Quick Christmas Cards

The challenge on Polkadoodles this week, is quick, last minute Christmas cards. Well, you can't get easier than this - I printed out the night sky element from the Magical Winter CD already coloured, printed out some houses, cut them out and popped them on with foam pads. A Craftwork Cards sentiment and hey presto, the card took me about ten minutes to make. Do go over to the challenge blog and join in, I would love to see you over there



Today is our daughter Alex's birthday. Have a great day, and happy birthday sweetheart

Outraged comments about the smoking santa I mentioned yesterday. What I forgot to mention was that he was standing at the back of a pub! Obviously a man of many vices.......

I got all set up to do a video yesterday, had a bit of a tidy up, got all the stuff ready, found the Flip camera, ooops,the tripod is back in the USA. So short of strapping the thing to my head while I work, you will have to wait until I can buy another one, by which time my desk wll be all messy again - sigh  

Make a wish......

Here are a couple of cards I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine, on sale now in the UK, next month in the USA. The theme was birthday/make a wish, so I had to come up with four different cards on the theme. For the first one, I used a real candle................

and this next one had rolled up rectangles of paper with cotton 'wicks' to look like candles.......

Things on my to-do list yesterday fourteen, things crossed off my to-do list yesterday one. The Christmas cards have started rolling in, and so far all of them are from people I had totally forgotten about. Oh dear. So my one productive act was mass producing a few cards
. 
Out and about, I saw a Santa in a rather grubby looking Santa suit, sneaking a crafty cigarette behind a wall. 'Ho ho ho' I said cheerily as I passed, 'I hate bloody Christmas' he replied grumpily. Right, a bit of a problem on the job satisfaction front there then
.
See you tomorrow

Pretty Tuff

Look what came in the post, the super new CD from Polkadoodles, a collection of the most adorable tough boys, this CD is a must for making those boy birthday cards, cards for men of any age actually, as well as doting grandmas!

Available now from the Polkadoodles online shop, they mail free to anywhere in the world. Have a look at the online gallery there for inspiration.

Here are the first two cards I made as samples for Nikky, both coloured with Promarkers, and using papers from the CD

If anyone has children/grandchildren getting excited about Christmas,  go HERE to Santa's Portable North Pole to make a personal video message to send them. I found this site last year, and it is just so neat - Santa looks like the real thing, you can upload photos of the child and give details, so that it really looks like a personal message - and it's free. I made one for Kiki and Max and had great fun doing it. You can send them to adults too, I haven't tried that, bet there's a lot of talk about being naughty............ 

More Christmas cards........

I am finally getting to grips with the Christmas cards - these all use exactly the same design, well, it was working for me, so why not. The die cut oval is by Nellie Snellen, all the stamps are by Lili of the Valley, papers and sentiments by Craftwork Cards

I coloured them very lightly

I changed the colours to pink on this one......

and this one hardly needed any colouring at all, I just coloured the shadows with ice grey 1

The annual hysteria is mounting - the papers and magazines are all full of advice on how to cook the perfect turkey. I don't understand this - it's only like a chicken but bigger, chuck it in the oven and cook it for a bit longer, works for me every time. Then there are the articles on how to dress the perfect house......these articles are illustrated with happy people in red sweaters, sitting around a roaring log fire, surrounded by priceless antiques, with a perfect tree in the corner, hung with baubles that have been chosen to perfectly match the colour of the curtains....... I won't even start on the articles about wrapping the perfect gift, lovingly tied with huge bows and handmade tags.

 My reality is that one day this week, we will climb up to the attic to unearth the Christmas tree, which was shoved rather haphazardly into it's box last January, when I was sick of the sight of the thing. (I gave up having a real tree when I found I was vacuuming pine needles from the carpet in July). Then we will have the annual trauma of untangling the fairy lights, which were treated with the same contempt as the tree back in January - an action I will bitterly regret when I have spent three fruitless hours trying to make them work. Wrapping the presents is a marathon, and usually ends with the last few being wrapped in some leftover birthday wrap, and hoping nobody notices.....then I will be ready to put on my red sweater and smile prettily for the camera

Something Hidden for Polkadoodles

 It is my turn to set the challenge on Polkadoodles this week, and I chose

A card or project for a child with a hidden or secret element

Why?

I have no idea, it seemed like a good idea at the time, until I started to think about it and realised that I didn't have the faintest idea what I was going to do

 Inspiration came when I started to make the Kaisercraft advent box for Max. Lots of hidden stuff here, right? I used the same basic design as the one I made for Kiki, but this time I used the little boys from the Magical Winter CD from Polkadoodles, printed, coloured with Promarkers and cut out, then mounted to the scene with springs or foam pads. The trees were cut from the Jolly Holidays cartridge with my Cricut expression, as was the sentiment. The advent boxes are available from Sir Stampalot in the UK, and Ritz camera in the USA

Little white pompoms made cute little snowballs........

and I added a lot of glitter all over........

This little chap building a snowman was just perfect for the scene.....

as was this little guy with the giant candy cane.......

and finally a real little guy with the finished product. ('hurry up Ma, this is really heavy') Conversation between my son and Max yesterday

Max: "do you and mummy get a Christmas present?"

Ed: "yes, possibly. What do you think mummy wants?"

Max: "a necklace and bracelet…..... and a ring"

Ed: "that sounds expensive. What about something cheaper?"

Max: "um. ur. how about some shampoo?"

Sounds a plan Max, that should do it....

Do go over to the challenge blog to see what the wonderful design team made of my challenge - lots of inspiring stuff on there, and of course, we would love it if you joined in


Random musing for today - do teenage girls have a special built-in thermal gene that allows them to wander about in sub-zero temperatures wearing only skimpy tops and micro mini skirts with bare legs? When does this gene mutate into one where you are only warm with about ten layers and boots?


Second random musing, following on from the first.....how come someone who was brought up in a cold and draughty manse perched on the side of a Welsh mountain, with ice on the inside of the windows in the winter, now needs central heating turned up to tropical levels to be happy - you'd think I would have become acclimatized  in childhood wouldn't you?


Third random musing following on from the second....... in no particular order, my list of favourite things in the world must include cashmere, thermal anythings, ugg boots for warmth not appearance, hot water bottles and hot baths


Just off to get another sweater (did you guess that it is quite cold here today!)  

And the winners are........

 Hi everyone, first of all, I had loads of enquiries about the embossing folders used in yesterdays post. I got them at a craft fair, so didn't have a supplier, but some super sleuths tracked them down. Apparently the Craft Barn has them in the UK, (thanks Vickie) and Marlene wrote to say


I found and ordered the two folders displayed on your site. I got them from: Scrap'NStamp. Price $6.95 each. One is called: Crafts Too Embossing Folder-Sleigh, one is called: Crafts Too Embossing Folder-Snowflake Banner. Hope this helps just in case someone else asks you about them. Marlene

Thanks Marlene. On to the winners, I used a random number generator, but it was too much of a faff to take photos of all the screenshots, so I am just listing the winners here, 


The Polkadoodles Boutique Magazine - Erin Glee


Cricut Cartridge - Loz


Metallic Markers (thanks Letraset!) - Freetime Gone and Sandra (Misty)


Craftwork Cards bundle - Rae Ann


Polkadoodles Sprinkle of Kraft CD - (thanks Nikky Hall of Polkadoodles!) Paul (Crafty Blogocks blog)


Martha Stewart goodies - Krafty Karen


Huge congrats to you all. Can you please email me with your addresses, and in the case of the Letraset winners, also include your telephone number - the prizes are sent out by Letraset and the courier needs this information


Thanks to all of you for taking part, I just wish I could send something to everyone, but there will be more fun stuff up for grabs very soon




So on to today's project. My daughter Alex has a flatmate called Sophie, who has just become an aunt for the first time. She is so excited, and so much in love with her little niece, I offered to make her an explosion box to give her brother and his wife at Christmas. Here it is Sophie...........

I used New Arrival cricut cartridge for the little feet and the dress

I found these little dolls ages ago in Poundland - they are perfect for little girl boxes......

and of course I decorated all the pages with teensy brads, buttons and ribbons.....I hope she loves it

Christmas cards - oh my! I really should be writing them and addressing the envelopes, but half of them are not even made yet. I may have to resort to buying a box or two. 

Embossed Christmas and Babychino......

A couple of cuttlebugged card for you today - I find that the beauty of these very quick-to-make cards is that people think they are wonderful - always a bonus - and yet you can roll them out quickly - another bonus at this time of year. Both the embossing folders are from the UK, I don't know if they are available elsewhere. For this first one, I swiped all over the embossing with an ice blue chalk ink pad to accentuate the  raised detail, added a few gems and one of the lovely new foiled sentiment bands from Craftwork Cards, and I was done. Sorry about the shadow on the photo - the time available to take a photo in good light seems to be getting shorter each day

 and this second one didn't take a lot of skill did it? A lovely folder, a pretty shaped card from Craftwork Cards, one classy looking card.........

Talking of classy cards, I just wanted you to see two cards that were sent for my birthday all the way from the USA. The first one is from Bev who is one of my Thursday crafty mates when I am over there, thank you so much Bev xxx

This next one is from an online friend who is a regular and encouraging visitor to my blog, Colleen. Your card is gorgeous Colleen, thank you so much and I so appreciate you sending it over

We had a lovely weekend looking after the boys. I couldn't resist showing you this photo of a solemn little Milo - he is so like his daddy at that age, it melts my heart.......

 "They are only allowed to watch TV for an hour after tea Mum" instructed my son. Yeah right................... 

 Well what else keeps two little dynamos quiet so that exhausted grandparents can have a break!


The mention of babychinos seemed to intrigue a lot of you. Here's what it looks like, very sophisticated, in teensy little cups, and looking just like a cappuchino. All it is, is frothy milk with a sprinkling of chocolate on top.......

but it's really yummy  spooning all that froth up, and it makes a chap feel so grown up

I'll be back tomorrow with the winners of last week's givaways. See you then

Magazine Cards and some Martha Bits and Bobs for you....

Here's the last of this week's giveaways. A Martha Stewart acrylic alphabet stamp set (it's really pretty, with tiny flowers and vines all over the letters), a set of Aquarium chalk inks, some wide peach seam binding ribbon, and a pack of five ribbons. You will also get a roll of red and white bakers twine, which seems to have rolled off the table when I took the photo! 

Kimberley asked if you needed to use Polkadoodles images for the challenge blog. The answer is no, use any cute image you like, as long as you follow the basic rules of the challenge - like red white and green Christmas for this week

 Here are a couple of cards made for Papercraft
Essentials magazine (a new one for me, I have never done work for them before). My brief was to make eight quick and easy cards using the Magical Winter CD by Polkadoodles. Four were for Christmas, and four for a winter birthday. The photo that I took of this angel is rubbish, you can hardly see that she is hanging by a silver cord from a silver star, but it is one of my favourites, so I wanted you to see it. I made these back in the summer of course, and photographed them hastily before I sent them off to the magazine - it's on sale now in the UK, next month in the USA




We are babysitting Max and Milo this weekend, I plan to bake cupcakes with them, maybe a visit to Santa, definitely a visit to Costa Coffee, where they sit like a couple of old men over a babychino (frothy milk for those of you not in the know) and an extra large muffin each.........

Polkadoodle Friday - WIN a CD

Well if it's Friday, it must be Polkadoodles. This week the challenge was set by Miria who is Italian, and she asked that we make a Christmas card using the colours of the Italian flag. As they are red, green and white, this was a doddle!

I used the post box from the Creative Christmas CD and decoupaged all the layers, adding lots of glitter to the snow as I went along.....

 This little girl stamp was perfect, she's all dressed up to go to the post office to post her Christmas mail...........She is coloured with promarkers

and i love that cheeky little robin on top of the post box

Please take part in the challenge if you love making Christmas cards - there are always prizes for our top three, and loads of inspiration as well from a very talented design team. Today, I am giving away the fabulous Sprinkles of Kraft CD by Polkadoodles, and to win it, I am going to ask you to pop over to the challenge blog and click to follow us, then come back here and leave your name. I will pick a winner by random.org on Monday, along with the rest of the winners from this week

I'll be back tomorrow with a final giveaway for this week

Secret Garden - and WIN

Wishing all my American friends a very happy

Thanksgiving

 This month's project pack from Craftwork Cards, is this lovely Secret Garden - really scrumptious papers, some with glitter, these lovely floral images all ready for you to colour, and of course, candi in coordinating colours. They have also had the very clever idea of making foiled bands to take their shaped sentiments - I really love these. What's Candi? Gorgeous little domed discs of pearlised card, think of them as legless brads. They can be coloured, punched, have letters stamped on them, glittered, heat embossed - a lot of fun

The first card today is a simple easel, the scalloped green circle was in the pack, and I made a flower with upside down candy glued to a punched circle. I coloured the candi in the middle in one of the colours I used for the image (spice) so that it coordinated perfectly.................

 The second one was equally easy to put together - I coloured the image with promarkers, and used a silver metallic marker to highlight the edge of the shaped Craftwork Cards base card. You can see clearly in this one why I am in love with the foiled bands for the sentiments....... 

 So today, I am putting together a package of Craftwork Cards stuff for someone - you will get some of the above images, sentiments, candi, and a few little surprises that I didn't photograph, as well. All you have to do is comment under this post, and I will pick a name with all the others on Monday - the half price goody bags are now sold out, I hope some of you bagged some bags!

Thank you all so much for the lovely birthday wishes. I did have a very relaxing day with lots of cards and phone calls. I have a couple of cards I want to share with you, but my camera had a flat battery, so it will have to wait until tomorrow, when I will be giving another little something away


Hilarious conversation between my son and four year old Max.....
'Daddy, where do I have to go before I am an adult, to learn how to hold hot stuff from the cooker and microwave, and drink coffee....' 
'Drink coffee Max? What do you mean?'
No Daddy, don't worry about the coffee. I'll learn to do that in little sips. But I will need to go somewhere to learn about the hot stuff'


Ah, the wonderful, simplistic mind of a little child


See you tomorrow

Giveaway - Letraset Metallic Markers

WooHoo. It's my birthday today! The lovely guys at Letraset sent me a set of their new metallic markers, just in time, and they have given me another TWO sets to give away to a couple of you - a nice early Christmas present, and just in time to add a bit of glitz and sparkle to your festive projects. The colours are lovely - red gold, gold, silver, lilac, blue and green. They give a lovely, soft metallic sheen to a project. They have two tips as well, a broad one for larger areas, and a fine tip end for tiny details.  They are water based, but you can add them to images coloured with ProMarkers............ 

I took this photo after the light had faded, so it's impossible to see clearly, but I added tiny spots of gold metallic to the pears, old gold to the pot, and tiny spots of green to the leaves. In real life it adds a very satisfying glimmer to the card...............

All you have to do is leave your name under this post, I will draw the winners next Monday, and post them here on Tuesday


You should hop over sharpish to the Craftwork Cards site, they are selling their goody bags at half price - only £5, which is an absolute bargain. You get masses of stuff in these bags, base cards and envelopes (I only ever use their cards, they are such good quality), papers, sentiment buttons, card candi....it just goes on and on. And if you have a crafty friend, they would make a super Christmas gift.


So what am I doing today? Well, a nice long lunch and gossip session with my friend Anne, and out to dinner tonight with Mike. No cooking for me, yeah!


See you tomorrow with another bit of candy, and some birthday cards to show you as well

Sepia Santa - and win a Cricut cartridge......

Here is the giveaway for Tuesday - a brand new Cricut seasonal cartridge called Summer Vacation (not very seasonal in November, but hey, pretend Santa is coming early...). It has some rather nice cuts on it, love that ferris wheel, and there are some great car cuts on here - good for men's cards. All you have to do is leave a comment under this post, I will draw the winners next Monday and post their names on Tuesday. As usual, I will mail to anywhere in the world

On to today's card, I decided to see what this Santa would look like in sepia. I think it suits the image, do you? I coloured him with ivory, sandstone, tan and caramel Promarkers, and used grey green on the leaves

Come back tomorrow to see what those lovely guys at Letraset are offering as a gift for two of you this month.