Christmas is coming...

... and I have made all the cards for my special orders - hurrah!!!! Hardly any time left until Christmas now and we break up for the holidays from school in 2 days time. All my parcels have been bought and wrapped although I am waiting for some special deliveries coming through the post still.

I have finally remembered to take a photograph of my card for this weeks dare over the daring Card Makers. The dare was 'inside out' this week and I adapted this as the envelope being the outside and the card being the inside. I think this might be my favourite card that I have made recently. Please excuse the not very good photograph but it's dark and wet and has been all week and I eventually got fed up of waiting for a sunny morning before I go to work to take them and took it in the kitchen just now.

It's a digi base with a fab felt snowman from my friend Dawn and for the envelope I printed, stitched glued and added a rhonna farrer journalling block for the address.

(Bits and bobs from Jen Wilson, Kate Hadfield, Rhonna farrer and Shabby Princess)

The nursery nurse who works in my class wanted a card for her little boy Ben, who will be 10 on Boxing Day, she was so impressed with this one because he's getting a guitar for Christmas! It was a fluke, but a happy one.

(Shabby Princess bits and pieces and a Sugar Nellie stamp)

He's making a list and checking it twice...

I'm convinced that I have made the good list again this year as I have been remarkably well behaved all year! This morning I noticed that I had more empty socks than full socks on my advent calender and this made me super excited, only one week to go before the schools break up too so it's all beginning to look a lot like Christmas is just around the corner!

I've made a couple of cards this afternoon after spending a few hours this morning tidying my workshop - I can see the wood of my desk now :lol:

Just in case Santa Claus is watching - he'll have seen that I've tidied all ready so extra 'good list' points but I found a few things on my travels around the web that I think I really *need*!

A sweet cupcake pincushion from Betz White

A pattern to make this dinky little Owl bag from Melly & Me (I bought their dinosaur pattern yesterday from the Fat Quarters - I need this bag!

Cindy Gilchrist made this gorgeous card and I just know that my life won't be complete without some of that pom pom braid

Okay, my desk is tidy again and I'm off to read the Christmas Radio Times - if you aren't living in Britain and you don't get the Christmas Radio Times television listings magazine then you're missing out on a huge Christmas Tradition and quite honestly I don't know how you survive Christmas without it!!!

And all the world was white...

My little corner of the world has been covered in thick white and sparkly frost for the last three days. At any other time of the year I would be staying snuggled warm and cosy at home but with it being so close to Christmas we've been out scraping the ice off my car and delivering parcels, buying even more decorations and making repeat visits to the post office laden down with cards and parcels.

I've now finished making all the Christmas cards that I need to. I have one birthday card order to fulfill before I break up from school on Friday but the rest is finally done. Perhaps I can reclaim my desk from the bombsite it has become and start having fun with my crafting again!

Some cards and bits and pieces that I have been making these past few weeks to share:

(Funky Junky Christmas kit, Winter Flora Doodles by Kate Hadfield at ScrapArtist and a few diamonds for extra bling)
(Snowy Morning collab kit by Anne DeJong, Corrina Nielsen and Kate Hadfield at Funky Playground Designs, sparkly jewels from Paperchase, glittery snowflake cut with Cricut and Waterfalls font)

After being inspired by my friends Gail and Jean I've made a few hanging chipboard trees. The first uses the Funky Junky Christmas kit that I mentioned previously and some other bits and pieces and I made it sparkly (you can't see it on the photo though) with Glimmer Mist that I bought from Jean's shop. If you get any pennies for Christmas and you are looking to buy yourself a stash treat I would recommend the Glimmer Mists!

My blue tree is made with Basic Grey JackFrost papers from a couple of years ago, lots of snowflakes cut with my cricut and then spraymounted and glittered, ric rac, pom pom braid and sparkly gems

The green tree was a very special tree made for a friend who was very ill to hang in her room in the hospice where she was being looked after. Sadly Jan died last week so never got to celebrate Christmas this year, hopefully the little tree arrived in time to hang in her room.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

It snowed here yesterday. This is a big thing where we live - we had no snow last year as it kept missing us - so I was super excited. It was mixed with a lot of rain so didn't actually do anything apart from make the grass white but I was out there with my camera.

Now don't all laugh at once ......................

I was asked to make a couple of birthday cards with the super cute fairies that I discovered a few years ago on a kids craft CDrom so that's what I spent an evening through the week doing. Now that the weather has turned dark and damp, I am struggling to blog regularly as I need to wait for a bright day to take the photographs. Anyway, all along the same design, I just used different papers (Shabby Princess and Pink Petticoat)

I realised that I hadn't taken a picture of the advent calendar that I made out of matchboxes and chipboard. I found the instructions on the Bad Girls forum and I think the papers are by My Minds Eye.

More Christmas Cards...

This morning I had to dash on before breakfast to upload my card for the DCM dare from last week as I kept forgetting to take the photograph so this week I am being super organised and have just spent a happy half hour cheering myself up with some cardmaking. I have the chesty/lurgy bug thing that's going around our school so spent the day on the sofa watching trash on the television but now I'm feeling a bit better so thought I would have a play in my room.

The dare this week is to use stripes and I found this fabby striped paper in a pack which went perfectly with the Santa paper and the Santa toppers. I bought the felt one a couple of years ago in a sale but the first one I made myself based on one that I had seen in a Scrapbooks Etc magazine quite a few years ago.

Did any of you lovely crafters buy any of the new Sugar Nellie stamps that were released last night? I bought a few (okay then, more than a few!) so over the Christmas holidays when I'll have oodles of time, I'm hoping to play with them. I decided against buying the Christmassy one but had to have the wee little Scotty doggie and I think he'll be finishing my Christmas cards off for this year.

Almost forgot...

Almost forgot o post my card for this weeks dare at Daring Card Makers, tweet tweet you had to include a bird so I made one of my Robins.

Long Time No Blog...

Oops, it's been a little while since my last post. I'm back at work so crafting time has been cut but I have had time for a little play with some new digi kits and bits and bobs!

I used the rather fantastic Scrapbook Graphics collab kit featuring a host of great designers including Trish Jones to make a gift bag and card. I loved this paper by Trish and printed it on hammered effect cardstock to give it some texture.

Then I got to play with another two delicious collab kits by Kate, Gina and Tiff. The first kit (Festival of Light) is in fact all about Hanukkah but has this gorgeous blue paper that I fell in love with and turned into a tree ornament by covering a square of chipboard with the paper, cutting a snowflake from another piece from the kit and adding glitter, diamonds and Glimmer mist that I bought from the lovely Jean.

And just to prove that you don't need to buy expensive gift wrap when you have a few digital kits I made my own wrapping paper and gift tag using papers from the Holly Jolly Christmas kit.

I'm sorry that it seems like lots and lots of photographs today but I wanted to share two ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) that I made for an ongoing swap before I post them. I used papers and elements from both the kits, and I love them. I have a few ideas for cards based on these ATCs when I get more time.