WOWEEEEEE!!!!! Do I have news for you .........

Hi Lovely Visitors,

No crafting makes to show today but .............. I have two fabulous things I wanted to share so I'm giving them their own post.

First of all, a couple of weeks ago I was the lucky winner of some fabulous blog candy which was very generously given by a lovely lady over in the US as part of her Thanksgiving celebrations.  How much of a coincidence was it that the biiiiiiig parcel arrived safely on Thanksgiving Day.  Look at all these beautiful goodies.

 

I've already incorporated one of the lovely embossing powders onto my next project for Snazzys which I'll be posting next Monday.  There are some beautiful stamps including one gorgeous 'Cover a Page' stamp which I've had my eye on and the Alterations embossing folders which I've been hankering after for a while and many lovely surprises.  And the generous lady who sent me all this gorgeous stuff is ..............Stamping Suzz.  If you don't know her blog already you are missing a treat as Sue is extremely talented and her blog is full of wonderful inspiration so do click on the link and give her a visit.  Take a cuppa with you though because you're sure to be there a while, lol!  THANK YOU FROM ME SUE!

AND NOW ............................

I HAVE SOME MORE FANTABULOUS NEWS .......... but this time it's from my lovely bosses and the equally smashing Gillian, DT co-ordinator extraordinaire, at SNAZZYS!

 

JUST LOOK WHO'S COMING TO STAY, PLAY AND TEACH AT SNAZZYS NEXT YEAR!

None other than the unique and extremely talented ANNA DABROWSKA, aka FINNABAIR!

HERE is a direct link to the relevant post on the Snazzy DT Blog and THIS is a link to Anna's wonderful blog.  Her work is absolutely amazing so go check them out and don't delay getting your name on the list for when the full details are available in the New Year.  Places are bound to sell out fast! 

I'm off to drool over Anna's blog again.  I'll be back in the wee small hours of Monday morning with my first project using the latest Snazzys DT pack.  Hope you can drop by then.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx 

Finally........A Couple of Quick Christmas Cards

Morning All,

Finally I have made some Christmas cards and about time too!  Actually, I wanted to get these done last week to post on the Snazzys DT Blog but didn't make it in time so I decided to get them done and show them here whilst we are still promoting this lovely Country Cottage Collection papers, stamps and embellishments.  I really like this collection mainly because the colours are the gorgeous traditional reds and greens which are my favourites for Christmas.  The papers are also really good quality and take inks beautifully.  These cards were quite quick to make and used up some of the leftovers from making my Christmas Organiser.

This first one uses a square of the Red Snowflakes design and I overstamped with a snowflake from the stamp collection using Wow Vanilla White EP with some Clear Rock Candy glitter mixed in.  I really like this effect as it adds a subtle sparkle (unfortunately couldn't capture it on here) and also gives the EP a rough texture similar to Distress EPs.  I then softly inked round the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink, wrapped with satin ribbon and mounted onto a square of ivory pearlescent card which had been dry embossed with a snowflake embossing folder before mounting onto the 6" x 6" base card.

I then cut two of the mini Rosette Snowflakes with my new Tim Holtz/Sizzix die from the Sentiments design paper, inked them slightly with Aged Mahogany DI before swiping with a bit of Flitterglu and sprinkling them with Clear Rock Candy glittter and finally adding the brads from the embellishment pack. I do wish I could have caught the pretty sparkle on this card. This one really does look so pretty in artificial light!

 

This second card uses the reverse of Red Snowflakes on the top half and the reverse of Sentiments at the  bottom separated by a die cut border in ivory pearlescent card and shiny green ribbon. 

 I cut the poinsettia with another new acquisition, ;D, the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Tattered Poinsettia (think I need the little one now, lol), using more of the ivory pearlescent card and some co-ordinating green card, inking round all the edges with Black Soot DI and adding a brad from the embellishment pack to hold it together.  Finally I stamped and embossed the Merry Christmas from the stamp set using the Wow Vanilla White EP.

Do pop over to the Snazzy DT blog if you have time where the inspiration from the rest of my DT buddies continues unabated for a couple more weeks yet.  There's bound to be some beautiful projects to get you in the mood for Christmas .......... can't wait to see what they come up with myself too!

We had a rather expensive day yesterday :0(.  Firstly my OH needed a new pair of glasses unexpectedly as he'd only had his other since February!!!! We followed that up with a visit to our local Comet store to find a new phone.  We've been struggling with our other one for yonks but I kept putting off getting a new one ............ toooo lazy to go look, lol!  Of course, while we were there and I was concentrating on the phone comparisons Hubby drifted over to the TVs as men tend to do.  Result?  We came out with a 40" TV (plenty big enough for our cosy lounge) as well a the phone package!  Still, that saves me thinking up an Anniversary present ;-) .................... it is our 40th Wedding Anniversary on the 18th November and boy is it scary how fast those 40 years have gone.

Right I'm off to run some errands.  Wish I could stay home and craft but needs must.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend with plenty of R&R.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Christmas Project #2 for the Snazzys DT Blog.

Hi Everyone,

I'm back again with a sneaky peek of my 2nd project for this week over on the Snazzys DT Blog.  This month we have been asked to showcase some gorgeous papers in my favourite traditional reds and greens together with a matching set of stamps and lovely brads and die cut elements.......The Christmas Cottage Collection by Theresa Collins.  The more I've used this collection the more I love it!

Here's my sneaky peek

Please pop over to the DT blog and have a look at the whole project and I'd love you to leave a comment.

I'll be back again fairly soon ....... if I get a bit of playtime, lol!  Mind you with less than 8 weeks until Christmas I really ought to be making Christmas cards!!!!!  Okay then, who's already got theirs done ;D

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

It's Christmas Time over at Snazzys!

Good Morning Everyone,

It's my turn to post over on the Snazzys DT Blog and this month we have some lovely Christmassy goodies to play with.  Although it takes me a little while to get into the swing of Christmas makes I do love them once I get going as I love almost everything about Christmas.  I could do without the heavy handed commercialism ........ and the cooking which I totally hate, lol ............ but cards, decorations and twinkly lights make me feel really cheerful and best of all most people do seem more inclined to be nice to one another so I'll put up with the not so nice bits ;D.

Anyway, here is a sneaky peek of my first project this week.  As always, I do hope you have time to pop over to the DT Blog for a nosy and hopefully to leave me a little comment.  Remember, by leaving an extra comment HERE you can be in with a chance of winning some of the lovely items the DT have been using this month in the Snazzys monthly draw.

(sorry it's a bit blurry but it didn't like being cropped.......... don't think I would either ;D)


I'll be back later in the week with another Christmas project using these lovely papers, stamps and embellies.  Till then have a lovely week everyone and don't let the earlier dark nights get you down ...... that's a bit of pep talk for myself 'cos I hate 'em, lol!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A rare occurance ...... playtime!

Hi lovely visitors,

I hope you've all had the lovely autumnal weather we've had here in the Midlands today.  The wind was a bit 'fresh' but lots of sunshine which  made the golden trees look gorgeous.  A week ago only a few of the trees around here were starting to turn and yet today there were loads as well as lots of leaves on the ground.  I wish I'd taken my camera out with me. 

My Hubby and I decided to try a new carvery restaurant (well new to us anyway, lol) and for anyone who lives nearby I would certainly recommend it.  The carvery was pretty good but the starters and desserts were to die for ;0)  For anyone who lives in North Notts this is the web link  www.blackburn-house.co.uk.  It's a converted 107 yr old pumping station and Grade II listed so has lots of history too.

I've actually had a brilliant weekend altogether because yesterday I went to the new Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Kettering Conference Centre with two of my crafting buddies, Jo and Judith.  Our other partner in crime, Elaine couldn't be with us and we did miss her but it was still a great show.  As you would expect very like the Ally Pally show but obviously without the atmosphere of Alexandra Palace.  The Conference Centre was really nice though and very light and spacious with lots of room between stands nice reasonably priced food and a lovely area to eat it in or just to sit for a chat and a drink and best of all it was easily do-able there and back in one day.  Ally Pally is lovely but I always feel the distance warrants an overnight stay which makes it expensive.  There were a few of the usual exhibitors missing but there are so many shows on this month it's not surprising but I was a happy bunny because most of my favourites were there.  My lovely 'Bosses', ;D, Don and Val from Snazzys were there and also two of my Snazzy team mates, Gillian and Hels were both demoing on the Creative Expressions stand.  I also got to watch the fabulously talented Leandra (Mrs PaperArtsy) producing wonderful little pieces of art.  I could have stood there all day! Two other lovely and very talented ladies I got to watch and chat to were Sue Wilson (on the Rubbernecker stand) and Claire Charvil (on the Ali-Craft stand).  All in all a day in my crafting heaven!  Er, I didn't tell you I spent loads of dosh did I!  Good job it's only the second show I've been to this year, lol!  I do hope this show takes off as people get to know about it as there was such a good mix of exhibitors and it's nice to have a show of this calibre for us Midland Crafters.

Anyway, in my last post I showed you two background pieces of card I'd made playing with my new Metallic Distress Stains and I actually got a bit more playtime before going to the show and turned the tag background into this .........(this pic shows the truest colours)

Sorry the pics aren't too great but I took them in a hurry before taking the tag with me to give to Snazzys at the show.  The background was made by putting pools of two Distress Stain colours and the Gold Distress Stain onto my craftsheet and then spritzing with water before swiping my tag through the puddles.  I did this several times, drying with the heat gun between layers, until I was happy.  I also flicked some spots of water onto the surface and then dabbed off with paper towel.

I stamped various images with Distress Inks from different sets of Tim Holtz stamps most notably the skull from Halloween Blueprints and then shadow stamped this image with the Gold Metallic Distress Stain.  The last bit of stamping was the random flourish stamped in Black Archival Ink.

I die cut three of the Alterations/Sizzix tattered pine cones and made them into roses dabbing the edges with the gold Distress Stain and filling the centres with black Stickles.  I then cut several of the pine leaves on the same die and dabbed these with the gold also before arranging all these on the tag.  I changed the colour of a silver skull charm using peel off pens and added a touch of the gold Distress Stain and added this to the tag together with a little spider sticker from the Carta Bella All Hallow's Eve collection.  Everything I used to make this tag, except the pine cone die,  can be purchased from the lovely Snazzys shop.

Well, that's it from me today.  I hope you didn't mind my chat at the beginning of the post but for anyone living fairly close to me I thought the restaurant and the Kettering show might be of interest.  I hope to be back later this week if I get chance to play with some of my new goodies.  Till then have a lovely week everyone and take care.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

A Special Someone's Birthday Card

Last week saw the 32nd birthday of our lovely Daughter, Jenna.........my, how time flies!  This is one of those occasions when I wish I had scanned some of our old photos onto the computer but ....... they are still in boxes up in the loft and haven't seen the light of day for ages.  Hmmm, wonder if I can get OH interested in that task when he retires next year.  All efforts to get him interested in a hobby have failed miserably so far ;D.

Anyway, today I have the card I made for Jenna to share with you.

I started with my favourite 21 cm x 21 cm card base and blended a very light background of Pan Pastels  (from Snazzys).  I then used a lovely mask I bought at least a couple of years ago from Chocolate Baroque when it was still Graphicus (Elusive Images stamps) and blended Bundled Sage Distress Ink through the mask which I moved around at random till I had covered the background.

You can just see some of the masking here in the background.

I followed this with stamping the beautiful corner scroll from Indigo Blu using a Versamark inkpad and dabbed Pan Pastels over the stamped image before gently dusting away the excess from the surface.

I stamped the quote from a Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous set and then cut it out and layered it using Nestabilities before mounting onto my card with 3D foam pads. The leaves are die cut using the Alterations Tattered Florals Garland die and the spiral flower are handcut from co-ordinating scraps of papers from my rather large box of said scraps (I am soooooo baaaaaddd for not getting more of them used up).

Once I had spiralled the flowers I inked the edges with Distress Inks and then used a Zig broad nibbed two way glue pen to to add glue to the edges before dipping them into Glamour Dust fine glitter.  I arranged the flowers and leaves on my card before sticking them down and finally added a couple of little bird charms.

I didn't get to see Jenna until yesterday when OH and I went up to Harrogate to take her and her family out for a meal.  It was a little frantic as we have Izzy at 4.5 yrs and little Charlie at 10 months.  They were very good but Charlie is an early walker and having become totally confident on his feet 3 weeks ago does not like sitting down for  more than two minutes.  No wonder Jenna says she feels as though her bum never meets a chair, lol!  It's easy for me to laugh though.

I have one last photo for you today because on Saturday postie delivered my lovely Metallic Distress Stains from Snazzys and I managed a little play yesterday morning.  The sun was shining very brightly so  I took these to show the fabulous shine of the gold one.

The first one is on matte coated cardstock and the second one is on a Ranger manilla tag.  Now need to turn them into something, lol!

Have a good week friends.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

DT project #2 for Snazzys September products.

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post (honestly) to let you know I managed to get a second project done for Snazzys this week.  It was looking a bit touch and go for the last few days.................. family stuff and all that!  Anyway, here's a sneak peek at what I made and you can see it in it's entirety here on the Snazzy DT blog.  Do hope you have time to pop across to see the whole thing.

That's it from me for now but just to say I hope everyone has a lovely weekend whatever you are doing.  I'm looking forward to a fairly quiet one as the last few weekends have been very busy with family stuff.  Lovely but a quiet one is nice once in a while, lol!  I hope the weather picks up a bit especially for any poor folks who are mopping up after floods.

Till next time,

Hugs
Lesley  Xx