Happy New Year...

Off now to spend New Year's Eve with our friends in Leamington...
So...

*HAPPY NEW YEAR!*

Hope it is a good one and see you all in 2007!!!!

Thank you!!

'This weeks team dare is easy, peasy, lemon squeazy, just to ease you gently out of 2006 ! We are daring you to make and ultra simple Thank You card. Just simple and straight forward....'

*stresses slightly at the word simple!*

Here are mine...


Papers are the oh so lush Basic Grey Blush - the plain paper is from The Paper Mill Shop, ribbon is from Little Silver Hat, faux hardware are sizzix die cuts, brads from Rachie's shop and the flowers are cuttlebug diecuts...




I actually made this card a short time ago but it fits with this weeks theme...

Flowers are angel kisses, doodled stems, Bazzill thank you topper and brads from stash :)

Christmas Time...

Josh and Jared awoke pretty early Christmas Day - around 7 but perhaps not as early as we were expecting! Josh was like a whirlwind unwrapping his presents, Jared more content to savour each one before moving on to the next...

Christmas Lunch was actually Christmas tea as the boys are all used to having a big meal late in the afternoon rather than at lunch time - I won't bore you with what we had lol but I will show you the rather calorific but soooo yummy choc pudding that we had....
and also the boys....

We went to Mum and Dad's for Boxing Day...another fabby day, Jared was feeling a little poorly....
I think Josh must have been feeling a little poorly too as he even offered to help Grumps wash up....
Quiet day today. Was tempted by the Next sale but not quite so tempted by a 4 am wake up lol, might even get some crafting done later (If the boys calm down at a reasonable hour :))

And another!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Christmas! Just a little update to add the other explosion box that I made for Jase's Grandparents...

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Just incase you did not know - children (and big children!) can track Santa's whereabouts here (he's currently in India)... better get that reindeer food ready!

Jimbo!

Today is Jim's Birthday *shouts*
'HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM!'
here is the card that I made for him - I used more of the luscious Blush papers by Basic Grey, they actually fit a male card surprisingly well...



I also received some more wonderful Birthday cards this week;


Thank you so much, they are all beautiful :)

Coffee Mug

School's out for Christmas!

I am so sorry, I just have not had time to make a card for this week's Dare - Mainly due to the festive season but also due to an inane amount of people having Birthdays in December (me included!) There are some fantastic cards this week from all the other girls on the blog... wander on over and check them out!

I have made (in the nick of time) presents for Josh's teacher and TA's... They can now be reminded of my son each time they have a cup (or mug) of coffee (or tea!)

I purchased the mugs from Robert Dyas..
This is how they look before assembly (fairly simple as time is of the essence!)


and this is how they look once assembled...




I hope that the recipients like them!!

Josh has had a fantastic first term at school, he is a little tired but has worked so hard, he was a 'guest' in his first Nativity play - imaginatively titled 'Jesus the extra terrestrial party! They had spacemen and aliens visiting the stable to greet Jesus alongside the angels, shepherds and wise men lol....

Box Clever...

Made one of those exploding box things for my Grandparents... The instructions should deffo come with a health warning lol. It was actually probably my fault, I tried to 'tweak' the measurements myself and got in to all sorts of bother. So a lesson learned, don't try to cheat just to save on using Bazzill Paper, I'm sure that A4 would kinda work but measurememnts need to be tested first!

There are loads of fabby instructions on the interweb, there is even a fabby new blog with a box as the first monthly challenge. I used the instructions here on Anso's blog- which are easy to follow (just don't try to change things like I did!)

So here is the finished article;






I took the piccies before sticking the layers together so that you can see all the photo's on each layer... I used Basic Grey Papers - Blush (which are lush, and lots of inking and the like.

Tags on Tuesday

Just a quick update to show you the tags that I made for the little extra on the Daring Cardmakers blog...
Jase did not want his image to be shown on my blog lol so here are the two that I have made for the boys...



Papers are Basic Grey and Bazzill and spotty ribbon from Little Silver Hat...

Holidays are Coming!

...almost :) Although it is not quite the same having the new Coca Cola ad. It was always the first one to be seen to herald the festive season. The old fab advert is here...



And as it now the weekend after my Birthday it means it's tree time! Not so easy with two eager elves waiting in the wings to aid and assist, but almost there!

Christmas cards have been finally finished (hurrah!)... Josh wrote his last weekend, it is not the easiest to persuade a 4 yr old that he really does want to write his name 35 times but we managed :) I made these whilst helping him;



They are inspired by the beautiful altered CD's made by Eleni and I found her blog via Paula... Thank you!

Also have finally managed to take piccies of all the wonderful handmade cards that I received for my birthday. Thank you, they are all truly beautiful :)

Just Jared!

Such a poser!

The Ink is Black....

....The page is white... (with a splasharoonie of colourization) Or as the Dare says, 'Black and White Christmas cards with a splash of colour'

A little pushed for time this week, Jared is sleeping a little better but it is taking a while for me to catch up. I made the huge leap to Blogger Beta as I could no longer comment on all your wonderful blogs (was slightly annoyed at kinda having to do it Tsk!) I apologise for the lack of comments, all should be fixed now :) (and I have sorted (I think) the also annoying problem of everyone's comments here appearing as anon.)...

I made a predominantly printed card this week, for ease...



Ribbon is from M&S (from the outlet store wouldn't pay full price for it:)) and Little Silver Hat, and brads are from the stash that happily plopped on to my doormat earlier this week!

and.... here's how you make a cool background...

*I know that I am not the first person in the whole world planet (as Josh would say!) to make a background using word but this is my way of doing it :)*

Don't forget that if you click on the piccies, they become readable!

Open word and choose insert - text box


Type lots of snowflakes into the box in differing sizes- don't forget that you can manually change the size if you want super huge ones.

I used Risus LCB Kringlebats

Click on format - Text Box and choose no line and no fill for the box.

Make lots and lots of other boxes in the same way.... and drag them over the top of one another *top tip* if you make some of them bold then the middle gets dark very quickly (which is a good thing!)


Once you have lots and lots of boxes , type Happy Christmas (or any other sentiment that you choose!) and change the font to white. Again, select no line and no fill from the format - text box menu and drag this box over the darkest area. nb the photo only shows pink to help you lol (and I like pink!)

Et Voila! You can use this with words, other dingbats pretty much anything that you can type to make groovy backgrounds - ok so it is a little time consuming, but once you have it done and saved, tis easy to print, trim, ink, stitch, doodle...... onto :)


and that is that! Big hugs to Debbie who has suspended her Card Making for the time being.{{{{{HUGS}}}}} Debs has been a fantastic 'Darer' and I will miss you.

Don't forget to check out the blog for all the other Black and White with a splash of colour cards. 'They are all amazing cards this week (as they are every week!) and don't forget to show us your fantastic creations :)

Stash!

2 lots of yummy stash have arrived from Card Making and Papercraft as I was a runner up in their comp...

This from AMM...


...and this from KI Memories...


Handy as Mum needed an Anniversary card for her Cousin John and his wife Ann...
(flowers are from Tescos, Wilkinsons and Rachie's shop)

and also this one for her neighbour who will 21...
(Crate paper and Heidi Swapp Chipboard, hand written name :))

Thank you all so much for the fantastic cards I received for my Birthday. I had a fabby day and I will add piccies of all the beautiful cards to the blog- light is fading now and it's only 2.20! so will have to be tomorrow :)

All Wrapped Up!

Steering slightly away from Cards for this week's extra, in the direction of Tags!...

'This week we'd like you to make 3 tags for your Christmas Presents using this list of words to help you; Holly, Gift, Snowflake, Ribbon, Tree, Silver.'

So what did I do? Well... :) They turned out to be a leeetle bit madder than I first thought! Jared has not been a happy camper this week and I am suffering from the ill effects of watching Madagascar (again) in the wee small hours of the night.

Here they are...



They are all made with bit of 'spare' wrapping paper (I say 'spare' as they are made from this year's wrapping paper but... instead of using leftover bits and pieces, I actually had to undo the roll wrap to obtain the bits. Otherwise it would mean that I am organised.) They will co-ordinate, once the presents have been wrapped (and some bought).

So, random bits of wrapping paper - mostly from Ikea, a few bits of ribbon, hardware - like staples, clips, brads and eyelets, and lots of doodling to fill in the gaps :)

The letters are rub ons - my fab auction bargain from ebay last week - 896 characters for the sum of two English pounds :) and they really work (unlike papermania ones grr!)

The button is from my other fab bargain last week, 3 really old tins full of yummy buttons and 2 new balls of faux fur wool for the princly sum of fifty pence in the Salvation Army shop :)



Hand cut holly, and present, heart punch for the top of the present and a quickutz tree (without a partridge) (can you tell I'm tired lol )

Stamp!

It's Friday, It's 10 o'clock and It's my Birthday!! Hurrah!! It's also Dare day. Yay! :)

Keryn was daring this week....

'I want you to... Stamp with a Twist. Don't race out and grab your mounteds, unmouteds, polymer stamps or your stipple brushes and foam. I want you stamp with basically anything else but a commercially produced stamp.'

Eeeek *runs a mile at the mention of the word stamping* I am so not a stamper but actually, once I had a think, 'twas not too bad and... I even enjoyed this stamping lark. Thank you Keryn for a very cool dare...

I used fun foam to make a diamond shape and used this as the stamp for the background and also the matted square. A Quickutz tree was also cut from foam and used as a stamp... I don't have many ink colours so substituted watercolour pencil for the green colour :) Finished the card with ribbon from Paperchase and a Making Memories eyelet word.




Used a Haribo sweet to stamp the hearts, outlined them, cut out two and glossy accented them to use as embellishments. Basic Grey paper, Heidi Swapp letters, brads, button, staples and Angel Kisses flowers, hand cut holly, Ribbon from Little Silver Hat, Clip from Carolyns, hand stitching and inking...

I didn't eat the sweet after stamping (but Jase did!)

There are some amazing cards on the Dare blog made by the Design team, check them out!

woohoo!!

My crocs arrived this morning, just in time for my Birthday tomorrow...



Thank you Mum and Dad for buying these for me, they are ace! :)

Jase said that they look like they are made out of floam... but I love them!

Found out this week that I am a runner up in the Cardmaking and Papercraft comp - in 4 different categories!!...

...and Josh got a Headteachers award from school so a pretty good week so far....

Blonde Moments

Hahaha! I wrote a list to remind me which bits to look out for on my recent jaunt to the NEC and Jase enquired as to why I had written 'Blonde Moments'... 'cos you have enough of those already!' Any hoo, it was the paper that I was referring to and have finally managed to make some Christmas cards using them...


Josh is now on the mend after feeling very snuffly...

...and made a card :)

I supervised the embossing but he did all the rest himself, he was so proud of his stamping, he didn't want to stick the tree on top as people would not be able to see the snowflakes :)

Extra, extra...

This week's little extra on the Dare blog is a recipe;

5 flowers,
3 patterned papers
1 ribbon

et voila;

5 Angel Kisses flowers, 3 Basic Grey papers and a blue ribbon from Little Silver Hat. Quite impressed as even managed to use a peel off with out it looking too naff...


and as promised, the other card that I made for Kel's dare, using the title Snow from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers;











and here is another that I made 'cos I can't read and thought that the afore mentioned recipe only required one patterened paper... :);

Rockstar

Popped around Lee's as NTL were fixing Swindon's interweb and had to do some ebay stuff, the boys amused themselves by playing Guitar Hero...



...before being hit by the plague, Jared was up until 3am Saturday morning and Josh succumbed late Saturday evening :(
Not all bad though, staying up with the children has meant that I managed to watch Madagascar in triplicate and knit a whole scarf...

Managed a few Christmas cards too...



Went to a fab Sale on Saturday - it's run every year by the Lions and is a jumble sale on the most huge scale. Got some cool stuff for the boys - a light sabre that's selling on ebay for about 30 pounds, a massive hot wheels scaletrix set, a v tech laptop, lots of figures and animals, books, a sweet little Po rucksack for Jared to put his stuff in, Power Ranger walkie talkie helmets, a kareoke machine and all for not much more than a fiver :)

Sunday involved shopping and a quick visit to Steve and Elaines and that was the weekend gone :(

Sing...

Kel was daring this week....

'I love music… any kind of music.. Well, almost any kind. Not that ‘thump, thump, thump’ rubbish you hear blasting out of small cars modified to look like Imperial Storm Troopers… Ooh, sorry, off on a tangent and sounding like my Nan there!

Okay, inspired by my blog (I use the title of an 80s song for every post), this week’s challenge is to create a masterpiece featuring a song title or lyrics. And ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Congratulations’ don’t count…'

Wanting to stay away from the easy 'Celebrate', Hello' or the oh so American 'Cherish', I turned to my collation of tunes on the PC. I do like a diverse range of music, from Iron Maiden to Take That and I really wanted to use a song by one of my favorite bands... I really did try but 'Run to the Hills' (Iron Maiden) 'Don't fear the Reaper' (Blue Oyster Cult) 'Ugly in the Morning' (Faith no More) were not lending themselves well to be made into a card.

I settled on this...


Not one of my all time favorites, but still a good ol' cheesy pop tune. Here's the song incase you were wishing to have a sing-a-long....



...all together now...

'She is D delirious
She is I incredible
She is S superficial
She is C complicated
She is O oh, oh, oh'

I have also now made a 'Snow' (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) card so will add this later :)