A Year in Review

I spotted the lovely Lorraine playing along with A Year in Review and I thought I'd have a go too... several hours and lots of swapping and changing later, here are 12 of my favourites from the year...

Blimey, it's SO hard to choose favourites!  And they've all ended up quite girlie, even though I like making male cards - not sure what happened there!

I'd like to wish all my lovely followers (and of course, anyone else who pops in) a very Happy New Year!  We'll just be having a quiet night in tonight, with a few glasses of Bucks Fizz lol - such party animals eh?!  Hope you all have a good time whatever you're doing :o)

Paper suggestions anyone?

As most of you will know, I'm coming to the end of my paper ban (yippee!) on Sunday.  I've not bought any papers since May and I've been trying really hard to ignore all the lovely papers everyone's been using, so that I wasn't tempted to run off and buy them lol.

So as I've not got much idea of what 'must have' papers are out there at the moment, I wondered if any of you could suggest your current favourites so I can have a look?  It's a bit scary being let loose again though, I must try not to buy too many!

A late Christmas card...

Luckily I'm only late blogging it - it's my mum's Christmas card and it was finished on Christmas Eve, which is quite good going for me lol :o)  Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!  We had a great time, although we've all had this rotten cold that just won't go away.  I got a Kindle for Christmas and I'm just a teeny bit hooked on it already... hubby liked it so much he went out today and got himself one!  And he doesn't even read really - men and their gadgets eh?  I also got a light tent that I've been so looking forward to getting, but one of the lights doesn't work so I'll have to wait for that to be sorted... boo!

I used one of the LOTV cute die cut images, with a touch of glamour dust added.  The papers are Dovecraft with red cardstock from Papermill Direct and textured kraft card from Stampin' Up.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards, snowflake was cut with a Cuttlebug die, red pearl from my stash.

Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things properly soon, isn't it hard to get going again after you've had a break?!

Less is More wk 46 - music

Just a flying visit to post my last minute card for this week's Less is More challenge, which is 'music'.  I really shouldn't be here at all... still loads of wrapping to do and I STILL haven't made my mum's Christmas card... eek!!!

I've had the image and sentiment (made in Word with lots of faffing about with text boxes) printed off for days and finally found a spare few minutes to colour it in today.  It's one of the Cute Santa images from DigiStamp Boutique, printed onto linen card and coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers.  Added a bit of glamour dust for some sparkle and mounted onto red textured card from Papermill Direct.

Sorry for the short post, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a finished card for my mum and her hubby!

Mimosa (not) waiting for Santa!

It's my day for posting on The Stamp Basket blog today, and I decided to use the sweet Bildmalarna stamp 'Mimosa - waiting for Santa', but not on a Christmas card this time - I thought she could work quite well for birthdays too...

Products available from The Stamp Basket
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Bildmalarna 'mimosa - waiting for Santa' stamp
Seam binding in chalk white, dyed with 'tattered rose' distress ink
Dovecraft Adhesive Gems (on the sentiment tag)

I've coloured the image with promarkers and flexmarkers, the papers are First Edition with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct.  The sentiment is Stampin' Up, and everything else is from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - bingo card (1st row - ribbon/ twine, gems, glitter/ sparkle)
• I Love Promarkers - anything goes
• My Mum's Craft Shop - anything goes
• Charisma Cardz - anything goes

Apologies if I've not managed to catch up with your blogs yet - there just aren't enough hours between now and Christmas, and I'm ever so slightly stressed here lol!  Hope you're a bit more organised than I am, but I bet I'm not the only one still running around like a headless chicken :o)

Grandma's birthday card

I was really pleased with the card I made for my mum to give to my grandma... I'm not so happy with the one I've made for us to give her, it's not quite how I imagined it looking!

I had fun making the background - it's funny to think that not so long ago I didn't like getting messy and inky!  I used lots of different blue and green distress inks and then sprayed it with a green cosmic shimmer spray - this is where I got really furious because all my sprays are completely blocked... after lots of soaking in hot water, rinsing and swearing I gave up and put some into an empty spray bottle instead - so annoying!  And somehow I've ended up with bright green spray all up the wall in the craft room!  The image is a Hero Arts stamp embossed in silver, and I've embossed around the edges of the stamped panel in silver too.  Ribbon, silver cord and black pearls from my stash, and the lettering is computer generated, the card blank is 7" square made from hammered card.

I'll not say Happy Christmas yet, because I'll be back at least a couple more times this week - I'm SO disorganised and I was really hoping I'd do better this year!

A bed fit for a cat?

Well I should have had a card to show you, but by the time I'd finished it the light had gone and I couldn't get a decent photo with the daylight lamp.  I'll have to take more photos in the morning, but I thought I'd just show you some photos of our cat :o)  Please excuse all the kids toys in the background though!

I went shopping with the kids this morning (I know, mad woman!) and we decided to buy a posh new cat bed... hubby wasn't at all impressed with how much I spent on it, and Bram has been completely ignoring the blimmin' bed all day lol!  There was much excitement when he finally decided to risk getting in...

I wonder if this will stop him sneaking onto the kids beds, hiding under my craft desk and squashing himself into various tiny boxes.... probably not!

I suppose I'd better go and write in some Christmas cards now, seen as tomorrow is the last day for posting them - oops!

Birthday mice...

This is the card I've made for my mum to give to my grandma for her birthday in a couple of days.  Sorry, there are loads of photos!

I love this style of card as they really do look special - my mum's thrilled with it :o)  But they're nearly impossible to get a decent photo of - maybe the light box I'm getting for Christmas will help!

I've used LOTV die cut images - in theory this was supposed to speed things up, but by the time I'd faffed around with everything else on my card it took just as long as usual.  The papers are unknown ones from my stash with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct.  I can't remember the make of most of the things I've used and I haven't had chance to look for any challenges again... headless chicken at the moment sorry!

Off for a commenting mad dash while I'm sat still for a bit!

Can anyone help Vicky?!

Vicky (Vixx Handmade Cards) is having huge problems at the moment... if you try to open her blog there is a message that says her blog has been removed!  She's obviously very upset, and I wondered if anyone had any ideas of what might have gone wrong and how she could fix it?

Vicky would really appreciate any help anyone can offer, thanks everyone!

**Phew, all seems to be back to normal now - what a relief eh, blimmin blogger!**

Some quick Christmas cards

Another busy day today, we've had a huge toy clear out to make space for all the new stuff the boys will be getting for Christmas.  And then we put the tree up - it's looking very pretty apart from one bit at the back that has about 30 baubles crammed onto 3 or 4 branches... Dex was in charge of that bit!

As I've not had chance to make anything today (although I should be making cards for my Grandma's birthday, which is only a few days away!), I thought I'd show the quick cards I made for Morgan's teachers and Dex's nursery staff.

I made 12 of these cards using different LOTV die cut nativity scenes and Christmas Sparkles digi papers from Pink Gem Designs, printed onto linen card.  I kept them really simple, just printing the sentiments directly onto the card and inking around all the edges.

And then very similar cards for Morgan's teachers using LOTV die cut images that Morgan picked out, and Pink Petticoat gingham papers, printed onto linen card.  Inked all the edges, added lots of glamour dust and that's it.  Sorry the photos aren't very good, but they were taken quite late when the light had gone.

Tonight I should be rushing around making my Grandma's cards and writing in Christmas cards (still haven't posted any yet!), but I'll probably end up wasting the whole evening on the laptop - there's always tomorrow isn't there?!

Less is More - let it snow

I've been so busy this week I completely forgot about Less is More - unheard of!  I finally remembered last night when it was too late to do anything about it, so I've made a very quick card this afternoon.  I quite like it though, for a change :o)  The challenge is 'let it snow' and it's one-layer card week too.

I've stamped an Elzybells bear and sentiment in memento 'rich cocoa' onto Stampin' Up kraft card, and added some snowflakes in white and cocoa.  Then I went over all the snowflakes with a sakura clear stardust pen which doesn't really show up in the photo.  I've rubbed white ink around the edges of the card and used white koh-i-noor pencil around the image.

There are probably loads of Christmas challenges I could enter, but I've not had time to check any of them and I want to squeeze some commenting in while I've got a few spare minutes!

Big Christmas Sale at The Stamp Basket!!

Just a quick one to let you all know about the fab Christmas Sale at The Stamp Basket...


25% OFF SELECTED BILDMALARNA STAMPS
25% OFF ALL FIZZY MOON STAMPS
25% OFF SELECTED MOLLY BLOOMS STAMPS

25% OFF SELECTED NELLIE SNELLEN STAMPS
25% OFF SELECTED STAMPAVIE STAMPS
25% OFF ALL WILD ROSE STUDIO STAMPS
25% OFF SELECTED MARIANNE DESIGN CREATABLES
30% OFF BACK TO BASICS PAPER PACKS
30% OFF BO BUNNY PAPER PADS
30% OFF MY MIND’S EYE PAPER PADS
30% OFF MARIANNE DESIGNS PAPER BLOCS
30% OFF SMALL PAPERMANIA PAPER PACKS
30% OFF WILD ROSE STUDIO PAPER PACKS

…..and much, much more!

Just in case you need something for yourself or a last minute gift for a crafting friend :o)

My little shepherd

I just thought I'd pop back with a couple of photos of our little thumb-sucking shepherd, he did ever so well bless him :o)

Sorry, not the best photos but they were taken on hubby's phone.  I did well up a bit, but managed not to cry... oh, and I was telling Dex how well they all did with their singing so he sang Away in a Manger for us at home, which apparently went 'Away in a manger, no crisps for a bed...' lol!

Thank you for all your lovely supportive comments on my moany post, it really cheered me up to read them, and to know that others wouldn't have thought the worst of me.  I feel much better about it all now :o)

Christmas candle

Yesterday I spent all day making candle boxes to give to Dex's nursery staff - or as Dex calls them 'his ladies' :o)  Now I've never made these before, so it took me all day to make 4, plus a trip to Hobbycraft for more acetate because I kept scoring them wrong and I needed more supplies to ruin lol...

The photos are of the first one I managed to successfully make - I think the ones I made after probably looked slightly better than this, but I didn't get round to taking photos of them, and we've taken them into nursery today as it's Dex's last day before Christmas.

I googled for candle box tutorials and came across this one which I more or less followed, but I had to adjust the measurements a bit because my candles were too big really.  So if I do them again, I'd get smaller candles.  The papers are GCD Studios Joyful Peace and the sentiment on the tag is an Elzybells one.  I wish I'd added a bit more detail to them now, looking at the pics, but never mind at least they're done!

I'm entering my box for the following challenges:

• ABC Christmas - Y is for Yippee - it's almost Christmas!
• CES Challenges - a traditional Christmas

I'm going to have a bit of a moan now about the recent blog candy that I offered... I posted it to the winner at the beginning of last week and have had a couple of emails to say that the package still hadn't arrived.  I was a bit irritated at the bloomin' postal service to be honest, it does annoy me when things go missing or are delayed like that.  I offered to send her some other bits after Christmas if the parcel didn't turn up at all.  But then it became fairly obvious that (without actually saying it outright) she must believe that I didn't even send it, because she's stopped following my blog... this is someone who's cards I've been commenting on for a little while and she's been commenting on mine, and I thought was a genuinely nice person.  She obviously doesn't think the same about me if she thinks I'd lie about sending the parcel.  I'm now not sure about even bothering with blog candies again, if they cause this sort of bad feeling.  I was really upset about it yesterday and didn't feel like blogging at all, but I know that most bloggers are lovely so I won't let it put me off.

Right, moan over!  As I've been so busy over the last few days and I'm feeling a bit wiped out by my yucky cold, I've decided to take the morning off lol, and sit here with the laptop and catch up with you all.  Then this afternoon we'll be watching my little shepherd in his first nativity, bless him... tissues at the ready!

How to make 70 cards very fast!

Yep, I actually made 70 of these little cards in a couple of hours yesterday morning, and then I made another 12 less simple cards in the afternoon... 82 cards in one day - go me lol :o)  And then when I'd made that lot, I went Christmas shopping with my mum and didn't get back until nearly 10pm, so I apologise for being very behind in visiting your blogs but I will catch up tonight.

These are Morgan's cards for his friends at school, using the pre-coloured versions of Carol Singing Cat and Ice Skating Hoot from Pink Gem Designs, printed onto linen card.  These images come with a black line version that you can colour and you also get the pre-coloured image, which is ideal when you have a lot of cards to make - I made 35 of these...

... and I made 35 of these for Dex's friends at nursery, using Fairy Teddy, Teddy with Christmas Tree and Teddy with Candy Cane, again in the pre-coloured versions from Pink Gem Designs.

I was right about getting Dex's cold - I'm feeling really awful today!  I just seem to shake one thing off and then I get something else, or if I'm ok one of the kids will be poorly, fed up with it now!  I've got to get gifts made for the nursery staff today, and lots more to do tomorrow including watching Dex as a shepherd in his first nativity!  All I really want to do is curl up in the chair and fall asleep, wonder if I can find a spare half hour to do that this afternoon...

Sweet Stampin' - things with wings

I'm back with my 2nd post for today, my DT card for Sweet Stampin', where our challenge is 'things with wings'.  We're sponsored by Bugaboo and our lucky winner will receive 7 fabulous digis of their choice :o)

Now I'm not sure why, but this little 'Ava Fairy' cutie from Bugaboo just seemed to need purple hair, so I went along with it - it quite suits her doesn't it?  She's coloured with flexmarkers, promarkers and koh-i-noor pencils, with lots of glamour dust for sparkle.

The papers are from the 'capsule collection' by Papermania, with black core'dinations, and a piece of whitewash core'dinations with a purple core that I've embossed and then sanded back.  So that made me happy because I managed to use another forgotten embossing folder.  And then because the sketch I used had a large oval on it, I used my cricut too... ooh dusty things are actually getting some use at the moment!  I coloured a wooden flower with a purple flexmarker and added a little button, and the sentiment is Penny Black.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Papertake Weekly - anything goes + optional something dangly (do the things on her head count? lol)
• Everybody Art - sketch
• The ABC Challenge - E for embossing
• Flutterby Wednesdays - open challenge
• Divas By Design - anything goes
• Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
• Totally Papercrafts - anything but Christmas
• Crafty Catz - anything goes

I'm all on my lonesome this evening, because hubby's going out for his work's night out... he's an engineering buyer and his department is all the engineers and electricians - nights out are generally a bit messy, so I dread to think what sort of state he's going to come home in!  So it's just me, a pizza and the X Factor tonight I think :o)

A Gem of a Challenge - sketch

This week at A Gem of a Challenge we have a fab sketch for you, created by the lovely Rebekah.  It's also my first challenge as an official member of the Pink Gem DT, as Janet asked me to stay on following my guest DT stint - thanks so much hun :o)

Isn't this snow couple just gorgeous?  It's called Snow Love and it's one of my absolute favourites, I think they're so sweet :o)   I've coloured the image with a combination of promarkers, flexmarkers and koh-i-noor pencils... I was going for a vintage sepia feel which I thought was working quite well, but when Dex saw the finished image he said 'teddy bears!' lol, so maybe it ended up a bit too brown?  I've added lots of glamour dust too.

The card blank is 7" square, papers are GCD Studios Joyful Peace with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct.  Wooden snowflakes from my stash, covered in glossy accents and then glamour dust, red pearls also from my stash.  The sentiment was computer generated - the font is called Chocolate Box I think.  This card is one that my 'stepsister' asked me for - my mum and her dad got married earlier this year and she wanted a special card for them, hope this will be ok!

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Craft Your Days Away - snowmen
• CES Challenges - a traditional Christmas
• Totally Gorjuss - let it snow
• Stampin' For The Weekend - Christmas
• PaperPlay Challenges - snowman
• DYSU - something old
• Creative Inspirations - snow much fun
• My Mum's Craft Shop - traditional Christmas
• My Time To Craft - vintage Christmas

I'm definitely starting with Dex's cold - it's very inconvenient, I just haven't got the time to be ill!  Soooo much to do - somehow I need to make all the cards and pressies for teachers/ nursery staff, and cards for Dex and Morgan's classmates, before they finish at the end of next week... should be fun trying to cram all that in, and I can't even decide what to make for pressies!

Back later with my Sweet Stampin' DT card :o)

Late and not great!

Ooh it's not like me to be scraping in so last minute for Less is More!  The challenge this week is 'green', which should have been no problem at all, but I've been a bit hampered by my poorly boy so I've only just managed to fit my DT makes in... luckily Dex has just had a little nap so I rushed off upstairs and threw a card together!

I cut the scalloped card blank on the cricut - yes, I know, I actually used the poor dusty thing!  I've moved it into its own little space in the craft room in the hope that I might get a bit of use out of it, and I have used it a couple of times since I moved it... if it goes back to being unused I'll be getting it sold.

When I'd cut the card shape, and the little die cut tree - which is a die from Little Claire, I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of my card, as you can probably tell from the way it turned out!  Well, I didn't have much time to think about it!  The sentiment is from Elzybells, brown gingham ribbon from my stash, little snowflakes are from a Hero Arts set.

This card might get binned, but at least I've made something for the challenge :o)

Digi Stamp give away at The Stamp Basket

I didn't think I was ever going to get on my blog today!  Dex is still poorly and it's so hard to get anything done - he wants my attention all the time and I've been sooo tired today, so I think I'm about to come down with it too. I just hope we'll have it all out of the way by Christmas, fingers crossed!

For my card today I've used the new digi stamp from The Stamp Basket, which you can get free by suggesting a name for the little elephant character, or by donating to a fundraiser for a little boy called Brandon and his family.  You can see the full details of how to get the free image here.

Items available from The Stamp Basket:
Digi stamp - Love Came Down at Christmas (free until tomorrow at 5pm)
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Deco Art glamour dust in crystal
Dovecraft adhesive gems
Red polka dot button
Burlap twine - red

I thought I'd make a simple embossed card - mainly because I wasn't functioning well enough to put papers together lol.  And I need to start using my embossing folders anyway, I always forget about them.  I've coloured the image with promarkers and flexmarkers, and added lots of glamour dust.  Wooden snowflake from my stash, covered in glossy accents and then glamour dust, with a spotty button and red twine.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Crimbo Crackers - embossing
• Forever Friends - it's all Christmas
• Moving Along With The Times - last minute Christmas
• ABC Christmas - Y for yippee! (anything Christmas goes)
• Cupcake Craft - DIY backing paper (hope my embossed papers count, if not please delete me!)

Sorry for my lack of commenting - I'm going to catch up a bit tonight, assuming Dex stops shouting us upstairs for his nose wiping... sigh!

Passion For Promarkers - mega Christmas challenge

As you might know, at Passion For Promarkers there are 2 teams, doing 6 months of challenges each... Team 1 will be taking over soon, so today is my last card for PFP for a whole 6 months!  We have a special challenge with loads of prizes - I've shamelessly stolen the challenge info below so that I don't miss anything out.  Hopefully this will all post ok...


This week we are launching our very special Mega Christmas challenge which will last until January 3rd 2012. I’m sure you’ll agree that the design team deserve a little break to catch up on their last minute gifts and cards. However to make up for the lack of challenges we again have some magnificent prizes up for grabs.
Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is a nice easy one “celebrations”, so basically we want to see your creations for any type of celebrations, including birthdays. However as time is precious for our DT at this time of year we are limiting the number of entries you can make to just 3 for this month long challenge. Please remember to be eligible for our prizes you must use your promarkers, flex markers, tria markers or aqua markers.

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes!

Letraset are offering 1 amazing prize of 3 new packs of promarkers (metallics set, contemporary xmas set, modern xmas set)

Whiff of Joy Stamps are generously offering 1 stamp from their sentiment collection

Pink Gem Designs are generously offering 4 digi images of winner’s choice

Joanna Sheen are generously offering 6 packs of promarker fine liner sets

DigiStamp Boutique are generously offering 6 digi images of winner's choice

Saturated Canary digis are generously offering 2 digis of winner’s choice

bugaboo stamps are generously offering 7 digis (which we are going to split into 2 prizes)

Tickled Pink stamps are generously offering 2 digis of winner’s choice (from Lil Lolita, Lil Lad and Lil Pinkette ranges)

Crafts & Me are generously offering 6 digis of winner's choice

Now I'm hoping it was actually ok to make a Christmas card because no one else on the DT seems to have used Christmas as their 'celebration'!

I've used one of the fab new images from DigiStamp Boutique - there are 5 new 'offer of the month' sets for December and this one is from the very cute Rudolph set.  I've made this one for my auntie and her hubby, but now I'm not sure if I should be making them separate cards this year - Mike's in the army and he was sent to Afghanistan in Nov for 6 months, so my mum says she's buying them separate cards... it doesn't take much to confuse me so I can't make up my mind what to do now lol!

Anyway... I've coloured the image with flexmarkers and promarkers, with some pearls for the red noses and mistletoe.  The papers are Dovecraft with red cardstock from Papermill Direct, wooden snowflake and heart button are from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
• Creative Card Crew - tis the season
• The Crazy Challenge - anything goes

I've got Dex home from nursery today because he's been up most of the night coughing and crying - which means me and hubby hardly slept either.  Weirdly, even though Dex often asks if he can stay at home, today when he's actually poorly he's all upset because he wants to go to nursery!  He's curled up on the sofa watching Toy Story at the moment, and he's got Toy Story 2 and 3 lined up for when it's finished lol.  Sorry I've really rambled today, haven't I?  That's what no sleep does to me... well done if you made it to the end of all that nonsense :o)