HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, December is nearly at an end and January is waiting in the wings and I can't believe that another year is over.  This year has gone so quickly, particularly the latter half, with the wedding, Daughter's move to university and, of course, the month-long honeymoon in October/November.  Mind you, I can't wait to see what opportunities 2010 will bring and, of course, what wonderful new craft supplies will become available!  I get excited about the new paper releases and colour trends, just as much as some ladies get excited about the latest fashions. 

And for our friends, the New Year will be their first in their new home and we are delighted for them.  I made a free-standing pop-up card from the brilliant tutorial on Split Coast Stampers, altering the dimensions a little to suit what I wanted.

It's a lovely idea, just a bit different from a usual card, and it worked really well.  I added the 'Home Sweet Home' sign just to set the whole thing off and the ribbon and felt flowers just helped it pop a little. 

Around the same time I made a 'New Home' card for our neighbours, who had moved in while we were in Australia.  They're a lovely family, so smiley and happy, and we wanted to welcome them 'officially' once we'd returned. 

Papers are Cosmo Cricket (of course) and the image is a digital image from Pink Petticoat (who have some half-price downloads at the moment!).  They liked it very much and we're looking forward to getting to know them better in the New Year.

Anyway, all I have to do now is to wish you all in Crafty Blogland a very happy, peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Happy crafting

Px

And there it was .... gone!

So, it's all over for another year - and breathe.....

Hope you all had a lovely time and that Santa was good to you.  We had my parents here and, of course, Daughter was home from university, so we were surrounded by family and had a great time.  Much laughter, much love and toooo much food! 

So, remember that I said I'd made some shopping pads but couldn't find the photographs?  Well, I finally found them lurking in with all the honeymoon pictures so I've retrieved them and here they are.

These are just three of several I made for stocking fillers.  I found the blank refills at The Range and used up some scraps of paper to decorate.  A few buttons and bows completed the look and I attached some magnetic strips to the back so that they could be stuck to the fridge.  Each one was made with a particular person in mind and they were very well received.  I was so happy.

Another of my favourite Christmas projects were the money envelopes I made for our nephews who, with their parents, were travelling to Los Angeles for Christmas.  Thought I'd introduce an American theme (obviously) and we put dollars in the envelopes for immediate spending power.

This was really simple and was made from instructions found in a craft magazine, with a little adaptation.  The flap tucks under the bottom white stripe and the top right star is glittered (because you have to have glitter, don't you?).  'Happy Holidays' seemed a more fitting greeting than 'Merry Christmas', in the circumstances.  The boys were delighted.

Finally, I decided at the last minute that the selection boxes we had bought for our surrogate nieces/nephew, weren't special enough.  The contents were okay, of course, but I wanted to package them differently.  So I came up with these cute character bags, which I'm really pleased with. 

Much nicer than a manufacturer's plastic sleeve, don't you think? Unfortunately, the children have yet to recieve their bags as silly Aunty P forgot them on Boxing Day, when we went for tea.  Still, it means they still have a present to look forward to and, more important, at least this chocolate wasn't consumed for breakfast on Christmas Day!

Well, boss man is coming for tea tonight, so I ought to go and shop for ingredients.  I'll be back soon with another couple of cards I wanted you to see but couldn't post before Christmas.

In the meantime, happy crafting.

Px

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

'Nuff said, really.  Just wishing you all in Crafty Blogland a very merry Christmas - hope Santa brings you all you wish for.

Nearly Here!

So, it really is only 'round the corner.  Christmas will soon be upon us and I don't feel ready at all, yet. My wonderful OH went and did some present shopping the other evening and we've not much left to buy now, which is a weight off my mind.  However, I've still to make my food lists and, of course, buy the goodies.  Oh hum!  At least there will only be five of us on Christmas Day so I don't have too much of a headache making sure we're all fed.  Still need to buy a tree - only a real one will do - as Daughter says it won't be the same without Mum's Christmas tree in the corner.  May be that's a job for tomorrow. 

Anyway, I've managed to take some (not very good) photographs of some of the more special cards I've made this year.  The photographs were taken very quickly, by me (which is never a good thing), because the camera was needed by our nephew for the family trip to America. However, they'll give you a taste of what I've been up to.  And, by the way, I've fallen in love with Mo's Digital Pencil images.  They are soooo cute and bring to mind carefree childhood Christmases.  I've used three in particular and I'm very pleased with the results.

Papers are Cosmo Cricket (I love Cosmo Cricket!) and the images were coloured with my Prismacolors and gamsol. Plenty of fake snow and Glamour Dust and ta-dah!  These cards are quite large for me, about 19 cms square, so it was nice to do something a bit different.  It took quite a while to colour the images but I was so pleased with the results.  It's going to be hard to give them away but they've been made for very special people so I'll be happy to know they'll be appreciated.

I also borrowed a stamp from a friend - I'm not sure what brand it is, although I have a feeling it might be 'Stampin Up'.  I did some paper piecing, not something I do very often, but it was good fun and made a change from colouring.  These are the results:

 

Same image, different colourways and different greetings.  Papers are Cosmo Cricket (of course) and My Minds Eye.  I made a frame with an acetate window to place over the image, and plenty of Glamour Dust, of course.  Again, they're about 19 cm square.  I'm really pleased with the results and I know they will be appreciated by the recipients.

Of course, this meant I had to make my own envelopes for all these big cards and they cost a fortune to send as they were quite thick and heavy, but the sheer pleasure I got from doing them was worth it!

I've also been making stocking fillers - little shopping list pads for on the fridge.  Now I know I have pictures of these somewhere but can I find them?  No.  So as soon as I do, I'll post them, together with photos of the brownie mix jars I'm making at the moment. Busy, busy, busy!

Hope all your preparations are going well and I'll be up-dating again as soon as have pictures to show you.

Happy crafting.

P

At Last!

So, finally, I'm back in Blogland, after ages away.  First there was the month-long honeymoon in Australia (which was sheer perfection) and then the three-week recovery from flu', caught on the plane home.  I've been a poorly girl but, thankfully, I'm (mostly) back to normal, just in time for the Christmas rush.  Obviously, Christmas has been on the back burner for many weeks now and I'm only just getting to grips with the fact that I only have a few more days before it is upon us.  Lots of shopping to do, obviously, but at least I'm most there with my Chrimble cards - will post quite a few shortly but haven't had time to take the photographs yet!  Oh hum!  Work gets in the way, you know.

Before I went off I was in a bag-making mood.  Lots of sweet treats to send or give to people so I used the wonderful 'Bag-a-lope' instructions I found here on Splitcoast Stampers.  It's such a good idea, very simple to make and such fun. Here's one I made to send to Daughter's friend, who was feeling poorly at university, filled with his favourite sweeties to cheer him up.  You can see that I made it to match the 'cheer up' card I wanted to send him:

I love this little combo - so colourful and cheery.  He loved it!

Then, of course, there was Halloween.  Usually I'm a bit of a humbug when it comes to Halloween - I don't stock up on sweeties for the kids or anything, because I don't really like the 'celebration'.  But this year we had loads of sweeties just waiting to be given away (leftovers from the candy bar I organised for the wedding) but, ironically, we were going to be in Australia when the kids would be coming knocking.  So I dressed up some bags and gave them and the sweeties to a friend, who has three young children and, of course, enters into the spirit of Halloween with their friends.  These are the bags:

The bags themselves are just block-bottomed paper bags I bought to decorate for the candy bar and I had some left over.  I added a strip of black card to the bottom, doodled with white faux stitching, and printed off some labels (found on the net, not hand-stamped, I'm afraid).  I then cut some smaller black circles and doodled them with stitching before folding them over the top of the bag and securing with a small brad.  Job done!  At least someone benefited from the surfeit of sweeties!!

Anyway, got to get back to work, being as I've been away from the office for seven whole weeks.  I'll post some Chrimble cards soon.  Happy crafting.

P