Hark the Herald Angel (s)

Happy Monday to you all and hope you all had a great weekend and are all refreshed for the week ahead.  I would like to welcome my new followers and thank you so much for becoming followers!

How's your Christmas shopping going?  Not long to go now - gulp! I have another Christmas card today which I made to enter the LOTV challenge which is to make a card for someone special.  I have used one of their stamps and tried to keep the colouring to a minimum so it would be monochromatic really as I quite like that look at the moment. 

The papers are from Pink Petticoat and the backing card is Coredinations.  I have embossed the piece at the back and sanded it down.  The flowers are from Wild Orchid and I have distressed them with some acrylic paint then dipped them in Twinklets. I found the little heart on my worktop, it was left over from punching out a birdcage out of an old cat food box and was one of the bits left over that you would throw away so I painted it in acrylic and covered it in Twinklets.  I would like to enter the following challenges:

LOTV - Card for Somenone Special
CES Challenge - Snowflakes (I've used snowflake embossing folder)
One Stop Craft Challenge - Blue
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays - Embossing
Just Some Lines - Tic Tac Toe (Embossing, Ribbon and die cuts)
Crafty Ann's Challenge - Monochromatic and/or sketch
Crafty Catz Challenge - Snowflakes
Paperworks Co - Photo Inspiration
DYSU - Splash of Blue
Delightful Challenges - Bingo (Pattern Paper, Die cuts and Flowers)
Thanks so much for looking, please take care xx

Birthday Girl

Well that was my little baby yesterday actually, she was 37 OMG only feels like yesterday!!  We had a bit of a family dinner at our house and it was lovely although I did suffer a bit overnight (you know spinning room syndrome).  I have been busy getting ready for her birthday and have not really had much time to craft apart from making my cupcake wrappers for Stacey's birthday which everyone enjoyed:

The black and white one is supposed to have black icing but I don't think I put enough colouring in and it was a bit grey!! They are Red Velvet cupcakes from the yummy Hummingbird Bakery cookbook which is a fab book all the recipes I have done from it turn out as described no flops!!

Anyway I think I will go and curl up on the sofa and snooze read for a while, enjoy the rest of your week-ends and take care xx

Black and White

I've made another Christmas card today - well the final countdown is on, isn't it?  It's one for a man i.e. my DH so I have made it fairly simple with not too much embellishment but I still had to have a bit of sparkle and bling, I think you can get away with it at Christmas can't you?

I have followed a sketch from Sketch N Stash.  The stash I have used is my plain candy which I have not used for ages and almost forgotten about but I wanted something plain for the tag and didn't want to use metal brads as I was trying to keep to just black and white (although in the end I added a little silver star to the tree).  The Little Clair stamp is also from my stash and I have only used it once before although I do really like it I have embossed it with Black Sparkle EP which I really like and don't have much left.  The papers are downloaded from Pink Petticoat which I got ages ago and I think this is the first time I have used them so really I have used loads from my stash!!  The snowflakes are a Whimsy die and Spellbinders.  I have used my Edgeability border and a Spellbinders tag, the sentiment is computer generated.  The black card at the bottom and for the snowflakes is glitter card which you can just about see what you can see plenty of is bits of glitter on the card from it!!!  I would like to enter the following challenges:

Sketch n Stash - Sketch and use stash (see above for what I have used)
Cards for Men - Nearly Christmas
Craft your Passion - Let it Snow
Critter Sketch Challenge - Monochrome
Heart Song Inspiration - Gold or Glitter
The Pink Elephant - Embossing
One Stitch at a Time - Black and White
Moving Along with the Times - Let it Snow
Divas by Design - Monochromatic
Paper Pretties - Colour Challenge - non-traditional colours
The Paper Shelter - Snowflakes

Thanks so much for looking, take care xx

Craft Barn Candy

Just a quick post to tell you that the Craft Barn have this fab candy up for grabs until 25th November:

OMG isn't it fab?  Pop over there and enter - remember you've gotta be in it to win it!!

Home again

Good morning everyone.  I returned from my week in Las Vegas on Friday and had a great time.  I'm still trying to catch up on everything and have not been a very good blogger.  It is my daughter's birthday on Saturday so I am also trying to get ready for that!  What with Christmas shopping, washing and unpacking and cleaning I don't know where the time has gone.  I have done some crafting but not cards,  I am making some cupcake wrappers for my daughter's birthday as I was going to buy some on line and couldn't find any I really liked plus they were 4.75 plus postage and I thought I may as well make some so that is what I have been doing as well as toppers to go on them.  I have also been making an advent box which is still not finished and doing a Christmas tree from the Poundshop as per The Crafty Elf's tutorial.  So today I am going to post a card I made a while ago.  It is a male card which I always find a bit difficult and I have used a stamp that I have had ages, really like but never used!!

The image is by Inkadinkado and I have inked it with a Memento London Fog ink pad.  Cut it out with a Spellbinders nestie and matted onto another nestie.  The backing is Coredinations which I have dry embossed and then sanded so it shows through.  The candi I have coloured to match and then distressed with crackle paint and the seagull is from my stash.  I would like to enter the following challenges:

Bearly Mine Challenge - One for the Boyz
Creative Craft Challenge - Minimalistic
Shopping our Stash - Never been inked (my stamp)
Critter Sketch Challenge - Monochrome
The Pink Elephant Challenge - Embossing
Lollipop Crafts - Embossing and No Designer Paper
Creations by Gill M - Men's Monochromatic
Fairy Fun Fridays - No Black Lines
I will be round to catch up with you all at some point today, thanks for looking and take care xx

Away I go!

Well I am now either on my way or have arrived in Las Vegas, so no blogging from me for a while.  But I will be doing plenty of this:

A fair bit of this:

And some of this:

Catch up with you all when I get home, take care xx

Getting Ready!!

Morning everyone!  Today is What's on your Workdesk Wednesday over at Julia's place.  As usual my workdesk is a complete an utter shambles. BUT I am going away on my girly holiday tomorrow so I don't care and I am not even going to show you a picture of it ha ha (cause I'm too embarrassed really).  Instead I shall show you a picture of my new home for the next 7 nights:

Yippee that's where I'll be (no, not in the lake but rather the hotel!!).  We shall be having a great time shopping, slurping sipping cocktails and a bit of gambling (shock horror - just a bit I said).  What more could a girl ask for oh yes and Rod Stewart on Saturday night!!

As I haven't made any cards (too busy packing and cleaning and baking for DH) I have an old one I will post today:

Cor its very bright isn't it?  Can't remember anything about it (that is definitely my age) apart from its a Magnolia stamp or rather two.  If you get chance bob over to Julia's and have a look at everyone else's workdesks - very addictive. 

I'll catch up with you all later today hopefully then I'll be back in about 9 days yeehaw!! Take care xx

Goldfinger, well rather wreath that is!

Hope you are all recovered from a night of ghostly occurrences and witchy goings on!! We were rather slow to get going with the trick or treaters but then picked up and it was great to see them all dressed up.  One rather winsome witch had long witchy fingers and everytime she picked up a sweet she dropped it!!

Well now we are into November and the countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun - panic stations everyone!!  It is such a gorgeous day here in Blackpool it has been sunny all day and quite mild, we did have some rain this morning but it was still sunny whilst it was raining!  I have made another wreath Christmas card today again following Crafty Elf's tutorial which you can find in detail here.  I decided to go for a white and gold theme today for a change. 

I have used the Swiss dots embossing folder again and three types of gold card for the wreath.  The ribbon is from a local haberdashery shop.  The dove is from Hobbicraft which started out with a pattern on it but I covered it in gold embossing powder.  I don't know what I'll do once Christmas is over for inspiration for cards - start on next years perhaps????

Thanks so much for looking please leave a comment if you have been as it is always nice to hear from everyone and visit your blogs.  Take care xx