SCSC 60 - Christmas Trees

Sunday 29 November 2009
Well, I was right about the weather being horrible today! Definitely a day for doing some crafting, but not easy to get decent photos so I apologise if this appear a bit dark!

The challenge this week over a SCSC is to have a Christmas Tree somewhere on your card. I, for a change, haven't used a stamp for this card. I decided to use the Lace Tree cuttlebug embossing folder. I was lucky enough to get this last year but am ashamed to admit that this is the first time that I have used it! It creates such a elegant finish for any card.


I have only embellished it with a few gems as I felt that was all it really needed, plus a touch of ribbon on the fold. This was so quick to make which is important when you have lots of Christmas cards to make! I made a a few of these very quickly. I've included a picture of an identical card but this time in green.

These cards are so different from what I'm used to, so I would be really interested to know what you think.
I hope you are all having a lovely day aside from the abysmal weather. Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.
xx :0)

Season's Tweetings

Saturday 28 November 2009
I was up at 7:30am this morning and made a couple of cards before going Christmas shopping with my mum and dad. Just chilling now with the football. I'll probably make a couple more cards later, before watching the X Factor. Who are you voting for?? I'm routing for Danyl as he's from my home town but I also love little Joe and also Stacey!

Well, I told you that I loved this weeks Mojo Monday sketch and I have to warn you that you may be seeing it a few more times yet! I've adapted slightly for this card. I've used another of my favourite Elzybells stamps featuring that cute reindeer! I thought that I had the "Seasons Tweetings" sentiment to go with it but have not been able to find it, so I'll probably have to generate it on my PC. I'm sorry about the photo quality, the light still wasn't that great this morning and I didn't want to overdo it with the software.

I've used my two favourite shades of Bazzill blue. I love these colours and always have to make sure I've got some in stock as they're great for Xmas, men and baby cards.


Supplies:
Stamps: Reindeer & Robin - Elzybells; Inks: Copics, Memento Tuxedo Black
CS & Paper : Bazzil Basics, Bristol Board ; Tools: Snow Dots CB Folder, Nestabilities, MS Doily Lace Punch, X-Cut Snowflake punch

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Tomorrow looks to be a pretty miserable day, perfect excuse to spend the day making cards (before the Arsenal - Chelsea match)!

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

Mojo Monday 114

Thursday 26 November 2009
Boy, am I glad it's Friday tomorrow! Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to go wrong? Well that was me today at work. I hate making mistakes in anything I do, but especially in my work. Here's hoping tomorrow's a better day.

To de-stress I decided to have a go at this weeks Mojo Monday Challenge. It's a fabulous sketch and one I can definitely see me using again. It also gave me the opportunity to use one of my "new" Forever Friends stamps. I've put new in quotation marks as it's the first time I've used it even though I've had it a few months so, technically, it's new! It's one of the stamps that are exclusive to The Glitter Pot. I think they have a good deal on at the moment with some of these stamps so why not check them out.

As with a few of my Christmas cards already, I've stuck with the red and white as my contrasting colours. I think these work so well together and appear very striking. I'm a very simplistic girl at heart!


I know the sketch shows a bow in the top left hand corner, but I'm not always that good with bows, even with a bow maker, so I opted to embellish it with a punched snowflake. I hope that it's acceptable!


Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Gift - Forever Friends; Inks: Copics, Memento Tuxedo Black
CS & Paper : Stampin Up! & CWC ; Tools: Snow Dots CB Folder, Nestabilities
Sentiment: Cyrstalline Penny Black Transparent

I do love how this has turned out, I hope you do too.

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

It's such a Purrfect Day...!!

Wednesday 25 November 2009
I wish it was a perfect day! That wind has been howling around most of the night and kept waking me up. Is this crazy weather ever going to end??

I apologise that this is a short post today, but I'm racing against time to get this posted before I leave for work as I forgot to schedule the post last night! I will try and add the details later on this evening but I've got some new toys arrive hopefully so might be having a bit of a play!!

This card was for a fellow cat lover in my team at work. There was never any doubt which set of my PB's was going to come out and play! I seem to use the same layouts for a lot of my cards, but I think it is what I am comfortable with. I apologise if I'm being boring! As I'd already used the Bazzill Dots card, I chose to leave the white panel plain which I am regretting now but hey, it's too late to do anything about it now.

I'm really pleased with how the text went around the oval, sort of framing the image.


I hope the photos are looking okay with this software. If anyone thinks they could be improved slightly, please let me know and I will play some more. I had been tinkering with the saturation, brightness and contrast on some of the earlier posts but was concerned that I had overdone it so I'm now doing very little. I just hope I'm not going too far back the other way!
Anyway, enough jabbering, I'd best go and get some breakfast before it's time to get the hubby up and make our way once more to that place that funds my hobby! I hope everyone has a good day and thank you for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.
xx :0)

Have Yourself a Beary Little Christmas...

Tuesday 24 November 2009
This weeks Challenge over on Allsorts is a Christmas Carol or a Song Title.

One of my favourite Christmas songs is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas sung by Vanessa Williams. I love this song! I know she's not the original singer, but hers was the 1st version I heard growing up and it's stuck!

I have tweaked the words a little for my card to say "Beary" instead of "Merry", however I think the image I've used could come up with a couple more songs, like Frosty the Snowman or Winter Wonderland!

This stamp is so sweet, in fact I love all the Bear Essential stamp sets but I was very restrained and limited myself to just one! You can get these from the wonderful Tracey at Dies to Die For.


Supplies:
Stamps: Bear Essentials set 435-Dies to Dies For; Inks: Copics,Spica Glitter Pen Memento Tuxedo Black
CS & Paper : Stampin Up! & CWC ; Tools: Argyle CB Folder, Nestabilities
Sentiment: CWC oval

It's a shame you can't tell from the images, but the shadows around the snowman and the fur trim of the hat have all been glittered using the clear Spica Glitter pen. I have also glittered around the embossed shapes too. I think the sentiment I have used, whilst not being christmassy, is just perfect for the meaning of the image.
I hope everyone is having a good day. This weather has been atrocious recently and my heart and sympathies are with all those that have been affected by the devastating floods in Cumbria over the weekend. I can't imagine what they are going through. It puts things into perspective.
Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.
xx :0)

Sweet Seventeen

Monday 23 November 2009
Okay, I know the saying is usually "Sweet Sixteen" but I thought it could apply to this card as it's sweet, like candy!

I was asked to make a 17th birthday card and the only things that really came to mind were my Miss Anya stamps. I don't use these enough, so it was a good excuse to get them out and ink them up! I was really pleased with how the colouring came out. I would show you a close up, but it was too dark and ended up blurred.

I'd forgotten that I'd got these papers. They were from the Clare Curd The Big One pad which I had got at the NEC in March! Just shows you how often I use decorative papers in my card making!
Supplies:
Stamps: Miss Anya - The Greeting Farm; Inks: Copics, Memento Tuxedo Black
CS & Paper : Stampin Up!, Papermania & CWC ; Tools: D'vine Swirls CB Folder, Nestabilities
Sentiment: PC Generated - Peach Fuzz Font

As I've made this for a teenager, I'm also going to enter this into this weeks Cute Card Thursday Challenge which is for Teen Terrors!

I'm having difficulty adding my supplies under my photos like I did before. I don't know if this is something to do with being on Vista and the lastest version of IE. I'm having to do the HTML coding from other post and adapt it. If anyone can let me know it would be much appreciated. I hope everyone has a good day and thank you for stopping by, it is greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

Elzybells Challenge 32 - Seeing Stars

Sunday 22 November 2009
Well, my software arrived early and I've had a bit of a play so I hope the photos look ok. I'd like to put a watermark on my photos but don't really know how, so if someone could point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

I've made this card for this fortnights Elzybells Challenge which is Seeing Stars. My image has a star, the saying mentions stars and I've added a silver star border with some peel-offs so I hope I've covered everything!

This is one of my favourite Elzybells Christmas stamps, it's so sweet! I've sprayed the embossed panel with Silver Spray and Sparkle which is from Crafters Companion. You might be able to see if a bit better on the close-up photo below.
I got the idea for the word circle from the wonderful Sue Nelson! If you've not visited her gallery before, you don't know what your missing! This lady is a genius!
Apologies for no supplies details. I'm posting this quickly before my roast is dished up!

Which one...??

Friday 20 November 2009
Whilst I'm waiting to be able to post crafty photos, I've been thinking about getting one of these coffee machines for hubby for Christmas. My Kenwood Frothie packed up so he can no longer have a frothy cappucino, or me a frothy hot chocolate!

I've been looking at either a Tassimo or a Dulco Gusto. I've seen good and bad things said about both but would love to hear from anyone that has either to let me know what they think (especially if they taste good!). I have heard the Tassimo doesn't froth well (or last) so have seen a mily frother on Amazon that I can get should I go down that route.

Would love to hear from you either way!

xx :0)

Software update

Tuesday 17 November 2009
Just to let you know that I've ordered my new photo software, but it may not be with me until 23/25 Nov! Grrr!! The basic bits on my laptop aren't really up to the task of what I would like when posting photos so I'm afraid you'll have to bear with me a little longer.

I promise I will be back though!

Apologies for the lack of blogging too. I seem to have become addicted to Farmville and have been somewhat neglecting everything and everyone else. That will change, I promise!

xx :0)

Software Woe's!

Monday 16 November 2009
I am still here and on my new laptop that my lovely hubby got me as my early Christmas present.

I'm unable to show anything at present as the software that I used on my old laptop won't install on my new one (prob cos it wasn't quite legit, if you know what I mean!). I'm now in the process of purchasing some new software so I can show you what I have been up to in my absence.

I'm currently making some little gift boxes with Snowman Soup goodies inside! After the success of the halloween treat bags that sold at work, I've been inspired to try some new things to try and sell. Having already made a proto-type which I showed a very good friend, she's said that she would take 3 boxes as stocking fillers.

It's helping to keep me occupied as my mum isn't too well again at the moment. Those of you who have followed me for a while will know what we went through last year. We're all praying that we don't go down that road again.

I hope you're all well and not forgotten me.

xx :0)