Countdown....

Sunday again - just one more week to the 6 week holidays here in England! I know that Scotland are already enjoying theirs but I think I'll just about make it to the end of the week. The children are so excited and I am really looking forward to the break!

Here we go again with another Christmas offering. Over at Winter Wonderland this week we have a fabulous giveaway from Regina Easter of The Cutting Cafe. Anyone who knows Regina's products will tell you how fabulously simple to use and versatile they are, and they cost pocket money to purchase, plus you have the added bonus of having them stored on your computer for ever! And they are timeless too - go take a peak if you are in need of some inspiration, you'll find lots there. This is a gift bag that I made using the Heart Bag template:



OK, so it isn't a heart, but her templates are such that they are easily adaptable to any occasion.


The theme at Winter Wonderland this week is Christmas Present, hence the gift bag, but I also made this card which was a double challenge for me because I wanted to see if I could make a card without using any obvious Christmas papers - Yay! Great fun!! Get over there and play along with us, build up your Christmas card stash and be in with a chance of being this month's winner of Regina's fantastic giveaway!


Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you in Winter Wonderland! :o) xx

Christmas Past

Phew... what a scorcher!!! I don't know about you but I have suffered so bad this week in all the heat. It's been a mad week altogether! My office is like a greenhouse and no matter what I did, I just couldn't get any cool air into it at all. My poor little dog has really not enjoyed it. I came home on Wednesday to find huge clumps of fur all over the carpet and he was there tugging away at it in a desperate attempt to stop itching - it must have been killing him! Thankfully our house is very cool in the summer (freezing in the winter tho'!!!) so at least it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I managed to get their hair cut though and it seems to have helped a lot. Hardly the weather to be thinking about Christmas, but I still managed to get my card done for this week's Winter Wonderland theme which is Christmas Past. This Thomas Kinkade stamp was perfect for me because (although I'm not Victorian, despite what my kids may tell you!!) the scene reminds me so much of what Christmas was like when I was a child. It was quite a difficult image to paint though - I certainly don't have TK's talent for capturing light (Lord, I love that man's paintings!!), but nevertheless, it was great fun (if not time-consuming) to do.

Well that's my lot for today - if you find yourself with an hour to spare, why don't you put something together for the Winter Wonderland theme this week and you could find yourself being the lucky owner of these fab stamps too!!

Thanks for stopping by - have a great week!! :o) xx

Sunday again!

Now, I don't know if this is a common occurence worldwide - it's certainly not around these parts, but one night this week I woke up several times during the night and it just didn't go dark!!! At around 12.30am I got up to get a glass of water and I couldn't believe how light it still was outside. And then on Friday I realised I hadn't imagined it as I read in the paper that it is a rare phenomenom called Noctilucent, or Night Shining. It's got something to do with droplets of water in the atmosphere being so high up and the sun's rays catching them..... don't ask me, I don't do science, but it was fabulous to witness!!

And now, onto something that I DO do - Christmas!! Yay!! Over at Winter Wonderland this week, we're feeling Blue - but in the happiest sense of the word! And here are a couple of blue projects that I made using my new Sugar Nellie stamps - and if you fancy owning one of these stamps (plus some stamped images of the others!) get over there and play along and you will be in with a chance of winning one in next Saturday's draw!

So if you made it here, I'd like to thank you for popping by and wish you a great week ahead!! :o) xx

Aaaah Summer...

Don't you just love it!! But heck, what's with all the greenfly??? And where have all the ladybirds gone??? I put a citronella candle outside a couple of days ago - it is absolutely black with deceased greenfly now!! YUK!!! But summer has more up-sides than down-sides - tall glasses of Pimms being one of them, and earlier this evening I had my first Pimms of the summer! Sighhhhh.... LOL!!! Before that though I had a chat with my friend on the phone - she was feeling proper sorry for herself because her DH was going to be home later than normal and she was sitting outside with a cup of tea, so I quickly whizzed a Pimms kit together for her, drove it up the road, rang her doorbell and drove off!! LOL!! She texted me a very happy response!!! LOL!!

So here's a few offerings from me this week. I've been playing with my Monotone markers and although I'm far from perfect yet, I love playing with them and I LOVE the effect they give. This first one is my offering for Saturday Sketchers.

It was actually my second attempt - this was my first tryout,

and this was my third go

Winter Wonderland is proving to be a lot more popular than any of us anticipated this early in the year, and we are having such a fantastic time with it, and the enthusiasm from all the talented players is very encouraging, making it such a pleasure to be a part of. This week our theme is Let It Snow! The title speaks for itself really!!! This was my sample card which took me an age to make but I truly cannot remember enjoying making a Christmas card as much as this one. It is sooooo lovely being able to make my cards at this nice slow and steady pace and hopefully I will have a collection at the end of it that I will be proud to distribute. So pop over there and play along - we have some really fabulous projects and lots of wonderful giveaways line up too, and we have some very exciting news we're going to share soon about a fantastic regular sponsor!!!!

Hope you're having a great week and enjoying the sunshine - if you have any, of course!! Thank you so much for popping by! :o) xx

Winter Wonderland, Week 2

OMGosh, it's Wednesday already and I haven't blogged!!! It's week 2 over at Winter Wonderland - week 1 proved to be a brilliant success and it was very reassuring to know that there are plenty of other people out there who want to get ahead for Christmas too. I had a big twinge of excitement yesterday thinking about all that spare time I'm going to have to plan for Christmas knowing that making cards isn't going to be a headache for me this year!

So, A Christmas Carol is this week's theme - basically, just sing a Carol or two and be inspired by them. Here is my "We Three Kings" card which used a stamp that I'd bought about 4 or 5 years ago and haven't ever used yet!! I think it might feature again on my Christmas cardmaking this year!!

Whatever you're doing, I hope the weather is being kind to you (it's horrid here!!!) and I wish you a great week! Thanks for stopping by! :o) xx

Off we go!

I've had a busy ol' week with one thing or another, but I shan't bore you with the details because I am sooooooo excited to remind all blog-challenge lovers that today some fabulous blog-buddies and myself have launched our Winter Wonderland blog. And if you love Christmas, but would prefer to do it without all the stress that goes with it, then this is the place for you because we're going on a slooooow journey to the festive season, but preparing for it well in advance. So come along for the ride, join in the fun and get yourself into the spirit of things - come November, you'll be so glad you did!!! ;o) And Teri has a fabulous stack of blog candy to giveaway to one lucky winner too - what more incentive could you want!!!


So, to kickstart, here is my first offering for our first theme - Oh Christmas Tree:

And just for the fun of it, I also made a contemporary one as well - a bit out of my comfort zone but I got the idea from a card I received from a lovely forum friend last year and I really liked it, so this is my version:

And then I also used this week's Saturday Sketch to make this little gift box. There's nothing like crafting for Christmas in the sunshine, let me tell you!
So I hope to see as many of you over there joining in with our weekly themes. They're not all going to be cards, we have a few crafty tricks up our sleeves too ;o)


Thanks for popping in, see you in Winter Wonderland! :o) xx

Half Term is here!

It's half term! Hurrah!! I've got a stinking cold! Booo! Typical, just as I was about to catch up on some domestics I get struck down with this awful bug! Still, at least I've got a week off, and a pack of Beecham's All-In-One so with any luck, this thing will pass soon enough!

I have a couple of goodies to show off again this weekend. First here is my offering for this week's Friday Sketch:

And then here is my Saturday Sketch card:

I did make another twinchie too but for some reason blogger doesn't want to show it so maybe I should take that as an omen!! LOL!! I bought some gorgeous little pots in Hobbycraft today so I'm going to go and see what I can make with them now! Thanks for popping by and have a great weekend! :o) xx