X Factor

Well that's it all over for this year and although the contestants were good, there was not the same buzz about this year as previous years. In saying that I have watched every programme since the auditions and it has been the highlight of my Sat night with my bottle of wine. I really hoped that Leon was to win and he did! I thought he was nervous last night, but he maybe thought that the public would vote Rydian as the winner, due to having a strong voice. I think Rydian will do really well in a Musical, and Same Difference will really appeal to the young kids.

So what's now for my Sat nights??? Maybe I will do some cardmaking then!

Girly Craft Evening

Well last night I had my friends Fiona and Sally round to do some crafting. We do a lot of talking between the three of us, jumping from one topic to the other and before you know it the evening has passed us by. Fiona was doing more work on her art journals and Sally decided to make a card. Me well I had ATC's to make, 10 on a Christmas theme for a CraftDiner swap. I used BG Figgy Pudding Papers , and foused little stamp set that I bought an age ago from Lidl to do the merry christmas and snowflake stamp. these will need of be posted off ASAP now.

Christmas Decorations

My Christmas Tree is done in a red and gold theme and has primative/shaker style decorations on it. I have collected decorations over the years and when I see a new one, I just have to add it to the collection. When I was buying Liams leather jacket from the Shelter Shop I came across some decorations that i had to have. I love the Gingerbread apron and the Santa, and at a couple of ponds they were a bargain too.

More Cards

Here are some more cards that I have been making lately. I had to make a new Home Card for my Sister In Law and Brother I In Law, me and Brian went to see their house before they got the keys so I could get a photo off it. I am very happy with the design of the card. A couple of Christmas cards that I made this week too.

T- Birds

Liams Christmas School show is on Wed and last week I had the task of searching for a leather jacket for him to wear. He is in P7 and they are doing some singing and acting from Grease, all the primary's are doing a different theme. Liam said he needs to look like a T-Bird so after finally getting a jacket from our local Shelter charity shop, I had the task of decorating the back of it. Now this is when I could have really have done with a Cricut machine. I ended up hand cutting the letters and sticking them to the back of the jacket with DS tape. I am going to blow my own trumpet now, because I thought I had made a fabby job!! Now I can't wait to see him in gear and performing to his hearts content.

Christmas Fast Approaching

Well I have bought only one present so far, and it's for my Niece Chloe. I have no idea what I am buying the boys yet. They have loads of gadgets and I am stumped! Looks like it will be a last min rush at this rate. I really need to get motivated. The amount of people that I have spoken to, have not started their shopping either. Looks like we are in the same boat.

I also have the fact that it's my Brothers 30th on the 7th Dec, a new baby due the very same day and my Dads bithday on the 14th Dec.

I still don't have the decorations up in the shop yet, maybe I will do them this weekend if Brian goes to the attic and gets them out for me. Then the boys will want their tree up, so it will look like Christmas is coming.

Photos of Family and Friends

I have been thinking about this for a while. I really want to get a collection of photos of my close family and friends and have them on show in my house. I think it would be great to do a LO on them all too, so when I am old and senile I can look at them and remember who my friends are.

NO seriously I just think it would be so nice to have pictures of them all on a big corner table in my lounge. This is what i envisage anyway, so I must start taking piccys of them when I go to see them. Maybe I should make this as a new yrs resolution. Oh and I must not just download them to the PC, I must get them printed out!!

Winter Has Come!!

Brrrr It's absolutly freezing here in the East Coast of Scotland. It was 1 degree this morning and I don't think it has gotten any better as the day has went on. I have my wee fire on in the shop and thank god it's only me in here so I can hog it!!

I have not really said much inmy blog for a while, I guess there has not been much happening to talk about really, all I seem to do is work and stay in at home, to dark and cold to think about anything else, I could always card all my craft stuff home from the shop and get making my Christmas cards but then I have to bring it all back again, hu can't win!

I did finally manage to get round to see my Brothers Girlfriend Nicole and my niece on Wed, my niece Chloe was 1 in Aug and she is just so cute. She is going to have a new baby brother or sister soon, Nicole is due on the 7th Dec which happens to be my Brother Barry's 30th Birthday. This is going to be so exiting, can't wait to be an auntie Gail again.

I wanted to get some piccys of Chloe but I left my camera in the shop, so I took some with my phone camera, but I have no idea how I am supposed to transfer them onto my PC? Nicole said she would send me some more, then I can make a LO to put in a frame.

Paper Ornaments

Do you fancy making some paper ornaments like these? I have placed full pictorial instructions on the Craft Diner Forum for free download. These are so easy to make and a great project to do with the kiddies. Go on have a go at making them.

Craft Diner

The Craft Diner, a brand new Craft Forum has opened it's doors today. Why not pop along and see what it's all about. http://www.craftdiner.co.uk

Golden Highlights

This weeks Daring Cardmakers Challenge was to make a card for any season or occasion but must include gold somewhere. It could be a brad, metallic card, heat embossing, ribbon, anything at all as long as it's gold.

I had to make a Birthday card for my friends son who was 9 yesterday. I used yet again Figgy Pudding papers, chipboard large star, punched small stars and used a small button on each one, my piece of gold came from my gold spotty brad.

Corrugated Baby Card

The challenge from Jo, one of the Daring Cardmakers design team was to use some corrugated card on your card. I had some yellow and blue pearly corrugated card and decided to make a baby boy card. I used a MM circle vellum tag and covered it with yellow card cut out from a circle punch, punched the stars out of the blue, added a yellow brad and three satin ribbons. The wide baby ribbon is from Adornit.

Ribbony Recipe

Following on with the ribbon theme, The Daring Card Makers have given another challenge for making your card. This is what they asked us to do..

The ingredients you need to use on your cards are:
4 brads/eyelets
3 circles
2 rectangles
and lashings of ribbon!

I used papers from Basic Grey Figgy Pudding, Basic Grey chipboard corners and covered in paper, 3 buttons for my 3 circles, 2 pieces of paper cut to rectangles down the edges, the back of the card is scalloped and wider than the front. And my 4 brads are holding my ribbon in place.

Magnolia Stamping

I received my first Magnolia stamps last week and set about making a card with her. I used my scallop scissors on the edges then punched the holes out with my crop-a-dile, inked the edges up, crafters workshop template to so the swirls with a Stardust Sakura pen. The stamped image was stamped onto water colour paper and also stamped onto checked paper, I cut out the dress and shoes and glued onto the image. Coloured it in with water colour pencils. I punched a hole into the paper, placed an eyelet then ribbon. I was not sure if I was going to add a title, so at the moment it's left blank.

I'm On A Roll!!

I seem to have ants in my pants at the moment. I am on a roll with my Christmas Card making at the minute. This morning while standing at the counter, inbetween serving my customers I have made another 2 cards using the BG Figgy papers. Maybe I should have used the Happy Holidays one as my DC Wrap it in Ribbon Challenge.

I used the Filmstrip Die from Ellison cut out of a piece of hardboard then paper and glued together, inked up the edges, stamped peace and joy onto paper, threaded satin ribbon through the holes of the filmstrip, and attached buttons.

This card was made using embossed cardstock from my Payperbox range in the shop, inked up to give a destressed look, pp has scalloped edges with my scallop scissors and inked up the edges of them too. Inked and destressed the chipboard flowers and places a white brad through the hole.

Wrap it in Ribbon for Christmas

The challenge from Daring Cardmakers was to make a Christmas Card with Ribbon on it. My card does not have a lot of ribbon, just a small piece. This card was made using BG Figgy Pudding paper, green buttons, stamped phrases of the words peace & joy and a BG chipboard arrow. I punched holes through the arrow using my cropadile to mimic all the circles and dots in the paper, inked it up with Brown Stazon, then tied a satin ribbon. Viola my Chrimbo Card.

Out For Lunch

Today I met my friend Debbie for lunch. I closed the shop for an hour (this is not something I do, it's normally nip out to grab a sandwich or by the time I have remembered to eat, it's too late) and we went to a cafe restaurant called BLO, which is very appropriately named as it is situated below ground level. We both ended up choosing the same for lunch and topped it off with a Glass of White Wine. It was my first time here and I would highly recommend it to anyone and will definitely be going back.

Daring Cardmakers

Daring Cardmakers is a fantastic forum to get you inspired and motivated to making those wonderful cards. I have been a browser on this forum for some time, but never took up any of their challenges. This week, however I thought I would. This weeks one was to make a card from a sketch. I used Basic Grey Figgy Pudding papers, a circle punch, sofened the edges of the papers and cradstock with Timber Brown Stazon and the snowflakes and Happy Holidays were stamped on, also in Timber brown Stazon. I have made some more to add to my Christmas Card collection, using some more papers from the Figgy Pudding Range. (I just can't put these papers down!)

Door Hangers

I love Home Decor and set about making door hangers for our upstairs rooms. I have plain wooden ones for sale in the shop HERE . These are so easy to make, just cover with papers, sand off the edges and decorate with chipboard, flowers, anything that takes your fancy. I made one for our room, one each for the boys rooms (need to take the piccy's of them) and one for the bathroom. I now want to cover a small canvas with left over fabric which matching Seans bedroom to make a piece of wall art. If, and when i get round to doing it, I will post a piccy.

UK Scrappers Cyber Crop

The Cyber Crop on UKS is not something I find myself participating in really, I don't really have the time and I think of myself being more of a cardmaker than a scrapbooker. I love looking at the classes though and maybe someday I will get round to taking part.

I did click on the class page on one Sat afternoon, TBH for pure noseiness and found myself doing a card class. This got me more into stamping and it was so easy to make, and took mins really.

This card was made from the class by Nichole Heady on UKS