Just a card

Hello everyone, though I would try a bit of crafting this morning, have to say not really back into the swing of things, minds still fuzzy from all the hectic Christmas activities and the body's less than willing. The need for a holiday seems to be high on the daydream agenda, although the reality is it's not a likely option......... but I can dream of warmer climes. My ideal year would be November to February somewhere nice and warm like Egypt or Florida, oh if only.

So back to reality and a card using one of the stamps I chose as part of my Simon Says win at the Penny Black blog hop a few eeks ago. It's Inkadinkado 93075X which I stamped with versafine black and embossed with iridescent embossing powder then colourd with a wash of Twinkling H20's.

I stamped swirls down one side with Inkadinkado 97632 and Hero Soft Peach, then laid over a swirl cut from a Sizzix border die on my Big Shot Express.........Santa delivered this on Christmas day.........a conspiracy between my hubby and the Stampalot guys.......and it is a dream to use, just hold the button and it cuts, not cranking or turning, just wonderful and easy.

To finish butterflies and three roses made from matching paper, some punched laves and a border using Fiskars Threading Water punch.

Rosie D's challenge 61

I do hope everyone has had a magical Christmas and is enjoying the holiday period. At Rosie D's we decided that some of you might be longing for the opportunity to try out the new goodies Father Christmas delivered, so rather than delay a new challenge until the New Year, we have a new one for you today. As usual it will run for two weeks.

And we have a fabulous sponsor - Digi Sparkle. The DT have been given Digi Sparkle images to create their DT project and Heather who owns the company is very generously offering the winner "Free access to their shop for a month" - Wow! What a prize!

As you can see, I have made an easel card using this great punk image and have coloured him with Copics and mouted him onto mats cut with Nesties through the Bug. I resized the guitar, copied it several times and created a border band. The DP is My Minds Eye and the letters cut on Cricut Jasmine. Note the nose ring which took longer to fix than the whole card ! Not my normal style of card, but really enjoyed this one.

Happy Christmas one and all

Wishing all my wonderful blogland friends a Joyous Christmas and a Peaceful and Happy New Year.

Well the shopping's done, M&S was a nightmare but my friend Mark Spencer does give me so much assistance with my catering and well worth the queues. I have twelve for dinner tomorrow evening, the same Christmas Day mostly all sleepovers and lucky me only eleven Boxing Day.

Now need to do some serious preparation but still waiting on the rest of the game for tomorrows game in red wine..........got the venison, but I think the birds still have pulses because they were due in my kitchen this morning and not arrived yet.......sorry all you veggies out there.

My youngest granddaughter has been keeping occupied today making place name tags for the Christmas table, lots of glitter so we all know who she takes after.

Now for what will probably be my last post for a day or so, although I might make an escape to my craft room for a bit of peace and quiet when everyone is sleeping off Christmas dinner.

This week ABC challenge is "K for Kissing". I think this stamp might be making quite a few appearances but it's a new one to me and I've been itching to colour it up. Tomorrow also sees the start of ABC's new sister challenge ABC Christmas which they are launching with a blog hop. This one seems like a fab idea and will definitely be joining in and who knows, next year I might be half ready when Christmas arrives.

My image is Sarah Kay First Kiss, which I coloured with copies and cut the mats with nesties through the Bug. I added some grass, leaves and cobbles using Art Impression stamps. The yummy border is one of my new goodies from Sir Stampalot - its Martha Stewart Double Lace Doily, isn't is gorgeous. Leaves and flowers were also cut through the Bug using Sizzix dies and pearls added.

Just for my Dad

Good evening everyone. I was not going to do a post today for reasons your will understand in a moment, but when I picked up some more new goodies from Sir Stampalot today one stamp in particular told me I should make a card today for a very special person.

Later in this post I will also share some if the things that were tumbling out of boxes from today's deliveries.

It is a year ago today that my dear Dad died, I am an only child and cared for him for the last three years of his life after my Mother decided their marriage was at an end and Dad was too poorly to look after. He was the most caring person you could wish to meet, asked for so little yet gave so much and I still miss him every single day. His life was his family, farming, animals and his garden where he produced enough vegetables and flowers especially roses and chrysanthemums to provide for the whole village.

This stamp is one of the new Hero Arts releases S5316 Silhouette Grass and to me epitomises the Country hedgerows and fields around the farm where Dad used to take me for walks with the dogs and my pony when I was a child.

The grasses were stamped with versamak and embossed with detail copper and I shadow stamped with Hero soft sand, onto a background piece stamped with Hero F5042 Leaf Flourish and H2365 French Scrip, embossed with detail clear and distressed with Tim Holt Spiced Marmalade.

As Dad grew such wonderful roses he would approve of the three I have made for this card. The swirls are cut from a new Sixxiz "Swirly" die that arrived at Stampalot today along with the TH Adage Tickets which fit the sentiment of my card perfectly.

Now new goodies, lots of Hero Stamps, new Martha Stewart punches and Nesties and to store them all just look at this:

Appalling pictures I know, but the combination of no daylight and shine from the Nesties, this is as good as I could get, but you can get the idea. These magnetic sheets are brilliant, there are three in a pack and hold your nesties all in one place. Up till now mine were in envelopes, but this is so much better and easier to see what you have got.

And a few of my new stamps and one of the new MS double border punches which are just gorgeous, as are the new round the page ones which create a fabulous mat, punched all round, corners as well to fit a 6x6 square card. I have lots of creating to do with these new goodies and will be sharing very soon.

Cupcake chellenge in the ultimate comfort zone

Monday morning and only four more sleeps until the big day and still not really ready. Are we ever ready, I very much doubt it, although I stood behind a lady in Tesco the other day who was extremely confident she had been ready since the first of December.......she went on to tell the cashier that she makes it a household policy that everyone has their preparations completed by that date........I felt like saying wake up to the real world lady ! The cashier gave me a wry look as she walked away and I had a fair idea that his thoughts were not too distant from my own.

Crafting - well my mojo has been on holiday the last few days........or could be away making Christmas preparations with the lady in Tesco........but thanks to Claire and her wonderful artwork it has made a brief appearance today, albeit it very much in my botanical comfort zone. Claire has come up with another brilliant image and it's free to anyone who pops along to her blog.

As soon as I saw her latest image I could visualise a card and I have used it for this weeks Cupcake challenge which has the theme "Time For Celebration - a fairly open ended theme birthday, new baby, wedding, engagement, the choice is yours!"

So I have used Claire's image which I thought matched wonderfully the dragonfly she created form me a while back when I won her candy. I printed the main image three times and dragonfly twice so I could decoupage, colouring with Copics. I have added diamond glaze to the tulips and mounted all onto some My Minds Eye DP, a greeting from Rubber Tapestry CLS5006 made into a ribbon slide using a Nestie run through the Bug and some ribbon. I also traced the swirls on the image bow and added crystal glitter. As I said, very much comfort zone stuff.

Allsorts challenge 31

Wow wow you guys, did you come up with some wonderful projects for my theme last week at Allsorts. You are such a talented lot so thanks to one and all.

This week Debs is hosting the theme which is "Anything but a card", another one to get those creative juices flowing.

I am sharing a tag book I made in response to a request for a Birthday card for a secretary named DEB who has a fetish for Post It Notes. Inside the book I have made a little pocket that holds a pack of them. I cut the pages from a 300gsm cardstock on Cricut Plantin Schoolbook and Jasmin welding the elements together on the DS. I cut a replica of each page from Basic Grey DP's and stuck them together before punching the ends and inserting the wire binding using my Zutter.

More roses.......sorry if they are becoming monotonous, some punched leaves pearls and ribbons to decorate.

Polkadoodles DT project challenge 51

Before I go on to this weeks Polkadoodles challenge, I want to say a huge, huge thank you to everyone for their wonderful support. I confess I was a bit thrown by the events of the past day or so, but with your help I have been able to rise above that negative activity and blogging will re-commence as will roses and other crafty activities.

Now on to Polkadoodles where the theme is an open one. The DT have come up with some awesome projects using the new Back to Nature CD, do pop along and check out their inspirational work. When I saw these flowers on the BTN CD I fell in love with the colours and knew exactly what I wanted to do with them........you know, one of those rare cards where it just clicks into place.

I re-sized the flowers, cut them out and decoupaged. The stalks are stamped with Brilliance Thyme using one of the swirl stamps from the Daisy Doodle Stamp set and added leaves cut from the petals of one of the flowers. The sentiment is also from the stamp set and the picket fence a new Martha Stewart punch I just had to have. I chalked clouds in the background and added punched vellum butterflies and gems here and there.