Gift Bags and Money wallets

Hi

Since I found the carrier bags I made a couple of quick and simple bags and matching money wallets. I know they are extremely simple but in my experience children barely look at the wrappings but are far more concerned with what is actually inside! Lol!

I decided to give the children money this year but obviously they would need some little things to open. Turned out to be  pretty expensive little things!! Still, I enjoyed it and I know they will so that's what counts. And obviously I needed something to put these little things in, so here they are.

My Projects

gift bag

matching money wallet

These used toppers from Crafters Companion Inspiration Winter Edition, with some LOTV paper, SB Create a Flake 5 and Dees  DinstinctlyStacker Tree.

whoops, cut off the handles - in the pic!

matching money wallet

For these I used papers from Simple Stories Handmade Holidays pad and embellished with SB snowflakes. It was certainly quicker than the ones I made from the manilla envelopes, but not quite so satisfying! And they were so much nicer too. Note to self - in 2014 remember to take pictures !!

Must go. Take care!

Christmas Wishes To My Blog Friends.

Hi everybody.  Not sure whether I will, get chance to post tomorrow, most likely not, but I wanted to be sure to send  Christmas Greetings to you all.

My Card

I have managed to catch up on everything I needed to do, and now just have some baking to do.

By the way, I found my gift bags in the most obvious place. Don't ask!!!  As one of my  uncles used to say -"It's not lost, I just don't know where it is!"  How true that is!!

Hope you all enjoy a peaceful and happy Christmas and return in the new year full of fabulous craft ideas!!  No more crafting for me now until after Christmas, although I will still be popping in and out I'm sure.

More Candles

Good afternoon  everybody and thank you for dropping by.  I have had rather a busy week but some of it, I  must confess, was socializing and very enjoyable.  On Monday I met up with some friends for coffee.  We decided it should be just coffee because we were all busy and didn't have time for lunch.  Turns out lunch might have been the shorter option!!

Yesterday I met up with my ex-colleagues and had lunch.  I made some more candles - but typically I had wrapped two of them before I remembered I hadn't taken pictures.  Too late was the cry because there was no way I was going to undo the cellophane wrapping! So here the pictures of the other two.

My Project

Click on image to enlarge pictures

(Wonky candle corrected before wrapping!)

For the first candle I stamped a Barbara Grey stamp  "The Night Before Christmas" and coloured with Promarkers before heating it onto the candle. The snowflake, and a few others scattered around the back, clear peel offs which will easily peel off before the candle is lighted. "The Night Before Christmas" ribbon was from Crafty Ribbons.

The second one was obviously LOTV "Little Ivy".  I used an MS punch on the purple card stock, wrapped some white striped organza ribbon round and then finished off with a lavender silk poinsettia which has been in my stash for a few years, and finally a pearly flower in the centre.

I could kick myself because I bought a pack of plain carrier bags from Hobbycraft to decorate and I don't know where I have put them. I had to filch some extra large manila envelopes from John's office. I made them into gift bags and decorated them with papers from Simple Stories "Handmade Holiday" pad and more poinsettias and holly.  But yes, you've guessed it - forgot to photograph them!

Anyway my tree is finally up and finished so I think I can now calm down and take it easy!  Hope you are all progressing well with your Christmas preparations.

CCC Challenge - Get Your Skates On, Christmas Is Coming!

Good evening. This is an extremely quick post! I actually forgot that today was Sunday and I needed to post the final card this year for our Christmas Card Club.  Mind you, I also forgot our wedding anniversary tomorrow so I have had to do a quick card for that too.  Luckily my friend just happened to mention it this morning when she rang.  I just don't know where my head is at the moment.  Anyway todays' choice is that of Sue W. I'm not sure she meant Santa to don his skates, but the poor old guy needs a bit of fun before his extremely busy time next week! Lol!

My Card

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6 x 6 inch card. Matted and layered with red card stock and Papermania Home For Christmas. The image is from my Greeting Card Factory and die cut with SB large squares and Labels 16. The white band was trimmed with an Xcut border punch but I cannot remember the name. The snowflakes are SB Create a Flake 5 and then red ribbon and black pearls from my stash to finish it off.

Hope this finds you all well. 

Trees and Snowflakes

Good day to you all.  I am feeling very pleased with myself that I played catch-up with a vengeance  Ended up with too many Christmas cards!!!! A good start for next year. Lol!! They all went in the post yesterday, apart from a few that need hand delivering locally, so I can now relax a little and maybe make a start on sorting out my Christmas trees. Otherwise it will be time to take them down before I get them up!

My Card

Click on image to enlarge picture

This picture does not show the card at its best unfortunately. Unusually for me it is 7 x 7 inches because I wanted to use as much of the gorgeous First Edition Silent Night paper as possible. I also didn't want to cover up too much so I just die cut some snow flakes using SB Create a Flake 5, and a couple of trees using Dees Distinctly A Cut Above. I cut them all from another sheet in the set and dusted them all over with Pan Pastel Light Gold which, although not showing in the photo, gives a gorgeous pearlescent glow to the images.  The background paper is very neutral and the tree is beautifully glittered. The card  is a pale gold pearlescent card from Anna Marie Designs. (Part of a fabulous bargain at the NEC. About 8 or 9 pence per card and envelope, including 8 inch and pearlescent cards.) This is for my nephew because he doesn't like things too fussy.  I think it would make a nice winter birthday card too.

Have a good day.

Christmas Acetate

Good afternoon to you all. Thanks for stopping by.  I'm not being a very good blogger at the moment but there is so much going on at present - and that's not counting Christmas stuff I'm trying to do too!  But I'm going to take a page out of Sue's book (Ollie's Mam) yesterday when she said she's not going to stress.  I have decided if things don't get done or finished, does it really matter? Of course it doesn't!!

My Card

Click on image to enlarge picture.

Unfortunately this was very difficult to photograph. The sun is so bright (and I am certainly not complaining about that!!) that the acetete was casting shadows and this was the best I could manage.  But at least you can get the idea.  I made a stepper card with paper and images from Crafters Companion Inspiration, Winter Edition and then made a tent fold over the top with acetate.  So simple yet so effective. I've just realised that the sentiment circl (SB Lacy Circles) has slipped so I'll try to correct that.

Well that's all I have time for today. Hope this finds you all well. I know Mrs Duck is unwell so I hope you're feeling a bit better Ang.

Candy Cane Christmas

Good morning everybody. Well it's Sunday again - so soon!! I had a very pleasant day at the craft fair at the National Motorcycle Museum yesterday, but I was a good girl and didn't spend too much - which makes a change.

My Cards

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Just some very quick cards here. I used some A4 cardstock and computer generated the sentiment twice before printing it and cutting it into two A6 cards.  The candy cane image was printed from my Greetings Card Factory and die cut with SB ovals and petite scalloped ovals. Although it doesn't show up in the picture I used red stickles on the holly berries then finished off with red pearls from the Hobby House.  It's amazing how quickly you move along when you do the same cards.  However I think I probably did a dozen and then changed to another one because I get very bored doing them all the same.

Hope this finds you all well and getting on with your Christmas preparations.  For some reason I cannot summon any enthusiasm at all this year.      I have at least got all my presents apart from a couple so that's good news. But I haven't even thought about food yet.  Still,  it will all come together and I'm sure everything will be great as it always is.

Well have a good day. 

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas ...

"Good evening, and this is Christine reporting live from her own desktop computer!"  Yes, I'm back in business, hooray!!  A big thank you to John who has worked so hard to sort it - and lived through my moaning, groaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth!!  You never know what Santa might bring as a thank you!  It really is so good to be back at my own machine. I hated the keyboard on the laptop because the keys were in different places and I was continually making mistakes.  Anyway, no more moaning.

My Card

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This is the last of my Twelve Days cards. I have only done six of them but I don't think I will have time for the other six.  I think they will probably have to wait until next year now unless I can wave my magic wand and find some extra hours / days!.  

6 x 6 card again.  The green card was from my snippets box  and the gold card has been in my drawer for ages.  I think I got it at the NEC a few years ago.  Computer generated sentiment matted onto the green and gold card. The holly borders are Memory Box Holly Vine and the gold ribbon and red pearls are from my stash.  The rings were actually spread all over the the topper but it looked too busy so I removed them and glued them in a row which I much prefer. It seems more balanced this way.  I am not one very busy busy cards.

Hope this finds you all well after the terrible weather yesterday.  Sue and I had a great day in Cheltenham, but we were both shattered when we got home. 

Well tomorrow I am off to the Motor Cycle Museum in Birmingham to a paper craft fair.  I hadn't planned to go having spent so much at the NEC last month  but Sue's sister in law asked if I would take her and I didn't like to say no.  I'm a sucker I know, but I find the word NO extremely hard to say!! I'm sure I will find something to spend more money on. Lol!!

Had a visit from one of next door's cows again this morning - accompanied by her daughter this time!  I wish our neighbour would actually spend some money and fence his land properly!!  They both had a good feast on the rest of the apples that had come down in yesterday's high winds.  Saved me having to go and gather them up.

On The Fourth Day of Christmas ....

Good morning dear friends.  Another quick post and I am scheduling it because I am going out tomorrow.  My friend lost her mum last month and is feeling rather low. It would have been her birthday on Tuesday and there is Christmas coming up which are all sad occasions, especially  the first ones.  I guess the only good thing is that all three "anniversaries" are close together and the first ones are always the worst I found.  Anyway, I am picking her up quite early and we off to Cheltenham for a girl's day out and we will find somewhere lovely to have lunch no doubt.  Cheltenham also has a little Christmas market so I think we will have a good day. When I worked in Cheltenham I used to love to walk around town at lunchtime but I don't go too often these days.  It's about 90 mile round trip so I usually make a special trip.  Mind you from where I live everywhere decent is a long way away. Lol!

My Card

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Another 6 x 6 inch card . The deep pink and navy papers were bits from my box.  The sentiment was computer generated and matted onto another scrap of blue die cut with SB Lacy Circles. The large pink pearls are from my stash as is the glittery white yarn. The yarn is very pretty but I have had it so long I don't know where it is from.  

Well that's it from me. Hope you are well and have a good day.

On The Third Day of Christmas ...

Good morning friends and fellow bloggers.  A quick post today while John is doing something else!

My Card

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Cardstock cut to 6 x 6 inches. The French Hens are stickers as I said. The backing papers are "Winter Wonderland" from Me To You. The sentiment is computer generated and matted with SB Lacy Squares. 

I used a punch for the snowflakes,  Such a quick card but quite effective.  Yesterday I posted The First Day and if you missed it you can find the Second and Sixth Days  here .

Well in a few days I will hopefully be back to normal. My computer has been replaced and will be here in a couple of days - thank goodness!!  Mind you, there was a good side to not being able to spend hours at a time on the computer - apart from a couple of special cards I actually got all my Christmas cards done. I'm not quite sure how many I have done but it's into the eighties so I feel very self satisfied! I just have to put the insets in and Bob's your uncle.  I made CAS cards for a lot of them but they still look okay.

Well, have a good day everybody.

The First Day of Christmas

Good morning friends and fellow bloggers.  Hope you are all feeling well, and if not please consider that you have just had a virtual hug from me!

Well here I am posting for the second day in a row. John has gone to the dentist so the laptop is all mine! Yippee!

My Card

Click on image to enlarge picture

My usual 6 x 6 inch card. The topper is one of the ones I bought a couple of weeks ago and I quite like them.  As I said at the time I never buy these sort of sticker type toppers but these are actually really nice so I made an exception.  There are a few more to come so be prepared!  The green plaid paper is a snippet I found in my box so not sure where it is from.  I have a feeling it is a digi paper from goodness knows where.
The tiny poinsettias are from WOC and the pearls are from the  Hobby House pearl in the centre. I computer generated the sentiment and then matted it onto an SB Lacy Circles die cut.

Well I shall get off so that I can do some blog visiting before the master returns for his computer!!

Entered into:

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/chnc-challenge-extra-for-december.html

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/week-235-inspired-by-christmas-song-or.html - 12 days of Christmas
http://ladybugcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/ -  Christmas/Winter

I'm Back for the CCC challenge - Christmas Trees.

Hi everybody! I have missed you all so much! I am still minus my computer unfortunately.  After getting a new hard drive it turned out that wasn't the problem anyway.  John has ordered something else which should come on Monday so we'll see if that's it.  Meanwhile we have downloaded my camera software and photo editing software onto John's laptop so that I can at least do something if he is not using it.  I am also able to plug my external hard drive into his laptop too in order to access my data but it is a very long winded affair.  Anyway, enough of that.

I am so sorry that I have been missing from the visiting and commenting. Hopefully it will not be too much longer now.

My Card

click on image to enlarge picture

The challenge is "Oh Christmas Tree".  Now I don't happen to own a proper Christmas tree stamp. I think I have a digi stamp, but at the time I was doing my card I wasn't able to access my data. Anyway, this is a tree, and it's Christmas, so it will have to do. Hope you agree.

My usual 6 x 6 inch card. The stamps I used are Denami Designs Christmas Script Background and Star Swirl Tree and I have had them for about 9 or 10 years. Now I've used them again I don't know why they were relegated to the drawer! I cut a piece of blue vellum to cover the card front and wrap around the back. I stamped the Script stamp in white onto the vellum and heat embossed with Ranger Frosted Crystal embossing powder and attached it to the card front. Onto a narrow strip of the blue vellum I again stamped the Script stamp, this time with Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue and heat embossed with the same powder to give a different effect, although the difference is quite subtle. I embossed a piece of white card stock with Crafts Too embossing folder Snowflakes, wrapped the vellum strip round it, matted it onto silver mirri and attached to the centre. The star swirl tree was stamped with the blue ink and the same embossing powder and matted onto silver mirri. It wouldn't be Christmas without a bit of glitter so I added blue glitter to the star, and a bit of bling to the corners. The picture is not very good I'm afraid. It is quite shadowy where the vellum is loose because I only attached it to the back of the card where it overlapped and underneath the snowflake panel. In real life it looks better. I am really pleased that the embossed script turned out so well.

Well that's it from me. Hope you are all well. I know my friend Sue P is unwell so please get well soon Sue!!!!

Entered into:

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.ca/2013/12/chnc-challenge-extra-for-december.html

http://craftingbydesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/christmaswinter-with-inky-impressions.html
http://jellyparkchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/jellypark-friends-month-long-christmas.html
http://52cct.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/november-pick-previous-theme-challenge.html -Christmas Trees

Flipping Computers!!

Just a quick note to let you know why I am absent.  My computer has died.  My commenting will be very spasmodic because I have to borrow John's laptop when he is not using it. He is busily trying to find out what is wrong with it therefore spending long periods of time on the internet.

 I was due a new computer so it's not a problem to buy one.  The major problem is all my data on the old one. John thinks the hard disc might have gone down. My PC is old and I still use XP - or rather did use XP.  John has been going on for ages about me updating, but I was very happy with it, and not being a techie I would rather stick with  what I know.  However, that is about to change!!  Luckily he backed up my hard disc onto a mobile hard drive only last week.  This is something he does periodically but did it mainly at this point because of the stuff on the news about this huge computer virus problem that might arise. But the question is will it transfer to a new computer? We will need to see.  If it won't you ladies up in Scotland will be hearing the wailing and gnashing of teeth!!!

Why do we have our whole lives on computer?  Photos, all my digis, papers etc!! Well I have learned one thing - I will be storing stuff on flash drives too in future.

Hope everybody is well and getting up to date with Christmas cards and Christmas shopping.

Love and hugs Christine xx

Sorry - Another Christmas Card

Just a quick post tonight dear friends.  It has been so cold today.  I think it is the wind chill factor. Brrr!!  We also had a very heavy sleet downpour around lunch time.. Warning of what is to come I guess.

Despite startin g my Christmas cards early I am now very much behind.  I think I slowed down thinking I had loads of time and then fell behind.  When I worked full time I was so totally organised!  Retirement has a lot to answer for. Lol! I'm going to have to get my skates on.

My Card

Click on image to enlarge picture

My usual 6 x 6 inch card.  I matted it with red card stock and then added some snippets of Papermania Home for Christmas. The image is one of the Christmas Elves by Mo Manning which I purchased  from the Hobby House.  The poinsettias are from my stash and I have had them a long time so don't know where I bought them.  I was going to remove the yellow centres but then decided they added another pop of colour. The red pearls are also from the Hobby House. The sentiment is Little Claire Designs die cut with SB Lacy Circles. And obviously I just had to had some glitter. Well, it's Christmas!

Well that's all from me today.  Hope everybody is feeling okay.

Pretty In Pink - Christmas Card Club

Good morning everybody. Well two more weeks have passed and it is once again time for our little Christmas Card Club to post our offerings.   This time it was Carol's turn to host the challenge and she chose "Pretty in Pink".  I love using non-traditional colours for Christmas, so this one suited me.

My Card

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My card is slightly less than 7 x 5 inches. I stamped the Woodware stamp Poinsettia  Box onto parchment with white Versa colour ink pad and embossed with white embossing powder then  coloured it with Promarkers. I layered it onto pink pearlescent  card and then built up the layers  Such a simple card and incredibly quick. Next time I will stamp another image and cut out the flowers to add a little height. This is a stamp that I bought last year and then misplaced so it was never used. I think I will make up for it this year. This is another one that can be easily replicated by changing the colours and swapping parchment for card etc. So don't be surprised if it appears again!

Hope you are all well and keeping warm. Here in Oxfordshire it is very dreary and cold.

Entered into :

http://bearlymine-challenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/challenge-112.html

Treasured Times Challenge #6 - Non Traditional Christmas Colors

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/

All White

Good afternoon friends and fellow bloggers. Today I am showing an all white card.  I have done quite a few in the past so I thought I would make another one using one of my new dies.

I would like say hello ans welcome to Chris, my new follower.  I haven't had chance to pop across to visit you yet, but I will be there soon!

My Card

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My card is 6 x 6 inches cut from white card stock. This is the first time I have used my MB Frostyville border die this year. The Winter Cabin Landscape is also by MB - one of my new purchases from the NEC.  The trees at the very base of the card are trimmed from the Pine Tree Border die by Poppy Stamps - actually the same company as Memory Box. Very strange.  The sentiment is a Brittania die.  I then just added some glitter and that was it.  I think this will be great card to replicate by just changing the background paper so that they are not all identical.  I hate to do cards which are all the same but by using the same theme they can be done fairly quickly.

Hope you are all keeping well.  My shoulder/neck isn't too bad if I don't lift or stretch - but it's pretty impossible not to really!  I might up my meds tonight because I kept waking up every time I turned over. I'm my own worst enemy really because I hate taking pills and stuff so I only had a half dose. I'll stop being a brave soldier and give in tonight!

One Of My New Dies

Hi!  I cannot believe it is a week since I posted.  I don't know where the time goes, I really don't

Last Saturday we went up to Derbyshire  and spent a lovely day at Matlock Bath and Cromford. When he was young (a long time ago!) John and a friend did a lot of rock climbing at Cromford so that was a last minute detour which brought back many memories for him, The weather was very chilly but bright and sunny - a great kind of day for walking.

My Card

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My card today is very simple and uses a JustRite Custom Die which was designed by Becca Feekin. I die cut  two of the dies and then just put lots of layers on in my favourite shades.  I die cut an aster from Heartfelt Creations in the same shades and some pearls in the corners finished it off. I added a very small bow because I didn't want to obscure the lacy circle too much. It is my usual 6 x 6 inch card.

Hopefully I will get chance to play with more of my new stash soon.Somehow I managed to hurt my right shoulder and the pain was radiating from my shoulder blade up round my upper arm and into my neck. I don't suppose it could have been helping John chop down some very large branches which had come off the trees in the storm could it?  Ha ha ha! I don't know why I say chop down trees when he uses chainsaws, but it sounds good doesn't it?  I'm now singing the old Monty Python song "I'm a Lumberjack".  Anyway I've now got anti-inflammatories so at least I had a better night last night.  Apart from that I'm absolutely fine and am going to attack the crafts! Not as heavy as trees I must say.

Another bright chilly day without the extremely heavy frost of yesterday. Hope this finds you all well.

NEC Visit

Good afternoon .  Just a  quick post to say that I had a very successful i.e. expensive day out yesterday. I spent lots of money, but since it is my birthday next week and Christmas coming up, a lot the stuff are my gifts from John. He is not very imaginative when it comes to presents so I much prefer that her gives me the money and I choose something decent. The last couple of years has always been crafty stuff.

My New Stash

I also bought card stock and some card blanks , together with some tape rolls, but they are pretty boring to look at. As you can see I got four new dies, three embossing folders, some stamps and WOW embossing powders. I'm looking forward to getting time to play with them.

Has anybody used the Fiskars Fuse System?  I did a workshop so that I could see what it was all about.  I was not impressed at all. Well that's not strictly true. The only thing I liked was the fact that it could stamp, cut and emboss with only one pass through the rollers.  That aside it is very expensive, very big and extremely heavy. It's the size and weight of a small sewing machine. I also was far from impressed with the depth of the embossing. Very poor indeed.  And you cannot use any other dies etc in it. Needless to say it won't be finding a home in my craft space!!

But the best part of the day was that I met up with Ang, aka Mrs Duck, for coffee in the middle of the day and then in the evening we met up with our friends from Scotland - Patricia (Summerhouse Crafts), Hazel (Hazels Baskets of Joy),  Kate ( Cuilliesocks) and Patricia's good friend Elaine  We had a fabulous - and very noisy - evening together. Great fun and lots of laughter! Imagine six women together!

Well that's it from me.  I will be visiting your blogs later to see what you have all been up to.

Happy Birthday

Good morning friends and fellow bloggers.  I have scheduled this post because I am off to the NEC today and didn't want the hassle before I left.

My Card

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This is a very simple card for Sébastien, my nephew's little boy. It is 7 x 5 inches made from white card stock. The backing papers are digi papers from Cuddly Buddly Portfolio Papers in brown. They come in other colours too. The image is from LOTV Art Pads Set 1 Vintage Boys. The sentiment label and the card candi in the corners is from Craftwork Cards.

Just a quick post today. If anybody is off to the NEC this week then I hope you have fun - and spend lots! I shall be meeting up with Mrs Duck and our Scottish friends. Should be fun!

Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Hello everybody. Hope this finds you all well. As you can tell from the title I am posting another Christmas card today.

My Card

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My card today is approx 6.5 x 6.5 inches because when I laid everything on the slightly smaller card it looked a tad crowded. The extra half inch or so all round made quite a difference. I matted it with Core'dinations Vienna Lake and then Christmas Sparkle from Craftwork Cards. My stamped image is Angelic Lute from LOTV and coloured with Promarkers and Flexmarkers. I only have a few flexmarkers but they are a joy to use! It was then matted with SB Lacy Circles. The music score of the Christmas carol was from the internet and I printed it onto parchment. When the card is moved in certain ways the silvery snowflakes on the backing paper can be seen through the parchment. Last year somebody on their blog used one of these carol sheets and gave a link to the site to download them. I downloaded a few but now have forgotten where it was, which is a shame because I like the effect. Typical! The music stave is Virtuoso Music from Memory Box and I just love it. The snowflakes were very old stash from Craftime and I just added a pale green pearl in the opposite corners. Once again my card has turned out monochrome, and once again it was totally unplanned, but I do like it. And the colour is so pretty. I raised the image on thin foam tape but I am trying hard to keep all my card as flat as possible this year to save on postage.

Well that is for today.

Entered into:

http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/challenge-192-anything-goes.html

http://inkyimpressionschallenges.blogspot.pt/2013/10/iic-132-traditional-christmas.html

http://onecrazystampercom.blogspot.ca/2013/11/november-christmas-challenge.html

CCC Challenge: The Nativity

Good morning.  Another two weeks have passed and it is time for another Christmas card for our little club. This time it was my turn to choose and I chose a religious theme. I think we sometimes forget when we are having so much fun - or getting so stressed!  - what Christmas is all about.  I remember my mum, a number of years ago, over hearing somebody in a card shop saying  "They are even bringing religion into Christmas now."  I think that says it all.

My Card

click on image to enlarge pictures 

I always forget to photograph the inside. The vertical strip is the words of Silent Night, like the front.of the card.

My card is 6 x6 inches made from white card stock. The pearlescent backing papers are Twinkle Paper Pack from Craftwork Cards. The digi image is The Nativity  by Lil Diva Stamps at Stitchy BearDigi Outlet. Coloured with Promarkers and die cut with SB Labels 1 and Decorative Labels 1. The sentiment stamp is from Little Claire Designs, die cut with SB Lacy Circles, and the snowflakes are SB Create A Flake 5. The ribbon and lace are from my stash and I dipped the ribbon in coffee to colour it. The pearls are Hobby House.  The multi pearl in the middle of the ribbon was cream and I coloured it with Promarkers. The elements are all raised with foam tape.

I didn't intend for my card to be monochrome but somewhere along the line it just happened.  These little shepherds are so adorable. It really does bring to mind the innocence of children. I forgot to take the picture and when I eventually did it was getting dark. I'll try again in the morning to see if it comes up better if I remember!

We are having some really wild weather at the moment.  The wind is really high so let's hope it doesn't cause any damage. I really do not like wind because it can cause such havoc.  I hope you all have a good Sunday.

Challenges

http://onecrazystampercom.blogspot.ca/2013/11/november-christmas-challenge.html

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.ca/2013/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november.html

http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/challenge-192-anything-goes.html

http://onestitchatatimechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/challenge-188.html

http://pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.pt/2013/11/challenge-104-christmas-is-coming.html

http://www.wordartwednesday.blogspot.pt/2013/10/challenge-104-anything-goes.html

http://inkyimpressionschallenges.blogspot.pt/2013/10/iic-132-traditional-christmas.html

Krafty Christmas

Hello again.  Nice to have you visit today. Oh my goodness it is so cold this morning. I don't like to see ice on the windscreen this early!! Brrr!

Well time is marching on and I still have lots of Christmas cards to make so I decided to try  some very quick ones.

My Card

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This is a 5 x 7 inch Kraft card made from Papermania card stock. I used a piece of LOTV  Krafty Christmas paper pad and a piece from "Handmade Holiday " by Simple Stories with some sticky ribbon to cover the join. I then just added a Marianne Creatables Swedish snowflake, and  Memory Box Frosty Border, both of which were sitting in my die cuts drawer.  The tree die cuts have been hanging around for about 9 or 10 years. I bought them from Lakeland so that my mum could make some simple Christmas cards at the time. A few pearls from Hobby House finished it off.

That is one extremely quick card, so there will definitely more to come, in a similar vein. I had never used kraft card until earlier this year when one of the challenges in our little Christmas Card Club was to use kraft card. I really struggled with it then, but in fact now I quite like it, so thanks to Clare for pushing me in this direction!

Hope this finds everybody well. Keep warm if it is cold where you are.

Addendum to Tissue Box Cover

Hi

A few people have asked about a tutorial for the tissue box I posted earlier this morning.  I'm so sorry that I didn't think to add it at the time.  I was going to edit my first post but then I thought that if you have visited once you may not return so this is is a very quick post with the link.  I'm sure there are loads of tutorials on the internet but I am a great fan of Split Coast Stampers which is where I got this one.  If you have never visited it would be worth your while because they really are a valuable resource.  Just be aware that you will need to alter the measurements because as I said earlier tissue boxes are all different sizes.  I have four boxes in various rooms in the house - only two are the same size!

Anyway, enough of the waffle - here   is the link.

Enjoy your day.

Tissue Box Cover

Good morning to you all and thank you for stopping by. I really do appreciate your visit. I hope everybody survived the storms safely.   We were very lucky. Very heavy winds (our property is on fairly high ground so we do catch the wind) and torrential rain but no real damage fortunately.

My Project

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I have thought about doing a tissue box cover for a while and I have finally got round to it.  I used 300 gsm white card stock to make the shell to give a good base and then navy pearlescent card for the layers. The flowers are SB Jewel Flowers and Flourishes. I die cut the flowers with white felt and the flourishes with the same white card stock. I found some blue star brads which have been in my stock for years but they look fine as the flower centres. I also added some small flowers on the top with a blue pearl in the centres. I have never used felt with dies before but it worked so well. And it was cheap felt from Hobbycraft too.

The only problem now is making sure to get the same size tissues each time. If you look on the supermarket shelves there are quite a few different size tissue boxes. When I was in Sainsburys last week these facial tissues were reduced to £1 a box so I got half a dozen to make some more little Christmas gifts.

Hope this finds you all well.