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