Pssst.... There's a new kid on the blog!

Ooooh, you can never have enough Magnolia challenge blogs, and there's a new one just started yesterday!  Marvellous Magnolias are the latest addition to blogland and they have a fab DT with the most wonderful inspiring samples!  Their first theme is Anything Goes (always a good one to start with!) so I am going to join in the spirit of things with this card that I made today:

 

Right at the beginning of the week I started out with the best of intentions and began sorting out my Craft Room (guess what, it never got finished!!!)  Sometimes it's nice to just go for a rummage because I found a huge box full of these tapestry stamps that I've had for years but tend not to use.  So I brought them all down and have been stamping away like mad with them and this is what I created with this Christmas set.  I stamped out the first wreath and cut it out, then I stamped a second larger wreath directly onto the card and mounted the smaller wreath over the top using foam pads.  I added the darker berries on at the end using a copic pen.  Cute Tilda is coloured with pencils, though I didn't spend half as much time on this one as my previous offering!

 

Well, all that remains is for me to wish the girls at Marvellous Magnolias the very best of luck with their new blog and I look forward to their future challenges!

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!  :o) xx

I've got BBS!

Bad Blogger Syndrome!!  Oh my life I have been so out of it for a few weeks.  I've done a lot of cover at work which, much as I love, has left me feeling exhausted by the end of the day so all I've wanted to do is sleep!  I've been in a lot of pain with my shoulder too - I seriously don't recommend it!  However, for the last few days and nights I have managed to get by on no painkillers/anti-inflammatories at all.  The pain is still there but I've either got used to it, or it's not as bad as it was.  I still have restricted movement in my shoulder, but at least I have been sleeping at night.  That's about as much as I could have hoped for this time last month!

Right then, I have a few to catch up on.  To begin with I have a project made with Teri's fabulous "Waiting" image for this week's Delicious Doodles theme which is Fright Night!

 

I saw how to make this gorgeous box on Create and Craft and immediately got my Hougie Board out to have a go.  I am so delighted at how simple it is to make and I intend to make a few more for Christmas gifts!

 

Over at Midweek Magnolias this week we have an Anything Goes theme.  I for one was really pleased about that because back in May when we had our Big White Space theme, I really enjoyed making my CAS card with little Edwin dangling and I have longed to have an excuse to have another go, so here is my offering:

 

 

Whilst I can appreciate that there is not a lot of activity embellishment-wise going on here, please don't think that this was a last-minute rush job!!  Blimey, I think it took me as long to make this card as it would one of my more fussy ones!!  I am absolutely loving using my pencils to colour, but I kid you not, it takes me AGES to do it!!!  I don't know if others spend as long with their pencils, but it took me at least 3 hours to colour this!  Granted, there was a couple of cups of tea in between layers, but still, I need to find a way of speeding myself up a bit!!

 

So that's all I have to offer at the moment.  Please pop over to see all my lovely teamies at Delicious Doodles and Midweek Magnolias - they have lots of treats in store for you!

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a very Happy Halloween!!!  :o) xx



Delicious Doodles - Monochrome

Hurrah!!  It's Friday once more.  That means that it's time for a new Delicious Doodles challenge. and this week Team B are covering the theme Monochrome.

Here I have used Teri's gorgeous, gorgeous Snow Cuddles image and using various shades of blue have created this beautiful Christmas Card:

I've gone for the paler shades with lots of sparkle (because I do love a bit of sparkle in case you hadn't noticed!! LOL!). 

Please pop over to the blog and see what other delicious delights my fabulously talented teamies have created with Teri's amazing images.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend :o) xxx

Christmas Paper Star Tutorial

Christmas at Chez Anne has begun!  I have started gathering supplies to make some Christmas Decorations and I am posting my very first ever tutorial with this gorgeous paper star.  I've seen plenty of these but they look too intricate and complicated to have a go at making.  However, I am suffering with a frozen shoulder at the moment but my creative juices are going wild so I decided to have a bash and see how tricky it is.  Well, the good news is that not only is it the most simple thing in the world to make, it's also very, very quick!.  Here's my tutorial - hope you like it.

Begin by cutting 6 squares of paper all the same size.  It doesn't matter what the size they are, that's up to you.  I used 8 x 8 for my test star.  I also used cheap printer paper to make the one above, just in case it didn't work - I didn't want to waste any of my designer papers!!  Fold the square diagonally, and then fold again like this:

 

Next make cuts on both sides, up to the centre but not touching the centre crease, like this:

 

You can make as many cuts as you like - here I made 6 cuts on each side but in the main photo, I only made 5 cuts on each side.

 

Open up the square, and taking the smallest cuts at the centre, using a good tacky glue join the edges together as such:

 

Flip it over and do the same with the next smallest cuts like this:







Repeat the process, flipping and sticking:

Very quickly you will end up with something like this, once all the edges have been joined:

Repeat another 5 times until you have 6 points.  Begin assembling your star by laying them side by side and glueing the edges together in the centre and at the bottom like this:

 





And there you have it, a beautiful, effective hanging decoration in next to no time.  My first attempt took less than 45 minutes.  Try it using different numbers of cuts and papers and square sizes.  By the way, the 8 x 8 one that I made is absolutely HUGE when fully assembled.  Having accomplished my paper star, I tried a smaller one using these Papermania Christmas papers in 6 x 6:

Hope you find this useful.   Please leave me your link if you make one, I'd love to see them!  Thanks for stopping by!  xxx

Midweek Magnolias - Becky's Sketch

Good morning all.  keeping it very brief today as I'm sitting here freezing cold with soaking wet hair!  Bit of a shocker this morning when I took my Isaac down to the bus stop!  My mornings will never be the same again since he started his new school - I just about manage to have a shower before having to whizz off to drop him off so obviously my hair is still wet.  However, this morning I was scraping ice off the windscreen!! Argh!  Where did that come from??  My hair feels frozen now - I need to come up with a new morning plan before the 'real' cold sets in!

Anyway, over at Midweek Magnolias this week, our lovely Becky has made a fab sketch for us:

and here is my take on it:

She kept it lovely and basic so that there was a lot of scope for embellishments so you can really go to town on it!  My fab teamies have created some really special cards, so please pop over there to have a look for yourself!

I'm in Christmas mode now right up to December, so I need to sit and punch out a few more of these pointsettia's I think!

Thank you so much for stopping by - hope you have a great week!  :o) xx

Delicious Doodles - Harvest Moon

Gawd, I've done it again - I completely missed the date for some reason - I'm thinking it's still about the 5th September!!  We're about to go into week 3 of 8 of this first half term,  but it still feels like day 1 to me!  I am absolutely loving my new job, but there is just such a lot to do and so much to remember that the time is whizzing by! LOL!  But you won't hear any complaints from me.

Over at Delicious Doodles this week we are giving thanks for a good harvest with the theme Harvest Moon and I've created this for my entry:

I've used Teri's amazing Mushroom Fairy image and a number of her butterflies which were resized pretty much to tiny size, but how they still work!  I coloured her with pencil's and with the help of my Stickles, added a little sparkle!

We would love to see lots of players this week and there's always the chance of winning some of Teri's gorgeous images as well as the kudos of being put in the spotlight if you use one of her own fab drawings in your project!  She's also been extremely busy creating a whole load of adorable Halloweenie's which you absolutely HAVE to have!  Go check them out!

My lovely teamies have been busy creating away to whet your appetite so please pop over to see their projects and leave a little love for them!

I also want to share something with you that I know will prove very popular.  Lovely Inger who's work I absolutely adore and who is a constant source of inspiration to me has created a brand new paper line and is having a HUGE giveaway with this fantastic kit as the top prize:

There are also lots of other prizes to be won, among them some of her new gorgeous, gorgeous papers and also a handmade card from her own fair hands!  You have got to see them!

That's my lot then for today - thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!  :o) xxx

Christmas in September

Hi Blogland,  I'm a little bit late posting this.  I'm starting to settle down in my new role a bit more but life is a little chaotic at the moment.  I had anticipated I would be busy for a few weeks, but not on this level!  Phew!  LOL!!!  Still, it's all in a day's work.

Over at Midweek Magnolias this week we are celebrating Christmas in September and I made this gorgeous little tealight card that I saw over at Stempelmaleins blog. 

I did have something a little more elaborate in my mind, but time was running out so I kept it pretty simple.  The image is a pretty old one of  Mother Christmas, but I still adore her.  I coloured her in pencils, but I wish I'd had a bit more time to spend on her.  Part of the reason I ran out of time was because I wasted so much of it trying to find my favourite snowflake punch.  I am so sad and so cross with myself.  I have kept it in the same place for the last 6 years that I've owned it, and last year I can't have put it back where it belongs, so it could be absolutely anywhere now!!!  Grrr.....

All the papers are Bearly Mine Designs and the stamp is a 99p one from Hobbycraft!  Here is the inside:

I've used Vanilla Sugar scented candles here, but I am going to buy some lovely warm spiced ones and make a couple more of these for Christmas gifts at school.  It was very simple to make, and if I'd had all the right tools handy, it would have been pretty quick to make too!

Thats my lot for today then!  Thanks for stopping by, and please pop over to Midweek Magnolias to see what wonderful work my lovely teamies have created for this theme!