Happy New Year

I just want to wish everyone a very happy and safe evening as we are off out now. Hubs is working and I'm going with him but we are staying over. Number one son and friend are cat sitting and number two daughter is working.

See you all tomorrow with my news :)

My top 9

I realise that I said I would be back with my top five Christmas cards but it has taken me until now (on and off) to choose and can't get down further than nine, so here goes

I hope you like them all. I will edit later to list all the materials used.
TFL, I will be back tomorrow with my news as I would like to see out the old and see in the New Years on a high :)

Passion........

..For Promarkers set the theme of "Celebrations" for their last challenge and as we have birthdays on Christmas day and Boxing day in our family it was easy to fit this challenge in with my last minute makes. I did a few different celebratory cards but am only entering the first one into the challenge as none of the others use Promarkers on them.

My first card is for hubby's nephew who was eight on Christmas day.

Image is Skateboard Ian from the Greeting Farm, paper is by Kanban (freebie) and MME, the rub on letters are Doodlebug and the rest is from my craft cupboard.

 Papers are Sweet Love by First Edition, sentiment stamp is from a set of Kids Quotes by Inkadinkadoo, greeting is from Craftwork Cards, flowers are die cut and premade paper roses and the ribbon is from my craft room.

 The guest book was a last minute commission which came in two days before the wedding!

 Quote is from a set by Stampendous (I just love them) and everything else is from my stock. I found the ribbon (it reads Health, wealth, happiness, fertility, long life) and the tiny silver stick on hearts when I was sorting through a drawer a couple of weeks ago...I don't know how long they had been there but I unearthed other stuff too which will make an appearance over the coming weeks :)

The last card was for my dad who was 75 on Boxing Day.

The big numbers are made using Word as I showed in a tutorial a while ago, I have 'misplaced' my large numbers since I put them somewhere where 'I would know straight away where to look!!' Papers are by MME again.

As well as the Passion For Promarkers challenge I am going to enter my cards in the following challenges

Secret Crafter - Anything Goes

Jules Crafty Snippet challenge #51

Thanks for looking. I have a table plan to make today for one of the Holiday Inn, Doncaster for their New Years Eve dinner tomorrow evening so must crack on. I'm hoping to come back later and show case my five favourite Christmas cards, oh, and I have some really good news to share.

Through the window

The week 50 challenge on the Polka Doodles blog is

The theme for this last challenge of 2011 is:

Through The Window...

and this is what I came up with (this is my first Polka Doodles challenge so please be gentle with me!)

 All the paper elements on the card are magazine freebies but I can't remember if the window etc are from Polka Doodles too as I threw away the strip from the bottom of the page! I did manage a few more cards from the papers though

 Image and sentiment from Pink Petticoat

 Image from Forever Friends, sentiment was generated on my lap top.

 Image from Digi Stamp Boutique and sentiment from Pink Petticoat

Stamped Christmas tree image is from Wild Rose Studios and the die cuts are from a download by Nitwit Collections

I like this set of papers so much that I have been onto the Polka Doodles web site this evening for a nose and was thrilled to see that they can be bought as a download..........guess what I bought :)

Daring Cardmakers

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and that Santa was kind to you and your family. It feels like an eternity since I last updated my blog but I've been so busy that I have just avoided the internet full stop! I get easily distracted so better to leave alone lol Well actually, I have dabbled a little bit but only to buy a couple of bits of crafty sale stuff.......it would be a shame not to when the store owners have spent so much time uploading everything ;)
So now I can finally get the rest of my Christmas/ birthday/ wedding items uploaded and into the challenges I'm not too late for lol
The DCM challengers wanted to see 'Spots and Stripes' for their challenge, of which I have two cards

 

Image The Digi Stamp Boutique
Papers Magazine freebies, but I think the second one is by Polka Doodles


Thanks for looking.

Funky Hand Sale!!!

Not long now, ends today

Keepsake card

I had a request for a Christening card for a baby whose 'birth congrats' cards I did in August! I decided to fish out my trusty old Bookatrix board which I haven't used for a long, long time. It was a success as my client loved it!

Short and sweet I'm afraid tonight but there will be more tomorrow as I am having a mammoth card making session tomorrow and no doubt I will be entering a few challenges along the way too :)

Take care my friends and sleep tight. Oh and huge huge to those of you who have had to endure that awful weather from yesterday....I hope everyone is ok. xx

Flippin' men!

Although I have quite a few of these sheets left I tend to forget I have them and don't use them very often. My friend mentioned the other day that it was the 60th birthday this week of the caretaker down at the school I used to work at. I don't usually send him a birthday card but I thought of this image as soon as she mentioned it :)

The image is from the Flipping Men series by Jak Heath and I added a screwdriver and hammer charm because he is into diy in a big way. As soon as anyone mentioned at school that they needed shelves up or whatever he had started the job before they had finished speaking lol

I'm entering this card into the Papertake Weekly challenge as their remit is

So onto this week and as it’s the first one of the month  we have our usual

Anything Goes theme

with the option of adding something dangly  ……

. but remember this is only an option and if you don’t want to dangle then you don’t have to dangle :)

Right, I'm off to do some colouring for a while then I really must do something else in my tip of a work room/studio.

Thanks for looking

Kathy's Waffle Sketch File

December 11, Take 5 The new sketch is now available on the Kathy's Waffle Sketch File blog and true to form it is definitely challenging! I often look at Kathy's sketches and come over all faint lol, then it takes me ages to come up with something worth showing in public. I suppose that is what these challenges are for though....no point whatsoever in doing them if they are easy every month!!
So here we go, the sketch

and my card

I think the papers are by My Mind's Eye but I'm not sure. The lovely little robin is a pre-coloured image from The Twelve Crafters Crafting cd from Funky Hand, the sentiment was done on the computer and the sparkly brad is from my craft box.
Tfl xx

A change....

from me today. I actually got a break from making cards in order to complete another order :)

 A pale blue and crystal funky key ring with some lovely sparkly diamante numbers and a set of wine glass charms

These look so pretty in real life. Instead of using different coloured beads or flowers I opted to make them all the same and just add a different coloured bead in the centre. I'm back to the cards now so I need to get my finger out, otherwise we will be using my Christmas cards next year lol.

Take care and tfl.

We wish you a merry....

Christmas! I think that should read, "Bah Humbug", I'm just about all Christmas'ed out. I seem to have made so many blooming Christmas cards and I still haven't started on the family ones!!! Oh well, not to worry. I made these last week for the school fayre

The papers are all pieces from my "left overs mountain", yes, I have a separate box for Christmas scraps and that doesn't seem to be going down either, lol. I might just go and add these to Jules' Snippets as they definitely fit the challenge.

The makers I recognise are Funky Hand, Pink Petticoat and Papermania. Most of the images are from the new Twelve Crafters Crafting cd from Funky Hand and the top image of Santa and Rudolf are from the very talented Sally-Ann at Digistamp Boutique, everything else is from my stash.

Just a quick reminder, there is still time to take part in my Christmas/Birthday challenge over on the Get Funky blog I have asked for a Christmas AND a non Christmas project this time but there is a slight catch....they both need to be made with Christmas paper. You must use a Funky Hand element on them and Anice has made a lovely freebie paper if you would like to use it.

Right, I must go and do something now although I have been out and tidied my mum's flower shed as she is coming over this morning to do my table centre for Christmas day....and you literally couldn't get through the door. We had just been plonking stuff in there as we came across it and there were two shelving units parked in the doorway. I had to take them out so I could get in to sort it lol

Back later, thanks for looking.

All done!

Finished, packed and collected by my very beautiful (and very happy) bride this morning for her wedding tomorrow......and then they are off to Mexico for a week. How I wish I was going with them - well maybe not on the honeymoon but I could certainly hack some warm sunshine at the mo, I hate winter!!!

 Although the colours on here look like a dark grey, they were actually sage/olive green and ivory and looked really lovely together. The orders of service were just paper versions without a card cover. I did 190 favours, 190 place cards, 100 orders of service and the seating plan. I was still making changes at 8 o'clock last night as people were backing out of the wedding and were being replaced with others!

DH and I are going to York for the day tomorrow and then on Tuesday I still need to make some semblance of order in my little studio/craft room and make a start on our personal Christmas cards. Each year I say that I am going to start in January and make them throughout the year but I never do. I have real difficulty getting my head round doing Christmas before I have been on holiday in August lol.

Right on to do some more posting while I'm watching Beyonce.....by God that girl can sing!

TFL.

Progress

The favour boxes are finished and boxed ready to go

all 190 place cards are all cut and folded, the guest's names are typed up ready to be printed and mounted tomorrow before being stuck onto the place cards so all I have left to do is 100 orders of service and a seating plan and it is all being collected on Saturday ready for the wedding on Monday!! I'm going to bed now just in case it's the last chance I get until Saturday :( (oh and I have a school Christmas fayre to do on Thursday. My mum was going to do it but I think she is going to be too poorly still. She is back at the doc's in the morning for her x-ray results.......I wonder if the doc fancies doing it if my mum can't lol)

Night and thanks for reading.

My poor fingers.....

Good morning from me on this rather dank and miserable morning!!

My poor fingers are so sore this morning. Why?.....because while I sat watching TV last night I tied 190 bows!!

 Later today they will be attached to 190 pillow boxes which I am making up at the moment. I then have to cut, fold and print 190 place cards but I have a big problem. The wedding is next Monday and I still don't have a guest list to work from to add the guest's names to the place cards and seating plan!! I really love my work and couldn't imagine doing anything else now but it can be so frustrating at times lol

Right, onwards and upwards, the favour boxes won't finish themselves.

TFL xx

How did you spend......

...your Saturday? This is how I spent mine!!

I filled and finished, including cutting the reindeer and snowmen

44 bags of reindeer food

14 bags of snow girl poop

40 bags of snowman poop!

By the time I had finished I was almost losing the will to live lol They are going into a local beauty salon, a town centre salon and a local school Christmas fayre. This is the second batch I've made as I sold some through the shop, some more at the handbag auction and I've sent some down to my lovely mum in law in Somerset.....and yes, they sell really well.

My house is still not sorted and it's driving me mad! I keep doing an hour then having to come and sort out orders so I just seem to be bitting an bobbing. The upside is that I'm having a real good sort out whilst emptying boxes and drawers. I sent a box full to school with a friend and I have a lot of stuff which will be going on a sale page on here over the next couple of days. I actually have storage space now where there once was craft stuff and it won't be replaced with new, just with existing stock as I get organised :)

I'm off to see my poorly mummy for a while now.

Thanks for reading.

Funky Hand Sale!!!

The biggest discounts ever on Funky Hand branded products

PRODUCT	PRICE	PRODUCT	PRICE
Download - All I Want For Christmas	only £1.99	Download - Tis The Season Wordbook	only £2.79
Craft CD - Twelve Crafters Crafting	only £9.68	Craft CD - Happy Happy Birthday	only £9.68
Our Betty Stamp - All A Girl Needs	only £4.55	Our Betty Stamp - Celebrate	only £4.55

What are you waiting for? :)

Daring Cardmakers

I make umpteen of these every year but only as they are ordered, the images are still as popular as they were when they first came out a couple of years ago.

I thought it was apt as the DCM challenge this week is

The theme for this week's cardmaking is
WATER
You could make a card with a watery theme (lakes, rivers, fishies, boats etc), or maybe you'll find a way to actually use some water in the making of your card eg colouring with watercolours.

I can remember my nana and grandad having a tin bath in front of the fire and my mum said that when she was young they had an oven like that too and they used to put their jamas in the oven in winter to warm them before they got changed!! I'm so glad that we have progressed since then lol

Materials used

Image, sentiment and backing sheet - La Pashe

Holly - Funky Hand

Ribbon - Ribbon Oasis

Charm & Christmas tree from stock

TFL

 

Still messy!

I am slowly but surely sorting out the mess which used to be my house! I'm trying to get the contents of an old two bedroomed terrace house (the shop) into a three bed semi or rather one room in a three bed semi :)) I suppose I'm quite luck really as my wonderful mum in law has just taken delivery of a box of jewellery etc in Somerset, my mum is doing a school Christmas fete on 1st December, I have a cabinet in a beauty salon near my home and a cabinet and shelving unit is going into a town centre hairdressers later this week. I have a friend coming tomorrow to sort through some of my stuff for the craft club at school and a pile of stuff which is going for sale on my blog later this week. Without those I think I would really be in the mire as my space is filling up really fast but I am taking this chance to downsize my craft stock! My desk and chair are now in contact with each other for the first time since last Thursday so that's something as I really must work tomorrow as I've some orders which need doing.
I had a busy few days and had a jewellery party on Monday evening. I made the gift wallets on Monday afternoon and they all went!

The papers are all 'snippets' from work done for Anice's appearance on Create and Craft at the launch of her Christmas cd, Twelve Crafters Crafting. I shall head over and add them to the following challenges

 Jules blog 

 Papertake Weekly- Christmas Crackers/anything festive

Passion For Promarkers - Swirls & Sparkles (I have swirly trees and lots of glitter/glamour dust)

Supplies used

Papers - Twelve Crafters Crafting, Funky Hand

Images - Pink Petticoat, Funky Hand, magazine freebie, Cuddly Buddly

Thanks for looking