how to kill a laptop

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas - I certainly did, lovely times with family and friends, fantastic food, great presents and time to relax and enjoy the special time of year.

One spanner in the works of a totally wonderful Christmas was killing my laptop though! I stupidly managed to spill hot tea all over it and of course it was instant death - and nope, I hadn't saved any of my data...gggrr!

It's gone to the computer hospital today to see if there's any chance of it being resucitated, or at least retrieving the data - fingers crossed. In the meantime I've been able to hop on my mum's computer when I can to check emails etc but I won't be able to post any projects to my blog which is so annoying - you really don't realise how much you rely on computers til they don't work do you?

Still, if I use the time to get back in my craft room after a break over Christmas here's hoping I'll have some things to show when the saga resolves itself!

Til then, wishing everyone a wonderful new year - here's to a healthy and happy 2009!

Christmas wishes

Hi everyone!

As I most likely won't get to post or stop by your blogs over the next few days, I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas. I hope, whatever you're doing and wherever you're spending it you have a very special time with your family and friends.

Thank you for all your wonderful comments and for visiting my blog over the past few months - I'm so grateful to have met such wonderful people through it. It's such a fabulous community to be part of.

I look forward to catching up after Christmas!

Lots of love and have fun!!
Kate xxx

Sparkling bird

Happy Christmas week everyone - hope you're all managing to stay sane!!

This is a Christmas card using non-Christmas colours. I took inspiration for the colours from this beautiful May arts ribbon and used Always Artichoke and Really Rust Cardstock to match it.

I adore this Inkadinkadoo bird - I embossed it with some beautiful copper embossing powder - it's sooo sparkely IRL! I cut birdie out with labels dies, sewed around the edges of the card and finished up with some matching dew drops.

I've been visiting blogs quickly but haven't had time to leave comments I'm afraid. I'm loving seeing everyone's festive creations though! Thanks for visiting and enjoy the run-up to the big day!

One of a kind

I love challenges - they really expand your creativity. Carole sets great colour combo challenges fortnightly on In Love With Stamping and this week's is Old Olive, Pixie Pink and Whisper White, I don't think I would have put this together myself so it was fun to play along! I ditched the first card I made (too much pink!) and much prefer this attempt.

The top half of the card is covered with paper from the I Wish scrapping kit, and on the bottom half I stamped the small flower from the set with Old Olive ink.

All stamps are from Stampin' Up's One of a Kind set - I stamped the flower in Old Olive ink, coloured it with a Pixie Pink marker then cut it out. The scallops on the pink layer were made with the scallop edge punch.

Right, gotta run - the final of Strictly Come Dancing is about to start -YAY, so excited! For my overseas visitors this is the UK version of Dancing With the Stars and it's safe to say I'm a HUGE fan! So if you're watching - enjoy! And a big hello to my blogging buddy Bekka who is going to a Strictly party - have fun girl! I think I'm going to get major withdrawal symptoms on Saturdays after this week lol!

See you soon I hope!

Recipe: (all supplies SU)
Stamps - One of a kind
Ink - Old Olive/Pixie Pink marker
Card/Paper - Old Olive/Pixie Pink/Whisper White/paper from I Wish scrapping kit
Other - Scallop edge punch/Corner rounder punch/silver brad from hodgepodge hardware/dimensionals/stamp-a-ma-jig

Little man

Isn't this chipboard gingerbread man cute! He came in a scrappy kit I bought a few weeks ago so I made this card for my mum.

I adhered red card to the ends of his arms and legs and to his back so his buttons would also be red, then used white gel pen for some interest. His eyes and mouth sparkly red stickles. The white layer is dry embossed with the cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and sewn onto the green and red layers. Ribbons, snowflake, flower, leaves, twine, button and pearls are from my stash.

We're finally putting our tree up this afternoon, time to put on some festive tunes I think!

Thanks for stopping by!

Serendipity stocking

This Serendipity image was such fun to colour! I used my Copics, then added some liquid pears for the berries and heart button. I scored the background using my Scor-pal to create an embossed look.

A very quick post to do - plenty to do, including at some point remaking the fudge that yep, didn't set lol! I will use a sugar thermometer this time!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're managing to grab some creative time int he midst of the seasonal chaos!

Recipe -
Stamp - Christmas Stocking (Serendipity)
Ink - Memento
Card/paper - Very Vanilla/Real Red/Handsome Hunter (All SU)
Other - Copic Markers/Liquid Pearls/heart button/twine/scor-pal/red satin ribbon/gold brads

Jolly St Nick

I love this jolly Saint Nick! He's from SU's Old Fashioned Christmas set, as is the sentiment. He's stamped with Memento ink, coloured with Copics and cut out and embossed with Spellbinders Labels 2 dies. Paper is SU's Holiday Treasures, finished with a few gold pearls.

I'm finally getting on top of cards and gifts - I've just been making some fudge to give to friends in our village but the jury's out as to whether it will actually set or not! That'll teach me to try and do it without using a sugar thermometer!

Are you making any handmade gifts this year, I'd love to hear about them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe:
Stamps - Old Fashioned Christmas (SU)
Ink - Memento
Card/Paper - Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Holiday Treasures DSP (SU)
Other - Labels 2 dies (Spellbinder), Cuttlebug, Chocolate Chip ribbon (SU), gold pearls

A huge thank you

See this wonderful pile of Christmas cards...


....this is the incredible response I had to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Appeal. I received over 360 cards from crafters up and down the country - I can't believe how many of you wanted to be a part of this and how generous you've all been with your time and cards. Thank you so very much - crafters are just the best!!

For overseas readers who may not know about Great Ormond Street - it is a famous children's hospital in London which helps children from all over the world. I have a couple of friends who are nurses there and it's wonderful to hear first hand about the amazing work they do.

Here are the cards all boxed up and almost ready to go...


When they get to the hospital they will be distributed throughout all the different wards and also the hospital's school so the children can write in them and then give them to someone special to them. Many of the children will be spending Christmas in hospital and I'm sure receiving one of these cards to use will truly brighten their day?

Thank you once again for your amazing support!

Kate xx

ILWS challenge

I've set a new Inspiration and Themes Challenge today on In Love With Stamping - I hope you'll be able to head over there and play along!

Taking inspiration from the Christmas ornaments I came up with 2 cards. The first uses A Holly Jolly Christmas set from SU.


I embossed the tree with gold ink and clear e.p and cut it and matted it with long-rectangle nesties. The bottom half of the card is embossed with the snowflakes cuttlebug folder. I paper pierced around the top of the card, rounded the bottom corners, added gold ribbon and gold dew drops.

Recipe:
Stamps - A Holly Jolly Christmas (SU)
Ink - Encore gold
Card - Very Vanilla (SU)/Gold (Papertrey)
Other - Long rectangle nestabilities/Cuttlebug/gold ribbon/gold cord/gold dew drops/Crafter's Tool Kit (SU)

The second card uses a Cornish Heritage Farms image - I stamped this with a glue pad and added gold glitter for some serious sparkle!




Again I used the cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder, nesties, gold ribbon and some gold pearls.

Recipe:
Stamps - Trumpeting Angel (CHF)
Ink - Tsukinenko glue pad
Card - Very Vanilla (SU)/Gold (Papertrey)
Other - Scalloped nestabilities/Cuttlebug/snowflakes embossing folder/gold ribbon/gold pearls

Thanks for stopping by today !

overdue

It's been most remiss of me to not have posted 3 fabulous awards I've been given in recent weeks - the time of year is my only excuse! No matter how much I get done my To-Do list always gets longer! So without further ado thank you so much to Vickie for this lovely award:




A big thanks to Tonya for this one:


and last, but by no means least! thank you Ikki for this one:



I hope you get a chance to stop by these lovely ladies' blogs for some lovely projects and inspiration. Unfortunately I don't have time to link and pass these on to anyone today but I hope to come back and do it another time when time is more on my side!

Live your dream colour challenge

I really should start reading challenges more observantly!! This card was for In Love With Stamping's Colour Combo challenge last week - to use Really Rust, Basic Grey and Very Vanilla. That's Very Vanilla, NOT Whisper White as I used... Oh well! I'm pretty sure looking at it now I would have preferred the softer cream but hey-ho, not going to rip it apart and start over now!

I used a Really Rust marker and basic grey ink on the flowers from the Live Your Dream set then cut and embossed the image with the long rectangle nesties. Paper is from the retired Fall Flowers Designer Papers.

I didn't have any flowers that matched exactly so I coloured some with Copic markers, finally I paper pierced around the card and sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today - I'll be setting a new Inspiration and Themes challenge on In Love With Stamping on Thursday so I hope you'll be able to play!

Recipe:
Stamps - Live Your Dream (SU)
Ink - Really Rust marker (SU)/Basic Grey/Versafine Black
Card/Paper - Whisper White/Basic Grey/Really Rust/Fall Flowers DSP (All SU)
Other - Long rectangle nestabilites/Cuttlebug/white flowers/Copic markers/Crafter's Tool Kit(SU)/ grey brads

Craft fair and a challenge

Happy Saturday everyone - I hope all your holiday plans are going well! This is a picture of me at a Christmas craft fair in my village today, actually this was the only time I sat down all day! I should have taken a photo at the beginning not half way through when I'd sold quite a lot and my table had got a bit messy but I was busy chatting to friends and customers and totally forgot!

For the fair I made lots of cards, reindeer food, journals, tree ornaments and a few other bits and bobs.... it was definitely worth all the effort of making everything. It was really interesting seeing which style cards and which projects people wanted to buy too.

I shared a table with a lovely lady who makes the most fabulous home-made soaps (even an amazing chocolate one...yummm!) and the village hall looked so festive - christmas songs, a roaring log fire, warm mince pies - a really lovely atmosphere and I had a great time!



Time for some cards! The Anything Goes challenge on In Love With Stamping was to create a card with no layers, but embellishments allowed. These have to be the quickest cards I've ever made and although I'm a kinda layer girl I had fun with the simplicity of these.



I made this one first and I think it's my favourite of the two but after i'd made it I wanted to see what it looked like reversing the colours. I also overcame my aversion to letting the ribbon show on the inside of the card (only cos I had to but it wasn't that painful LOL!!)

I used the tree from Stampin Up's A Holly Jolly Christmas and a sentiment from SU's Wonderful Words. On the black card I embossed the images with white ep, rounded the bottom corners, and added lots of blingy rhinestones.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Recipe
Stamps - A Holly Jolly Christmas/Wonderful Words (SU)
Ink - Basic Black (SU)/Versmark
Card - Whisper White/Basic Black (SU)
Other - white e.p/ black and white ribbons/ rhinestones/ corner rounder punch

Christmas Joy

The 1st of December? Already??!! Didn't that creep up on us a bit quickly?! I'm actually starting to feel a bit Christmassy now, which is kinda nice :)

This card is for the current Artygirlz challenge - to create a project using you favourite colour. To be honest my all time favourite colour is aquamarine but since I used aqua mist for last week's challenge I thought I'd use another colour combo I love - deep red and cream, a variation on my favourite red and white mix.

I've used some papers and other bits and bobs from a dreamkits scrapping kit. I love that shimmery star and had fun layering it with a poinsietta, thread, a brad and some fake greenery. The letters are grungeboard coloured with Copics, and I used the mega curved rectangle nesties to cut the papers.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Recipe -
Paper/Card - Very Vanilla/Bravo Burgundy(SU)/papers from scrapping kit (Dreamkit)
Other - cream grosgrain ribbon, mega curved nesabilities, cuttlebug, white gel pen (Ranger), chipboard star, embroidery floss (Bazzill), pearl brad (Making Memories), button, grungeboard (Ranger), Copic markers, burgundy organza ribbon, paper poinsietta