Twas the Night Before New Year

Evening Everyone

Oh dear, where did Christmas week disappear to??

To be honest I was working, so it rather felt much like any other day in the week, but I think that's what happens as you get older, it doesn't seem to have quite the same magic.
We always have less staff on Christmas morning so it was not a good start to the day when we were greeted by the bulk of our chillers going down and only two of us on duty. I had done 10,000 steps by about 11am, rushing backwards and forwards with stacks of food while serving customers in between.
I think that probably contributed to my Christmas afternoon being spent sound asleep on my bed. Oh the joys of getting older and being able to enjoy a granny nap lol.
Today was a little less eventful at work, although a did enjoy a brief lie down afterwards.

New Years Eve is always a rather hard day for me as it is the anniversary of my son's death. I had company to the cemetery today though as it would also have been the 80th birthday of a good friends brother so it's been a hard day for us both.

Christmas crept up on me again this year so I decided against sending out any Christmas cards, as they had more chance of getting there in time for next year than this.

Instead I made several Masterboards using white embossed images

and plenty of Distress Oxide sprays for quickness.

Once cut up they quickly transformed into a stack of cards to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.
I can't see me staying awake long enough to see in the New Year, but then I do have the excuse of another early start at work tomorrow.
So I will wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2020.
Thank you for following my rather sporadic blogposts. Let's hope that I can do better in the new year.
With much love and crafty hugs

Kimx

A Christmas Post for CCM

Evening Everyone,

Here I am late to the party again.

We have a new Christmas challenge over at CCM, which will be our last challenge of 2019. (We return in mid January 2020)

Now my problem was which of my numerous Christmas cards would I share with you for this challenge.

I decided on a fabulous old design from Hobby Art. 

I went with a fairly simple design for this trio of cards, just stamping and embossing and a bit of bleach. 

Once I had bleached the colour out of the green panel I then painted with Distress Inks and added a little sparkle with a clear sparkle pen.

The red card has been dry embossed and then the design highlighted with a little gold gilding wax.

I hope that you will be able to join us for our Christmas challenge, I'm sure most of us have at least one Christmas card that they could share.

Happy Crafting and hugs

Kimx

Made to put a smile on your face.

Evening Everyone,

How's it been where you are? Personally I think that perhaps we should have had a rainy day competition. I think we might have won that one. I don't think it has stopped here for the last few days. Or at least it hadn't when I started to write this, and now we are having heavy frosts and freezing cold weather, I'm chilled to the marrow.

So lets have a couple of LOTV cards, sure to put a smile on your face.

This little cutie was made for my youngest Granddaughter Chloe.

Nothing like a nice bunch of flowers to cheer you up either. Although I'm not sure that my youngest daughter would actually agree. She always says that they are very pretty, but it just feels like another thing that she has to try and keep alive along with her and the kids. She does say it with a smile on her face it has to be said lol.

 These cards were made for a friend of mine.

If in doubt of what to do, a LOTV Simply Print always saves the day. 

My friend does have a rather nasty habit of giving me very short notice of a special card that she needs. 

Fortunately I had this one ready in my stash. 

And this last card was made for my nephew who got married recently.

Let's hope it's not quite so cold tomorrow. I'd even welcome the rain back if it made it a little warmer to work in.

Happy Crafting and hugs.

Kimx

No Patterned Papers at CCM

Afternoon All,
Another Monday, and the start of a lovely new challenge at CCM where our host Dr Monika is looking for you to use 'No Patterned Papers' in your creations.

I have to say that this was an easy one for me since I love creating backgrounds as you know.

The hard part was choosing which card to share with you.
I decided on this one which was recently on the TV when my friend Jane Gill did her Woodware shows on Create and Craft.
I used Distress Oxides for the background using the 'Smack Down Technique' that I found on YouTube. The beautiful bird has also been coloured with Distress Oxides.

This card was also made using the same stamp set, only this time I just used one colour of Distress Oxide.

As you can see his tail feathers make a fabulous background on their own.
I hope that you will have fun with our challenge. I look forward to stopping by and seeing what you come up with.
Have a great evening.
Happy Crafting and hugs.
Kimx

A very belated Thank You for CCM

Afternoon,

I'm sorry people, I think my New Year's resolution needs to be 'try harder with blog posts', but perhaps I shouldn't leave it till January.

The trouble is real life seems to keep getting in the way, and I don't find time to fit in blogging as well. Oh well, I will just have to try harder.....if the Internet will let me of course.

We started a new 'Thankful' challenge at CCM last Monday. (Is it really over a week since then?) 

I hope that we all have at least one thing to be thankful for.

I certainly have. I have just been on my hols……..a week of crafty playtime with the lovely Janice and Andy at SirStampalot what more could you ask of a week off. I sat on my bum for a week and played, although I did manage to fit in a couple of classes.

Now its back to the grind, and unfortunately crafty things have had to take a back seat.

One of the classes that I taught was 'Bump and Smudge'.

I always prep my classes after I arrive so we can use items that they have on hand, so it was wonderful to be reacquainted with a couple of lovely old Stampendous wood mounted stamps.

I was never particularly keen on the sentiments, although I love the stamped images, 

so by adding a small stamped greeting from a set designed by Jane Gill, I have changed the design, and made it more usable for me.

I also found a new favourite brown amongst my Distress Oxide ink pads, fantastic for the 'Bump and Smudge' technique.

I felt that the images lent themselves to a little extra watercolour painting.

When done with the Oxides, this added to the aged effect. 

We have a 'Bump and Smudge' class just after Christmas so I thought that this would make a lovely box of cards as a gift for someone, or to use on all those Christmas Thank yous.

I used a Marianne embossing folder for all of the backgrounds, although I have found a fabulous brick wall stamp amongst my stash which would also work well. 

Better get back to my crafting, I have taken delivery of the new stamp designs from Jane Gill so I need to get my creative head on.

I have to admit that that is a little difficult at the moment. I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but its bl...y cold here and I'm getting far too old to be frozen when working indoors.

Of course I am very thankful that we don't have any snow yet, but that might make it a bit warmer at least. Don't they say that it is too cold to snow, although I'm not sure how that works in really cold places like Canada where they still get loads of snow. Perhaps it's a UK only expression lol.

Have a great evening, and stay warm. I have my granny blanket wrapped firmly around me.

Happy Crafting and hugs 

Kimx

Halloween Chalenge at CCM

Hi All,
I am soooooo sorry for the tardiness of this post, but it seems to have been a manic few weeks, coupled with an Internet connection that seems to drop in and out every few minutes to the point where I have abandoned trying to use it at all.

Anyhoo it's my turn to host the challenge over at CCM, and as you may have guessed the theme is Halloween.

I have to say that it is not something that we celebrated when I was a kid, but then I am old lol.
Now it seems to be a big thing, and my Girls love it. There are always loads of sweeties for the Trick or Treaters, and the house is usually festooned with cobwebs and all sorts of scary things.
I spent the day wearing a rather batty headband that I had strung with lights. I did get some looks as I travelled on the train, but it certainly put a smile on a few peoples faces.

My card uses a fabulous old LOTV topper and lots of Tim Holtz dies.
The wizard was a little too cute, so I trimmed away his teddy bear when I fussy cut the image.

The background was created by attaching die cut bats to the black card base to add a little interest and dimension.

I found the letterpress tree panel amongst my stash and added some glitter around the moon, and a couple more bats.

The spooky house and tree are also from Tim Holtz.

I added a bit of sparkly card behind the windows,

and then a bit of funky foam for added dimension.

The spooky branches are another Tim Holtz die.

The sentiment is from a new set that I bought from Simon Says Stamp. It is a fabulous set with loads of little sentiments, and it has a coordinating die so you cut them all out at once.

I promise that I will get round to see you all over the next few days.

I am off to Sir Stampalot for my annual holiday, and I am soooo looking forward to it.

Have a wonderful crafty weekend.

Crafty hugs

Kimx

Add some Sparkle on CCM challenge

Hi All,

We have a new challenge starting today over at CCM, and Marlene is looking for you to Add some Sparkle.

Of course the obvious choice for this challenge is this fabulous Fairy image from LOTV Simply Prints. 

I did a bit of fussy cutting and some decoupage, and added plenty of sparkle to their wings with Stardust Glitter Glue.

Unfortunately it is very hard to see in the photos. In real life it is VERY sparkly!!!
I hope that you can find the time to join us. Don't forget to pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the team have been up to.
Have a wonderful day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Add a Critter for CCM challenge 242

Afternoon Everyone,
We have another new challenge at CCM, where on earth is this year disappearing to?
This time our lovely host Judy is looking for you to 'Add a Critter'
Any critter will be fine, four legged, two legged, six legged, or even many legged as in millipedes! 

My card was actually made at the beginning of the year for the then new Woodware catalogue. Boy that seems such a long time ago now, I have done several more catalogues since then.

I fussy cut the owl and the fox from the set

and layered it over a panel created form another Woodware sentiment stamp set.

As usual I finished off all of the bits and pieces left over from creating my card to finish of another one.

The panel at the back of both cards has been created from a piece of dark brown cardstock and a leafy embossing folder.

A little bit of gilding wax helps to highlight the embossing.
I hope that you can find the time to join us with our 'Critter' challenge.
Have a wonderful crafty day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx