Christmas Cards ~ a handmade assortment …

I began making some Christmas cards for my neighbours a few weeks ago, but then had to stop because I realised that there were some more pressing cards and handmade makes which needed to be made and posted over-seas, and also other things which needed to be started in their ‘making process’.

 

So I’m here today sharing a few photos of some cards I made for a few of my neighbours and all of these have been made from free die-cuts which I got with a magazine a couple of months ago.  I liked the die-cuts so much that I just had to use them.

 

There are more cards, but I forgot to take photo’s of them.  But I do have some other cards which are totally different from these, and I’ll share those in the next day or so – because they haven’t been posted through letter boxes yet, so I’m still in with a chance of taking photos of them!

 

I hope this last Tuesday before Christmas is finding you stress free and in a calm state of mind.  And …  not having that feeling of dread when you ‘feel’ like you’re forgetting something really important, but don’t know what it is.  (which is where I’m currently finding myself – and it’s making me panic! eeek!)

Sending warm winter wishes to you, along with squidges (as always)  ~

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Let’s have coffee …

I have the following quote printed it out and keep it below my computer screen in my craft room… …

We are all cups,  constantly and quietly being filled.  The trick,  is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the Beautiful Stuff out.”

isn’t it lovely?  . . .  It’s by a gentleman called Ray Bradbury, an American author and screen writer, and I just love it.  And today came the perfect chance to share it with you because …

I’m forever inviting you to come and have a coffee with me, so when I saw last week that ‘Kanban Cards’ had brought out a fabulous new collection of die- cuts, papers and cardstock, I had to have some of it.  It would have been so rude not to!

To be honest, I fell in love with it.  The colours are just beautiful.  The quality is really great and it gives you such scope to play around with.

I made a card today using some of it and as I was making it I thought …  “it’s AGES since I’ve done a ‘giveaway’, so perhaps this would make an ideal card for that very thing!”

I made the card as a 12″x 6″ – so quite a long card.  On a base card of white, scored and folded, and then topped with a sheet of Kanban foiled heavy weight paper.   I added some wide, Satin, pale coffee coloured ribbon, topped with some deep brown seam binding.

On top of the ribbons,  I used two toppers and a sentiment from the kit.  The coffee cup topper I layered on top of a vintage looking doily, made from cotton, with cotton crochet lace all around the edge.  I bought a pack of these little doilies from a pound shop about 8 years ago and originally bought them to make little pouches of dried lavender.  I still have a few unused ones left.

The duo coloured bow (to the right hand)  has a dazzler fixed to the centre to bring a touch of sparkle and colour to the card.  If you look carefully under the bow, but above the satin/seam binding ribbons, you can just see a golden circle of leaves and vines.  This is a chipboard die cut, which I coloured up with gold embossing pad and then a combination of gold emboss. powder and gold glittery embossing powder.

The spoon …  well that began life as one of those plastic spoons they give you in coffee shops or Mc.Donalds.  I never use the spoons, but keep them with the thought that they might come in useful. And look!  One did!  🙂

Finally … inside.  One of my sheep (craft room buddies) wanted to show you what was inside…  I told him:  “No, absolutely not.  Get out of there you rascal!”. . .

He seemed determined, as he backed himself into the middle of the card.  I knew what he was up to.  He was going to give one great big JUMP and open the card to show you what was inside, but I wanted to keep it a secret known only to the person who won the give-away  . . .   so I chased him around the craft room, caught him, and he’s now safely back where he belongs … under my craft room computer monitor, with the rest of the flock.  tsk, tsk!

So anyhoo ….  If you’re a follower of The Cobweborium Emporium blog,  and would like to have your name ‘thrown into the hat’ and be in with a chance of receiving this card then please just leave a comment below with the word:  ‘GIVEAWAY’  – either at the start or the end of your comment.

To make sure that all is fair,  I’ll get the Random Number Generator to choose the number.

If you’re the winner then you have a choice:-  You can choose to have the card for yourself, in which case I’ll write the card to you, sign it and send it with love. Or …  you can choose to receive the card un-written, so that you can write it and send it to someone else.

But … If you don’t want to enter but still want to leave a comment or have a  chat,  then that’s fine too.  You really don’t have to get involved in a give-away.  Any comment which doesn’t have the word ‘GIVEAWAY’ won’t be entered.

NB:  Please  DON’T  put your real name or address in the comments box.  I need to look after your privacy and security.

Happy Thursday, by the way!

We’re heading to the end of October now, after this it’s just a walk to Christmas, and although I have got a few Christmas Presents tucked away …  it’s only a few and I really do need to get a wiggle on with the buying.  I don’t want to be left with only the stuff the shops have left over!

I also have to get a very BIG wiggle on with making Christmas Cards!  Maybe I’ll start in a couple of weeks time and cross my fingers.  It worked last year.  And the year before.  And the year before that too.  Need I go on or are you getting the idea?  lol.

Right … I really must stop yacking and let you get on with your day.

I wish you a blessed, calm, comfortable, happy Thursday! 

(I saved that last photo from this card,  just so I could use that right there … )  😀  Toodles!

EDIT on 30th October 2017 to add:

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  NO FURTHER ENTRIES ARE BEING TAKEN.  Please see the post on 30th October 2017 to find out the winner.

Thank you to all who entered.  Watch out for the next giveaway soon. ~ Cobs. x

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And Pigs Might Fly! ~ an ATC painted for World Watercolour Month

I’m going to type this blog post and get it all finished and completed within 15 minutes.  Yeah … and pigs might fly!

I got out my paints this afternoon (Sunday) with the intention of painting an Angel …  but then a stray little ticklish memory came to mind and I found myself pencilling a flying pig, and so I went with it.

P ‘And Pigs Might Fly’  ~ an ATC sized painting for ~ #WorldWatercolorMonth

It was quite a quick painting project, the longest time was waiting for colours to dry so I could move onto another colour  …  but my heat gun helped with that just a tad.

Again, painted to the ATC size of 2.5inches by 3.5inches.  You can see the exact size in the photo above – the pencil marks around the sides – but I always leave an ‘over-hang’ so that I can touch/hold the painting and move it around without getting mucky finger prints on it and spoiling it.

‘And Pigs Might Fly’  ~ an ATC sized painting for ~ #WorldWatercolorMonth

I tried a white mount around it and quite liked that.  But then tried the blue mount and …

‘And Pigs Might Fly’  ~ an ATC sized painting for ~ #WorldWatercolorMonth

…  I quite liked that too.  One moment I love it with the white mount … and the next … well … what can I say.  I like them both.

What about you?  Which one do you prefer?

This really was an enjoyable make.  Watercolour paper.  Watercolour paints.  Some brushes and some water … and VOILA!  One teeny pig with really tiny teeny wings. Somehow I don’t think those wings would carry the pig … but hey…  who am I to judge?  I have no training in these things!  😇

Happy Monday!

I know, I know, you’re not overly impressed with Mondays.  Lots of people aren’t.  So let’s break the system.  Let’s paste a smile on our faces and wear it at every opportunity today.  Why?  Because it makes everyone wonder what the HECK you’ve been up to.   You’ll look like you’ve been up to something or know something.  Keep ’em guessing.  When they ask you just say   “Aw,  nothing,  really” … but say it in *that* way which makes them think that  …  you might not be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.   And that alone will keep ’em smiling.  lol

Have a truly blessed day my friends,  and wherever you go today,  may your God go with you.

Goosey Gander ~ an ATC/ACEO – painted for World Watercolour Month

There are films that I watched as a child which obviously nestled their way into my heart and made a home there.  Or … perhaps it was some of the characters from the film(s) which had nestled into my heart….

I sat at my desk, paintbrush in hand and waited for inspiration.  I’d been singing inside my head for a couple of hours the song from Aritistocats – the one where they sing over and over  “Every body, every body, every body wants to be a cat” – as Thomas O’Malley’s friends (all cats) all play the instruments and sing the Jazz song.

Ok… you’re singing it now.  sorry about that.

Well … there are two characters in The Aristocats which are my most favourite – Amelia and Abigail Gabble.  The two faaaabulous Geese, who have a particular walk, and a particular piece of music which accompanies that walk.

I knew what I needed to paint …  but I had a choice.  Paint the Goose which I had pictured in my mind … or  go and look for a photo of Amelia and Abigail so that I could be reminded of how they actually looked.

Somehow looking for a photo felt like cheating, so I was going to have to remember what they looked like from memory.

I knew there was something fancy about them, and I guessed at a big ol’ ribbon tied around their necks….  like this . . .

‘Goosey Gander’.  An ATC / ACEO Painted for #WorldWatercolorMonth

But I found out that they didn’t have ribbons tied around their necks ….  they had their bonnets tied around their heads!  Aw bummer.  I’d already painted the goose with a ribbon by this time… ahh, I decided that I’d keep it exactly as it was.  So I did.

For those of you who’ve forgotten the Miss Abigails and Miss Amelia’s walk …  I’ve been to YouTube and collected a video …  You don’t have to watch this all the way through … you’ll get the ‘walk’ within seconds.

… I apologise if you’re now going to humming that tune for the rest of the day.  But hey .. if I’ve got to suffer, then you can come and join me! lol  😀

If you want to see that walk from the back I have another offering…  but I have a tale to tell before you watch it:-

Mr. Cobs recently painted our decking – which looks fabulous and I’m thrilled with it.  The cats were kept off it while it was drying.  However – Miss Maisie (neurotic at the best of times) took a dislike to the decking paint and to show her utter contempt, she developed a special walk, which I christened  ‘The Decking Walk‘ – – a walk which is a seriously odd thing to watch and funny in the extreme!  She pulls this wild face look – ears back, eyes the size of saucers and she crosses the decking to get into the house as if she’s trying to lift up her back paws and only walk on her two front paws.

Sadly … she cannot do the  required two feet walk.  So the resulting walk is bally hysterical!!!  Seriously so.

I knew that I knew this walk from somewhere but just couldn’t place it … however in trying to find the video of the ‘Goose Walk’ by Amelia and Abigail,  I suddenly had this LIGHTBULB moment inside my brain as I watched the beginning of this video…. – Watch the little white female kitten doing the walk …  THAT’S how Miss Maisie walks over the decking …. even though the decking has been dry for SEVERAL weeks.  She still feels the need to do  ‘The Decking Walk‘ …  so please watch and enjoy.  (again … you don’t have to watch the whole video … just a bit of it.)…

 

I ask myself alllll the time,  “why me?“.   Why do I get all these funny animals?  All of them are ‘broken’, like plants on the ‘hospital table’ at the garden centre.  No one else wants them so muggins here takes them home and loves them.

Anyhoo ...  back to Goosey Gander.  She’s a little ATC in size – so  2.5inches by 3.5inches and painted all in watercolours.

I took photographs in different lighting to try and get a decent photograph which captured the colours.  This photograph was taken with light flooding in from the window.    #WorldWatercolorMonth

This photograph was taken with the flash on.  #WorldWatercolorMonth

… and this photo was taken with the desk lamps turned on and shone on it.  #WorldWatercolorMonth

You can see the difference it makes to the colours, and to the way the light plays on the the painting, kind of picking out details that you could ignore in other photos.

Ack … let’s not get into a photography lesson eh?  LOL.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me.

Wishing you a very happy Tuesday  edit to change it to : Wednesday.  (It’s a good job that the fabulous  Tom Merriman  is awake, commenting on blogs, and wished me a Happy Wednesday. I was convinced that it was Tuesday today!).  May the hours pass peacefully and may you find some smiles hidden within the moments during your day.

Have a truly blessed day my friends.  ~

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What’s a Sentiment between friends? (~a handmade card for lots of reasons!~)

I wanted to make a ‘versatile’ card.  A card for almost any occasion.  So … I knew I’d have to be able to change the sentiment on the card in order to make the card versatile.  So this is the ‘story’ of one card, and,  just for the photos – four different sentiments.

Hello …. friend?  Maybe?  Haven’t seen you for ages?  How are you?  Or maybe  ‘Hello’ on the front, and ‘Get well’ inside?  Or ….  Hello,  Happy Birthday?

Made on a 6″x 6″ white card, and using Dovecraft  ‘Couture du Jour‘  papers and decoupage pad as a background paper, and for the pocket (for the tags).

I decoupaged the main focal image, and it has 5 layers in total.

“With Love” …. because you’re not feeling too well?   “With Love”  because … I love you?  “With Love”  …  just because?   “With Love” … on your Birthday?

The tags (in the pocket on the front) were stamped on plain white card, using stamps by Viva Decor.  They’re really fabulous crisp images which stamp clearly from the word go.

The tags were then ‘vintaged’ and layered on some green print paper, again from the Couture du Jour papers by Dovecraft.  I used some pastel chalks on the tags, in various places – on the one tag, I turned the stamped image of a bird into a blue bird.  And on the other tag, I coloured up the stamped image of a rose, using three different colours of chalks.

These are chalks I’ve had for … y.e.a.r.s!   I have two large sets of them – both made by Dovecraft.  They give a lovely soft, fuzzy sort of colour to things.  I really like them.

“Thinking of You”  . . .   well this one speaks for itself.

The heart hat pins are ones which are generally available.  I think I bought mine on Ebay years ago.  I wanted some red ones, but had to buy a whole set in order to get the red ones.  tsk tsk.  No wonder my craft room has no space … it’s filled with ‘left overs’!  lol.  🙂

“Just for You” . . .   because you deserve it.  “Just for You” because you’re amazing.  “Just for You”  . . . to say thank you for looking after out house while we were on holiday?   “Just for You” … because you’re a great help to me?  “Just for You” … just because.   . . .  or for a million other reasons.

The dragonfly over on the right (about a quarter of the way down) is from a selection by Anitas,  and the peg with the pink heart on it – down in the bottom left corner, is from the Santoro range.  And it’s this mini peg which enables me to change the sentiment on the card.  Virtually any sentiment can be held by that peg and it makes the card suitable for pretty much anyone.  I’ve just stamped four different sentiments to show you … and added some really pretty glitter – but you could stamp anything you wanted.

And that, as they say ….  is all there was to it!  Ta daaaaah!

Anyhoo ….. Happy Tuesday, 13th June.

Could someone please tell me who stole January to May?  And do the police know about this major robbery?

Do you know what’s made me a bit cross and fed up?  Create and Craft are having their CHRISTMAS  IN  [fricken]  JUNE  event.   Ho, Ho  bl**dy  Ho!

Now they  (Create & Craft)  say  (on their website)  that it’s only till the 25th June …  however, I remember last year and the year before … they said the same sort of thing, and Christmas never went away after their Christmas Event, so I have no hope that they’re going to change their ways and make Christmas in June, July, August, September, or October disappear.  [grouch, grouch, grump]

Ah well… I’m sure we’ll survive it.  I just won’t be buying anything from them until they stop the madness.  🙂

Wishing you a terrific Tuesday.  May the wind be a lazy breeze.  May any rains be soft, and feel like a caress as it touches your skin.  May the skies be a beautiful blue,  and may your day be free of anything which makes your heart ache.

Have a truly blessed Tuesday, all  ~

Nice Day to Bake . . . a card.

Haaapy Monday!  Can you believe it’s already the 22nd of May??  I had to do a double take when I looked at the calendar.  (Although why it’s called a Calendar I don’t know.  Surely it should be called a CalenDAY?  It makes sense!  Calenday.  “Sweetheart . . . What date does it say on the calenday for a week on Monday?”   See?  Calenday.  I think we should start a movement and all begin to call it a Calenday.  That will get things put right!)

[thinks to self:  perhaps I should write to Mr.Trump, and Mr.Putin,  Prime Minister May,  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,   South Korean President Park Geun-hye,  Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe,  French President Francois Hollande ….. and of course I shall drop The Queen a note about this.  I’m sure Her Majesty will agree that this is a grand idea!]

Aaaannnyhoo….  I made a card and I promised myself that I wouldn’t do a big long post and bore everyone to tears, so I’ll get on with showing you the card.

It was all made on a scored 6″x6″ white card.

Measured, cut and fixed in place the hessian you see in the photo (below), and while that was drying,  I distressed some pale(ish) blue gingham paper, tearing it and rolling it in places,  added some blue gingham ribbon and fixed the paper and ribbon two-some, in place, on top of the hessian.

Next came fussy cutting some honeycomb from a sheet of honeycomb printed paper then adhered it to the gingham paper.  Time for a little decoupage: to make the dresser, where the chicken has laid her eggs, and one little chick has already hatched.  🙂

If you look really closely you just might be able to see that there’s a cobweb in the space where the drawer is missing, – to the right hand side, in the upper corner of the drawer space.  I thought that was a nice touch considering who was making this.  lol

Can’t see it?  . . .  here it is . . .

I added bits of straw in various places,  and a tiny wooden rolling-pin – hanging on some cotton.  The silver bumble bee you see hanging below the large red petal flower is also hanging on a thread, so giving the buzzy bumble a ‘flying’ movement.

The lovely, fluffy marmalade coloured feather was donated by one of our chickens: Miss Edna BIG BIRD, HUGE EGGS Chicken.  She’s so accommodating.  I ask for a feather and she does the ‘chicken wiggle’ and out pops something perfect.  lol

The flower adornment was made using some pretty coloured stamens, some loofah strands,  a tiny piece of muslin which I pulled some threads from to make it kind of ‘feathery’ around the edges, and that lovely ‘blousy’ flower from my stash.

Finally,  it was time for some attention to the inside:  using some distressed yellow gingham paper,  cut to size,  I made an insert which I then stamped and added a Country Chicken ticket in the lower right hand corner.

OH!   And I added a bow made from the ribbon, to the front of the card!

And that,  as they say,  is all there was to it!

The papers and ribbons are all part of the DoCrafts ‘Home Sweet Home’ range.  I bought them about a year ago and used some of them, but then Summer moved to Autumn and so I put them away reminding myself to get them out again this year.  And … as strange as this might sound,  I actually remembered!  Ha!  Miracles really do happen.  😀

Everything else came from my stash.

So, changing the subject  ….  I was thinking about Mondays,  and I’ve worked out that Mondays were invented as a punishment for all the fun we have at the weekends!  Seriously.  It makes total sense when you think about it.  We all do have more fun at the weekends, and we obviously needed something to kind of get us back into line – so Monday was invented.  SOO….  Just get it over with and within 24 hours, it will be Tuesday,  after that  . . .  it’s all heading towards Friday  😀  … can’t get better than that!  So lets change things round a little.  Smile today.  Be happy.  Be all twinkly eyed and joke around.  Beat the system!

Oh … and just to get you started, here’s a Monday Special:

Q: What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backwards? . . .   A: a receding hare-line.

Have a great day out there.  Be nice to yourself, and each other.  And … remember to look both ways when you cross the road!

This Little Piggy is a Valentine Little Piggy!

When I first saw Hunkydory Box Pops (last year) I fell in love with them and bought two sets.  Farm and Jungle.  And … I bought them just to make for my Grandson, Little Cobs.

I made him one at Christmas (and forgot to share it with you!  tsk) – a Christmas Crocodile – in a clear box, to which I’d added a bundle of ‘snowballs’ – and he loved it.  (Who says you can only make Christmas cards for children with Rudolph or Santa on them?)

You can make these Box Pops as simple or as complicated as you like, and can use them for almost any occasion too!  For Children, they fit the bill and work perfectly.  But … I can actually see that they could work for adults.  They inject an element of fun into a card.

You make up your chosen animal using the die cut elements.  Then you can either press it flat and put it into an envelope (envelopes come supplied with the die cuts), or you can make an Acetate box and pop your card into it so that the recipient can keep the card held inside the box after they’ve displayed it – or you can seal the box shut so that the card will be held inside the box and protected.  (If you’re not good at making boxes then there are boxes, cut to size and ready scored, from Hunkydory).

In the above photo – I tried to light piggy so that you could see the folds of the ‘box’ which make the body of the pig.  Hence the reason they’re called ‘box pops’.

Once made up, you can simply press your animal flat and put it in an envelope – but it will pop back up when the recipient opens it up when they receive it.  The head is fixed to the body by a folded piece of acetate, which gives the card ‘nodding dog’ look. (or in this case nodding pig).  So cute!

This Little Piggy Loves You.  (Well it would ….  after all, it’s a Valentines Pig!)

I made the lid of the box out of acetate, so that the pig can be viewed from the sides and the top.  And … the funny thing is … when you look at piggy through the sides, he’s looking at you.  But when you view piggy from above …  he’s still looking at you!  How does that happen?  Is it magic?  Maybe piggy is  Super Pig  –  (like Super Man).

I added hearts and stars which I sprinkled around the inside, and finally added a ribbon handle, and ribbon around the base and the lid, and VOILA!  One Valentines Card, from a Grammy to her 5-year-old Grandson.

So ….  Happy Monday! 

I know Mondays can be drab sometimes, but give it chance.  You know they nearly always get better, even if you don’t feel the ‘happy’ straight away.  Give the day chance to show you the warmth, the smiles, and even the love.  Allow yourself to have a lovey day!

Most of all . . . whatever you’re doing today,  be good to yourself  …  and to each other.  It helps the world go around and makes life so much enjoyable and pleasant.  And the world could do with a lot more enjoyable and pleasant in it.

Have a truly blessed day.  Heaps of love and squidges from my corner, to yours …

 

Just to let you know … I don’t receive anything in the way of payment or remuneration from any suppliers mentioned in this post or any other post.  I will only recommend to you items which I’ve used and work for me and ones I’m impressed with. 

The Hunkydory products talked about in this post were bought by me.  No items were gifted from companies, and I have received no payment in any way or form, for chatting with you about them.

Buzzy little Bumble Bees!

I saw a magazine on the supermarket shelves and fell in love with the Bee themed ‘freebies’ which were being given away with the issue.  I got home and, over a coffee, I flicked through the pages, and found a few pages of ideas for what you could make with the papers.  I fell totally in love with one card, and knew that I’d make it at some stage, because it was just too lovely not too.

Last week gave me the perfect moment.  I needed to make a ‘Thank You’ card and thought the bee themed card I’d found in the magazine would be perfect,  and so, changing some of the papers, and adding my own sentiment,  I made my version of the card.

In the magazine the maker had used some black corrugated card  for backing the main central picture.  I had no black corrugated card.  I had red, blue, yellow, pink, kraft brown, green, orange  ….  practically a whole rainbow … but no black.  “I’ll just use black card” I said to myself.  But …  I really loved that corrugated look.  So …  I did the next best thing….

I pulled out a sheet of the yellow corrugated, drew up the measurement I needed in pencil, and, taking a (cheapy) permanent marker pen, I began to turn that yellow card into black card.  I chose yellow in case any of my colouring was a bit uneven, it would at least look like it was meant to look like that (can we say ‘distressed’?) – as it would tone with the yellows on the card.  See … I do think ahead sometimes!  lol.

By the time I’d filled the square, I’d emptied that pen.  Thankfully I had another, because I needed to colour up four Candi dots for the corners!

I added ribbon,  … and I like my ribbon more than I liked the ribbon in the magazine.  My ribbon has flowers on it!  (Much posher! lol)  Then fixed everything in place.

In the magazine they’d used a very pale shade of lemon paper as backing paper – but I preferred something a little warmer.  So chose a lovely, yummy yellow which looked like it had gently kissed the orange paint pot.

For the sentiment, I inked up some plain white card, then using a stencil and two ink pads – a shade of warm yellow and a pale burnt orange, –  I gently inked through the stencil to make a honeycomb pattern over the card.  I then stamped the ‘Thank You’ sentiment and cut it using a die, and backed it with some plain black card.

I added the four Candi dots;  a ribbon bow at the top of the card;  the sentiment;  and finally added some bees which I’d cut from some of the printed cardstock.

Then I turned my attention to the inside.  I’m not that keen on blank insides, and always try to put something in a card which adds to the whole thing in some way.  I chose a decorative die and using some black card die cut it and fixed it in place with glue.  VOILA!  One thank you card for my wonderful neighbour.

Thank YOU for popping in for a visit!

Well …..  today is the last Monday of January 2017!   We made it through the first month of the year!  Give yourself a mental cheer!  February will be a doddle because its way shorter than any other month – so it’ll a walk in the park.  Yes?  🙂

Have a truly wonderful week.  May nothing stop you from making good choices.  May you carry an inner warmth which, every time you think about it, makes you smile.  May you share a joke or a smile with another person.  And may you do something which helps to change someone elses day around.  Make someone feel better about themselves.  Smile at a stranger.  Pay someone a compliment.  Just be nice to people.  Everyone you meet really does have something which troubles them.  They need help to smile sometimes, and maybe this week it will be your turn to help them.  Give them a reason to smile.

Here ….  here is my chance to make you smile.  This squidge is a visible squidge,  from me, direct to you,  because I think you’re truly amazing . . . .

. . . .   sending you a warm fuzzy hug and a heartfelt squidge,  from me sat here to you sat there.

 …  Be good to each other.   ~ 

 

 

A moment lasts all of a second . . .

. . .  but the memory lives on forever.

 

I made a card based around one I saw in a magazine a few weeks ago.  It was the sentiment they’d used on the card which struck me and I wrote it down in my note book, hoping to use it at some stage.  I went on-line to check that this sentiment didn’t belong to a crafting company – a stamp or something like that,  and it didn’t  – (yay!).

I printed the sentiment and cut it out using an oval die from a set bought  a while back from Tattered Lace.

The card is pretty much self-explanatory if you look at the selection of 4 photos in this post.

The papers I used are from a selection of left-over scrapbooking papers – the two different prints were originally from the same book of papers.  I layered them up on top of a soft rosey pink paper to pick out the lovely pink in the roses, then onto white card.

Made on a white 6×6″ card – the front of which I scored down the centre and folded it back on itself so to give that an extra dimension to the card. The oval sentiment is mounted onto the folded front of the card.

The adornments – the roses, the star, and the Angel bunny inside the card, are all from a selection of Tilda adornments, which I’ve had for ages.   I tied a bow of pink satin ribbon from my stash and . . . .  Voila!  That’s all there was too it!

Once I’d figured it out, and chosen the papers I wanted to use, – the actual making of the card was really quite quick.

Well …  It’s Wednesday again!   I’ve not liked Wednesdays very much since I was at school. 

On Wednesday (when I was at school)  we had:-  a whole morning of Cookery.  Loved Cookery!  Then after lunch we had Double Geography (which I didn’t like),  then a lesson of History – which I quite liked,  and finally, at the end of the day, was a Double PE  (physical education).  Having PE  at the end of the day  Was. A. Nightmare! 

Our [meany] PE teacher wouldn’t end the lesson until five minutes before the end of school bell rang.  This meant that we had to: Get stripped off;  take showers;  get dried;  get dressed;  and get out of the door and run the length of the playground and to the bus stop,  all within those five minutes,  or the chances were that we’d miss the bus and have to walk home.  She was a real pain and wouldn’t listen to us when we begged her to give us ten minutes instead of five, to wash, dress and get out to our bus.  Hence …  I hated Wednesday, and after a gazillion years of not being in school, I still have that ‘droopy mood’  feeling about the day.

What about you?  Do you have any day that you don’t like very much?  Or days you remember from school which you didn’t look forward to?  Do tell and share with me.

Aaanyhoo …..  Wishing you a truly lovely day.  May the weather be warm, may the wind be gentle, and may you get out of school in time to catch your bus!

Sending squidges from my corner to yours ~

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It’s a Blizzard out there!

Hello, and a Happy Wednesday to you!  Although mind … saying that doesn’t give this Wednesday the importance it deserves, does it.  December 21st is the 355th day of the year OR … in THIS year, it’s the 356th  – for this years is a leap year!  There are exactly 10 days remaining until the end of the year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21st is usually the shortest day of the year and is sometimes regarded as the first day of winter (the December solstice is on either December 20, 21, 22 or 23).  In the Southern Hemisphere, December 21st is usually the longest day of the year and occurs during the southern summer.

And..  did you know that this date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday than on Saturday or Sunday, and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Thursday.

• Born on this day (in) among many others:
• 1118 – Thomas Becket, English archbishop and saint (d. 1170)
• 1795 – Jack Russell, English priest, hunter, and dog breeder
• 1804 – Benjamin Disraeli, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1937 – Jane Fonda, American actress
• 1940 – Frank Zappa, American singer-songwriter
• 1948 – Samuel L. Jackson, American actor

Anyhoo . . .  I’ve bought another Christmas Card to the School ‘Show and Tell‘ this morning,  and this poor little tree is outside in an absolute blizzard!

Another Shaker Card – but this one doesn’t have the ‘streamers’ I ‘invented’ and showed you in the last shaker card I made, (which act as ‘stoppers’ – or ‘pauses’ – and slow down the flow of the sprinkles within the shaker).

 

Close up of the shaker card I shared last week, showing the ‘streamers’ idea I invented to slow down the fall of the sprinkles within the shaker.  You can find the blog post about this card —> HERE  <— click

In this card, on the suggestion of a lovely crafter (Kathy D),  I instead used a few glued down sequins to see if it would do the same trick as the streamers.

you can just about see a couple of the ‘glued in place’ sequins further up the tree, in this photo.

They didn’t do quite the same thing, but the card still retained a little twinkle and interest even though the majority of the sprinkles fell to the bottom of the tree.  And, since this tree is in a blizzard, a bit of ballast is perhaps needed to keep the poor thing upright and in one place! lol.

close up of the tree, when it’s laid flat, so you can see a couple of the ‘glued in place’ sequins lower down

In the photographs the snowy paper comes over as a shade of purple, but in real life, it’s actually a lovely, warm grey colour.  The snow drift at the bottom of the card was simply hand cut from a piece of white card,  just using good old-fashioned scissors.

I always put a selection of sprinkly bits into a shaker card – a few regular sized sequins, teeny tiny cut out stars, flowers, hearts, hexagons, small cuts of mylar, and teeny tiny, miniscule little balls in various colours (amongst other things).  And although it looks like there’s a lot in that little Christmas tree – there’s actually only a small amount.  Just little pinches of your chosen things.  But I don’t recommend putting glitter in a shaker, as it sticks to the acetate and sometimes you can’t get it to budge, even if you tried to bribe it!

• The Snow paper was free in a selection, which came with a magazine.
• As did the paper used within the shaker section.
• The tree was cut out using a Die which came free with a magazine.
• The white card snow drift was made using a scrap of card from my scraps drawer.
• The Die Cut star(s) were made using a die which came free with a magazine.
• The sentiment (Oh Christmas Tree) was stamped using a stamp which came free with a magazine.
• The Die used to cut out the sentiment was cut using a Die which came free with  magazine earlier this year.

The ribbons – the glittery silver and the lavender twine, I always have in my stash.  I love ribbons – so always have a big selection simply because I can’t resist buying it.  The glittery ribbon looks as if it would be scratchy – but it’s really not. It’s soft, gentle and very pliable.

And finally .. the shaker bits – all come from my stash.  I have sequins which I’ve had for donkeys years and all the other things – different coloured mylar, hexagons, tiny stars, hearts, flowers, and the miniscule multi-coloured balls etc – are all things I’ve had for years.  As a crafter, we may only need a pinch of something, but we have to buy a whole bag of ‘it’ – so of course we’re left with amounts of some things which we have in storage.

My crafty ‘shaker bits’ are all kept in two large-sized, flowery metal pencil tins, and when you open the tins, it’s like the best box of twinkly magic ever invented.  Pots of this, packs of that.  Boxes of those, a packet of something amazing.  This shape, that shape, no real shape.  Flowers, stars, hearts, circles, hexagons, dots.  Silver, gold, green, blue, purple, red, white, iridescent, pink, bronze, black.  Every colour and every shape you can think of has its place in those tins.

Well…  this post began with me thinking that I’d keep it short.  [sigh]  Well that aim went by the by, didn’t it!  lol.

Let’s finish with a few ‘Things you might not know about Christmas‘ – shall we?

Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.

I reckon those scientists have too many liquid lunches.

All the gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas would equal 364 gifts.

The “true love” mentioned in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” does not refer to a romantic couple, but the Catholic Church’s code for God. The person who receives the gifts represents someone who has accepted that code.

The world’s largest Christmas stocking measured 106 feet and 9 inches (32.56 m) long and 49 feet and 1 inch (14.97 m) wide. It weighed as much as five reindeer and held almost 1,000 presents. It was made by the Children’s Society in London on December 14, 2007.

Each year there are approximately 20,000 “rent-a-Santas” across the United States. “Rent-a-Santas” usually undergo seasonal training on how to maintain a jolly attitude under pressure from the public. They also receive practical advice, such as not accepting money from parents while children are looking and avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.

In Poland, spiders or spider webs are common Christmas trees decorations because according to legend, a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus. In fact, Polish people consider spiders to be symbols of goodness and prosperity at Christmas.

Alabama was the first state in the United States to officially recognize Christmas in 1836.  Oklahoma was the last U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal holiday, in 1907.

In Germany, ‘Heiligabend’, or Christmas Eve, is said to be a magical time when the pure in heart can hear animals talking.

During the Christmas season, nearly 28 sets of LEGO are sold every second.

Well, that should be enough to pepper your conversations with throughout the day, and make people think you’re massively intelligent.  (I mean … I know you are, but others need to be shown that fact!) 🙂

Have a wonderful Wednesday.  I hope that today glides along, and that no gremlins get into your day.  If they do … simply show them the door, open it, and send them out.

Heaps of Christmassy squidges  ~