Merry Christmas One and All!

Well here we are, the big day has arrived, (as this is a scheduled post I'm going to assume that here in the UK (or at least most of it) it isn't a white Christmas!), pressies are opened, bins are full of wrapping paper,  Christmas dinners are being cooked and in a few hours everyone will be stuffed full of turkey and chocolate.

Here is my final Christmas card of the year, made with a gorgeous Debbi Moore CD called 

Christmas Angels.

I printed out a topper sheet, paper and decoupage poinsettia from the disc and then made a bow fronted card, using acetate which was cut slightly wider than the card and fixed between the gate-fold sections of the card front to make the front bow out. I added gold mirri card swirls cut with a Sizzix die and added stick on pearls from Meiflower, a few gold seed beads in the centres of the poinsettias finished it off.

I truly hope you've had a wonderful Christmas, that Santa brought you everything you dreamed of and that you are now heading towards a happy 2014.

hugs,

Colette xx

Gift box card and Christmas village scene

Another scheduled post to show you a couple of cards I made as samples for Crafty Devils.

It's been a long time since I made one of these and I think the last one was a DL card, so I decided to make a square gift box card using a Hobby House topper and Papermania papers, and the village scene is made with lots of dies (mostly Marianne) lots of glitter, an embossing folder and another Papermania paper.

Everything used available from Crafty Devils.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Admiring the Star

I have scheduled this post to show you one of my favourite cards. The card is made using a pre-coloured Sassy Cheryl illustration called - Admiring the Star - which is available at Paper Creator. I printed him out several times and then decoupaged him with foam pads onto a snowy background, dangling the star over the front of the card on a piece of acetate, and adding tiny crystals from Meiflower, to the centres of some of the snowflakes. The sentiment is die-cut.

I love the simplicity of the design which is why it is one of my favourites, and it was so quick and easy to put together too.

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Boy with Gifts

This will be my last "proper" post before Christmas, although I have added a few scheduled posts as I have so many Christmas cards made that I haven't yet blogged, and I wanted to showcase at least a few of them.

There is a lot going on here at the moment, my Father in law is very ill now, and the Macmillan nurses who are looking after him have told us they think that he has at most a couple of weeks left, but more probably only a couple of days, so you can imagine how awful each and every day is for the family.

They are all spending as much time as possible with their dad, my hubby is at work during the day (luckily he works only 10 minutes away from home so can get to his dad's quickly if needed) so is going around each evening and his two sisters are there for most of the day.

My daughter Meg, who idolises her grandad, is heartbroken that she can't visit him to say goodbye, but with George being upstairs in bed and Meg being totally reliant on a wheelchair and because of her condition not even able to be carried up the stairs, it's not an option. She can't even speak to him on the telephone as he can barely talk and doesn't know who you are even when he does.

It's probably very selfish of me, but I am glad that she can't see him this way as I don't want her last memories of her grandad to be of the way he is now, - it was only a couple of weeks ago that she was at their house having her Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandad (she normally goes every other Sunday), Grandad was up sitting in his chair and still quite well at this point and I would prefer her to remember him like that.

OK enough of the doom and gloom, that's not what you came here for, today I have a couple of cards to show you made with exactly the same image, papers and embellishments, but just laid out differently.

I design my cards in Photoshop, bringing in the papers, cropping them to size and then laying them out exactly as I want them to be on the finished card, once happy with the design I arrange the papers and image on an A4 sheet of paper (depending on the design sometimes I need a couple of sheets), print, cut and put together, adding any embellishments as I go along.

For this particular card everything fitted on one A4 sheet, but when I was printing out the design there was a problem with the printer and I ended up with a smudge of ink where there shouldn't have been any, so I re-printed the sheet, which came out perfectly the second time.

It seemed a shame to waste a sheet of printing so I decided I would find a way of getting around the smudge and make two cards.

The first version of the card is made from the perfect print, and is laid out exactly as originally planned.

Image - Boy with presents digi - Lee Holland Etsy Store - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Jolly Days Digital Scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Circle Sentiment - made by me

Lifestyle nesting circles die

Marianne Craftables die - CR1212 Ticket and Tags

Tonic geared punch - Diamond Scalloped border

Ribbon, metallic cord, stick on pearls and green jingle bells - Meiflower

This second card was made with the reject print - the ink smudge was close to the image so I decided to cut around the image leaving a narrow border - that way I could still use the image but get rid of the smudge. I cut out the papers and played around with them until I was happy with the layout and then made up the card, substituting Kraft card for the red I'd used previously.

All details same as above.

There will be a few more scheduled posts up until Christmas, but depending on how things go I am not sure when I will be back after that, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

and to anyone out there who is going through the same sort of thing as we are here, I would like to leave you with these words from one of my all time favourite Eagle's songs.

I wish you peace when the cold winds blow 

Warmed by the fire's glow 

I wish you comfort in the lonely time 

And arms to hold you when you ache inside 

I wish you hope when things are bad 

Kind words when times are sad 

I wish you shelter from the raging wind 

Cooling waters at the fever's end 

I wish you peace when times are hard 

The light to guide you through the dark 

And when storms are high and your dreams are low 

I wish you the strength to let love grow, 

I wish you the strength to let love flow, 

I wish you peace when times are hard 

A light to guide you through the dark 

And when storms are high and your dreams are low 

I wish you the strength to let love grow.

Hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Elegance

Here's an easel card I put together using toppers and papers from the Debbi Moore CD Christmas Elegance, which came as part of the Art Deco Christmas bookazine. The card design was in the accompanying magazine, but I changed it up a little by using red card for the base instead of white, printing out and making up the red Poinsettia decoupage, also from the disc, sprinkling some small gold seed beads into the centre of each and adding them to the card with red feathers and holly from the topper sheet.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bauble card with template

Phew! what a busy week it's been and now a busy weekend too. Our car was returned to us Thursday afternoon all fixed and ready to go, which has put a smile back on Meg's face because we can get her out and about again now.

We are off to see Boyzone on Sunday evening so it's a relief to have the car back and know we don't have to mess around with taxi's (which Meg isn't too keen on)

Today is the start of our last Paper Creator challenge of the year and this time around the theme is

Shaped Cards

Just pop over to the challenge blog and link up your shaped cards to be in with the chance of winning a £10 voucher to spend in store - you don't need to use Paper Creator products but if you do you get two entries into the draw.

I decided to make a bauble shaped card using one of the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations, Snowmen in Love, from Paper Creator. For my shaped card I made myself a template in Photoshop which you can snag from further down the page if you want it.

Image - Snowmen in Love - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Background paper - Winter Whimsy - Just so Scrappy, Crazy 4 Monograms collab

Glitter card - local Range store

Lifestyle nesting circles dies and nesting lace circles die

Joy crafts Winter wishes Ice Crystal dies 1, 2 and 3

X-cut palm punch Snow Crystals punches large and medium

Sentiment - Cuddly Buddly freebie

Ribbons, jingle bells, white metallic cord and stick on gems - Meiflower

I printed the template out onto the reverse of an A4 piece of vintage gold card, given to me by my friend Karen, I was originally going to use Kraft card and when I came across the vintage gold in my stash thought that it was very similar to Kraft in colour, but with a pearly metallic finish.

I cut out the bauble shapes scored along the top of the circle and used double sided tape to stick the top sections together giving me a bauble shaped tent card.

If you trim a small piece from the back of the card it should stand up.

Here's the template, just left click to make larger and then right click and save as

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Creator Challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping in,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Last week I took the very sad decision to step down from both the My Besties and Teddy Bo design teams, with all that I have going on here at the moment, I felt I couldn't give them both the commitment needed. Anyway, the Teddy Bo team have refused to let me go, and I am now lurking in the background and just doing what I can when I can, which I was soooo happy to do as I have been on the team from the very beginning and it was such a hard decision to leave the mad bunch.

I didn't for one minute think I would find the time to do a card this week, but thanks to our car having a major breakdown on Friday evening and my hubby spending most of Saturday sorting things out and getting it transported to the garage, instead of going Christmas shopping  (mmm... I'm wondering if he planned it that way hehe!) I ended up with the day free, so the first thing I did was colour up one of the new Teddy Bo images and make up a card.

Image - Bo Bea Nativity - coloured in Photoshop

Papers, star and word art - The Reason for the Season digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Grosgrain ribbon and brown stick on pearls - Meiflower

The car is at the garage, transported there by the RAC, as the rear suspension has completely gone and they deemed it unsafe to drive. The garage can't look at the car until at least Thursday and then they may have to order parts to repair it, so we have no idea how long it is going to be off the road and as it is a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) poor Meg is stuck in the house until it's repaired.

Luckily it's leased from Motability, so no repair costs, and they are trying to sort out the loan of a similar vehicle, until it's fixed.

Meg is in a panic as we are off to see Boyzone on Sunday and she is worried that if we don't have a car she won't get there, she is petrified of taxis due to a bad experience with the wheelchair in a taxi when she was younger, so we are keeping everything crossed that either the car will be repaired or we will have the use of another WAV before then.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Scalloped rocker! and tag cards

A couple of weeks ago we had some devastating news when we found out my 82 year old Father-in-law has cancer, after going backward and forward to doctors and hospitals for weeks because he was in a lot of pain and being told it was just an existing condition (he has polymyalgia) and him insisting it was more than that, they finally did a body scan which showed up shadows on his liver and in his bones. He had a biopsy last week and they are doing a second biopsy this Thursday before they start him on any treatment. Although the cancer is widespread and they have told him they can't cure it, they seem to think it can be managed for now with treatment.

He has just received a rheumatology appointment  through the post for May 2014, which he has taken as a positive sign, laughing that they must think he will still be here by then LOL!

Today I have the last of the cards I made with the Paper Creator Joy Ultimate kit. I made a scalloped rocker, which because of the scallops doesn't actually rock, so I think I need a more suitable name for it LOL! and used the tags in the kit to make a couple of tag shaped cards!

I re-sized the topper base (from the make me a topper set included in the kit) to fit the 8 inch width of an A4 piece of card, then printed it out directly onto Papermill Direct Linen Card, scored through the middle and folded to make a scalloped circle tent card. I re-sized another make me a topper set to fit on to this base and  once again printed it and a couple of paper designs onto more A4 Linen card. I used circle dies to cut out my papers and matted them onto the scallop base, then added the topper and layers with foam pads. The sentiment is also included in the kit. I finished off with lots of glitter, punched snowflakes and ribbon and crystals from Meiflower.

Included in the extras section of the Joy ultimate kit is two tags, one with the snowman and the other with the swirly design across the bottom. I took one of each into my graphics program, rotated one 180 degrees and then lined the two tags up with their tops just touching. I then re-sized the whole thing to fit the long length of an A4 sheet. I copied this to make a second card base as two fitted nicely on one sheet of card. After printing directly onto Papermill Direct linen card, I scored and folded to make two card bases and then printed a sentiment and make me a topper set from the kit and used some off cuts from the previous cards for matting to build up a design on each card front, finishing off once again with punched snowflakes and some ribbons, gems and a couple of jingle bells from Meiflower.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend

see you Tuesday,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate kit part 2

Following on from Sundays post, here are a couple more cards made with the Joy ultimate kit.

This time around I made up the ready to print easel card that's included in the kit and a square card using the topper sheet.

I made an easel card base from white linen card to fit the ready to print kit, made up the card adding the decoupage layers provided to the snowman and finished off by adding a couple of ready made bows and some punched snowflakes

For this card I used a 6 inch square scalloped card base and printed out a paper and topper sheet from the kit. I cut a piece of the paper to fit the card front, rounding the corners before sticking on, then cut out the scalloped topper leaving a white border all around, which I glittered. I die cut a scalloped circle from the remainder of the paper and then used circle dies to cut out the snowman image and the centre from the scalloped circle to make a frame. I added the scalloped topper to the card front with foam pads and then layered up the image and scalloped frame again with foam pads, finishing off with an organza bow with diamante ribbon slider and punched snowflakes.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle circle dies 

Sizzix framelits scallop circles die

X cut palm punch snow crystal - large and medium

Organza ribbon, ready made gingham bows, diamante ribbon slider and stick on gems - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ultimate Kits

Hi there, this week Paper Creator is introducing it's new Ultimate kits, these kits are great value for money, containing a Sassy Cheryl illustration, a selection of colour matched papers, a ready to print easel card, a fancy layered topper which comes in two sizes, and a couple of extras too and all for only £3 - the topper is designed to be used with dies and the sheet tells you which die to use. If you don't have the correct dies then that's no problem either as the shapes can easily be hand cut which is what I did as I didn't have the matching die.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to play with some of the kits before their release this weekend and to show how versatile they are I decided to make a collection of cards all from one kit.

Today I will show you a group photo of the cards I made and one of the cards with some quick instructions for making up, and then during the week I will show the other cards individually.

I used the Joy Ultimate Kit for all these cards.

First up is the bow front card.

For this card I started with a white 6 x 6 inch square gate fold card.

I covered the front panels with swirly paper from the kit.

Next I cut out the scalloped topper base, then with the card closed, I laid the scalloped base centrally across the "doors" of the card, drew around the shape with a pencil and cut out.

I fixed striped paper from the kit to the inside of the card and then with the "doors" closed, added the topper to the striped paper, through the closed doors to match the shape. I used a circle die to cut a mat and  fixed the topper layers into place using foam pads.

I cut a piece of acetate the same height as the card but 2cms wider than the card base then put double sided tape around the inside of each door and fixed the acetate inside the card - this makes the bowed front.

I punched two borders from another paper from the kit, trimmed to length and added to the top and bottom of the card, fixing ribbon across one piece before attaching to card.

To finish off I added a bow, word art from the kit, some die cut hearts and a punched snowflake.

This picture shows a better view of the bowed shape.

Joy Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle nesting circle dies

Memory box Precious Hearts dies

Tonic geared border punch - Diamond swing border

X-cut palm punch snow crystal - large

Metallic edged ribbon and stick on gems - Meiflower

See you in the week with another card from the collection

hugs,

Colette xx

Satin ribbon flower tree and wreath

A while ago I made some Christmas samples for Meiflower to take around the craft shows and one of the things she asked me to use were the satin ribbon flowers. I ended up putting two cards together to show off the flowers, arranging some to make a Christmas tree and others to decorate a wreath.

Satin ribbon flowers and gems - Meiflower

Precious Snowflakes - Memory box die

Peel off wording

Papers and image- Fizzy moon Festive Fun Designer Paper Pack

Go Kreate - scalloped circles large frames dies

Lifestyle Nesting circles die

Universal embossing folder - Happy Holly

Die-namics - Photo corners die

Satin ribbon flowers, Ribbon, cats eye dazzlers and diamante embellishement - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Ho Ho Ho

Today I have a quick Christmas card to show you using a Sassy Cheryl illustration called Better Not Pout Santa. I used the alphabet set that came with the December Magic Digital Scrap Kit from Crazy 4 Monograms for the HO HO HO's

Santa's head has been decoupaged and decorated with glamour dust and a small pompom and is attached to the card with an Action Wobble spring which means that if you give him a little nudge or when you move the card around his head wobbles about.

Image- Better not pout santa - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Peppermint Patty digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Alphabet - December Magic digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Action wobble spring - Woodware - Grafton Crafts

Grosgrain ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Rosebud tree and tag cards

This is the third of the three Christmas tree card samples I made for Meiflower, (another of the ones that was printed while the yellow ink nozzle was blocked, so yet again the colours aren't quite right, ) this time using her Satin ribbon rosebud trios. 

The papers and tree came from a Nitwits kit and the tree decoration was actually inspired by a Nitwits tree graphic in a different kit (it's amazing how something can suddenly fire up the imagination). After decoupaging the tree, I decorated it with little groups of rosebuds, bows and punched holly leaves, then dotted crystals around the tree in groups of three. 

Papers and tree - Heart of Christmas - Nitwit Collections

Rosebud trios, gems and silver ready made bows - Meiflower

X-cut holly punch

Talking about where inspiration comes from - when I was adding the tag to the card above I suddenly thought to myself - that would make a nice shaped card base -so after doing a head clean on the printer and playing around in Photoshop to enlarge the tag to the right size and make some decoupage layers for the toppers, I  made these two cards, which are the proper colours that the card above should be.

Card base and toppers - Heart of Christmas - Nitwit collections

Ribbon and Diamante and pearl ribbon slider - Meiflower

Side view to show decoupaged toppers.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Eat More Cake!

Today is the start of our new Paper Creator challenge and this time around the theme is

Birthday

now that couldn't be easier could it - we would love you to play along with your birthday creation, you don't even have to use Paper Creator products to enter and you could be the random winner of the £10 voucher to spend in store.

I have used the fabulous Sassy Cheryl illustration Avery Celebrates with cake,

The sentiment reads -

Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more...

hmmm, but eat more what ? - 

see that little bit of ribbon hanging down from below the image circle, pull it down to reveal.....

...Cake, of course!

Image - Avery celebrates with cake - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - My Birthday Girl Digital Scrap Kit - Just so Scrappy

EK success border punch

Grosgrain and Satin ribbon - Meiflower

 and I used this brilliant tutorial HERE (adapted to fit my design) to make the pull down wording.

Don't forget to enter the Birthday challenge and pop over to the challenge blog to take a look at the fabulous creations from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping by,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bow Christmas tree, bow Christmas tree.....

....how full of bows your branches be! LOL! - sorry bad pun, but I had to do it, I've had the - O Christmas tree - song going around in my head since Wednesdays post.

This is another freebie digi stamp from Birds cards (link under card pic) and I was inspired by the sample card that was alongside the digi stamp.

Do you remember on Wednesday when I mentioned I had printed out the papers and images for three cards only to realise afterwards that the yellow ink nozzle was blocked, well this is another one of those cards. The colours should be Christmas red and green, but they came out this teal and purple colour, which I totally loved. The bows came ready made, I just tightened them up a little and trimmed the ends, the card is a sample for Meiflower so I had to make it 6x6 inches but if it was on an A5 card the bows could probably be stuck straight on without trimming.

Image - Leaf Christmas Tree freebie digistamp - Birds cards

Papers - Peppermint Patty digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy (should be red and green)

X-cut palm punch - Star large and medium

Digi stamp Sentiment - Bits of Ivory Christmas - Cuddly Buddly

Ready made gold bows, organza ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Icy Christmas greetings!

When I saw this Sassy Cheryl illustration of Maddie ice skating over at Paper Creator, the idea for this card immediately sprang to mind, I wanted it to look like she had written the greeting in the ice with her skates and then was just skating off.
To get the length I needed I decided to make a DL landscape card by cutting two pieces of card each
21 cms long by 10.5 cms wide, then scoring one piece from top to bottom 2cms in from a short edge, applying double sided tape to the 2cm section and fixing the two pieces together lining up the edges to make the DL landscape card base. I used my quickie glue pen to trace over the wording and then applied liberal amounts of glamour dust to give the impression of sparkling ice crystals.

Image - Figure eight style - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

White Linen card and red card - Papermill Direct

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal medium

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Thanks for looking,

hugs,

Colette xx

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree.....

...how blingy are your branches! Haha!

Here's a quick and easy card made using a freebie digi stamp of a simple stick Christmas tree, which has been covered with crystals and pearls.

This is one of three Christmas tree cards I made, which were all printed out together, only for me to discover once they were printed, that the yellow ink wasn't working, so they all came out slightly different colours to what they were supposed to be. On this one the colours should be more muted, but I liked the way they looked so used them anyway.

Stick Christmas tree freebie digistamp - Bird's cards

Papers - It's Snow Fun - Just So Scrappy

Bubblegum pink organza ribbon, stick on gems and pearls and diamante ribbon slider (used underneath a large stick on pearl to make the tree topper) - Meiflower

 I thought this card would be perfect for the following challenge

A Gem of a Challenge - #105 Gems, Gems, Gems

Thanks for popping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Hi there, glad you could join me,

welcome to another Teddy Bo Tuesday - we have a new friend here in Teddy Bo towers, a cute little mouse, who, as I write this, doesn't yet have a name, but I'm sure the boss will come up with something soon.

I have two cards to show you today, (on was meant for Friday, but I had already scheduled a post for Friday, so decided to put both up today) both using the same image (in two different colours), and with a similar theme.

Image - Mice 2

Papers - Heavenly Christmas - Just So Scrappy

Die - Winter wishes Snowflake circle - Joy Crafts

Santa Silhouette - Stitchy bear digi stamp

Sentiment circle created by me

Grosgrain ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Snowflake circle and grosgrain ribbon were sprayed with Stick n spray and then covered with glamour dust.

This second card was inspired by a design I saw out and about somewhere in Blogland, I think it had a reindeer instead of a mouse, if you recognise it please let me know so that I can add a link.

Image - Mice 2

Snowflake paper - Nitwitville - Nitwits

Santa in sleigh and red paper- Twas the night before Christmas - Nitwits

Peel off sentiment

Check out the wonderful creations from the rest of my fabulous teamies at the Teddy Bo Challenge blog.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Dear Santa......

...all I want for Christmas is about 4 more hours in every day, and an extra day in every week, LOL!

It's just over a week since I last blogged and I have no idea where the time has gone, is it just me or are the days flying by? there are only 44 days until Christmas and I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping yet, never mind anything else. 

I have been busily working away in the background, and have about a dozen cards that need to be blogged, I just haven't had the time to sit down and blog them, so I am going to do that right now with this post and then schedule a couple more for through the week.

Today I have a Rocker Stepper card, using a fabulous Sassy Cheryl image and an amusing and very apt sentiment that I found somewhere on my travels around blog land.

Image - Half moon Santa - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Holiday Hoopla digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Label template - Paper Garden Projects at The Digichick

Sentiment computer generated.

Holly punch - X-cut small palm punch

Flower soft polar white

Gingham ribbon and red stick on pearls - Meiflower

Circle stepper card - my own template printed onto Papermill Direct linen card

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Brown Sugar –  No. 67 - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - No. 32 - Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T.  -#232 Christmas

Charisma Cardz - #44 Anything Goes

Fab 'n' Funky  - #192 Traditional Christmas colors

Bearly Mine Challenges - #111 Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Sassy Cheryl's - #191 Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Stackables

We are halfway through our Pink or Blue challenge over at Paper Creator, so you still have a week to get your entry in, if you fancy playing along and being in with the chance to win £10 to spend in store.

This week I have one of the new Christmas Stackable sets to show you, which after my blue advent calendar last week is in various shades of pink, so still following the challenge theme. 

These sets are easy to put together and you end up with a drawer which contains three matching cards (with inserts) and envelopes.

Christmas Stackables set 1 - Paper Creator

Here you can see the drawer, with the envelopes tucked underneath and the three cards surrounding it. I printed the included backing paper out three times and then printed the envelope template on the reverse, to make up the envelopes.

Satin rosebud trio, organza ribbon and tiny red pearls - Meiflower

Tiny holly leaves - old X-cut punch

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Star - old X-cut punch

Snowflakes - X-cut palm punch Snow crystal

ribbon and gems - Meiflower

There are 10 different stackable sets available in store.

Thanks for taking a look,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Christmas Fun

Still running around trying to catch my tail, but wanted to show you this card, which I had made as a sample for Crafty Devils. It's a stepper card with an acetate cover. The die cut decoupage image was made up and then attached to one of the "steps", which had been covered with strips of patterned paper and the snowflakes are actually dangling down inside the card on strips of acetate.

Everything used on the card is available from Crafty Devils

Forever Friends A4 Decoupage - Christmas fun

Country Companions A5 paper pack - Winter Wishes.

My Paper Stash Winter Sparkles Greetings AC306

Tonic Geared border punch - Diamond Swing

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal

Snowfall Acetate - Hunkydory

Ribbon, diamante slider and gems.

Thanks for dropping by and taking a look

hugs,

Colette xx

Advent Calendar

It's the start of another Paper Creator challenge today and this time around our theme is

Pink or Blue

so all you need to do to play along and be in with the chance of winning £10 to spend in store is show us a pink or blue creation. You don't even have to use Paper Creator products to play along, but if you do you will be entered into the draw twice.

For my creation this week I used one of the Advent Calendar kits from the Advent Calendar Mega Bundle, which contains 10 advent calendar kits and is on sale for only £5 at the moment. Each kit also contains a presentation box and step by step instructions.

Advent Calendar Kit - Paper Creator

X-cut palm punch - Snow Crystal large and medium

Brads

Bows and Gems - Meiflower

I printed most of the sheets out onto 255gsm white linen card from Papermill Direct, but used 180gsm Matt photo paper for the numbers, I also printed out a couple of extra sheets of the box sides on the Matt paper, then cut around the images and attached to the calendar using foam pads.

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Friday!

I missed Teddy Bo Tuesday this week as I have been really busy, mainly having murder with the local hospital, over a pair of shoes for Meg.

12 months ago she had casts made of her feet to send off to a company in Germany to make her some new shoes (we can't buy shoes for her as her feet are tiny (she's 23 and her feet are smaller than my 8 year old grandsons), and really oddly shaped). Although she doesn't need the shoes for walking or standing, she suffers from really bad circulation and her feet are always freezing, last winter she had to wear fleecy bed socks over her socks whenever we went out, just for an extra layer of warmth, she also has severe osteoporosis in her feet and legs as she has never walked or put weight through them, so the shoes are protection against knocks which could result in broken bones - anyway, here we are 12 months and a number of phone calls to the hospital later - heading into another winter - and Meg still doesn't have any shoes to wear.

It turns out that the company in Germany are saying they have never received an order, and the hospital are saying they have sent the order twice (which seems odd as Meg has only had casts made once), so we now have an appointment for Monday for Meg to be re-assessed, which probably means she will be going through another Winter wearing bed socks!

Sorry about the rant, here's my card.

IMAGE - Oli_008 - coloured in Photoshop

PAPERS - Big Top - Just So Scrappy

Lifestyle circle dies

Grosgrain ribbon, waxed cord, spotty button and stick on pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

My Besties challenge

Once again it is my teams turn to host the My Besties challenge and this time around the theme is

Use a Background stamp

or

Anything Goes (using a Bestie Image)

You must use a My Besties image on your challenge card.

There is a grand prize of 5 My Besties digital images for the winner who follows the theme, and runner up prizes too.

IMAGE- My Besties Winter Wonderland Reindeer Angel of Joy - coloured in Photoshop

Christmas tree background digi stamp from Tis the Season to be Pretty Set - Amber Ink

PAPERS - Brrrr digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

DIE - Winter Wishes Ice Crystal 2 - Joy Crafts

Ribbon, Jingle bells and gems - Meiflower

If you are lucky enough to live in the US then you can find the first of the My Besties "Bee Attitudes" Doll Collection HERE

Pop over to the Besties challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my Teamies.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Cascade cards

Here's a couple of  cards I have put together using the new Paper Creator Cascade card kits. They are soooo easy to put together but give you something a bit different from the usual card shapes, each kit comes with layers for decoupage and a matching envelope.

For the Halloween card I added the word Boo! - in die-cut letters - to the front of the cascade section and attached a bat to a strip of acetate so that it looks like it's flying out of the card.

Paper Creator Halloween concertina card kit

Bat - Halloween Hooligans - Nitwits

Die cut Letters - Lifestyle Splendid Alphabet

Charm - stash

Ribbon - Meiflower

With the cupcake concertina, I added a punched border to the back and front of the card, lots of glitter to the cupcake icing, a flower from a Nitwits kit, and ribbon and a cupcake charm from Meiflower.

There are more cascade designs available over at Paper Creator, you can find them all HERE

Thanks for popping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx