Merry Christmas!

 

Hi all, just swinging by to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas

It's definitely one with a difference this year!  We're  lucky that mum will be coming to us for Christmas dinner and then we have a 6 week lockdown to look forward to.  But we've been through this since March and we'll get through this too!

On a very sad note, wee Ruby died this week.  She hasn't been well this past month and went very downhill at the weekend and then died on Tuesday.  So we are heartbroken and quite a few years have been shed.  She will be sorely missed.

A sad Christmas card

I've been putting this card off for ages, I just couldn't think what to make!  I was so stuck that I almost bought one from Tesco except their non-happy Christmas selection was totally non existent.  

Apologies for the dark picture, it's a pale blue background in real life - I've a new phone and haven't quite figured out how to put the flash on.  New technology and me take a while to get on together 😉 I do envy those folk who can lift a gadget and instinctively know what they're doing!

Anyway, back to regular Christmas card making now ... I was getting ahead of the game at the start of the year and then Covid stole my mojo and now I'm really behind in everything! 

• 
  Layout inspired by Try Stampin on Tuesday #486
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - die cuts
• Word Art Wednesday #468/469 - anything goes
• AAA cards #180 - made in minutes

A sloth of bears!

 

Oh dear, I can hardly believe it's been almost a month since I last uploaded anything!  I've been beavering away with my Christmas cards and cards for pressies, and had an order for 50 of these from work which kept me busy and I was glad to see the end of!I   I haven't had a tidy kitchen table for ages as there was a production line going; mind you, they're finished now and I still don't have a tidy table.

I inked up my sky with this lovely graduated stencil from Clearly Besotted that I absolutely love, then cut a snowy edge with an MFT die, added an MFT sentiment and some gold stars.    My little bear is popped up on foam pads, glitter added to his skate blades and then larger glitter flakes to the green bits of his scarf.  (The scarf is done in our company colours but I'm 100% sure that nobody but myself will notice haha) 

PS I had no idea a group of bears was called a sloth, had to Google that one ;)

• Pixie's Snippets Playground #391 - I've had such a massive pile of white cad off cuts that it was brilliant to get most of them used up on these cards :)
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - happy holidays
• Word Art Wednesday #466-467 - anything goes

Pink Christmas

 

So this is a new one for me, I don't think I've ever made a pink Christmas card before!  First outing for my new MFT stamps too, I always love their Christmas sets :). Expect to see this used a lot in the coming weeks, I definitely need to rack up my Xmas production rate!

There was a lot of masking on this so I could layer up the images and ink the sky, clear gloss added to the windows, glitter to his scarf and then white enamel for the falling snow.

• Christmas Kickstart #40 - pink Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - layer it up
• Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge #513
• NBUS #19

I haven't shared a pic of wee Ruby recently, so here she is having a sniffing good time at the seaside yesterday (Waterfoot)...  The weather men got the forecast correct for a change and delivered some lovely sunny weather for my day off :).   Though it was definitely a day for a cosy coat and hat, and no way was I brave enough to go for a paddle!   Our wee dander on the beach was followed with a visit to the chippy for fish'n chips, plenty of salt and vinegar... yummmmm they always taste so much nicer by the sea! 

Sympathy roses

Hi all, Sunday evening already!  We'd a lovely crisp sunny day today, though no drying - our back garden is a bit of a sodden mess and the weeds are having a great time!  I was thinking sure the dark evenings will be here soon and then I'll not see them...and then I remembered I'm mostly working from home hahaha

Here's a wee sympathy card to add to my Christmas pressie stash.  My stamp is an oldie from Clearly Besotted and I've managed to use a sheet of unloved DP which was an added bonus :)

Coloured with polychromo pencils and some little purple gems added to the corner. 

• 
  Less is More # 430 is to case Sharon's beautiful card
• Sweet Stampin - use your old stash
• Word Art Wednesday #460/461 - anything goes
  

Ryan's birthday card

Hellloooo I'm back!  Sorry I've been MIA again, I've just had zero mojo but I've decided just to make myself get crafting seeing as it's International Card Making Day and hope my spark comes back!

I had to get crafting anyway, it's my nephew's birthday shortly.  I'd no idea what to put on a 17 year olds card, so just made him a daft one using these Gerda Steiner stamps.  I haven't stuck down the spaceship properly yet as I know I have some of those 'boingy' things somewhere, they just need finding first! 

• 
  Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #509
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Gerda Steiner October challenge

And just thought I'd share a pic of our fabulous sunset from my walk this evening, unfortunately the pic doesn't do it justice!  It was a nice end to a dull, damp and dreary old day.  Rubydoo has barely budged from her snoozing position on the sofa virtually the entire day, it's deffo a dog's life!

Chick Chick Chicken

Hi folks 😃. I've been shopping in an effort to kick-start my mojo and treated myself to a couple of sets from Gerda Steiner. I have a bit of a weakness for chicken stamps anyway and couldn't resist these dudes when I saw the expressions on their faces!

 I've used my favourite hexagon stencil for the background to represent chicken wire.  I'm not sure what's going on with my camera, the colours look darker in real life. Chooks coloured with a mixture of watercolours and pencils, sparkles added to their red 'bits' and clear gloss to their eyes.

As you like it - favourite stencil - I like the graphic design of this one and it's perfect for chicken or bee cards too

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - humourous/fun card

Gerda Steiner Designs September challenge

Papercraft challenge #61 - animals

Summer bees and weddings

Wow, I can hardly believe we're nearly at September already!  Our summer weather has been absolute pants, we could do with another wee blast of sunshine before it gets too late!  Plenty of bees and wasps about though!

I had a version of this card in my head, but of course the bee stamps have buzzed off somewhere.  I ended up using a mix of Paper Smooches and Janes Doodles stamps instead.

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #387
• Your Next Stamp #146 - keep decorating ... I love a bit of bling and sparkle
• Simon Says Stamp - anything goes

I hadn't realised this was such a rubbish photo of this special request card, but it's away now anyway.  I kinda got a bit stuck with this one for a few days as it just didn't look right, but then I glued on my heart border and considered it finished, couldn't figure out what else to do to help it anyway!  ;)

• Word Art Wednesday #454-455 - anything goes
• Watercooler Wednesday #286 - all about occasions

Birthday Doggie

I have looked for this doggy stamp for such a long time, and I mean months and months, and he's finally turned up!  I'd started to believe I'd imagined him!

Actually now I think of it, it's Rubydoo's big birthday soon.  She was rescued from a puppy farm and the vet thought she was about 6 months old so we reckon her birthday must be September ... and she'll be the grand old age of 15!  She's getting old and creaky (like myself), and loves nothing better than snoozing the day away (love a wee sneaky snooze myself!).  Maybe we'll get her a new bed for her birthday, will have to have a wee think.

Layout from Atlantic Hearts #381
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - midsummer blues
The Male Room #141 - birthday
Your Next Stamp #145 - celebration

Homework Day 4 - Ombre

Well I finally got my final homework done for MFT summer school - day 4 Ombre
This card has been in the making for nearly a week now!  It seemed so much easier in my head and looks better in real life than it does here LOL
I think it all got difficult when I stuck my sentiment down without planning my card properly and rather than remake the bottom section I faffed about for days trying to sort it out ;)

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - use your favourite tool - mine has to be my old battered Cuttlebug.  The plates are well scored and the unit has a big crack in it, but Im hoping to add a new one to Santa's long list, so hopefully it lasts that long!
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - I've gotten a bit precious with my red sparkly card so keep every tiny snippet! 

Homework Day 5

Day 5 of homework for MFT summer school is 'white space' - I'll be getting detention as I haven't done day 4 yet.  LOL thankfully the days of detention are long gone ;)

I used this old vase of flowers - the name of the maker escapes me at the minute.  I coloured it in and then added some clear embossing to the lines when I'd finished, not sure I could be bothered doing this again, I don't really think it was worth the hasle!


Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #447

Less is More #425 - summer flowers

Homework Day 3

I'm loving playing along with the M?FT Summer School - I actually feel like my mojo is finally coming back, it has been a long haul since March!

Day 3's homework is symmetry.
I spent absolute ages in my stash trying to find an image that was symmetrical and ended up using this old favourite from High Hopes.  Though my stenciled background and sentiment aren't 100% symmetrical but hopefully I'll get away with it ;)
I think my stencil was from Elizabeth Craft (wouldn't like to swear to it!) - I saw it used somewhere and had to have it, and it's sat in my pile ever since!

• Simon Says Stamp Monday - Happy Birthday
• Stamping Sensations August - masculine
• Seize the Birthday #196 - I used 1image / monochrome / stencil

Homework day 2

I had a wee trip out to Hobbycraft today as I needed some new card and basics (and treated myself to this new sentiment die too).  It was a totally different experience to the last time I was there on its launch day and it was absolutely rammed with customers.  Today there was only 20 in the shop and it was heavenly - the obligatory queue outside was definitely worth the wait!

Day 2 of the MFT Summer School is rainbows.  So out came my trusty bears and I coloured their scarves and bucket in the rainbow colours.

• I've also only just slid under the wire for DottyJo's Christmas Kickstart challenge #34 for a starry sky.  I inked up mine and then added some splatters thinking it would look like the cosmos, but it looked more like a snowy sky, so out came my silver stars.
• Hazels Christmas Card Challenge #501

In the pink

I can't believe we're at August already, time is definitely going at double quick time now!
Hopefully August weather will be better than July's - the best that could be said about it was 'dull and damp'.  Maybe we used up all our sunny days at the start of lockdown!

I'm pleased to see the MFT Summer School is back - it's always great to learn new tips and rediscover some old ones!  Day 1 is visual triangle, so I used my silver stars for this.
For my background I masked off a square, used some pale pink ink in a starburst stencil and then layered up another little stars one on top of it with some darker pink ink.  Hippos coloured with watercolour pencils and clear gloss/glitter added to their tutus.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #500
• Time Out #167 - I used the 'dance party' from the phrase
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

Roses and snowflakes

Evening all!   I was asked to make a card for a 90 year old lady, it's not too often those requests come along!  After a LOT of deliberation I ended up using this oldie from LOTV - coloured with polychromos and sparkle added to the roses.  Luckily I had a few silver peel off stickers left and had enough letters to spell out her name.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #499
• Colour theme inspired by the picture over at Inspired By #Beach Life
• the Flower Challenge #46 - summer or winter - I've gone for summer roses - my Mum has a fab rose garden with every colour you could want (hope she doesn't mind about my 'blue' roses LOL)

And of course I couldn't post without one from my MFT bears LOL!  The sooner they bring out this year's Christmas stamps the better, hopefully I love them (I usually do!)

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #382
• Word Art Wednesday #448-449 - anything goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #500 - anything goes

From one extreme...

Hi All!  Sorry I've been MIA again, I'd absolutely zero mojo so just gave myself a break from crafting and blogging.  But it's definitely now time for a boot up the derriere and to get on with it, mojo or no mojo!
I'm off all next week hurrah - we get Mon & Tues off for the traditional Twelfth of July holiday and then work decided to close the rest of the week.  I've lots of jobs planned but we'll see how that goes!  I can finally tick haircut off my list, got it done on Thursday so I'm a bit more ready to face civilisation again ;)

I've a really simple card and a OTT card this evening!  This one uses an old favourite monster from Whipper Snapper - coloured with polychromos and gloss/glitter added to his .... ummmm ... scales?  I've no idea what to call those bumpy bits!!

Stamping Sensations July - all creatures great and small
Seize the Birthday #194 - red, white and blue
Make My Monday #126 - stars and/or stripes
Cardz 4 guys #248 - red white and blue

I'd started making this one for last week's Sketch Saturday challenge but faffed about too much and missed the deadline.  It's a tad too busy for me, reckon it all got very complicated with that too snazzy DP.  I shoved in those snowflakes too and kinda wish I'd left well alone!  It was another faffing session trying to figure out where to put the sentiment - tried die cuts and strips of card in various shades before just stamping it down!
(that black strip is mirror card)
Not sure if I'm loving this one or not, but here you go anyway ;)

ABC Christmas - O is for Over the top
Word Art Wednesday 446-447 - anything goes

Watch out for those teeth!

Ack I've no mojo at the minute, I'm blaming our crappy weather.  I definitely hit lucky with my week off work as it's been a bit rubbish ever since!  At least the garden is well watered!

This was one of those faffing about cards.  It started just with some stencilling and the shark and sentiment.  Thought it looked boring.  Added some stamped hearts. Nope. Added some swirls. Nope.  Added the rest of the sea critters.  Hmm. Added the swirl in the top corner and some bling.  Made myself stop.  Don't think there's room on this card for anything else anyway hahaha.

• Crafty Cardmakers #260 - create your own background
• Make My Monday #125 - stencil
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #381

Deirdre's party animals

Ahh boo hoo, that's Birthday week over and back to work tomorrow :(  I had a lovely week off - socially distanced birthday cake in the garden with the family, a few day trips here and there and the traditional trip to Portrush (couple of pics below), and the weather was fab.  Can't say that for today, mid-summer's day and we had lots of really heavy showers and at times it was black as night, not a day for heading anywhere!

I've been playing with some new goodies today, this MFT stamp set and a new set of corner dies.  This is destined for a work pal, seeing her on 'zoom' just isn't the same thing!  I've added lots of gloss and glitter to my critters, and couldn't resist giving yer man a big sparkly moustache ;)

• MFT Birthday Project - party hearty
• NBUS challenge #15
• Penny Black and More June - favourite stamp - mine tends to be my most recent purchase! 
• As You Like It - digital or rubber - well I don't have much choice, I don't have a printer! 

Christmas Bears and Birdies

So here we are almost at Mid-Summer's day!  It was a grey old one for us and according to Alexa it was 85% humidity!  The sooner I get my fuzzy head sorted at the hairdresser the better ;)  Roll on July!

Anyway, I'm still in Christmas mode, so here's my MFT bears again.  This is version #2 - the first one just had a totally wrong colour theme going but I managed to get my central panel scraped off almost unscathed.  A couple of wee knife marks now hidden with some snowflakes!  I'm hoping for a wee visit to Hobbycraft soon as I'm down to the scrappiest scraps of this silver sparkly card.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday sketch #494
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #380
• Word Art Wednesday #444-445 - anything goes

This Tina Wenke stamp was another of my new purchases.  If I was colouring it again I think I'd do the little birdies a slightly lighter shade of brown, they're a bit lost here.  I added sparkle to the ribbon and fine glitter to the snow and then bigger glitter flakes to the berries, so there's plenty of sparkle!  I think I need a wee 'something' for where the sentiment panel meets the image, I might have a look for a wee holly image or something.

• Moving along with the times #119 - things with wings

Hippo Birthday

Here's a not-so-quick-quickie!  It started off just my hippo, circle and text and just looked too boring (I think it's because my DP is kinda drab), so I added in the hearts die.  Nope still didn't look right.  Added a couple of little punched butterflies.  Hmmm.  Had a root through my stash and found this corner die and that was just what it needed.  I think I'm happy now ;)
Hippo from Gerda Steiner coloured with watercolour pencils.  Clear gloss glitter added to the butterfly, the little heart and toenails.

I've a wee week off work now hurrah, I think the weather is to be half decent so we'll see.  Maybe I'll get the fence painted. Maybe not ;)

• Layout inspired by CAS(e) This Sketch #376
• Sweet Stampin - dies and punches
• Gerda Steiner Share your Designs June 2020
• Craftyhazelnut's patterned paper challenge June 2020

A foxy birthday

Ok so I'm using my tablet for this post and obviously it's designed to be used on modern software and not my dinosaur laptop! It's definitely a bit easier, but I do like to use a keyboard and mouse when I'm posting.  Maybe someday I'll bite the bullet and get a new laptop.

Sorry it's not a great photo of this card, if I remember I'll get my light out and take a better one.

I've used this cutie from Neat & Tangled, coloured with Polychromos. I discovered a really old embossing folder in my stash, it's just a narrow strip really.  Im  not sure why I haven't used it before  but I'll definitely be using it again, I love it!  I've also splattered some pale blue ink to the background but it doesn't really show well in the pic.

• 
  Layout from Freshly Made Sketches #439
• Word Art Wednesday #442/443 - anything goes
• Fab'n Funky #485 - creature feature

Christmas Bears

Oh dear, I'm not loving this new blogger interface!  Maybe it's just because my laptop is so old, but I don't see any editing toolbars at the top.  Might have to start trying to do these posts on my tablet.

I've been on the hunt for some stamps for this year's Christmas cards (and ended up blowing this year's crafty budget in the process!) and one of my purchases was these MFT winter bears.  I've tried to use up some of this DP from a never-ending unloved Christmas pad and made a little matching tag too.  I also bought some fine clear glitter, but when I add it to the gloss on his scarf it's not very sparkly, so that was a bit of a disappointing purchase.

• Christmas Kickstart #32 - care to tag along
• Craftyhazelnut's patterned paper challenge June 2020
• Your Next Stamp #140 - sparkle and shine
• Word Art Wednesday #442-443 - anything goes

A rainbow lion

Evening all, hope you're all well!  We've had a fab run of sunny weather here, but it's all going to change for tomorrow and it feels like we need a good rattle of thunder to clear the air.  A humid 25degrees is the very last thing my fuzzy hair needs!  Poor Rubydoo has just been spending her time searching for shade in the garden or digging out the border to get to the cool soil! Bad girl!  She's off to the groomers tomorrow, I dread to think how much dirt is going to come out of her! At least we'll get our moneys worth out of her haircut!  I'm tempted to ask him to have a go at my own LOL

This little Tracey Hey lion definitely looks like he's been at the hair dye ;)    Coloured with polychromos and some sparkle added to his headband and the markings on his face.  The die in the background is an oldie from Gummiapan that for some reason is seldom used.  My snazzy DP kinda does a lot of the work here and makes it look more complicated than it acutally is!

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Craftyhazelnuts patterned paper challenge June 2020
• Sweet Stampers #44 - animals/birds

Some Thank You cards

Hi All, hope everyone's fit and well.  I've been on the missing list recently as I had a request for 60 thank you cards and not much time to make them! I couldn't face doing them all the same, so I made 5 or 6 of each design... some were remakes of my own, some inspired by others I've seen in blogland and then the rest were 'brand new' creations.  I've been spending most of my evenings colouring and then the next night putting them together, I think I'm officially all Thanked out now! I reckon the purple text one in the bottom corner is my favourite.

I've a couple of days off work now and don't need to venture into the bedroom/office till Wednesday :) Our garden centres are now open so hopefully we'll get a wee visit as our borders are a bit sad looking at the minute.  Hopefully it will be less stressful than Tesco's!

Anyway, here's just a couple of the cards I've made...

For this one I used an oldie LOTV stamp, some snazzy DP and a bit of bling and that was all was needed!

• Layout inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #436
• The Flower Challenge #44 - monochrome
• As You Like it - favourite embellishment - that's an easy one, mine is bling!  I use it on most of my cards as it just gives that wee extra touch and have them in all sorts of colours and sizes! 

And here's a real quickie using an old Penny Black image.  I added some stenciling to the background and clear gloss to the snail's shell.  Unfortunately we have plenty of snails and even more slugs (yeuch) in our garden!  They'll be picking their lips waiting on these new plants coming ;)

• CASology #368 - plant
• Cute Card Thursday #635 - critters
• Word Art Wednesday #440-441 - anything goes

Apologies to all my buddies for my lack of visits, hopefully I'll be round for a wee visit soon, socially distant of course ;)