Blue Santa

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

I cannot believe what a wonderful time I have had since I started my blog on August 5th. I would never have even contemplated this without the encouragement of my very dear friend Linda (Lindyloo)  - whose blog http://creativeharmony.blogspot.co.uk/  has been such an inspiration to me, and I really cannot thank her enough.

It is incredible how many friends I have made in such a short time, and how wonderfully helpful everybody is in Blogland!

This will be my last post now until after Christmas, but I'm sure I will be popping in if I get chance to see if any of you are posting!

Happy Christmas everybody! Love and hugs from Christine xx

Heartfelt Sympathy

Good morning dear friends.  I am posting this card with a heavy heart.  A very dear friend lost her husband a couple of days ago.  I know there is no good time to lose a loved one but there is much at Christmas to bring back the sad memories, eg hearing Christmas carols, writing Christmas cards to name  but two.  I know this from experience because I lost my darling dad on Christmas Day  and then my mum, who I can honestly say truly was my best friend, only a couple of weeks before Christmas a few years later. But I cannot conceive of  losing my soul mate, although I know there are some amongst you who have gone through this.

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Anyway, I couldn't really get my head round making a card so I stole the card I made the other day for John and just made a few changes, adding an appropriate verse. I used Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles, Marvellous Squares and Diamond Strips and Accents.  The striped organza ribbon was from my stash, the silk cala lily from Hobbycraft, and the grey pearls, which toned so beautifully, were from the candy I won from Patricia.

Well, I'm off to do my food shopping today and that's it - all ready. And if I forget anything well that's just too bad! We'll do without.

Have a good day everybody. Love and hugs from Christine x

Table Gift Box

Hello dear blog friends . Just a quick post today.  You know the old saying - so much to  do, so  little time to do it!  Actually, it's not that bad but I must admit to not having a great deal of time to craft this week.

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On Boxing Day morning we will be travelling north to spend a few days with my sister and her husband. I have made these little gift boxes for the lunch table and they will hold a couple of special Belgian chocolates. Yummy ! My sister's Christmas decor is silver and white and so I have made half the boxes silver with  white poinsettias and the other half white with silver poinsettias. I think there might be eight for lunch so I need to make another couple, but they are so simple to do. I have used Spellbinders Square Bracket Edge Box and the poinsettias are  Marianne Creatables. I added a a gem in the centre of each flower and then also applied a holograph peel off snowflake to each side of the lids.

I hope you all have a good day today. With love from Christine xx

Jewellers Bag

Hi friends. I know I said no more gift bags, but this is different!!! LOL!

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I bought my niece some jewellery for Christmas and had to pay extra for a presentation box . However, it was then inserted into this gift bag. It's very good quality so I decided I could use this instead of just wrapping up the box. 

There was a black frame around the edge and black cord handles, so I used  black glitter card and die cut two daisies from Spellbinders Jewel Flowers and Flourishes, although in the picture it looks like just one. The leaves are Spellbinders Foliage. I added little floral pearls from WOC, to the centres of the flowers,  and the other little black pearls in the upper corners are from my stash . Initially I was going to use black ribbon for the handles but decided to leave the black cord because it looked okay. You know what they say (whoever "they" are) - if it ain't broke don't fix it!! The flower on the tag is from the Square Bracket Edge Box die set.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for taking time to look in!

With love from Christine xx

Yet More Christmas Gift Bags!

This is the last time  you will see gift bags this year.

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 I have very little time for crafting this week. I have a busy - enjoyable - few days. First of all, thank you all for the good wishes for our wedding anniversary. We had a lovely day. After a great meal ( it was all a surprise because we had no idea where we were going) we decided to come back to our house for coffee. As predicted it turned into a very long lunch, but we all really enjoyed the day.

Today was another lunch party, although just for me this time. I met up with 12 other guys from the company where I worked before I retired. I had changed my speciality from midwifery to Occupational Health and I was in charge of the health and wellbeing of the employees at a large food manufacturing company. ( A little clue - think coffee, cheese and chocolate!) We were all managers in different departments there before retiring and now meet up for lunch every three months. This time it coincided with Christmas which was lovely. I always feel a little spoiled because I am the only female.

On Wednesday I am having my hair done so I will be all posh in case I bump into Santa when he arrives next week!  And then I am meeting up for lunch with the nurses who used to work with me. These four gift bags are for these ladies. I chose to make them all in green Christmas cardstock from the First Editions pad Stocking Fillers, although obviously they are all different.

As you will see the first one has yellow glittery poinsettias and a yellow ribbon bow. The second one has lots of glittery gold snowflakes with a red, green and gold ribbon bow. The gems to decorate the poinsettias and snowflakes are from my stash. The poinsettias are Marianne Creatables, the small flourishes are also Marianne dies and the large ones are Spellbinders Jewel Flowers and Flourishes. The snowflakes are Spellbinders Create-a-Flake Four.

I probably won't have anything to post tomorrow unless I manage to craft in the evening.

So I hope you all have a great day and manage to do everything on your no doubt long "To Do" list!

Love and hugs from Christine xx

Ruby Wedding - Mine!

Well, when we tied the knot on December 16th 1972 I could never have imagined celebrating 40 years together! When you are so young it is difficult to think that far ahead! But here we are!

Here is the card I have made for John. I couldn't decide between Resplendent Rectangles or Diamond Strips and Accents  so I used them both - and being greedy I also snuck in a couple of little bits from Marvellous Squares too.

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I find these front steppers extremely difficult to photograph because they come out  looking totally out of proportion. The side view, which shows the inside, makes a better picture. The little swans are the centre part from a Nellie Snellen hearts die set. I know this is more burgundy than red but I liked it better for a man. And I even added a bow, though it's very small and very narrow ribbon! The fold back parts of the Diamond Strips and Accents are much darker in real life, in fact there is very little difference between that and the burgundy card stock. Who said the camera never lies?

Well we are off out to lunch with some friends. Whenever we lunch with this particular couple it generally lasts until about 7 o'clock! LOL!

Hope you all have a great day! Love and hugs from Christine x

40th Birthday High Heeled Sandal

Hello Everybody, well what a difference in the weather yesterday! From being frozen solid for a few days it was back to being washed away! And the winds were incredible. I really don't like wind!!! It is so destructive.

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Well as you can see I have moved away from Christmas and made an easel card for a 40th birthday. The stiletto sandal is decoupaged and I added tiny pearls to the butterflies bodies. The edges of the paper doily have been glued and glittered. I actually got this, together with a lemon and a lilac one,  from the Ribbon Box and I think it has come up pretty well. I have made this for my sister to give to her daughter-in-law. Actually I will make one  more than she can choose which one she would like and I'll have one of the others and one also for my nephew. The yellow daisy card I showed a couple of weeks ago is for the same person. I usually allow them the choice and then I take what's left. Still, since I will have made them all I guess I should like them all too so it won't matter which I send.

Take care and have a good day.

love from Christine xx

Christmas Gift Bags

Hello friends. Today I'll show you a couple of the gift bags I have made.

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The card stock is from First Edition Stocking Fillers. I used Grand Labels 11 because it is the only large one I have, but I'd like to get a different shape at some stage.The green glitter poinsettias are Marianne Creatables, the two smaller flourishes are also Marianne dies but the largest is Spellbinders Jewel Flowers and Flourishes. The snowflakes are all Spellbinders Create-a-Flake Four and the pink and cream rose is from Hobby House. I kind of flattened it so that it fitted the centre of the huge snowflake!The ribbons and gems are from my stash. I have now shortened the green ribbon because it didn't look right. Sometimes you don't notice until you see the picture. As you can tell from the silver tissue paper the gifts are already inside.

I hope you all have a good day. Christine xx

Another Door Plaque

Good morning friends - on a very cold and frosty morning too! The temperature didn't rise above -2 yesterday and even that was for only a short time. Me no likey this cold weather!! Sorry I have been missing for a few days but I have now done all my Christmas shopping, wrapped most of the presents, put up the tree and added the lights. Today I will actually dress the tree so I might not have anything to post again tomorrow because this is quite a task!!

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Well as you can see I have made another door plaque, this time for Charlotte's little brother Sébastien. I hadn't planned to but John said, and he was absolutely right, that Séb would be very hurt if he didn't have his own special door plaque too.

Well you know how awkward it is to make things for men and boys. However, I know his room is painted a very similar shade of blue so I painted the Joanna Sheen MDF plaque with Match Pots emulsion. Last time I was there he had these Lightning McQueen race cars everywhere.  Knowing little boys that could have changed but I thought race cars was a safe bet so I managed to download these images from the internet. I cut the finishing flags from some scraps I found in the bits box. And the coup de grâce was the racing wheels. Initially I just downloaded some pictures but I needed to add a bit of dimension. This is where the 99P Shop came in! I bought quite a large car and broke the wheels off - bingo!!! The name was made up of American Crafts Thickers chipboard alphabet stickers which I have had for years, and have now found a use for them at last.

Well, that's all from me today. Keep warm everybody! Love and hugs from Christine xx

Door Plaque

Hi, I'm writing this ready for posting in the morning and the sun is shining really brightly - but it's bitterly cold. What the weather will be like as you  read this is anybody's guess!

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This is for my great niece. I am giving her money for Christmas, but obviously she needs to have a few little things to open  from me, so this is one of them. I got the MDF plaque from Joanna Sheen and painted it with purple emulsion from a match pot -Charlottes favourite colour! Patricia will no doubt recognise my roses and I hope she thinks they are okay! I didn't have any toning card  for the roses so I used white and coloured it with an ink pad and then a little stickles for a bit of sparkle. They turned out okay I think.  I used the Rose Creations die. I die cut two Marianne Creatables large butterflies, one in silver and one from the same card that I had coloured for the roses and layered them. The small butterfly is also a Marianne die.  The leaves are Spellbinders Foliage and the border across the centre is Parisian Accents. I added some pearls to the butterflies and a length of  satin ribbon to hang the plaque, and that's it. I used my Cuttlebug and Olivia alphabet dies to form the name. This is the first time it's seen day light since I got my Grand Calibur!! I think Spellbinders missed an opportunity to be able to use thick dies in the GC. I would like to get rid of my Bug but still have some dies that are quite nice - even though I had forgotten about them!!!

I've just realised that this shape is very similar to Labels 11 ( with an extra point on top and base) and so looks a bit like the gift bag I made, but I can assure you this is definitely an MDF plaque! LOL!

Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Love and hugs from Christine x

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Good morning everybody. Well this is the very last Christmas card I will be showing. I was asked yesterday to make a card for a little girl.

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It was needed quickly and was to go in the post so for speed I used an LOTV die cut topper, Millie Winter Window, and kept it quite flat. The little girl loves cats and purple (sounds like my great niece!) so this die cut fitted the bill perfectly. I'm sure I've probably got some purple Christmas backing papers but I couldn't actually lay my hands on them - so very plain I'm afraid. I diecut it with Labels 16. The Snowflake Corner is Memory Box, the snowflake is Spellbinders Create-A-Flake 4 & the sentiment is Little Claire Designs Christmas Sentiments matted  onto a Spellbinders Lacey Circle. I just added a few lilac gems.

I've no doubt I will be doing something else Christmas-y, but that's it for the cards. Thank goodness!

I hope you all have a good day. Love and hugs from Christine.

The Reason For The Season

Hi Blog Friends. Sometimes I think in all the hustle and bustle at this time of the year, and all the razzamatazz of presents and decorations etc, the true meaning of Christmas is forgotten. Maybe we need to step back and take a minute to reflect.

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Some of my Christmas cards were quite simple, like this one. I computer generated the sentiment then used different colour ways, different dies and different shaped cards to make them all slightly different . A little cheating maybe but when you make so many you  do what you have to do to speed up the process.

We haven't had any more snow today but still have yesterdays lying on the ground and the roads are treacherous. No gritting on our country roads I'm afraid.

So keep warm everybody and have a good day. Christine xx

Seaside Snowman

Hi! Another Christmas card. This is for a friend of  mine who lives  near the coast at Eastbourne so I think she will find it amusing. I have just  realised that I have omitted to colour the robin on the snowman's hat! Just as well I saw it now before I sent it!

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The Beach Hut stamp and the Christmas Sentiments stamp are both from Little Claire Designs,  coloured with promarkers and  matted onto gold mirri.  The sentiment is stamped in gold ink, although it doesn't look it in the picture. Maybe it is the light reflecting off the mirri.  The design paper and ribbon are both Papermania's Home For Christmas. I've kept it very flat because it is going in the post and I don't want to have to pay even more, especially when there are so many. It never seems quite right when there is no dimension to the card but needs must, I'm afraid.

Well, a very quick post today.  Hope you all have a good day.

Love from Christine xx

I am entering this card into Fab 'n Funky Challenge - Not Traditional Christmas:  HERE
 Incy Wincy Designs Challenge - Non Traditional Colours : HERE

Peace And Love At Christmas

Hello dear blog friends. I have been absent for a few days because I wanted to concentrate on finishing my Christmas cards. I am now feeling very smug because I have made 85 (including those I did last month) and no two identical. They all written and stamped ready to pop into the mailbox when John goes down to the village, apart from a handful that need letters included.  I now have only a few special ones to make.

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This is one I have just made this morning. The stamp of the house is from an American company, Petulama, which is one  of the very first ones I bought 11 or so years ago. I heat embossed with detail silver powder and used a purple promarker to add just a hint of colour. I then used glossy accents and diamond dust on the roof and trees and matted on silver mirri and lavender cardstock. I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the dotty half of the background and various snowflake stamps at the other side. The snowflakes are Spellbinders Create-a-Flake Four and the greeting is Little Claire Designs Christmas Sentiments.

So that's another one off my remaining list. I'm going great guns here!

Well that's it for now. I'd better get some baking done because all the tins of cakes and biscuits are pretty empty. John is very patient but he does like his little treats!! Hope to see you again tomorrow with another offering. By the way, I may not have added anything to my own blog  over the last few days but I have been visiting whenever I took a break so I have been keeping up to date with all your lovely creations.

Love and hugs from Christine. xx

I am entering this in the Ladybug Crafts Challenge - Christmas and/or Winter: HERE

Toboggan Ride

Good morning friends. I thought I'd introduce a little humour into my card today.

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My picture is quite lopsided I'm afraid - and no, I wasn't drunk when I took it. Maybe I was just following the slopes!

The picture is one I found on the internet and I don't know where I got the little tongue twister verse but I thought this card would suit my brother, who is always good for a laugh.

So easy with just a snowy background paper, white glitter card cut to form  the slopes and a few trees from my stash.

Have a good day everybody!

Love and hugs from Christine xx

A Time For Giving

Hi, another Christmas card today. This time I have used an LOTV die cut topper.

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This is a terrible picture but I can't seem to do any better with it I'm afraid.

Background papers are HOTP , the sentiment is Little Claire Designs Christmas Sentiments, Spellbinders Lacy Circles and Lacy Squares and Wild Orchid Crafts poinsettias.  I used Glamour Dust on the bunny's outfit and Diamond Dust on the roof  of the bird table. It looks better in real life, but seems a bit dull to me. Ah well, you can't win them all. After I took the picture I realised I had intended to colour the ribbons on the sentiment circle which I have now done and they are red, which lifts that corner a bit.

Well, have a good day - and keep warm!!!

Love from Christine xx

Daisy Chain

Hi blog friends! Sorry I've been missing for a few days. Over the weekend I came down with a virus which really knocked me for a six! A couple of weeks ago I had a sore throat and felt a bit under the weather but that only lasted a day or so then I was absolutely fine. However, I think it hid away in my system and re-emerged last Friday evening - with a vengeance! Over the last couple of days I have been feeling  much better and got cracking on my Christmas cards. They are fairly simple fortunately and I have managed to get about 35 done. Still a long way to go but now I know what I'm doing I can really get my skates on. I actually work better under a bit of pressure!  Yesterday I started on my Christmas shopping. Okay, I know you've probably all just about finished, but hey, I'll get there!  I must confess I was pretty shattered when I got back from Milton Keynes!

Anyway I decided to have a  break from Christmas and make a 40th birthday card for my niece.

I have actually made an A5 card, which I haven't done for ages. I used Spellbinders M-Bossibilties Lovely Lattice for the background and trimmed the bottom edge with Martha Stewart Doily Lace. The main image is Marianne Creatables. The flowers and butterflies are Spellbinders Jewel Flowers & Flourishes with a few little lemon Prima daisies, and the leaves are Spellbinders Foliage. The centres of the large daisies were in my stash - I'm almost sure they were in with a box of Floradoodles that I got years ago.

Well that's it for today. I'd better get back to my Christmas card list!!!

I hope everybody has a good day today!  Love and hugs from Christine xx

Accordion Book Box

Hi friends, just a very quick post today after yesterday's marathon.  We went to Birmingham yesterday and by the time we got back, had a meal and cleared away time was marching on and I didn't feel like crafting. So I  just made a very quick box for yesterdays Accordion Box Card. I had to wait until this morning to photograph it, hence the later post today. However, it is so grey here  that it's still not a good picture.

 

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I kept it quite simple as you can see. I again computer generated the sentiment and die cut it with Marvellous Squares. I threaded through some of the ribbon that I used to close the book, and added a few pearls and small WOC roses.

I also altered the flower arrangement slightly on the front of the book so I took another quick pic.

Well that's me for today. Hope you all have a good day.

Love from Christine x

Christmas Accordion Book

Hi everyone, sorry I've been away for a couple of days. We've been quite busy and I was working on a project which took a little time to sort out  in my head. I saw a similar project being made at the NEC and managed to get the measurements so I was able to create my own. Today's post is very picture-heavy but it's the only way I can do the book/card justice.

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 Just to show how the accordian resembles the pages of a book

 Showing the spine of the book

 The open book

 Close up of the LOTV image

I computer generated the book title for the front page and diecut it using  Marvellous Squares. I added WOC flowers and Marianne flourishes, with some pearls. I again computer generated the book title for the spine. The small flowers are actually snowflakes from Create a Flake 4 and I added a pearl in the centres. ( I have now adjusted the top pearl - didn't realise it had slipped till I saw the pic!)

Inside - at the left side I made a pocket , decorated the edge with Venetian Accents and used a  Marianne Creatables die as a tag so that  my friend can write her own message inside for her first grand daughter. At the right side I used LOTV Angels With Crib stamp,  coloured with promarkers and added lots of glitter - which doesn't show in the picture. I again used Venetian Accents to make a frame . The book is fastened with pink organza ribbon. It was so dark all day that not only did I need to use flash,  I also needed the overhead lights on. I ended up taking the photographs in the kitchen because it was the least shadowy there.

 I have yet to make the box, but I'll save that for another day in case you've all fallen asleep! Sorry this has been such  a long post!!!

Well I hope today is better than yesterday. It poured with rain all night and all day and the road was quite badly flooded yesterday when John drove to the next village to see his GP.

Have a good day everyone! Love and hugs from Christine xx

Gift Bag and Roses

Hi friends.  Well, I'm sure Patricia will be pleased to know that I have actually made the gift bag and roses from her tutorials.

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Side view

I used Grand Labels 11 which I got at the NEC and the double side card is Isabelle from First Edition. I folded the side gussets so that I could hold the handles together better with the ribbon, but the picture doesn't really show it.  My mistake is that I don't think I made the holes for the handles big enough, though it's not the end of the world..

But I hope you've checked out my roses!!!!!! I used the same card to make the roses and I diecut the leaves in white from Spellbinders Foliage and used a Ranger ink pad called "Seashells - Starfish Green" which I have had for ever, and it is a brilliant match. The  roses aren't brilliant but I'm quite pleased with them and I can only get better. Anyway - thank you Patricia!!  I'm not keen on the ribbon but it's all I had that would tone (apart from white and I didn't want to use white) but I' ll have a look next time I go to town for something different..

Anyway, I'm rather pleased with my first gift bag, and I can assure you that it certainly won't be the last. I love to make boxes, bags etc. It makes a nice change from cards.

The link is HERE

Well I hope you all have a great day. 

With love from Christine xx

Hanging Star

Good morning blog friends.  Today I have a very simple hanging star to show you which was made from only two pieces of 6x6 card,  plus the embellishments.

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Back of star

I found the simple tutorial  HERE if you are interested.

I used Spellbinders standard circles and lacy circles for the centre. I used a large, bought poinsettia but I pulled it apart and covered it in red rose glitter - I didn't have any true red, but it doesn't look too bad. I disposed of the yellow centre and replaced it with a small rose, both flowers from WOC. I just used some narrow red  to form a hanging  loop.  The joins at the back don't fully meet and  I didn't like the white strip that showed  so I used peel off borders to cover each edge. This way if it was hanging from the Christmas tree and swung round it would still look quite neat from behind. Easy peasy!

Hope your weekend is going well. 

With love from Christine xx

Joy To The World

Good morning blog friends. Todays card is another LOTV image called the Little Trumpet.  Sorry for so many Christmas cards but I really have so many to do that I'm trying to forge ahead.

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This is a simple little image and easily coloured.  I'm not sure what happened to the lighting on the picture but the skin tone in real life does not look as dark as it does in the picture. I used Spellbinders standard circles to cut the image and petite scalloped circles to diecut the matt from lilac Bazill Basics. The backing papers are once again Papermania Contemporary Christmas. I really like these, and best of all I am using up a lot of my old stash which has got to be good.  The lilac and greys tone so well that I coloured the angel's robe with cool greys and lavender.  The corners are from the Marvellous Squares set. I computer generated the sentiment and a  few purple Papermania Shimmer dots finished  it off.

Well I hope you have a good day today.

Love from Christine xx

Festive Robins

Good morning friends. Today's card is an LOTV die cut.

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The grey backing papers were pieces from my bits box and I'm sure they are Papermania's Contemporary Christmas. Everything was matted onto red cardstock. The sentiment is from Little Claires Christmas Sentiments and matted onto a red Spellbinders Lacy Circle. Some poinsettias and a few gems finished off a quick and easy card. It was late by the time I got round to taking a picture so it's rather shadowy I'm afraid.  If I get chance I will take another picture and then edit it .

Here is the template for the exploding cracker from yesterday's post.

My writing is atrocious so I hope you can read the measurements. I think if you click on the image and then  open the link in a new tab you can  save the picture and then print it off. If that doesn't work then I can always email it to you. The two base squares are for added strength if you need it. I've sometimes used the layering templates but not often.This was in the days before all these lovely Spellbinders were available. If anybody knows of an easy way of adding something like this I would be grateful for the advice.

Well that's me for today. Hope you all have a good day.

With love from Christine xx



Exploding Cracker

Good morning.  Thank you everybody for all your birthday wishes. I was quite touched. (John has always said that!)  I really don't know what has happened to 2012, it seems to have come, and almost gone, so quickly!

I didn't have a great deal of crafting time yesterday so I just did a quickie. A little while ago when I was having a clear out I came upon this template that I haven't used for a very long time.

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I tried to take a picture of the open cracker but it was almost impossible to take a decent picture, so I scrubbed it. It doesn't take much imagination to see how it would fall open when the ribbon is removed. I obviously used much stiffer card the last time I made these because the sides didn't gape so much then. I wanted to use  double sided cardstock so I didn't need to decorate the inside but it was obviously  too thin.

I stamped the little angel with Versacolour Petal Pink pigment ink and embossed it with WOW Clear Sparkle then mounted her on the second size Spellbinders Floral Ovals. On the other sides I  put a diecut stacker tree from Dees Distinctly A Cut Above dies, and added some glitter to them. Inside I just put some choccies but a little gift could be substituted.

If anybody wants the template I can pop it on the blog for you.  I might do another one of these next week and do a  better job of it.

Hope you all have a good day.

With love from Christine xx

Celebrate

Good  morning friends and thank you for visiting. Well, today I am officially  older! Yes today is my birthday and so we will be going out for lunch later. I made a card yesterday and then  spent some time playing around with some of my new stash I bought at the NEC

 I used a Cheery Lynn die cut to make my card. This die isn't actually new, I got it last year to use on the wedding album I did for my sister and I haven't used it since. I saw somebody using a Cheery Lynne die in a demo and though the die was nothing like this one, and the card they made was nothing like this, it just brought it to my mind and so I got  it out and used it. Strange how the mind works.

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The die is Victorian Romance Flourish and I cut it three times. I cut the third one in half and removed the centre. The heart shape  in the centreis just two bits of the waste as they came out of the die. I used the smallest of the Resplendant Rectangles to die cut a label for the easel stopper and used a rub on that says Celebrate, but that doesn't show in the picture at all. I finished off with a few gems.

I then decided to try out the moulds and WOW Melt It powder that I bought. No, they are not sweeties, even though they do look a little like goodies!

 

These are the daisy and rose moulds I used.

For the pink ones I mixed Rich Ruby Red embossing powder with the Melt It. I can see I need  to use a much higher ratio of coloured embossing powder to achieve a deeper colour. But it's all trial and error, and I have never done this before. The others were made using WOW platinum powder which gives a sort of taupe colour. The beauty of this is that if you don't like it, or the flower is not as good a shape as you would like, then you can just melt it down and try again. I  did do that just to see if it worked - it does! I only wish now that I had bought some more moulds because this really is a lot of fun.

Well that's all for today. I hope you all have a good day!

With love from Christine xx

Keep Climbing

Good morning friends

First of all let me say that this card is not original. I got this set of stamps, Keep Climbing, from Our Daily Bread Designs last month and at the time I  went onto their website and saw a few cards using these stamps. I needed to do something fairly quickly today because I wanted to get it into the post and I remembered this  card so mine is almost a copy, with some changes of stamps and dies. This card is for a dear friend who is going through a very rough time right now.

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The dark green card is from my stash and I stamped the images and sentiments onto green mottled paper, also from my stash. The  verse of scripture is mounted onto one of the dies from Resplendant Rectangles.

The mountains and sentiment are from the ODBD set, and the floral images and butterfly are from a Stampendous set I bought yesterday called Wildflower Sprigs.

I have been playing with some of the stuff I bought yesterday which has been quite fun so I'm sure I will be able to incorporate something into a card soon.

Well I hope you all have a good start to the weekend.

With love from Christine xx

NEC Goodies

Hi Blog Friends

Here is my new stash.  As you can see I got a Grand Nestabilities, so I can see one of Patricia's bags coming up! Just realised I misssed a set of stamps off  the picture. The Marianne die had been on my wish list for a while and so I finally succombed, along with a couple of Memory Box dies too. What the heck, it's my birthday in a couple of days so now I've got my birthday present !! - and possibly Christmas present too? Unless John is feeling generous again next month!

Well I'm hoping to play with some of my goodies today so maybe I'll have something to post tomorrow, depending how things go.

Hope you all have a great day!

Love fom Christine xx

Monochrome

Hi everybody.

A simple card today which I am not pleased with. I almost didn't post it but then decided that we can all make mistakes can't we? My lovely dad used to say "Even (Sir) Stanley Matthews had his  off days!" - a football fan as you will have gathered!

Click on image to enlarge picture

The papers once again were very old stock which I bought some years ago from a craft shop which was closing down. At least I am continuing to use old stash when I can. I matted the plaid paper onto the base card, matted the spotted paper onto plain and then cut them  into pennant shapes, after computer generating the sentiment. The stamp is one I won from Ladybug Crafts last month and I stamped it with an Anna Griffin green pigment ink then used a brush to fill in the background so it wasn't stark white. I think maybe this is what I don't like about it because I'm not good at it.

Anyway, for better or worse it's here.

Today I am off to the NEC and hopefully not spending too much money! ROFL!

Have a good day. Love from Christine xx

Love Came Down

Good morning fellow bloggers. For today's card I have used the Three Little Angels stamp from LOTV.

Click on image to enlarge picture

 I cur the cardstock to 5 x 7. After stamping the image I diecut it with Spellbinders Marvellous Squares. I coloured it with Promarkers and then added some stickles to the dresses. I computer generated the sentiment and diecut it with the smallest of the Resplendant Rectangles dies. The poinsettias are Marianne Creatables. I need to do something about the glitter. It looks better in real life but could be better. The backing papers are from my stash from years ago (I am determined that I will use my old stuff as much as possible) and the ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Well that's another one down, only about eighty to go!!

Have a great day everybody.  Love and hugs from Christine x

Triangular Box

Good morning friends. What happened to the weekend - now you see it, now you don't and it's Monday again already.  I was trawling through blogland and came across this tutorial  for an incredibly easy box which can be found HERE and I thought you might be interested.  You only need a piece of card 28 cms x 14 cms and it only takes a couple of minutes.  It would be ideal for small gifts and can be embellished as simply or elaborately as you wished.  I think I might be using these for my table gifts at Christmas.  By altering the size of the cardstock  you can easily make different sized boxes.  I only embellished one side on this box but you could easily do all three so I'm  going to play around with a few more.

Click on image to enlarge pictures.

Showing two sides and the ribbon fastening it.

Showing the side opening with some goodies inside.
I used pink spotted card and decorated the edges with paper lace that I bought absolutely ages ago from Lakeland before they stopped selling crafty stuff. What I hadn't realised is that it is self adhesive and when you remove the backing it is exactly the same as the paper lace so can be used too. Not bad since I came across it by chance when I was going through a box of stuff that had been in the back of a cupboard for a couple of years. Sorry, I'm waffling! Back to the box. I added a WOC gardenia and a couple of pink and cream roses from my stash but I don't know where I bought them from, and Spellbinders foliage. The triangle ties with a ribbon and the whole of one side opens to allow you to put in the gift or sweets or whatever.

Well that's  it for today.

My Stocking's Already Full!

Hi  everybody, another Christmas card today.  Help!! I am starting to panic!! 

Click on image to enlarge picture

Another of these really cute LOTV images which I just love! Diecut with Spellbinders standard circles and scalloped circles, coloured with promarkers, glitter to the stocking tops and hat bobbles and dotted with liquid pearls for snow. I used a glitter glue pen on the actual stocking but it looks more effective in real life than in the picture. Once again I removed the yellow centres from the poinsettias and replaced them with a glittered sun punch out. The sentiment stamp was a magazine freebie and the background papers are Papermania Home For Christmas.  Red pearls are from Hobbycrafts. Quite a simple, clean-looking card really.

Well as you can see I am back into my crafting again. Let's hope nothing crops up over the next few days and I can get some Christmas cards made.

Have a good day everybody.

Love from Christine x