A little act of kindness

Evening Everyone.
Have you had a good day?
I confess that I have struggled again today, both with the cold and my emotions. In fact a small act of kindness from one of our lovely customers had me in tears.
Today is the Anniversary of the death of my Son Adam and is a day that doesn't seem to get any easier to cope with.
One of my regular coffee customers remembered and gave me a beautiful bunch of roses to help make the day a little better for me.
Such a sweet gesture, but it was enough to have me disappear into the staffroom in floods of tears.

This is the fabulous gift of kindness that she gave me.

Such a beautiful colour.

The twins and I each took a rose to the church this evening.

We always light a candle for Adam today.
So here we are at the end of another year. Let us hope that the new one will be happy, healthy and prosperous for us all.
When you welcome in the New Year this evening, please raise your glass to absent friends and loved ones and also to those whose little act of kindness can mean such a lot.
Happy New Year to you All.
See you in 2015.
Hugs Kimx

Is it cold enough for you?

Evening Everyone,
Of all of the days for the heating to breakdown at work today was not a good one. I have been frozen all day. Now I know that there are lots of you that will say what about all of those poor people that work outside. Well when you do you have an anticipation of being cold, you don't when you work inside!!
They finally came to fix the heating just as I was leaving, so I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a little bit warmer. I'm not sure that I could wear any more layers without looking like the Michelin Man lol.

We have been lucky enough not to have had any snow yet, but I thought that it would be the ideal opportunity to share a few of the Christmas cards that I sent this year.

They all use Resist as the main element on the card, and have all been made using pieces that I found in my Christmas Bits Box.

The first three cards also have sponged dye based inks on them, and bleach has been used to paint part of the image to remove some of the colour.

I kept the central panel on this card very plain so that the background showed up.
I've just about warmed up now, but my bed is calling so I am going to give in and answer.
Night night.
hugs Kimx

Celebrate Beauty

Evening Everyone
Here we are at the end of another weekend, and nearly at the end of the year as well.
We finally had our Christmas dinner tonight.
The family all went to my Ex for Christmas Day and then with work we decided to have it as Sunday lunch instead. Lunch became evening meal, and there went another day, but it was very nice and even better for someone else having cooked it.
I should have been making more samples for the TV today but I am feeling rather 'Crafted Out' so I have called it a day. I hope that Barbara will forgive me. I have to get the samples in the post as soon as possible or they won't arrive in time and I have no more days left to make anything else.

This is one of the cards that I made for Barbara's show last month.

The central panel is created using Multiple Resist and then I stamped on it with bleach as well before covering the entire thing with Versamark and clear embossing powder.

The sentiment is from one of the fabulous Word Chains that Barbara has created.
Back to the grind tomorrow, lets hope that we don't get any snow as my thicker thermals haven't arrived yet and I was cold enough last week lol.
Hugs Kimx

Happy Birthday Lin

Evening All
I hope that you have all had a good day, in particular my good friend and Teamie Lin who has been celebrating her birthday today.

 I am hoping that her card arrived in time and that I am not spoiling anything by sharing this with you.

The central panel has been created using a piece of waxed paper resist, dye based inks and a lovely Artemio stamp.

I added a little glossy accents some dotty ribbon and a few well placed gems.
I hope that you have had a wonderful day my friend. Resting and celebrating or maybe just crafting, whatever takes your fancy. All birthday girls should be allowed to celebrate in what ever way they wish, don't you agree?
Hugs from me and the gang.
Kimx

Dragonfly Dreaming

Evening Everyone
Are you suitably rested and full of lots more Christmas goodies. It always seems to be one long round of eating doesn't it?
We had another fabulous class at Davina's last week, the final one in 2014. There was plenty of eating done there too lol.
Sue brought along homemade chocolate cupcakes, light as a feather. Sylvie and I provided mince pies, courtesy of MandS and Morrisons I'm afraid, and Mary even provided crackers so we all had to put our hats on as we got creative.
Fun, food, crafting and good company, how much better than that could it get?

I decided that I would give them a very limited choice for once, so I only took one stamp with me.
Well they will get to play with all of Jane's lovely new designs for Woodware as soon as we start back at classes in 2015.
I can't wait as there are some real beauties. But then you would know that already if you have been following  the sneak peeks that Dorothy has been posting daily over at Woodware during the festive period. 

The stamp that I chose is also by Woodware, but was designed by Francoise. 

Once again I let them play with the Gelli Plate, which seems frustratingly to have been out of stock for what seems like ages., dye based inks and bubble wrap. My favourite combo.

This first card was made using a piece of GP background from my ever growing stash. The dragonfly design has been stamped and embossed in white and then sponged with co-ordinating colours of Distress inks. Barn Door, Gathered Twigs and Forest Moss I think.

I painted the dragonfly wings with thin undiluted bleach which has given them a beautiful transparent look.
I added some glossy accents and white faux stitching as well as three fussy cut flowers.

The second card also uses handmade background paper created when cleaning up the bubble wrap - see nothing ever gets wasted.

If you press the inky bubble wrap onto a piece of card or paper it removes most of the surplus ink  and creates lovely background into the bargain. You can do this several times before finally cleaning it with damp kitchen paper, a baby wipe, or even under the tap.

I stamped and embossed in black this time and painted with co-ordinating shades of blue Distress inks.
More fussy cut flowers, faux stitching and some Gelli Roll glaze pen.
No home cooked lunch at work today I'm afraid and customers who really should have stayed at home, but at least I am off now for a couple of days before we start all over again for the New Year celebrations.
I have more DT work to finish so I will not be resting on my laurels, but it will be nice to have a bit of a lie in like everyone else in the house.
Have a wonderful crafty weekend.
Hugs Kimx

Thank You for your Kindness

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you have all had a wonderful day celebrating with your friends and family.
I was at work as usual this morning, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds. It is actually quite a nice day to work as people are generally in a good mood.
I even managed to save one ladies Christmas when I showed her where to find the gluten free bread, Such a little thing but I got a big hug for my trouble :O)

The true meaning of Christmas was not lost on one of the members of staff who was nor rostered to work today. He arrived at lunchtime with homemade Biryani and Christmas cake, so that we had the chance to celebrate as well. How nice of him was that!!

This card was started for the challenge at Woodware last week where they were looking for Thank You cards

I never got the chance to finish it then, but I felt that it was the least that I could do to repay such a nice act of kindness.

I love this fabulous Woodware stamp, it works so perfectly with paper piecing, and I also added some stamping to the background before sticking on the paper pieced letters.
We were very busy today, which always amazes me. Let's hope that tomorrow is a little quieter, although I doubt it as everyone will probably be heading off to the sales, and of course there will be more entertaining to do, so more food to purchase.
Hugs Kimx

Wishing you All a very Merry Christmas

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you are all now ready for the big day tomorrow.
We have been ridiculously busy at work today, you would think that everywhere was closing down for weeks the amount of food that people have been buying.

I watched 'On Angels Wings' with the youngest Grandchildren this afternoon.
For those of you not in the know, it is a reworking of the story of the Nativity.
It tells the tale of the youngest shepherd boy who gets to visit baby Jesus in Bethlehem, carried there on the wings of the Angel Gabriel.
It was really rather delightful and fits perfectly with my card tonight created using a lovely stamp from Clarity.
I would like to wish you All a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Hugs Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 19

Evening Everyone.
It's no wonder I'm not getting very far with my Christmas card writing when I keep remembering important things that need to be done first.
Every year my boss asks me to make a card for his eldest daughter Ledshajini.
Now I always mean to be organised and have it made way in advance of the date, but as is always the case the date creeps up on me and before I know it it is the night before it is needed and I am frantically making something ready to give the Boss in the morning.

This year I'm actually glad that I waited because the boss wanted something a little bit different. 'Could we go bigger?'

It is amazing how your creative juices start to flow even as you are serving on the till, I had an idea in mind before I even set foot in my craft room which is most unusual for me lol.
Of course it still involved a sizable amount of play before I was happy with the results, but isn't that what its all about.

I used some letters die cut from kraft card to write her name.
She is always thrilled to receive her card and shows it off to all of her friends as now she has a personalised card something that she was never able to have before I started making them for her Dad.

The background paper is from my Gelli plate stash, and I have stamped and embossed onto it using both clear embossing powder and also ivory Frantage powder.

I found a large flower and added some extra bits and pieces along with die cut leaves.
Perhaps I will get back on track tomorrow, although with teaching in the afternoon and a family gathering in the evening I have serious doubts about that.
Never mind, it wouldn't be a card from me if it was on time now would it lol.
Have a great weekend.
hugs Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 18

Evening Everyone,
Nearly at the end of another week, I can't believe how quickly this one has flown by.
Now I know that I'm a last minute girly, which is obviously where the kids get it from, so I shouldn't have been surprised when Megan asked me if I could help her make some last minute gift bags full of chocolate to give to her school friends.

Fortunately I remembered a sweetie bag that I made for a Halloween challenge several years ago and followed that recipe.

I found some precoloured Christmas images amongst my stash from which she chose something to compliment each of her friends favourite colours.

Kids are so much more thoughtful aren't they, I would probably have gone traditional Christmas red and green, how predictable.

She wrote their names on their bags with stickers, also found in my stash.
A liberal amount of glitter glue and presents completed. She was happy with the finished articles and I hope that her friends will be too.
Hugs Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Days 16/17

Evening Everyone
I'm sorry that I missed you all yesterday, but we were celebrating a Birthday, and the time just got away from me.

This is the card that I made for my eldest Grandson Reece whose was the cause of the celebrations.

I found this rather cute picture in an old Penny Black calender that came free with a craft magazine..... many years ago.

I added some sentiments and stamped leaves to the piece of background paper from my stash along with some gilding wax and glitter glue.

The leaves are die cut, stamped and waxed before being added to the card using silicon.
The tiny tag hanging from the neck of the jumper was the perfect place to add Reece's age.
It was also the birthday of my good friend Anna, so I hope that they both had a fabulous day.
hugs Kimx 

Countdown to Christmas - Day 15

Hi All
How is your countdown to Christmas going?
Do you have that To Do list that just seems to get longer and longer?
I have finally managed to cross off one of those things that have been on my list for years, update my Christmas list.
I know it sounds silly, and I suppose it does help to put off the inevitable of having to write the darn things, but it is also something that I have been meaning to do for what seems like forever. Now maybe I can get rid of some of those pieces of paper with all the cryptic messages and hieroglyphics on them that only I can decipher lol.
I'm afraid that I do cheat slightly when it comes to sending things in the post at this time of year because there seems to be rather a lot of December birthdays so I pop the Christmas card in the same envelope.
I do hope that the recipients don't mind.

One such rather large envelope contained cards for a lad that I used to look after, many years ago (he is in his last year at Uni!!!!)

and his Mum.
I still send them cards even after all these years, my small way of keeping in touch I guess.
I must get started with the writing tomorrow.
Hugs Kimx

Christmas Countdown - Day 14

Hi All
I hope that you have had a good weekend.
I have ordered a few last minute Christmas gifts (thank goodness for my catalogue, shopping without leaving the comfort of my own home lol), and the house now resembles Santa's Grotto with all of the Christmas lights now safely installed.
We did have a near miss earlier when there was an almighty thud followed by lots of crashing and banging. I leapt out of my room to find my youngest Grandson in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, still clutching the Christmas lights and grinning from ear to ear!!!
Amazingly he escaped totally unscathed, in fact he found it all rather amusing. The Christmas lights still worked as well.

On Friday the twins were celebrating VE day at school by dressing up as evacuees.

Ciaran left his gas mask box at school because the string kept falling off, but I think that they both really looked the part, don't you?
Hugs Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 13

Evening Everyone,
I have spent the day working on Clarity DT work, and it occurred to me that I have not shared any of the cards that I have made for Barbara since I have returned to the team.

I have to admit that this first card was actually one that I gave to my lovely daughter and her partner after my recent visit with the Grandchildren, but it does use one of the Clarity TV kits.

I have used the fabulous Large Thank You from Million Thank Yous for my card.

The background to the card is a piece from my stash of Gelli Plate backgrounds.

I added some tiny dots to the greeting and coloured the ribbon writing with a matching Distress Pen.

I chose the accompanying sentiment from the 12 available in the set.
Better get some sleep as I need to make a few more cards tomorrow.
Hugs Kimx

Countdown to Christmas - Day 12

Evening Everyone,
I have my computer back, but I'm not sure that it is actually any better so I will make this quick before I loose my temper with it.

It's another Poinsettia card I'm afraid, but I did say it was my favourite Christmas stamp at the moment.

I stamped and embossed the image onto a piece of background paper from my stash, and then coloured it in with Spectrum Noir pens.

I paper pieced the center of the poinsettia with a piece of dotty paper and some silicon glue to give it dimension.

The berries are coloured with a white Gelli Roll glaze pen.

I added a Christmas greeting to the panel and also some faux stitching around the edges.
A very simple card, and yet another use for this fabulous stamp.
Happy Crafting, and hugs
Kimx