Oh .... go on then, just a quick one ......

Happy Sunday .......

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.  

It was a bit of a late one for us last night, we had a video chat at midnight to start of Chris's birthday.  Hubby and I had arranged dinner to be delivered to him and his girlfriend earlier in the evening, and then Myra was surprising him with the video chat and a birthday cake at midnight!  

Hopefully this time next week our little island will be preparing for our lockdown restrictions to be lifted and then we can celebrate the kids birthdays all over again ...... hope I haven't jinxed things by saying that!

Anyway ........ I'm actually sneaking in at the last minute with another entry for this month's CAS Christmas Challenge ...... I know!  Another Christmas card ...... I'm on a roll!

 

 

This is a really quick and easy one ........

I was tidying a few bits away in the craft room and I found this old Penny Black stamp hiding under a pile of papers ....... he fits the challenge theme perfectly!

It's a wood mounted stamp, so no MISTI (eeek!) but I thought I'd give it a go.  

Silhouette stamps, Lavinia fairies to be exact, were the reason I bought my MISTI.  I never had much luck with stamping silhouettes, there was always a tiny bit that didn't quite stamp fully, no matter how hard I tried.  I would go in with a pen or ink to try and fill it in but, I was never happy with the results ..... until the MISTI came along.  

However ....... it doesn't work with wooden stamps, and I can't bring myself to take the rubber off the wooden blocks. One day maybe.

I inked up the reindeer using a nice juicy ink pad and went for it.  Applied a little bit of pressure, let the stamp sit on my card for a few seconds and then ...... voila!  Not too bad .....

A festive sentiment stamped underneath .......

A touch of glitter for added sparkle .......

And I finished with a few dots of white Enamel Accents to create a snowy background.

Two Christmas cards in January ...... not bad going for me.  I wonder what next month's theme will be!

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

Cheerio until next time ........

Products used:

Stamps:  Leaping Deer (Penny Black); Joyful Season (Simon Says Stamp) - sentiment

Inks:  Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Delicata Pigment Ink - Golden Glitz

Other: Fine gold glitter; Quickie Glue Pen; Cranberry Stickles Glitter Glue, White Enamel Accents (Ranger)

Twice in one day ........

Hello ..... me again!

What am I talking about twice ..... this is actually the third post today!  You'll have to excuse me .... it must be this cold that I've got!  Yes ..... I've the sniffles!  They must have sneaked into my suitcase on the way home.

It's Blog challenge time again though, and we're staying in the festive mood from earlier, with the Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge ...... mince pie anyone?  I'm being serious we've actually bought our first mince pies of the year!!! ..... OMG!!! Blame M&S .... they were there on the self and I couldn't resist!

Anyway ....... as the challenge theme says it's Anything Goes ...... with an optional twist.  For October that twist is .....

Silhouette

I've used the CUTplorations Winter Landscape die to create my silhouette .....

Simply cut from black cardstock and then layered on top of a piece of white cardstock embossed using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder from Stampin Up! ..... instant snowy sky!

A really quick and easy design but very effective I think ..... great if you're making a whole load of cards and easy to post too!

A simple festive greeting stamped along a strip of white card with one embossed in gold finishes off the card nicely.

Well I think that's enough festive inspiration for today don't you .... there's still 81 days to go!!

As always there's a prize up for grabs for the challenge winner ...... a $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the HLS Store.  Is it time you started thinking about Christmas!?

Thanks for popping by again ...... it's been a long day today.
Time for a glass of red I think .... another one!

Cheerio until next time .....

CAS Silhouettes ........

Happy Saturday evening .......

I hope you're enjoying the weekend.  It's been a lovely day here, and we've enjoyed a real lazy day .......  re-charging after a busy week.

There's still Blog Challenge to get underway though.  Today sees the start of September's Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge .....

So .... what's CAS then?  Well here's the HLS definition ......

This month's theme is a nice easy one ..... Silhouettes
Use your stamps and black ink on your designs or, if you don't have any silhouette stamps create your own silhouettes using pretty dies and plain black cardstock.

That's what I've done here .....

One of my favourite Penny Black dies, cut twice from a snippet of plain black cardstock and layered to add a touch of dimension ........   I love this die (as any of my regular followers will have guessed!!) and I love the stamp too .... both sizes!!!!

Anyway ...... I stamped the background onto a piece of Kraft card (love Kraft and black) using a burlap design stamp along with a Vintage Sepia Versafine ink.

I then stamped the 'Happy' off to one side using Versamark ink and then heat embossed in Gold, adding the word birthday underneath in black.

The die cut silhouette was then attached at the side ......

And I finished off by adding a few Nuvo Jewel Drops here and there for a touch of sparkle .....

and some of the design elements on the inside too ....

A simple die cut silhouette and a snippet of stamped Kraft card.

Why not play along .... as always there's a $20 Gift Certificate for the challenge winner, to spend in the Happy Little Stampers store.

Happy stamping!

EDITED .......
Oooh .... nearly forgot! I think this qualifies for me to play along with the Snippets Playground challenge ..... a snippet of black card for the die cuts, and the bit inside. I missed out on the last challenge, haven't been playing here long and I forgot the deadline (sigh!) but I think I'm OK to join in the fun with the new one just started .... hope so!

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

OK ..... I have a confession to make.  I have no willpower.  I'm like a magpie when it comes to anything shiny.  And ....... I didn't leave my bank cards at home when I went out yesterday with a friend.  I'm blaming Carol (sorry hun!!) I only went to show her the way to Claire's workshop and somehow these found their way home with me ..... ooops!  But aren't they pretty!!!

The sweet peas just peeping in there are pretty too ... they were from Carol's garden!
We had a lovely day ...... with lunch out too.  We should do that more often.

Cheerio until next time .....

We've got a visitor ......

Happy Wednesday to you,

Middle of a busy week again ...... and the old craft room is slowly disappearing under various piles of unfinished pieces of art work for one thing or another, and prep stuff for a workshop at the weekend. I've got ten ladies coming for an afternoon of playing with Distress Inks ..... things could get messy!!

Anyhow ..... deadlines are looming so no time for hanging around ....... although the old mojo isn't playing ball ..... typical!!

I thought I'd start with something simple.  It's Recipe Week over at Less is More and the ingredient we need to use this week is a .......

SILHOUETTE

I can do that ...... or so I thought!  
We still have to follow the CAS rules ... and include lots of white space.  Finally I came up with this

You guessed it Distress inks for the background panel (multi tasking there ..... two birds with one stone and all that!) ..... first masking off the edges of my piece of card

Love this mix of colours .... reminds me of a summer sunset.  Not that we'll be seeing those anytime soon!  It's been bucketing it down again over here and very windy too. The prom looked a little worse for wear yesterday.  Storm Jonas is definitely leaving his mark.  At least we haven't had the snow though ..... not yet anyway!!!
Wasn't it strange seeing the US, especially NewYork with virtually deserted streets .... no hustle and bustle.   I must say though if we'd had that much snow I'd be one of those out in it I think!!

Where was I?! ...... oh yes ...... my silhouette is an old Penny Black stamp ...... simply stamped using Black Versafine ink ..... looks fab against the inky background I think

I finished off with some words, again from Penny Black ......

And added another tree to the inside ...... job done!

Right .... what's next on the list?   Challenge stuff .... DT samples for next weekend (hint! hint! ..... wonder what they can be!!!??) ..... finish off the workshop prep .... or ... time for me to start on that journal of mine.  Hmmmm ....... choices, choices.  I'd better make a start on with something though .... I'm out for coffee later so nothing will get done this afternoon, then I think we're going out for dinner.

We've had a new addition to the household over the weekend ...... don't panic it's not another little one!  Well actually .... it is only a little one ....... though this ones got four legs and a rather long tail!!!

It wasn't my first choice I can tell you but being the animal lover that I am, what could I do when Lauren told me she was all lonely now that she was on her own over at Robbie's (Lauren's boyfriend) ...... he spends more time at ours than he does at his place.
Soooooo ....... meet Rio ......

Yes, she's a rat .... ooops! I should really say she's a 'long tail' as that's what they're known as in the Isle of Man.  Apparently it's bad luck to say the 'r' word!

I've told them as long as she stays in her cage, well away from me, and I don't have to feed her or clean it out, then we'll get on just fine!!
She's only staying for a short while ..... I hope think, just until they find her a couple of new friends which they've gone to do this morning .......... The things I do!!!

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

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx