Age is just a Number!

I hope everyone enjoyed the recent festive days and thanks to everyone who sent me messages, cards and prezzies!!!
We had a lovely quiet couple of days in our first Christmas in our new house and am keeping my fingers crossed that the current hailstorm will turn to snow 'cos I can't wait to see the hills and valley at the back all white!! (Yes I am definitely crazy wishing to be snowed in I know!)

My share for today is a commissioned card for a 70th Birthday.

The recipient is someone who can only be described as 'a party gal' and I was asked to reflect that in the card. The lady in question certainly knows how to have a good time and is the life and soul of any celebration and I hope I have captured her personality as asked.

I opted to use a centre step scalloped edge card as a bit of a change from my recent squares and rectangles.
The background is embossed although it doesn't show up very well (light here is not good - aforesaid hailstorm!!), and I matted it onto some red card.
The image is of course from Mo Manning and called 'Veronica' - she makes me smile! I coloured her with a mix of promarkers  and distress inks and decoupaged her onto a fancy oval frame.
I added a few tiny sparklies for a bit of bling and some spotty ribbon and a pearl buckle.
The 'pink martini' was a download, coloured then some stickles added for bubbly bits, and the numbers were also a download.
I finished with a few punched out stars and a sentiment from TLC which I cut out with a fancy tag die and I think is absolutely PERFECT to describe the 'party gal'!!!!!
Mo's DP2 has a challenge called 'Your favourite Mo card of 2013' - I have made many this year and can't choose really - so have opted to link the latest one!
 Challenges -
Digitally Sweet - Anything Goes
Delicious Doodles - Let's Party
Digistamps 4 Joy- Anything Goes
I Love Promarkers - More than 1 fold
Whimsy - Party Time
Digi Galore - Anything Goes
Pile It On - P is for - (Party, Pearl, Polka Dot ribbon)

Have a great day. x

Favourite Five

Debby is once again playing host to Favourite Five Christmas Cards of 2013.
I have had quite a CAS Christmas this year mainly due to the ridiculous postage that the highway robbers otherwise known as Royal Mail impose!
Played with less embellies than usual and definitely not a lot of flowery bits!
So without further ado here's my fave 5 of this years christmas makes and the reasons why I chose them!

First up is my use of the oldest card pack known to man! Picked these 'cos they have been lying about in a drawer for EVER and it just shows that if you keep something long enough you can make use of it!

 

Next is my 'man' card! Love this old truck and this was definitely one of my faves this year

 

Third one  has to be the 'most used by everyone Christmas Stamp of the Year' but I just love it!

Next is one of my White on White makes (which I made a lot of this year)   and    last but by no means least is a masking and stamping technique which I have been practising - and another make that once I did one ended up doing a batch!  Choosing five was soo difficult - there are some I wanted to use but my list would have ended up as being 'Favourite Fifty' I think!

 Thanks to Debby for again inviting us to link up and to all of you

here is one that was originally in my top five but 

-have saved her to say thank you to all my wonderful followers for finding time to visit with me this year, I wish you a Beautiful Christmas and may 2014 bring you all everything that you wish for.  

Viv. x x

 

Less than perfect pearls.......

Yesterday finally got round to putting up the Christmas Tree... that WAS a bit of a performance as we had given a lot of decorations etc to the charity shop when we moved and half way through the' adorning the branches' task I decided that we didn't have enough baubles.......... so off out we went to a nearby garden centre and luckily for me they were taking down their spectacular displays and all the baubles they had used were going dirt cheap!!
Those who know me well realise that I normally put up the tree at the last possible minute so 6 days before is VERY early for me but it looks nice (even if I do say so myself! LOL) and am quite looking forward to the first Christmas in the new house (am even praying for snow!!!!).

This share was (I thought) a bit of a disaster but the other half said there was nothing wrong with it and the person who received it thought it was lovely! So am showing it to you all in all it's messy glory.....- please feel free to make any comment you wish!!! LOL

• I had this bright idea of inking inside a nestie - this turned out reasonably well

• I had this bright idea of stamping tiny snowflakes inside the shape - this turned out fine

• I had this bright idea of stamping 3 trees in a darker shade of Distress Ink - all good so far

• I had this bright idea of using some scrummy coloured organza ribbon - looked nice

• I had this really really bright idea of using 'Pearl Maker' on the biggest tree's branches - AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. STUPID IDEA.

Talk about DUMBO. The WHITE Pearl Maker stuff absorbed the distress ink and it turned out this sludgy goldy/yellowy colour.
But I finished it anyway on the instructions of dear husband who told me I was being daft and there was 'nowt wrong with it'.
Am entering this into the following challenges and hoping that they agree with the husband! LOL

Stampin 4 the Weekend - Anything Goes
Craftitude - Anything Goes 
Charisma - Anything Goes
Crafts for Eternity - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Feeling Crafty - Christmas
Dream Valley - Christmas

We are being battered with high winds and heavy rain at the mo - and it's set to last for a couple of days - which means I am now going to lock myself in the crafty studio (any excuse!).
Have a great weekend. x

A Lazy Day

It has been a manic few days - but we have today been as lazy as lazy can be as neither of us have been able to summon any energy to do much at all!
We did a barbeque (yes I kid you not, a BARBIE) for over 40 yesterday at the Club instead of the usual sit down Christmas Dinner....... it was some feat for my other half who did the kebab/burger/pork steak cooking outside on what is definitely nothing other than a home size grill! Thankfully it stayed reasonably dry and only rained towards the end of the cooking.
But combined with putting up the Christmas decorations earlier in the week, a few days shopping for the food and then doing all the things that you have to do to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves yesterday, being on my feet all day saw me off!

So did a bit of present wrapping and made a couple of very similar last minute cards.

I simply used up some odd bits laying about on the desk (was supposed to be tidying so this was my 'tidying up'!)

Basic red and off white hammered textured card, some organza ribbon, some dies (poinsettia, flourish and a fancy frame).

Christmas greetings stamps inked with 'Really Raspberry' pigment ink and clear embossed.
Centre of flowers dusted with some Stickles - (gold on one and silver on the other)  and done!
Pics are a wee bit iffy but you get the general idea....

Challenges -
Stampin 4 the Weekend - Use some Red
Cut it Up - Christmas
52 CCT - Red/white (from May)
HIMCR - Use your Scraps
Pixie's Playground - Snippets
Sweet Stampin'- Last Minute Christmas
CAS 271 - Sketch (modified a bit but followed the basic guide)

Thanks for finding the time to visit. Coffee now here so will be calling in to see what you've all been up to! x

Guest Designer!

I was over the moon to be asked to take a GD spot over at Crafting By Designs. Their challenge this week is White on White.

My card is a variation on ones I have done previously (inspired by the creativity over on Pinterest)  and is made entirely from linen textured small pieces of left over white card. So it's going to give me access to the playground this week too!
On all edges and to highlight some of the embossed areas I used the very delicately coloured Versacolour ink in Narcissus. This is a lovely pale lemony colour which I think is subtle enough to highlight without taking away from the white on white effect.
 
The largest piece of card I used at the top - I embossed both edges with a flourish folder and embossed the middle with a nestie frame.
On top of this piece I glued a length of thin paper with a scallop edge which was the off cut left over from punched out piece of paper and added some white shoestring ribbon to tidy up the edge.
The layers at the bottom were also done with a punch then glued to the base card and the larger embossed piece - again some shoestring ribbon to hide the join.
A fancy oval label cut with a nestie and secured with 3d foam pads.
The rose was also made using nesties.
The flourishes are a Marianne die (I think!) and the leaves are an embossed punch.
Finished it all off with two punched butterflies and some pearls.  

Challenges -
Crafty Catz - Use 2 or more dies
Divas by Design - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Anything But Christmas
Red Carpet Studio - Ribbon/Lace (and I interpreted the lace part as the frilly lacy punch used)
My Craft Creations -Anything Goes
Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoes - Wings 
Crafty Bloggers - Girly

Thanks to the wonderful team at CBD for asking me to do this guest spot and hope you will all create something and join in their challenge!  Thanks for visiting today. x

Winter Fun

The latest challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is 'Winter Fun'.
 Marie wants any creation that shows having fun in winter but it must not be Christmas or New Year related! So no Christmas/New Year cards but something that you have fun with during the winter like skiing or sledging.
Our sponsor are THE PAPER SHELTER  and SIR STAMPALOT

After much deliberation - (I was considering a mug of hot choccie with lots of marshmallows - that is DEFINTELY my idea of fun when it's cold..... )I chose to make a card which shows a skating snowman!

I have had this image for a long long time and he seemed so 'right' somehow for this theme!

This was a quickie card make but hope he's inspired you to come and join us this challenge.
The background was the usual 'swiss dots' embossing folder on textured linen card and matted onto dark green.
For an extra bit of highlight I covered Frosty here with Glossy Accents - he's all shiny  in real life!

The snowflake flourishes die from Memory Box have seen a lot of use this year! I applied liberal helpings of Stickles to the dies and it's quite a sparkly effect  but doesn't show it well in this photo - added 3 small sparklies on the top of the card.
The sentiment is a freebie from TLC - and perfect I think!!

Challenges -
Word Play Saturday - Snowman
Sweet Pea Stampers - It's cold outside
PCJ - Christmas
Sentimental Sundays - Snowman
Craft Your Passion - Let It Snow
Lexi's - Snow
Paper Playtime - Winter Fun


Please pop over and visit my teamies and thanks for stopping by today. x

Second visit!

Don't say you weren't warned that I'd be back!
Second offering from me today - and my quota reached over at Pixies Playground for the last 2 weeks.. so am expecting at least a free go on the swings if not a Gold Star!!

I have coveted this poinsettia die for a long time and finally bought it a couple of weeks ago... I have used it to make LOTS of CAS cards like this with different colours so it was well worth the pennies!

White hammered cardstock used throughout.

Stamped the greeting with Stone Grey ink, cut into a tag shape, punched a hole in the top and threaded through some shoestring ribbon and tied into a bow.
A few sparklies dotted round at random.

Used liberal helpings of sparkly stuff (!) on the embossed parts of the flower, then stuck a bigger gem in the middle.

The flourishes are another well used Marianne die which I have had for ages.

LIM - Sparkle
ABC Christmas - No Squares
Christmas @ Sweet Stamping - White on White
Addicted to stamps - CAS
ABC -  A for Almost Christmas
Craft All Day - Winter
RRR - Bingo (White/Text/Glitter & Ribbon)

Have a great weekend everybody - and I thank you all for taking the time to visit and leave comments - I appreciate every single one. x

Last minute!

Quick post as I only realised this morning that I hadn't posted my Less is More card for this week - and after being Showcased' last week with my winter birdies card too! (It's here if you haven't seen it!)
I treated myself and went for a lovely massage this morning - hot stones and aromatherapy - just wonderfully relaxing - but am now so laid back can't get going to do anything LOL!
So here is this weeks card for the challenge which is 'Sparkle' -

 Black pearlised card for the background, matted onto silver pearl card.

The off cut from the silver pearl card just used to punch out lots of  leaves and stuck in a circle.(and as all the pressure made my hand sore my idea of making a batch was quickly laid to rest!!!).

A scrap of silver edged black ribbon in a tiny bow and a few very small (and very fiddly to glue!) gems finished the wreath.

Sentiment stamped and embossed in Silver EP.

I have another card to finish today so I can also get my entries into Pixies Playground - otherwise the Head Girl will send me to the naughty step!!! So this is the first of my 'snippets make' - and I need to get my skates on to get the other one done!

Other Challenges -
CRAFT - Christmas
Creative Knockouts - Christmas Splendour
Delightful Challenges - Add gems
Paper Crafting Journey - Christmastime

Thanks for looking - will be round to you all later to see what you've been creating. x

Penguins

Am almost done as far as my Christmas Cards are concerned - all made and inserts fixed - just need to write the envelopes - which is NOT my favourite job at all!
These little singing penguins are part of the large 'kids' order which thankfully I have now finished - "not too fancy but want something a little different from what you get in the shops" was the remit.
So photos taken (none of which are brilliant as the light here has been pretty poor over the last few days), and will share them all with you over the next couple of weeks.

I DID follow a sketch for this - trouble is can't remember which challenge blog the sketch was from!! Challenge has probably long since finished anyway....

Just used up some bright Christmas papers and a snowflake embossed leftover piece, all matted onto dark green card.
The sentiment was stamped using Pine Needles distress marker and no Christmas card would be complete without the statutory helping of sparkly Stickles would it???

Challenges -
Crafting by Designs - Penguins
Cutie Pie - Cute Scenes
TTCRD - Anything Goes
Paper Pretties - Christmas
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 

It's certainly been wild here today up on the moor top! The wind seems to have dropped a little but not much - wherever you are I hope you are safe and warm and as ever I appreciate you calling in to see me. x

Cold and Frosty Colours - Vintage Stampin DT

So December is here! And to go with wintry weather the challenge this time over at Vintage Stamping is COLD & FROSTY COLOURS.
I have scheduled this post so fingers crossed it publishes OK!! 
If the main challenge post isn't  showing yet please check back later and link up your creation.
Not a lot of rules  really = we are definitely a stamping challenge and we do need the main focal point of your project to be stamped and although we have vintage in  the title of the blog your creation doesn't have to be vintage!

A bit of a diversion from the CAS cards I've made recently and one with lace, ribbon, crystals etc!
I used a lovely oval stamp from our sponsor and after stamping,  I clear embossed, then painted with Distress inks and dusted on some glitter for the 'snow'.
Isn't the birdie on the tree cute?!

The papers - a digi freebie from Astrid - in shades of blue, gray and white stitched onto some darker blue co ordinating cardstock.
Same used  for the frame of the image and the corner die cut.

Vintage icy blue lace and some hand dyed seam binding tied into a bow with a sparkly in the centre of the bow.
A teeny off cut of the ribbon twisted and secured again with another sparkly on the top of the frame and to finish off a stem of crystal leaves. 

Challenges - 
Opus Gluei - Brrrring it on
Crafting When We Can - Winter
IDIC - Christmas
Stamping Sensations - Free & Easy
Addicted 2 Stamps - Embossing
Charisma - Christmas

Have a great day! x

Sufficient Sparkle!

I have been getting on with the commissioned cards - only a couple left to do then I can concentrate on getting back to my own Christmas ones as well as my DT's!
This is part of the order - no instructions other than a 'girly' card!
I bought this image from Mo's last year and this is the first time I have coloured her.
I am so pleased with the final result of this - although as ever the light here isn't very good so hope you can imagine what it's like IRL!

Bright white linen textured card ran through the 'Swiss Dots' folder, then a circular aperture cut out.

I coloured the image with Distress Inks, then got out all the sparkly stuff!!!
And before you ask, yes I DO have some left! But she seemed to be crying out to be 'sparkled' to within an inch of her life.................so I put it EVERYWHERE - on the background of the image, on her socks, hat, frill of her dress, wings, snowballs - oh and for good measure used some liquid pearls on her skirt. LOL

All the snowflakes were cut from white glitter paper and this really doesn't show up in the pic - but you get the idea!
Finished with a couple of sparkly gems.

Challenges -
Glitter n Sparkle - Add Glitter n Sparkle
Totally Gorjuss - Snows the way to go
Crafty Hands - Sparkle and Bling
Simply Create Too - Snow
Wags n Whiskers - Things with Wings
Happy Campers - Glitter It
OSAAT - Use a Digi
Gem of a Challenge - Winter Wonderland

Hope you've all had a great weekend! x