It's all in the cards ....... or not!

Happy Thursday,

I've been trying to write this post for over 24 hrs (lol!) ...... don't quite know where the time is going this week but, I'm getting nowhere FAST!!!

In case you were wondering how I went on in the Poker Stars Charity Tourney on Saturday night well ...... it wasn't as bad as I thought ...... I held my own pretty well and made it to the final table - yeah!!!  And that was with one of the pros on my starting table, no it wasn't Daniel (than goodness!)  but it was another of the big earners ...... David Williams!!!!! (what a nice guy)

I lost quite a few chips to him in the early stages (good fold by me) but then managed to get a few lucky hands and finally finished 7th overall - whoo hoo!!  Out of 100 starters, including 8 or 9 professional players, a dozen or so ex-pros (hubby included) and a load of Poker Stars staff, I didn't think that was bad.  Stephen finished 4th so, quite a good night overall.
Not so good last night however .........

Hubby decided to host a home game for some of his team from work. Would you believe THE CHEF (daughter's partner), who only joined in part way through the game,  took all my chips on the last hand of the night.  For those of you that understand poker ..... I flopped a full house, 7,4,7, I had a pocket pair (4,4).   After a check and a bet ..... I went 'All In'.  One folded his hand and the Chef calls ..... he's hit a set of 7s with J,7.  What comes on the turn ...... another Jack, giving him a bigger Full House!!!!!  You can imagine my reaction - not happy to say the least.  I told you I'm no good at Poker!  But I suppose I shouldn't be too upset ..... at least the money stayed in the family!!  It was a fun night though, everyone enjoyed themselves.  I can see it becoming a regular thing.

On the craft front so far this week there's not been that much going on.  The beginning of the week saw a box go off to Kay at IndigoBlu, full of samples for the Hobbycraft Show at the NEC this weekend.  I won't actually be there myself  (sad face) but at least my samples will be.

Our DT brief was to use Kroma Crackle on card and then die cut it to make embellishments.  Here's a couple of festive designs I sent,  one using the Crackle in the usual way .........

I die cut the word from chipboard, using the Vintage Noel Alterations die, painted it using the IndigoBlu Black Gee-Sso-Good, then covered it with the Kroma Crackle and left it to dry.  This was the finished effect ....

In the places where the Kroma hadn't crackled very well I added a touch of glue and then sprinkled over some fine crystal glitter to give the look of snow.

The background design was made using the IndigoBlu Vintage Flourish stamp, stamped in Versamark ink and then dusted over with Perfect Pearls mica powder - very festive!

The poinsettia on this tag was cut from card made using Kay's Flitter Glu and Kroma technique.  If you're not very good at waiting for things to dry (like me!)  then this is a fab technique to try.

I covered a sheet of white card with a thin layer of the Flitter Glu, then add some Kroma Crackle mixed with a touch of red acrylic paint over the top.  I then dried this off using a heat tool.  You can see it's a totally different effect doing it this way, the cracks are much larger.

Has anyone spotted the deliberate mistake? ......... if you look closely at the background you'll see that I actually stamped the script upside down ......... ooops!!

If you pop on over to the IndigoBlu DT Blog there's a couple more of my Kroma designs on there this week, and if you're sick of the sight of Christmas then you'll be pleased to know they're of the non-festive variety.

Phew!!!! Finished at last!  Thanks for popping by today.   I've got an appointment now with a rather cute little guy and a very large jigsaw.  Then it's back into the craft room to finish off my project for tomorrows post on the Creative Studios DT Blog.  See you all then.
If any of you are off to the NEC this weekend have a great time, pop by and say Hi to Kay and the crew for me (IndigoBlu are on Stand G48), and go home with lots of lovely new stash!

Cheerio for now

Linda

xx