Be careful what you wish for ........

Happy weekend everyone!

And a BIG Hello and Welcome to my new followers .....thank you ladies for joining me it's so nice to have you along.

Me and my big mouth, be careful what you wish for and all that ........ well, after yesterday morning's post (I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!) we had the first snow on the island.  Oh Yes!, the white stuff has started falling up on the mountains

Brrrr ..... looks a bit chilly!

photos from 3FM Isle of Man

I believe the mountain road was actually closed for a while.  Thankfully it was all clear when we ventured up there last night.  We drove over to Ramsey for the evening, a spot of late night shopping then a lovely meal out.  There was still a little bit of snow on the mountains, you could just about see it because the moon was shining ...... very Christmassy!

Still in the festive spirit ..... I've got my Christmas card for this weeks Merry Monday Challenge

We have to use a bird somewhere on our design.  I went for the festive little robin ..... just the one

There are those Clarity trees again ........ a nice quick and easy winter forest, stamped in black Versafine ink along the edge of a paper mask

I sprinkled that chunky white embossing powder over the top to give the look of falling snow and added in a few tiny dots of fine crystal glitter to add a touch of sparkle

I stamped my sentiment on the bottom (Penny Black) and then added the cute little robin (also from Penny black) to the side

He's been coloured using a mix of  Copic Markers and Distress inks, and another sprinkling of glitter finishes off his Santa hat! ...... soooo cute!

One of his little pals sneaked onto the inside of the card to create another winter scene ......

Same old Clarity trees, but this time the words are from a Stampin Up! set, and the little guy's been coloured just as before ......

I think it's time I started sending out a few of these Christmas cards don't you ....... there's another job for next week!

Well, I'd better dash ..... we're off out again tonight.  It's time to eat, drink and be merry at the Poker Stars Christmas Party this evening.
The dress have been pressed, shoes bag etc., all picked out, jewellery sorted, now I just have my nails to do.
Hubby on the other hand, needs to sort out his suit, choose a shirt and tie, AND pop out and get some new shoes ......why do men always leave things to the last minute?!  I'm not venturing into town this afternoon ..... he's on his own there I'm afraid!

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your weekend.  Stay warm!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

The calm after the storm ......

Happy Sunday everyone,

Enjoying the weekend? ......... We've got a lovely day here on the Isle of Man ...... the sun is trying to show his face at last.  It's a lot better than the day we had yesterday ....... the heavy rain and the strong winds that were forecast definitely turned up, along with the high tide at lunchtime.  This was Douglas Bay at around 12.30 .....

You know how the other half likes to 'storm chase' ..... we decided to drive up to Onchan Head and take a look, and we weren't the only ones, there was quite a crowd.
It was a little on the breezy side up there .... and very WET!!!  The spray from the waves crashing in was being carried all the way up there on the wind, but I managed a few pictures without the camera getting soaked.

As you can imagine the prom was closed, again .......

and I doubt that the ferries were sailing.  It would have been like riding a roller coaster ....... wouldn't fancy that!!!

It's all calm today though.

I'm having a lazy day in the old craft room, putting the finishing touches to my Design Team stuff that needs to be done and dusted this next week.  I feel like I've been at these for ages.  I was even in there burning the midnight oil last night determined to get things finished.  It's always a bit of a worry though .... late night crafting, my craft lamps are just not the same as natural daylight.  I've had a few mornings, I can tell you, when I've gone back into the craft room, took one look and thought ........ hmmmm 'just what where you thinking girl!!!'  Not the case this morning though ...... everything looks fine. Thank goodness.

I'm keeping up with the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge  ........ that's 4 out of 4. Not bad eh!
I received another Honorable Mention last week too .... thanks ladies, and thanks to everyone for your lovely comments on my Colours and ribbon card .......

This weeks challenge is all about ......

Ornaments

Here's my entry ......

Very clean and simple, using one of my new (unused) stamps from last year.  It's one of the pretty designs from the Penny Black  cling set  ..... ornatley (40-252)
I've inked the stamp using colours from the Wendy Vecchi Archival ink range, and stamped the image directly onto a piece of white cardstock.
I then stamped the beautiful bow section again and cut it out, attaching over the top using foam pads

A touch of fine glitter to give the baubles a bit of sparkle ..... well it is a Christmas card after all

And then I finished off  with one of my favourite Christmas stamps ..... I love the font on this one (another one from Penny Black)

And there you have it ..... festive design number 4.  I might even do a few more of these, well the stamps are still on my workdesk.

I'm hoping next week is going to be a little less manic in the old craft room.  After a good old clean and tidy up I might even get chance to play with some of the new stash that's continuing to pile up.

Thanks for popping by. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and look forward to the week ahead.

Until next time .......

Linda

xx

What's Christmas without a bit of Glitter and Sparkle

Hello again,

What's this I hear you all say... nothing for nearly a week then TWICE in one day!

I'm trying to catch up with everything before the silly season really gets underway.  As I said earlier, Lauren arrives tomorrow with that little angel of a Grandson of mine.  I want to be able to spend as much time as possible with them so I'm going like the clappers trying to get everything finished.

The last of my Christmas cards has just been written (phew!) now all I need to do is get them in the post tomorrow.

Before I venture out on a spot of late night shopping, I just wanted to share with you one of my Christmas cards that I made with the latest Penny Black Saturday Challenge in mind.

Their Challenge this month is ........

GLITTER AND SPARKLE

What's Christmas without a bit of glitter and sparkle eh!  There was a time when I didn't make a card without glitter on it, not just at Christmas time either.  No sparkle, then it couldn't have been one of mine.

How things change.  

Here's my entry ......

There's quite a bit of sparkle on here, although I couldn't capture it in the photo.

I've used the PB stamp Fantasy Tree for my background, stamped and embossed in Disco Black embossing powder

You can see a bit more of the sparkle here, still better in real life though.
For my snow effect I've used Chunky White Fran-tage.  I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I LOVE these embossing powders.
The little snowman is also a Penny Black stamp, and I've stamped him onto acetate using a Black Stazon ink then coloured in the image, from the back, using fine glitters.  Doing it this way, the glitter doesn't shed.

I finished it all off with a few sparkly snowflakes stamped around my little winter scene, a sentiment from the Penny Black clear stamp set Christmas Cheer and a festive red ribbon.

I think I'd better go and dust all the glitter off me before I go out.  Just caught a glimpse in the mirror and I look like something off the Christmas tree.  I've just answered the door to my delivery man too, no wonder he was smiling ......... !!

Look who he brought .........

Meet Charlie Bear's 'Michaelmas' ........  he's my Christmas present to myself.  I just couldn't resist this little guy when I saw him.  He's soooo cute.
I bought a Charlie Bear for Alex last year and I didn't want him to take him home.  Well Grandma has her own now.

I just need to find somewhere for him to sit - preferably away from the glitter!

Enjoy your evening

Cheerio for now

Linda

x

Another week closer to Christmas (eeek!)

Hi everyone,
I can't believe that it's Thursday already, this week is flying by again.  Mind you I have been busy.
I've also booked my tickets for the HobbyCrafts Show at the NEC next month - yeah!  I'm not missing that one.  Two weeks today and I'll be doing some serious craft shopping - can't wait.

I notice I have some new followers too.  Thank you for taking the time to visit and read my ramblings.  It's nice to know you're with me on my crafty journey.

I've come over all festive again today.  Could have something to do with the fact that I went to a Christmas Preview evening at  the local Garden Centre last night.  It was all mulled wine and pastries.  Christmas decorations, and carols, all very festive.  I'm sure these things start earlier each year, we haven't had halloween yet!!

Now, I don't really NEED any more Christmas decorations, especially for the tree, but you know how it is, you always have to have a least one new sparkly bauble.   Well I couldn't resist this .......

How cute are they!  Of course they didn't come as a pair, but I had to get two, which is very unusual for me as I always buy baubles in 3's (the rule of thirds, odd numbers and all that!)

Today's card is for October's Penny Black Saturday Challenge
This month we have a sketch ........

Usual rules apply - use at least one PENNY BLACK IMAGE, LARGE SENTIMENT or STICKEROO.

I've made another Christmas card - whoo hoo!! (is that a total of 4 now?!)

It's a nice big 8x8 card, covered with some Christmas paper from an old Magnolia range.  I didn't want to add too many colours on this one, so I just kept to the red and white.
My second layer is a piece of  Stampin Up! Cherry Cobbler cardsock, one of my favourites for Christmas cards, it's such a beautiful rich shade of red.   I've embossed it with a Sizzix Snowflake embossing folder and then added just a touch of the new Distress Stickles Clear Rock Candy Dry Glitter in places.  I love this stuff, it's glitter, but with a vintage feel, not too sparkley.  And if you read yesterday's post you'll know that it's easy to change the colour of it too.

The stamped image is  Penny Black's Snow Family (2526K).  These little guys are sooo cute.
I've stamped them twice, cut one out using a Spellbinders circle Nestabilitie die along with a matching scalloped cirlce, and the other I've cut out the two smaller snowmen and decoupaged them for a little dimension.  They've all been coloured using Copic pens, and I've added pom poms to their hats - very cosy looking aren't they!

I've added a scalloped border from the Cherry Cobbler cardstock, wrapped with some pretty white organza ribbon, and attached a  lovely big matching bow.  A silver metal snowflake, and a festive sentiment finishes everything off nicely. (the sentiment is from the new 'T for transparent' set from Penny Black called  Christmas Cheer  30-140)

Autumn has arrived well and truly over here.  One of the views I have from the old craft room window is getting nicer each day .......

The colours are gorgeous especially when the sun's shining on them.  Although we didn't have any sun yesterday morning when I took this.  It was quite grey, and if  I looked the other way, the clouds were rolling in over the mountains.

At least we didn't have any rain!

Thanks for popping by today.  I may be a little later with tomorrow's post.
As it's Friday, it's my day on the Design Team Blog over at Creative Studios. Not sure what's going to be on there yet, that's todays task.

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.

Linda

x

Buttons and Bows

Hi folks,
I have a bit of exciting news for you this evening - well, exciting for me anyway.  But more on that later.

What happened to Thursday?  Suddenly it's nearly time for bed, and I feel as though I've done absolutely nothing.  I haven't done half of the things I had planned for today.  Don't quite know what I have been doing though.  Overall not a very productive day. 

One thing I did get done, eventually, was this months card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge .........
           
                   BUTTONS AND BOWS

You would think this one would have been easy for me,  I love buttons and bows.  But oh no, nothing was working.  I just couldn't find any PB stamps that I could use alongside two of my favourite types of embellies.  Then when I did decide on a stamp, would you believe I didn't have the right colour of buttons .....!!?  I nearly gave it up as a bad job.  But I don't like to be beaten.

In the end I went for the K.I.S.S. approach (keep it simple, stupid!)

On the positive side, at least I have another Christmas card made - that now makes a grand total of ......... 2!

I used the PB 'majestic' stamp (3997K) along with one of the brand new Christmas sentiments from the 'Christmas Cheer' clear set.
It couldn't be more simple to do.  Stamp the tree in black ink, slightly to the left of your piece of card, then stamp the sentiment in the bottom right corner.  I decided to go for a jaunty little angle (second attempt.  First one was straight and I wasn't that keen).
I went for one of my favourite colour combos for Christmas cards - Black and White with a hint of red, and used this for the matting and layering.
As I said earlier, I couldn't find the right shade of red buttons - well not three the same that is.  I did empty all four jars to check.  So in the end, out came my permanent markers and I just coloured three clear pearl ones.  These were then threaded with a little white baker's twine tied off in a bow, and attached onto the tree along with a few glittery gems.  A pretty red satin bow, and a touch of the new Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Dry Glitter in the Clear Rock Candy around the base of the tree, finished it all off.

We have a busy weekend coming up, here on the island.  Today saw the start of the 3-day Manx Rally with a 'Scalextric' style opening night stage along the promenade in Douglas.  Hmmmm........ not really my sort of thing, so when hubby rang from work to see if I wanted to go down there, you can imagine my reaction.  Standing on the prom, in the rain, watching pairs of cars racing around a track - yes, like that's going to happen!  Just in case any of you are interested though, there's a Wiki page or you can get up to date information here.

The other event that's happening this weekend is the Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival - now you're talking!

I shall be popping along there on Saturday.  We went last year and had a great day out.  It's all about local produce, with a Farmers Market, local butchers etc.  selling everything from vegetables, meat and seafood, to jams, cheeses, cakes and Christmas puddings.  There's crafts too - pottery, soaps, hampers.
The celebrity chef this year is Ainsley Harriott, who will be doing live cookery demos, so that should be fun.

The weather for Saturday, according to the local forecast, is good so it should be a great day out.  I'll let you know.

Well, it's way past my bedtime. This has taken longer than I thought.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more productive, lots of crafty things.
Before I go though, my exciting news ...........
Yesterday I was asked if I'd like to join another Design Team.  The lovely Sam Poole contacted me and said she was looking for someone to join her DT over at Creative Studios, and would I like the position.  It took me all of about 10 seconds (while I read the message) before I said YES!!  Absolutely yes.

I've know Sam for a while, we met through Inspirations in Preston - she was one of our lovely demonstrators who came to take workshops.  
Sam designs for Creative Expressions, and has her own range of rubber stamps (which are fabulous by the way).  She has an online store and a super Blog.  Check it out, there's some fab stuff on there and the store is full of gorgeous goodies.
Anyways, I'm now on the team (whoo hoo!!) and I'm going to be creating designs using Sam's stamps and other goodies.  Once I'm up and running I'll also be posting regularly on the Blog, along with the rest of the fab DT.  So watch this space.  I'm going to be busy, busy, busy.  I love it!!

Thanks for popping by again.  See you all tomorrow (or should I say later today!)

Night Night!

Linda

x

Feeling all Festive again!

Happy Friday everyone.

Hey, I've finally reached 60! - followers that is.  Thanks for joining me Jane, and making my lovely gang a nice round figure.  I'll set the next milestone at ..... 80.  Lets see if I can reach that by the end of September.

Today is flying by and I've not really done that much.  I did spend a lovely hour this morning though, on the phone to a very special friend over in the UK.  I know I'll be seeing her next week but we still had a lot to chat about  - we always do.

Speaking of next week I'm really looking forward to a trip across to the UK.  We don't go until Tuesday, but I'm packing already.  It's going to be a week of craft, craft, and more craft.  I cannot wait! 
I'll apologise now because Blog posts may be a little few and far between I'm sorry to say.  I am taking the laptop with me, but I might not have the time.  Don't worry I'll fill you in on all the details when I get back.


Todays post is my entry for this months Penny Black Saturday Challenge, and I've gone all festive again I'm afraid - well it is nearly September!
This months challenge is ......

 DOUBLE THE TROUBLE

We have to use 2 different PB images on our designs, hmmm ... shouldn't be too difficult!

I've got my hands on a few of the new Penny Black Christmas stamps and they are gorgeous.  I just had to use the super cute  Fairy Holly.  She's one of the new slapstick/Clings by Mo Manning and she is sooo sweet.  See what you think ......

Fairy Holly ( PB 40-173)

.......... isn't she pretty?
She's been coloured with Copics (rather quickly!) and then I cut round her as I didn't have any Nesties that she would fit in  (sigh! - I really do need to buy myself a Grand Calibur).
The background papers are from Magnolia, and I've used the Spellbinders Poinsettia and the Heirloom Ornament dies to make my embellishments.
My second PB image is the sentiment, it's from the new "T for Transparent" set Christmas Cheer.  It's a lovely new collection with some great  festive sentiments in a range of fonts along with a few extras.


I've added a bit of glitter, and some Glossy Accents on her snow globe,
although the gloss doesn't really show up well in the picture.
She really does look like she's dreaming of a white Christmas.

Actually, I've used 3 PB images on this card, no wait a minute, 4.  There's another of the new sentiments inside along with one of the little extra bits.
I thought as this is officially the first of my handmade cards for Christmas 2012, I would finish it off properly and decorate the inside.


Well that's another job crossed off my craft 'To Do' list.  I've done really well this week, there's been nothing added to the bottom either. just need to tidy up now ready for the next project.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, enjoy this glorious weather that the UK is supposed to have. 
It's raining here at the moment but finger's crossed it's nice for us tomorrow too.  We're going to a BBQ/Lobster Party - Nom! Nom!   and Stephen's helping with the cooking!

Thanks for popping by, see you all again soon

Linda

x