box and snowflakes are punch waste. A very quick card to make and very flat for posting...a theme throughout this year!

Funnily enough they are all fairly clean and simple cards a theme I am going to stick with for next years cards too.

Merry Christmas

Good afternoon everyone, hope your plans are coming together nicely.

My thoughts are with all those people affected by the tragic accident in Glasgow yesterday. The news stories from around the world this last week have been particularly harrowing and seek only to highlight how lucky most of us really are.

We had a great time on Saturday, lovely food and good company. My eldest nephew couldn't make the meal as he was working but he drove up after work and surprised us all....for the first time in ages the whole family were under the same roof together.....all 25 of us!

We had a bit of a hiccup this morning when hubby started to chase the present he'd bought me which hadn't arrived. By the time I got up he was waiting for a phone call back from Harvey Nicks...he waited...he walked the dog...and he waited some more! I suggested he phoned Barclaycard to see whether they had taken payment for the goods then ring HN back...which he did. Eventually after several calls back he determined that the parcel had been delivered on Friday by DPD.

At this point I had a light bulb moment...DPD had delivered a parcel for me on Friday (in two boxes) which I had duly signed for...two items bought separately from the same Ebay shop...chucked both boxes upstairs, wrapped the smaller one on Sunday and thought no more about it.

OOOPS the smaller box was for hubby...my parcel obviously didn't need signed for and both items are presumably in the same box!!! I left him to ring HN back and explain lol!

Now what could he have bought me from Harvey Nicks!!!

Must shift my bottom now and finish cleaning and sort out the laundry. All the shopping is done and pressies are all wrapped awaiting gift tags.

I'll leave you with a photo of my fireplace and mantelpiece for which I bought a new garland for this year. My next scheduled blog post will be on the 1st of January and I'm planning to go offline until then and hopefully get ahead with some DT work and January birthdays over the holidays.

Wishing each and everyone of you a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas and a big thank you for all the visits and comments you've made throughout this year...I hope to see you all again in the New Year. xx

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Good morning all.

Yesterday I was gobsmacked to find the get well card I'd made for my cousin had been ShowCASed at Less is More to say I was thrilled is an understatement!!  I finally got some decorations put up too, I must admit to not going the whole hog this year...I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle!! 

Off to the hairdresser's this morning, then I may need an afternoon snooze before we head off down the road for the party!

Today's share is an MDF reindeer - I'm not too happy with how it turned out but it will have to do this year and I may redo it for next Christmas.

The blank MDF came from Anna Marie Designs. After painting with gesso I used various acrylics, crackle glaze and distressed inks....at this point it didn't look too bad then I decided to use a satin finish to protect it which made all the DI run so the crackle all disappeared. You live and learn!

For the base I used texture paste and covered it with diamond dust whilst it was still wet. The snow people are Christmas cake decorations and the sign was broken off a Christmas ornament.

Now guess who has inky fingers just when I don't need them!!

Challenges entered:

2 Creative chicks - make an ornament

Decorate to Celebrate - anything 3D goes

All Crafts Challenge - anything but a card

Wedding

Good morning all.

Today I'm sharing the wedding place names, table numbers and table plan I have made for my sister for tomorrow. She hasn't seen them yet so I hope she likes them.

The owners of the hotel she manages are hosting the meal and were told she didn't want any fuss...we decided she deserved a little bit of fuss! The colours were chosen to match the napkins. All dies are from Spellbinders and the black and old gold card is pearlised. The font is Subway Novella. I need to try and find some balloons to match today.

Winter's Jewels

Good morning all.

We gave my Uncle a good send off yesterday, the church was full and luckily the weather was kind too. I came home with a huge boxful of ribbons and suchlike which my brother's ex wife had put together for me when clearing her Mum's house...I was like a pig in a poke when I got home!

A second gift card holder to share today.

After masking the base card to create a panel I stamped the Personal Impression stamp three times with versamark and heat embossed with white detail EP. The panel was then inked with DI and a sentiment from the same stamp set stamped below. A few gems were added to finish off.

Inside I used another waste off cut from my stitched landscape dies to create the pocket.

Challenges entered:

Less is More - one layer snow

Just Inspirational - blue and white

Simon Says Stamp - winter inspiration

Get Creative - blue and white/silver

Fashionable Stamping - turn up the heat

Snow Gift Card

Good morning all.

I'm off to my Uncle's funeral this morning. The service is to be held in the church where my parents were married and although I've been in the churchyard many, many times I don't think I've ever been inside the church! I managed to finish off the wedding bits so they're ready to be delivered and I've also got the last of the family Christmas cards to hand out and a few Christmas presents to deliver.

Having finished all my Christmas cards for this year I realised I needed some gift card/money holders for a couple of nephews.

I've done some acrylic block stamping for the first time to create the background using DI. I then over stamped with two different snowflake stamps and a sentiment (all from Anita's stamps) using memento inks. Finished with a few gems et voila!

Inside I used a piece of waste card leftover from my stitched landscape dies to form the pocket and added a further sentiment.

Challenges entered:

Less is More - one layer snow

CASology - snow

Addicted to Stamps - snowflakes

Fantasy Stampers - CAS Christmas

CAS(E) this Sketch - #103

Celebrate

Good morning all.

I made some headway with the Christmas cleaning yesterday and hubby is shampooing the sitting room carpet today so we might get the decorations up in time for the big day! On the wedding front I only need to cut and stick two tables worth of place names and put the table plan together...I managed to get the rest done last night.

The wedding takes place today, they've been together for 18 years. They've gone to York to do the deed with my niece and her husband acting as witnesses. They're hosting a party for the rest of us on Saturday after they get home.

Here is the card I have made her.

Decoupaged image is from Cuddly Buddly. Backing paper is from Prima. Dies are from Spellbinders. Punch from Martha Stewart. Sentiment from LOTV. Ribbon, charm and pearls from my stash.

Challenges entered:

Craft-Dee Bowz - anything goes with a hand tied bow

Jellypark Friends - ribbons or bows

Scribble and Scrap - anything goes

Sentimental Sundays - anything goes

The Corrosive Challenges - anything goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - anything goes

That's Crafty - anything goes

Paper Shelter - special celebration

Penny's Paper-Crafty - anything but Christmas

Sneak Peek "Altered Coasters"

Good morning all.

This is my second post this morning for Imagination Crafts, if you'd like to see my midway reminder project please see my post here.

It's my turn to do the tutorial on the Imagination Crafts Inspiration blog this morning. 

This is my first ever tutorial so if you would be so kind as to pop over and check it out, then leave a comment and let me know what you thought :)

Here's a sneak peek just to whet your appetite.