Greg's Christmas card and Mum's Birthday card

 Well the last card of the year, as per usual, is for DH.  It was actually handed over a couple of days ago, pressies all wrapped and delivered and cards all posted a while back (not holding out much hope for Royal Mail actually delivering them though!) So I'm ahead of the game for a change!!  

I've used these snowdudes from Simon Says Stamp on 90% of my cards this year and will be sad to put them away for a while.  And yes, that is me, him and Molly 🤣 The little dog was from a really old set from Little Claire Design. 

Paper Craft Challenge #89 - deck the halls 

Christmas Kickstart #69 - if it's Christmassy link it up

Cut it Up #267 - Christmas projects 

And this is Mum's birthday card from last week, using a Penny Black stamp.  I think it's a winter rose but not entirely sure.  Lots of sparkle and shimmer on this but sure it doesn't really show in the pic.   I think it would maybe have been better with twine going vertically instead of horizontally.

Penny Black Saturday - December anything goes

Crafty Calendar - December anything goes 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - party

Hope you all have a good Christmas and a very happy New Year.  Thanks for all your visits and crafty friendship all year 😍

More Snowy Snowdudes

 Hi all!  We had such a lovely bright Autumn day today, so nice to see it as it feels like we've had nothing but rain recently!  Halloween night was pretty much a disaster, we had the grand total of 5 youngsters at the door ...  a bit of rain wouldn't have put me off getting free sweeties when I was a kid! 🤣. Mind you, we were only allowed to visit 3 or 4 houses, none of this visiting the entire neighbourhood and definitely not knocking the door of folk you didn't know! 

Anyway, I've been trying to get my Christmas card count up.  This one uses my Simon Says Stamp snowmen yet again. 

I was on a shopping trip recently at Creative Depot and splashed out on some of these lovely paints after seeing one of their DT using them - wow. I'm so impressed!  They give a real metallic shimmery finish and I think I'll use these a lot!  I've splattered the silver one here for my snow and it looks fab in real life.  

• As You Like It - favourite Christmas image - I have a total soft spot for snowmen and have an ever growing collection of snowman stamps!  Plus they're always quick to 'colour'!!  (these dudes just get the faintest lick of pale blue watercolour at the edge)
• Your Next Stamp #191 - midnight 
• Colour theme from MFT Colour Challenge #199

A little snowdude tag

 Hi all, I'm here for my final post as Guest Designer for the Just Us Girls challenge, and this week's theme is...

I always run out of tags when I'm wrapping my pressies so it will be good to have some of these ready and waiting!  My tag was really quick to make and all from little scraps so that's always good!!  I only assembled one of the tags as I'm waiting on the postie delivering some snow-effect paint and wanted to try it on these.   

Hope you'll play along too.  And if you need some inspiration, pop over to the JUGS blog to see the DT's fab makes.

A trio of Poinsettias

Hmm I wonder what's going on with blogger?  This past few days I keep finding comments in my spam folder... and they're all from 2014!!  Odd!

Anyway, I haven't played in the Christmas Kickstart challenge for a while, so here's 3 for the price of one!! 

I was very lucky to win a recent Simon Says Stamp challenge and bought this lovely poinsettia stamp with my winnings.  It does take me an age to colour with my pencils (about 2 hours each) but I do love it.  I think the green one in the centre is my favourite.  

Christmas Kickstart #67 - poinsettias and posies

The Flower Challenge #73 - use a sentiment 

Fab'n Funky #559 - Christmas greetings 

And here's a wee pic of Miss Molly out on her walk with a 'wee' stick she found and carried/trailed all the way round!!  Daftie!

Get your scraps out!

I'm delighted to be Guest Designer with Just Us Girls for October, and this week's challenge is to use your scraps - and if your table is as messy as mine that shouldn't be a problem LOL 😉  Pop over to their blog for some inspiration from their very talented team, and I hope you get a chance to play along too! 

I've had this lovely strip of hearts DP knocking round for a few weeks so I'm glad to get it used before it gets bent or crumpled! And the little purple edge was from a tiny scrap I rescued from my 'bin' pile, but was just the right colour and only just big enough to die cut - it's not the straightest but I tucked the wonky edge under my image and you'd never know!  Image, sentiment and bling from a recent Simon Says Stamp kit. 

It doesn't show on my card but there's lots of sparkle on this card ... gloss + glitter to the flames, the pink under my cake had several layers of my sparkle pen; it doesn't show in the photo but I also went over the '&' several times with my sparkle pen and I love how it turned out, I'll definitely be doing this again!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes 

Addicted to Stamps #439 - any occasion 

Word Art Wednesday #563/564 - anything goes 

Snowdude in Blue

 Hi all.  Well it has been an emotional 10 days, so hard to comprehend the Queen's death.  I don't doubt I will be in tears tomorrow, all the pageantry and tradition gets me every time - I even well up when I see the Red Arrows on happy occasions!  Incredible to think of how many millions round the world will be watching the funeral!  I was in Belfast at the beginning of the week when King Charles visited, it was a real sense of occasion and the crowds about were unbelievable. 

I have another Christmas card this evening, again using my Simon Says Stamp set.  I don't normally used this glitter card as my base as it's a pain to get anything to stick to it! I've loaded on the glue and crossed my fingers 😉

Sketch from Inspired By (though I'm not entirely sure if I was supposed to also use their unicorn theme)

Colour theme from MFT Colour Challenge #196

Word Art Wednesday #561/562 - anything goes 

And finishing with a wee photo of Miss Molly - she loves a bit of David Attenborough and Frozen Planet is her new favourite programme! 

Snowy Snowfolk

Hi all!  What a lovely Autumn day we had today, really calm and sunny 😁  I spent it cutting back a load of stuff in the garden and another session of fence painting before the weather changes - I had the bright idea of changing the colour of our fence (from brown to sage) and I'm now 3 coats in!  It was a good idea at the time but I'll be so glad to see it finished!!  

Anyway I'm here this evening with a quickie Christmas card.  These snowdudes are from a Simon Says Stamp kit I bought at the start of the year, and the sparkle paste stuff I used for the snow was in it too.  My silvery sparkly sentiment was a bit lost on my card so I cut another 2 from some scraps of black card and double mounted it.  Pops more now in real life. 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - die cuts

By

Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #611

As You Like It - glitter or metallic card - I love a bit of sparkle so it's glitter card for me! 

ABC Christmas - S is for Snow

Faffing Crafting

 Hi all, and Happy St Patrick's Day!  No drowning the shamrock for me, I was out weeding instead LOL!  We get the day off work so I just had to book tomorrow as well, so a nice loooong weekend ahead AND it's supposed to be sunny for the next few days too, yippee!  It would have been great craic to be in Dublin for the parade,  I'd say it would be fun trying to get served at the bar though! 

I've been struggling with my mojo recently so it's been a bit of a battle making these!  This first one was an absolute faff, it started much simpler but then I decided to add the die cuts behind the plants, got them prised off (and ripped half the purple panel in the process), and then the little butterflies and sequins appeared next.  I'm still not 100% thrilled with it, but it's better than it was!

Believe it or not, my layout was inspired by this sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday #546, but I maybe got a bit lost! 

Addicted to Stamps #425- dies +/or stencils

Daisy Chain #61 - use dies

This Christmas card was another faffing session... that black panel was originally silver, and then white before I could decide what I was doing!  Snowdude from Simon Says Stamp and I think the DP is from MFT.

Layout from Tuesday Morning Sketches #648

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Favourite things - I've used a few favourites here, my snowpeople set, the lovely DP and that fab snowflake!

Pupdate...

Miss Molly has had a busy time recently.  She was in for a wee op a couple of weeks ago but is back to 100% fitness and 100% naughtiness!  She's also been in for her first puppy grooming session since this pic was taken so she can see out now LOL

Think pink

Hi all!  Popping by this evening with a quickie post, Peaky Blinders is just coming on TV, it's a tad violent and half times I haven't a clue what's going on, but I love it!

I've had my Simon Says Stamp snowmen out again and paired it with this swanky DP from (I think) MFT.

Layout from Your Next Stamp #178

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

Pupdate...

We'd a wee skiff of snow this week. Miss Molly hadn't a clue what to make of it!  She sat at our back door for ages just gruffing at the strange rain.  Daftie.

Colourful snow family

Hi all!  I'm sticking to my resolution to keep up with my Christmas cards, so I've a quickie post this evening to share this wee snow family using the Simon Says Stamp January kit, which I absolutely LOVE!  The embossing folder is also from the kit.

Layout from CAS Colours & Sketches #456, though I just noticed I got the sketch wrong in my head and the littlest snowman should have been in the centre instead of at the end

Papercraft Challenge #78 - winter wonderland

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - embossing

ABC Xmas - C for CAS

Blue Christmas

Hi all!  For my Christmas present to myself I gave in to these sweet snow people from the Simon Says Stamp January kit.  Not something I normally purchase as the shipping costs are just silly but I couldn't resist! So I've no excuse whatsoever to be rushing to make Christmas cards this year 😉  My only niggle with the kit is that I would have loved to have had some Christmassy sentiments in the stamp set, but the papers, stencil and embossing folder are all lovely.

MFT Wednesday sketch #576

Cut it Up  #243 - anything goes with a die cut

Papercraft challenge #77 - winter wonderland

Snippets Playground #419 - Di has a beautiful new blog for the snippets challenge and it's so easy to play along, just use up a scrap!  For mine my snowflakes are cut from little scraps and my snowpeople use up the leftover bits when I cut my cardstock base down to size

Pupdate ... 

We think Molly has almost all her teeth through now, poor soul lost 3 in one afternoon!   Here she is in one of her favourite spots - her towel on the kitchen floor... she often prefers it to her nice comfy bed!  Think she maybe afraid of us making something tasty and forgetting about her permanently hungry tummy 😉

Guest Designing for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge

I'm Guest Designer over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge this month :)

This week's challenge is to make a Wedding or Anniversary card and the team are showcasing Simon Says Stamp goodies.  Hope you'll play along too.  As usual, they have the best prize in blogland .. a big $50 to spend in store!! 

For my card I've used this beautiful Hibiscus frame die, isn't it gorgeous!  This die would work well for any occasion really.

I cut my frame first and then drew a faint pencil line on the card beneath so I knew where to colour with my polychromos.  Then I went over my finished flower with my glitter pen and the sentiment is cut from a little leftover bit of glitter card.  I also added a few clear gems for good measure, so there's LOTS of sparkle on this card!

Anyway, hope you'll play along in the challenge - it's a lucky dip for the winner, so if you're not in you can't win!

• Pixie's Snippets Playground #354
• Crafting by Designs June - anything goes
• Love to Craft #35 -anything goes

Christmas Critters

I'm trying to keep up with the Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge, so it's just a wee quickie tonight with these fab Christmas critters from Simon Says Stamp.  I'll have to try a different colouring combo - I always end up with a brown pup, grey cat and golden labrador!!

I added clear gloss / glitter to the trims on the hat and to the base of the antlers, and sparkle to all the red bits.  Snowflake cut from sparkly card that has the same irridescence as the glitter.
My silver pen was playing up so that's why I ended up with some dots bigger than others, but I kinda like the effect :)

• Layout from CAS(e) this Sketch #297
• Christmas with the Cuties #21 - wrap up warm
• Addicted to Stamps #317 - make your mark
• Crafty Creations #377 - anything goes
• Moving Along With the Times #84 - Winter Animals

You brighten my day

Just a quickie post this evening .. Killing Eve is on telly shortly and I'm lovin it! I've been a bad blogger recently so hope to get round all my buddies tomorrow... after I finish painting my hall / stairs of course! I've been putting it of for ages, so it was good to get a start made at last.

This wee card uses this fab fun fishie from Avery Elle.  I partially stencilled in some waves and then added a few splatters, but they don't really show up in my pic.  Fish is mounted on foam pads and clear gloss added to his teeth and eyes.  I found these little silver circles in my stash and thought they kinda looked like bubbles in the water.

• Crafty Catz #434 - square card
• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes
• Addicted to Stamps #314 - clean and simple

I'm on a mission to try to make a Christmas card when I'm making anything else.  I've used an oldie stamp from Simon Says Stamp - coloured with watercolour pencils; sparkle added to the scarf and red hat; and clear gloss + glitter to the antlers and accents on the hat.  Lil' Inker sentiment die.  I already had some of these white snowflakes cut so it was super quick to put together :)

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - animal antics
• Allsorts #490 - traditional Christmas colours
• Sweet Stampin Christmas October - any Christmas
• ABC Christmas - V for very quick

Hey Gullfriend and thank you flowers

We've a nice long Bank Holiday weekend ahead, though I'm always kinda sad to see this one as there's no more freebie holidays this side of Christmas!

I've had no time or inclination for card making this past week as we've been getting work done in the house - the builders have all been really great but don't you just hate having them in the house. I never quite know what to do with myself!  I've a wee bit of painting to finish off, but then I'll also have to paint the hall/stairs to cover up some plaster work, and then once I've done that, all the woodwork and the doors will need done too.  Aarrgghhh!

This first card uses a scrap of this birdie DP I've been hoarding for a while.  I've used my seagull from Jane's Doodles and paired it with an MFT sentiment and MFT porthole die.  I popped my gull on foam pads and added some sparkle to his jumper and clear gloss to his beak etc.  Sentiment stamped on dark blue card.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #399
• Word Art Wednesday #348/349 - anything goes
• 
  

I don't think I've ever used white embossing on an image before, usually just for sentiments.  I just puddled in my watercolours and then fussy cut the flowers.  

I had a good clear out of all my bits and bobs of scrap paper today, but this little blue scrap of DP turned out to be the perfect size for what I needed! 

My flowers are an oldie set from Simon Says Stamp.

• Layout from Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge #SC711
• Pixies Snippets Playground #333
• Pile it On #145 - new technique
• Happy Little Stampers August watercolour challenge - flowers

Blue sympathy and rainbow get well

Just a quickie post tonight, the last episode of Poldark is on and I love it!

I'm not sure if I'm loving this card though!  It kinda looked better in my head.  I think it's a wee bit drab so tried to brighten it with some sparkly butterflies.  Still don't like it though!

• Colour theme based on the lovely photo over at Time Out #114
• Crafting by Designs - anything goes

This one's a wee bit happier ;)

I actually managed to use some of my much unloved washi tape!  Clouds/sun from Lawn Fawn. I added some sparkle to the raindrops and the sun.

• CASology #308 - cloud
• Crafty Creations #371 - anything goes
• Happy Little Stampers - anything goes with dies
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes

A violet birthday and some balloons

Ha, I remember the days my post titles used to be witty, now it's just 'this is what it is' LOL

I think I've 5 x 80th birthday cards to make.  So this is the first!  And what other colour would I do my flowers for someone called Violet ;)

My flowers are an oldie from Simon Says Stamp.  I haven't done this much fussy cutting for ages, but my hands definitely don't be so sore using the little Tim Holtz scissors :)

• Just Us Girls #437 - predominently purple
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - flower power
• Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes

This one is inspired by this week's featured stamper over at Splitcoast - here's Suzy's original.

My balloons are super old - I think they're originally from Creative Impressions.  Coloured with watercolour pencils and the green/red one popped up on dimensionals.  Blue stars from stash.  

• Crafty Cardmakers #210 - Birthdays
• Stamp Ink Paper #147 - colour it
• Crafty Catz #413 - anything goes

Christmas doggies

So for tonight's card I just had to use my long lost doggy stamp!!  And Vicki's card over at the Muse Challenge was the perfect inspiration too!

My doggies are an oldie from Simon Says Stamp that I oogled over for ages - every time I went to buy it, it was sold out, and then when I did get it I promptly lost it!  Coloured with watercolour pencils and popped up on foam pads. Glitter added to the white bits on the hat and to the antlers, and then I went over the scarf and the pink hat with my clear sparkle pen.  Paper Smooches snowflake dies.

• General layout and 3 critter theme inspired by The Muse Challenge #251
• Merry Monday #275 - pastel colours
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - layer it up
• ABC Christmas - A for Antlers
• Creative with Stamps January - snowflakes

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge