HOLIDAY HUGS

Hi Everyone

Are you ready to panic?!?!!?

December starts tomorrow!!!!   Eeeeekkk!!!

Well as promised a change of card tonight .. .. a little bit of colouring from me!

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "Holiday Hugs"

Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat "Sentiment Ribbons"

Backing Paper: Pink Petticoat "Sprinkled With Twinkles"

Woodware Punch:  Small Holly Leaves

My Trusty Sewing Machine

ProMarkers

Adhesive Pearls

I am entering this into two challenges:

Moving Along With The Times where you have to have three elements starting with the same letter.  My elements are: Santa, Scarlet and Stitching (and just in case any of those don't count I will add Snowman, Sparkly Stickles, and two lovely smiles .. .. which is stretching things just a little LOL!!!)

and

The Friday Sketch Challenge

Here is the sketch if you fancy a play.  I turned mine up-side-down .. .. just because I could!

So that is me for today.

I'll catch you again tomorrow but in the meantime have a fabby weekend!!!

Love

I PROMISE TO GIVE YOU A BREAK TOMORROW

Hi Everyone

Still chasing my tail here .. .. with far to much to get through for my own good .. .. but I am sure this is the same for everyone at the moment.

I promise that tomorrow you can have a change from these gorgeous papers .. .. but for now I just had to use some of what I had printed.

So here is my share .. .. an extra picture tonight because I can't decide which of the close-ups I like best LOL!!!

This used:

Surprise, surprise:

Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat "Traditional Christmas Sentiments"
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat "Christmas Kraft Organics"
Cuttlebug Die:  Snowflake
Marianne Design Die:  Snowflake
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Mum's old pinking shears
Embossing Powder and Glamour Dust
Brad and Ribbon from my Stash Box (the ribbon has little gold dots on it .. .. love it!!!)

and that is it.

So tomorrow I promise to share something different.  Not everyone can be as excited about these kraft papers as me LOL!!!

Catch you soon

Love

HARDLY WORTH IT !!

Hi Everyone

Well it is hardly worth me making an appearance today .. .. my day has flown by faster than ever before and then hubby decided we should go shopping for a few Christmas things!

Dare I admit that I actually resorted to BUYING some Christmas cards!!!  Shock horror!!!  

Hanging my head in shame now :-(

Hubby also saw some ready rolled out marzipan whilst we were out and about.  I think he thought I might need some.  I'm not sure if he was disappointed or not when I told him you actually need a Christmas cake to put the marzipan onto .. .. and as we don't have one we won't need any!!  

Oh dear .. .. what a bad wife, cardmaker and blogger I am becoming.

Once back home I was determined to have another play with the new patterned kraft papers from Pink Petticoat .. .. so here we go:

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Woodware Clear Stamps "Tipsy Tree"

Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat "Christmas Kraft Organics" (Printed from a different colour set to the one I showed last night)

Hobbycraft Punch:  Snowflake

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Diamond Stickles

Button, ribbon and cord from my Stash Box

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will have seen me use this stamp for the last two Christmases .. .. but because it hadn't made an appearance this year I bet you were thinking I had lost it  LOL!!!  But no.  It was just waiting its turn to see daylight.

So that is me for today.

Time to get a shirt ready for hubby for tomorrow.  I did tell you I was behind with everything!!!

Catch you again tomorrow.

Hopefully much earlier!!!

Love

HOW LONG HAVE I WAITED?

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has been good.

We have still had road closures today because of the floods .. .. but thankfully it is starting to improve now and the roads are slowly getting back to normal.

I am here with yet another Christmas card and it is using something I feel like I have been looking for for years .. .. downloadable kraft card with patterns on!!!  Woo hoo!!!  Thank you very much Liz xx

So here is my first play with the download that was released today:

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat "Have An Ice Christmas"
Backing Papers: Pink Petticoat "Christmas Kraft Organics"
Nestabilities:  Classic Circle and Scalloped Circle
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder:  Swiss Dots
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Wooden Snowflake Embossed with White and Silver Embossing Powder
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Glamour Dust

The Kraft card can be printed in 7 different shades .. .. each with 17 different patterns .. ..can't be bad!!  Will have to try the others out too!! I am so pleased there are some patterns included on the download that will work all year and not just at Christmas time .. .. because I do love kraft card .. ..  but I do love the snowflakes very much!!  :-)

I have followed the sketch from the Sketch N Stash Challenge and am entering this into the challenge this fortnight.   Part of the challenge is to say what old and new stash you have used.  Well the new is my backing paper download and the old is the cute little penguin image. He has been lurking on my computer, and flying off my printer, for a few years now .. ..  bless him!!!  LOL!!

If you fancy playing along this is the lovely sketch.

Hope you all have a lovely evening and thank you for calling by and all your lovely comments.

Love

JUST WISHING YOU

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has been good and not disrupted too much with rain and floods.

The roads have been absolute chaos here with our main roadway (the A38) being completely closed and causing mayhem all around.  We have the threat of heavy rain tonight and who knows what the roads could be like tomorrow!!!

But for now we will forget all of that and simply look at a Christmas card .. ..

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1506J" Just Wishing You
Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique "Simply Christmas Greetings"
Backing Papers:  Dovecraft Back to Basics Christmas "Vintage"
Nestabilities:  Scalloped Circle Large and Classic Circle Large
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Snowflakes:  Sizzix Die "Winter Wonder"
White Gel Pen
ProMarkers and Chalks
Glamour Dust
Gems
Ribbon (from Lidl  .. .. a pack of three rolls .. .. all different and all gorgeous!!)

So that is me for today.  Just think this time next month Boxing Day will nearly be over :-( and if you are anything like my Mum the Christmas decorations and cards will be being put away tomorrow LOL!!!

I'll catch you again tomorrow.

Love

SUNDAY SNIPPETS AND RUDOLPH DAY!

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a great Sunday.

Well today hasn't been as bad weather-wise here as we were expecting.  I hope you can all say the same!!

My share today is for my weekly trek along to the snippet playground .. .. and it nicely ties in with Rudolph Day too (the last one for 2012) as the next time the 25th of the month comes along we will all be celebrating Christmas Day itself!!   Eeeeekkkkk!!!!!   

Must make more Christmas cards LOL!!!

So here we go:

As always I am lazy on a Sunday and do not list my ingredients but if you have any questions then just ask away.

So this little make is going to be linked to:

Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge

and

Sandra's Rudolph Day Challenge

I hope you get chance to check both challenges out .. .. they are great fun.

Have a lovely evening everyone and I will catch you again tomorrow - no doubt with yet another Christmas card.

Love

SKETCHY SNOW PERSON

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a lovely Saturday so far.

Mine has been a lovely relaxed and chilled one which has only seen me venture as far as the dustbins all day .. .. which is a good thing considering we have been having lots of rain .. .. again!!!

Not sure why I feel relaxed though.  I have 1001 things that need to be done!!!  LOL!!!

I managed a crafty play too which produced:

This used:

Image:  Digistamp Boutique "Sketchy Snow Person"
Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique "Simply Christmas Greetings"
Backing Papers:  Nitwits "Joyful Hearts Collection"
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Cuttlebug Die:  Snowflake
X-Cut Punch:  Corner Rounder
ProMarkers
Glamour Dust
Button and Ribbon from my Stash Box

I used the sketch from the Sketch Saturday Challenge Week 235 so am entering my card into their challenge this week and also into the Digistamp Boutique Challenge for November.

This is the lovely sketch from Sketch Saturday .. .. in case you fancy playing along.

So that is me for today.

Back tomorrow with my Sunday snippets.

Have a lovely evening.

Love

PROBABLY THE BEST CHRISTMAS TREE

Hi Everyone

An early appearance from me today to make up for the lack of a visual share yesterday.

It sounds like my post of yesterday has helped a few of you so I am pleased about that. 

Some of you are also mentioned that you re-size your pictures in your photo software.  I have to admit to never having noticed I could do that there (I have only ever used this for cropping my images .. .. doh!!!  told you I was rubbish technically) so I have given that a go this morning .. .. and that has worked too.  Thank you to those who mentioned this xx

I shall have to compare the two to see which gives the best result.

So here is my share for today:

 This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3741K" Filigree Tree (Probably the best Christmas Tree stamp in my collection)
Sentiment:  Digistamp Boutique "Simply Christmas Greetings"
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat  "Twas the Night Script" and "Scandi Chic Snowflake" (a bit of the double printing going on here) and "Swiss Dots" from the colour collection offer
Hobby Craft Punch:  Snowflake
ProMarkers
Glamour Dust
Button, pearls, ribbon, cord and twinkly stuff from my stash box (sadly all the twinkly stuff has gone now .. boo hoo!!!)

So a big day for wedding work in the House of Hearts today .. .. which is another reason for posting nice and early.  

We had an awful evening and night here last night with mega rain and wind .. .. but this morning we have lovely sunshine and blue skies and everywhere outside looks all washed and sparkly new!  A lovely fresh new day.  Sadly this won't be the same for everyone though . .. the awful flood scenes on the news look horrendous!!  My heart goes out to everyone caught up in the nightmare all this rain is causing for so many folk.

I will be catching up with as many of you as I can this evening.  A nice treat for me to look forward to.  But for now I am off to play with lots of scrummy ribbon and invites!!

Love

PROBLEM SOLVED !!

Hi Everyone

Thank you all so much for your comments and emails last night on my problem up-loading photographs.  It is true .. .. the crafty section of blogland is a lovely friendly place where everyone tries to do their best to help each other.  Makes you feel all warm inside doesn't it?

It sounds like lots of people have been having the same problem and quite a few have resorted to buying the additional space Mr Blogger was saying they needed.  But with only having used 69% of my allowance I am wondering if there is perhaps a little spanner in the works at the moment and all might right itself again.

In the meantime, after lots of faffing about, reading stuff I didn't understand on line last night and looking at everyone's comments and emails, I have managed to add my pictures this morning by re-sizing them.

Now I do not profess to being an expert by any stretch of the imagination but ... .. 

It is my understanding that provided pictures are less than 800 x 800 pixels then they are fine to up-load .. .. so I re-sized my images using the following website (which I am relieved to say is super easy to use .. .. thank goodness)

http://www.webresizer.com/

I simply clicked on the orange button which says "re-size photos now"

At the top there is then a button that says "choose file"

Find your picture you want to re-size and double click on this.  The title of your photo will appear next to the "choose file" button.

Then click the "upload image" button .. .. .. your photograph now appears underneath.  Two copies of your picture are there.  The one on the right being your original and the one on the left being the "optimized" and better looking version.  You can see the difference in numbers underneath the photographs.  You are looking for your pixels to be below the 800 x 800 allowance.

If you are happy with what you can see then simply press the "download this image button" and save the file for publishing on your blog.

My pictures didn't look quite right using the image as it was so I change the numbers underneath until I was happy and clicked on "apply changes".  

Happy with the changes to my re-sized image I clicked "download this image" and saved it for publishing.  But had I not been happy I could have clicked on the "start over" and I would have been back to where I was before I started fiddling with the numbers LOL!!!

There might be a bit of trial and error involved if you do alter the numbers but you can always go back and re-adjust the photograph again if you aren't happy with how it looks when you preview it in blogger.  It will  just be a case of getting used to a new fabby tool.

I hope that this helps if anyone else is having the same problems as I was .. .. .. but please don't ask me any technical questions .. .. .. what I did was simply trial and error .. .. .. and this is the extent of my knowledge LOL!!!

As I said at the beginning I am no expert!!  Just another friendly crafty blog owner trying to help if she can.

Now you can have a look for the heart on the pictures you couldn't see on my blog post yesterday (if you want to!).

Have a great day everyone.

EDITED TO SAY:  SOME FOLKS HAVE CONTACTED ME TO SAY THEY SIMPLY RE-SIZE THEIR PHOTOGRAPHS IN THEIR PHOTO EDITOR PACKAGE.

Love

CRICUT AND CUTTLEBUG MAKE A DATE

Hi Everyone

Another wet and miserable day weather-wise .. .. but happy and creative in the craft pod so I am well happy.  (Or I was until now .. .. see further down my post).

I am trying to hard to keep my promise to myself and use my neglected Cricut machine more .. .. even if it is only for one creation a day.

So here is today's share

(WELL IT WOULD BE IF MR BLOGGER WOULD LET ME UP-LOAD MY PICTURES.  HE IS SAYING I HAVE USED MY FREE QUOTA .. .. BUT WHEN I LOOK AT MY FIGURES IT SAYS I HAVE ONLY USED 69% OF MY SPACE SO NOT SURE WHAT IS HAPPENING THERE.  HAS THIS HAPPENED TO ANYONE ELSE?)

(WELL IT WOULD BE IF MR BLOGGER WOULD LET ME UP-LOAD MY PICTURES.  HE IS SAYING I HAVE USED MY FREE QUOTA .. .. BUT WHEN I LOOK AT MY FIGURES IT SAYS I HAVE ONLY USED 69% OF MY SPACE SO NOT SURE WHAT IS HAPPENING THERE.  HAS THIS HAPPENED TO ANYONE ELSE?)

This used:

Cricut Cartridge:  Printing Press (for all the lettering and numbers

Cuttlebug Dies:  Snowflakes and Tree

White Gel Pen

Gems from my Stash Box

Well I might see you again .. .. or is this the end of my blogging days?  :-(

Love

SNOW SWIRL

Hi Everyone

Well what a dull day today .. .. it never really brightened up properly at all .. .. and wet washing everywhere  was the order of the day :-(    Good job there were no visitors landing today!!

Never mind, at least the fabric conditioner has made everywhere smell nice LOL!!!

Today's share was supposed to be quick because it involved no colouring .. .. but I must admit it could have been quicker.

This used:

Image:  Stampendous! "CRM112" Snow Swirl
Sentiment:  Sorry I don't know.  It is a set that doesn't have any packet or numbers with it
Backing Paper:  Wild Rose Studio "Polka Dots
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder:  "Snowflakes"
Nestabilities:  Classic Oval Large and Scalloped Oval Large
Clear Embossing Powder
Distress Ink Pad:  Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Faded Jeans
Glamour Dust
Diamond Stickles
Gems from the Stash Box

So what made it not so quick as I thought .. .. well I can only blame it on the distress inks.  I started with the palest blue, then the mid-shade and eventually ended up going just about over it all with the darkest!!  Might as well have started with the darkest in first place LOL!!!

The paler ones were rather hard work so I can only assume that they are in need of re-inking :-(

So that is me for today.

I'll catch you again tomorrow.

Love

MORE FUN WITH THE CRICUT

Hi Everyone

Well good news .. .. the dentist trip went well.

No need to go back until next Summer!!!  Woo hoo!!

How lovely to walk out saying "Happy Christmas and see you when the sun is shining next year".

I decided to give my Cricut an "actual place" in my craft room today in the hope that I will use it more.  Up to now I have had to get it out especially to use .. .. who knows .. .. having it to hand may mean that I will use it more.  We shall see!!

It got a little work-out today to make this little Christmas card:

This used:

Papers:  Pink Petticoat "Small Nordic Snowflakes"
Sentiment:  Penny Black from the "Holly Day Critters" set
Snowflake:  From the Sizzix Die "Winter Wonder"
Cricut Cartridge:  Christmas/Noel
Nestabilities:  Classic Circle Large and Scalloped Circle Large
Woodware Punch:  Small Label
Glamour Dust
White Gel Pen
Ribbon, Gems and metallic cord 

and that is me for today.

Time to hit that ironing board next!!  What a glamorous life I lead.

Catch you again soon.

Love

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a lovely Sunday.

We have spent some of it trying to make some in-roads into the dreaded Christmas shopping.

Just one year I would love us to be organised and have it all done and wrapped nice and early!!  Could this be the year?  We will have to wait and see LOL!!

I try every year and fail miserably .. .. .. but I will still try again .. .. .. and who knows if we manage it just one year it may become the norm.  

OK just picked myself up off the floor from all that laughing and will now share my Sunday snippet make for Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge.  

No Christmas card today .. .. but a birthday card for a special friend who has a birthday today.  Made bright and early so we could drop it off on our way out to do the dreaded shopping (I say "dreaded" not because I dislike Christmas shopping .. .. I love being amongst all the Christmas goodies and seeing all the super excited children.  I love choosing presents for people and wrapping them up .. .. I just dislike the price of everything LOL!!).

So here we go with my snippet make for this week

As usual I am lazy on a Sunday and do not list any of my ingredients .. .. but as always if you have any questions feel free to "ask away".

Not sure if I will be early or late tomorrow.  All I know is we have a trip to the dentist for a check up .. .. so I need to steer clear of the glitter so it isn't all over my face come inspection time  LOL!!

Enjoy your evening and I'll catch you sometime tomorrow.

Love