Brrrrrrr!!!

Afternoon!

Is anyone else cold?  I'm sat snuggled on my sofa, covered by a blanket with my fire on full blast willing time to stop then I don't have to go out in the cold to the supermarket!

I hope all your Christmas preparations are going well.  I'm feeling fairly pleased with myself as I've only got 13 cards left to make - mainly for my best friends and family!  However I've run out of gems and pearls so it means a trip to the craft shop at the weekend.  That's never going to end well for the bank balance!

Here's my latest card, I've done a few in this format for speed - just varying the paper and the colour of the snowman's scarf and hat.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Pollycraft - Christmas Fun
Tuesdsay Throwdown - Celebrate the season
Freshly Brewed - Christmas
Crafty Creations - Christmas Sentiment
Simon Says Stamp - Photo Inspiration
One Stop Craft Challenge - Let it Snow
Aud Sentiments - Winter Holiday Sentiments
Crafty Calender - Cold and Frosty
Bizzy Becs - Christmas
Sunday's With Crissy - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking!

Julie x

Christmas Fairy

Evening!

Hope you're all enjoying the bank holiday weekend!  And the lovely weather that we always get here in the UK for bank holidays.  Although I'll take our rain showers any day rather than that big old hurricane causing chaos down the east coast of America! 

Here's my latest card - I made it using some lovely My Minds Eye papers that came free with a craft magazine this weekend.  Although I'm not entirely sure if the fairy really goes or she looks a little lost -  but she's stuck there now, I've tried to remove her but it's going to rip the paper underneath, and it took me ages to work out how to cut that square/diamond with my trimmer so the trees ended up the right way round.

Plus I also managed to stamp this image myself - not to shabby, even if I do say so myself - given I usually can't stamp for toffee! (Although there are a few bits I had to fill in with my fine-liner but we'll keep that secret!)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Bah! Humbug! - Here come the girls
Card Patterns - Sketch 130


Also check my new badge out on the top right!! I only went and won a challenge at Sew Many Challenges, for this card here.  I'm chuffed to pieces! Thanks for choosing me as a winner!

Thanks for looking and for all your helpful comments!

Julie x

Birds

Hi,

Here is my latest card.  The card has a cute little bee charm on it.  It is a bee - honest! - Sandra helped me decide here - so thanks for your help with that love!

I love this DP with birds on it - it's from Papermania - Birdsong.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Sew Many Cards - Summertime
Catch the Bug - The Birds and the Bees


Thanks for looking.

Julie x

A touch of purple

Morning,

I've been a busy bee (for me anyway) this week 3 posts in 3 days!! Check me out!

Here's a card I was just having a play with the other night. I also managed to get a decent self stamped sentiment.

I'm going to enter this into the following challenges:

My Grafico - Monthly Challenge
Whoopsi Daisy - Anything Goes
Southern Girls - Black and White with a Pop (hope I've got the right idea!)
Paper Sundaes - Just Saying Hi

Thanks for looking - hope you all have a fab weekend!

Julie xx

Another Birthday Card...

Hello,

Just a quick post for me as it's late and I'm tired, but I won't have chance to post this tomorrow as I've got to work late and then go and cheer up one one of my best bud's up as she's having a bit of a poo time at the minute.  I'll take her some cake I think - that always cheers me up!

This card is for Auntie Ruth as she is 60 at the weekend!  I like to put my cards on top of the fireplace for a day or so before sending to decide if I like them or not and I think I'm going to alter it before I send it to add a sentiment.   Anyway, I really love this paper, the picture doesn't do it justice, partly as the photo was taken about 10 minutes ago and 11.30pm isn't known for it's abundance of natural light.  It's from Papermainia but I have no idea what it's called!

I'm also fairly chuffed with myself as I stamped this image myself rather than the digi's I prefer to use.  I freely admit that I SUCK at stamping, as I always end up with parts of the image missing, even following the billion expert tips I've been given - good ink & paper, ink pad to the stamp etc.  So what did I do this time?  I inked up the stamp and then put it on the table and pressed the paper on the stamp.  I'm sure I've made some horrible stamping faux pas however it worked for me!

I'm going to enter this into the following challenges:

• Cupcakecraft - Sketch
• Stamp Something - Pretty Papers
• Southern Girls - Anything Goes

Also hello to my not so new follower who I think I've missed off my hello's - Almondeyez2000!

Anyway I'm off to bed in a min so night night all - thanks for looking! 

Jules x

Dreaming of a Craft Room....

I think this is something that many crafters aspire to - I'd love a little room just for me to use to make cards so I can get organised and leave projects out to pick up later on. 

For the minute I'm storing all my bits and bobs in a set of drawers and a couple of boxes and doing my making on the dining room table:

This was my dining room table this morning - I managed to grab an hour while my little one had a nap.   Unfortunately our dining room table does get used for eating and it always seems such a chore to get all my bits out, have a poke through to find what I want and then have to clear them all away an hour later. 

Plus as my little boy is currently learning to feed himself - everything has to be put away otherwise, like today when I though I'd do some colouring while he finished his lunch I ended up with a sticky handprint on the page as it was just within his reach (his arms must have grown when I wasn't looking).

Anyway at least I've been doing some crafting; today I was mainly practicing stamping images.  I am rubbish at stamping, really rubbish - fuzzy edges, missed sections, too much ink, unevenness - you name it I bodge it. But through the lovely people on the Craftsforum.co.uk I've found loads of tips and useful info and am determined to get better at it. 

I've been mainly stamping Christmas images as that's what most of my stamps are, and I do seem to be getting better.  The best two tips from the website that work for me are to use a fine liner to fill in any missing sections - why did I not think of this before - so at least the missing sections bit is resolved (or disguised!). The other tip is to stamp standing up - hardly rocket science but it really works works!!

My tip - which I may still get patented is if you don't have the right size acrylic block for your clear cling stamps you can improvise and use the lid from your ink pad instead!  Amazing!

And to finish this post some good news for me as I have 12 followers on my blog now - how exciting!  So here's a big Hello to Silver Thistle Beads & Dreamstar68. 

x