Christmas is Coming....Let it Snow, Let it Snow, LET IT SNOW!!!!

I love Christmas and it is the icing on the cake when it snows!  I know, I know, it is not everyone's wish but it is mine.  A white Christmas.  Mind you I am fussy about it.  It has to be crispy and white not the melty slushy yukky stuff we so often end up with here in the UK.

I am putting in my request for a blanket of white that makes everywhere beautiful and sparkly and picture postcard perfect.  It has to be a big enough dusting for children to sledge on and make snowmen  and it has to stay long enough for our roads and pavements to be cleared but everywhere else to be glistening and wintery white.  Snow that knows where to stick!  Ha Ha I am not asking for much am I?

I love it when you look out of the window and you see those first fat flakes starting to fall.  At night it is the most perfect of all.  It brings with it a special feel, almost a soft quiet hush as the snowflakes gently flutter out of midnight sky.

As you can tell I am feeling Christmassy today.  The silly season is about to start and I am sharing a Christmas Art Journal video that I hope will spread a little Christmas Spirit.

I think this design would work as a Christmas card too.  Just scale the design down and ho ho ho....another card to add to your pile of cards to be written and sent to those you care about.

Talking of Christmas Cards I am going to do a stock take of my handmade cards as I have been stock piling them in the hope that I will be organised and get them out the door and on their way early this year.......Might need to start writing them early next week.  Might even be my first tag of my Christmas Tag Countdown!!!!!

Hot Chocolate and Christmas songs playing as we write our Christmas cards to remind our family and friends near and far that we love them and are thinking of them.  Perfect start to the holiday preparations.  I may have a date with my craft room this weekend then finishing off cards and matching them to envelopes so they are ready to write.

Hope you like the video.  Wishing you a fun run up to that very special day.  Thank you for popping by X

Brrrrrr It's Cold Outside!

Evening All ;-)

On Friday I taught an all day workshop for my Christmas Tag Countdown.  It really got me in the Christmas spirit.  It is a project based on my online workshop for the Tag Storage Unit (for sale on my side bar on the left or over at my ETSY shop).  So to tempt you with a Christmas version I have made a tutorial for the Advent Tags that will build into either a countdown of your Christmas preparations or can be used as an unusual photo album for your Christmas photographs this year.

I hope you agree it looks fab and I am sure it will compliment your Christmas Home Decor too.  There is room on the back of each tag for journalling and a photo and the tutorial gives the measurements for a non journal version if you averse to writing!!!!  It also shows you how to increase the photo capacity of the tags too.

The tag tutorial is free (below) and the online workshop for the storage unit is only £8.  You get the links for access to the workshop anytime day or night and you also get the written photo instructions too.

Here is a close up of some of the tags:

I intend to journal each day but I will print the photos out in batches and I am looking forward to seeing the mayhem of my Christmas preparations documented for prosperity!

Here's the video - hope you like it.

Hope your are feeling nice and cozy.  Thank you for popping by X

Merry Christmas Card Number Three!!!

Just a quick post to let you know I have a third Christmas Video posted and ready to inspire you!   At least I hope you find it inspiring.  Let me know what you think.

I think it is quick, easy, can be made using any Christmas papers you have in your collection and I think the pop up bauble is soooooo cute and could be used on so many other Christmas card creations.  Don't  forget this design also works with the word SNOW, fun if you have snowy Christmas papers.

Just grab yourself a cuppa and press play!  I am off to have a leisurely breakfast with Pepe and Lourdes once again.....I can hear that diet nagging in my ear.  Hope you are enjoying my Christmas card inspiration series.......now what can I do next I wonder...........

See you soon.  Don't forget to subscribe so you can be first to know when I post.

Thank you for popping by and have a lovely day X

Ho Ho Ho! Christmas Card Number Two

Good morning all.  Well it was when I first started to write!!!!  But I have since been interrupted by a very pleasant and leisurely continental breakfast with our friends who are visiting from Gibraltar.  I had some toasted garlic bread with butter and Serrano ham and it was a tasty change from my usual cereal!  So much chatter and a delicious breakfast later I should now say Good Afternoon ;-)

Today I am sharing another Christmas tutorial.  This card looks elegant and can be made in other combinations of patterned papers and ribbons.  I love the black and cream together with the small splash of colour introduced by the ribbon.

I have tried to ensure that the first lot of Christmas inspiration I am sharing could be made by any crafter with the stash they have in their possession.  Most folk I know own card, patterned papers and ribbon.  Just add a stamped or printed greeting and a snowflake embellishment and ........Voila!

I really love the ribbon detail of this card and it could be used on other cards for other occasions.  For example you could have a pearl cream embossed card base with all cream ribbons and suddenly it becomes suitable for a wedding and I am sure you will find it useful and it is very pretty as you can see in more detail here.

So last but not least here is video number two in my Christmas Inspiration series.  I have added Christmas music to get you in the mood.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend......we are popping out to have coffee and cake this afternoon in a lovely little cafe and gift shop.  I may have to treat myself to a Christmas ornament or two!!!  Watch this space ;-)   Shhhhhhh don't tell Ivan ;-)

Thank you for popping by X

First Christmas Card Video on YouTube!

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.  Yesterday was lovely here and that was good as we were standing on the sidelines watching our youngest playing Rugby on Sunday morning.  I am not sure Rugby and Gymnastics are going to be compatible as Callum keeps bashing his shoulder which is not good.  I am going to investigate padding as I have seen them wearing it on the TV!

I am sharing the link to a Christmas tutorial today and hope you like it.

Even if you are one of the super organised ones and have all your cards ready to post this is worth a watch as it shows you how to make a pop up slider card.  It can feature any stamp combinations for any occasions.  I love this card format as it has that interactive element and folds completely flat for posting!

Hope you find it a useful tutorial with a touch of Christmas inspiration.  Be back soon with another Christmas Card idea featuring a Creative Expressions stamp set.

I love using Creative Expressions stamps for my card classes because there is always such variety on each stamp set as you will see this week!

I am hoping with a series of Christmas videos to give you all a taste of my up coming stamp club where I will be offering stamps and a whole lot of video tutorial inspiration.  We all spend a lot of money on stamps so my club will be all about making the most of your investment exploring lots of different techniques along the way.

I wish I had a technique for stretching time about now!!!!

Have a great week and thank you for popping by X

PS please subscribe if you like my tutorials - thank you X

Halloween Tutorial - Is this late or incredibly early????

Morning everyone.  It is a misty, damp autumnal morning outside my window today.  I am sharing a video I didn't quite get finished in time for Halloween!  Proceedings were interrupted by a family break in Cornwall and because I didn't have any corks to finish off my spooky creations!  I had to buy them with no wine attached......who would believe that!!!!!? ;-) Actually hubby went out an bought them for me so big kiss to him X

I had such fun making these I am going to be collecting a few more unusual shaped bottles this year to make another little display for the other side of my fireplace.  They look fab when the fire is lit.  Here is the tutorial to get you thinking of spooky potion looks of your own.

I am off to have my breakfast before I leave for my crop with friends.  We will be cozy and warm surrounded by our stash.  How much of it will be used I am not sure.  But I know for sure calories will be consumed, coffee will be drunk and there will be laughter ;-) ........layouts mmmmmm......can't guarantee it ha ha!

I will post again tonight and move on to Christmas with my next tutorial.  See you later and thank you for popping by X

A layout from the Past

Every now and again I like to share a layout that I made when I first started scrapbooking.  It is fun to look back at what we got up to prior to having a Cricut or Cuttlebug.  Before we had a myriad of card stock patterned and plain.

This layout uses 3 pieces of card stock and I remember taking the photos to my local scrapbook shop and matching the colours to the sunset in the photos!  It might be better to still do that as I never seem to have quite the right shade of Bazil do you ;-) !

No lettering cut out by a gadget just little old me stamping and stitching - I definitely had never heard of a Distress Ink when I made this.  I remember buying the pretty sequins though!  They came in little containers that looked like eyeshadow pots and called to me and too most of my pals 'buy me.....buy me!!!! - look how pretty I am packaged you really do need me!!!!!'

This layout didn't take long for the matting and layering but the hand sewing and stitching of all the sequins took me from sunrise until Gibraltar Sunset!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this little snapshot of Scrapbooking from the Scrapbooking Past!

Thank you for popping by X

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I love Cornwall.....

....even if it has rubbish internet connection!!!!!  Callum, Ivan and I have just returned from spending half term in Cornwall.  It is the first time we have been there and we loved it.

We stayed in a mobile home which Callum thinks would make a fab party pad!  Our second night was the night of the storm and I have to say after being a little uneasy about our home from home blowing away in a gale we spent the day walking by a fabulously stormy sea and the night sleeping soundly as the wind blew straight past and on up the country.  We have had a lovely time exploring the Cornish Coast and its many tiny coves and finding great spots to eat well earned cream teas!!!

We found a fabulous cafe at Lizards Point perched on a cliff and we sat outside with our Cornish Cream tea (in my case coffee).  A lovely spot to enjoy the rugged Cornish coast and a few yummy calories!!!

We were not put off by the changeable weather one bit as we love to be by the sea whatever mood it is in.  I will share a few more photos of some lovely spots we found last week as I get back to more regular blogging.   I did intend to blog from Cornwall but I just couldn't get online.  I even prepared a couple of posts so I could share them whilst we were away so I just shared one of them a moment ago!

I hope to catch up with a few craft things now I am back.  I almost finished a halloween video before I left for Cornwall so even though it is late I think I will finish that off tomorrow and get that up.  It will be inspiration for next year ;-)  I saved some unusual bottles throughout 2013 and had fun turning them into spooky potions to add to my Halloween home decor.

I also need to catch up with my Tim Holtz 12 tags as I missed the October deadline and Tim will post November tomorrow.......and I have class prep this week so I really know I am back from my restful holiday!!!!  Might need another cream tea or three to sustain me through the busy crafty week ahead.

One more photo of Cornwall before I go to peel potatoes for Sunday Lunch!!!  We visited Lands End and the day was blustery and the weather changeable as you can see!  I managed to capture the beautiful blue skies and a raincloud passing over and the end of the rainbow!!!!

I think there will be a pot of clotted cream at the end of this Cornish Rainbow ;-)

Hope you have a wonderful week.  Thank you for popping by X

Mini Machine Stitches a Large Layout!

Quite some time ago I shared a couple of photos of cards I made using a teeny tiny sewing machine I found when tidying up my shelves and cupboards.  I had forgotten I had bought it and it had never been used and this layout is actually the first project I tried my mini sewing machine on and its colour scheme inspired the two cards I went on to make.  The ones I actually finished and shared!!! Here is a link to the first card and here is a link to the second!  I took a while to do the journalling so it has ended up being posted last and very much later indeed.  I am definitely a slow journaller!

This is my first ever attempt at paint splattering on my layouts as well as trying out my long forgotten sewing machine from Lilliput.  It was a bit scary and I probably should have done it before I put it all together!  I think I like it though.  The white dots and spots are completely random splatter - I got it everywhere. Then I wanted to add another colour and wanted a bit more control so I just dotted that on with the end of the paint brush - a much more calming experience!

Here is something strange that will make you chuckle.  When I was sewing this layout I found myself wiggling my foot around under my desk to find the foot control of my sewing machine!!  How bazaar is that :-)

Here is my eldest son Damian with his prize catch - a very tasty sea bass.  Damian still likes fishing he was 17 then and 30 now.  He has gone back to live in Gibraltar so those Sea Bass had better be on their guard!!!

Wishing you inspiration and the time to create!  Thank you for popping by X

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