Life is tough..................but so are we

Evening

So unbelievably today is the shortest day of the year, so there is some good news going forward, daylight hours will start to get longer.

So here is a card that just about says it all at the moment............Life is definitely tough.

Amazingly this was actually made last year with one of Jane's fabulous stamp sets from Woodware. She must have known.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Have a Hoot

Evening,

As I have mentioned before, I had never watched a Harry Potter film until this summer. My daughters and grandchildren, on the other hand, have watched them all more times than I care to count. 

On Saturday all this viewing and acquired  knowledge came into play when my ex husband prepared a quiz for them all to participate in..........via zoom of course. They all had individual questions to answer, and in the end Emma came out on top beating both her Mum and her Auntie. The twins who came in fourth assure me that she won fair and square.

I would probably have been hard pressed to answer any of the questions on my paltry viewings, so I'm dead impresses with their scores.

I do love the owls, so here is one designed by the lovely Jane Gill for Woodware.

It has a very definite Christmas feel about it, although if you ignore the holly it could be used at any time of the year I suppose.

I stamped and embossed it on to a piece of mop up background and then fussy cut it before adding it to an oval with silicon.

The pale green background is cut with a die, but I left the pieces in place for added texture.

I added gilding wax to the die cuts and the embossing on the black card stock.

Thanks for stopping by tonight.

Hugs Kimx

Let's Celebrate with a Vintage Biker

Evening 

It's a good job my grandson loves me, or at least I hope that he does, cause I'm late with his birthday card........AGAIN.

There should have been time to get it made, but in my defense I have been feeling rough so time just got away from me. 

Once again I reached for my trusty LOTV Simply Print images,

and chose this super vintage biker.

They print out two images to a page, so I fussy cut around one of the images and added it with silicon glue for some added dimension.

As it is a very special birthday I thought that I should add his age,

after all you are only 18 once, so you should definitely celebrate it.

I'm pleased to say that he was thrilled with it, so my choices were all good. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

Joy to the World

Evening,

Thank goodness it is the weekend, and only a week to go till Christmas day. I can't believe how quickly December has flown by.

I haven't managed to write any more Christmas cards at the moment, but I still have loads of them to share with you, so here are a couple using a fabulous design from Francoise Read for Woodware.

I used some of the Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour inks to create the papers for this card.

I also used an embossing folder on this one.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Happy 21st

Evening,

Every year I make a card for my Boss to give his daughters on their birthdays. It's a good job that I have them in my planner, cause he has stopped reminding me that he would like me to make them lol.

This year it is a very special birthday,

so I knew that he would want it celebrated in style.

I used my Tonic heart dies and die cut numbers along with a piece of Clarity background paper.

The sentiments stamped along the side of the paper are from a Sheena stamp set.

Boss always likes the girls name on their cards as they are impossible for him to get under normal circumstances.

Finishing this is as much as I can manage today. I'm so glad that tomorrow is Friday, I really have to get another special card finished and write Christmas cards, and at the moment the only thing that I fancy doing is sleep.

Night, night.

Hugs Kimx

Christmas Wreath

Evening,

Just a quick post tonight, I'm feeling really rough, so here are a couple of stamped wreaths.

I stamped and gold embossed

and then coloured it with inks.

This time I just stamped with dark green ink and then added more to the leaves and red to the berries.

Let's hope that I get some sleep tonight, cause I certainly didn't get any last night.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Early Night Required

Evening,

I'm home after my lovely few days with the Littlies, and now I'm frantically working on a couple of special birthday cards that are needed asap. 

Where on earth does time go, I could have sworn it was still the beginning of December not half way through it.

So while I'm working on those, here is a card that I made a while ago,

I just hope that I haven't shared it with you before.

I love that alphabet die because you can always use the negative space as a background panel.

Better get back to it, although to be honest a very early night is sounding much more on the cards. I don't sleep very well when I have a little one sleeping on the floor next to me. It's like being back when my kids were small......awake at the slightest sound. But I wouldn't change it for the world.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

The Little Mermaids

Evening,

I told you recently that the Girls finally managed to finish painting their mermaids that they started during the first lockdown. 

Well they now safely installed in pride of place on their bedroom doors.

They are somewhat larger than I think Mum realized but they look fabulous.

Of course we couldn't resist a pose, 

or two.

They have also been busy helping Mummy make a very cute snowman family.

It's amazing what you can make out of socks, hair elastics and a bag of rice.

Hurrah for YouTube!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Hot Air Balloon

 Evening Everyone,

I hope that you have all had a wonderful weekend and are not too stressed out with all the preperations for Christmas which is just around the corner.

My good friend Gill has been reminding us this week about brass stencils in her 'Way to Go Wednesday' on Facebook. 

This is definitely not a Christmas card, but it does use a lovely Dreamweaver brass stencil.

I drew round the design  with a black micron pen and with the stencil in place. I then added a little bit of basic zendoodle.

In answer to Gill's question you can use them through an embossing machine, so once I had finished my 'tangling' I placed the stencil back in place and ran it through my Cuttlebug  with the appropriate sandwich for that machine.

It is very hard to show in the photographs but it does give it a little extra dimension.

I do like to be reminded of some of that stash that I have in my craft room.

My last sleepover tonight, so we are having a little bit of an impromptu movie night since Emma's class has been shut down early due to a case of Covid. We had lots of tears because she wouldn't see all her friends again before Christmas, but she decided that there was definitely a plus side.........................no spelling test.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

Turn out the Lights Mamma

Evening

Isn't it strange how the death of a celebrity can trigger long lost memories. 

My collegue and I were talking about the death of Dame Barbara Windsor yesterday, and we both remembered her, amongst other things, for her role in the Carry On films and in particular Carry on Camping.

I remember going to see it at the cinema in Oxted with my first boyfriend. His Dad sat on one side of us, and his Sister on the other.....................some date lol.

I am at my daughters again this weekend where we have accomplished more sorting and shredding today, along with a couple of long walks and even a bit of crafting. So now everyone is suitably sleepy and I am getting nagged to turn out the lights, so I will check back in tomorrow with some pictures. Oh the bossyness of a 3 year old!!

Night night

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx

Leafy Happy Birthday

Evening 

Just a quick post tonight, I'm being told that it is time for me to cuddle down and go to sleep......by a 3 year old lol.

So here are a couple of 'leafy' cards that I made using a combination of inks, stamps and dies.

Perfect for a card with a more masculine feel.

I'm being told off for having the light on, so I had better snuggle down or my little sleepover buddy won't sleep either,

Night night.

Hugs Kimx

One Layer Oxide Leaves.

 Evening,

I do love my Distress Oxide Inks, most particularly because they work every bit as well on dark card as they do on light.

These very quick, One Layer cards were all created 

using exactly the same colours of Distress Oxide ink,

but they look so different on the black card.

I inked these lovely old wood mounted stamps with green and brown Distress Oxides

and then stamped them out on either the black or cream card.

I gold embossed a sentiment on to the card and then added some splatters with the green and brown Distress Oxide inks mixed with a little water to make it fluid enough to splatter.

I don't often create one layer cards, but these are really so very quick and easy that they would be great to make up  as a set of cards in a box as a gift for someone. Maybe as a box of Thank You cards perhaps.

Thanks for stopping by, I'm off to write a few more Christmas cards.

Stay safe and craft.

Hugs Kimx

Birthday Greetings for a Man

 Evening,

I seem to have quite a few male birthdays this month. I always find them more difficult to make cards for. I have a drawer full of floral cards, which don't seem right for this months men lol.

Here are a couple of easy cards that I created with men in mind.

I ran a piece of dark card through an embossing folder and then added inks and gilding wax.

This one uses the same embossing folder and a large Birthday die.

Same die this time used with a stencil. Perhaps this is a little more feminine, but it is very similar in layout.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Kimx

A Starry Christmas Tree

 Afternoon,

I don't know about you, but I really must start writing my Christmas cards, so here is one that will be winging it's way to someone just as soon as I can get my arse in gear.

We had a lovely Quick and Easy Christmas card class at the beginning of this year where I encouraged 'The Girls' to bring along their Christmas bits boxes.

We always tried to have a Christmas based class every couple of months to get a heads up on the end of the year, and it's also a good way of using up those bits and pieces that remain unfinished over the years.

This card was made with at least one such piece from my box. I hate to think how many years ago this tree was stamped embossed and coloured using a metallic pearlex palette.

I also found a punched strip of background paper and a stamped and embossed sentiment which fitted with the tree perfectly.

Off to finish my Christmas newsletter, which is at least a step in the right direction.

Have a great afternoon, and thanks for stopping by again.

Stay safe and hugs

Kimx