Christmas Is Coming ...

And not only am I making this years Christmas cards, I'm off to book my Christmas Day dinner at a local pub tomorrow.

I know they get booked up quickly and I don't want to miss out, because I hate cooking.

Nitwit Strawberry Mouse Cards

A couple of Good Luck cards made with papers from the cute BERRY PRECIOUS range by NITWIT.

These papers were free from Creative Cardmaking magazine, but I have downloaded several other the Nitwit collections and used them alot!

I've not had much chance at cardmaking as my 96 year old Grandmother has been in hospital following a fall. Until now she has lived alone, but it is now time she went into a care home, so we have been looking around for the right one.

Tres Chic!

I visited Bury St Edmunds yesterday and popped into the Stamp Hut for a few crafting essentials (as you do!). Whilst there I spotted an old edition of Creative Cardmaking magazine that I had missed in the bargain bin and snapped it up.

The free papers were by Cardwork Cards, one of my favourite companies from their Tres Chic range. I just love the hot pink, baby pink and black combo and it certainly lives up to it's name.

None of these cards are birthday cards as I decided again to stock up on other types, so I now have some 'get well soon', 'thinking of you' and 'just because' cards.

Nitwit Cat Card

Feeling a bit jaded, I popped over to Inspiration Card Sketches to see their latest layout - then used it to make this Nitwit Cat card for my spares box, I'm sure it will come in useful one day.

More Botanicals

I've had another play with the funky Craftwork Cards Botanical papers that were free in a magazine in July.

I'm a bit fed up with birthday cards, so made a Good Luck, New Home and Thank You card instead!

That Christmas Feeling...

..... came over me yesterday so I started to make a few cards with the Hunkydory Christmas Elegance die cuts a bought a while ago.

I then looked at the brown waste card from cutting out the flowers to layer the sentiments against, and realised it looked quite pretty against the 'old writing paper' background , so made a birthday card as well!

A bit of Zingy Orange

I've won these bright and breezy papers from Kaisercraft called Party Animals - complete with some fun and funky circus tents and animals!

They certainly brighten up a dismal rainy day!

Yet More Owls!

I picked up another bargain on eBay this week, a set of colour-me ovals from Craftwork Cards. I've coloured them with promarkers and teamed them up with card candi and sentiments, also from Craftwork cards.

As you can see, I'm a bit of a Craftwork Cards fan, mainly because they use great quality card with a bit of a satin sheen that gives it a luxury feel!

I must be getting old!

How could I have forgotten about these beautiful pastel papers from Hunkydory?

They were free with Junes edition of Creative Cardmaking magazine and it was only when I was flicking through some old copies looking for something else when I realised they were still inside, untouched!

Utopiary from Inkadinkado

I've been dithering of this Utopiary set of stamps from Inkadinkadoo for ages, but finally gave in an bought them from eBay with some of my birthday money.

There are 5 silhouette stamps in the set - I tried stamping them in black Memento ink first for these ATC's, but I'm going to experiment with other colours later on!

PS These are available to swap over on the Docrafts site

Christmas Polar Bears

I treated my self to a set of snowy Polar Bear stamps from Dimension Fourth this week, normally I can't get into the mood for Christmas card making until the weather turns chilly in September, but these have kick-started me this year!

And the winner is .......

Using Ye Olde Fashioned method of numbers written on paper and put into a hat ( well a plastic pot) - drawn by my Niece Molly the winner is

No 7 KayC Congratulations!!

Thank you all for my birthday wishes, I have had some lovely presents including perfume, jewellery, a handbag and some of my favourite cider!

I'm off to visit The Range later on to spend some birthday cash that is burning a hole in my purse.

Some Birthday Candy!

It's my birthday coming up soon and I've already started dropping hints to the family about things I would like! Anyway, to celebrate I've decided to put together a pile of candy.

All you have to do is be a follower, put the picture in your blog and name on Mr Linky.

The pile contains

2 sheets of Papermania bare chipboard shapes

set of 5 coloured tags

Kaisercraft report cards

Kaisercraft class of 87 clear stamps

Serif Picnic in the Park paper stack

Dovercraft 3D foam stickers of tools

Papermania butterfly stencil

Papermania clear stamps of borders

BoBunny Special Delivery stickers

BoBunny Harvest Spice stickers

sheet of Dufex relation names

XCut Ivy leaf Botanical embossing punch

Closing date is the day before my birthday 8th August - So that I can take time off from opening the pile of presents ( I wish!) to announce the winner on the 9th.

Those LOTV Rabbits

This is another of those cute Lili of the Valley images that were free in a magazine, coloured with my trusty promarkers!

I wasn't sure about the red/pink/pale blue colour combo but hopefully it doesn't look too bad? I didn't know what colour to pick for the layering, so went for the red of the cherries from the cupcakes!

I had some lovely cherries today for tea - they were so tasty!

My Son is a big Beatles Fan.....

and today is his 17th birthday - Happy Birthday Jared!!!

His wall is covered in posters of them and he even bought an old record player so that he could listen to their original LP's. For his birthday card I found a picture of Lego men recreating the Abbey Road crossing scene which I think he will like. Not surprisingly, he is getting a load of Beatles goodies as presents as well as a mobile phone. Hopefully the weather will improve so he can have a BBQ with his mates later on.

Another Use for my Newly discovered Stamp

In a forthcoming family wedding the groom is being married for the third time at the age of 50, so I racked my brains for something suitable and remembered that lovely heart stamp.

Its stamped in Tim Holtz Weathered Wood distress ink, which comes out as a lovely silvery grey. Then I layered on silver and pearlised paper embossed with my new folder which gives it a bit of a lacy look.

The Black Swan

Another quick card using an unused rubber stamp - this one was from the patterned birds and bugs set by Inkadinkado which I've had for quite a while now!

Why haven't I used this stamp before???

This black heart was part of the Romantica set by Elusive Images that I have had for ages - I was just flicking through my stamps when I noticed this one had never been inked up. So I just stamped it out to see what it looked like and was very impressed with the detail on it.

I scattered a few diamond gems in the centre of the flowers and added a round Craftwork Cards sentiment in the middle which seems to work quite well - in fact I might use this for my Brother-in-Laws forthcoming wedding now. Must go an have another rummage to see if there are more forgotten treasures in my stamp collection!

Baby Cards - Just in case!

I don't know anyone whose pregnant at the moment but made these 2 new baby cards to keep just in case!

They are more cards that I've put together to use up some of my huge pile of papers - didn't really make much of a dent!!!!

Botanical Carftwork Cards

Yes, I got a bit carried away with the free Botanicals papers from this months Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine and churned out these 5 cards in an evening!

I already had the butterfly shapes in my stash( a bargain off eBay)

as I am a big fan of Craftwork card stuff.

I have loads of their card candi in different colours and sentiments too. They are printed on quality paper with lovely fonts!

A few more LOTV cards!

Still have fun making more cards with these cute Lili of the Valley images!

Lili of the Valley Rules!

I've falling in love with these fabulous Lili of the Valley images - 20 of them were free with a magazine and I'm tempted to go out and buy another copy to get another set!
I've just spent a couple of hours unwinding from work by colouring them in and they have such great detail to them. I can now see why crafters are so keen on them!

Loads of Men !!

I had the day off today and spent the morning watching daughter at her sports day - it was very cold! I then popped into my local craft shop to get my ticket for a local papercraft show on Sunday and spotted a set of Kanban male word toppers which matched the free papers from Creating Cards magazine which then just fell into my basket.
I then spent the afternoon trying to warm up by making these cards. Just like buses, the inspiration for cards for men seem to come along together!!

Yet another Owl Card!

I don't know why, but everytime I try to make a male birthday card it ends up with an owl on it!

Good Luck Card - First of Many ??

I work in Local Government where the cuts are starting to be felt and this card is for a colleague who is leaving as her contract hasn't been renewed. In fact, my Council is looking to loose between 10-20% of it's staff next year and no-one is safe. I just hope I manage to keep my job as I am the breadwinner for the family.

Anyway, back to this card - the black cat is a Personal Impressions stamp with a little green bow as an embellishment. The hot pink card has a X-cut leafy lace border. I hope I don't have to make too many good luck cards for my friends in the next few months!