Top 5 of 2013

Edited 30th December: This time Debby really does want our Top 5 of 2013 and said it was OK to re-link this post.

Note added Christmas Eve afternoon: I just realise I got totally the wrong end of the stick here and what Debby actually wants are our Christmas Top 5, so as I don't have time to re-do my post now I have apologied to her and asked her to remove me from her linky. Probably about par for the course with me at the moment, well away with the fairies !

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Well having been up baking since silly o'clock the mince pies and sausage rolls are made, choccy log decorated, cranberry sauce simmering away, red cabbage, apple and port slowing cooking in the oven so it's all lush tomorrow and the bubbles are on ice so you can all guess what I will be doing next ?

I would like to wish all my friends .................................  

A Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas and Wonderful Crafty New Year 

And to those who may not celebrate the season a peaceful few days. To this I would like to add my sincere thanks to everyone for their friendship and inspiration in 2013.

I thought this year I really should join in with Debby's seasonal posting of selecting my five favourite cards of the year.............and my is it tough choosing Debby !! I spent ages poring over my favourites, came to a short list of about a dozen and then it got even harder, but eventually here they are and if it tells me nothing else it confirms I use rather a lot of inkiness and colour coupled with a definite fetish for suns and moons, but it wouldn't do for us all to be the same would it ?

Dylusions, acrylic paint, Chocolate Baroque stamps and a bit of bleach

This one because I love travel and the intensity of colour and pattern

Yet more Pan Pastels with Sutter and Stampscape stamps

This one because I am a Country girl with a love of trees and animals

Pan Pastels and Lavinia stamps

This one because I believe in Fairies and this scene is at the end of my garden

Pan Pastels again, a Paris mask and FlonzCrafty stamps

This one because I adore Paris and Victorian fashion

Pan Pastels and Stamp Addicts stamps

This one because of the Poppies and heavy horses which remind me of my Dad and Granddad

Addendum: I know I have already shared my five favourites but this one is a special thank you to Debby for inspiring me to venture into white on white, it has always terrified me but seeing her stunning creations on this theme in recent months I took the plunge and this was my first successful attempt...................obviously there still had to be a sun/moon and a bit of Pan Pastel.

Have a wonderful Christmastime and looking forward to seeing you all again very soon.

Footnote: I have a little confession to make, somehow when I was preparing links for the monthly challenges I deleted the list of names entered into my Christmas candy. I asked the man at Inlinkz if it was possible to retrieve the list but it seems not, so I have to put my hands up and apologise to everyone who entered.

A prowling fox

Happy Saturday everyone, it' my turn to host the them at Allsorts this week and it's going to be a two week challenge to let us all have a bit of a break over the Christmas period so the next one will be on 4th January. 

I have chose the theme of 'Brown/blue/aqua'. It's a colour palette that I love working with and I hope lots of you will enjoy the combo as well. Lots of prizes up for grabs this time as well from Crimson Cloud, DigiDarla and Whiff of Joy plus everyone who enters this fortnights challenge can collect a free design sheet from Nicecrane Designs blog here.

I did say it was a colour combo I liked so I have three cards to share, the one right at the top uses a mixture of Sutter, Lavinia and Stampscaspes stamps. The fox is actually part of a whole scene but I inked just the small section where he is and cut him out to stand at the fore of my scene. All colouring is Pan Pastels and some snow glitter added to give a frosty feel.

The second card is one of the beautiful butterfly Nicecrane images which needs little adnorment, so just a TH butterfly border, die cut leaves and a flower made usin one of Ruth's Tonic stamp and punch sets.

And for the third one I created a background using this gorgeous rose embossing folder to which I applied Gilding Wax, an Artistic Outpost sentiment and roses created on the Cricut to which I added some gold embossing powder round the edges.

Hope you all have a good weekend and if you are one of those doing a last minute rush to the stores keep a look out for some bargains as my daughter found lots of early sale goodies in M&S today.

More traditional Christmas

Morning Peeps, time for this weeks Prickly Pear DT share plus one or two more which I probably should have shared last week. All feature the lovely Poinsettia stamps and matching dies................think it's clear by now I love these...........and all other dies are Cheery Lynne.

Love these sweet children who I think are watching for Santa ?

Thanks so much for popping in and hope your week is a good one.

Snowflakes

A whole week and no post is unheard of I know but things are getting the better of me as no sooner I've had another test done than I get a call summoning me to tell me something else is malfunctioning, as I said to some of my DT girls the other day if I were a horse they would have shot me long since. 

Anyhow enough of that as Helene would like to see 'Snowflakes' on our work at Allsorts this week where A Passion for Stamps is our sponsor.

I have combined Penny Black and Lavinia stamps to create a Wintry scene for the above card and below Passion for Stamps/Tonic lattice window with MB candles and snowflakes embossed onto the background.

I have a Christmas candy running at the moment................see the post above.................so Saturday candy will be back in the new year.

Running late .....again

My DT piece for FlonzCraft Vintage Stamping Challenges where our theme is Cold and Frosty colours

What do they say about the best laid plans ? I didn't get my epidural treatment yesterday as they thought it best to wait until the neck tumours had been removed and the nature of them known before they do the spinal epidural.

But thank you so much for all your kind words, it was a shock to the system knowing it could be 'c'....still can't bring myself to write the word, but they tell me any malignancy of this type is usually self contained (it's not Thyroid/Goitre related as some of you wondered, in fact there is no visual evidence) hence it is being done after Christmas. So in the meantime life must go on as best I can and I must try and put it all in a box until after Christmas otherwise I will go totally potty.

And here is what I should have shared yesterday my apologies to all my teamies for being so tardy and late.

Another DT piece for Ignacio of Nicecrane Designs using his new Magical Name sheet....and of course a bit of  Pan Pastels in the background. You can find the sheet here, it's so nice to have the banner to add your own sentiment or greeting.

This weeks  Prickly Pear DT piece

Hope you all have a good week.

A poinsettia for Advent

Morning to you all, it's time for our new challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where this month we have the themes of Free and Easy and Traditional Christmas colours. And as always some great prizes up for grabs so I do hope you will join in.

The above one is my Penny Black and More piece with a vellum stamped poinsettia and below some inky indulgence  using a variety of stamps and of course Pan Pastels.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Clever Cricut plus horses and dogs

Using Cindo Loo cartridge for the border welded onto a basic square, flowers using Close to my Heart Art Philosophy and sentiment from Birthdays

My Cricut machine has come in useful for a quick Birthday make and some Christmas gift envelopes, perfect for money or vouchers and they can be prettied up to make them a bit special as well all using the machine.

Envelopes made using Over the Hills, Spring Holiday and Christmas Cards, Poinsettia from Joys of the Season and Christmas Tree from Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge

And a couple of photos of the boys and girls I have been meaning to share............

The 'spotty gang' patiently waiting to get back into their stables. Anysia decided they needed matching coats this winter - they 'need' new coats much the same as we 'need' crating goodies, I think we could open a tack shop with what's cluttering the tack room.

A hard days work for all in my craft room, Daisy left, devil eyed Holly on the right and Poppy conveniently located in the middle....such a tough life being a 'working' dog

Thanks for popping in to take a peek, hope to see you all again soon.

Floral and Fauna

Using the new Floral Fancy 1 set and Pan Pastels

Just a little heads up that there is a new Stamp Addicts programme on Create and Craft TV today at 1pm and here are a couple of the samples I made. Also a day late......sorry teamies........this weeks Prickly Pear  share.

Prickly Pear leaf and die set stamped onto a background of Dylusions and bleached out.

Again stamps from the Floral Fancy 1 set

Have a good Tuesday all.

A roaming Labrador

Thought I had better share my two cards from Penny Black and More and Stamping Sensations mid months posts on Monday, same Labrador just different locations.

I won't be about in blogland for a bit as have some new health issues going on.

Luckily I always have posts scheduled well ahead so a few will be popping up from time to time in coming weeks, after then we shall have to see.

Winter $50 prize blog hop

Note added for those here for the Blog Hop: I just realised that it will probably be later in the day before you can follow the hop properly as I am a few hours ahead of my fellow DT's who are all USA based so hope you will find time later to join in.

Morning to you all, hope your weekend was a good one.

Monday always means time to share my weeks DT work for Prickly Pear and this week to celebrate the release of the Winter 2 stamps we are having a blog hop. There will be a fab prize up for grabs of $50 worth of PPRS products which will be selected from all the comments left on the DT's blogs and in additional I have a little extra prize that will go to a randomly selected person from the comments on my blog.................

Those following the hop should have arrived here from Angela's blog and pop along next to Heidi, should you get lost you will find the full list here.

So as I said it's the Winter 2 release and the top card used the gorgeous sleigh image which I have stamped with brown archival ink and coloured with Pan Pastels and added a generous helping of snow glitter. And the sentiment is from the same release.

For my other card I used the distress Jingle Bells stamp and the poinsettia stamps and matching dies, like the leaves I shared a couple of weeks ago these are such clever little sets. The holly and swirls are Cheery Lynn and I embossed the background panel with the holly A4 folder which really had worked overtime in my craft room this year.

Hope you have a good Monday.

Gift time and this weeks candy

Our Sarah would like us to Make a Gift at Allsorts this week and our super sponsors are A Passion for Stamps and the Craft Barn and a warning in advance, this post is rather picture heavy !

Before I tell you about my DT creation I want to say thank you so much to you all for your kind words of understanding both on my blog and e.mails whilst I continue through my copy and past comment period, you have no idea how much they are appreciated.

OK now for my share and due to being Mrs Fumblefingers what I intended making for this theme didn't materialise as stamping remain a challenge to say the least, so I came up with this alternative which was more forgiving when it comes to accuracy.

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The lovely floral images as Nicecrane Vintage Flower Postcards all printed onto linen cardstock and the box was made using my screoboard, covered with Tonic DP's and some die cut leaves and Roses made with Ruth's Tonic punch and stamp Rose set.

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I won't begin to tell you how long this took me with all the fumbling about but I did thoroughly enjoy making it, so thanks for the theme Sarah.

And I thought I would give this to one of my DIL's as a little extra for her Birthday in a couple of weeks, she loves anything pretty and feminine so I think these will appeal and be useful at the same time.

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I also thought I would share this little gift box as well, again using Nicecrane images from the recent Joyful Christmas release, I really fell in love with these sweet Victorian children and it will be lovely filled with sweets.

                         
The images are really useful for making quick cards, but of course the sky is the limit if you want to go to town with all your lovely embellishments.

And if you want to try out this little box the instructions are here on one of my older posts.

Now onto my Saturday candy and last weeks candy winner is Karen, please mail me with your full name and postal addy. And this week I have a gorgeous Art Deco stamp and feathers from the Urban Stamps range.

Add the Saturday Candy logo from my sidebar to your sidebar

Be a follower of my blog.

A random winner will be selected from all comments left on my blog between now and Friday, so two comments during the week two chances of winning and so on.

The winner will be announced next Saturday.

A beautiful freebie for you all

Good Morning Peeps, seems winter is well and truly here now in the UK, it's been raining and dull for days and now the dreaded frosts have arrived so really it's the prefect opportunity to craft and as stamping is still proving difficult for Mrs Fumblefingers I have concentrated on working with Ignacio's latest releases and thought I would share a few, the Oriental ones further down in particular are lovely and a little different for Christmas.

Also Iganico has very kindly given me a freebie for you all to download (below), it's a famous illustration from 1921 by C. Leyendecker.....I've never offered an image before so not sure how it will download, so if you have any problems just mail me and I will send it to you that way.

And not only that, he has a discount voucher for his Christmas Ball images..............

As you can see Igancio has worked his magic again with my photos and added names of the image sheets and you will find direct links to all in the thumbnails below.

And a couple more, I kept them all fairy simple as the images are beautifully detailed and I thought too much embellishment would distract from them.....................

Thanks for popping in and I hope you enjoy using the image above.