Monday 27 December 2021

Badminton

A birthday card I made for a friend who celebrated her birthday just before Christmas.  We both play badminton in the same badminton group, so this set of dies was just perfect.
 

I used  a die from the Sue Wilson 'Ornate Pierced Rectangles' set for the background using pink pearlised card.   The racket and shuttlecock are Sweet Dixie 'Badminton' dies. I cut out the racket in white, silver and black so I could layer up the different parts.  The shuttlecock was die cut in white and I added a thin strip of red card.

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 I hope you’ll indulge me if I share a photo of one of my Christmas presents.  In 1998,  a delightful 4 year old walked into my Reception class for the first time.  At the end of the academic year she gave me a wonderful framed drawing of Sunflowers (the name of our class), which still hangs on the wall in my craft room.  I was over the moon when I received a surprise present this Christmas of an embroidered Sunflower which Hollie had made for me.  She’s is 28 now and just as creative and talented as she was as a 4 year old.  My Christmas gift will be hung on the wall in my craft room next to her framed drawing.



Friday 24 December 2021

One final pre-Christmas post….

My last post was going to be my last one before Christmas, but I wanted to share this poem I received today. 

Twas the night before Christmas, but Covid was here,
So we all had to stay extra cautious this year.
Our masks were all hung by the chimney with care 
In case Santa forgot his and needed a spare.
With Covid, we couldn't leave cookies or cake
So we left Santa hand sanitizer to take.

The children were sleeping, the brave little tots
The ones over 5 had just had their first shots,
And mom in her kerchief and me in my cap 
Had just settled in for a long winter's nap.
But we tossed and we turned all night in our beds
As visions of variants danced in our heads.

Gamma and Delta and now Omicron
These Covid mutations that go on and on
I thought to myself, "If this doesn't get better,
I'll soon be familiar with every Greek letter".

Then just as I started to drift off and doze
A clatter of noise from the front lawn arose.
I leapt from my bed and ran straight down the stair
I opened the door, and an old gent stood there.

His N95 mask made him look pretty weird 
But I knew who he was by his red suit and beard.
I kept six feet away but blurted out quick
"What are you doing here, jolly Saint Nick?"

Then I said, "Where's your presents, your reindeer and sleigh ?
Don't you know that tomorrow will be Christmas Day? ".
And Santa stood there looking sad in the snow
As he started to tell me a long tale of woe.

He said he'd been stuck at the North Pole alone
All his white collar elves had been working from home,
And most of the others said "Santa, don't hire us!
We can live off the Furlough now, thanks to the virus".

Those left in the toyshop had little to do.
With supply chain disruptions, they could make nothing new.
And as for the reindeer, they'd all gone away.
None of them left to pull on his sleigh. 

He said Dasher and Dancer were in quarantine,
Prancer and Vixen refused the vaccine,
Comet and Cupid were in ICU,
So were Donner and Blitzen, they may not pull through.

And Rudolph's career can't be resurrected.
With his shiny red nose, they all think he's infected.
Even with his old sleigh, Santa couldn't go far.
Every border to cross needs a new PCR.

Santa sighed as he told me how nice it would be
If children could once again sit on his knee.
He couldn't care less if they're naughty or nice
But they'd have to show proof that they'd had their shot twice.

But then the old twinkle returned to his eyes.
And he said that he'd brought me a Christmas surprise.
When I unwrapped the box and opened it wide,
Starlight and rainbows streamed out from inside.

Some letters whirled round and flew up to the sky
And they spelled out a word that was 40 feet high.
There first was an H, then an O, then a P, 
Then I saw it spelled HOPE when it added the E.

"Christmas magic" said Santa as he smiled through his beard.
Then suddenly all of the reindeer appeared.
He jumped into his sleigh and he waved me good-bye, 
Then he soared o'er the rooftops and into the sky.

I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight
"Get your vaccines my friends, Merry Christmas, good-night".
Then I went back to bed and a sweet Christmas dream
Of a world when we'd finished with Covid 19. 🎄🎄🎅🎅


   Author ~ Unknown







Thursday 23 December 2021

Five cards .....

Welcome to my latest follower, Tee Hall of The Paper Layer.  I hope you can stop by my blog again soon. 

Not much time to craft this week, so a quick post today showing five cards I made a while ago for a challenge.  The challenge was to make five different cards,  taking a maximum of 15 minutes per card.  This is what I came up with in just over one hour.  I used various dies and embossing folders.






This will be my last post before Christmas, so I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  






Sunday 19 December 2021

Winter Wonderland Birthday Card

It's my granddaughter's 12th birthday today and this is the card I made for her.  As her birthday is in December, I've made her a winter themed card.  The Happy Birthday sentiment and message was put on the back of the card.

I started by masking the snow and the moon and inking the panels with blue distress ink. I used the same ink for the stencilling.   The stencil and the stamps are all by Lavinia.  I added a line of glitter along the top of the snow and a little yellow on the tree hive and the fairy's lantern.

The card folds flat for posting.

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Saturday 18 December 2021

Quilted Cards

I made this card after watching a demo on the 'Nifty Noodles Crafting' Facebook page.

I altered the measurements slightly to fit my 6" x 6" card blank and my embossing folder.  The patchwork design was made first, then the completed square was embossed with a Lisa Horton's 'Padded Quilt' embossing folder, before layering on patterned paper and silver glitter card mats.  The layered sentiment is raised up on foam pads.  

I am joining in the following challenges with this card.

I had intended entering this birthday card in Pixie's Snippets Playground challenge, but Di has put a twist on the challenge this time with a theme of Christmas and/or New Year, as well as using snippets.  So.........

..... I made a second card with a Christmas theme.  The patterned papers are snippets from an old LOTV  'Frosty Christmas' paper pad. I also used snippets of white, silver glitter and blue glitter card.  No full sheets of card or patterned papers were harmed making either card. 🙂

I am joining in the following challenges with this card:



Thursday 16 December 2021

Good Luck

A Good Luck card today with a lucky black cat.   The good or bad luck they possess is dependent on where you live in the world. In Britain and Japan, having a black cat cross your path, is considered good luck, whereas if you live in the USA or several European countries, it is bad luck to have a black cat walk by. 


I used a Craftwork Cards 'Circle Window Nesting Dies' with black card and layered it over a slightly smaller white circle.  The cat is a Poppystamps 'Large Walking Cat' die cut.  The background was embossed with a Creative Expressions 'Pawprint Lattice' e/f.  Three black pearls finished off my card. 

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Wednesday 15 December 2021

Fox

A Joy Fold card today.

The fox was made using a Stampin' Up punch.  I used tiny black peel offs for the eyes, so much easier and less messy than trying to stick on tiny black card circles.  The patterned paper and sentiment stamp were also from Stampin' Up.  A brown brad keeps the card closed.  


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Saturday 11 December 2021

Never-ending Card

I just realised that I haven't blogged for a week, but my Christmas cards are all written, addressed and the ones that need to be posted are on their way.  
 
A Never-Ending card to share today, which I made a while ago but haven't had a chance to blog.

The papers are from a Dovecraft paper pad and the card measures 6" x 6".  I used a mixture of punches and dies to embellish my card.  The sentiment is stamped with SU stamps.




Fingers crossed that the little video works ~ you might need to click on it twice.

I am joining in the following challenges with this card:


A couple of upcycled Christmas cards, using shop bought cards we received last Christmas.






Saturday 4 December 2021

Christmas Skier

The December Crafty Calendar Challenge begins today with the theme 'Christmas'.  Our generous sponsor this month is LOTV.

Our sponsor kindly gave the DT digi stamps to work with and I chose to use Ski Jump.  I coloured the image with Promarkers, with some clear Wink of Stella on the snow to add some sparkle.  The patterned paper is from a paper pad I bought at a craft fair quite a few years ago and has tiny Christmas trees on it.  The snowflakes are Memory Box 'Twilight Snowflakes' die cuts. 

The Crafty Calendar Challenge ends on 28th December.  The DT have made some beautiful cards for inspiration, so please visit the blog to see what they have made.

I am joining in the following challenges:





Tuesday 30 November 2021

Christmas and a Sunburst

A final card for Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards Challenge.  Although it's December in Australia, it's still November in the UK and the challenge is still open.  The theme for the last day of November is 'Do What You Love'.  Well, I love to make personalised cards and this one will be going to a football fan who supports a team in blue and white.  (I would never send them a red and white card. 😉)  I made some similar cards HERE, but this time I changed the colour, the  embossing folder and added a die cut snowflake instead of a peel off tree.
 
The sentiment was die cut with a Memory Box 'Grand Merry Christmas' die and the embossing was done with a Crafter's Companion 'Snowflakes' e/f.   I used silver glitter card for Memory Box 'Twilight Snowflakes' die cut.

I am joining in the following challenges with this card:



I've been meaning to try one of these sunburst cards for ages and finally got round to making one.  

The papers are all snippets from an old Dovecraft paper pad and the sentiment was a stamp from the Stampin' Up 'Humming Along' set, stamped with Versafine Clair 'Nocturne'.

I am joining in the following challenges:





Monday 29 November 2021

Z-Fold Card

Beccy's Month of Holidays Challenge is up to the letter Z, so I thought I'd use one of Beccy's images for the last letter.

The image is from the 'Finn and Molly' set of stamps, coloured with Promarkers.  I added some clear Wink of Stella to the hat, hairband and dress to add some sparkle.   The patterned paper is from The Works and the green mats are glitter card.


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Sunday 28 November 2021

Upcycling

I decided to upcycle some shop bought Christmas cards we received last year. Several months ago I die cut suitable card fronts using stitched square and rectangle dies to make them into toppers, then packed them away. Today I finally got round to making cards with the toppers. I added a few sentiments, Card Candi, glitter, silver mirror, matt gold and plain cardstock and a bit of Wink of Stella and embossing. These are the finished cards.










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Friday 26 November 2021

Noel

I'm home from a lovely short break with my hubby and daughter in Manchester, a city I've never visited before.   I'll add a few photos at the end of this post.

The last Rudolph Day Challenge for 2021 started yesterday.  A month today will be Boxing Day!

I followed the instructions for this card fold HERE.  The patterned paper is from a Trimcraft paper pad, 'The Night Before Christmas'.  The circles are Lisa Horton's 'Stitched Scalloped Circles' dies and I used an Xcut Mini Die 'Noel'.  A tiny clear gem in the middle of the 'O' finished off my card.

The card folds flat for posting.

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Our trip to the Manchester area included a visit to Old Trafford football stadium, the home of Manchester United.....

..... a fascinating wander round the Lowry Gallery.....


.....and an amazing experience at the Van Gogh Alive.  

The paintings of Van Gogh were projected onto large screens, all set to music.