November giveaway Winner...

is KATHLEEN. Please contact me to confirm your address details. Thank you to everyone for playing - the December giveaway will be along shortly.

Cindy

Vintage bookmark

Made this vintage bookmark for a Christmas swap over on Flickr. The stamp is from Clarity stamps and the background is made from grungepaper run through the cuttlebug in an embossing folder to give it a bit of texture. There is a Christmas tag to go with it but I'll think I'll keep that secret for now - there have to be a few surprises at Christmas!!

Still making crimbo cards and pressies, will have to start writing them tomorrow, those last posting dates for overseas are creeping closer by the day!!

I had a request for Christmas cards at work - but really as most people buy them by the busload there is not much of a market for run of the mill cards. However I knocked a couple of 'special' ones up on request and can use them myself if they don't go.

WOYWW #128

I can't believe it is Wednesday again and time once more to visit the desks of the crafting great and good. If you want to nose about, or feel like baring your all (so to speak) hop over to see our hostess Julia at Stamping Ground and join in. Here's mine.

There's a fair bit of inky messiness going on today and I am sure the workspace bit is getting smaller and smaller. I will have to put a few stamps away soon, I have discovered I have a plethora of snowflake stamps in varying shapes and sizes. Still, I guess  a girl can never have too many snowflakes. I am finishing off some fat pages for a swap, one theme is poppies/ rememberance which I have just completed and the next is Christmas (sometimes us crafters are so predictable....). You can see Santa over in the background. I'm not quite sure where that one is going yet, may have to hit it with the white embossing powder to lighten it up. But much as I would like to finish it off while I'm in the mood it needs to dry properly or it will just be Santa in a snowstorm. I hate waiting for things to dry lol.


Finally my lovely new cupboard for my paper stash arrived today. It's very heavy, I may have to reinforce the floor once the paper is in  it!! Anyhow, here it is, in pieces (and upside down, the photo gremlins are back) and likely to stay that way for now as only one page of assembly instructions came with it. I may have to wing it, how hard can it be? But it will have to wait for the weekend, I'll show you next week if I have managed it. I'll be the one in tears if I have messed it up.
Have a wonderful WOYWW everyone.

Just a few piccies...

to prove I haven't gone into hibernation again. The Christmas cards are continuing apace, but I am a bit loathe to put too many up - you never know who's looking!! Anyhow here's a tealight card I tried out, another tutorial from Stampartic. Very simple and a nice little gift. It would also be nice a bit smaller with just 4 tealights I think.

And a birthday card for friend, who isn't particularly girly so I have kept it simple and subtle. If you are not familiar with this stamping technique, it is achieved by covering a peice of black cardstock with versamark and brushing over with mica powders. You then stamp your chosen image with versamark which lifts off the mica. I usually just seal with a light dusting of hairspray. It is quite nice to quarter or cut the image up and mount on to black card to give a tile effect but I had cut the card to such a weird size I couldn't do the maths so I left it as it was. It will do.


Finally an emergency wedding card I had to make last weekend (why am I always so disorganised lol?).

Had completely forgotten (to make the card, not to go to the wedding) so used my Craft Artist programme to do the background and personalise it so it looked like there was a bit of effort made and here is my first hybrid card. Again, I don't suppose it will stand out in the crowd but at least it was a one off. Bye for now!!

 (If you haven't already done so don't forget to join in with my November art giveaway - details in the side bar)

WOYWW # 127 - It's Christmas!!

It's Wednesday again, and another chance to go for a wander through blogland's crafty desks courtesy of Julia Dunnit at Stamping Ground. Although I am home today I wasn't going to post as I won't be around much to blog hop  - but then I thought, just get on with it!! I had a rare crafting afternoon with my mum AND my sister yesterday and she brought along this sleigh stamp which I had to have a go at and made these three cards. Two of them at least came out bright and bling so I am putting them in to Hazel's CHC Challenge.  We had decreed it was a Christmas card afternoon - we even put on a CD of christmas songs to get us in the mood!!
The rest of the desk is covered with Christmas stuff and I shall be continuing in this vein for the next week I should think! I used to refuse to deal with Christmas until after my birthday at the beginning of December but ended up in such a state the last two years I have decided that the cards at least have to be done BEFORE my birthday. We'll see. Anyhow have a happy WOYWW and thanks for stopping by (I'd love it if you entered my giveaway too, details on the side bar or is that just shameless self promotion lol?)

Watch the Birdie!! November giveaway is here

Was trying for a Christmassy feel for the November giveaway , not sure I pulled it off!!

As usual, my mediocre photography skills let down a rather cute little bird house. It is very small, about 3" high and is basically an altered chipboard house. I just used some paints and metallic rub on (also used the PVA technique on the roof to get the distressed look) and finally found a use for the littleshrink plastic leaves I made a month or so ago - there were just enough!! The tiny seed beads which were once in a glue like medium that has long since dried out were the perfect size to use as berries to add a bit of colour and my little robin (you may need to use your imagination as his red breast kinda disappeared) was made using shrink plastic and a Tim Holtz die.

I have just realised I took the photo befor I put back his little hangy bit. This little house does come with a hanging loop so it could go on the tree - or wherever you want really!!        Anyhow, usual rules apply, you need to leave a comment on this post before 9 pm on Sunday 27th November to be included in the draw. International players welcome, feel free to link from your own blogs. Thanks for looking, and hopefully for playing along.                     Cindy x              

After the storm ......

sorry about the post title, running out of ideas!! Not much going on, after a really hectic week last week with 3 children's activities and an Open House, I am feeling rather 'flat'. After the initial feeling of euphoria that I was no longer marching (make that running) to keep up with deadlines I now feel a bit unfocussed. Always have been a 'work better to a deadline' kinda gal. Hey ho. Maybe I am just tired, my attempt to get back into my keepfit regime with a long walk on Sunday and an aquafit class yesterday left me exhausted when I woke up this morning. Hey ho. Anyhow, here's a couple of cards I made over the last week.

First an exploding handbag card for a  friend.





I was quite pleased with the way the bunting turned out but had a job writing anything in the card after I had put it all together!!

Just like the way this one turned out. The main image is from a tunnel card set I bought but I didn't like the way they went together - the folded card as it comes out of the envelope is most uninspiring. So I have been using the images as toppers. I love the gorjuss girls. Actually did use one of my 'touch of mica' stencils to emboss the background and I love the idea of frilling up these flower shapes I have with a punch - saw that on the Stampartic website.

In fact I see they have a monochrome challenge for November so I think I'll enter this card I just made. Can you see the Sue Wilson influence lol? I just love her OTT decoration and the layers of detail on her cards. But it just makes me want to buy more nestabilities!!

This is more what I have time for on a regular basis:

Must have been in a bit of a brown study the last couple of days!!  Ok, right now I am sitting in my workroom with all the Christmas papers and stamps out. Lovely. So, must make a start on those Crimbo cards, I have vowed I will not be doing them at the last minute this year. See ya!!