More quick and easy Christmas cards .........

Happy Tuesday .........

I'm on a mission this week, to get all my Christmas cards finished, written, and posted, and then fingers crossed they get to where they're going before Christmas!  The postal strikes in the UK are not making things easy this festive season but, I suppose that is their intention!!!

Anyway ...... another quick and easy idea for you today, using a large sentiment stamp as my main focal point ....... I do love a large sentiment!

I'm also using up some of that gorgeous deep purple cardstock too!

I simply stamped my sentiment in the centre of my card and heat embossed in gold ..... this one is from the Savvy Sentiments - Merry Everything stamp set by Colorado Craft Company.  (there's four large sentiment to choose from and I love the font!)

I then had some fun splattering gold, silver and white inks around the sentiment and cvered the background ..... easy!

I added a few tiny gemstones here and there to finish off and give a little extra Christmas sparkle.

That's another batch done!

How are your festive preparations going?

It's all about the food and drink here this week.  

Shopping lists have been made, the oven is getting cleaned on Friday, and the Christmas cook book is out and ready ...... time to get the gravy started!

We've just had the Christmas wine delivered too so that's all sorted ......... cheers!  Just need to put it away somewhere then we don't drink it before the big day!!!

Hubby and I also took some time out yesterday, did a spot of Christmas shopping and went for a lovely festive lunch. Well, he's had a dentist appointment today, and I think the next few days are not going to be pleasant.  I won't go into all the gorey details ........ I'll just say rather him than me!!  

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

Cheerio until next time .......

A CAS reminder ........

Happy Wednesday .......

If you're a fan of the CAS Blog Challenges ....... that's Mix Up, Watercolour, Christmas or CAS Stencil, then you've probably noticed that we're doing things a little differently for the mid challenge reminder posts.
Starting this month,  ALL of the inspiration posts for the four CAS challenges, will all be going live on the same day ....  which is today!
For me that means that I have two posts in one.

First up ........ the CAS Mix Up Challenge where the theme this month is

Partial Die Cutting

This really was simple to do and I think you could do this with virtually any of your metal dies.

I cut a piece of white card to fit the front of my cardblank then simply stamped the flowers in the centre..... ish.

I then placed the matching die over the top, securing it with low tack tape.
Because I only want to die cut part of the image, I made sure that the bit I didn't want to cut was over the edge of my cutting plates, this mean't there would be no pressure on this part when it actually went through the machine, therefore the die wouldn't cut around that part of the image.
I simply took a craft knife and a ruler to cut away the rest of the bottom section.

I attached a piece of black cardstock to the bottom of my card, to make the die cut edge stand out more, and then attached the die cut piece over the top using foam pads

I'm using up leftovers again ..... something I'm trying to do more of this year.  You can't see my desk at the moment for stuff left over from one thing or another.  When I get a spare minute I'm going to have a really good clean up!!!

I finished off my card with a simple sentiment a few sparkly gemstones

Onto the CAS Stencil Challenge now, where the theme is

Use a New Stencil

This could be a brand new stencil that you've just bought, one that's only just been released or, maybe a stencil that you've had for a while and it's never been used ..... I'm sure we all have lots of those!

Not sure when I bought my stencil, I found it in my box of NBUS (Never Before Used Stuff!) ..... isn't it pretty!

I applied various colours of  Distress Oxides through the design

Added a few ink splatters onto the background ......

And stamped a sentiment over the top ...... stencils make one layer cards so simple to do.

I added a touch of fine crystal glitter to the flowers, just to give things a bit of sparkle

There's still time if you fancy playing along with any, or all, of the CAS challenges.  I look forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
These arrived this morning ........ haven't told Alex yet but Lauren's been round to check them over!
19 weeks on Friday ....... not that I'm counting!

Cheerio until next time .......

Products used:
CAS Mix Up card
Stamps: Just for You (Clearly Besotted) with Matching Die
Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Delicata - Golden Glitz & Silvery Shimmer for the splatters ont he black card
Others: Just For You Die (Clearly Besotted); Gold gemstones

CAS Stencil card
Stencils: Stencil #73  Bouquet (ALL & Create)
Stamps: Sentiment is from Beautiful Heart (Penny Black 'T' for Transparent)
Inks: Distress Oxide Ink - various colours; Delicata Gold & Silver inks for the splatters; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
Others: Quickie Glue pen; Fine crystal glitter

Let's get 2020 started with a Blog Challenge ......

Happy New Year! .....

Welcome to 2020 ..... I think this is going to be a great year!
There's so many things to look forward to already ....... we pick up our new motorhome in a few weeks .... hubby's so excited! 
I'm off on a craft retreat in April ..... really looking forward to that one.  Then there's our annual girlie trip across to the Happy Stampers Festival at Port Sunlight, that's also in April. 
And ...... this is the really exciting one ...... we have a BIG holiday in Florida coming up.  We're taking the little man, but he knows nothing about it yet.  He's going to freak out big style when we tell him.  I'm hoping to hold out until Easter, then we're having an Easter egg made big enough to hold a small Florida travel guide, that's the plan anyway, then the egg is going inside a new suitcase for him.  I'm not sure who's going to be more excited ...... Alex or his Mum!!

Anyway ....... back to the main reason for this post. 
The start of a new year means new Blog challenges, and the first one up for me is ..... the CAS Mix Up Challenge.  Yes we're back! 
We have a great challenge theme to start the year ....... Partial Die Cutting

Hideko is our Host this month, and we also have a fabulous Guest Designer ...... Tristan (from Tinstar Designs) is joining in the fun.

So .... partial die cutting, another fun way to use your dies.  Check out the CAS Mix Up Blog for links to some fab videos showing different ways of using this technique, to get even more out of your die collection.

As it's New Year's Day I made a card to celebrate ........

I had a piece of leftover black cardstock on my desk, that had been splattered with gold and silver metallic inks ......

I cut it down to fit the front of my cardblank to make the backdrop for the numbers.
I then took a piece of white card and partially cut the 2020 along the top edge.

I added a few more ink splatters and then attached this to the bottom of the black card.
I die the numbers again from glitter cardstock and attached these over the top, slightly offset to give the shadow effect

A sentiment stamped on the bottom .... and we're done!

Happy 2020!  See you in the gallery.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
Must dash as we have the family round for dinner, and I'm cooking!  Another meal where the table groans under the weight of all the food.  I'm making the most of it, as the diet starts on Monday!!

Cheerio until next time .....

Products used:
Stamps: Winter Wavy Sayings (Lawn Fawn)
Inks: Delicata inks - Golden Glitz & Silvery Shimmer; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
Others: Large number dies (Stampin Up!); Gold & Silver Glitter card

Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge .......

Happy Sunday evening .......

Phew!  What a busy week it's been.  Time to chill out a little now as we start the countdown to our little family break in the Cotswolds at the end of this week ...... only 5 sleeps to go! Now that's something to smile about ..... which brings me nicely in to this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge .......

As you can see, our theme for June is ........ SMILE!  Go on ..... you can do it!
Maybe these will help .......

A fun set of ATC's simply covered in smiles.

I added colour to a piece of white cardstock by splattering different Distress Oxide inks using a paint brush ........ smoosh the ink onto a craft sheet, spritz with water, and then pick up the ink with a paintbrush and simply splatter it randomly over the card ..... easy.  Leave to dry for a few seconds in between colours so that the inks don't run into each other, and go all muddy.

I then cut three pieces to form the base of my ATCs.
The first one was simply a smiley face, stamped and heat embossed onto a piece of yellow card (coloured using Squeezed Lemonade DOX) and cut it out using a circle die

and a single word (from the HLS stamp set Smile) stamped underneath was all it needed.

Using the same stamp set I took one of the large words and heat embossed it in gold across the centre of my ATC

A few smileys stamped in Distress Oxide (Squeezed Lemonade again) and the rest of the sentiment stamped in black and that's another one done.
I did use the MISTI to stamp the smiley faces making sure I got good coverage, but I only needed to repeat each one a couple of times ....... the Distress Oxides  are great for stamping with.

For the last one I decided to add in a bit more colour ......

I stamped the little face using all the colours of Distress Oxides that I'd used for the background before adding the words over the top.

As with all the HLS challenges, there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the winner, which will be DOUBLED to $40 if they've used HLS stamps on their ATC's

Go on ..... give us a SMILE!

Happy stamping!

This is actually my last DT post for the Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge ...... I'm standing down from the Design Team (sigh!) 
I seem to have been saying that a lot this month don't I! ...... but I feel it's time for a change.  Time to re-charge the old mojo!  I will still be part of the HLS family though ..... you can still catch me every month on the CAS Challenge.  You don't get rid of me that easily.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a great week.  Mine's going to be a busy one.

The Isle of Man 2018 TT is over and our little island will slowly get back to normal over the next few days.  Only 348 days until we do it all again though!

It's been an fabulous two weeks.  The weather has been perfect, blue skies everyday.  We had a royal visitor too ..... Prince William came over

Gary Barlow was also here at the beginning of the fortnight ..... enough said about that!
The Red Arrows flew in and gave a stunning display over Douglas Bay

The TT legend that is John McGuinness was here, still not fit to race but he did open up one of the beer pumps at the brand new Trackside, and pulled his first pint ..... cheers John!

I'm more of a gin girl as you all know, so lots of these have been consumed this last two weeks ......

And then there was the racing.  That has just been a-maz-ing!!!!  The riders have been reaching breathtaking speeds, and more lap records have been broken.  We only managed to watch the Senior race this year but what a race it was!
In the end Hickman won by 1.9 seconds in what was the fastest Isle of Man TT race with the first ever 135 mph lap ...... WOW!!!

And of course, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends of the two brave riders that sadly lost their lives this year.

The next thing on the calendar for us is the annual family trip ..... we're going back to Bourton this year and there's more of us this time, so a bigger cottage.  We leave on the Friday morning ferry so fingers crossed this weather holds.

Cheerio until next time ......