On the 20th day of December .......

the shopping is nearly finished!

Happy Sunday to you .....

Where has the weekend gone!!!
I hope you've had a good one.  It's been a busy one over here ...... lovely night out on Friday ..... most of the Christmas gift shopping finished off today.  We were a little extravagant ..... and bought ourselves a Christmas present ......

Two beautiful Waterford crystal champagne glasses ....... well, I wanted something nice to drink that bottle of Dom P he gave me the other night!!
We even managed to tidy the garage ..... which means all the empty wine/beer bottles taken to the recycling (I think we had more empties in our garage than Chris had down at the Saddle ....... Hic!!!)

We also saw the new Star Wars film ...... Saturday afternoon, a special showing organised by hubby's work ...... only Poker Stars would book the whole cinema and then give tickets out to their employees ...... thank you ..... and a Merry Christmas to you too!
I'm saying nothing about the film ...... don't want to give away any spoilers ..... you'll have to go and see it yourself!!

Speaking of Stars ........ the current Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge is all about using a STAR .....

I've used not one, but three stars on my design ......

CAS, and so quick and easy to do ........ back to basic masking techniques to create the hill line across the card.  A simple piece of copier paper cut or torn, placed across the card to mask off the bottom section.   Distress ink has then been applied across the top section and then spritzed with a little water

With the mask still in place I added in some trees across the background .... first and second generation stamping using a grey Versafine ink.

Next I stamped the branch ..... this time in a green Versafine and added a sparkle embossing powder over the top

My glittery stars were die cut and attached onto the card and I used a Stardust Gel pen to 'hang' them from the branch

A festive sentiment (from the HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments) and a sprinkling of Chunky White Embossing Powder finishes off the front of the card

And  there's a little something on the inside too .....

Did you know ...... Happy Little Stampers now have a YouTube Channel .....  with a specialist Video Crew dedicated to bringing you fab tutorials using the HLS range of products.

Check out the blog to meet the talented crew and why not pop over to the channel and take a look ..... you'll find lots of inspiration and great tips and techniques on there.

Hopefully things will calm down a little this next week ...... yeah right!  Who am I kidding.  I've got the little man for a start!
I've got the food shopping to do ......  a couple more gifts to buy, last minute trip to the Post Office ...... mince pies to bake (yes ..... you read that right ..... I'm baking!!!!) ..... the turkey to collect ...... coffee with a friend ..... gifts to wrap ..... and of course ...... my DT stuff to do!  I'd better get an early night!

Thanks for popping by ..... hope you have a great week.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

I'm on the team!!!!

Happy Thursday to you .....

A bit of a late start for me today ....... we had a great night last night, the Christmas party was a success!!!
Good food ........ great company and lots of Christmas spirit!!!

This was the table at the start of the evening ....... I won't show you what it looked like by the end of the night ..... lets just say there wasn't a lot of food left  on it!!
We had a few surprises along the way too ...... would you believe I forgot a very important anniversary.  Apparently it was hubby and I's 10,000 Days Wedding Anniversary ....... and I missed it!!!!

What made him work that one out I'll never know but he did  ....... he made a speech and everything, and I got this ......

That's my New Year's Eve sorted then!!!

Anyway .... enough of all that I've got some more exciting news to share with you.

I'm joining the STAMPlorations CAS Design Team ..... whoo hoo!!!
I answered the DT call back in November and I was so excited when Shery invited me to join the team.
It all gets underway in January with a brand new CAS Blog challenge and I can't wait to get started.
Here's a little something to what you can expect from me .....

As part of the DT call you had to submit a card (CAS design of course) showcasing STAMPlorations products.

I used the pretty STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves for my design ..... love these stamps!!!

I simply used an acrylic block to stamp my background ....... applied Distress Inks directly to the block, spritzed with a little water then stamped onto a piece of white card

I then stamped the leaves over the top, added a few splashes of ink here and there and finished with a nice sentiment.  This one is from a set called Dare, one of the Subway Art Builders

I also added just a few drops of Glossy Accents to add a little bit more interest to the leaves

The new blog challenge starts in January next year and I look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
There's nothing going on here today except the clean up from last night!!  It's time to relax and re-charge I think, before the festivities start again tomorrow.  We're got dinner at my favourite restaurant tomorrow night, then Saturday we're off to see the new Star Wars film and Sunday is the last of the Christmas shopping ..... I hope!!!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

On the 16th day of December .....

It's  Christmas party number 4!

Happy Wednesday!

Hi everyone ..... what did I say about trying to blog everyday ..... I knew it wouldn't happen!! Too much other stuff going on .... I've barely time to sleep never mind blog!!

I don't know about you but we're well and truly in the festive swing of things.  Tonight it's my fourth Christmas party in five days ..... we had the Poker Stars bash on Saturday night (headache Sunday monring!!)  A lovely Christmas/birthday lunch out with my crafty buddies on the Sunday .......

The Ballaugh craft group Christmas party yesterday ......  and then tonight we're hosting hubby's office Christmas party ....... I must have done a good job last year!!
So you can imagine what it's like in my kitchen right now ...... there's stuff everywhere, including these that have just arrived for MEEEEE!!! I haven't had flowers delivered in ages!!

What a lovely surprise from Rich and Laura who work alongside hubby .....they're a Thank You in advance for tonight ...... awwwww!!!  No pressure then!

Before I dash off back into the kitchen to make a start on the food for tonight, I want to share these with you .....

Beautiful Christmas scenes created by two lovely friends who came round to me on Saturday ..... we did a little workshop and they both went home thrilled with what they'd made ..... and so they should be .... these were gorgeous!

Oh well, as much as I'd love to stay and chat there's a ham that needs slicing and a rather large piece of salmon lay on the worktop along with a whole load of other stuff to prepare, not to mention the floors to mop, the ironing to put away and the washing up to do ..... the drinks to chill, the music to sort out and I've to get myself ready .... all before 6.30 ..... no need to panic ..... yet!!!

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

Cheerio until next time.

Linda

xx

On the 11th day of December .......

a flurry of snowflakes! Don't panic ...... they're not real ones!

Happy Friday to you,

We've a busy weekend coming up ....... the festive season starts NOW!!!

Before we hit the Christmas spirit though ........ it's party time this weekend ...... it's time for a little reminder about the latest Craft Stamper challenge ..... the last one for 2015!!

This month it's the turn of Take a Technique ....... but, as it's nearly Christmas we thought we'd have a nice easy theme for you instead of a specific technique ......

Sharing the Season

(Ho! Ho! Ho!)

We'd like to see your seasonal projects ..... that could be a Christmas design or just a wintry/icy theme.  Or, if you're lucky enough to live somewhere where it's not quite so cold .... and wet .... why not share your seasonal designs too.

I'm keeping with the Christmas theme ........ with an icy/snowy feel

The background was created using Distress Spray Stains in various shades of blue, spritzed onto a piece of white cardstock.  I then sprayed with Perfect Pearls over the top and let the colours blend together with the shimmer spray.  I scrunched a piece of cling film over the top and left the card to dry overnight.

The result is this gorgeous icy look to the card ...... you can see where the mica has settled in the creases of the cling film ....  so pretty!

I then stamped the sentiment using a black ink and embossed it with a clear powder

This always makes me smile .... I'm more a red girl myself but hey .... it;s Christmas!

I then stamped a few snowflakes over the card and embossed them with a white, fine detail powder

and added a few smaller flakes using one of the blue Distress inks

The large snowflake has been die cut using the Tim Holtz Layered Snowflake die, from plain white cardstock then each one has been given a rough coat of texture paste

While the paste was still wet I sprinkled on some white glitter to add a touch of sparkle and then left them to dry.  They were then layered together and attached to the front of the card, and a simple white pearl adds the finishing touch

Inside there's a few more snowflakes ......

and a touch of colour 

Our sponsor this month is the fabulous Polka Doodles ...... and the challenge winner (randomly chosen) will receive a £25 voucher to spend in the shop!

And don't forget, there's also the Design Winner, chosen by the DT.  They will have their winning project published in the Craft Stamper magazine, be a Guest Designer on a future challenge and have a Winners Profile on the Craft Stamper Blog!!

So .... get those entries in .... the next winner could be you!!

I'm also linking this up to the Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge, where the theme is ...

Anything Goes 

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day and have a fabulous weekend whatever you have planned.

I'm off now to order the turkey for the big day ........ then I might just wrap a few Christmas presents I think.  Well .... it is only 2 weeks away ...... Ho! Ho! Ho!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Need any last minute cards? ......

Hello again,

Twice in one day ..... you'd think I'd nothing else to do!

Just wanted to share with you the projects from yesterday's workshop ..... there were a couple of ladies who couldn't make it and I know they read my blog so here's what we got up to ......

Quick and easy, last minute Christmas cards ...... or maybe an early start on next years!!! All with matching gift tags, using basic masking techniques ..... low tack tape to create panels

Copier paper to create hillsides for winter landscapes .....

Post-it notes to mask off stamped images .....

and even dies to make your own shaped masks from simple copier paper

Just a couple of festive stamps, some ink and a touch of glitter and you're done!  All one layer too which is good for posting.

Well that's it from me today ....... it's the Christmas play this evening at the little man's school (his first one .... he's a Roman Soldier) ...... time to go grab my seat and have the tissues at the ready!

Thanks for popping by (again!) ....... enjoy your evening.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx