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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