NEW SKETCH

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all well and coping with the way the world is at the moment.

Yesterday saw us put Christmas back into the roof .. .. boo hoo .. .. everywhere is now looking very bare and dull.  Sigh!!

So to cheer myself up I created my first new sketch for 2021  -  Sketch Fifty One

and I used it to create this:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2863J" Lovin' & Huggin'

Sentiment:  Clearly Besotted "CBSSP649" Speaking Out

Backing Papers:  First Edition Paper "Rose Garden"
ProMarkers

Ribbon
Nail Heads
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I also spent some time searching until I found the YouTube video which inspired me to make Tuesday's card.  I got so many lovely comments and emails about it that it didn't feel right not to find the lady who shared her video in the first place .. .. and here it is 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASzxapE_Irg&t=9s

Just copy and paste this into your browser,  watch (or skip) a couple of adverts and then Natasha will take you through everything.

So that is me for today.  

I am off to link up to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme is always "anything goes" and this month it has an optional theme of "something new".   So that will be my "new sketch".

If you would like to see my other sketches there is a tab at the top of my blog called "my sketch vault" .. .. .. if you want to use any of them then please feel free to do so.

Enjoy the rest of your day.  Hope you can find some crafty time and mojo ... ... which lots of folk are currently saying has gone on walkabouts!  Must be a sign of the times.

Take care and stay safe.

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday .. .. I hope your week is going as well as it can in light of the new national lockdown.

Here tonight with my first teeny, tiny card for 2021  (yay!!  I got the year right this time .. .. I had a blast from the past and called it 2012 in my last post!! I typed the year lots of times that day and everytime I put 2012!  LOL!!). 

For anyone new to my blog my teeny tiny makes are a whole 3.5 inches square and they are great for using up those small pieces of card and design paper that we all stash away.

Of course a teeny, tiny card doesn't use many snippets .. .. but every little helps.

So here it is:

This used:

Sentiment:  Wow!! Embossing Powder "STAMPSET2" Gratitude.
Lots of snippets
A piece of acetate
My Trusty Sewing Machine
We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board

This was inspired by a YouTube video I watched where all the strips are stuck to a piece of acetate and then die cut into shape .. .. .. but I can't find it again now to link to it.  Sorry.

HOPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES

Hi Everyone

Well I was brave and opened the door of the craft pod today .. .. .. climbed over all the things I had stashed in there so they were out of sight over Christmas .. .. .. cleaned down my desk and then created this:

This used:

Image:  Fresh Cut Studios "Floral Rabbit"
Sentiment: Computer Generated using font "Vanilla Shot"
Frame:  DigiTreat "Frame Borders"
ProMarkers
Chalk
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Really enjoyed my first play of 2012.

Did you managed to find the heart?  

Catch you again soon everyone .. .. have a good week.

FESTIVE FROLICS CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

Last year (2020) I took part in quite a few challenges to increase my stock of Christmas cards throughout the year.  Come December I was so pleased I had as it made the run up to the "big day" far less stressful than in previous years.  So lovely to have a box all ready for sending.

One of the challenges I entered throughout the year was Hazel's Festive Frolics Challenge and to round the challenge year off we are being asked to post our Favourite 5 makes.

I really enjoyed this challenge and managed to enter quite a few times.  These were my favourite five:

and of course this last one has to feature 

because it was my favourite Christmas make of 2020

So that is my post for today.

Once again I had the chance for a long lie in this morning .. .. .. but as always I was keen to start the day and got up early!  Stupid really because I only end up creeping about so I don't wake Mr Heart up. 

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

HAPPY 2021

Hi Everyone

Happy 2021!

I wish all my lovely followers and visitors and friends all the very best for the new year.  One that  sees you healthy and happy and surrounded by those who you love.

I hope you have enjoyed your Christmas and you managed to create some special memories .. .. .. even though the plans were probably very different to those we have enjoyed in years gone by.

Our Christmas was lovely .. .. although it was quite cold with no central heating!  Definitely Christmas 2020 will be one that won't be forgotten and it will be spoken about in the years to come!

Thankfully now our central heating is sorted.  We are snuggly warm again and life is still beautifully "chilled".  I was well ready for a break and my batteries are still not fully charged yet, but I have another couple of days to go before I need to buck my ideas up and shake myself into action.

So we have said goodbye (and probably good riddance) to 2020  -  a year that has seen so many hearts, plans and dreams broken.  Let's hope that the sparkly new year ahead of us will be a better one.

This evening whilst Mr Heart was enjoying the football I decided to make my way into my little craft pod for a little playtime and I have made a card for you all:

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1683K" Things to Do
Sentiment:  Using Sizzix Thinlits "664177" Alphanumeric Label
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder
ProMarkers
My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today. 

I hope you all like your card and accept my good wishes for a very Happy 2021. 

No new year resolutions this year .. .. just promises to make the most of each and every day, bring some happiness into as many lives as possible, take time to relax and just do the best I can each day. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

Just calling by to wish everyone the very happiest Christmas they can have in these very strange times.

I certainly know that here it isn't going to be anything like it was last year when we could have as many people crammed around our Christmas table as we wanted.

I will be very grateful for the two people who "are" able to sit at the table with Mr Heart and I that's for sure, but there will be two special folk missing .. .. .. .. the London Kids who are locked in Tier 4.  

We have known for a while that we wouldn't be together so I have slowly come to terms with not seeing them.

I did send them my favourite Christmas card of this year though:

Thankfully we have Facetime to share so we can see each other and can chat for as long as we want to .. .. and plans have been made to get the Playstation cranked up and for us all to play on-line games with each other that make us laugh (mainly because Mr Heart and I are so rubbish at them).  We had a "trial run" over the weekend and things went well (surprisingly) so hopefully we won't be too big a disappointment in the league table.  LOL!!.

So simple pleasures that I am really looking forward to (though it might involve me having to download additional games as the week goes on).

I always thought I appreciated everything and everyone in my life but I must admit this year has taught me that I perhaps haven't appreciated things enough .. .. .. and hopefully I will come out of all this a better person.  

Take care everyone.  

Have the very best Christmas you can and thank you so much for all your visits and lovely comments over the past year.  I appreciate each and every one very much.

.. .. .. just to add .. .. ..

Tonight I have just been reminded of something else I have mistakenly taken for granted ... .. tonight our central heating has decided to stop working (even though it was serviced not so long ago).  We have hot water but no heat (grateful thanks for the hot water Mr Chaos disher outerer).  Tomorrow will see us raid the roof space for any electric heaters we have squirrelled away "just in case".

Hope I can make the house warm enough for Mum tomorrow .. .. she normally lives in temperatures that a greenhouse would be proud of .. .. .. whilst she wears multiple layers of clothing! 

NEARLY SANTA TIME!

Hi Everyone

I hope your week and prelude to Santa Time is going well.

A while ago, whilst in Christmas mode I made a collection of quick cards .. .. this was my favourite of them all and I made quite a few of them .. .. and not just these here .. .. I made LOTS!!

I enjoyed making them so much that I just know there will be quite a few similar non-Christmas ones in the pipeline.

Here is one which I made yesterday:

This used:

Image:  A magazine cover gift from way back when
Sentiment:  Crafter's Companion
Backing paper:  From the Snippet Box
Distress Ink:  Victorian Velvet
Spellbinder Dies:  Classic Oval and Scalloped Oval
X-Cut:  Flower Punch
Black Pearl
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So today is a "lock myself in" day so I can attack the house with the help of my favourite male cleaning companions .. .. Mr Dyson, Mr Sheen, Mr Muscle and Mr Heart (if I am lucky)!

A bit of wrapping to do and then for the first time ever I won't be doing any on Christmas Eve .  

There have been no last minute Christmas cards to make either.  Doing all those cards throughout the year has really helped and Christmas Eve will hopefully be super relaxing (although it does involve taking Mum for the first of her two COVID vaccine jabs!).

Enjoy your day everyone.

CHEERS DAD

Hi Everyone

I am nearly back on track .. .. .. in fact I might be ahead of where I usually am at this time of year. Yay!!!

I still have a few special Christmas cards to make but other than that I am well on my way to be being ready for Santa.

But yesterday was Mr Heart's birthday and Christmas went on hold to celebrate his special day.  I do feel sorry that his birthday falls so close to Christmas and try my very best to separate the two.  The mantlepiece is still full of his birthday cards and they will stay there for a little while until I can't hold off from swapping his cards for fairy lights and candles.

This is the card I made for our youngest Son to give him .. .. .. 

This used:

Image:  Lili of the Valley:  James the Bear Cheers
Sentiment:  Computer Generated using "Carbon Type"
Backing Paper:  The Lovely Studio black circles printed onto blue card to match James' tie

ProMarkers 

Washi Tape

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me for today.

I hope everyone is OK.  

Not sure if I should mention the re-arranged Christmas plans or not.  I just feel so sorry for all those people that may have gone out food shopping today to buy supplies for the Christmas they were planning to have when they woke up this morning.

BEST WISHES

Hi Everyone

Sorry for my absence .. .. .. it has been one very busy week .. .. .. and this one is looking like it is going the same way!  Every day is crammed with things that have "got to be done"!

I am so looking forward to Christmas and having some full days of "chill" time!

But my fingers have been itching for a bit of crafty play .. .. and this is what I have come up with:

This used:

Image:  Woodware Clear Magic Singles "JGS300" Going To Seed
Sentiment:  MFT "All Occasion Sentiments"

Backing Papers:  Craft Sensations "SeaView"
Butterfly Die:  Part of an Old Magazine Cover Gift

ProMarkers
Pearls

Crystal Glamour Dust

My Trusty Sewing Machine

and that is me done and dusted for today.

I hope all your Christmas plans are coming nicely together.  Those "sleeps" before Santa arrives are reducing rather quickly!

TREERIFIC CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

Hope you have enjoyed your day .. .. .. plenty still to do here .. .. .. but I did find the bottom of the ironing basket today so that felt good! 

Here this evening with my teeny, tiny Tuesday card, which for anyone new to my blog measures a whole 3.5 inches square.

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Mama Makes "Treerific Christmas"
Backing Paper from the snippet pile
ProMarkers
Spellbinder Circle Die
Glitter

My Trusty Sewing Machine

I wonder if this will be my last teeny tiny Christmas card of 2020?

CHRISTMAS CHEER

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a good weekend and this new week is off to a good start for you.

Back to Christmas tonight for me with this little make:

This used:

Snowflake Stamps:  Hero Arts "CL622" Designer Snowflakes
Sentiment:  Penny Black "30-140" Christmas Cheer
White Embossing Powder
Distress Ink Pad:  Weathered Wood
Spellbinder Dies:  Oval & Scalloped Oval
Metallic Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

I needed the Post Office today and whilst standing in the queue saw so many people posting off handfuls of Christmas cards.  I must admit to feeling a little envious, and was wishing that mine were all written and ready to post!  

Oh well .. .. one day soon!

Take care everyone.  I'll catch you again soon.

HOW MANY OF THESE WILL WE NEED?

Hi Everyone

I hope you have enjoyed your Sunday .. .. .. it has been a very dull and wet day here .. .. .. and it has been an admin rather than creating day (boo hoo!).

But Mum requested a card yesterday and needs me to take it with me when I see her tomorrow.  So here we go.  Tonight's play session:

This used:

Image:  Buddly Crafts Elines Digital Stamp "Baby Laundry"

Sentiment:  Waltzing Mouse Stamps "Little Darling Sentiments"
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat .. . now known as "The Lovely Studio"

Spellbinder Dies:  Circle and Scalloped Circle

Poppy Stamps Die Set "Stitched Market Tag"

ProMarkers

Nail Heads

Ribbon

Crystal Glamour Dust
My Trusty Sewing Machine

So that is hopefully Mum happy tomorrow!

I wonder how many more of these I will be making over the next few months?  .. .. .. ..  I feel sure the first lockdown will have certainly created its own baby boom!

I hope the coming week is going to be a good one for you.