A Year in Review

I spotted the lovely Lorraine playing along with A Year in Review and I thought I'd have a go too... several hours and lots of swapping and changing later, here are 12 of my favourites from the year...

Blimey, it's SO hard to choose favourites!  And they've all ended up quite girlie, even though I like making male cards - not sure what happened there!

I'd like to wish all my lovely followers (and of course, anyone else who pops in) a very Happy New Year!  We'll just be having a quiet night in tonight, with a few glasses of Bucks Fizz lol - such party animals eh?!  Hope you all have a good time whatever you're doing :o)

Paper suggestions anyone?

As most of you will know, I'm coming to the end of my paper ban (yippee!) on Sunday.  I've not bought any papers since May and I've been trying really hard to ignore all the lovely papers everyone's been using, so that I wasn't tempted to run off and buy them lol.

So as I've not got much idea of what 'must have' papers are out there at the moment, I wondered if any of you could suggest your current favourites so I can have a look?  It's a bit scary being let loose again though, I must try not to buy too many!

A late Christmas card...

Luckily I'm only late blogging it - it's my mum's Christmas card and it was finished on Christmas Eve, which is quite good going for me lol :o)  Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!  We had a great time, although we've all had this rotten cold that just won't go away.  I got a Kindle for Christmas and I'm just a teeny bit hooked on it already... hubby liked it so much he went out today and got himself one!  And he doesn't even read really - men and their gadgets eh?  I also got a light tent that I've been so looking forward to getting, but one of the lights doesn't work so I'll have to wait for that to be sorted... boo!

I used one of the LOTV cute die cut images, with a touch of glamour dust added.  The papers are Dovecraft with red cardstock from Papermill Direct and textured kraft card from Stampin' Up.  Sentiment is Craftwork Cards, snowflake was cut with a Cuttlebug die, red pearl from my stash.

Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things properly soon, isn't it hard to get going again after you've had a break?!

Less is More wk 46 - music

Just a flying visit to post my last minute card for this week's Less is More challenge, which is 'music'.  I really shouldn't be here at all... still loads of wrapping to do and I STILL haven't made my mum's Christmas card... eek!!!

I've had the image and sentiment (made in Word with lots of faffing about with text boxes) printed off for days and finally found a spare few minutes to colour it in today.  It's one of the Cute Santa images from DigiStamp Boutique, printed onto linen card and coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers.  Added a bit of glamour dust for some sparkle and mounted onto red textured card from Papermill Direct.

Sorry for the short post, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a finished card for my mum and her hubby!

Mimosa (not) waiting for Santa!

It's my day for posting on The Stamp Basket blog today, and I decided to use the sweet Bildmalarna stamp 'Mimosa - waiting for Santa', but not on a Christmas card this time - I thought she could work quite well for birthdays too...

Products available from The Stamp Basket
Craftwork Cards scalloped edge card blank
Bildmalarna 'mimosa - waiting for Santa' stamp
Seam binding in chalk white, dyed with 'tattered rose' distress ink
Dovecraft Adhesive Gems (on the sentiment tag)

I've coloured the image with promarkers and flexmarkers, the papers are First Edition with dark brown cardstock from Papermill Direct.  The sentiment is Stampin' Up, and everything else is from my stash.

I'm entering my card for the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - bingo card (1st row - ribbon/ twine, gems, glitter/ sparkle)
• I Love Promarkers - anything goes
• My Mum's Craft Shop - anything goes
• Charisma Cardz - anything goes

Apologies if I've not managed to catch up with your blogs yet - there just aren't enough hours between now and Christmas, and I'm ever so slightly stressed here lol!  Hope you're a bit more organised than I am, but I bet I'm not the only one still running around like a headless chicken :o)

Grandma's birthday card

I was really pleased with the card I made for my mum to give to my grandma... I'm not so happy with the one I've made for us to give her, it's not quite how I imagined it looking!

I had fun making the background - it's funny to think that not so long ago I didn't like getting messy and inky!  I used lots of different blue and green distress inks and then sprayed it with a green cosmic shimmer spray - this is where I got really furious because all my sprays are completely blocked... after lots of soaking in hot water, rinsing and swearing I gave up and put some into an empty spray bottle instead - so annoying!  And somehow I've ended up with bright green spray all up the wall in the craft room!  The image is a Hero Arts stamp embossed in silver, and I've embossed around the edges of the stamped panel in silver too.  Ribbon, silver cord and black pearls from my stash, and the lettering is computer generated, the card blank is 7" square made from hammered card.

I'll not say Happy Christmas yet, because I'll be back at least a couple more times this week - I'm SO disorganised and I was really hoping I'd do better this year!

A bed fit for a cat?

Well I should have had a card to show you, but by the time I'd finished it the light had gone and I couldn't get a decent photo with the daylight lamp.  I'll have to take more photos in the morning, but I thought I'd just show you some photos of our cat :o)  Please excuse all the kids toys in the background though!

I went shopping with the kids this morning (I know, mad woman!) and we decided to buy a posh new cat bed... hubby wasn't at all impressed with how much I spent on it, and Bram has been completely ignoring the blimmin' bed all day lol!  There was much excitement when he finally decided to risk getting in...

I wonder if this will stop him sneaking onto the kids beds, hiding under my craft desk and squashing himself into various tiny boxes.... probably not!

I suppose I'd better go and write in some Christmas cards now, seen as tomorrow is the last day for posting them - oops!

Birthday mice...

This is the card I've made for my mum to give to my grandma for her birthday in a couple of days.  Sorry, there are loads of photos!