INVASION OF THE GNOMES

Hi Everyone

I hope your weekend has got off to a good start.

Gnomes are definitely the "in thing" this year and there are certainly some very cute ones around.  Not just as images or dies but as full scale Christmas decorations and also cute sewing projects.  I have to admit I love them!

A quick nip to Etsy saw lots of the little beauties and I decided to take some home to my download folder to play with this evening.

This is my first gnome creation:

This used:

Image:  ATArtDigital "Gnome for the Holidays"  (fantastic price too at the moment)
Sentiment:  Computer generated
Backing Papers:  Dovecraft "Christmas Basics"
Spellbinders:  Circles and Scalloped Circles
Crystal Glamour Dust
Nail Heads
White Gel Pen
Corner Rounding Punch
My Trusty Sewing Machine

The digital download has three gnome images, but I just fussy cut my favourite out at this stage.  I am sure the others will be making an appearance though.

My photographs were all playing up this evening so they are in a total different order to normal.  But at least they are there.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.  I wonder if tomorrow is going to be full of rain .. .. the same as today?

DECEMBER 25TH

Hi Everyone

No .. .. don't panic .. .. .. it isn't the 25th December yet.  We still have a few weeks of frantic Christmas cardmaking to go yet!

Tonight's card is for two challenges and they both call for the same rules:

To use a Christmas embossing folder and to use a stamp.

Here is what I created:

This used:

Embossing Folders: 
Sizzix Textured Impressions Embossing Folder "Starry Night" and 
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder:  "Snowflake"

Sentiment Stamp:  Is ancient and been in my collection for many years .. .. I think it was a magazine cover gift
Distress Ink Pads:  Weathered Wood and Chipped Sapphire (for brayering into the embossing folders)
Versacolour Pigment Ink "80 White"
Creative Expressions:  Dazzlers - Clear Circles
Ribbon
Foam Pads
My Trusting Sewing Machine

The Challenges I am entering my card into are:

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge
and  Let's Squash It

and that is me for today.

Enjoy your weekend everyone when it arrives.

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Hi Everyone

I hope your week is ticking along nicely.  These weeks are whizzing by quickly .. .. in fact it will soon be the weekend again!

Here tonight to share a card I made a while ago but didn't post.  I made it alongside this card here which is why the ingredients are the same for both.  Much easier to make more than a singleton .. .. and I should do it more often really.

This used:

Image:  WhimsyDreamsClipart:  "Whimsical Flowers"
Sentiment:  LOTV "Embossed Labels"

Backing Papers:  First Edition Papers "Blank Canvas"

ProMarkers

Ribbon

Spellbinder Circle Dies

My Trusty Sewing Machine
Clear Wink of Stella Pen

.. .. .. .. and that is me for today.

Mr Heart and I went off for our weekly shop this evening once I returned from Mum's, we find it very quiet at this time so it suits us really well (the fewer people we are around the better for us). Can you believe we passed two houses that already had their Christmas tree decorated and displayed in their windows!!!  I wonder if folk will decorate earlier this year just to try and inject some fun and excitement into their lives .. .. .. let's face it we could all do with a good helping of it couldn't we!  

Catch you again soon.

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

A teeny tiny post tonight to share a teeny tiny card.  A whole 3.5 inches square for anyone new to my blog.

This used:

Image:  Stamping Bella "Santas Loot"
Sentiment:  Clearly Besotted "Speaking Out"
ProMarkers
Distress Ink Pad:  Tumbled Glass
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Snowflakes from the snowflake box
Crystal Glamour Dust
Gems
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.

I took a bit of time to make a mask to cover my little Santa so that I could add the colour behind. Always a bit of a faff to cut at the time but I am always pleased when I finish one and I keep them all in a box ready to be used again.

Hope your day has been an enjoyable one and you found a bit of crafty playtime at some point.

HAPPY KISSMASS

Hi Everyone

I hope your week has got off to a good start.

You know when time is flying when you go to enter a challenge that you think still has a week to go and there are only two hours left!!  Eeeekk!!!

So I got my skates on and came up with this:

This used:

Image:  Power Poppy "Stand Here .. .. Under the Mistletoe"
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Backing Papers:  From the snippet box
ProMarkers
Glossy Accents
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I am taking this super smartish over to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme has been "Festive Florals".

Just hoping the linky thing is still going.

Catch you again soon.

A DAY TO BE THANKFUL

Hi Everyone

No Christmas card today .. .. .. today is all about being grateful and thankful to all those who have sacrificed their lives for our country.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them

BOOK FOLDING COMPLETE

Hi Everyone

I hope you have enjoyed your Saturday .. .. mine seems to have disappeared in the blink of an eye .. .. yet again, but I did finish my book folding this evening and the finished project looked like this:

 
by no means perfect .. .. .. but I am quite pleased with it for a first attempt.

I made my tree with the intention of taking it over to Fessiwigs Festive Frolics Challenge and then got drawn into the American voting and forgot to link it .. .. so I am doing that a bit late .. .. sorry Hazel.  The challenge for this fortnight is "anything but a card" .. .. but it has to be "festive" of course! 

Things I learnt along the way whilst making my tree:

1.  Folding the pages to begin with is very, very easy but as you work your way through the book it gets harder and harder, so don't  work too close to the spine (mistake number one).

2.  Pay special attention to forming sharp and uniform points at the top, otherwise your tree isn't going to join together properly when you reach the end.

3.  I heat embossed the edges of my tree using a white and silver glitter embossing powder.  Not a good idea as some of my pages warped with the heat. (mistake number two).  Perhaps a glitter spray would have been a better option.

4.  There are some Christmas tree examples on Pinterest where the tree has been folded into the centre of a book that is displayed open.  I think that might have been easier for a first play.

You can leave your tree to stand directly on a table or shelf, but I added an empty cotton reel to the bottom of mine

So that is me for today.  A few of you correctly guessed I was making a Christmas tree .. .. and there were some suggestions of a heart!  Mmmmm  ....  might have to look into that one sometime.

Take care everyone.  

Catch you again soon but in the meantime please stay safe.  

I DON'T READ BOOKS

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has gone well .. .. and if not then I wish you a much better one tomorrow.

This evening I made a start on something I have had on my "one day I will have time to try" list for a few years now.  

The project isn't finished (must admit it takes longer than I envisaged) but I am sure you can already guess what I am hoping to turn it into.

I have a large carrier bag of old books in the back of a wardrobe which my lovely Daughter in Law passed my way when we stayed with them a few Christmases ago.  Normally I raid the bag and just tear out a few pages and work with those (once I have checked them for any dodgy words) .. .. .. but tonight a whole book is being used and if I like the finished result then a few more books might meet their doom in this manner too!

Hopefully all will be finished tomorrow.

I don't read books .. it isn't something I have ever enjoyed .. .. but I do like crafting with them.

Take care everyone, stay safe and I will catch you again soon.

BACK TO CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

I hope your day has gone well.

My day has been a good "clearing up" one .. .. but there is still plenty more to do.

Back to Christmas here with this quick and simple card:

This used:

Sentiment:  Kaisercraft Clear Stamps "North Pole"
Craft Sensations "Floral Dreams" (for the navy blue and white spotted paper)
Make & Create "Merry and Bright" (for the red and white strip)
More of that glitter wallpaper sample for the back of the die cut
Die "Unbranded" from Amazon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today and November Christmas card number one goes into the box.

I'll catch you again soon.

 

TUESDAY CATCH UP

Hi Everyone

Apologies for not being around for a few days.  Life has been super manic here .. .. but more about that later.

Belated happy November!  I wonder what chaos it is going to bring with it as we in England gear ourselves up for another month of lock-down.  Not for one minute do I expect us to come out of it come the start of December.  But we shall wait and see .. .. .. I would be happy to be proved wrong.

In the meantime I have lots to keep me amused here in the House of Hearts.  You could lock me down for two years and I would still have plenty to get on with.

It has all been super busy and the weekend saw us turn all the green tomatoes from the greenhouse into green tomato chutney .. .. .. and it is now sitting alongside the beetroot chutney we made a couple of months ago.  Another job off the list but sadly no crafty play time.

No luck in us finding any wallpaper for the kitchen yet .. .. and if we don't find something before lock-down kicks in then I can see our Christmas dinner being prepared in a "part decorated kitchen". But hey ho .. .. in the grand scheme of things what does that matter.

My bride who distributed her revised wedding invitations the other weekend has once again seen her wedding plans cancelled due to the impending lock-down.. .. .. .. but the minister was able to marry her tomorrow!!  Yay!!  So  quite a bit of my time has been spent frantically preparing repeat invitations, order of service booklets and placename cards for a "scaled down" wedding.

Surely nothing else can scupper things for them now and they will soon be a super happy "Mr & Mrs"!

So once all the wedding work was completed and delivered, and another order completed, I treated myself to a little play and created this scrapling card.  For anyone new to my blog these measure 6.5 x 13.5cm.

This used:

Background Stamp:  Stampin' Up! "Gorgeous Grunge"
Butterflies:  Hobby Art "CS077D" Butterflies

Versafine Ink Pad "Onyx Black"
Versa Color Ink Cubes: Orchid, Turquoise, Heliotrope, Paprika and Seafoam (stamping the background and painting the butterflies)
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and there we go.  All back on track again with a big crafty clear up planned for tomorrow.

Please stay safe and keep well .. .. .. and prepare yourself for the panic buying.  I nipped to the supermarket for Mum this evening and there were lots of empty shelves again.

LAST MINUTE LIL

Hi Everyone

Are you all ready for another weekend .. .. .. and possible new COVID rules .. .. .. or even another lock-down?!?!?

Here we move into Tier 2 tomorrow .. .. not that it is going to make any difference to us.  The only thing that has changed for us since lock-down is that we have been able to form a "bubble" with our youngest son.

The news this evening talks as though we might be back in lock-down again sometime next week ... ... so we will have to wait and see.

In the meantime I am back into Christmas mode with a card for taking over to the launch of the sparkly new Let's Squash it Challenge which is being run by Gail and Jo. 

A very last minute entry unfortunately from me, but they would like us to use a geometric embossing folder and metallic card or metal sheets. This is what I came up with .. .. but it wasn't easy to photograph:

This used:

Embossing Folder:  Dovercraft basics "snowflakes"
Sentiment:  Hobby Art "CS144D "Christmas Frosting"
Spellbinders Borderabilities:  A2 Curved Borders One

Sizzix Tim Holtz AlternationsThinlits Dies:  "661599" Mini Paper Snowflakes

Black and aqua fineliner pens

Clear and White embossing powder
Creative Expressions:  Aqua Dazzlers

and that is me for tonight.

Still time to play along if you are quick

Thanks for calling by.

ANY PETER RABBIT FANS?

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all doing OK.

The magazine shelves are looking very short on craft magazines at the moment .. .. and sadly a lot of them have been finished never to return. All of those editors and their teams furloughed and then unfortunately made redundant .. .. this virus has a lot to answer for!

One magazine that "is" currently on the shelves though is Make Special Cards, Issue 24, which is another in the Peter Rabbit and Friends Series.  One of the bumper packs where you get plain card bases and envelopes, a selection of clear stamps, image and sentiment toppers and lots and lots of design papers.

I was very fortunate to be asked to complete commissions for this issue and these were some of my favourites:

These first two were part of a "flip flop" card commission and the magazine has the templates for the card base and for covering the various shaped segments.

These were my favourites from a stamping commission:

These were cards which used some of the oodles of toppers and sentiment

and last but not least a "spotlight" commission

and that is me for today.

We are currently waiting to see if we are moving up the COVID scale .. .. .. all super scary again everywhere isn't it?

Hopefully catch you again tomorrow.