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

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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

Click on image to enlarge picture

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

Click on image to enlarge picture

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