Floral birthday

I'm hoping my local craft shop has finally got their white cardstock in, I'm so not loving kraft card as my base!
This floral image was one of my recent purchases from Clearly Besotted.  I might get my watercolours out for the next attempt, I think they would work well with this one.   I might go over my leaves again, they're a wee bit pale looking here - though the days are so dark and my photos are rubbish so it's hard to tell really!

• Penny Black and More December - flowers
• Make My Monday #112 - female birthday
• As You Like It - favourite die - mine's definitely this set of square dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs  - I like how alternate sizes have a different edging

And a final outing for my favourite snowman - apologies I've probably overused him on my blog this season!  I've my Mum's calendar pages all made in advance this year, so thought I might make some for my own desk in work.  I'd a couple of wee snippets of white sparkly card that were just too small to go back into my stash and were destined for the bin, so used them up here for snowflakes.  I also added in some clear gloss dots + glitter for sparkly falling snow and I've inked in some snowdrifts but they're not really showing up in my pic.  Bye bye snowdude! 

• Pixie's Snippets Challenge #368  (Di has some AMAZING giveaways going if you join in with this callenge!)
• Crative Inspirations #December - festive fun
• Sparkles Forum Challenge #123 - glitter and sparkle

Here's to 2020!

Well that's Christmas done and dusted for another year.  We'd a great feast with the clan down in Mum's, and then back again today for round 2 of the turkey!  Elastic waistbands are definitely the way to go ;)

Anyway, as lots of you already know I usually make my Mum's calendar pages each month and 9 times out of 10 they're late!  So I got ahead of the game this year and made them all in advance as a wee Christmas gift.    I wrote out the little poem about the months of the year (in my awful scrawly writing) and stuck it to the bottom edge of each one.  I was going great guns but got a bit stuck on July (I'm not even sure what a gillyflower is!) and October was a bit iffy too as I only have 1 image of a nut in my stash and I couldn't think what to do with it.

• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes
• Moving along with the Times #113 - anything but a card
• Allsorts #551/2 - anything goes
• Stamping Sensations #December - anything goes

Greg's Christmas card

So here we are at Christmas Eve again, it certainly doesn't seem like 12 months since the last time!!
As per usual, the last card of the season is for my beloved, and of course I've used my favourite snowdude again.  I've inked up the background and added some falling snow - no sign of it here though, I think it's giving a mostly dry today tomorrow so it will be nice to see how many kids be out on their new bikes and scooters.  There's definitely less every year, they're all indoors playing on their new phones or computer games!

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all my blogland buddies!  We'll be off down to Mum's as usual with the clan.  Diet starts in the New Year ;)

• Your Next Stamp #129 - my favourite product this year is this snowman stamp
• Dream Valley Challenges #215 - Christmas
• Cupcake Inspriations #485 - holidays
• Tuesday Morning Sketches #535 - anything goes

Mum's birthday card

 Well the 25th is approaching at double quick time ... I still haven't finished my Christmas cards, Greg's always ends up being the last one I make.  Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow and then I only have a wee Christmas pressie to finish making and I'm done!   I escaped work on Friday and that's us till the 2nd, so it will be a nice long break that I'm more than ready for!

I bought this beautiful fuschia stamp from Clearly Besotted to use on Mum's birthday card as she has a few different fuschias growing in her garden in the summer and they are so pretty.  I LOVE how this turned out!

Coloured with polychromos with sparkle added to the purple petals and some clear, pink and purple bling to finish.

• The flower Challenge #39 - use a die
• Penny Black and More #December - flowers
• CASology #358 - branch
• Allsorts #551/2 - anything goes

O Christmas Tree

So here's a wee quickie Christmas card ... well, when I say quick it took me a few evenings to finish but I was making a rake of these little cards for my workmates and had a great production line going.

I've used this sweet tree from Purple Onion - coloured with polychromos; sparkle and clear gloss added to the bow, and clear gloss and glitter added to the tree decorations.  Little gold star added to the top of the tree.
My local craft store didn't have any white card (gasp! panic!) so I had to use some kraft as my base.

• Addicted to CAS #174 - tree
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - stars
• Your Next Stamp #129 - favourite craft product from 2019 - mine has to be my polychromos that Santa kindly brought last year
• CAS on Friday #170 - Christmas

Birthday Kitty

Typical, I've plenty of mojo and I've just done the unhead of .... I've run out of card!!! Emergency visit to the craft store tomorrow!

This card is another one for my Aunt's gift pack, I reckon this would be headed to her Great Nephew.  It wasn't the stamp I intended to use, but of course the one I had in mind is nowhere to be found.  So good old Penny Black to the rescue.  I've coloured my kitty with polychromos, adding sparkle to the balloon and the dots on his shorts, and glitter to the balloon ribbon.

• Penny Black Saturday December - anything goes, optional sparkle & shine
• AAA Birthday #8 - balloons 
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - stars
• Cute Card Thursday #611 - anything goes

An LOTV two-fer

Eeek, the Christmas deadline is fast approaching so I need to get a bit craftier than I have been recently!

I usually give my Aunt a few cards as part of her pressie, and I've a fair idea that these ones would be sent to her great-nieces.  I love my LOTV stamps, gutted that they're only doing their new ones in digital :(

Coloured with polychromos and sparkle added to the flower.  Also, I saw on Kathy's page (The Daily Marker) recently that she draws in eyelashes with a very fine marker, so I gave that a go, though I think next time I'll draw them slightly above the way she did.  I would have added another butterfly or two down the left hand side, but my snippet left over was just too small even for the little butterfly and I've none of this lovely blue card left :(

• Layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches #532
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #367
• Stamping Sensations December - anything goes

This one uses my new sunburst stencil from Clearly Besotted's sale ... I did accidentally buy other goodies too of course but they're for sharing on another day ;)

My little girl is popped up on foam pads and I added sparkle to her jumper.  Pink and blue stars from stash.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - let's sparkle
• Word Art Wednesday #416/417 - anything goes
• Tuesday Throwdown #446 - anything goes

December Calendar and a little elf

So here's December's calendar page for Mum, bonus points to me for actually being on time for a change!  I think this stamp is from Whipper Snapper, bought a looooong time ago and not inked for quite a few years!   I'd probably be totally skint if they had a UK supplier as I love their stamps.
My calendar stamp is a recent purchase from Amazon and I reckon they were a good buy, it's so much less of a faff than individually stamping all the letters of the month.  I haven't done anything in the background, other than ink in a snowdrift.

• Papercraft challenge #51 - use a number on your project
• Addicted to Stamps #369 - CAS
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

 I've still a few Christmas cards to make, I can hardly believe we're already at the end of November!
This one uses my trusty elf from MFT - coloured with polychromos and clear gloss / glitter added. My sentiment is cut from sparkly card, and I added a few die cut stars.  I think it kinda looked better in my head than the finished effort though!

• Layout flipped from Freshly Made Sketch #413
• Pinspirational challenge #252 - I went for the bauble theme
• Fab'n Funky #459 - Christmas

Thanks Teacher and Starry Snowdude

I've been such a bad blogger recently, we've been soooo busy in work this past while and I've had zero mojo and zero energy left!  I think we've turned the corner now till after Christmas (hopefully!) so I'll be making a better effort to visit all my buddies x

This first card is a special request for a friend who's son's teacher is leaving.  I've used this sweet little bear from Reverse Confetti - popped up on foam pads and sparkle added to the apples.

• Sweet Stampin - add a pop of red
• Word Art Wednesday #414-415 - anything goes
• Allsorts #547 - thank you
• Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday October - Autumn gratitude

Snowman time again!  This time I've tried to give him a night time sky - there's loads of little silver stars in here but they don't really show up well in my pic.

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - starry starry night
• Cute Card Thursday #609 - winter
• CHNC #465 - any Christmas
• Penny Black and More November - Christmas

#thedailymarker30day

Snowdude in red, and purple roses for Sandra and Priscilla

Hmmm I think I either need to clean my camera lens or clean my glasses, one of the two or possibly both!!  I don't think these pics are as clear as they should be.  Though my specs permanently need cleaned so there's no change there then ;)

It's been a brrr chilly weekend, perfect weather for cracking on with my Christmas cards :)  Though for a change I have a stash already made, usually I'm verging on the panic mode by now!

You'll all be tired of looking at this season's favourite snowman soon - from Purple Onion Designs.  coloured with polychromos, gloss/glitter added to his nose, and sparkle to his scarf and pocket.  Sentiment cut from glitter card.

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #348
• As You Like It - cute or traditional Christmas - well 99% of my cards are 'cute' so it's almost a given that my Christmas cards will be too! 
• Time Out #148 - I was inspired by the pic to use the red gingham and a hint of green
• Christmas Crafts all Year Round November - winter clothing
• Christmas Kickstart #23 - snow

This one I'm just adding for my records but not entering into any challenges as it's 100% inspired by Milla's beautiful card over at The Flower Challenge

I liked it so much that I made one for my friend and then duplicated another for my Aunt!

I've used these roses from Clearly Besotted - coloured with polychromos and popped up on foam pads.  My dotty die is an oldie but I'm not sure who from, possibly Taylored Expressions.


#thedailymarker30day

Think Pink!

Urgh, it's been a drab, dark, wet old day today -  definitely a real autumn day!  We can't really complain though when you look at the flooding and awful fires in other parts of the world!

This is one of my new purchases from Hobby Craft - it was one of those 'oooh that'll be dead useful' stamps that when I took it out to ink I'd no idea what to do with it!

So anyway, here's what I came up with.  I popped it up on foam pads, added sparkle to the cake and clear gloss to the cake stand.   Gummiapan die in the background, sentiment is possibly from them too.

• AAA Cards #152 - geometric
• layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches #528 
• Addicted to CAS #172 - birthday
• Word Art Wednesday #412-413 - anything goes

#thedailymarker30day

Pizza anyone?

Mmmmm I love a bit of pizza, and I know it's a bit controversial, but I love it with pineapple! ;)    When we went to Rome a few years back it took me quite a while before I could eat pizza at home, the stuff we had there was just so amazing - the frozen version bunged in the oven just was not on the same planet!!

Anyway, this is Mum's calendar page, late as per usual.  That could be my New Year's resolution, to get them done before the month actually has started!

I've used this High Hopes chef stamp which is years old and still gets inked on a regular basis - coloured with polychromos.  Bricks stencilled in background.

• Retro Rubber challenge #123 - anything goes
• Addicted to Stamps #366 - anything goes
• Word Art Wednesday #410/411 - anything goes
• Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

PS I was asked recently how I make my crafty budget ... I really just set myself a target of no more than £10 (£15 max) each month and try to stick to it - if I go over one month I'll try reign in my spending in the next.  The danger of course is when you go visiting your buddies' blogs as they always have fabulous stamps that I 'need' (you know who you are LOL!!)

Christmas Elf and a blue bee

I'd an early morning shopping trip to HobbyCraft this morning for the opening of their first store in Northern Ireland.  I turned up about 10 minutes before the store opened and managed to be one of the first 100 customers and got a free goodie bag.  The woman at the front of the queue had been there from silly o'clock, hope she thought her goodies were worth it!   I managed to spend a small fortune and have probably used up my crafty budget for the next few months but I'd expected to come out with my purse a lot lighter than it did.
I got lots of 'essentials' and bought this pack of DP for the sole reason that I reckoned it would suit this MFT elf!

Coloured with polychromos and dog and elf popped up on foam pads.  I need to finish my elf though, I've just noticed that as per usual I haven't coloured his hair.

• Layout from MFT Sketch #461
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Fab'n Funky #455 - Christmas

The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

This one uses the Honey Bear set from Reverse Confetti and a lovely die cut from my buddy  (thank you Cheryl!) - I thought it kinda looked like a wee fence.  I've stamped a pink tree in the background but it doesn't really show up in my pic.  And seeing as my tree was pink I figured there was no reason why my bee couldn't be blue!  LOL

• CAS Colours and Sketches #345
• Time Out 147 - inspired by words
• Word Art Wednesday #410-411 - anything goes

Big yellow truck and a snow dude

Ha, I remember the good old days when I used to come up with witty post titles, now it's just straight in with no messing about ;)

I've been struggling with my mojo recently but Marina's lovely book cover over at the Library Challenge #45 was just what I needed to get me going again.

I've used my old truck set from Stampin Up - I remember when I bought this I wasn't sure if I'd ever use it or not, but it's turned out to be one of my most inked stamps!
Coloured with polychromos, clear gloss added to the windows and chrome work, and then popped up on foam pads.  I've also used a little plane die from Gummiapan that I bought in the sale ages ago and hadn't tried till now.

• Word Art Wednesday #410/411 - anything goes
• Crafty Catz #480 - anything goes

And here's this season's snow dude again - coloured with polychromos, sparkle added to his scarf and pocket, clear gloss/glitter to his nose, and then popped up on foam pads.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch challenge #460
• Cute Card Thursday #605 - sparkles
• CHNC #461 - Christmas + make your own background

Apologies for the rubbish photos, we're back into the dark nights again :(  It always takes me a week or two to adjust to the clock change!  We'd the most gorgeous sunny autumn day - we were down in our local park this morning and it looked like the world and his wife had the same idea!  I don't think I've ever seen it so busy!

Sparkly Skeleton

We'd a gorgeous autumnal day today, dry and sunny with a wee nip in the air.  Perfect weather for getting a few buckets of leaves swept up and dead stuff pruned.  It's not too often the weekend co-ordinates with the weather and the inclination to get busy ;)

So this is probably the only Halloween card I'll make (for my nephew and niece).  I'm gutted that we don't really send Halloween cards here as I love to make them!
My stamps here are from Eat Cake Graphics, sentiment from a Stampin Up set and my tree die was a win ages ago from Taylored Expressions and rarely used.  I fussy cut my skeleton, popped him up on foam pads and added loads of glitter to his bones.

• Your Next Stamp #125 - trick or treat
• Stamping Sensations October - trees, leaves, autumn
• Crafty Cardmakers #243 - sparkle
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Halloween

Double Christmas

I actually have a decent stash of Christmas cards this year for the first time ever!!  Hopefully there's not going to be the usual last minute rush!

This first card uses an oldie from High Hopes that I haven't inked up for a while.  Coloured with polychromos; glitter added to his hat and skis; sparkle added to the green bits in his hat/scarf; gloss to his nose and glasses.  I added a little hint of purple to my shaded sky to pull in the colours of my snowdude.

• ABC Christmas - V is for Velocity
• Just Us Girls #510 - purple, navy, green
• CAS on Friday #166 - big sentiment

This old DP set is from Stampin'Up and I find it so difficult to use, I never really love any cards I've made with it!! 

My image is a real old-oldie from Elzybells - I know I used it in 2010 and don't think he's seen ink since.  Unfortunately Elzybell's is long closed, they had some fab stamps ;(

I added some black glittery cardstock and some silver stars and that's it really!

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #459
• Christmas Kickstart #21 - woodland creatures