The last ATC of the year ........

Happy Sunday evening .....

I hope you've had a nice weekend ..... although it's probably been a white one for some of you. 
We had quite a bit of snow here on Friday ...... this was what we woke up to .... so pretty 

And it gradually got worse as the day went on ......

Schools were closed for the day. Flights and ferries were delayed.  There were no cabs, no buses running and all the shops closed early .... but all that didn't matter ........ it was SNOWING!!!!

It did stop snowing for a while ........ Meet Frosty,  Alex's snow day friend

The only downside was I had to cancel the Christmas workshop yesterday.  It wasn't a good idea for everyone to travel with the weather conditions as they were.  It's all been re-arranged and fingers crossed, it will go ahead next weekend.
The snow has nearly all gone here now .... sigh.  It would have been nice to have a white Christmas

Anyhow ...... it's the 10th of December (only two weeks to go before the big day ..... eeek!) and it's time to launch the last of the Happy Little Stampers Challenges for this year ..... the ATC challenge

The theme is Christmas ....... and oh look! ..... it's a snowy one

I do love white on Kraft card. 
I've stamped and heat embossed some small snowflakes onto the background

Added in a few dots with a white gel pen and brush around the edges with Picket Fence Distress ink

A simple strip of white card, cut to create a snowy hillside, then heat embossed with the greeting using Liquid Platinum powder.  A touch of glitter adds a little sparkle.

To finish off I die cut a pretty snowflake from glitter card and a piece of white, layered the two together to add dimension and then attached it onto my ATC ...... all done!

The last ATC of the year!

Thank You to everyone that has played along with all of this years Happy Little Stampers challenges ..... your support means a lot.
Have a very Merry Christmas ..... and a Happy and Healthy New Year.  And we'll see you all in 2018 for more challenge fun!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day. And if you've got snow, stay safe and warm.
We were out and about today, and it was a little on the chilly side!  We went for a lovely Sunday lunch with the whole family ....... it's always nice when someone else does the cooking, and there's no washing up to do!  And this evening hubby and I are staying cosy and warm in front of the TV.  It's movie time and a little Christmas spirit I think ...... Cheers! 

Cheerio until next time .....

It's all about words .......

Hello again ......

Whoo Hoo!!!! Guess where I am!?  Yep .... I'm at the Bredbury Hall Hotel & Country Club  over in Stockport near Manchester, on this year's Happy Little Stampers Craft Retreat.
As you've probably guessed this is a scheduled post as I should be in the middle of dinner, with the HLS boss herself .... Kylie, and the rest of the girls on the retreat ..... no doubt having a ball!

However, I might be off on a jolly but, the blog challenges still go on ..... this time it's the Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge

This month the theme is WORDS ......  just because ATC's are on the small side doesn't mean you have to skimp on the words ..... make them your focal point

I started out by colouring a large piece of cardstock using various colours of Distress Oxide inks and a little water to blend the colours, and then I cut it down into ATC size pieces (2.5 x 3.5 inches) ..... I got quite a few so I'll be using them as ATC bases in the future ........ watch this space

Each one of the ATC's was then spritzed with a mica spray to add some shimmer to the background, and I used various stencils and Distress Oxide inks to add more detail ......

Pearlescent paint through a stencil gives extra shimmer on one of the designs, and a touch of sparkle with a few die cuts stars and the odd dot of glitter glue .......

Each of the sentiments was stamped and heat embossed with a clear powder  ......

with a few white highlights here and there .....

Use your favourite phrases or sayings .......  or simply one word .... the choice is yours.

As with all of the HLS challenges there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the challenge winner to spend in the HLS store ..... this month it could be you!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy your weekend. I'm enjoying mine!

Cheerio until next time ......

Finally ....... a minute to blog

Happy Wednesday folks!

Welcome to the new followers who've joined me recently ....... it's so nice to have you along. Thank you for spending time here.
There's not a lot of craft going on in the old Craft Lane this week I'm afraid ....... I'm enjoying a nice relaxing week spending quality time with the family.

The cottage is beautiful ... a real home from home with everything we could possibly need and more .....

This was waiting for us when we arrived on Friday ...... soooo good with a nice cup of tea after the drive down ...... yum!!
 
Here's bit of a whistlestop tour of the week so far ...... Cheltenham at the weekend  for the Food and Drink Festival.  Lots of good food, fine wine and a 'zebra' burger sat in the park ......

Sunday was Father's Day ..... and we had a lovely day in Bourton-on-the-Water.  The kids took hubby for a drink ....... Cheers!  Happy Father's Day Grandad

We sat by the river after a nice lunchtime meal out  (we went Italian even though they beat England the night before!!!)

And the afternoon was rounded off with a family game of football ........

Could this be the next David Beckham? .......

Monday was a busy day ...... a trip to Thomas Land over at Drayton Manor .......where we rode on buses, cars, planes, troublesome trucks and of course Thomas

We even met the Fat Controller ......

Tuesday we were in Birdland in Bourton, home to, amongst other things,  England's only collection of King Penguins ......

There was also pretty flamingos .....

Owls .......

 And Chris found a friend too .....

A nice refreshing beer by the river while the little man fed the ducks .....

saw the end to another beautiful day in the Cotswolds ..... this is the life!!

Oooh ....... a rare picture - our two together ......

And I think the little man enjoyed his day .....

Well, I think I've gone on long enough about the holiday .... thanks for sticking with me.

I'll leave you with a little crafty something ...... last month's ATC's for the monthly swap that I'm part of.  The theme was ANIMALS .....

I went with frogs .... not my favourite creature but these little guys are soooo cute .....

They're all from a Penny Black 'T' for Transparent set, which I think is called Toadily Happy .... and they've been coloured using a mixture of pencils, Copic Markers and Distress Inks.

The sentiment on the last one is from the Dylusions stamp set ... The Right Words, stamped and then each line cut individually before positioning onto the ATC

Phew!! what a busy few days ..... and the holiday's not over yet.

I'll be back later in the week with the second half of our Cotswolds break.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy your evening.  It's football and a bottle of red here ...... cheers!!

See you again soon

Linda

xx

I'm leaving ..... on a jet plane

Hi there,

Just a quick post from me this morning.
The old craft room door is offically CLOSED for two weeks (sigh!)
The suitcases are packed - finally, everything's been crossed off the list. All we need to do now is to get to the airport on time.

This is where I'll be for the next 14 days ..........

Before I dash off though I've one more thing to share with you ......... this month's ATC's for the regular monthly swap over on Julie's Blog.
A group of us send off our ATC's to Julie who then sorts through them and kindly sends out the swaps.  Simple.
Each month we have a theme to follow.  This month it's ....... Pastel Colours

This is what I've sent .......

I've finally got around to using some of my new JOFY stamps which I've had for ages and just haven't had the time to play.
These little mini ones (JM 09, 10 & 11) are perfect for making ATC's, they're just a nice size.

I stamped the images onto white card, coloured them using my Distress markers and then cut around the edge leaving a small border. I've stamped the images again and cut out various bits to layer and add a bit of dimension

A touch of Glamour Dust adds a bit of sparkle here and there, and there's also a touch of glossy accents too.

They've each been mounted onto a piece of card that's been inked with matching Distress ink and stamped using the mesh from one of the large JOFY stamp sets (JOFY 12).  Then attached to an ATC sized piece of black cardstock.   The words are from the  JOFY 11 set of stamps.  There's loads of seperate words on this set, so you can put them together however you like, make your own sentiments.  Really useful.

Well that's about it from me.  It's nearly time to leave for the airport. 

Don't worry I will pop in and say Hi over the course of the next two weeks.  My regular weekly DT posts for Indigo Blu and Creative Studios will also be there, (I've been given a pass for today on Creative Studios.  Sam thought I may be a little busy).   You'll also find a  little something from me on the Craftwork Cards Blog next Tuesday.  See, it's not all relaxing and enjoying myself while I'm away.

Thanks for popping by today.  

Avere un bel fine settimana. (Have a lovely weekend)

Ciao per ora (bye for now)

Linda

xx

Happy Easter!

Hi everyone,
I don't do Easter cards but I just thought I'd share my Easter ATC that I made for the new monthly swap over on Julie's Blog
This little Penny Black bunny is soooo cute - I couldn't resist putting the pom pom on his tail (sweet!)

ATC's were something else I didn't do up until recently, but now I've started, they're so much fun.  Easter was the theme for March, next month it's Sunshine and Showers.  Hmmmm ......... wonder if that can be snow showers.  Most of the hills and countryside over here still looks like something off a Christmas card. 
In fact, when we took Lauren and Alex to the airport on Wednesday morning it was snowing.  There was just a bit coming down in Douglas but by the time we got  to Ronaldsway airport we were in a blizzard. 

Driving home from the airport

It didn't last long though - IOM weather = changeable to say the least.

Wednesday afternoon I should have been in my craft room but, I got a phone call from hubby at work saying an email had been sent round, asking for volunteers to go up on the mountains and help the farmers look for their sheep lost in the snow.  Stephen said he was going and did I want to go with him.  So I dug out my thermals and my hiking boots, layered up and off I went.
I didn't know quite what to expect, but I was shocked by the amount of snow that was actually up there. The mountain road has been closed for a couple of weeks and now I know why.  Some of the drifts were over 6 foot deep where we were, and it was soooo cold.  It actually snowed again while we were up there.

270 sheep had been found the day before.  The farmers have certainly got their work cut out, it was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.  Everywhere was just white .....

 

Hubby wrapped up warm

........ and the snow was so deep.
Some of the road had been cleared part way, so that tractors could get down there but most of the time you couldn't see any of it. 

As you can see, eventually the skies did clear and the sun came out.  It was beautiful up there, but still flippin' cold!

There must have been about 70-80 people up there looking but unfortunately we didn't find any sheep or lambs alive. It's so sad to think that they're still out there. 
It was a case of just covering ground, poking the snow with a long stick, and if you felt any holes or ridges, then dig to see if anything was down there.   Some people did have a bit more luck than us.  About 20 sheep were spotted over the other side of the mountian which was good news.
There's still a lot out there though, it's going to take days to find them all.  And it's going to be a while before the moutain road is open again.  It's only about 8 weeks before the TT, when bikes are going down there at speeds of over 120 mph.  Lets hope the weather changes soon.

Thanks for popping by today.  Sorry there hasn't been much craft on here lately - I'm rubbish I know!  Hopefully this weekend will see a change to that - my Tim Tag really needs doing! 

I'll be posting on the Creative Studios DT Blog later today, and tomorrow (if I get a wriggle on) I'll be posting on the Craftwork Cards DT Blog with some of the new Dolly Mixtures range.  Busy day ahead.

Have a lovely Easter - not too many chocolate eggs though!

Cheerio for now.

Linda

x