It's creeping up.....

Christmas is coming....rather more quickly than I thought, time to get a bit serious now about these Christmas cards

Here is one I made using simple punched circles, some punched stars and the Fiskars bird lever punch that I punched in kraft card, then dabbed with a bit of red ink to turn him into a robin - I really like this little bird, expect to see more...

 We have been down in Surrey looking after Max and Milo for a few days while their parents flew out to Rome for a break. After two days, the running total was a scraped elbow, bruised forehead, grazed knee, shredded nerves (mine), then Milo decided to go for the big time. He took a spectacular tumble from a hoverboard, taking a chunk out of his knee in the process. 'I'm damaged' he howled as I failed to find any more plasters (band aids) having used them up on the less dramatic injuries. So Mike and Max were despatched to the chemist to buy industrial quantities of wound dressings, and arrived back in a scratched and dented car where some idiot had pulled out as they were passing!

So I cuddled the wounded soldier, mopped up the tears, dirt and blood, and settled him down on the sofa covered with a cuddly blanket. After ten minutes I went to check on my patient. He announced that he felt fine, but was feeling very left out because the other kids were playing, could he join them please? So out he bounced, leaving me shattered and shaken and with about a dozen grey hairs that hadn't been there an hour earlier

Boys will be boys I guess...we are back home now, it seems very dull here! xx

Stitched Hills....

 Only a couple of days of Christmas cards to show you - honest......

For these two I used the stitched hills and trees dies by Lawn fawn, a bit of silver embossing, a stamped silver star and a few clear sequins.......

If anyone sends an unexpected card now, I'm done, they will get a bought card. Those I did remember were mailed yesterday, the postage came to the equivalent of the national debt of a small nation, and I had to wait for an hour to get served. The post office has a Christmas advert on TV which is full of jolly happy people singing little jolly songs and dancing around. Let me tell you that my experience bore no resemblance to this happy scene at all. It was difficult to see who looked the most un-jolly and grumpy, the customers or the staff. I was quite tempted to start a singsong by breaking into a chorus or two of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, but sanity prevailed - I had a lot to do and didn't fancy being carted off by men in white coats

See you tomorrow x

From our house to yours....

 I recently made some christmas party invitations for a magazine commission, and one of them had a Memory Box snowy scene on it, when I was tidying my chaotic desk the other day I came across my 'prototype' snowy scene, all made up and ready to go, so perfect for a quick card.....

the snowy sky was done with frantage shabby white embossing powder...

and I am loving using silver sewing thread to tie delicate bows without adding bulk....

All is well here on the babysitting marathon. Max decided to make a Christmas movie last night, which involved a lot of moving a toy snowman and santa around the place and telling me what to do. We had to spend ages making a tripod for the camera out of empty loo rolls and lots of tape, apparently I don't know enough about the art of filming to hold the camera....

Milo goes on a 'play date' today - where did that phrase come from? When my kids were small we called it 'having the Jones boy round for tea after school'. I was telling him to be a good boy, and remember to say 'please' and 'thank you' to his friends mummy. 'But she won't tell you if I've been naughty' he replied. Hmmm, how does he know that? It has a ring of authenticity about it....

Colouring of images completed - zero. Number of Christmas cards written - none. What did I tell you? See you tomorrow.

Mass Producing...

Does three cards count as mass producing? I was in a bit of a panic when I was piling my Christmas cards into a bag ready to write them this week whilst we are in London, and pile looked a bit pitiful, so I pulled out this Penny Black tree stamp and some Tim Holtz die cut sentiments and did a quick bit of heat embossing - well it felt like mass producing to me, I never make more than one card of any design before I want to move onto the next thing. Anyway, here they are......

Random conversation tonight with five year old Milo when I was putting him to bed.

'are you going to do your knitting now Ma?'

me..........(startled) 'I don't do knitting Milo'

'But you are old, and old people sit in a chair all day and do knitting'

'well maybe I am not quite old enough to sit in a chair all day yet'

'No, you are just medium old, when you are really old you will wear glasses and have a walking stick'

Okay, now I know what I have to look forward to....can't wait! Better look for some wool and a pattern or two to be ready when 'really old' arrives...

See you tomorrow x

Time for a giveaway.......

First of all, here's a little card for today made with this adorable stamp by Woodware. I stamped three times in versamark ink - once onto the white base, once onto the red check paper, and once onto the snowflake paper, then heat embossed with Rangers gold embossing powder. A quick bit of paper piecing and the image looked cute...I added some Wink of Stella glitter pen to the ornament and berries, but it's such a subtle sheen it doesn't show in the photo

The sentiment was cut with Tim Holtz dies, pressed into versamark ink and heat embossed with the same gold powder....

Now for a giveaway, it's been a while, but I have been on sick leave from the Letraset team for this month, to give my eyes a chance to heal. But I thought one of you would enjoy winning a set of twelve markers to put under your Christmas tree. All you have to do is leave your name under this post and I will pick a winner at the end of the week and let you know who won on Saturday. Good luck

Here's the set that's up for grabs this time...thanks Letraset...

 The colours are Poppy, Henna, Sandstone, Honeycomb, Saffron, Olive Green, Soft Green, Cool Aqua, Petrol Blue, Putty, Cool Grey 1, Cool Grey 2, Blender

*please note that I will be taking them out of the original packaging for mailing to keep costs down

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. See you tomorrow x

Christmas Party Invite...

 Here's a Christmas party invitation made for a commission for Papercraft Inspirations Magazine....

The gorgeous letterpressed snowflake is a Fiskars fuse die cut, and the kraft tag is liberally sprinkled with Frantage Shabby White embossing enamel to look like snow.... the music page was taken from a musical score book I picked up at a charity shop

What an exciting life I am leading at the moment - the highlight of my day yesterday was yet another eye test, this time to determine what lens I need in my 'other' eye on Monday, but I did take time to go for a pamper session at the hairdressers, so it's all still a bit self indulgent and slow going here. I keep wandering towards my craft table, and drifting away again to aimlessly do nothing very much - hopefully my missing mojo will return along with my new eyes!

Seasons Greetings...

 I love how this one turned out....

I used Memory Box snowflake corner, the Cricut Explore to cut the snowflakes and tag, Tim Holtz for the sentiment and the snow embossing folder, tumbled glass distress ink to add colour to the tag. The bow is silver sewing thread

This is probably my favourite Christmas card make this year....so far! I still have a way to go before I am done with them...

My check up went well, the surgeon was pleased with me, all set to get the other eye done next Monday now, so for the rest of this week I am going to enjoy driving, good hair days and wearing make up again. Time to face the world again! See you tomorrow x

Christmas Tree Blueprint....

Here's one I made with the Tim Holtz Christmas tree blueprint stamp. I heat embossed in Rangers queens gold directly onto the white panel, then again onto a scrap of white card and cut out just the tree which I popped on with foam tape. I wanted the base card to match the gold, so I swiped the edges with versamark and sprinkled that with the same embossing powder....

Here's a little tip, if you want to add a little something but don't feel a ribbon would be exactly right, cut a tiny snip in the base of your card, then start winding some metallic gold sewing thread around the card, fanning out the thread as you go - easy and effective, and it doesn't add bulk to your card

Thank you to all those who purchased stamps yesterday, I hope you enjoy them. They are all packed and on their way. There are still a few left for sale, if you missed them, scroll down to yesterday's post

It's going to be a creative sort of day today, I want to get a couple of videos in the pipeline and maybe a couple of cards because tomorrow I am off to the NEC (National Exhibition Center) for a big craft show, I'm not working there, just shopping and catching up with some friends, especially my best crafty buddy Kath who is flying down from Aberdeen. I've made a list of supplies I need, will I stick to the list? Not a chance.......I'll take lots of photos to show you the samples and the latest on the UK crafty scene

A circle of holly....

One of my new Christmas stamps this year is this one from Woodware - they have some great designs this year. I stamped it direct onto the card base, and also onto a scrap of white cardstock in black versafine onto white and heat embossed with clear embossing powder

I wanted to cut it out, which meant I would lose the lovely little happy Christmas sentiment running on the outside of the circle, which is why I stamped twice....

 - I coloured the holly with Promarkers, but was at a loss how to do the ring, so I squeezed a drop of liquid pearls onto a craft sheet and used a water brush to paint it on, then added drops of the same liquid pearls to the stamped dots. I also gave the holly a coat of wink of stella clear glitter pen...  

I love this very fine gold thread that I found in a sewing shop, it adds a bit of sparkle without adding any bulk to the card...

I cut a long piece, then fold it into four, making a much thicker length, you would think it would be difficult, but it's really easy to tie a bow using this four thread thickness...

and here is the finished card. Simple, but really effective, I wish the photo could show the subtle sheen on the leaves and the delicate thread bow....

and another lovely mail day with this lovely thank you card from Karen, so pretty, sparkly and delicate. Thank you so much Karen, I love it...

No charity shop for me today, we are travelling up to Yorkshire for a couple of days to catch up with old friends, so looking forward to seeing them...

But I'll be popping here tomorrow with another 'quick' card (cue hollow laughter from me.....) See you then x

Three Cards - one stamp

 I have this beautiful stamp called Silent Night by Stampendous, and I was playing around with different embossing powders - amazing how different it looks....

Firstly, I heat embossed with white WOW embossing powder onto white card, and used tumbled glass and chipped sapphire distress inks to sponge colour onto the white space... I added Wink of Stella clear glitter so there is a lovely subtle shine, and some clear sequins dotted around completed the look....

Next, I used a sparkly black embossing powder, impossible to photograph the sparkle on this one, the same inks were used to add colour.....

and for the last one I used a copper embossing powder. The strips on the top and bottom were made by swiping an embossing pad over white cardstock, then covering with the same embossing powder. I cut strips rather than backing the whole piece - that way you get less bulk on your card, always useful at Christmas when you have to mail so many....I left the background white on this one, it looked quite effective against the rich shiny copper...

Well it seems like a lot of you like new stamps, so I will sort them out, get them photographed and let you know in advance when they will be posted on here. Bear with me, I will need a bit of time to do this

See you tomorrow x

Pinecones for Craftwork Cards

It's my turn to post on the Craftwork Cards blog today, go HERE to see the post and to see how I made my pine cones, which are nice and flat and won't add bulk (and extra postage costs) to your Christmas cards. I used the brand new papers called Magic of Christmas, which are absolutely lovely. Firstly, I made a tag...............

Then I covered a kraft box that I'd saved when it arrived in the mail, covered it with paper and added a spray of pine cones and one of the lovely vintage looking sentiments....

A quick post today - we have been invited to a barbecue later this afternoon, I have just checked the local weather forecast and it says 'clear' but I'm not risking it, just off to dig out a brolly and a warm sweater....
I'll be back tomorrow with a rather special Letraset giveaway for you, see you then x

Pens, Christmas and FUN

Here's one of the first cards I made with the brand new Christmas Warren set, available now from Craftwork Cards. Warren comes already coloured on the scallop circle, I just added some liquid pearls to the holly berries, and a matching green scallop circle. I really like the tag greetings, in coordinating colours

So the weekend was fun, and exhausting. The boys spent hours playing in a cardboard box, which became a house, garage and fire station................

Max made these cards. The blue and green one will probably still be drying in a years time, the glue application was a bit generous.......................

but it took a lot of concentration to make them..............

the black eye was, thankfully, done before we took charge.........

and when it got boring, well, a bit of climbing will liven things up, and give the grandparents something to fret about................

Here's a quick little video showing the brand new flex markers from Letraset, you will be seeing a lot about these in the crafty world over the next few months. As I said in the video, I really like the very pale colours they have introduced, and it will make shading even more interesting