Lucky Me

 

I was lucky enough to win this Tonic Cardmaking Collection kit last week.  Christina Griffiths from Card Making Magic, has a regular giveaway on her blog (called Flowers, Ribbons & Pearls) and last week I was the winner!

There are lots of papers and toppers, an embossing folder and 10 stamps!

Plus a fab Floral Cuff die and loads of ideas in the magazine to inspire you to use it - a great giveaway!

Why not pop over to her blog and see what she is giving away this week, she posts one every Friday and the winner is drawn out of the hat on Saturday! You could be lucky like me.

Papercraft Essentials 191

 

The latest edition of Papercraft Essentials Magazine caught my eye in WH Smiths because of the free RSPB foiled kit

I've already made some lovely bird themed Christmas cards

as well as a couple of birthday cards using the toppers, papers & embellishments - and there are still plenty left!

Christmas Circles

 

Last night I spent an enjoyable time making stenciled circles with my distress oxide ink pads on to the back of old Christmas cards from last year

Which today I have turned into a variety of different Christmas cards for this year ....

using lots of stamps that haven't seen the light of day for a long time!

A very good way to spend a rainy day.

Hunkydory Robins

 

Christmas card production is now in full swing and this selection of robin cards were made from the Hunkydory Festive Birdsong Topper pack

I just love a traditional 'robin in the snow' Christmas card - and luckily so do some of my friends and family!

Paper Cuts - Holly Berry Die

 

A while ago I bought this Holly Berry die from Creative Expressions, so now its time to make some Christmas cards with it!

This one just uses a burgundy and gold mat with matching ribbon to set it off

Whilst this uses a vintage printed vellum ( that I have had for years!) with some Nuvo drops to highlight the berries. Three different cards in different colour schemes and styles to show how versatile it can be!

Christmas is a coming!

 

I make it a point never to start making Christmas cards until after the 1st September - surely 3 1/2 months is long enough to be covered in glitter?

It also seems wrong to make Christmas cards when it is still hot and sunny. So, earlier this week the weather cooled down and I went and rummaged in the cupboard under the stairs to dig out my 3 boxes of Christmas goodies. Really I have so many stamps, papers, dies and embellishments, that there is no excuse to buy anymore this year.

Colours of the Autumn

 I bought myself the latest copy of Simply Cards Magazine with these lovely Autumnal trees, leaves and sentiment stamps

And I teamed them up with a Hunkydory background sheet that I bought at my recent charity shop haul.

to make these Autumn themed cards - won't be long now til the leaves start falling off the trees!

More Charity Shop Bargains

 Popped in to one of my favourite charity shops for St Elizabeth Hospice and found loads of card making stuff!

I picked up loads of Hunkydory shopper sheets in a whole variety of styles

A complete cardstock pack from Hunkydorys Watercolour wings selection, retails at £12.99 - pleased about this, as I already have the matching topper deck.

A large pack of embellishments and toppers from Craftwork Cards

Plus some cute Christmas card kits and lots of Christmas banners from Lakeland  - all for £5.00. The first cards that I made all featured birds. 

Buttons and Bows

 

I have added a few buttons and bows to some of the images from the Hunkydory Topper pads I bought recently to make some quick vintage style cards for the charity box. It was all that I felt like doing in the hot, humid heat we had last week.

Pokemon Go

 I mentioned a couple of years ago on this blog about my love of the Pokemon Go game, and its still going strong!  As I don't have a dog, its a good excuse to go out for a walk and collect Pokemon instead. 

I am surprised how many 'older' people like myself play it regularly too - its not just for the kids!

Charity Shop Bargains

I ventured out to one of my local charity shops this week and picked up these 4 Hunkydory little books for only £2.00 each! Normally they are £8-£10 each and only have a couple of toppers used, so great value.

There were lots more books there, but I left them for some other crafter to pick up and enjoy.

The books were Vintage Lace, Charming Chaps, Twilight Kingdom and Florals - and so cover many different styles and occasions. I will have great fun using them in the future!

Good Bye & Good Luck!

Following on from from my previous post, I got stuck in and used those fab Honey Doo stamps! Managed to make 11 different cards with those sentiments, some to keep and some to sell.

A few Hot Air balloon cards and then some with kites 

A couple of Light bulbs for New Job cards

some bright, modern and funky cards

And then something completely different from the rest!

Leaving or Getting a New Job?

I found it really hard to find the right sentiment to make a card wishing someone good luck in their new job. Despite having hundred of stamps, I only had one that said JOB and it was tiny!

So I searched around and found these sentiments from Honey Doo Crafts which fit the bill perfectly! Plus they were reduced to only £2.99, so I treated myself to the Birthday Star stamps as well. I discovered that they are a local company based here in Suffolk and they arrived next day on 1st class delivery.

I'm going to team them up with this hot air balloon die from Papercrafter mag.

Wild & Free

A couple of cards made with some of the stamps I bought last month with background papers from the Hunkydory Twilight Kingdom pad the I bought  back in June 2017!

Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

It was a year ago that Simply Cards Magazine had the 'Country Diary' themed freebie papers and stamps - still using them up!

Wedding Anniversary

Having just celebrated my 35th Wedding Anniversary, I realised that I needed to make some anniversary cards to put in my (ever growing) charity card box. We should have been in New York this week to celebrate, but it was not to be. Instead a visit to the seaside, to walk  along the prom and eat fish and chips was the best we could do. 

Looks like it will be a long time before we get the money refunded, so can't make any plans. In so many ways, this will be a year to remember!