Totally Gorjuss - 112 - Happy.....!

Hi everyone it's nice to be back with our latest challenge from Totally Gorjuss after a week off. Thanks to everyone who took time to join us for our last challenge. Remember to pop over to the challenge blog to see who won the prize from Simon Says Stamp.

This week our challenge is Happy..... Birthday, New Year, special day, just whatever you want to make it. I've made a birthday card as I don't send New Year cards.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV cute square.

Sentiment & Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Flowers :- Prima.

Ribbon & lace :- Ribbon Girl.

DP :- First Edition - Bird Song which I got in the secret santa at my crop.

Jewels, Glamour Dust and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

This is the first card I've made since before Christmas. On the other hand I've been managing to read my daily papers lol. I also had a quick look at the sales in Aberdeen yesterday. And we managed to find time to take the dogs to the vet for their yearly check up and boosters. Wow was that an expensive visit!!

I'm going to enter the following challenges :-

Creative Inspirations :- Anything Goes.
Simon Says Stamp :- Anything Goes.
Charisma :- Anything Goes.
Fussy and Fancy :- Monochromatic plus sparkle. Oops too late to enter.

Well I have to work this morning so I'll catch up with you all after that. I'm looking forward to a few days off after today. Quieter this week as the furthest we'll be going is our favourite Indian restaurant on New Years day for a meal. Our younger daughter is intending to join us but our son says he is supposed to be going to London. Seems like a long way to go for a short time. Poor Iain, last week he came out to us for his Christmas dinner and then had to drive to Crieff to his sister's on Boxing Day and then home again as he had to work on the 27th.

Hope you all have a lovely New Year however you celebrate it and if I don't see you today I'll see you next year.

My Favourite Christmas Card.

Not, I hasten to add one that I made! No, this is Poppy's creation.

She drew this picture at Nursery and then it was made into Christmas cards. I'll need to find out on Monday what it's all about. Not sure if that's Poppy in the picture with a tree and a present. I think that may be an attempt at her name at the top right.

Today I have been busy with housework but yesterday I iced my cake and decorated it today. It doesn't look very pretty but I'm hoping it tastes ok.

So that's all the food made except a pudding. Mhairi wants Tiramisu so I bought gluten free madeira cake to make it as she's wheat intolerant. I also have the old standby meringues. I made meringue nests and meringues to take to Catriona's on Boxing Day. I've also got lots of mince pies, shortbread, gluten free shortbread and 2 kinds of tablet. I've had a lovely time baking and now I really want to buy a new Kenwood. Mine died some time ago and I thought I didn't need a new one. I was wrong!

Work was reasonably quiet yesterday except for people wanting to take out money. It was nice to have time to read the papers again. I'm hoping that today will be similar. The last few weeks have been pretty busy so it'll be nice to get back to normal. I'm sure the posties are pretty tired to and looking forward to a couple of days off.

On Thursday I got a few last minute bits and pieces. Sweeties, nuts etc. Then Max found my stuff and stole a net of chocolate money and ate the lot. He managed to spit out all the foils though. What a dog! I did try to tell him that chocolate is really bad for dogs but he just wagged his tail at me.

I'm a bit narked at Marks & Spencer just now. The other day I decided to order pjs for Poppy & Oliver's stocking present. Having had bother before with ordering items that are claimed to be in stock and then they send out the order with something missing and tell you oh by the way one item is out of stock. That would be bad enough but the twice it happened to me before the order was for wedding presents. Since I've had problems before I deliberately ordered 2 pairs of pjs which both said more than 10 available. Two days later I got an email saying my order was on it's way. But one pair of pjs was not mentioned and no reason given. I checked and they were in stock. Puzzling! So I emailed to complain. At least a day later they emailed claiming that they had been out of stock when the order was made up. But they would refund the postage so that I could re-order. Well thanks for the refund but I wasn't going to order again, apart from the fact that it was too late for Christmas by then. So Mhairi went into Markies after work tonight and phoned me to check that she was buying the right thing. About a couple of years ago, the first time this happened I asked Markies why this happened. I can't see why they don't reduce the number of items in stock every time somebody orders one. It would save you thinking you were buying something and then not getting it!

Sorry about the rant but it makes me really mad. Does it just happen to me or has it happened to any of you?

Have a lovely Christmas everyone. We're having a week off at Totally Gorjuss. I might or might not have time to post but I'll be popping around the blogs to see what everyone's up to.

Retirement Card.

Yesterday was my day off and I feel as if it was a bit of a wasted day! I had one or two things I wanted to get so after I had finished my weekly balance and left my colleague to her work I decided to go to Peterhead, my nearest bigger town. I went to a couple of shops and then Asda to get some stocking fillers, sweets nuts etc. Then off to the garden centre to get the sweets that Mhairi particularly wanted in her stocking. By the time I got there it was past time for coffee so I had coffee anyway and a lovely cherry scone. By the time I finished shopping it was almost lunchtime so I went home for a sandwich! Then it was time to make meringues and try to make meringue nests for when we go to Catriona's on Monday. I also got my cake iced so I just need to decorate the top and find some pretty ribbon to put round it.

I made a retirement card for a friend's husband who retires today. Fred is/was senior chaplain at Grampian NHS Trust Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He's a lovely friendly caring man and I think he'll be much missed at ARI. I first met his wife, Mary, when she started a cardmaking group a few years ago.

I'm sure Fred's not going to be as lazy as the little chap relaxing on the deckchair here but I'm sure he'll be happy to give up the daily commute. Hope he likes his card!

I used :-

Image :- LOTV cute square.

Sentiment & Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- MME.

I think this might fit the following challenges :-

Creative Inspirations :- Anything Goes.
Charisma :- Anything Goes.

Well I need to do some housework before I go to work this afternoon. Just this afternoon and tomorrow morning and then I'm off till Wednesday. I'm looking forward to seeing Oliver and Poppy opening some presents on Boxing Day and spending time with them. I must show you the card Poppy made but that'll probably have to wait till tomorrow.

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up with you all later.

Sweet Baby Boy.

Good morning everyone. Hope the weather conditions are better here today. Tuesday wasn't that cold but the rain on Monday had made everything so slippy that I could hardly walk the dogs. Thats the disadvantage of living in the country, the snow turns icy where cars have been and then it can take ages to get rid of the ice!

Here's the card I made for one of the girls at work who is delighted to be a granny to a gorgeous baby boy.It was nice to make something that wasn't a Christmas card. I feel as if I've been making Christmas cards for ever. Actually I checked back and I made the first one in January!

I love this image from Pink Gem, that baby is so cute!

This is my day off and I might nip to the garden centre to get some of those liqueur chocolates with cherries that Mhairi wants in her stocking. Apart from that I think I've got everything I need and if not.......tough!!

Catch you all later.

The Rest of my Family Cards.

These are definitely the last of this year's Christmas cards!

This is the one I made for Catriona and Kerr.

This is Oliver's card.

Poppy's Card. I thought she'd like it since she was Mary in her Sunday School Nativity play.

Mhairi's card.

And last but not least Iain's card.

You can probably see that there's a bit of a colour theme with this years family cards.

I'll come back tomorrow with a baby card I made for one of the girls at work. She and her husband have become very proud first time grandparents to a lovely baby boy. Mum and baby came home yesterday so Denise was hoping to visit for cuddles with her grandson this evening.

Thanks for looking and hope you're all managing to stay warm.

Not Quite the Last Christmas Cards!

I meant to schedule these cards for this morning but of course I ran out of time on Sunday evening! Last week after I finished writing my Christmas cards I decided that I'd best make a few more "just in case!" So this is them.

I'm going to enter the last card with the PB snowman in the new challenge at Hot Shot Crafts :- Use Promarkers. I used Promarkers to colour the cute snowman. I'm also entering the challenge at Passion for Promarkers which is "Celebrations."

These cards were all nice and simple and quick to make but I quite like them.

Thanks for looking and tomorrow I'll show you the special family cards I made.

A Little Pile of Christmas Cards.

I haven't been blogging much this last week or so  but I have been busy recently making lots of Christmas cards so here are some of them.

As you can see there's been a bit of a red & white theme this year. With some blue of course and lilac. You might also have noticed that Penny Black and LOTV often feature in my cards too.

Hope you like and I'll be back tomorrow with the three cards I made quickly after I'd finished writing out my cards. I always like to have some spare just in case lol.

Thanks for looking.

Totally Gorjuss - 111- For Someone Special.

Good morning everyone and it's time for the last challenge over at Totally Gorjuss before whe have a break over Christmas. This week our theme is "For someone special" so I'm sure at this time of year we all have to make a card for someone special. Of course it doesn't have to be a Christmas card it could be a birthday card or a congratulations card for a partner or child or whoever.

I've made a Christmas card for my husband, hope you like it, he does!

I used :-

Images :- Hero Arts & Sizzix stamps and dies.

DP :- First Edition.

Sentiment :- LOTV.

Snowflake & snowflake border :- Martha Stewart punches.

Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

When I get round to posting the rest of my family cards you might notice that there's a bit of a colour theme this year. I feel quite relaxed about Christmas this year card-wise. I posted most of them on Monday. Handed out the rest at the Guild meal on Monday, the WRI meal on Wednesday and at my work. I've still got one or two to hand out and 3 to post.

Work has been really busy this past wee while. Some days it's a bit like me or them with the parcels. Now it might just be me but why do people post great big cards, especially overseas, or huge parcels and then complain about the cost?!!! It does make me a bit narky, after all it's their choice not my fault! And don't get me started about people who come in at the last minute and then expect me to be impressed by how clever they are. And lastly what makes people think I want to stick on their stamps. ok rant over, soon no-one will want the post office and we'll get peace for a while.

Not sure if this card fits any challenges as I haven't had time to do much blogging this week.

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up later after work......I hope.

Lilac Christmas.

Morning everyone, just a quick post with another Christmas card. You must be getting fed up with my Christmas cards by now. I was very busy yesterday (Sunday). In the afternoon I sorted out all my cards. What a pain it is deciding who gets what lol! Then I wrote them and sorted them into various piles. Cards to post. Cards for work and customers and friends I'd see at work. Cards to take with me to the Guild meal tonight (Monday) and the WRI on Wednesday. Nightmare.

As you can see this did not get posted on Monday morning. My broadband went off on Sunday evening and didn't come on again. I was at work all day on Monday and then out for a lovely meal and a really fun evening with the Guild. When we came out it was really windy and wet so I had to nip out and bring the car to the door for my elderly passengers. Internet was still dodgy but if this turns up on Tuesday morning it must have stayed on long enough to let me post it. I'll come back at night to add more details!

Thanks for looking and I hope I can catch up later.

I used :-
Trees :- Memory Box die
Sentiment :- Heritage stamps.
Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.
Jewels, ribbon and Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
Sir Stampalot :- Bingo - I chose punch, tag, ribbon.
Fussy and Fancy :- Christmas tree inspiration photo.

I did intend to enter the Papertake Weekly challenge but thanks to my broadband problems it didn't happen. Never mind I've probably got more important things to do at the moment lol!

Fuzzy and Warm House Mouse.

I'm reasonably warm at the moment but only because I'm wearing a few layers and I'm looking forward to a plate (or 2) of lovely hot home-made potato soup. I made it last night so that it would taste even better re-heated today. I also made my first batch of mincemeat pies, which I love. I was actually trying to avoid sorting out my labels programme. Fingers crossed I have enough Christmas cards made now. So now I can get on with the special ones and finish the gift card holders.

Speaking of warm here is a nice cosy Christmas card.

I used :-

Image :- House Mouse.

Colouring :- Promarkers

Sentiment and Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- HOTP.

Martha Stewart snowflake punch, pearls and Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

House Mouse :- Fuzzy and Warm.
Everybody Art :- Sketch.

I love this image, they look so cute and cosy!

Thanks for looking and enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Totally Gorjuss - 110 - Let it Snow!

Good morning everyone and welcome to the weekend. That challenge title is uncannily accurate. I wasn't happy when the snow started a little on Friday afternoon but there was even more at night. Can't say I'm a happy bunny! I was hoping it would stay away as I've got a Christmas meal with the Guild on Monday night and then with the WRI on Wednesday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as the WRI meal was cancelled last year.

So here's my card for the Totally Gorjuss where the theme this week is "Let it Snow" and we are sponsored by the lovely people at Crafter's Companion so I hope you can join us.

I used :-

Image :- :PTV Cute square.

Sentiment & Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Star :- Memory Box.

Glamour Dust and jewels.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

ABC Christmas :- Y is for yippee - Christmas is almost here.
Creative Card Crew :- Tis the Season.
Cute Card Thursday :- Anything Goes.

I'll try to catch up with everyone later after work. I'm almost finished my Christmas cards now. I've made 92 but I'd still like to make some more just to be on the safe side. Then of course there's my family cards and the gift cards. I really want to get organised so I can hand out cards on Monday & Wednesday if I get to my nights out. I keep trying to tell myself I'm getting on better than last year but I'm not sure that's true lol!

Enjoy your weekend whatever you're doing. Thanks for looking.

It's a Greeen Tree!

Well there's a surprise! Right enough after the windy weather we've been having, and still have, it's a wonder there are many trees left standing. But this is a green tree on a Christmas card.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Colouring :- 4 shades of Memento ink.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Green Jewels.

This is another image I've used a few times this year in different ways. It's a great stamp but I'm not sure I've done it justice whatever way I've used it!

I'm entering the following challenge with this card :-

Less is More :- Green.

I'm off to finish my hoovering now and have some lunch before I go off to work at the hell that is the post office at this time of year. On Monday someone posted 2 non-Christmas parcels. One of them was the spoiler from a Subaru! Goodness knows what the other one was, it had strange sticky out bits and was about twice the weight of the spoiler. The customer thinks that over the course of this year she's posted most of a car!!!

Me Again!

Well I did say I'd be back later! Hope the electricity stays on here. It's really windy here this afternoon and the tv keeps being a bit weird. At one time it said there was no signal. I'm just watching the news and the Forth and Tay bridges are both closed to all traffic and the police are advising people not to travel at all. It's certainly a lot worse now than it was earlier!!

But here's my latest Penny Black snowman card.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment & Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Seam binding :- Ribbon Girl.

Cuttlebug embossing folders, pearls & Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Penny Black :- Total White Out.
Bunny Zoe :- Anything Christmas plus pearls.
Paperplay :- Snowman.

Now I'd best go and make some more Christmas cards. I've got lots of things I want to do but I can't do them till I know I've got enough Christmas cards.

Don't They Look Cosy?

This is the last of the cards I made at the crop on Saturday. Quite a simple quick card and since I realised after the crop that 80 cards was not enough I still need to make some nice quick cards.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Star :- Marianne Designs.

Ribbon and Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Creative Inspirations :- Snow much fun.

Crafty Creations :- Card with sentiment.

Since it's my day off today I'm hoping to get on with even more Christmas cards. I think I'm better organised than last year but I want to update my label list before I start writing my cards. It's really annoying working in the Post Office and people keep coming in with piles of Christmas cards ready to post and I haven't even got enough made yet.

I'll be back later though cos I made 5 cards last night. Sounds impressive but I had the images either coloured or used LOTV cute squares. So all I had to do was glitter and do some cutting and tying etc and putting together.

Thanks for looking.

Please don't "Let it Snow"

Apologies to everyone who likes snow but if you lived where I do you wouldn't want it to snow either. We haven't had much snow but it's been very cold and icy. I live in the country and even though we aren't far from the main Aberdeen to Peterhead road, which usually gets pretty well cleared, our road is narrow and winding and tends to drift badly.

I couldn't resist using another lovely Penny Black image for this card!

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment and Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Ribbon and Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Totally Papercrafts :- Let it Snow.

Pile it On :- Bling it up.

The Pink Elephant :- Snowflakes and Sparkle.

I'm glad today's my half day at work. Things are getting quite busy in the Post Office now. I've been getting lots of airmails and parcels. So I'm tending to get little blue airmail stickers in front of my eyes. Quite a lot of UK parcels between ebay and Christmas. I think some people are posting quite early this year after the weather being so bad in December last year.

Thanks for looking and I hope it's not too cold as I'm getting my hair cut after work. Catch you all later.

Here he is again!

It's that Penny Black snowman again! I can't resist him, he's so cute!

This is a lovely quick card and I think I need more like it. I've made 80 cards but I really need at least 91 plus the special ones. Not sure if my boss wants cards for her grandson from them and his great grandparents but I might just do a couple in case.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Snowflake border :- Memory Box.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenge :-

Allsorts :- Going round in circles.

I'm trying to do short posts just now so that I can visit my favourite blogs and do my DT work. So thanks for looking and I hope your weather is better than mine. It's pretty cold and icy here. Not as much snow as a lot of places but ice isn't nice when you're trying to walk to big mischievous dogs lol!

Christmas With no Red or Green.

Good morning everyone and here we are at the start of another week. I'm almost there with my Christmas cards which is lucky as I've achieved nothing yesterday. The card I have today is one that I finished at the crop on Saturday.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Sentiment and Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sizzix and Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Glamour Dust and ribbon.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
Oldie But a Goodie :- Christmas Card, no red or green.
Simon Says Challenge :- Anything Goes.

I'll probably have another busy day at work so I'll try to do some visiting tonight. Have a good day everyone and fingers crossed for not too much snow!

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Looks Cold Outside!

Good morning everyone, hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I don't know about where you are but here in coastal Aberdeenshire it's very, very cold! Yesterday it was very cold and windy but I went to a crop after work so I was nice and cosy indoors. We had yummy shortbread, tablet and cakes that some of the girls had made. We finished off with a Chinese takeaway and then a Secret Santa. I got a pad of beautiful First Edition papers so I'm a very happy bunny.

I managed to finish 3 cards and added inserts to about 30 cards so now I have 80 cards completely finished. I just need to check how many I really need. I also need to think up some special cards for my family and finish the gift card holders I'm making. Not to mention that one of my nephews is 18 on Christmas Eve so I need a special card for him.

My favourites this year seem to be Penny Black images and LOTV images and cute squares. Here's one I made with a cute square.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV cute square.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Corner die :- Memory Box

Ribbon and Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Ready Teddy Go :- Anything Goes.

ABC :- E is for embossing.

Colour Create :- Red, white and green.

Lucky me I have ironing to do today but then again I could leave it till this evening so that I can do something more interesting this afternoon!

Thanks for looking and I'll see you all later.

Totally Gorjuss 109 - Sketch.

Good morning everyone, I hope you're all enjoying your weekend. I'm off to a crop this afternoon and I'm looking forward to getting something done with my Christmas cards. Even if I only add some inserts added I'll be happy. I've completely finished 50 cards and still have 27 to finish. But I'd still like to make some more just to be sure I've got enough! I also have 6 special ones to make for my family.

This week at Totally Gorjuss we have a sketch since it is the first Saturday in the month. As usual on the first Saturday we are sponsored by Joanna Sheen. You really must pop over to her shop to see all the fabby new products she has in stock.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment & Card Candi :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- First Edition.

Ribbon, jewels and Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Ribbon Girl :- Christmas.
By the Cute and Girly :- Let it Snow.
St Lukes Charity Cards Challenge :- Let it Snow.
Crafting When We Can :- Borrow a sketch from another challenge.

I'll catch up with you all later, I hope. I just seem to be so short of time just now. I haven't been very good at blogging lately but I think if I could get my cards finished and my label list updated I might feel a bit calmer. I've also got 8 gift card holders to make. I do have all the "bits" organised it's just a matter of finding time to put them all together lol.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend whatever you've got planned.