What Do You Think?

I've been trying to make some things for my WRI show next week so I thought I'd get your opinion on my Victorian Style Christmas card. I borrowed this lovely stamp from a friend. I think he looks like a Victorian Santa. Not sure I've done him justice though! 

I used :-

Image :- Stampendous.

DP :- GCD Studios.

Flowers and leaves :- Nellie Snellen punches.

Sentiment :- LOTV.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Corners :- Whimsy.

Glamour Dust.

Lace and ribbon from stash.

Isn't it funny how things turn out a different colour in a photo. The flowers and mats are actually a lovely pearlised dark red. The ribbon was quite bright so I darkened it with some Brushed Corduroy DI!//

Challenges :-

Stampin for the Weekend :- Use lace.
ABC Christmas :- D is for Designer Paper.
Christmas Card Challenges :- Anything Goes.
Crafty Ribbons :- Anything Goes with Ribbon.

But does this look like a Victorian style Christmas card  or is it just me that thinks that? It's a bit more elaborate than the cards I've been making recently. To say the least! I've spent ages making it but more than likely it's been a waste of time. What usually wins the handmade card category is the one that's made using bits popped out of a sheet and stuck on or bought toppers. Not one that's been completely made from scratch! Ok rant over lol! So that's two things completely finished now. This and a ladies hat. I'm hoping to finish my other knitting today and get on with a crocheted Christmas decoration.

Thanks for looking. As usual I'd be grateful for any comments you have time to leave.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 160 - Anything Goes with Glitter.

Good morning everyone and would someone please tell me that this is not the 1st of December! For once I'm quite well on with my cards. I've made 99 as of last night when I made 5 simple ones. I'm going to a crop today so I'm planning to add the inserts which is a horrible job. All that cutting to the right size! Doesn't help that I've made rectangular and square cards and not all the same size. Never learn do we? My friend said the other day that next year she was going to finish each card completely, insert and all as she went along. I'm sure I'll just end up sticking the card in my box and having all the inserts to add when they're all finished. Never mind at least I'm "finished" earlier than usual. When I say finished I mean I've still got my family cards to make. And I don't think I mentioned that I'll need to type out all my addresses for labels. I had to put a new hard drive in my laptop this year since the original one decided to die. And yes as you can guess I've been putting it off!

But enough waffle I need to show you my card for this week's challenge at Totally Gorjuss. This week's challenge is really easy. It's "Anything Goes with Glitter." Now isn't that just perfect for this time of year. Me too, I love glitter on my Christmas cards. Our sponsor is the lovely Joanna Sheen and I'm sure if you're anything like me you can always find something you want in her online store.

I used :-

Image and DP :- LOTV.

Colouring :- Promarkers

Glamour Dust, Memory Box die, gems and ribbon.

Quite a simple quick card really, but I kinda like it.

I'm going to my crop this afternoon and we'll have a Secret Santa and have our tea before we head for home. I'm looking forward to it especially since I need to work in the morning. So I'll try to catch up later and see what everyone's been up to.

Thanks for looking and for any kind comments you might have time to leave. I'm always pleased to hear from my faithful followers but it's nice to hear from new bloggers too. So don't be shy tell me what you think so I can pop over and visit you too.

Totally Gorjuss 155 - Things with Wings.

Good morning everyone. I'm hoping that when you read this I'll be on my way to the SECC in Glasgow for the craft show. We're supposed to be leaving at 7.30am! I usually go on the Sunday on a bus with a lot of other crafters but I have something else on tomorrow so my husband is driving us down. 

Here's my card for Totally Gorjuss where our challenge is "Things with Wings." We have a new sponsor this week, Crafty Poodles, so don't forget to pop over and check them out.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Liquid Pearls.

Sentiment and candi :- Craftwork Cards.

DP :- First Edition.

Snowflakes :- Martha Stewart punches.

Corner :- Whimsy die.

Pearls and gems :- Hobby House.

Glamour Dust and ribbon.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Sketch and Stash :- Sketch.
Fussy and Fancy :- Anything Goes.
Stampin' for the Weekend :- Anything Goes.
Pile it on :- Holiday - Christmas.

I may have to catch up with you on Sunday since I'll probably not be home all that early tonight.

Thanks for looking and I'd love to hear what you think of my card. That's number 50 now!!

Have a lovely weekend everyone. It's very cold here and we had snow and hail showers on Friday. Hope it's only rain today at the worst lol!

More butterflies.......!

winter ones that is!

I don't think this is what I intended to make this afternoon but this is what happened. My friend came over and when I saw some of the Christmas cards she had made I decided to just use the embossed background and add a sentiment instead of adding a stamped image. I think it turned out ok. Well I hope so anyway lol!

I used :-

Embossing folder :- Sizzix - Tim Holtz snowflakes, red - Cuttlebug.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Gems :- Hobby House.

Ribbon, Glamour Dust.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Creative Inspirations :- Bingo - white, snowflakes and ribbon.
Simon Says Stamp :- Anything goes.
Oldie but a Goodie :- I've had this sentiment stamp for ages.

I'm off to check out Amazon for a book I've got my eye on. I'd also like to look at food mixers! Blame the Great British Bake Off. I love that programme lol! I've even been watching the junior version which is on a Sunday morning after my daughter told me about it. I received some books from Amazon after about a week of waiting. Yodel kept claiming that they had tried to deliver on 3 different occasions. Considering I was in yesterday at 6.14pm when they said they had tried I don't believe they were ever here. Not once did I get a card saying they had been. I complained to Amazon who were very helpful and today there was a card in my mailbox and the parcel was in my shed!! So here's hoping my next order is more successful. I would download the book to my iPad but the hardback version is cheaper so I'm going to risk ordering it.

Hope everyone is ok and not suffering after the awful weather we had at the beginning of the week.

Thanks for looking and hope to hear from some of you.

Looks like his Christmas tree's too tall for his house!

I hate computers. I had this post all written ready to add to my blog and then it vanished!! So I'm not going to re-write it I'm just going to add the pic and add the post to my blog before it's any later.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment and Candi :- Craftwork cards.

Glamour Dust, MS punch, ribbon and embossing folders.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
Penny Black and More at Allsorts :- Early Christmas.
Secret Crafter :- Animal Antics.
Christmas Card Challenges :- Three of something - 3 candi in a row.
Created with Love :- Christmas with a twist - use a diecut.
Simon Says Stamp :- Anything Goes.

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up later.

More Christmas in July.

Well it's not been July weather so why not get on with some Christmas cards? I love this mummy snowlady with her cute little baby don't you? I think I might make some more cards with this sweet image.

I used :-

Image :- Dillybeans Stamps.

Colouring :- Promarkers

Sentiment and card candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Snowflake :- Martha Stewart punch.

Embossing :- Cuttlebug and Craft Concepts.

Corner :- Whimsy.

Glamour Dust and ribbon. 

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge :- Monochrome.
Crafting When We Can :- Monochrome.
Simon Says Stamp :- Anything Goes.
Charisma Cardz :- Monochrome.

I hope this fits the monochrome challenges but if not I'm happy for these challenges to delete my entry!

I've not achieved much today. I had to take the car for it's MOT today and then tax it so that ran away with a lot of my morning but at least it's done! It's been really nice today. Not completely sunny or hot but there has been sun and it's dry and warm so that's a bonus after all the rain we've had.

I'm off to see if I can get anything else done now before I need to walk the dogs and make tea. I'm off out tonight so as usual my day off has just vanished. I would so love to not have to work!! On the other hand my friend recently had a minor op and has been off work for 4 weeks. She thought she'd be off for a couple of days so she's pretty fed up now and will actually be glad to get back to work. So I suppose not working is fine as long as you're not off work due to ill health or recovering from an operation.

I'm quite looking forward to taking the dogs out now when it's nice. Makes a change from coming in with muddy boots and eight muddy paws!!

See you later if my internet connection is behaving. Sometimes it's not very good in the evening. In fact the last two evenings it's been so rubbish I could hardly get online at all!

Totally Gorjuss 105 - Sketch.

Good morning everyone, I hope it's better than the last couple of days. Damp, misty...just horrible. Weather forecast sounds ok so fingers crossed!

It's the first Saturday in November so it's time for another sketch from Net for our challenge at Totally Gorjuss. And as usual for the 1st Saturday we are sponsored by Joanna Sheen. I had a look yesterday and she has some really good bargains just now and of course these is no p&p so your money goes further!

I used :-

Image :- Cute Square from LOTV.

Sentiment :- Heritage Rubber Stamp Co.

DP :- GCD Studios.

Glamour Dust, ribbon and jewels.

Isn't this lovely DP? My friend and I bought a 12x12 pad between us. It's lovely traditional colours but not bright and I like it with this cute image.

I hope you can join us this week and if you need more inspiration just pop over to Totally Gorjuss.

Thanks for looking and internet access permitting I'll try to do some catching up with my favourite blogs. Enjoy your weekend whatever you're doing.

I Like Simple!

Hi everyone, I'm a bit later than I meant to be but isn't that just typical! I've hardly been at home this last fortnight between being at work all the time, going off to the SECC last Sunday and being out 2 nights this week already. So I thought I'd get this posted when I had the chance. I bought this lovely new Memory Box tree die at the SECC and so did my friend. She cut out her tree and then wondered how to stick it as it's too wide for her little Xyron. Last night I was out visiting a friend and when I came back I thought I'd cut mine out and try sticking it down with sticky dots. It worked so I made this simple card. I even made my DT card for Totally Gorjuss.

I used :-

Tree die :- Memory Box.

Martha Steward icicle punch.

Base of tree hand-cut from a piece of red card.
Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Ribbon and jewels.

The blue card comes from the Papeterie and I've had it about 4-5 years, since I started making cards. It's been in a drawer ever since but it seems ideal for this type of simple card.

Well I'd best go and schedule a post for my DT card. I'm off to a crop at my local craft shop. Wonder what they've got that I need lol!

Thanks for looking, I'll try to visit tomorrow!

Simple Poinsettia Card.

Hi everyone. Well so much with catching up yesterday evening! My broadband connection was really acting up. I had to do my Tesco order but it was really difficult. Then it was ok-ish for a while and I was nearly finished when it wouldn't work at all! Just when I was ready to finish and pay. I tried for a while but no use. I decided to have one last try but still no use. Sometimes the broadband was recognised but I couldn't get online and others there was no trace of it. Eventually I thought I might be able to finish the order on my phone. I went online on my HTC  phone and there was my order. Still couldn't finish as I'd lost my time slot. When I chose a time slot I was able to complete the order. Not sure what happened though as 3 or 4 items disappeared and I got 3 items that I didn't order. Luckily the ones I didn't order won't go to waste and I can live without the ones that didn't come or get them somewhere else!!

Today I still didn't have internet access so my friend and I couldn't check up on our fav blogs. After tea I decided to phone my broadband helpline. I'm with the Post Office so I can get through really quickly and easily thank goodness. So I took my laptop through beside the router and phoned them. I had chosen the option I wanted and was waiting for someone to answer when I realised the internet light on the router was lit up for the first time since yesterday. So I hastily put down the phone! Well I'd have felt a right idiot phoning about no internet access if it had come back on. Not sure if it was a fault at the local exchange or further afield but I'm just glad to see it on again.

So here's the card I was going to post last night. This one was also inspired by Aud, thanks Aud!

 I used :-
Poinsettia :- Marianne die.
Cuttlebug embossing folder.
Sentiment & card candi :- Craftwork Cards.
Ribbon and Glamour Dust.

I'd like to enter the following challenges :-
One Stitch at a Time :- Christmas.
Pollycraft :- Anything Goes.
Totally Papercrafts :- Glitter It.

Now I've got internet access again I'm off to catch up with my DT commenting and try to make a start on my DT card for Totally Gorjuss. I'm hopelessly behind with visiting my favourite blogs so all I can do is apologise girls and start again tomorrow. I'm hoping that my trainee at the post office can work on her own tomorrow and I can have my day off again. I really need some me time lol!

BTW Carol was wondering what I'd bought at the SECC! Somehow I didn't seem to have a lot for what I'd spent as it more or less all got into one bag.  I bought some new clear sets of Christmas Penny Blacks and Hobby Art sentiments, Distress Ink re-inkers, sticky backed pearls, double sided and extra sticky tape, TH tissue wrap, Memory Box and Marianne dies, memento dewdrop inks, LOTV stamps, a ball of wool to knit a fancy scarf and a jewelley kit to make a bracelet. I've already had to rewind the whole ball of wool as Max found it and had it all over the floor plus some of my other new stash. He can't seem to leave anything alone!!

Thanks for looking and I hope I still have internet access tomorrow so I can do some visiting.

Colour Create Challenge 82 - Burgundy, Gold, Green & Cream.

Hi everyone, I'm still struggling to get anything done this week. I'm still training my new assistant so I had to be at work all day today. I've got my fingers crossed for my day off on Thursday. I had the day off on Monday after being away at the SECC on Sunday but I managed to achieve absolutely nothing  craft-wise!!

I'm posting a card I made on Saturday but didn't manage to get posted due to one thing and another. I was inspired to make this card and another one after seeing a lovely card on Aud's blog on Saturday.

 I used :-

Poinsettia :- Nestie die.

DP :- GCD Studios.

Sentiment and card candi :- Craftwork Cards.

Ribbon, gold seed beads in centre of poinsettia (although they look red here!)

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Colour Create :- Burgundy, gold, green and cream with the added option of dimension.

I'm off to try to catch up with some blogging now, I haven't had time to see what everyone is up to since Saturday.

Thanks for looking.