A fantastic finish to my crafty year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family & friends, eating too much and playing silly games. We had a lovely time and Thomas thoroughly enjoyed himself. He received so many presents and now has a wonderful selection of Lego and a HUGE train set.

In my last post I mentioned some exciting news that I was dying to share with you. About 3 weeks ago I received a phone call from the Editor of Papercraft Essentials to tell me that I was the winner of their 'Papercrafter of the Year'. I was so thrilled and excited I probably sounded a bit nuts on the phone! Not only did I win a huge stash of crafting goodies but I get to join the magazine's design team - something I am massively excited about.

It took a while for the news to sink in but I think I finally believed it when I bought my copy on Christmas Eve! 2010 is going to be a very exciting crafty year!!

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4 Sleeps until Christmas!

I always love the last few days before Christmas – lots of rushing around getting last minute pressies, visiting friends and eating yummy food and all the seasonal films on the TV.  We’re still under a blanket of snow in Kent and it would be wonderful if it stayed put until Friday – I can’t remember ever having a proper covering of snow on Christmas Day.  I had planned to spend today tidying & cleaning the house but our Christmas tree lights blew last night so we’ll be on the hunt for another set and I don’t fancy our chances at this late date!

This will probably be my last card before Christmas and its for a friend who has a birthday on the 27th.  I’ve used the fab sketch on this weeks Sketchy Colors challenge and it was nice (and necessary) to make a DL size card – I’ve run out of square envelopes!!  The SN image is coloured with distress inks and the papers are Bo Bunny and Cosmo Cricket.

I’ve also got the most exciting news to tell you all but I can’t let the cat out of the bag until Christmas Eve – I really do think I might go pop before then!

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Guest DT for Stampin for the Weekend

Have you woken up to snow this morning? We have!! There's about 5 inches outside so we're going to put on the wellies and take Thomas to the park. I'm trying not to think about how I'll get to the supermarket later on!

I was thrilled when Kim invited me to be a guest designer for the Stampin for the Weekend challenge blog. The theme this week is ‘Calendars’ so I decided I would make a desk calendar to go on my own work desk - it was really nice to make something for myself for a change!

I’ve used one of the gorgeous stamps from my Wild Rose Studio DT pack. These images are just adorable and a real pleasure to colour. I added some stickles to the flowers for a bit of sparkle and doodled a border around the edge. The papers are Bloom & Grow – my new favourites!! I bought the calendar tabs very cheaply on EBay but I also noticed at the weekend that Hobbycraft sell them for 20p each. The ribbon is from my stash and the charm can be bought here.

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It’s Truly Scrumptious time!

It’s our last Truly Scrumptious challenge of 2009 so I do hope you will be able to join in for this one.  This is the sketch we have for you this time

and we would like to see some vellum somewhere on your card.

I’ve used an adorable WOJ snowman by Elizabeth Bell.  He is coloured with distress inks and I’ve added some distress stickles which don’t really show up.  The paper is a double sided sheet from Cloud 9 Designs.  I don’t think its from a winter range but I think the pattern looks like lots of little snowflakes.

Whimsy Stamps are sponsoring this challenge with two fabulous stamps for the winner and you have until Tuesday 5th January to enter.

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Today we met Santa!!

No card today but a little story about our exciting day today in London to meet Santa.

Back in September my friend booked tickets for us to visit Santa in Harrods. Harrods' Santa is VERY popular, she went online at 7am on the day the tickets were released and by 7.30am the system had crashed from being overloaded. So we've been looking forward to today for a long time. Thomas was very excited to go on his first train ride and referred to all the trains he saw as Emily, James, Gordon etc - all characters from Thomas the Tank Engine, his favourite TV programme. We met with my sister at Waterloo and jumped in a taxi which took us past the Houses of Parliment and Buckingham Palace (just in time to see the changing of the guard) and then on to Harrods. We had a bit of spare time so took a look around their pet department. OMG, you would not believe the amount of bling you can buy for your pet!

After a rather expensive hot chocolate we joined the queue to see Santa. The theme this year is the Wizard of Oz - lots of green emeralds, models of the characters and I'll be singing 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' for days to come. Finally we get to a big gold door with Santa waiting on the other side, it's time for Thomas to finally meet the big jolly man in his story books and .................



Yep, he fell asleep! All the build up and excitement was all too much and not even some gentle proding could rouse him. We will be teasing him about this picture in the years to come!

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First Wild Rose Studio DT Card

My first DT package from Dulcie at Wild Rose Studio arrived early this week. And a lovely package it was too! I had planned to make a Christmas card using one of the digital images on the Christmas CD but my watercolour paper wouldn’t go through my printer so I chose one of the lovely clear stamps instead and some pretty papers from the Spring CD.

This adorable little Kitty is coloured with distress inks and I’ve added a tiny gem to the centre of each of her flowers. I’ve used this weeks sketch from Friday Sketchers and the card is also for Cute Card Thursday’s challenge which is ‘Swirly Girly’.

Our internet is misbehaving today so no blog hopping for me, I’m going to settle down and watch the final of I’m a Celebrity. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

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Car Trouble

Mild panic last night when I couldn’t switch of my car immobiliser so I spent most of this morning on the phone to the our local Honda dealer, our mechanic and finally a local car alarm specialist who came out and removed the whole thing!  So now my purse is £100 lighter but at least I can drive to work to earn some more!!

This is my favourite SN image and I coloured her a couple of days ago with the Basic Grey sketch in mind.  This card also qualifies for the new Sketchy Colors challenge which was to use mainly lilac.

Card Recipe:

Image: Sugar Nellie (Daisy)

Papers: Basic Grey Wisteria

Ribbon & Button: Truly Scrumptious pastel bag available here

Other embellishments: Large retro flower, Prima flower, MM button brads, punches(tag, small flower, butterfly and branch)

My Wild Rose Studio DT pack arrived yesterday and contained some gorgeous goodies.  I hope to have a card to show you before the end of the week.

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