Hello All, Sorry I've Been MIA

Good Evening,

I'm so sorry that I have been MIA for the last few months. Life overtook me and I ended up being off work for 3 months with stress and depression.

Although I managed to catch up with a bit of crafting occasionally, I certainly didn't feel up to blogging. However since I have managed to survive my first two weeks back at work, without strangling anyone, I have decided to try my hand at a bit of crafty sharing.

It was my Granddaughter Emma's birthday at the end of July, so here is the card that I made for her.

The fabulous Lili of the Valley image reminds me of Emma and her sister Chloe, who love nothing more than a visit to the local Costa when I go over.

It is our treat. 

My card was inspired by my friend Fleur who makes the most amazing cards.

I used several Magnolia dies from my stash for the leaves, flowers and banner, along with a ribbon slider for a little bit of bling.

Typically I was late finishing the card, so I decided not to put 'Happy Birthday' on it,

but I did add her name.

Her Mum has decided to put it into a frame in her room to replace a card that I made for her a very LONG time ago, which always gives me a nice feeling.

It's the start of my working week tomorrow, so I will try and remain calm and get through it without resorting to violence lol. You never know I might even manage another blog post, but I'm not promising anything.

It's nice to be back, I hope you missed me.

Stay safe and have a wonderful evening.

Love and Crafty Hugs

Kimx

A New Addition to the Family

Evening Everyone, 

I became a Great Auntie again at the end of last month, when my nephew and his wife welcomed a beautiful baby girl to their family.

Of course I had to make a special card, but it has taken me a while to send it, hence the delay in sharing it with you.

I used one of my Lili of the Valley toppers along with an alphabet die set

for the important details.

I also added some glossy accents and glitter glue

Olivia's birth meant that my Brother became a Grandad, or Pops as he wants to be known, for the first time, so I sent him and Nanny a card as well.

Back to work tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs Kimx

Final Challenge at Crafty Cardmakers

 Hi All,

We have a new challenge today over at CraftyCardmakers, which I'm sad to say will be our last.

I joined the Team on 3rd October 2011 for Challenge 53, and have enjoyed every moment of my time with an incredible group of crafty people. I will certainly miss the challenge of creating something specific to share with you although I'm sure that I will see you all around Blogland at some point.

Anyway, on to our last challenge No 267 Things That Go Bump in the Night, which I am honoured to host.

I have an old friend whose birthday is on Halloween so this challenge is always the perfect opportunity to make a card especially for her.

The purple background paper is printed from a Winnie Wednesday Full Collection Halloween Bundle from Polkadoodles.

The cute Pumpkin Witch is from Lili of the Valley.

I added some witches cats 

and an extra large spiders web

along with a die cut sentiment from Creative Expressions.

I hope that you join us for our last ever challenge and that you will pop over and share the love with the rest of the DT HERE.

Stay safe.

Hugs Kimx

More Embossing both Dry and Heat

Morning Everyone,
As you know we have a new challenge over at CCM where Jackie is asking for projects showing Embossing either heat or dry.

I made these cards a while ago, actually for another CCM challenge on Time, but it ran away with me and I never got around to adding them to the the challenge.

I used a Clarity stencil and my Grand Calibur to create the clockwork background.

 All the other elements were from my stash.

This second card uses the same stencil sponged with colour, and a simple die cut sentiment.

The final card uses a mixture of both dry and heat embossing along a Lili of the Valley topper.
This one actually made it over to France for the anniversary of my sister and her husband.
Have a great day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Congratulations on your Happy News

Evening Everyone,
Wow, half way through the week already and I don't seem to have managed anything very much except lying down.
My sciatica has been playing me up something dreadful this week making sitting to craft for any length of time extremely difficult, which of course means that I'm behind with all of my DT work. So much to do and no time to do it in!!
One card that I have managed this week is for a friend who comes into the garage.
He asked me if I could make a card to congratulate a young couple on the happy news that they are to become parents.

I remembered that I had this cute little Tilda that I bought from SirStampalot ages ago, all coloured in and ready to go in my Bits Box

I managed to find some matching background papers and die cut shapes.

The News and Congratulations sentiments are from Clarity, and Time to Celebrate from Lili of the Valley.
I also added some Faux Stitching, Glitter Glue and a little duck button.
I'm off on my weekly visit to Mum tomorrow, only this time I will have plenty of company as the Grandchildren are all coming with me since it is half term.
I had better warn her in the morning of the impending invasion, it will give her time to prepare lol.
Bye for now.
Hugs Kimx

Pretty in Pink

Evening Everyone
Welcome to the weekend,I hope that you have had a good day.

I feel like I have spent the day working with a bunch of Muppet's, serving some of the rudest customers in the world, but hey ho as I said it's Friday, and tomorrow is another day.

I often get requests from work mates for a card, usually with five minutes notice, oh and by the way I need to post it to Sri Lanka / India / Pakistan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least I had a little more notice for this card made for the 2 year old daughter of one such colleague.

I really don't know where I would be without my Lili of the Valley topper. I would love to be able to practise my colouring but I'm afraid that there really are not enough hours in the day, so I cheat, but what  a wonderful way to do it.

The sentiments are also from Lili of the Valley, stamped and embossed onto Kraft card and coloured using my trusty Stardust pen and White Wink of Stella.

The borders are DooHickey dies and the papers are from my stash. They match rather perfectly I think.

The flowers and leaves are also DooHickey dies with a lovely sparkly Glitter Dome in the centre.
I would like to enter it in to the following challenges
Crafting Musketeers - Challenge 22 Cute
That's Crafty Challenge - Animal Magic
Teaching tomorrow, so that will be fun, nothing like work at all.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs Kimx

Poppies with Bling

Evening Everyone,
Happy Monday.
I have fulfilled my Grandmotherly duties - collected the Twins from school - so I have spent the evening making a card as requested by one of the Girls from work.

She asked me to make a card for a relative of hers. No restrictions just that she likes red.

I have used one of the pieces that I made when playing with my EBosser and some fabulous Clarity Stencils.
I can't remember exactly what I did, but I know that I was cleaning up the ink from them by running them through the EBosser before I cleaned them under the tap.

It is not quite as barmy as it sounds because it transferred the ink to the cardstock and at the same time embossed the image which gives a fabulous look. I put the two stencils through together so that the dots become part of the pattern.
I coloured the dotty ribbon with the same Distress inks (Fired Brick and Barn Door) and then added a fancy ribbon slider to it.

I added some Gold Gilding Wax to the panel and also the dark red card which I also dry embossed with dots. Also a few tiny black dots and some gold nailheads. The greeting is from Lili of the Valley.

I even did a bit of stenciling on the envelope. Well it did help to clean off the brush that I had used lol.
I hope that she likes it. I guess that I will find out tomorrow lol.
I would like to enter it into the following challenge
Eureka Stamps - The colour red.
I would have tried a few more but my laptop is acting up again.
Every time I decide that I really must catch up with commenting and blog viewing it decides to go on strike.  I really don't know what I do to upset it so :O(
Night night and hugs
Kimx

Welcome to 2015. I've been inspired by my Granddaughter

Evening Everyone,
Having had to make some last minute Christmas gifts for my Granddaughters friends, I found myself thinking what a fabbie idea the little gift bag was.

I have several regular customers who come in most days with their children, and so I decided that rather than give the family a Christmas card, I would make a small gift bag for their children.

I chose some Lili of the Valley toppers and cut them out with assorted Nesties.

They all seemed to go best with blue card stock, so I stuck with that. Sorry Megan not nearly as inspired as your choices :O)

I wrote the children's names on their bag with assorted stickers from my stash.

A bit of glitter glue, some brads, a pencil and rubber and a small bag of sweeties and you have a rather nice gift.

I can see me doing these again throughout the year for things like Easter, Halloween and even birthdays.

They are so quick and easy to do and can make a few sweeties or other small gift look really quite special.
I'm pleased to see that it has been much warmer today, I even managed to take my extra non uniform cardigan off. Long may it continue.
Have a good evening.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Edited - This little blog of mine has started 2015 with 70,000 hits.
My sincere thanks to all of you that have visited.
I hope to see you throughout the coming year and thank you once again for all of the lovely messages that you have left me. xx

Happy Birthday Matthew

Hi All,
Just a quick post tonight as I have several parcels to get packed up ready to take to the Post Office tomorrow, and the time is getting away from me. Where does the evening disappear to so quickly?

I have had several cards for 'Little People' to make recently, including this one for the son of a former work colleague.

The image is a pre-coloured topper from Lili of the Valley.

I die cut it using a circular Nestie and mounted it over a scalloped circle of Kraft card.
I added some sponged ink while the image was still inside the die and also some faux stitching.

The sentiment is from Hobby Art and the number has been cut using a new Dreamweaver die set that I recently purchased.
Better get back to my packing or there will be a lot of disappointed people when the postman arrives.
Happy Crafting.
Hugs Kimx

Welcome to your New Pub

Evening All
Sorry I have been missing for a few days but I have been visiting my daughter and her partner in their new Pub, so plenty of train travel and no Internet.
My 'trip' has also ended rather eventfully as I stumbled and fell on the way to the station to come home and have ended up with a fractured elbow!! It was x-rayed at A&E last night and I am now waiting for an appointment at the fracture clinic on Thursday.
Of course it would be my right hand, so everything is taking forever to do, even the simplest of things like putting on your bra, or doing up a zip, but at least I can do somethings, just no lifting.

 This is the card that I sent to welcome Becki and Andy to their new home.

The central image is fabulous Lili of the Valley topper that is just perfect for a New Home card.
I created a 'Patchwork' panel down the left hand side with papers that matched the colouring on the image.

The flowers are all hand made,

and I also added some die cut leaves.

The sentiments are also by Lili of the Valley die cut on Kraft and cream card using a fabulous Magnolia DooHickey die set.

I also die cut the fence twice and offset it slightly so that it showed up better.

They took their three cats with them, so they had to be added to the card along with some die cut grass.

I added Glossy Accents to the vase, clock and TV.

My card now has pride of place at the end of the bar,

in amongst the beer.

I seem to have spent most of today sleeping, not from the influence of beer either lol.
Let's hope that I can manage to do a little more tomorrow. This post seems to have taken me all day!!
I would like to enter it into the following challenges

Blue Ocean Challenge - At least One Flower
Pinspirational Challenges - Any Kind of Project
Sweet Stamps Challenge - Dies
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes

Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx