Butterfly and flower cards

I'm a little late with this post as I meant to do it last night, but time just ran away with me and I never got around to it, then this morning I have been very busy helping hubby dismantle my craft room - awwww! ready for a re-vamp - hooray! The room used to be my grandsons bedroom so at the moment I have one red wall with spaceships and astronauts all over it, but by the end of the week the red will be gone and the wall will be a lovely bright blue, although you won't see much of it as it will be covered with cupboards, a worktop and shelving. I'm also having the carpet taken up and a new floor laid so I will be able to whizz backwards and forwards in my chair, from my work desk to the worktop which will hold my die-cutting machines and guillotine.

Sooo looking forward to it all being finished, as I am temporarily working on a table in the living room, and it is not the same as having everything to hand.

Today I have a couple of birthday cards to show you, both made with papers from the First Love Ultimate kit from Paper Creator.

Papers - First Love Ultimate Kit - Paper Creator

Lifestyle - Nesting Doily Circle

Memory box - Darla and Vivienne Butterfly dies, Chesapeake scrollwork

Ribbon, pearls and gems - Meiflower

Silver Angel hair paper.

The top and bottom borders are the waste from the scalloped punch and the bow is a triple loop bow.

Papers - as above

X cut - scalloped border punch

X-cut palm punch large heart and circle

Tonic layering circles die

Couture Creations Tied together embossing folder

Die-namics heart doily

Ribbon and pearls - Meiflower

I am entering my cards into the following challenges

Jo's Scrap Shack - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - 47 - Anything Goes

That's Crafty! Challenge Blog  - Anything Goes

4 Krafty Girlz - # 13 Anything Goes

Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbon

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Art Deco Roaring Twenties Birthday Card

If you are a regular visitor here, then you had better make sure you are sitting down before you read this next statement as believe it or not today's card is totally non-digi!!! 

The image is actually stamped with a rubber stamp! - the stamp came in a DoCrafts goody bag and as I loved it and really wanted to use it I bought the matching paper pack too, oooh no, stamping and proper paper what is the world coming to LOL!

I dusted off a distress ink pad in Peacock Feathers and set too, using the same pad  pressed onto a cellophane bag (just what was to hand at the time) to paint parts of the image.

I was soooo pleased with the finished result I immediately made it up into a card for my friend Karen's birthday (she's a huge Art Deco fan so I knew it would be perfect).

Stamp - Papermania Tall urban stamps Flapper

Paper - Papermania A4 Art Deco foiled paper pack

Tim Holtz distress ink pad - Peacock Feathers 

Frame die -bought at local Carole's Crafts

Amira Flourish die - Memory Box

X cut square palm punch Medium and small

 Papermania die cut sentiments - Art Deco - Foiled

Black iridescent Papermania Adhesive Gems

Cats eye  and round dazzlers - Meiflower

Feather from stash

I cut a rectangle of black card and deco paper and cut the corners off with  a square punch lined up with the edges. The Amira Flouish was cut in half, stuck onto silver mirri card and then cut around leaving a small border, the silver glittery section in the middle of the flourish is waste from another one I had cut from silver glitter card. The headband decoration is the waste from a hole punch in the same silver glitter card.

It may be a while until you see another proper stamped image on my blog, although saying that the new Bellisima range from Papermania has a rather pretty dress stamp that may tempt me to dust off the stamping supplies again!

I am entering this card into the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door  - Always Anything Goes

Artistic Inspirations  - Anything Goes / Sparkles

Crafting from the Heart -  Anything Goes / Use Dies

Eureka Stamps - Anything Goes

613 Avenue Create - #60 Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Use your Stash

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - no digi allowed - Challenge #67 Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Gabby's Marvellous Adventure

Today I have an easel card to show you, which I have made a bit differently than usual. There are three sections, the middle one is in the style of a normal easel and the side ones are twisted easels, and they are different because none of the easels folds from the back of the card, which is my usual way of doing it, but are added to the card individually, so that I can place them wherever I want. It still folds in the normal way and fits into an envelope.

I have used one of the new Sassy Cheryl images from Paper Creator called Gabby's Marvellous adventure, printing it three times then cutting and layering the whole image over the large topper with foam pads for dimension andcutting a couple of the books from the third copy and adding them to the smaller toppers, again with foam pads.

Image - Gabby's marvellous adventure illustration- Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Masked Marvels - Julie Billingsley at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Tonic layering circles and scalloped circles

Sentiment - computer generated

Ribbon - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Art Deco Wedding

You know when a "great" card design idea pops into your head out of the blue and you can't wait to put it together and then when you do it's either not that great at all and ends up in the bin,( no! haven't had that happen? I have quite a few times LOL!) or a complete triumph, well today's card is one of those, (obviously a triumph or I wouldn't be sharing it hehe!)

I had the idea to make a bow fronted card using one of my dies to make panels at each side so that you could see into the card, I also have a thing about cards fitting into envelopes so decided to add the concertina folds at each end of the front so that you can press it flat for posting, but it pops open once out of the envelope.

Art Deco Wedding CD rom - Debbi Moore Designs

Memory Box - Lucienne Tile

Lifestyle Nesting Ovals

Pearls - Meiflower

I have to say that it looks so much better in real life, the photo's really don't do it justice, and it is one of my all time favourites. My daughter has already claimed it for her friends wedding later in the year.

I am entering my card into the following challenges -

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Must Be Square #25 Anything Goes

Party Time Tuesdays  - #161 Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown - #184 AnythingGoes

Love to Create  - Anything Goes

Make it Monday  - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

I Kinda "Dig" you!

I mentioned in yesterdays post that I was going to the theatre to see Ghost in the evening, well after a bit of a hair raising journey to get to the theatre - gale force winds making it quite scary - we arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the show, about two minutes after taking our seats all the lights in the theatre went out plunging us into total darkness, they came on about five minutes later and then continued flickering on and off, - about ten minutes after the show should have started an announcement was made saying that due to unstable electricity supply problems the show was being cancelled, so I never got to see it after all.
The show still has another week to run and it seems it's not too busy the second week, the theatre are confident that they should be able to accomodate people, so hopefully I will get to see it sometime next week instead.

Now what do sand and a bucket and spade have to do with Valentines day?

- well the answer is the quirky Drawn with Character digi image I've used on today's card and the cute sentiment that comes with it.

Digital stamp - Bucket n pail - Drawn with Character - Etsy

Digital papers and date circle- Love you - Just so Scrappy (no longer available)

Die-namics Double scallop border

X-cut palm punch - large heart

Organza ribbon, stick on gems and heart charm - Meiflower

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Creative Moments - #35 Anything goes/Love
Divas by Design  - Love

Fab 'n' Funky - #203 Valentine/Love

Through The Craft Room Door  - Always Anything Goes

Stamp n Doodle  - Valentine/Love

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Birthday Candle bird brain

In my last post I mentioned that before I decided to enter their sketch challengeI had made a card for the February Digital Stamp of the month challenge over on the From the Heart stamps blog, you have to use their Stamp of the Month for the challenge, but if you enter you automatically get the next months stamp for free. 

Here's the card I made for the challenge.

Digital Stamp - Birthday Candle Bird Brain - From the Heart Stamps

Digital papers - Heartstrings - Crazy 4 Monograms

Tonic layering dies - Circle

CREAlies CLCS11 - Leaves

X-cut palm punches - Flower, large and medium

Brown pearls - Meiflower

The set comes with a choice of sentiments, here's the inside of my card showing you the one I used.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

From the Heart Stamps - February Monthly stamp challenge

Robyn`s Fetish - # 198- Animals or Birds

Make it Monday  - Always Anything Goes
Through the Purple Haze  - Anything Goes

My Craft Creations - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Birdbrain friends!

I was at the Craft show at Event City Manchester yesterday and you'll never guess what I bought? (If you're a regular visitor then you probably will LOL!)  Yes, I bought more dies hehe! After watching a couple of demo's I 'really needed' them, so look out for roses and fuchsia's on upcoming cards - providing I can remember how to make them LOL!

I've got a card to show you today using the I {heart} card sketches sketch no.52.

 I had bought some digi stamps from {From the heart stamps} earlier in the week and because I spent over $10 and entered the code from the blog I got the Stamp of the Month set for free. They have a monthly challenge where you have to use the stamp of the month , but if you enter, you get the following month's stamp of the month for free - just for playing along - so I thought I would give it a go. My card is made and ready to post, but before I had chance to blog it I noticed the sketch challenge, which only runs for a week, and decided to play along with that too, mainly because the circles in the centre of the grey panel, which I don't think are there other than for decoration, caught my imagination and an idea popped into my head straight away, once again using the Stamp of the Month set, so I made up the card and here it is!

Digital Stamp (inc sentiment) - From the Heart Stamps - Birthday Candle Birdbrain

Papers - Tweet Tweet - Just So Scrappy (only $0.75 in outlet store and contains 42 papers!)

Tonic Circle layering dies

Die-namics Photo corners dies

Stick on Gems - Meiflower

The stamp of the month challenge card will be following in a few days.

I am entering the following challenges

I {heart} Sketches Challenges - Sketch

Love to Create - Birthday / Anniversary

Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations -  for the birds

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - #15 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, 

Have a lovely Sunday,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy I do day!

Hi there!

Today I wanted to share a wedding card I've just finished - I may have mentioned once or twice (hehe!) that I am a die-aholic and have set myself the challenge of trying to use as many of my dies as possible this year, but that doesn't mean that I'm not buying any new ones, after all I have to keep feeding my addiction LOL! I bought some new Tonic and Joanna Sheen signature dies with my Christmas money and have used a couple of them on this card.

The wedding couple is a digital stamp from Time for tea which I have coloured in Photoshop and the happy I do day sentiment is a digi from Tiffany doodles, I glittered over the O and added a gem to make it look like a diamond ring.

Digital stamp - Wedding couple - Time for Tea - Etsy

Digital Sentiment - Tiffany doodles

Digital Papers - Forever and Always digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Wedding Horseshoe Signature die - Joanna Sheen

Layering scalloped circle and circle dies - Tonic

Triple leaf set - Elizabeth design crafts

Mini hybrid heirloom rose (centre section only) - Die-namics

Metallic edged ribbon and stick on gems - Meiflower

I am entering my card into these challenges

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday  - #257 Red & Love

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes / Use Red

Craft Your Passion  - Love

Digi Makeover Challenge -  must use digi - Anything Goes

Lexi's Creations - Valentine's Day / Love

Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes

Through the Purple Haze  - Love is in the Air

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Baby Carriage!

In my quest to try and use as many of my dies as possible this year , today I have a baby card made almost entirely from dies (5) - I used a couple of punches, organza and satin ribbon and some stick on pearls too.

White Linen card - Papermill Direct

Sizzix nesting hearts die

CREAlies CLCS11 - Leaves

Memory Box - Piestra Tile

Marianne Creatables - LR0218 Baby Carriage

Spellbinders - Decorative labels eight

X-cut palm punch - pointed butterfly - medium and small

X cut Daisy punch - medium and large

Liquid chalks ink pad - Ice Blue

Blue satin ribbon, White organza ribbon and various sized stick on pearls - Meiflower

I used satin ribbon for the hood and blanket of the baby carriage by applying a narrow line of Collall tacky glue around the edges and sticking the ribbon down, once dry I trimmed around the edge. I also did the same underneath the die cut border - for both the pram and border I used a piece of 25mm ribbon and 10mm ribbon. This could easily be done with coloured paper, but I liked the idea of fabric.

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Another sneak peek - First Love Ultimate Kit

I have a huge collection of dies, and when I say huge, I mean HUGE! I have hundreds and any of my friends who have been in my craft room can vouch for that fact LOL!

I have so many that half of them (probably more) have never been used, so my New Years resolution for this year is to use as many as I can, and I've made a start with today's card.

I've used the image, papers, scalloped topper and sentiment circle from Paper Creators First Love Ultimate kit - (which should be in store very soon).

I've re-sized the image (included in kit) to fit on to the sentiment circle.

Papers, Image, Sentiment, scalloped circle - First Love Ultimate Kit - Paper Creator

White Linen card - Papermill Direct

Embossing Folder - A4 Cascading hearts

Lifestyle nesting circles die

Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 scalloped borders 1

Butterflies - CC Cutters die

X-cut palm punch - Pointed Butterfly large

Ribbon and gems - Meiflower

Woohoo! four different dies used, I'm off to a good start, I've got a couple more cards made using the papers in this kit with some more of my dies, so I'm on a roll, hehe!

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Sympathy - tree and wreath

Sympathy cards are not always the easiest things to have to make, and even more so if you are making them to give to family or friends who have recently lost loved ones. For this reason I like to make a couple when I  don't really have to and then put them away until they are needed.

Today I have two to show you, both inspired by shop bought cards - it's amazing how inspiration strikes when you least expect it - I was looking at cards we had been given after the loss of my father-in-law and two of them caught my attention, both of them because the designs on the cards reminded me of dies I had in my collection and had never used and so an idea was born.

I loved the symbolism of this card, the single leaf gently falling to the ground,which to me represented the deceased family member gently taking leave of the family.

Die - Tree with w/hearts and leaves - Cottage Cutz (retired)

Digital papers - Petal Fresh - Nitwit Collections

Silver mirri card

X-cut butterfly punch

Pearl and silver card stock

Sentiment computer generated and printed onto pearl paper - Anna Marie

Die - Catalina Wreath - Memory Box

Gems - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

I love you this much!

It's time to begin the challenges again at Paper Creator after the Christmas break, and for the first one of the year we are going to start off nice and easy with...

Anything Goes

We don't have much in the way of rules, just no back linking, a maximum of 3 entries per challenge and most importantly follow the theme, you don't even have to use Paper Creator products, but if you do, you get a second entry into the random draw to win £10 to spend in store.

Here's my card for the anything goes theme, using a gorgeous new Sassy Cheryl illustration called Come On Get Happy.

Digital illustration - Come on get Happy - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator
Digital Papers - Owl always love you digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy
Go Kreate Large Frame Scallops
Lifestyle nesting circles dies
Die-namics die - Rustic Hearts
X-cut heart punch
Ribbon and charms - Meiflower I used split rings to dangle the heart charm from the O of the love charm

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Creator challenge blog, check out the inspiration from the rest of my teamies and enter our anything goes challenge.

Thanks for stopping by,
Have a lovely weekend,
hugs,
Colette xx

Oh Baby!

Just a quick post today to show you a baby card I made using the fab Digi Darla image Blessings of Heaven 5. When I made this card HERE I printed the image out in two different sizes and used the larger image on the other card, so I put this card together with the smaller image and the left over papers, usisng the same layout but decorating it differently.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 - Digi Darla (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital Papers - Bedtime Stories Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Lifestyle Alphabet Die - Lemon Drop - Maddy Lisa Crafts

X-cut heart punches large and small

Gingham ribbon, satin rosebud trio, polka dot buttons and heart dazzlers - Meiflower

I am entering the following challenges with this card -

Digi Darla- ABC challenge - (B is for Baby)

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Must Be Square #19 Make It Feminine - It's got a baby girl, there's pink on it, a bow, flowers and bling so hopefully it counts as feminine?

Papertake Weekly W- Add A Bow & Use A Die

Party Time Tuesdays - #156 Use Ribbon

Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look

hugs,

Colette xx

You go together like.....

...Cheese and wine, bacon and egg, salt and pepper or milk and cookies!

Here's a card made with one of the other digital stamps I purchased from Drawn with Character, I love the quirky humour of this one, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. I made it up into an anniversary card for my friend.

Digital stamp - We go together 1- Drawn with Character- Etsy (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital papers - Candy Kisses digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 monograms

Sizzix nesting hearts die

X-cut nesting postage stamp die

Sentiment - computer generated

Ribbon and buttons - Meiflower

I am entering my card into the following challenges

Artistic Inspirations  - Anything Goes / Ribbon

Card Mania -  Anything Goes

Love to Create  - Buttons

Make it Monday  - Always Anything Goes

My Time to Craft – All about Love

My Sheri Crafts -  Use a Digi

Digitally Sweet - Digital images/projects- No. 71 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

You're Tweet!

I recently came across a store selling digital stamps on Etsy called Drawn with Character, and as usually happens with me, found that three of the images just jumped into my basket LOL!

I managed to get them coloured up last week whilst looking after my grandson, (I do so love that couple of hours when he is asleep hehe!) and two of them made into cards, so today I thought I would share one of them with you.

I coloured the image in Photoshop as usual and then printed straight onto Kraft card, printing the image out twice, each time on a different setting, to see which turned out best, as it happened there wasn't much difference between them.

As I had printed two images I decided to make two cards using the same layout for both, but making one with scalloped borders and the other with ribbons (this will be a sample for Meiflower). 

Here are my cards

Digital Image - You're Tweet - Drawn with Character - Etsy

Woodware long reach ribbon slot punch

Grosgrain ribbons and stick on gems - Meiflower

Digital image - as Above

I rubbed a white ink pad around the edges of the Kraft card

Digital Papers - Love You digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy (can't find it on site to link)

Die-namics Simply Scallops Medium

Ribbon, charm, pearl hearts - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Welcome Baby

I seem to be going through a phase of using Kraft card for my card bases at the moment, I hadn't even realised I was doing it until my daughter was looking at today's card and said to me - you seem very fond of that brown stuff (non-crafter LOL!), you're using it a lot lately.

So here's the card she was looking at, it's a baby boy card using Jolly the Jiraffe from Teddy Bo and some of that brown stuff hehe!

Image - JOLLY_001 - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Baby Mine Boy digital scrap kit - Just so Scrappy outlet store

X-cut Scalloped Rectangle die

X-cut Border Punch - Scallops

X-cut palm punch - circle large

Ribbon, dummy, polka dot buttons and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Love is in the air!

This post should have been done on Saturday but for the last couple of days I have had the stinking cold that is going around at the moment, today is the first day that I haven't been aching all over, it's also the first day that I have lost my voice too - made Eric's day LOL! Both Eric and Meg had it first, and then, as usual, once I've looked after them and got them better I come down with it -Eric is back in work, Meg still needs looking after and I've got my youngest grandson Charlie nearly every day this week, so no rest for me.

I have to admit that I've also been distracted by the darts on the telly - the first couple of weeks of the year when the BDO World Darts Championship is shown from the Lakeside Country Club is one of the things I most look forward to after the Christmas break, and have really enjoyed it once again this year.

Anyway back to the cards and with Christmas out of the way, the next big occasion, for us card makers is Valentine's day, and with that in mind I'm giving you a sneak peek at two of  the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations - First love and Smitten - which will be available shortly at Paper Creator.

Sassy Cheryl illustrations First Love and Smitten - Paper Creator

Papers - Lovebirds digital scrapbook kit - Just so Scrappy

Sizzix Hearts dies

X cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Ribbons and gems - Meiflower

If you like to match your papers to the colours in your image, you should check out the First Love ultimate kit from Paper Creator when it becomes available, as well as the image it  also contains papers, a build a topper set, a ready to print card, sentiments and decoupage.

For this card I used the image and a couple of the papers. The card base was made by printing both sides of  A4 Linen card from Papermill Direct with one of the plain papers from the kit, before cutting to size and folding to make a square card.

The card is a sample for Meiflower which is why it is bedecked in pearls and gems, plus I love a bit of bling on a card and couldn't resist encrusting the die cut heart frame with all things sparkly!

Image and Papers - First Love Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Sizzix Heart dies

X-cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Stick on gems and pearls in various sizes and colours - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Sunglasses Alert!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you will know that I don't really do soft muted colours, I would love to, I always think they look so classy whenever I see them used by other people, but my brain just doesn't seem to work like that and no matter how hard I try I always seem to end up with bright colourful cards.

Today my colours are so vivid, you may need to pop on a pair of sunglasses before viewing,

(I will not be held responsible for any damage to your peepers from viewing my card without taking the proper precautions LOL! You have been warned!) 

I had some really bright neon coloured ribbons and wanted to match the papers and my colouring to them, then I matted everything onto black card which really made the colours pop.

Digital stamp - Deidre Mosher at Etsy - Coloured in Photoshop

Digital Papers - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Senitment - Computer Generated

X-cut border punch - Scallops

Lin and Lene  Designs corner die - 1201/0012 (cut down)

Neon coloured satin ribbons and stick on gems - Meiflower 

I printed the image twice, cut the cake from the second print and layered it onto the first with foam pads. The corner die was a lot larger, but I trimmed away the parts I didn't want to make it the right size for my project.

I love that image, they look like they really can't wait to get stuck into that cake.

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy New Year!

The days nearly over, but managed to just slip in LOL!, hope you had a good one, and 2014 brings you, health, wealth and happiness along with all the things you wished for.

Unfortunately Christmas and New Year haven't been too happy for us this time around - my Father-in-law passed away on the 22nd December, and because of the Christmas holidays, his funeral won't take place until the 6th January (the family were offered the 5th January at first, but that's his birthday and nobody wanted that), so the 6th it is. Hopefully once the funeral is over we can start to move on and work towards getting things back to normal.

I had my daughter and grandchildren around for dinner on Christmas Day and we were determined to make it a happy day for the younger family members, which hopefully we managed to do, especially as the jokes in the crackers were pretty good this year LOL!
As well as the sadness of  my father-in-laws passing we had the joy of a new baby, as my friend Donna's third grandchild, (but first granddaughter) Lucia Rose, was born just before 1am on Christmas Day. She kept us all on tenterhooks as her mum was in slow labour for a couple of days - thanks to text messaging I was getting regular updates of how the labour was going (almost felt like I was there LOL!) all day on Christmas Eve and as midnight approached we waited with bated breath, would she be a Christmas eve or Christmas day baby? but she managed to hang in there for a bit longer and Christmas day it was! What a fabulous present for Donna and her family.

and here she is

Lucia Rose with her auntie Chloe.

I made this card for the proud Grandparents.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 (coloured in Photoshop) - Digi Darla

Digital papers - Bedtime Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Sizzix Framelits - Hearts

Spellbinders Mirror die

Gingham Ribbon, satin rosebud trio, waxed cord and pink gems - Meiflower

I scanned the dies into Photoshop and then used them as a guide for the size of the writing. After printing it was just a case of positioning the die correctly over the wording before running through the machine.

I'm hoping to drop the card off at the weekend, but I'm sure Donna will probably see it on here before I get it to her, hope she likes it!

Posting will probably be a bit hit and miss for the next couple of weeks, but hopefully normal service will resume shortly!

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