Wey hey we have a tree!!

Just a quick post with some more cards, this time I will take a bit of time and explain them as I go along, and give myself a break from doing the tree that hubby dragged me out to buy today.


First up for your delectation.......

Bit hard on the eyes in this light I must admit. Papermania silver embossed christmas Vellum's from my stash, papermania SnowFall embossing folder, HunkyDory Frosted christmas collection, some Grey pearlised card, and some ribbon from my stash.
The embossed vellum's are very pretty, but quite understated, and I needed something to compete with the die cut HD shapes, so I dug out, (yes I used it again!! for some reason this year it seems to be my favorite!) my Papermania Snowfall embossing folder, and then went over the embossing with and embossing tool to make it stand out more. For a bit of light relief have you seen the nose?


next up

HD frosted Christmas foiled pink cardstock, and coordinating tree, some MCS white embossed vellum, some pink ribbon form my stash, and some pearl gems from Dovecrafts, and Samuel Taylors. I did have quite a stash of the HD frosted Christmas collection, Thankfully, I am nearing the end now.


Next

Again HD frosted Christmas, Papermania silver embossed Vellum's, and some Polka dot ribbon from my stash.


next

I have no idea, what this style of card is called, but yes its HD again from their contemporary Christmas Collection you'll be pleased to hear. This is basically how you make it up, with no adaptions, and I just used some MCS Crystal Glitter to add the snow.


next

See now I have got bored and fed up, and am starting to interchange things! 2 separate HD kits Contemporary Christmas, and frosted Christmas, some C&C mirri Board, ribbon from my stash, MCS glitter. 


and now 

Ok I gave in , it was sitting there in front of me you don't expect me not to take the easy way out under the circumstances do you?
So HD frosted Christmas, and frosted shapes, some polka dot ribbon, and some Purple gems from my stash, yes even I am getting sick of the pastel pinks and blues right now!!


and finally, the piece de resistance............... drum roll please..............

Hunkydory Frosted Christmas! The card base itself doesnt photo very well, as it has bits of glitter embedded in it, very strange, and quite smooth to the touch, but unusual, and I try not to use it, you know how you want to hoard the unusual stuff? I used the Nestabilities Lacy Ovals die, and cut half way across, then embossed the full die on My Happy Cut, and folded. Then yes I know, I know, HD frosted Christmas AGAIN, look I have to use it up and GET RID OF IT as I am THOROUGHLY BORED of it now, you really don't appreciate how much comes in an HD kit until you have to use it!!!


Still got some HD christmas kits to use up, but they are ALOT more varied than the frosted kit, sorry HD but I have had enough of this set, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when I HATE batch making cards!!!
Right the tree is assembled, the lights are on it, (youngest refused to go to sleep as he cant wait to get up and decorate it), the pine needle oil is on the tree but I cant smell it due to being full of this cold that is just waiting to let go, (I am allergic to real pine or coniferous trees, much as I love the smell of them, but a rash I dont fancy at the moment thanks!) and its just waiting for youngest in the morning. Middlest was cursed quite roundly for NOT having got the decorations out the loft before I took him back to College last night, and as I didnt fancy Chicken Tikka drumsticks, hubby went and bought me a very large Spring Roll from the Chinese so I didnt have to have a sandwich for dinner.  So now I am going to crack on with some more cards, think I'll do some Flower Soft ones for a change Yippee!!


And last but not least a pic of our Pup for Brenda. It has been really hard work this time putting up the tree, as the pup wanted to eat it, and all the decorations, thought moving the furniture was a big game of hide and seek, but for all that I am somewhat biased AGAINST Rottwiellers, this one chose me, and is such an affectionate little fellow that I wouldnt be with out him, so here is our "Tank". Taken tonight at 8mths to the day old, bless him!

AAArggghh!!!

Oh for heavens sake!!!


Why cant people tell me well in advance exactly whats expected of me?


Went off to Mass this morning nice and calm....... we have 2 churches in our parish, presided over by one Priest, Father Billy, so the church fair is next Sunday, and although the fair is only being held in one church, I had arranged to split the special Family cards I have prepared and take some to the church which isnt having the fair, next Sunday.


Only at the end of Mass chatting to one of the ladies, she asked me what time I was setting up for the fair on Saturday?


No its not on Saturday, its on Sunday, I said gently, thinking that she had messed the days up.
No there's one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
HUH?
There's a fair after the Evensong Mass, on Saturday, and again after the Sunday Morning mass, she said gently, seeing I was somewhat confused.
Then one of the ladies from "My Church" came up and said, 'you are still going to bring those family cards in next Sunday arent you?' ( This is the church without the fair).


AAAAaaaarrrggghhhhh!!!!


So I wont be around much, due to frantic card making!!!!


David Bailey AKA Middlest, has taken loads of photos for me, which I have popped in my Gallery so feel free to have a peruse. There's a right old mix, Hunkydory, My Craft Studio, Smirk, La Pashe, etc. Enjoy!

Oh and Thanks all of you for your helpful suggestions, you may see that I have incorporated a few of them!! The reason Mojo went wandering was, although I didnt know it at the time, I was running a temperature of 102 degrees, oopsie!!

Mojo lost! Help needed to find it again!!

Oh dear need help!!

Has anyone seen my Mojo? I lost it yesterday.

I have been sitting here staring at these for the last day, and cant find anything to do with them!!

I dont want to make BIG cards with them but I need to do something with them if you get my meaning!
I am running out of time just 2 weeks now till my church fair, so I need my Mojo back if you see it!


In addition dont know if you have spotted this candy give away, you'll have to be quick, as it closes tomorrow,

You can find it here: http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/look-look-look-blog-candy.html

WOYWW

Hi all,


well I am back nearly to normal having had a bit of a disaster with my back, hence I didn't manage to post at all for about 10 days! Sorry this is a bit photo heavy, as I haven't posted for a while.
So Whats on my Work desk? ( if you have no idea what I am on about, then please hop along to Julias Page, Here and all will become as clear as muck lol)

I have finally managed to pluck up enough courage to attack my Hunky Dory collection! That's what! Boy did that take some doing!!! So on display are all Hunky Dory... Rockin Snow globes, now I have found the domes I can finish these, and umpteen Toppers and card ribbons just waiting to be made into cards. I did the easy ones first, lol, now I am having to get creative, yippee!! I did have a very large green toy box full of Hunky Dory Christmas,

now all that is left is the Foiled card stock, and the backing papers!! And a couple of Packs I am saving as emergency stash, just in case I need to produce a Christmas card toot suite!

Oh Dear! You can see the state of my carpet! All those little white backing squares from the foam pads, the backing from the double sided sticky tape, and various slivers of off cuts! What a mess!! In my defence the larger bits are from my non recycle-able bin, which my Rottwieller pup likes to raid for bits to chew on, little blighter!!
So what was in the green box, is slowly becoming stuff like this:



 This is possibly, a new style of card, as I haven't seen it anywhere else. It just came to me as I was making the card up, this is the front cover....
And this is the inside, or card proper. I apologise for the glare, but its the new light. This is just one of the kits from Hunky Dory Christmas Contemporary selection.

 This is from their traditional range.

And this next one has cheap wired silver ribbon, promarkered with Indigo Blue. And I used the Large Spellbinders Lace Doily motif die on the Hunky Dory Blue foiled card stock to create the mat.

 All of these are using the matching Toppers and Backing papers card stock from Hunky Dory. The card stock from hunky Dory tends to be in the region of 350gsm, and the papers are generally 180gsm, so good weights for working with.




This one is a full A4 sized backing paper, backed onto some 300 gsm Silk Art Card. And very heavy on Yellow Gem Stars from my stash, nearly ran out!!

This one is using the Classic Bracket edgebilities Die from Spell Binders with the Hunky Dory Backing paper, and some green card stock from my stash.                                                                                      

And this one used the Go Kreate frame Frilly 10 XXL die, and my faithful Papermania snowfall embossing folder

 Hunky Dorys Acetate cards on their snowfall foiled acetate.

And finally one of the Small Toppers on their pre cut card base.












But as I was playing with the edegebilities on my Happy Cut today, and making a right mess of it I must say, my youngest asked if I would help him make a card for a friend of his who is ill. So he decided that Flowers, mums thrown away piece of card, a 6x6 backing paper, some cream ribbon, and some butterflies, were what he wanted to use, but how to get it all together? The problem is that at the moment I have Christmas stock only out to play with, so his choices were limited.
In the end this is what I managed to concoct for him using his selections.

Mums thrown away Pearlised 350 gsm card, where she messed up with the edgebilities, some flowers just arrived from the Glitter Girls Flower keepsake assorted and Ruby Crush boxes, Some My Craft Studio Crystal Illusions Butterflies, 3 cheap ball headed pins (3 wheels for £1 from Poundland), and some paper and ribbon from my stash. Yes I know the Butterfly Topper is wonky, but that's the way he wanted it lol.
But while I have been lying down, getting very bored I haven't been entirely lazy, heres the 3 remaining paper folded decorations, unfortunately the Rottie pup ran off with one while I wasn't paying attention!!

They all have 2 things in common............. 1. They are all from squares of paper folded into well squares obviously, using 16 smaller squares to reduce the size by half, so a 12x12 becomes a 6x6 when its finished. as demonstrated by Mel Heaton, on C&C. and 2. They all use some of the Glittered Letters that were in  my goody bag from Samuel Taylors.
The first one, has small pictures from the Classic Christmas CD's by My Craft Studio, the second, is using some 6x6 papers from my stash, with the Iron Works star die, and the Snowflake pendant dies, from Spell Binders, and some die cuts from my stash, also some lettering and shadow mats cut on the Craft Robo/Silhouette SD, ( Mines a weird one as it was manufactured during the re-branding, so its the Silhouette SD machine, but has the Craft Robo logo, lol) and the third using the Large Lace doily motif die and the Large Holly Motif die.
The one the Rottie ran off with was Peace, which isn't what he got when I found out what he was chewing on!!!


Right off to see if I can get on the list early this time lol


Happy WOYWW everyone,

First time Jump Ringer!!

Well I have officially become a jump ringer!! Have a couple of packets but have never used them before, and actually for just play, I quite like this one!
This is again a My Craft Studio Construction, again Classic Christmas, and again the Looking Out CD, but when I was playing yesterday, I also came across a verse on Winter Wishes, that seemed quite apt for my Target group, so I noted down where it was for use later. 
These are actually 2 separate images direct from the Looking Out CD, Countryside, and Snowy Church, Countryside was printed on the 4x6 Photo paper, and the Snowy Church, again on A4 supersmooth. I took the colour of the text from part of the tree, which is something you can do in MCS Professional, and then wondered how on earth I was going to incorporate that particular shade into the rest of the design! Ever been there? Wondered how you're going to do it?
Well Stash to the rescue, and thank heavens for the spanking new Ottlite, I did have just that shade of green in a 250 gsm card, and also in a thin organza ribbon!! If it hadnt been for the light I wouldnt have done it!
so 4x6 mounted on some dark blue Pearlescent card, A4 mounted on the Green card, then braided some lengths of the ribbon, and attached it to the back of the green card with good old super-strong tape. But it still needed something..........ok try jump rings with dangly bits me thought.....hmmn what dangly bits can I find...........so some Ivy leaves in green foil, and some silver metal stars. Dont ask me where they came from as the leaves have probably been there for about 10 yrs, and the stars came from somewhere about 6 months ago, as I remember putting them in the little pot, but not much else lol.
Then mounted all that onto some scored and Folded A3 Dark Blue card-stock, a bit of Glitter on the Church roof, and small areas on the 4x6, and yep I like it!!


Hope you do too
I have entered another Challenge!!! crafty-catz-108
#19 Use a digital image as a main image.


right I'm off to bed, only done 2 cards today, but taken my tablets and bed is now calling, night all, 

Well, at least one cards finished!!

Finally a card finished today!!
This is something I printed off yesterday, and have just got round to finishing, not bad for a full day? Well I did do the Preston run, pick youngest up from school, go shopping at Costco, that can take a day in itself, and have a minor row with hubby in the meantime!
This is nearly pure My Craft Studio, in its construction, which is unusual in it self as I like to mix and match things a bit lol.
My Craft Studio Classic Christmas, Looking out CD, Hillside church image, printed twice, once on A4 supersmooth, and once on some 4x6 Photo card. A Touch of Crafters companion Silver Spray and Sparkle, Some My Craft studio Organza ribbon, in White, a Klever Konstruction Snowflake, and a Pinflair Peel off verse. Done!

New Light

Oh I am in 7th heaven!
Yes Ok I already have a proper daylight bulb in my craft room, but as you know one decent light is never enough, sooo...............

This was on offer in Costco's for wait for it, £14.98. 


What a bargain, sorry guys, but way cheaper than Ideal World. Thankfully I am  a member of Costco, and if you arent then there are certain criteria that have to be fulfilled before you can be a member. If you cant do it in your own right , do you know anyone who can take you as a guest?
Right Preston run over and done with, so now to craft!

Look what the Postie bought!!

Well, I have had a lovely day!!
First Linda sent me the photo's she had taken at the NEC, and I'm going to post them on my side bar, I was very creative, and have lots of work ready for tomorrow, when I get back from picking eldest son up from Preston, and the Postie came!!


Here's the results of the Post!!

More goodies!!
I am lucky enough to be a member of My Craft Studio Platinum Club, a wonderful friendly place to chat to other crafters, and this past weekend MCS had an offer on their Mystery Boxes, so I bought one , having had 3 previously that were exceptional value!!
So........All this is MCS except from the Whispers pens which arrived today from Crafter companion, yippee!!
Ribbon, 2 Pots of Meltdust, some, well loads really, of Klever Construction flower sheets, and some that I had also ordered, so I have 3 sheets of some now, which means I can keep one of each for stroking, a pot of everyday glue, some foam tape and pads, sheets of unprinted diecut windows, and shapes, some Paper flower expert sheets, probably go to youngest, some Glittered acetate, peel offs, card stock, a wad of 6x6 papers, an alphabet stencil, 50 wonderful word books CD, a big tub of pearl hat pins, some liquorice sprinkles, a pack of Jump rings, a sheet of foto-polymer stamps, and some gel pens. And a £5  voucher to be spent in December, get in!! All for £15!

Needless to say I was a happy chappie!
So Whispers at the ready.....Open the Joanna Sheen stamps that arrived the other day, I was saving them for the Whispers pens, colour them in, and start stamping..erm hold on that one doesnt ring a bell? eh? the stamp didnt match the insert! and I'D CUT IT UP!! I couldnt send it back!! Phoned them up, LOVELY lady, said I was the second one that had had that problem, with the same stamp, of all things, not different ones so we could have swapped, oh no, the same stamp!! But as it was their mistake, they'd send mine out immediately  and please keep the one I had got by mistake, with their compliments!! Now that was a lovely surprise, as I was quite willing to pay for it, as I should have checked it when it arrived!
this is what I should have got

But I didnt get the Wreath, instead, I got the poinsettia and music!!
Any way, here's something I made earlier on today

This is made using some A3 dark Blue card stock, some A4 Hunky Dory Card, from the Christmas past collection I believe, but it is hard to remember as I do have a large collection of HD Christmas stock, this much in fact

Think I had better start using it! I used some Create and Craft embossed matt gold card stock, to cover the remainder of the length of the A3 sheet, used one of my Martha Stewart punches to create the blue "ribbon, added a cut off of the embossed gold card, and in order to create a matching "topper" I was very naughty and scanned in the backing card, imported it into MCS, changed the opacity and size, to that of 6x4, selected a swag of holly from the MCS Winter Whimsies CD and added a verse from Verses4cards.Then Matted and layered that onto alternating layers of Gold Mirri and some of the remaining blue A3 scraps.
this is the inside.

Hunky Dory do do some wonderful designs, and their quality is always top notch, but I wanted something different from this set, as I am creating special Family cards for the church fairs, and I wanted something that a young teenager might buy for their parents Christmas card, sometimes HD can be a little too sophisticated for that age group, not that I am complaining!! Dont worry that pic is now deleted form my pc, as its here, and I cant use it again, for 2 reasons, 1, I have used the original and dont have another of those, and 2, I know full well that I wont get the same effect or quality as the original provides, no matter what I do so its not worth even trying!!
The card just needs finishing with a red bow, some glitter, and maybe some Klever construction Christmas holly, if I can bear to cut into it that is!!
Right this is a late post as I had a VERY late CT scan appt tonight, 7 pm!! My own fault really, as I should have been there at 8.50 this morning, but got myself confused with the specialist appt NEXT week for 3.30, and suddenly realised what I had done, phoned the hospital up, and they shoved me in tonight bless them!


Right time to post a few pics, and off to bed with me!!


Happy Crafting everyone, xx

WOYWW

Well Its Wednesday again, that means its time for WOYWW if you have no idea what I am talking about then you need to pop over to Julia Dunnits Stamping ground. Julias Blog

So Whats on the desk........... Cup of coffee most important at this moment in time as I am just waking up.........My "Tool Box" of glitters that have been heavily used especially on the boxes in the post under this one........The One card that I have made that I cant find an envelope for, there's always one, so guess who's going to have to make one , sigh! The green card is actually a failed attempt to make Christmas tree shaped cards using the Pinflair Steppers, I'll have another go later, and also my failed attempt at making the one shaped card I did manage to do de-bossed using the Papermania Christmas tree embossing folder. I was having a bad day yesterday, could I figure out how to get the de-bossed side on the front of the card? No, but walked away had a cup of coffee and the thought "DOH!"
My Dabbers arrive from Joanna Sheen, that was quick as always, so I have been finishing those little snowflake boxes off. There's DS tape, glues, and some new stamps from Joanna Sheen on the right hand side of the pictureand some die cuts that need to be put away, as I was using up the scraps, as I made them, which is a first for me lol.

Heres the previously white boxes I was making, on the Silhouette SD.
except now they are gold! I had some gold spray paint in my sprays box, and its done a nice job of stiffening the card. Then I used Crafters Companion spray and sparkle for some twinkle, and inside they now have acetate coloured using the Tim Holtz Adirondak Alcohol inks, just ready for some ribbon!
Quite a tidy desk desk for me this week lol


Happy WOYWW everyone

Well I have been quiet for a couple of days..........
I know unusual for me, those who know me will say, but I have been busy playing.
I am waiting for some alcohol ink dabbers to arrive from Joanna Sheen, so I cant finish the snowflake boxes just yet.

I want to put some acetate behind the apertures, but I want to use my alcohol inks  on it first for some colour. I could have sworn I bought some dabber pads from the NEC, but I cant find them , knowing my luck they will appear just as the package from Joanna arrives. They are a lovely download from Silhouette online, and as I am re-enforcing them with acetate, I have only cut them on 200gsm on the old Craft Robo/ Silhouette SD.
The little sets of drawers were other downloads from Silhouette online, and the smaller one is a 250gsm patterned card stock from my stash, while the other one is using the fill feature on the Silhouette program.
The deer on the sides of the larger box is another download from Silhouette online, and I created a shadow with the design, and again filled it using the program design elements.


I am so very glad I bought the Goody Bag from Samuel Taylors at the NEC! What a bargain!! It was only when I actually opened the sealed pack of 12x12's and had a proper look, that I discovered sheets and sheets of little gift boxes and decorations!!

I had to stand on my stool to actually fit all the boxes on my camera! My work desk is actually a large Garden table to seat 6 very comfortably, so its very deep! try counting the bits you can see, I gave up at 50!


So I have spent the past couple of days building them all up, and now I am decorating them!

 Crafters Companion Silver glitter spray is getting a bit of a beating at the moment as a base glitter, then ribbon, double sided tape and glitter, Versa mark ink pads, and MCS ultra thick embossing powder, with a touch of mica is as far as I have got so far!!
I have taken my first box of cards to one of our parish churches, just the other one to do next weekend(We have two parish Churches, due to a shortage of priests, and we are lucky to keep both open, instead of loosing one of them). Which means I have time to do the inserts lol. Then I have to concentrate on providing special Family Christmas cards for 2 churches for the Parish Christmas fayres in December, which could be fun, as its also the Lincoln Christmas fair that weekend, as well, which is a family tradition, as my dad lives there and its our Christmas visit for youngest to decorate Dads tree!
Right I had better get a move on with myself!!

Trip to the NEC

Well I have FINALLY gone to the NEC!! My  last visit was 23rd Dec 1987 for a Marillion Concert!!!
This time I went hunting for Crafty stash!!
I went with a crafty friend, http://lindasimpsoncraftypieceofheaven.blogspot.com/ and picked her up at just gone 6 am, then drove down to birmingham and met up with FG, and then SHOPPED!!!

When I'd taken the first set of pic's I then discovered a couple of bags under the desk oops!!
Samuel Taylor's Stand was full of bargains...and I did spend a bit too much!! The Happy Cut machine was being used on 3 different stands, and it was nice to see it in public, as it were, as its my baby! The spellbinders stand had a VERY good deal on 4 sets of dies for £50, which meant that 1 die was £12.50, so I got..........3 sets of edgebilities and Labels 23 for a friend. What a bargain!!!
The goodie bags from various stalls were good value, but I do think that Samuel Taylor's was the best value!! Loads of 12x12 papers, and card sheets, glittered chipboard letters, oh it was HUGE!!! And I popped down to the Prima stand, as I spotted some of the contents while I was having a cup of chocolate, Laurence Delallios cookbook was inside!! £3.00 for 2 magazines and the goodie bag was for free. I was chatting to the lady there, as I stopped buying Prima, when they stopped doing the patterns inside,(apparently others had said the same thing) yes it was that long ago, but she said that you can ask for the pattern to be sent to you, so I will check the magazines out, and see what I think. You never know the New Home might see the light of day again....
I was wearing the earings I won from Beaders Companion, so I had my photo taken with Sarah, and apparantly its been posted on FB, so I'll have to pop along and tag myself.

But heres the Piccy of me and the Tea Set recipient...........Did you guess who it was for?

Last but not least I was the grateful recipient of some of Linda's Creations as a thank you for the lift down..


Right I'm off to play with the newest additions, .......could be a while lol