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!

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

Christmas baubles

 Hi All!  I was very lucky to win one of the Christmas draw prizes over at lovely Di's Snippets Challenge and couldn't wait to get colouring!  This gorgeous stamp is from Sweet Dixie, a new-to-me brand.  Coloured with my polychromos and lots of glitter added to the highlights on the baubles.  My sentiment is a blue sparkly card but I'm not sure if this shows up or not, and the embossing folder from the January Simon Says Stamp kit.

Christmas Kickstart #58 - rainbow Christmas

Addicted to Stamps and more #421 - make your mark

ABC Christmas - B is for baubles

Along with my new stamps, Di had included a lovely little notelet, and a challenge to upcycle it, so here you are...!!! 

I had a tiny strip of blue leftover, but it was the perfect size to cut this little stitched die (from Simply Graphic I think) - it was just that little something needed to finish the card 😁. And of course it means it's perfect for the latest Snippets Challenge #420, which is the penultimate Ruby's Memory challenge.  Theres a bumper set of prizes, so thank you to the lovely ladies who donated and as usual all you need to do to play along is to use up some leftover scraps.  

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 😉