Garnets

....are the birthstone for the month of January and the first month of a new year is the right place to start off a new series of Dares on the Daring Cardmakers.  We're going to use the first dare of each month to feature the birthstone for that month - are you still with me?

Well, I know that today isn't actually the first Friday of this month, but we were still on our Christmas Break last week so this week is our first dare for this month so by default it's where we start this year long series of dares.

January's birthstone is the garnet - it was a shame I didn't go surfing the net for info until this morning really, or I might have been a bit more imaginative about my card.  I hadn't thought to check on origins, myths, meanings etc - I just focussed on the colour of the garnet in a ring I used to have - probably still do, but I know not where!  If you're interested in finding out a bit more there are loads of sites with info on birthstones, THIS is just one of those I found.

One of Hubby's aunts has her birthday this month so I made a card with her in mind:

There was going to be a little bird on this card but it all went a bit pear-shaped so the bird will have to go on another card at some point! Anyway, after a bit of silent swearing and clenching of fiststhis is what I came up with

Why don't I have much red stuff in my stash?

Having boxed up the Christmas stash and put it out of sight in the big cupboard on Monday, I had to get it out again on Wednesday when I went to make this card.

I drew some swirls with Glossy Accents and added Glamour Dust.

I painted, glittered and GA'd a piece of chipboard with a paisley design

The inner flower was two Prima hydrangeas made into one and the flower centre is cut from lovely velvet paper

The calendar is stamped (yes, I actually stamped it!) - it's one of the "Snag 'em" stamps

I used black stazon ink to colour the tiny swirly clip and a MS corner punch in the ....corner.

Please pop over to the DCM BLOG and see the other cards - you'll also get to meet our lovely January Guest Designer Caz and find a link to her fabulous blog.

I'm not sure about this new editing wotsit on Blogger - it seems fine on my own blog, but it was a right pain this morning on the DCM one and I can't seem to get the spacing right in that message.  I might have to go revert to the old one for DCM stuff.  I'd be interested to know how you're getting on with it if you've changed to the new editing window

Anyway, it's taken me most of the morning to do two blogs and that's time I really should have got more mileage from.  moan moan moan

Off now to try and do some stuff from the the "to do" list - which should be getting shorter but isn't

Catch up with you soon.

Oh, and by the way, if you get a message on your blogs with even more typos than usual, it's probably because I'm trying to catch up with you in odd minutes using my iPod Touch.  Well that's my excuse, anyway!

A Websters Pages Calendar

Well, at the moment we are escaping the worst of the snow which seems to be engulfing the country.  We have a couple of inches - which is not nearly as much as we had here before Christmas - but still too much for my liking.  bah humbug!

My turn to add something to the Bubbly Funk shop's blog aka Bubbly Scrumptious.  Last week I'd got this little calendar ready to go, but I just didn't have time to write up the project.  So this week that's what I've been doing and you can read all about it by clicking HERE.

It's a really fun-to-make project as the Websters Pages I've used almost tell you which bits should go where on whatever you make - then it's just a case of adding all those extra bits and bobs.  If you visit here regularly you'll already know how much I love using flowers, lace, ribbons etc. on my projects and this week I've managed to use lots of them!

This calendar is made on a 7 x 5" canvas panel and the whole thing took less than a couple of hours to make.

I hope you like it and if you have a go at making something similar - please please let me know so I can come and see!

Right, I must be good and stop waffling now as I have some rather urgent crafting stuff to do and I'm running out of time - nothing new there then, eh?

Stay safe and warm and take lots of care if you have to go out in this snowy, icy weather.

 

The Last Christmas

I think this is the last lot of Christmas photos.  I guess that means I'll have to find new stuff to write about - maybe even make some new stuff - it's always a bit of a challenge to get back into the crafting after the holiday season, somehow I never know where to start when faced with a clean slate and no Christmas tasks!

I've started the New Year by changing to the new post editor on Blogger - so we'll see how that works out - I may well scuttle back to the old and familiar one quite quickly though!

Anyway here are a few Christmas pics

This is our tree on Christmas morning, complete with the stockings I made years ago and which are now looking a bit tired.  I wonder if I'll remember that and make new ones in time for Christmas 2010?

Next up is a close up of the parcels under the tree from the other side - if you look closely you can see some of the  decorations I made to pretty up the parcels

Christmas dinner in our family is just not complete without Yorkshire Puddings.  I always open the oven door with my fingers crossed and breathe a sigh of relief when they come out like they did this time - not bad, eh?

This is Happy Me when I found my wonderful iPod Touch in the last parcel Hubby gave me.  I just love it to bits!  I'm also "modelling" the gorgeous new pashmina that was in another package.  Spoiled? moi?

Ok, next up is the pizza-box style box I made to present niece Izzy's gift in - I'd much rather use a box for giving squishy, difficult to wrap gifts as they always look like a dog's breakfast just wrapped in paper, don't they?  This one was for a little Radley purse so worth concealing the contents for a little while longer.

Thanks to Gez for sharing the original instructions for this one during a cyber crop - I changed the measurements etc to fit the purse and it worked out pretty well.

Papers are lovely MME "Pretty Please" (I think)

Crikey, it's getting colder and colder, I think I might have to give the heating a boost in a minute.  I hope you're all managing to stay safe and warm today, I'm just hoping that the snow that so much of the UK is covered with at the moment stays away - we only got rid of the remnants of the pre-Christmas snow we had here last Wednesday.  I can do without the stuff. 

Yeah, yeah, call me a misery-guts if you like but I'd prefer just to see it on TV hehe

Right, I really do need to make a start on some craft stuff so I'm off.

Back soon

Funky Stuff

Happy New Year!

The first "normal" day of 2010 for me, our visitors left yesterday - it was lovely to have them here to spend New year with us and the house seems very empty now it's back to just the two of us. Mind you, it's going to take a while to clear everything away - we couldn't face starting the post-Christmas clear-up yesterday so the tree, decs and other assorted debris is still there. If I stay up here in the study then maybe I can avoid looking at it for a while longer......

I need to get back to some crafting, I've not so much as stuck two bits of paper together since before Christmas and I have a LOT of crafty tasks to get done in the next couple of weeks.

Over on Get Funky - which is the challenge blog for Funky Hand, Lythan has set the January challenge of Spots & Stripes. If you head over there you'll find all the info on how to join in - and what you might be lucky enough to win if you do. There's also some sneak peeks of the new CD "Dreams Come True" which will be released very soon - Anice's new designs are fabulous and I've been thrilled to have joined her DT just in time to be involved with making stuff for the new release.

As it happens though, I've not used "Dreams Come True" for my January card - I'm still delving into the archives and enjoying playing with some of the earlier downloadable designs, so I used papers from the "Paper Blossoms" download (they're all still available btw) to make this card for one of my SIL's birthdays, which was just before Christmas.

All these papers were on the download. I also used the little flower shape from the icon/greetings sheet, which I resized a few times to make a layered version for the flower embellishment. The centre of the flower is glittered, but it doesn't show up very well in the photo


Before I take all the cards down, I thought I'd run down and take a photo of my "Christmas Card Door" to show on here. I blu-tacked all the handmade cards I received onto one of the doors so they could all be seen together - I'm not sure how long I can get away with displaying cards like this though as "door renovation" is one of our on-going projects - somehow I don't think I'll be "allowed" to use blu-tack once they are all stripped, sanded and waxed or painted!

Thanks to everyone who was kind enough to send us a card this Christmas, I'm sorry, but I've only managed to do a photo of the handmade ones though as they're all together. You can click on the image for a closer look.

Now that things are about to settle down again, I'm looking forward to getting started on more crafting, blogging and blog-hopping too - I've really missed getting around to see what my friends out in blogland have been doing, but it's been so hectic that I'm sorry, I just haven't managed much of anything like that for the last few weeks.

Today's crafting task isn't so much crafting as "finding my craft desk" anything left alone for more than half an hour in this house seems to become a shelf, or dumping ground - and turning round to look at my desk I can see there's some clearing to be done before I can find my scissors!

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year celebration and that you're all ready to get stuck (pardon the crafty pun) into 2010

A Few Minutes Peace

I hope all my blogging pals had a wonderful Christmas.

My aunt, uncle and one of my cousins are due to arrive this afternoon to spend a few days over New Year with us - I think I've done enough of a clear-up job around the house to get away with - mind you the ironing mountain is something I've not had time to tackle.
Anyway, as it's WOYWW I thought I'd see if I could do a quick blog post while I drink this cup of coffee I keep forgetting about.


My desk is a bit like the Marie Celeste I'm afraid. There's plenty of mess to check out but not much sign of crafting. You'd think that with just the two of us around the place I'd have spent some time in the craft area or on the pc - but that's not how it works out. We've had family pop in, we've been out and about to visit others, we've "played" with the various new toys - new wii games (family ski and formula 1) and of course my gorgeous new iPod Touch (never far from my fingers....), and lots of other things that have kept both of us away from the study - well, it is Christmas and it's just nice to have some time to spend together.

Yesterday we were at the theatre - a wonderful surprise treat from Hubby - I opened one of my presents to find a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" gift bag with a lovely china mug inside, plus tickets for yesterday's matinee performance of the play currently on at The Haymarket theatre. Anna Friel is playing Holly Golightly - she was fab - the stage play is quite different from the film and definitely worth seeing if you can. I did miss hearing "Moon River" though.

I love going to matinees - you can have a leisurely trip into London arrive in time for lunch, go to the theatre for the show then you're out in time to go for a nice meal before heading for home - no panic about catching late night trains which stop at every two-bit station on the way home.

Just had a call to say my rellies are fast approaching, so I'm writing quickly now....

Here are a couple of photos of the voucher holder I made to present MILs magazine subscription info in


That's it - I'll be back when I can!

Just Playing

Oh my goodness how techie am I? I'm writing this on my new iPod Touch. Get me, eh?

Christmas Eve

Just a quick post today
My wish of yesterday for the snow to go seems to be coming true. We had some rain last night and there's a bit of a thaw going on - though the road outside looks rather like an ice rink just now and there's still a lot of snow about.

Just because it's Christmas week doesn't mean there's nothing happening on Bubbly Scrumptious - the team have still been crafting and posting on there and there's plenty to see, so if you do get the odd five minutes peace and quiet - do head over and have a look.



Thursday is my day to add something to the emag and today I'm doing a bit of an update rather than anything "new". Last month I made a little Christmas Pocket Book with the idea of using it to record some of the run up to Christmas and of course the Christmas/New Year period itself.

So today on BubScrump I'm just sharing those pages I've been working on. I doubt that any are actually finished, but you can see the Work in Progress by clicking HERE

Last for today, some tags I made at the weekend - how come I never have enough of the little blighters? Hubby and I don't even put any on the presents we buy for each other, but still I always end up scrabbling around making a few more at the last minute


I made this template for Mr Robo last year and have used it a couple of times this year too. If you scroll back a bit you'll find some cards I used it on.
It made some really easy tags - I cut the base in card then the fringe in a couple of different VG papers. A few blobs of Stickles and they were done. I wish I'd thought of it earlier!

Anyway, that's all from me till after the Big Day.

I just want to send all my Blog-friends the very best wishes for a wonderfully happy and peaceful Christmas. I hope all your wishes come true and you enjoy the holiday, however you spend it.

Take care and keep safe

WOYWW, Templates, Tree and a Snow Moan

Oh Poor Neglected Little Blog!

Well we've still got loads of snow here, it snowed again on Monday evening - it all looks very pretty but I'm bored with it now and I'd like it to please go away. At least from the roads and paths, the rest can stay if it likes, hehe.

The last couple of days it's been like living in Black and White around here - hardly any colour to be seen at all - the lovely clear blue skies we had up till yesterday have faded to grey - it's quite ethereal really.

Last week I showed the first couple of cards made with the December set of Crafty Templates, it's been a bit hectic since then so I've not had time to blog my other card. This one is made using the template set of Quirky Flowers.

I think these flowers are so much fun and I'm thinking that they'll be great to use on Thank you cards as well as fir "any occasion" cards as I've done here.
The papers are all from the Crafty Goodies Kit, the ribbon also came in one of Leo's past kits. All I added was the gems and the Stickles

It's Wednesday aka WOYW fay so here's how my workmess looks right now

And finally, I thought I'd add a photo of our tree - to show that we did actually finish dressing it - just in case you were wondering whether it got past the last photo of it that I showed on here!


I guess that few of us have much time for blogging right now. I hope that if you're "under snow" atm that you're managing to keep warm and safe.
Hope to catch up with everyone soon

The "News"

Oooer Missus! We have snow - and quite a lot of it too.
At the moment it's beautifully sunny out there so it's all looking very pretty. I've taken some photos from the back windows, but the sun is on the front at the moment - I may venture out there eventually but maybe not! I went as far as the bord feeding station to brush the snow off the various feeders and put some water out - which has probably turned to ice by now. Had to wear Hubby's big boots hahaha, as I don't really have snow-suitable footwear!
Anyway, here's how it's looking at the bottom of the garden just now:
Today sees the last dare of the year for The Daring Cardmakers - we're taking a couple of weeks off setting dares so that means you have absolutely ages to join in with the one that Sue is setting today. This is the perfect dare for this time of year, it's called New Beginnings and Sue is asking for cards celebrating all sorts of "New". It could be New Year, New Home, New Baby, New Job or anything else you can think of.

I wasn't sure what to do until we received a Christmas card early this week with a little note inside to say that my firend's daughter - who was our "little" bridesmaid at our wedding 16 years ago had her first baby at the beginning of this month.

Lovely news and what luck for me!

A very simple card - but I did manage to use lots of gadgetry!
MS corner punch fro one of the "Round the Page" sets
Zutter Round-it-All on the darker pink square
Spellbinders scalloped circle
Cuttlebug Tiny Hearts embossing folder ( it doesn't show up, but it's there)
Cropodile for ribbon holes
Craft Robo to cut the pram and name

You see - I really do need ALL of those things I can't resist buying!

The pram template is one of my own - for some reason I forgot to add a handle to the template so I had to cut that by hand!

Please pop over to the Daring Cardmakers BLOG to see the fab cards the girls have made this week, and if you get a minute during the next couple of hectic weeks, we'd love you to join in and share your New themed cards with us.
We'll be back on the 8th of January with our first dare of 2010 so you've loads of time to join in with Sue's dare before then.

That doesn't mean I won't be posting on my blog over the holidays though - I've got a few things ready to share and as I don't think the study will be needed as an extra bedroom this year I can still wallow in my crafty mess when I get the chance!
With a bit of luck I'll even get a chance to do some catching up on what all my blog pals have been up to lately...

Pretty Things and Another late WOYWW

For Bubbly Scrumptious this week I've again been playing with the current Bubbly Funk Kit ^Violette Wings" which is stuffed full of Webster's Pages. I've been thinking about gift wrapping this time and have made and covered a box, then a few bows and fripperies to make presents look a little bit special. There's also an idea which could be a gift decoration or used as a place card - wouldn't your Christmas table look extra swish with posh place cards for everyone? Check out the projects HERE and see all the options for the KIT HERE - Webster's Pages aren't so easy to get your hands on over here, and Bubbly Funk has a few sets to choose from, as well as the kit option.

Yet again I completely forgot to do my WOYWW until it was too dark for photos. Mind you, I'm not sure it was ever light, yesterday!
So I've done some photos this morning - I've put some labels on the first one - a bit like a guided tour really hehe
This one is a closer look of what's on my desk atm

These are my ribbon drawers, the top left is the bits and bobs drawer.
Top right the main drawer with nice neat ribbons all carded up and sorted by colour
The lower left is a deeper drawer with reels of ribbon, bags of scraps and balls of wool/fibre

Hopefully a bumper crop of photos will let me off my late posting!

That's it for today, I really do need to get some crafting done today - and I MUST finish writing my cards and get them in the post. I am soooo late!

1, 2, Tree

At the weekend we got the tree stuff out of the loft. The Guest room is now full of boxes.
The tree is out of it's box and sort of on it's way - it looks like this atm. Poor thing!
Hopefully it will start looking better and more festive as the week goes on. It's about this time when we cross our fingers and toes and hope all the lights will still be working when we get them out of the boxes.
You know how "real" trees drop their needles? Well this artificial one has ideas above it's station - you should see the mess all over the floor.

On to some crafty stuff.
The new set of Templates from Crafty Templates are out this week, along with the option to order up one of Leo's Goodies Kit of papers, card and lots of different embellishments. You can check both templates and goodies out by clicking HERE

It's been good to have a change from Christmas stuff as the templates are a lovely mixture of ideas for all sorts of occasions, there are birds, frames, borders, flowers, hearts and all sorts of other templates this month.
Here are the first two cards I've made using the templates and the blue & chocolate themed goodies kit
I used a scrapling card to make this thank you card. This is the "Huggy Star" template - isn't it cute?
The gorgeous beady embellishment, the sequin trim and the letters were all in the goodies kit along with the various papers I've used

I love this Birdie on a Branch template - and it's so easy to cut out!
I used more of the sequin trim to make the tree trunk and along the branch. The papers and ebellishents are a mix of things from the kit and from my stash.

That's it for today. Someone keeps stealing all my time away - if you happen to know who it is, could you tell them to stop it please?

Have a great day

My Hero

Ohhhh I had a couple of hours panic this morning when I switched on the pc and nothing happened!

Hubby's working from home and we were already talking new pc options - but he sneaked a few minutes away from his work to see if he could see what the problem was.
Bless his cotton socks!
What he found was a bit of memory he'd put in just because it was lying around had decided to break itself and then stop everything else working too. Once he'd taken it out, lo and behold a little pre-Christmas miracle happened and all started working again. I tell you, it was a big "PHEW!" moment. I'll be making the coffees all day today instead of us taking turns!

So anyway, I'm now rushing to catch up on the stuff I usually do on Friday mornings so this is a real quickie!

As usual it's DCM day and today it's Vanessa 's turn and she appears to be fed up with all the Christmas stuff - she wants no sign of Christmas or Winter on our cards this week - and she's gone a bit dotty too!

I thought we'd have a little break from all things Christmassy. So, for one week only over this festive period, we're having a no-Christmas and no-Winter zone! Its polka-dot week! Lets bring some warmth to our cards with polka dots, but I don't mean spots or dots in a variety of sizes, it has to be specifically polka-dots (i.e. a pattern of dots of equal size, equally spaced). However, you can have whatever colour(s) you choose as long as your card doesn't look cold and wintry!!

It's amazing how many polka dot bits and pieces I found in my stash - papers, buttons, ribbons and flowers - most of course not matching each other.


I've made another scrapling card - I really do like these little things they are such fun to make.
Both the polka dot papers I've used here are actually velvet papers which I'm hoping qualifies them for the "warmth" factor as the feel lovely. I didn't actually read the dare properly till after I'd made this so I'm clutching at straws a bit here. Mind you I wasn't the only one! lol

Polka dot flower and ribbon are from my stash. I didn't have a button to match so I dotted a plain one with liquid pearls - I know it's not perfect, but you can't have it all!

Right, got to get on with the next project!
Please don't forget to check the DCM BLOG today for some more hot dotty!
Thanks for looking

It was SEASON!!!!!!

Honestly, there are some grubby minds about, aren't there?

It never occurred to me when I posted the sneak peek yesterday that some of you would only manage to come up with an X as the next letter. If I'd thought about it though, I could have guessed which of you would assume that an S and an E could only be followed by an X.
Rude lot that you are!

As if.

So, a couple more letters for you and no doubt you'll think it's something to do with summer holidays now.....

Or maybe not!

The brand new kit from Bubbly Funk is made up of a veritable feast of goodies from Webster's Pages - not just Christmas ones either - it's a bumper kit to see us through into the new year so there are lots of non-Christmas papers in there too - plus all sorts of other bits and pieces to go with it, of course.

I knew there were going to be problems as soon as I opened my Kit Box last Friday. This stuff is seriously gorgeous and the only way I was going to manage to cut into those papers was that if at least the first thing I made would be staying here. With me.

Here's what I came up with


I bought this 8" square canvas on a rare visit to Hobbycraft a few weeks ago . I've never made a canvas before but this seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go.
I'm really happy with the results and this will be going on the wall, or the mantlepiece once the decorations go up.

You can see how I made it on the Bubbly Scrumptious emag HERE I hope you like it.

Still trying to work my way through that old to-do list. Top of my crafty to-dos for today is my dcm card for tomorrow.
Hope you're getting through your lists too