Christmas cards ready for 2016.....

 Hope you all had a lovely Christmas..

 I have now used all the beautiful sepia images that Anneke sent me and thought you might like to see them before I put them away for next Christmas.

I've tried to used die cuts and papers from my bit box on these cards but I did purchase Joanna Sheen's Wisteria die which I have used but not as the flower itself but as leaves etc...

 The little wooden embellishment is also one that was in my packet of goodies from Anneke...this round die cut just fitted nicely in this Marianne die cut..

 

For my last card again I've used a Marianne die cuts to mount the little Christmas scene, the poinsettia and leaves were also in my 'bit' box...  

Many of us have been experiencing loss of followers and this is the reason why so please read
...

Have you lost a few followers?

In a nutshell, Blogger have (as we suspected) been tinkering with the Followers service.

Quote from a post on 'The Real Blogger Status' dated Monday December 21st:

During the past weekend, Blogger started the process of simplifying Following. This involves removing non Google accounts and profiles from Following.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

This is the link to the blog, explaining in more detail
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2015/12/blogger-followers-google-friend-connect.html

Hope this enlightens those of you who've been wondering!

Anne 

A Very Happy Christmas to you all......

 This will be my last post before Christmas.....I've been busy making more cards with the lovely sepia images from Anneke....

 

 I would like to thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog over the past year and for all your lovely comments....

Wishing you all A Very Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you all...

Anne  

Winter wonderland....

 When I opened my Christmas card from my  lovely blogging friend Anneke from Cards, Vintage and More I had a lovely surprise as Anneke had enclosed some lovely crafty images and embellishments and included were some beautiful sepia Christmas images,  I just couldn't wait to have a play....this is my first card.
I just added a little bit of glitter to the snow scene  and my topper was complete.  Printed backing paper from my stash but  can't tell you where it was from as it was an odd bit and I just added the little Sue Wilson Snowflake and also Spellbinders small poinsettia die,  leaves from my bit box...
Thank you Ann so much for my gifts...I hope to make some more cards before I put all my Chritmas bits and bobs away...

Anne

Nearly done....

 

I've been so behind this year with Christmas cards but I think I have now just about finished....sorry for not posting more cards  on my blog but I have had the lurgy this week and haven't felt like doing anything but just wanted to get my cards ready for posting which I will do tomorrow. 

 Just love this Penny Black stamp called Xmas Kiss there are certain Penny Black stamps that I wouldn't part with and this is one of them...the trailing Ivy is from Sue Wilson and the Merry Christmas is Poppystamps die...Martha Stewart Holly punch in the corner.

Off to see our youngest granddaughter singing in church tonight...

Have a great weekend..

Anne

 

A special cake.....and birthday

 

We've been away last week celebrating my special birthday.....the lady who was going to make my cake had to pull out at the last minute so our lovely grandson Charlie who is 14 offered to make my cake instead.....Charlie knows how much I love chocolate and this is what he made for me isn't it fabulous?    I can tell you it tasted sooooo good...inside was layers of chocolate buttercream it was so yummy....His hero is Mary Berry....bless him...    Charlie I love you.....thank you so much for making my special my cake...Its a shame the photograph isn't better but wanted to share this photograph with you all....

 

Anne  

I've made a Christmas card!!....

I haven't been idle these past two weeks I've been busy sewing making more fabric wreaths like I made last year and also a new patchwork advent calendar for one of my daughters....I also work as a volunteer one morning and one afternoon a week in a primary school now so dont spend as much time as I did crafting....

Onto my card... so many of you look like you are well ahead with making your Christmas cards me I've only just started!!  I bought this lovely little die set from Stampin Up called 'Sleigh Ride' so having an hour spare this morning before I dash off to Patchwork (who said you had more spare time when you are retired?) A very quick a simple card, backing paper is from my stash, the sentiment is from Stampin UP Winter Wonderland set....we also have to think about the cost of postage on our Christmas cards so the flatter the card the better I know some people have stopped sending cards but its all part of our Christmas tradition so I wont  stop sending cards

Thanks for stopping by hopefully I will have another card for you in the next couple of days...

Anne

Stampin up Christmas Extravaganza Day.

 

We had a fabulous day yesterday  crafting with the lovely and very talented Jenny Moors from Stamping Moments.

We made some lovely cards and projects using the Reason for the Season Stamp set and matching punch,  

 

Two stepper cards we made....just love the design of this one using the punch and building up the poinsettia flower.

 

I really enjoy using frames for projects and loved this one we made, SU bauble and merry dies the Alphabet dies were also Stampin up...

 

Loved this cracker idea and even better inside contained a box of chocolates I choose Minstrels for mine, this makes a great little 'token' gift for someone..

 

Just loved the Christmas Noel hanging we did and again we made two poinsettia flowers up from the punch and placed them on a ribbon....think my daughters will be getting one of these also this year...

 

Another two Christmas cards....

 

This little bag we made using the bag making board and the Noel hanging fits lovely in this...

 

At least now I have a few more Christmas cards to add to my pile...

Thank once again Jenny we all had a wonderful day.....

Hopefully I should be back in the craft now after finishing our babysitting duties over the half term period, but we had lots of fun at Monkey World and Pecarama...

Anne 

Club Night.....

 How quickly out club meetings come around....last night we made these little paper mugs and stirring stick and added a sachet of hot Chocolate and marshmallows....these little mugs are great as you can also use them for birthdays etc not just Christmas.

 Our second project was using both postitive and negative die cuts...inking behind where the die had been cut out and inking and stamping onto the die cut itself....the top layer of the card was popped onto sticky pads to raise it up which doesn't show very well on the photos ... .

 The elephant and Giraffe dies came from a pack of dies by Penny Black called On Safari...a versitile little set...I've kept my samples simple but can do so much with these dies...

 My Christmas card die is a Memory Box one called Leaping Deer....just used a word die on these little 'deers'.....

For this card I've used a Memory Box leaf die, after die cutting I popped the front in the SU Wall embossing folder, used a small plant punch to finish off my card...

 Its coming up to half term week soon and we have two little visitors staying with us but will  try and get another card made before they arrive!

Have a great weekend whatever you have planned...

For some reason some of your comments wont publish...but thank you anyway..

Thanks for passing by

Anne 

Sorry I'm missing......

I've had a couple of emails asking if I am ok as I haven't posted for a while...  yes I am fine but life has been very busy over the past 3 or 4  weeks and I'm afraid crafting has had to take a back seat for a while but hopefully another couple of weeks and I should be back in the craft room.....
Thank you for caring...

Hope you've all been enjoying this beautiful sunshine we've been having...we've just spent a glorious week up in Co Durham and Newcastle, so much to see and do especially Beamish museum what a fantastic place that is took us two days to get round it and then we didn't see it all!

I will try and catch up on your blogs in the evenings to see what I've been missing...

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend... 

Anne

Pixies Snippet Playground week 193.....

 

Managed to find enough in my snippets box to  make a card for Pixies Snippet Playground.

Paper is from Dovercraft back to Basics pack, frame from Craftwork cards, the lovely butterfly swirl is Tattered Lace,  flower is Sue Wilson and leaves from a punch.... Happy Birthday sentiment from a SU sentiments set.

Its a miserable morning here in Somerset so no good light to take the photograph...

Anne 

I'm back......

 After spending time with the grandchildren over the summer holiday we then went on a cruise to Norway...what a beautiful place and stunning scenery.
We had two days at sea and were lucky enough to have a lady called Jan Allston who was doing craft classes so my friend Eileen and myself went along..
The first thing we made was a collage postcard using different fabrics creating a backgound and of course a printed version of our ship the Magellan which doesn't really show up very well.

 In the afternoon we made a lovely needle case using a pattern by Jennie Rayment and the pattern was call Fandango...just like origami really but with fabric...the back and the fron were identical....

 We were also given needles to complete the inside..... I really enjoyed making this.

 

Wednesday morning we made this little patchwork owl pincushion... 

in the afternoon we started to make a sampler of Boutis work.....

I'd never heard of this but if you google you will see it means 'Stuffing'....its really embriodery which you then stuff....hard to explain but looks amazing when finished...hopefully I will get my sample finished at some point to show you...

We meet some lovely ladies in our craft classes and had a great laugh along the way....

Back to the normal housework chores.....its coming very hard having been waited on hand and foot for a week.....

Will try to catch up on your blogs in the next few days to see what you'[ve been up to...

I hope to be back card making at some point next week...

Have a great weekend...

Anne 

Craft Club Night...

 

It was our club night last Wedsnesday and we used a Rose die to make Fuschias, roses and daisies and the Li'l Inkers boxed up Birthday die (I've already posted a card with the complete die on and Fuschias)..... For this card I've cut the happy off the birthday die and made a little rose and two rose buds...

 

Again I've used just the Birthday made some daisies in white and used a little Spellbinders die cut to pop it on...border punch and papers are Stampin up...

I had 3 little yellow daisies left over so I popped them onto a die cut that I had in my bit box.

Spent yesterday afternoon with my two youngest grandchildren crafting they thoroughly enjoyed making cards and also decided to make place name cards for our dinner table last night where their mummy and daddy joined us...

I really need to sort out my camera as my photo's aren't brilliant!

Have a good weekend...

Anne

Snippetts Playground week 188....

Still spending time with grandchildren and yesterday was our youngest 5th Birthday, we had a meal out and then back home for birthday cake and fireworks last night....
Whilst clearing my desk yesterday I found a Sizzix butterfly die, a  handmade rose and a Marianne die cut so made a quick card which is suitable for Pixie's Snippets challenge
Backing paper is SU and Die'sire corners...photo not brilliant I'm afraid!

Gorgous weather at the moment down here in Somerset hopefully you also have sunshine...
Have a great weekend...

Anne 

Sneak peek....

  Having a great time spending time with the grandchildren but my crafting has gone out of the window!   I did snatch a couple of hours to make a start on samples  for August  club night.....so rather than have nothing to post for another week  I'll show you one of my sample cards.  
We are using the Happy Birthday die from  from 'Lil Inkers' and also the girls will be given petals from the Britiannia small Rose die and we aim to make roses, daisies and Fuschia flowers....the fuschia flowers are so easy to make but of course you need a box to put the card in as they dont lie flat.....also on my card I've used a Marianne die and the butterfly is from Stampin Up, leaves stamp is  a Heartfelt Creations one.....

Hope you all have a great weekend....

Anne

Club Night....

 

Late in posting what we did at club as this has been a hectic and busy week for me....

At last Wednesdat club evening we made boxes....the first box was a Squeeze Box you can make these any size and are ideal for little Birthday or Christmas gift boxes.

The 2nd box we made was a Hexagon box again these can be made any size, the girls put one single large rose of their hexagaon boxes but as you all know there are so many different ways of embellishing anything and these are a few of my samples.  The taller hexagon box would take a half bottle of wine but of course you would use thicker card to give it strength.

Another busy week ahead and then of course the children break up for the summer holidays so I wont be getting much crafting done then as we will be spending time with all the grandchildren but I will try and visit your blogs inbetween...

Anne. 

Good Luck....

 We've just got back from having a lovely week  away in our caravan and what fabulous weather although at times it was too hot I'm not complaining!

Our youngest daughter is taking a management exam next week so I need to make her a card, she doesn't do fussy or girly cards and her nickname is 'Bird' so thought one of Tim Holtz 'Crazy Bird' images would be very apt.
Very simple card, coloured with watercolours, little bit of pink and a single flower, computer generated sentiment and it was done.... Jut added some eyelids to the image to make it look a bit like a female!

Its an other glorious day down here in Somerset but we have a gentle breeze blowing which is lovely...

Need to catch up on all your blogs now to see what you've been up to...

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing

Anne

Birthday Wishes....

 The stamps on this card I have had for many years I think I bought them in around  2009  they were designed by lady called Kay Carley they are from a set of her stamps that are so easy to stamp and colour.
I found some lace glittered card which has been in my bit box for ages which  just fitted on the bottom of the card nicely, butterfly is an old Martha Stewart one which I still use a lot....

Thanks for looking

Anne

Look what I've got..........

 Last November when I met up with my friend Val (Aquarius blog) she was wearing the most beautiful beaded poppy she had made and I asked her if she would make me one and much to my delight she said 'yes'  ...
When I last met up with Val for coffee she handed me this beautifully decorated box and inside was my poppy she had made.

  Isn't it beautiful? The beads are so tiny and must have taken her a very long time to put the poppy together, I can't to wear it but of course I dont have to keep it until next November I can wear it anytime....  Thank you so much Val I shall always treasure it...Val is such a talented lady...
Pop over to Val's blog she has just posted another piece of beading on her blog.


Anne

Thinking of you.......

 

I kept the front of a card I had sent to me a long time ago as I thought the image was just adorable and so pleased I did as I needed to make a quick 'Get Well' card for a friend and thought this liitle image fitted the bill.

The embossed background is one of Sue Wilsons Pin Point embossing folders and I've just added glossy accents to the droplets of water....

Anne

Anniversary card....

 We had a lovely day down in Sidmouth yesterday its was a little bit chilly to start with but when the sun came out it was lovely....always nice to go down to the seaside to blow away the cobwebs...

This is a card I made for our friends  wedding anniversary...I found this gorgeous pre-coloured image on the web...the backing is SU woodgrain stamp and the green leafy die in one of Sue Wilsons.....
Hope you are all enjoying todays sunshine...

Anne

Train Spotting..

 I'm such a bad blogger at the moment but I have been busy 'behind the scenes'..lOl....

I've done lots of sewing and have just completed another quilt this time for our youngest grandson (photos later) also I've been busy preparing for our July club meeting so I haven't been idle!

I was asked to make a train card for an 80th and this image from the Kevin Walsh Out and About paper pad fitted the request and I've also used my new corner die which is from Crafters Companion Diesire range.. 

Its a beautiful day today so do you think our summer is on its way??

Thanks for looking

Anne 

Pixies Snippets challenge 178-179

Well its almost two weeks since my last post my Vertigo has almost gone so life is back to normal in the craft room and we also had a few days away on the south coast which was lovely.
My card for this weeks Pixies Snippets Challenge
rummaging through my bits box I found a lovely image of a cat which is a from made up of a paper tissue hankechief which has been  mod Podged and put onto card, frame is an old Spellbinders one, packing paper and flowers left over from a Papermaina pad....butterfly is SU stamped onto coloured card then I used bleach to bleach out the colour .

The children are on half term this week so we will be spending time with them all at some stage...

Anne