How was it for you?

Here are two cards made with images from the PC crafters hug downloads that my friend Bev gave me. They are already coloured, so I built the cards around the soft pinks and taupes of the images
Papers are a mixture of Martha Stewart and DCWV, flowers prima, border punch - MS, wobby random stitching on the first one by me!!

So how was Christmas? We had a wonderful time, I got quite carried away with the whole thing and got ridiculously excited on Christmas eve when we were tracking santa online and saw that he was in London. Well, a silly little part of me still believes................................

Merry Christmas to you........

A brief post today to wish you a very happy and peaceful Christmas

Of course, I can't post without a card, so here is one of my favourite stamps from Sparkle 'n Sprinkle, I stamped him onto the spotty paper and cut him out, although he does look a bit green - or blue - around the gills.

I love this sentiment, by Inkadinkadoo, my friend Carol bought it for me last year

He really looks as if he is going to have one heck of a hangover in the morning

We are off to London to spend Christmas with our family, lots of hugs and cuddles from the children to come in the next few days, which will be my most treasured gift
. So wherever you are, I hope you have the best Christmas ever, and that Santa realizes that you have been very, very good all year xx

Happy Bird-day

This little birthday card was made very quickly, and went together like a dream, no fiddling around, it all just slotted into place. The border punch is one of the new deep ones by the punchmaker of the century - Martha S. I added a panel of script paper, the branch is a Sissix die, and the bird is from a clear set by Inkadinkadoo. Lettering by making memories and american crafts. The brown bordered card was in a set I found on clearance somewhere, they are by Martha Stewart as well, totally blank apart from the border, so perfect for altering

Phew, no more Christmas card posts from me this year, all done and dusted. Does anybody else love making them, but hate writing the messages? I always try to add a personal note, but refuse to go down the route of a computer printed round robin letter. I did try it once, and tore it up, it made me sound so SMUG. Of course, I only dwell on the good things, so all of a sudden, we became Mr and Mrs Perfect, with our charming successful children and impeccably behaved and super-intelligent grandchildren. The reality being that like all families, we have highs and lows, success and disappointments, feasts and famines. So a handwritten scribble has to do, but it does get tedious scribbling the same stuff over and over, but all done now. Hurrah!

Max and Milo's Christmas Card..............

I recently did a swap with a blog friend, she desperately wanted some images from one of the cards I made, so I stamped her some, and in return she sent me a Loralie christmas panel, these cats are BIG, but I thought it would make a super card for Max and Milo, so here it is, I kept it simple so that the image popped. Stuck the fabric onto white card and then cut around it. The letters are DCWV chipboard, papers are making memories. The card measures 8 1/2" x 6" to give you an idea of size

Jet lag is an odd thing, I slept like a log for about 11 hours last night, woke up feeling bright and full of energy, then suddenly - POW - it's like being hit with a sledgehammer! I always take longer than most people to adjust, last time it took me about a week to get back into a real UK time zone, so I should be just about normal again by Christmas day - well, what passes for normal anyway. In the meantime, in energetic mode, I braved the crowds in the town centre, it was lovely, they had a German Christmas market there, in the town square, selling mulled wine and gorgeous little decorations, with a live oompah band playing festive music to add to the jolliness of it all. With a sprinkling of snow on the ground, it really did feel like Christmas

We're HOME!

Here we are, back in the UK, it was strange to fly over and see all the little patchwork fields, all covered with a sprinkling of snow, and boy, did it feel cold. 'You'll get used to it' said our taxi driver cheerfully (he was from Kashmir). The saga of the suitcases ends here, they didn't even weigh them, I was tempted to push my luck and say 'hang on a minute can I just stuff some more things from my terribly overweight handluggage in there', but decided it would be best just to walk away quickly before they looked at the scales. So now we have piles of stuff decanted all over the kitchen floor, a man has been with a wheely thing to try and find out where we have a water leak, if it's outside the gates they pay, if not, well, I'd better clear the kitchen floor quick, because that may have to be dug up (I fancy wood flooring, so I am hoping........)

Anyway, enough of the mindless babble of a seriously jet lagged person, on to today's card, which is for this week's Polkadoodle challenge, we had to use the brand new and very fabulous Nature CD, which turned up in Florida just in time for me to make this.

I cut the card with Wildcard at 6", added a spotty back printed from the CD, then just popped on some trees and that oh-so-cute owl.

The lettering is my favourite making memories tiny alphas - I have bought a good supply back with me, so you will see a lot more of them............... I know there should probably be an apostrophe in the WHOO's word, but as it's just a punny made up word, decided it didn't matter

and just to show you how the card looks when opened. Why not join in this week, a prize for the winner, which would be a nice extra pressie to go under your tree, and then the polkadoodlies take a break until January, which suits me, it will take me that long to sort my stuff out

You put the merry in Christmas..................

I totally forgot I had this little stamp until I come across it whilst clearing up the other day - a bit like the fact that when we had a cold spell here in Florida, I rushed out and bought warmer clothes, totally forgetting that I did the same last year and found them when I was clearing out the closet.......................

Back to the card, sweet birdie stamped, paper pieced and coloured with copics, flowers by prima, the black ric-rac is a tape runner thingy that I bought, it didn't work when I bought it, and it doesn't work now, hence the strategic placing of flowers.

I still have all my Christmas cards to write, have given up on the idea of making them all and bought some, then there is still a crafty mess in the garage, the fridge to clean, windows to wash ............as you read this I will probably be in a comatose, exhausted heap on the airplane, making my way back to 'dear old blighty'. (Mike is a bit addicted to old war movies, so I tend to pick up the lingo)
So cheerio America for another three months, thank you all for being your usual warm, friendly and welcoming selves during our stay here.

Funny Christmas.................and a Gypsy solution

I am getting to like the Gypsy now, I wouldn't say I love it, but I am definitely liking it, once you get used to it, it is quite convenient not to have to reach for all the cartridges and overlays whenever you want to make a cut. However, I do find it almost impossible to do without the handbook, it's really difficult to work out what the creative features of each cartridge is, so I tore out the creative features page from each of my handbooks, and took them to staples to be laminated. Then I punched a hole in each sheet and threaded them all in alphabetical order onto a metal key ring - the type you can buy in craft stores

Just having that page handy, will jog my memory of what I can do with the cartridge
Such a quick little card today, I went to visit a friend who belongs to PC Crafters Hug, which produces downloadable images, I loved this one, and so will a friend of mine! I cut the snowman and bag out of a second image and popped them to give a bit of dimension, gave her some bling earrings, added a very lush green velvet ribbon, a bit on inking and I was done - the image was already coloured.
Thanks Bev, I am going to have fun with the stuff you gave me




I hear that the UK are expecting a really cold spell, and some snow, I do hope that doesn't mean the plane can't land on friday morning, I will be digging the old thermals out for sure, and the electric blanket will be the first thing I put on.
Back to the packing...........it's getting very boring, I would much rather sit here 'chatting' to you

Popcorn the Bear

I bought this stamp all the way from the UK with me, and now it is ready to make a return journey and I have only inked it up once, so I better give the poor little bear an airing before he jets off again........

Popcorn the Bear is a UK design, I haven't used them much, but I do like this little fellow peeping out of his christmas wreath

Coloured with copic markers, white highlights by signo white pen, sentiment studio G, papers DCWV and the border punch is of course Martha - double loop, punched twice and layered. The only bling I put on were some tiny dots of red stickles on the berries

The house is a mess, the garage is a mess, the laundry is a mess, I am a mess...........so much to do, so little time, I feel like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, rushing around and not actually getting much done. Take a peek at my sidebar, there is a brand new photo of Monty on there, now you all know why I am anxious to get home, when you look at those little faces.....
See you guys tommorrow, I'm off to do a bit of pointless rushing again.............

Love at Christmas

This little card manages to fit four challenges this week, I don't think I have ever managed that before

House Mouse Challenge - Non traditional Christmas colours

Papertake Weekly - No red or green

Inspirational Card Sketches - I followed the sketch!

Colour Create - Lilac, Aqua, Black and White

The base card is a very pale lilac, the aqua panel was embossed with the sissix snowflakes folder, the star punch is Martha Stewart and all the lettering is making memories. The stamp is from the acrylic Christmas house mouse set. I added pearls for the mistletoe berries, and the black snowflakes are a cuttlebug die

There Can Only Be One Queen .....................

I found this great stamp in the dollar bin at Michaels, and knew straightaway what I was going to do with it, the cat was cut from the Paisley cartridge, all the papers are DCWV. I thought it would make a great card for a cat lover

I added a few white highlights to make her pop..............

I have finished all the word books/wedding albums/exploding boxes etc that I am doing for peeps back in the UK, as I tied the final ribbon it suddenly occured to me that I now have to pack all these things into my already overweight bags as well. Shipping to the UK is so expensive, but I may be forced to go down that route

Mike has just been browsing the local paper, where there is a obituary for a chap who was known to everyone as NASTY. What a nickname to carry through life, it seems almost cruel that it follows him in death (rather funny though, he is obviously a great loss to the human race............), still, nasty or not, someone loved him enough to put it in the paper. The local paper here is a great source of mirth between us every morning, I think my favourite, which I have probably written about before has to be the side by side burial plots that were being offered for sale, in a lovely spot, overlooking a lake. Reason for sale - Divorce!!

Mike's all time favourite was the anguished plea for a lost cat, black and white, looks like a cow

I the meantime, I have my last crafty get together today, so cheerio for now, off to play

Sepia for Daring Cardmakers and another Katies Kisses card

Here's another card made with one of the brand new stamp range called Katies Kisses. I thought this would make a good teen card, hence the sentiment. Lettering and papers by making memories. Flowers by prima. A bit of doodling with a momento fine tip pen, colouring copics. The red panel is embossed with swiss dots, which doesn't show in the photo.

On Daring Cardmakers this week, the dare is 'Say it in Sepia', Lynda asked for a thank you card. This isn't my thing at all, but of course I had to have a go - I can never resist a dare, go over and see the design teams samples though, they are fabulous. This card looks much, much prettier in real life, it's quite sparkly which doesn't show up in the photo.

I inked a cuttlebug script panel with bronze cats eye ink, the stamp was stamped in versamark chocolate, then I swiped the whole panel with stampin up's heat and stick powder and heated until sticky, then I dumped iridescent ice embossing powder over the top and heated again.

You can't really see the effect, but it's a very subtle and evenly glittered panel. The chocolate swirls are chipboard pieces by making memories, and the sentiment is hero arts
It has suddenly dawned on me that we have only just over a week before we fly back home, so today saw me packing the mountain of christmas gifts I have bought, I needed to see if they would all fit into four large suitcases. The simple answer is no, they don't. I had an anguished hour of worrying about it, then the laid-back part of me kicked in, I won't worry about it until we are at the airport. The cases will go on their pre-flight jaunt up to the local supermarket, to be ceremoniously weighed, usually with a crowd of bemused US citizens watching, laughing and offering advice. When my friend Anne left here in October, she had been on a buying frenzy, and in her last few days in the USA, she bought a concrete head - don't ask, it's an artistic thing - not only did she sail through check-in with cases weighing about 20 lbs above the allowance and a concrete head in her hand baggage, she was upgraded! Somehow I feel, no, I KNOW, that this would not happen to me. If I tried to import a concrete head, it would probably fall on the check-in guy's foot and I would be lucky to get a seat out on the wing.

Exploding Box

I have been busy making an exploding box for a commission for the past couple of days.

Here's the lid, I used cuts from A Child's Year for all the external decoration. The letters are DCWV chipboard

I cut tiny figures of children playing to go all around the sides like a frieze..............

Here it is opened, the papers are K & Company

Just one of the tiny pages, I love doing these boxes, it's always a challenge to find embellishments tiny enough to look in scale

The cutting sizes for the boxes are on the blog - look under labels for tutorial for exploding box. I took the photos at night, so they are a bit rubbish, sorry about that, but you get the general idea. The box has been delivered, so I can't re-take them.

BBTB and the Cutting Cafe

It was my turn to choose the challenge over on BBTB this week, and I chose the ribbon frame from the Joys of the Season cartridge, you should just see what the design team have done with this cut, pop over and take a look. I decided on blues and white, and cut an ornament to hang in the frame

added quite a bit of bling to bring it to life.

Over at the Cutting Cafe, Regina has this adorable little owl in a sentiment circle on sale for only 99 cents. Who could resist him? I know I couldn't. I printed it out twice, once onto white card, then again onto the spotty paper, and cut out the outer circle and hat from that. The background is a sissix embossing folder, and the snowflakes are cut with a martha punch

My birthday is turning into a month long fest this year, here are some more cards that I received last week, first from Cheryl, my crafting buddy here in Florida, what a gorgeous card..............



second, from Bev, another of my crafting buddies, I love the way she made the flower out of scalloped circles..............

and last, but definitely not least, from Joan, my pal from Port St Lucie in Florida, who has been quite poorly this month, but the first thing she did when she was well enough was head to her craftroom to make me this card, don't you just love that crunchy lace..............

Thank you all so much xxx

Whilst I am on the subject of friends, I have to make a very sad little post here, longtime readers of this blog may recall that back in the beginning of last year, I met up with a online crafting friend, Eileen, in London. We met on the cricut message board, and she lived just around the corner from my son, so were able to meet for lunch, a very long chat, and lots of laughs. Since then we have emailed each other regularly, and were planning to meet up again in January. You can see the apron card that she made me for my birthday in a post I made last week. I was shocked and deeply saddened to receive an email from her daughter at the weekend telling me that Eileen had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on friday. She was a very talented crafter, devoted to her family, an encouraging friend, and a lovely, lovely person.
My deepest sympathies go to Karen and the family

I will miss her

Katies Kisses Stamps

The owner of the Stamping Studio, a local scrapbook store in Springhill, Florida, has just designed her own range of rubber stamps called Katies Kisses, and I have been making some samples for her. They are red rubber, mounted on cling, and stamp beautifully. Here's a couple of the cards I made, she doesn't have paypal set up on her blog yet, but all the contact and ordering details are on there.

Aren't they cute? I love the way they all have a little signature heart on their cheeks.

Good luck with your new venture Susan

I went shopping with Mike today, and after 20 minutes remembered why I like to shop alone, he is such a MAN when it comes to shops. Imagine the scenario, pull up outside a store, 'what are we looking for' he asks suspiciously. New luggage. Righto, so we march into the store and head for the luggage department, oh look, there is the handbag department, and they have this really cute little bag, which I hang over my shoulder, and look for a mirror to see if it suits me, yes, looks okay, let me just check all the little pockets to see if it has room for all my stuff, hmmm, maybe not. Repeat the procedure with another style, nope, decide against it I'll just look at the first one again to make sure............... , so off we trail to the luggage department again...............right past the sweaters, bad luck Mike. Do you know, there were ten different departments on the way to the luggage department, by which time my dear husband had left, and was sitting forlornly by the door, with that look on his face that men have when they have been forced into a living nightmare. So I finally get to the luggage, the suitcase we wanted was out of stock. Hey ho. 'Never mind' I say cheerfully, 'they are having a delivery on monday'. You should have seen the look of horror on his face, poor chap. I'll leave him at home with his book and footy next time.

Winner of the BBTB blog hop is

SHEILA

(crazy and lovin it blog)

Congrats Sheila, email me with your address and I will get the goodies out to you

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

On Penny Black this week, the challenge was a sketch, the design team samples were just lovely, so I had to join in

Mine is a really simple take on the sketch, I have gone into overdrive with my favourite tartans though

Before you look at the next photo, I have to tell you that it is only in the little creative bubble that I inhabit that I am such a slob, my house is very clean and tidy. However, when I get out there into that garage, stuff gets hurled to the floor, drawers get left open, it is frankly, chaotic. Every couple of days I have a major tidy up, which usually involves finding an element/stamped image/ that I searched for in vain the previous day. New year resolution maybe..........I have a feeling it may last until January 5th before I start hurling again.

Another Month - Two More Challenges......

Time for another Funky Hand challenge, set this time by Kath, who is a bit of a Christmas-a-holic, so of course she had to set this month's task, which is to make a decoration of some sort, do go over and take a look, the team have really pulled all the stops out on this one.

I found this JOY wooden word in the dollar bin at Target, it is covered in bright silver glitter, but I soon put a stop to that and covered the front with papers printed off from the Blue Christmas download

the snowmen were cut from the Snow Friends cricut cartridge, I gave them rosy cheeks, although a snowman shouldn't really be rosy, but it made them look cute
so get your thinking caps on, there is a £20 (about $30) funky Hand gift voucher up for grabs for the entrant that catches Kath's eye. You have until the end of the month to enter, and the only rule is that you use one Funky Hand paper in your design
The first of the month is also the start of the next Lily-Boo challenge, this month it's all about paper piecing. I printed out the image twice, once onto a pattern paper, and cut the tree out of that. It's really a summery digi stamp, but I fancied trying to make it look Christmassy, I think it worked? What do you think?
The base card is a pre-embossed one from DCWV - I was in a hurry as usual, and this saved time.

Again, you have a whole month to enter, it can be any sort of card, just paper piece something on the image. Quite a few new cardmakers come and visit, so a quick explanation about paper piecing, you stamp a base image, then stamp the same image again onto pattern paper, and cut out the bit you want - maybe a child's dress, a flower, you get the picture. Then stick the cut out piece onto your base image. This is a favourite technique of mine, and it cuts down on colouring too!


See you all tomorrow, I am off to clear up after the hurricane that swept through the garage, one of these days I'll take a photo of the mess I make, until you see it, you wouldn't believe it