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

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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

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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