Merry Christmas!

Fancy a mince pie? go on, you know you want one, and there are no calories in them whatsoever, lol! Thought I would just pop on and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I have baked gingerbread, apple muffins and mince pies, as well as cooking the gammon today, and amazingly I finished all my Christmas cards before Christmas Eve!
Here is Steve's card.

I used Inkylicious trees and twigs and a clarity stamp duck. I dusted the background with Memento Inks (Dandelion, Bahama blue and Danube blue). The papers are from the Artylicious Seasons Greetings cd. Hope Santa brings you everything you wish for and you are blessed with good health and happiness this festive season.

Hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas!

            Sally x

Yet more Christmas cards!

I'm dashing into blogland with more Christmas cards. I have managed to make quite a few cards this weekend and a few even tie in to some challenges too!
First up I have snowflakes (and owls) for the challenge at Allsorts this week.

The stamp is from Little Claire's and it is coloured with promarkers and stickles. The snowflake paper was a freebie from 'Quick cards made easy', I think. I used a spellbinders die and a craftwork cards sentiment to finish it off.

My next is very similar, just a different colour way and papers were from a 12 x12 pack I bought (possibly dovecraft?) that I don't know if I will ever see the end of!!! Poinsettia die is from Marianne designs and the leaves are a Britannia Die from Pink Frog which I bought at Doncaster. These are both stamped last-minute Christmas cards that will be stuck in envelopes and posted as soon as the glue is dry! I am entering them into the challenge at Sweet Stampin'

Next I have another Nicecrane Robin from the Christmas birds sheet. I've added some glitter, some snippets of DP and some snippets of pearlescent card. Again the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards. I think the Holly DP is from an Artylicious cd from Chocolate baroque, but this is a bit left over from last year.
All three of my cards are using up snippets so I'm taking them to Miss Di's snippet playground, where someone got a bit excited with the chestnut roasting and set fire to the bike shed! Off to see if I can help sort it out. Thanks for looking!

Some Birthdays in December

I seem to know lots of people with Birthdays in December, so I am taking a break from making Christmas cards to catch up with birthdays!

The first is for my dear friend Kate, and is a bit of an in joke as we both call each other Dragons at work! The stamp is from Wild rose studios and coloured with Derwent Aquatone pencils. The paper is from Pink petticoat.

This next one is for another friend at work. This is the 5th 40th birthday on our staff this year! This is a chocolate Baroque stamp coloured with promarkers, with the papers from the Artylicious Essence of Nature cd rom.

 

This is another Artylicious papers and chocolate Baroque stamp, but this time I used  Flitterglu and Brighton Peer flakes, which I think go beautifully together!

Finally I have made a card using a Peerless designs cd called Word Play. I bought this cd at Doncaster as I immediately thought of our friend Mark, who loves the Beatles and Formula 1, and it has design sets for both! There are also several other designs suitable for men. This is his birthday card for this year. Well, a rather eclectic mix I think you will agree!

  Sorry I haven't been around much this week. I have been feeling very under the weather with an upper respiratory tract infection. The hacking cough, which is in it's third week, is leaving me exhausted. I have been at school though as I couldn't desert them for Panto week. The sickness bug hit some of the cast too, and there was one night that staff had to take over the role of the town crier and Baron Hardup mid performance, as they sat round the back with a bucket! After all the Drama and coughing I have fallen into bed about 2 hours before I would normally go, so computer time has been minimal. I will try and catch up with you over the next few days, when hopefully I will be feeling better.

Thanks for looking, and I hope your Christmas preparations are going well!

How long?!

I can't believe how long it is since I posted last! Truth is I think Mr Mojo is having a little holiday. I have made a few bits and bobs, but I'm not particularly happy with them. I even resorted to reworking a couple of cards I'd already made for an order. Anyway, here are two that didn't end up in the bin!

 This first one uses papers from my Artylicious Essence of Nature cd and an Aspects of design stamp. The sentiment is computer generated.

This second one feels like a bit of a cheat really because the paper was a freebie from Glenda Waterworth and the only stamp was the sentiment from Paula Pascual. The spellbinders border and ornate circle are from the Parisienne accents set.
Thanks for looking and I hope I will come up with something half decent soon. If you happen to see my mojo please send it back here!

A couple of Birthdays

I'm nipping on here very quickly to show you a couple of Birthday cards which have now reached their destinations. The first is for my lovely friend and colleague, Jenny. We have been working together in the same class since September, but have known each other for years, and she certainly doesn't look fifty! The image is from Bugaboo and has been coloured with promarkers.

My next card is for my dear friend Lynne, and I know she has received it and her Birthday was yesterday.

It is a stepper card featuring a Sheena stamp with sentiments from Hobby Art (The landscape..) and Waltzing Mouse (With love). The main image was watercoloured with distress inks. I used 3 different nesties label dies and a Martha Stewart punch. I rather like this colour combo. Reminded me of heather moorland so perfect for this scene.
Thanks for looking!
Before I go I need to let you know I'll be offering some blog candy very soon as today is also my third bloggerversary. I will put a post up at the weekend although you might have to wait until I've been to Doncaster to see goodies!

Waltzing Mouse 2nd Birthday tea party!

Waltzing Mouse are having a tea party to celebrate their second Birthday and are asking us to download a free template for a 'tea-bag baggie' and decorate it. I received my latest purchases from Waltzing mouse last week and they were tea themed too, so I set to work.

I used Broken china and tea dye distress inks (tee, hee!)The two main stamps are from Waltzing Mouse and the background is from Hero arts. The small stamp on the cup is from the Chocolate Baroque teeny meadow set.

I had to make a card to go with it too...

I used more distress inks and some backing paper from my Artylicious essence of Nature cd. I Love this tea cup! There is a fab prize on offer, but not for much longer! so pop over to the Waltzing Mouse Blog for more details. Thanks for looking!

A couple of Birthdays

Well, here is Steve's Birthday card. I got the Brayer out, but had 4 attempts before I managed this one! I managed to smudge a couple, and then wasn't happy with the ducks flying over. I used Adirondack inks in Butterscotch, Terracotta, Purple twilight and Eggplant. The moon was coloured with scattered straw distress ink. The stamps are from stampscapes (bulrushes), Hero arts (Silhouette grass) and Lavinia (Ducks). The sentiment is from a clear set by personal impressions. The theme for Stamptacular Sunday this week is 'Whateva!' so I'm entering it in their challenge.
My next card was for a lovely blogging buddy who celebrated her birthday last week.

The papers are from my Artylicious Essence of nature cd, The ribbon was a gift from Lesley aka Crafty Mamma and the Sweet pea fairy Stamp was from the lovely Brenda. I coloured the stamp with promarkers and added quite a bit of glitter with my quicky glue pen. Here is a shot from a different angle so you can see the glitter a bit better.

All that glitter should meet the requirements of the sweet pea stampers challenge blog where the theme is glitz and glamour, so I'm entering this one there too.

Who stole the weekend?

Where have the last two days gone? I have managed to squeeze a couple of cards in, but I can't say I have much to show for the rest of it!

My first card has been on my craft table unfinished since before new year, so I thought it was really time I did something about it. The stamps and papers are all Elusive images/ Artylicious Essence of Nature cd. The main image was embossed with blonde moments fresh gold embossing powder, which is green with a lovely gold sheen.

My next card is for a young lady who has Cystic Fibrosis. Her little brother was one of my pupils a while ago. About 8 years ago she had a lung transplant at Great Ormond Street. She will be eighteen on Tuesday, a milestone we wouldn't have seen had it not been for the wonderful Team at GOSH.The mandala stamp is Creative Expressions and the paisley is Funstamps. As I used my brayer with B&J hydrangea ink I am entering this into the last Lots to do challenge for a while. I've only recently discovered Lots to do through Zoe, and I have really enjoyed their fabulous themes. I will miss seeing the fabulous DT creations.

My final card is a cute one- some Penny Black Hedgehogs. I coloured this image with promarkers ages ago, but couldn't decide what to do with it. When I saw the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the challenge is to use four things from the card Buffet, I thought I would give it a go. The papers are from Pink Petticoat, and I used patterned paper, purple twine three flowers and three gems.

You might have gathered that I found a few things on my craft table this weekend, and I was trying to make it tidier. I have to admit I failed miserably! It looks worse now than it did before I started! Ah well, there's always next weekend. Thanks for looking x

Another christmas card and snow

Here is another Christmas card using the same technique as the last two, but this time using Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord distress inks.
Papers are from my Artylicious  Seasons Greetings cds. The Christmas tree stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the snowflakes are Docraft stamps.
Finally I thought I would share a photo of yesterday's snow on my Dad's greenhouse. They had about six inches of snow in Warsop. It was like that all day and could well still be like it with today's temperatures! 

Diamonds are forever at Tuesday Taggers

Good morning! This week at Tuesday Taggers our theme is Diamonds are forever, picked by the lovely Pat. After a brief mojo-less moment involving me thinking about lots of bling, I finally came up with this.
Not sure what this fold is called, and I bodged it a bit, but a bit of matting and layering covered up the problem!
The backing paper is from my Artylicious Essence of Nature cd, the stamp (Stamp to your Art's Content) is stamped in versamark and covered in blonde moment's pearl pigments. The gorgoeus little leaf die is by Joy Crafts. My desk looks like miniature Autumn, lol!

Here's a photo of it stood on the table - sorry it looks a bit wonky! Pop over to Tuesday Taggers and see the fab DT projects. We would love you to join us this week with your interpretation of diamonds.
The theme this week at Allsorts is Colours of Autumn, so I'm entering it there too.Thanks for looking!
P.S. I thought I would give you a quick update on why I've not been around in blog land so much. On Friday it was the funeral of my dear friend Julie, who passed away  two weeks ago. As well as 'being there' for her hubby and 13 year old daughter, I'm trying to do what I can to help out. Did you know that if your wife dies and the Child Benefit was in her name they stop it and you have to reapply on a seven page form? What idiotic bureaucracy is that? As if the poor guy isn't suffering enough. Sorry, but I needed a rant!

Inspired by a poem

This weeks theme at Tuesday Taggers has been chosen by our lovely Michelle, and is to find inspiration in a poem. I sat down over a week ago thinking I would get a little ahead of myself with the beginning of term coming up. I got a bit carried away though! Please excuse the wonky photo.

It is based on the poem Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which you can find here. 

I started off thinking about the bit that goes 'Deep in the sun-searched growths a Dragonfly hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky...' so the right hand panel was my first. The border is a hero arts stamp and the dragonfly is a crafty Individuals stamp, used on fantasy film from Crafty Notions. 

The central panel features the poem, which I printed out and over stamped in wild honey DI with the same Hero arts cling stamp I used on the first.

 Then I decided I couldn't use the whole poem and not illustrate the first verse, so I did cow parsley skirting the hawthorn hedge using Elusive Images Wild meadow stamps.

I backed it all on thick card covered in paper from my Artylicious Essence of Nature cd, and made some grunge paper hinges to hold it together. Not perfectly positioned I'm afraid, but never mind. Here is a quick view of the back.

Isn't that paper just gorgeous? So there you go. My first ever triptych (I think that's what they are called!) Phew! That was a long one! Thanks for looking, and don't forget to pop over to Tuesday Taggers to see my lovely teamies inspiring work. Do hope you can join us this week!

The Stampman Challenge - Easel card

I've been playing with a few newish things that I bought in July and have only just got round to using.

Firstly there is a rather lovely Dreamweaver stencil. I felt a bit naughty buying it, as I rarely use metal stencils these days, but the design was so gorgeous! The spellbinders leaves were also bought at about the same time. Finally, after visiting my friend Lynne and seeing her Artylicious Essence of Nature CD I just had to have that too!
I began by securing the stencil onto some black card and pressing my versamark pad all over it. I then brushed some blonde moments pearl pigments (Art from the heart) onto it and sprayed with water to fix the pigments. I layered it on to paper from the CD and cut out and embossed the three leaves. I applied pigments in the same way. Finally I made it into an easel card, adding a stamped greeting (Papermania?). It really gleams when it catches the light.
I'm entering this into the Stampman Challenge where the theme is Easel cards. There are some fabulous DT cards offering wonderful inspiration. Thanks for looking!

P.S. If you like Digis and haven't heard my mate Teri has freebies up for grabs every day this week. Click on the link on my side bar to have a look.