White Rabbits! White Rabbits! White Rabbits!

Hi everyone,
Well,  it's the first of the month again. Time flies when you're having fun - doesn't it just.
I apologise to anyone who thinks it's a little early for the Christmas Countdown Banner, but I must confess, I love the build up to the big day, plus it's going to keep me on my toes as far as my Christmas cards go - I hope!
Did you all have a good weekend?  Mine wasn't bad.  Saturday was a bit hectic, but yesterday was nice and relaxing so I'm all ready for another busy week.

Stephen and I did the Poker Stars Treasure Hunt on Saturday.  Unfortunately we didn't win anything this year but we had a great time. The weather was fab and the course took us along parts of the island we hadn't seen before

Views from Sulby Reservoir

Our final destination was the famous Cregg Ny Baa on the mountain road on the TT Course.

It was a bit of a tough one this year and the competition was very strong.   We didn't do too badly though - at least we didn't come last!

The questions score was out of 56 .......


we had all the collectables on the list ......

a hat
a tea bag
some elestic
a 20p coin
a red crayon
an envelope
and a golf tee
(by the way, the hat wasn't mine.  It actually belongs to my son???!)


It was the pictures that let us down this year, only 6 out of the 10.  We really could have done with an extra pair of eyes to look for these.  Last year we had Lauren with us, that's our excuse anyway.
The joint winners had 70 points, third place 69 so our 66 was pretty good.  We very happy with that.

This weekend is going to be another busy one I think.  Lauren and Alex are coming over for a few days on Saturday.  Last time they were here Alex thought Grandma's playroom looked like fun

the new King of Distress I wonder ....

Think I'm going to have to sort him a little box out with craft goodies in and a space so he can play along with me.

Really looking forward to seeing them both, they don't come often enough.  However I am going to have to get a move on this week and make sure all the stuff that needs doing is done and out of the way.

Before I go and get started, just a little bit of cratfyness.  You remember I showed you one of the samples I sent to Kay for last weeks C&C shows.  And how I said I would look a right ninnie if it wasn't on - well if the cap fits!!
You guessed, or saw if you watched the shows it wasn't on! (I didn't see it anyway).
Not sure why but hey ho!  Actually they didn't get to show a lot of the samples in any detail as everything was selling out so fast (Kay did another great job).
This is what was inside the box anyway .......

It was a Christmas decoration.  This started out as a small wooden heart that I covered with Flitter Glu and Flakes.  I made a rosette from the Wishi Washi Tape and used one of the stamps from the new Christmas set 'Looks Like Rain, Deer' for the centre.
If you feel like popping over to the Indigo Blu Blog page I posted some of my samples from last weeks show on there.  You'll also find some fab posts from the rest of the Design Team.

Well, that's it for today.  Off to play with some Craftwork Cards goodies this afternoon.  Hopefully I'll see you later in the week with a sneaky look at what I come up with.

Thanks for looking today, enjoy the rest of Monday.

See you soon

Linda

x

PS  Ooh, almost forgot.  If you look down the right hand side you'll see details of two fabulous Giveaways that are currently running - chances to win some gorgeous Ribbon Girl goodies.  Don't miss out on these.  xx

Here's one I made earlier ......

Morning!
How's your Sunday going?  Hope your's is nicer weather-wise than what we've got here - RAIN, RAIN, and more RAIN!
My day's got off to rather a late start, had a lovely lie-in (well ... it was a little late when I finally snuggled under the duvet last night - or should I say this morning).
I'm the only one up so I'm taking advantage of this quiet time.  There's nothing to rush for today. We were going to go to a special Harvest Time Farmers Market over in Castletown later on, but looking at the weather I don't think we'll bother.  So,  I've got my morning coffee and would you believe a LIM card for this weeks challenge to share with you.
Yes, you read that correctly.   My Less is More entry is DONE!  

It's unheard of for me to have this ready by Sunday (the challenge only comes out on a Saturday morning) but here it is ...

Ok! Ok!  I confess.  It was already done. (I hope that's within the rules)  This is one of my latest Indigo Blu cards and I think it fits the challenge so well.  It's the first proper look at the brand new Christmas stamps too.

It's Week 85 - Theme week, and our theme is to incorporate an OVAL somewhere in the design.

Ta Da!! - one oval used.  There is a little bit more on the design than I normally do for this challenge but I think there's still enough white space there, (I hope there is anyway) and there's not too many embellies, we'll see.

The little winter scene has been done using stamps from the new 'Looks Like Rain, Dear' set by Indigo Blu. This is a fab collection of stamps that has a bit of everything on there.  There's a couple of larger images, a lovely flourish you can use all year round for backgrounds etc., a festive verse from my favourite Christmas story - Twas the Night Before Christmas, and you get lots of little stamps  you can create your own little winter landscapes with or use on their own to make smaller cards, or tags.
For the design I've used a Nestabilities die to cut and emboss my oval.  Then, with the die still in place I've built up my scene using Distress ink and a couple of paper masks to create the moon and the landscape.  The reindeer and the trees are just stamped in black Versafine using first and second generation stamping. A little touch of ultafine glitter has been added to highlight.
The Merry Christmas sentiment is also a new Indigo Blu stamp, and is large enough to use on a card on it's own if you wanted to.  I've inked it up using two colours - Crimson Red and Olympia Green Versafine.  A few gems have been added for the holly berries, and a pretty red satin bow finishes the whole thing off.
I do hope this is not too much for the LIM girls.  It was nice to have a design that fit the bill when the challenge was announced, and not have to rush and squeeze something in on the last minute.  It's another busy week ahead so time is something I'm not going to have a lot of. 
Before all that kicks off though I'm taking a day out of the old craft room, catching up with the usual day to day stuff and I'm going to do some baking.   It's not something that I'm really good at, but I like to keep trying - practice makes perfect and all that!   Unfortunately I didn't inherit my mother's, or my grandmother's baking skills.  I love cooking,  it's just the sweet stuff I have a problem with.  That's not such a bad thing though, I'd be the size of a small house if  I was any good!!  My efforts do always get eaten though, so they can't be that bad, I think it's just me, I'm too critical!

Time I got out of my PJ's I think.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. 

Thanks for popping by.

Linda

x

Oh What a Night!!

Good afternoon folks,
Please bear with me today, I'm feeling a little 'delicate' shall we say.  It's the result of last nights Olympic celebrations.  Well it would have been rude not to join in now wouldn't it.
What a great night, we can't half put on a show.  The best bit for me though was Eric Idle - he was PRICELESS!  Whoever thought to include that deserves a Gold medal.
Team GB did us proud. 29 Gold, 17 Silver and 19 Bronze medals - Congratulations and Well Done to all of them.

Did you all see Kay on Saturday on Create and Craft? If not, where where you?  It was another fabulous show.  Even the other half sat and watched it with me.
Kay was working with Nigel for the first time and they made a great team.  It was a pleasure to watch.  For those of you who didn't see it, Nigel has given the Indigo Blu Design Team a name - we are now officially known as ....... the Indigo Blu Belles.  Not sure what the rest of the team thinks but I quite like it. 
It was a Christmas show again and as usual things sold out pretty fast.  There were some fabulous designs from Jo, Clare, Alix, Sarah and Rae (sorry if I've missed anyone out), and Kay did some great demos again too.  I always pick up a few tips when I watch her, she's brill.

I showed you a few sneak peeks last week of some of my samples, so here they are now, in more detail .......

the Merry Christmas Tree

I love this stamp, and here I've used the Flitter Glu and the Royal Peacock flakes.  I've also gone around the edge with the glu and added the flakes.  So quick and easy but very effective.  Great if you have lots of Christmas cards to make.
Next is the Bare Forest stamp ....

I was really pleased with this when it was finished.  I wanted shades of purple and lilac, so I used my trusty Distress Inks in Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and I wanted just a hint of Chipped Sapphire, but as I couldn't find it anywhere, (another thing added to the shopping list) Faded Jeans had to do.
I blended the inks over a circle mask to create the sky background.   The trees were then stamped on the top in black Versafine ink and then I added some fine glitter over the top of Liquid Pearls to give a snowy look.  Kay did the same with Flitter glu and Flakes on the show, and that looked really nice.

Funky Circles Tree

I must say this wasn't my favourite stamp when I opened my box from Kay, but that soon changed.  It's so useful, and not just for Christmas either.  You can see I've used it to make a border, by masking a strip across the card and stamping the tree.  It's so simple to line up the stamp to create a continuous pattern.
I also used it to decorate around the edge of one of my layers.  I love it!  I can see this becoming one of my well used stamps.

This is so cute.  I painted a little wooden icon and then used artists Masking fluid and Distress Inks to create the snowy sky, and then made a little Christmas scene using the Here Comes Santa set.

Last, but not least ........

......... this was a stamp that wasn't actually on the show.  I wanted to share it anyway. 
The stamp's called 'Tree-mendous' and it's lovely.  I think it's one of those that can be used for any occasion.  Here, it's just stamped in brown, and then I've picked out a few leaves and used a Quickie Glue pen and the flakes to highlight them.  Again, I've masked a strip across the bottom of  the card and used the same tree to create a matching border.
This card is so simple but I love it.  I couldn't resist adding the little Indigo Blu owl charm to one of the branches - he's sooo cute!

Nearly everything I've used for these cards can be found here on the Indigo Blu website.  I was on there the other day, and all the stamps were in stock along with loads of fabulous new stuff.  Save some for me though won't you.

Well that's about it for today, I've rambled on long enough.  If you get the chance, please pop over to the Indigo Blu Blog sometime. You'll find it here.   Over the next few days I'll be posting more of my Christmas samples on there, and you'll see what the rest of the Design Team are up to as well.

Thanks for popping by.  Enjoy the rest of your day.

Linda

x

A member of the Indigo Blu Belles

(thanks Nigel)

Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

(Sigh!) Looks like I didn't manage to sort out my font problem after all. One of yesterday's posts is insisting on being different!!  But, do you know what, it's going to have to stay like it is.  Life's too short. and let's face it, the font size is not that small that you can't read it.  So Blogger, I have to say you've got the better of me on this one!!
(Tiny rant over) 

Happy Thursday everyone,

Me and my big mouth!  Or was it due to the fact that it was the longest day yesterday, who knows,  but summer's gone again!!  It's a horrible day here on the Isle of Man (that's just for Deborah!), it's pouring down.  But it didn't stop my Postie stopping by this morning.  Bless him, he was soaked.  Look what he brought for me ......

summer for my craft room

Can't wait to have a play with these!!  But first I have some stuff to do in Douglas, if I can find the enthusiasm  to go that is.  Not even the thought of some retail therapy is making me want to head out in the rain.  Lets see what it's like after lunch - I can hear my craft room calling already.

Did anyone see Kay from Indigo Blu on C&C yesterday?  She had two fab shows - both sell outs virtually, and it was all Christmas!  I think the stamps are still available on the Indigo Blu website - here  but don't hold me to that.
I spent three days last week, full of Christmas spirit, working on samples for the shows.  It was nice actually to have a play around with Christmas ideas, it got me thinking about my own cards for this year.

I posted you some sneak peeks over the weekend, well get ready because here are the full versions.  Most of my samples were shown on the show, although Kay did say a couple were someone else's!  I do assure you though, all of these were done by little old me.  Here goes ....

These were all done with stamps from the Retro Christmas set. Lovely traditional images and a nice size too.  I love the jolly Santa.  He was coloured using Copics and then the fur on his hat was glittered.  So quick and easy to do.  The 'ho ho ho' was die cut in chipboard then flitter glued and flaked, and teamed up with last year's BoBunny Christmas papers.

Next is the Here Comes Santa set.  I love this set of stamps, you get so much on there.  There's a nice selection so you can even do some scene building like I've done here, with inks and a couple of masks.

The background turned out really well.  I used some Art Masking Fluid on the card first, just splattered (technical term there) randomly.  Once this was dry I used Distress Inks to colour the sky, using a mask to make my moon.  Then you just rub away the masking fluid and this is the result, it looks like it's snowing. Cool!

You don't have to use all the stamps to create a scene, just one of the small ones will do.  If you have a lot of cards to make this is so quick and easy.  The sentiment and the flourish are both off the same set. 

Oh Christmas Tree!

The Snow Queen is next, she's gorgeous

I'd used my spritzing technique to create an icy looking background then just stamped her directly on top - simple

Again this was just Distress re-inkers (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans) diluted with water, and then Perfect Pearls.  Cling film crinkled over the top and left to dry.

And last but not least of the sneak peeks, the Christmas Deer - sooo cute!

Flitter Glu and Flakes

not just for cards ...

You can probably see a bit of Melanie Heaton influence here - the three little dots in the background on the card,  and of course the hanging decoration.
I think Mel is a fantastic crafter and a super demonstrator, she's full of fabulous ideas and great tips and tricks. And what this girl doesn't know about the Cricut machine just isn't worth knowing.    I used to go on a lot of her classes before moving to the IOM and I'm lucky enough to call her a friend.  She's on Create and Craft regularly, if you get the chance, keep a look out for her shows and watch because she's fab.  Check out her blog here too.  There's always great projects with detailed tutorials, and her show times are usually on there.

Phew!  That was a long one.  Thanks for sticking with it.  I have got more Indigo Blu Christmas samples but I'll leave them for another time.

Still deciding whether to brave the rain - ah well, there's always tomorrow!  Hope the weather's a bit nicer where you are.

Bye for now

Linda

x