A Mutual Admiration Society

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you have had a wonderful Saturday.
We had a fabulous family gathering today, four generations together under the same roof. Amazingly for some it was the first time they had ever met!!

Mum and Emma shared lunch.

Emma loves spending time with my Mum, it really is a mutual admiration society.

 I have a couple of birthday cards for you tonight.

 A card made using some background paper from my stash, which I have to admit doesn't seem to get any smaller lol.

I used an Inkadinkadoo leaf stamp set to create a great card for a man.

This card uses another piece of background and the same die set,

but this time I used a wonderful old Hero Arts stamp.
Maybe I can get some crafting done tomorrow, I have a pile od Hobby Art stamps that need to be played with, but I am fast running out of time.
Maybe I can get a bit of playtime tonight, or maybe I should just start fresh tomorrow.
Anyway, bye for now.
Hugs Kimx

Goodbye Liz

Evening Everyone,
Unfortunately I have need of yet another Sympathy card.
We have just received the sad news that my Mum's best friend passed away peacefully today.

She was a lovely lady and will be missed dreadfully by all who knew her.

She and Mum would ring each other every day, and could talk for England whenever she came to stay.

She was an avid knitter, working her way through her long list of grandchildren, and great Grandchildren. A bit like painting the Forth Bridge, she would make something for each of them, youngest to oldest and then start the process all over again.

Emma was a lucky inclusion to this list and we have several beautiful cardigans which I know Becki will treasure.
Mum had organised a post Christmas family gathering tomorrow to which Liz was invited, so I know that we will all be raising a glass and sharing our memories of a very special lady.
Goodbye Liz, we will miss you.
Hugs Kimx

No cards tonight

Evening All,
Nothing to post tonight I'm afraid as I have been out with Becki and Emma.
We took my Mum shopping which took far longer than expected......isn't that always the way.
So I will have to make it up to you tomorrow.
Night night.
Hugs Kimx

Thank You, Thank You

Evening Everyone,
Are you cold enough? It's b....y freezing here today, bitter cold.
Hopefully at this time of year you are in need of several Thank You cards to send after all of those fabulous Christmas gifts.
Having only just finished Emma's birthday thank you's I hope that we can manage to be a little more speedy with her Christmas ones.
Mum is still working on her ideas for them, so here in the meantime are a few that I made a while ago using a fantastic old Magenta cling stamp set.

 They are only tiny cards,

 made using up some scraps of background created with Brushos.

The stamp set is made up of several rectangular and square stamps 

 which all tessellate perfectly.

I cut around the stamped images and mounted them onto small plain white cards.

I can't remember who made the sentiment, but as you can see even without it it makes a lovely card for any occasion.
Time for my nice warm bed I think.
Bye for now.
Hugs Kimx

An Imagination Christmas

Evening Everyone,
Now far be it from me to wish the year away, but roll on the spring when I can complain about being too hot...................I have been absolutely frozen at work today.

With that in mind, here are a couple more Christmas cards.

They all use Imagination stencils, Starlights,

 and a touch of Sparkle Medium for that wonderful foiled effect.

They may not be traditional Christmas colours, but they have that traditional Christmas sparkle.
Hugs Kimx

For Those We Love

Evening Everyone,
As well as New Baby cards in my stash, there is unfortunately always the need for a sympathy card or two.
When I saw this stamp in the Stampendous catalogue I fell in love with the delicate leaves as well as the beautiful verse and decided that I just had to have it.

Unfortunately it's beautiful words have come in handy all too soon.

This last couple of weeks has seen me send out a couple of them, difficult at any time, but always so much worse I think at this time of year when all around you seem to be in party mood.

I have used a Tim Holtz stencil and distress inks on all of the panels.

Now like anyone else I like to get my monies worth out of my purchases so it was great to find that I could use the same stamp for any type of card,

including an anniversary.

I do hope that it gets more use in this capacity than as it was originally intended.

Love and hugs

Kimx

Distress Stains and Embossing Folders

Evening Everyone
I told you that I was looking forward to a great class on Saturday, well we had a marvellous time.
So here are a couple more of the cards that I made using Distress Stains and Embossing Folders.

 I got the idea from Pinterest, and as you can see I really like the hexagon embossing folder.

 You might also notice that I like this Woodware stamp as well.

 The distress stains are easy to use on the embossing folders and create lovely backgrounds.

Nice solid stamps work really well on this type of background as they show up so well.
I have lots more bits to finish off, and if I am going to carry on with my efforts to empty my bits box I can see a few more cards being posted over the next few days.
I hope that you have had a wonderful New Years Day. We have had a houseful again which has been lovely.
They are all still off work tomorrow as it is a Bank Holiday but I will be at work as normal. Never mind, it won't be long before we do it all again lol.
Hugs Kimx

Love You to the Moon and Back

Evening Everyone,
I hope that you are all having an amazing time.
I always struggle with my emotions today as it marks the anniversary of the death of my son Adam.
A loss is always hard to deal with, even after 15years, but somehow it seems even harder at this time of year when everyone else is in party mood.

My card tonight is one that I made for the last Woodware catalogue. but I think it says it all very well.
In fact Adam's big sister posted on Facebook this morning using this exact phrase, so I think it is a sentiment that we can all agree with.

I can't believe that we are already at the end of another year, and what a year of loss it has been especially in the world of celebrity.
Let us hope that the new one will be a better one for everybody. One that is 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 to anyone who is suffering.
Happy New Year to you All.
See you in 2017.
Hugs Kimx

Watercolours and Embossing Folders

Evening Everyone
I don't know what you are up to tomorrow, but we will be playing with embossing folders and watercolours in class, despite it being New Years Eve.

Here are just a couple of the cards that I have made using this technique, which I found on Pinterest.
This first card is made using the first generation impression pulled from the embossing folder.

And this card uses a second generation impression with a different image stamped on to the panel.

As usual I got quite carried away, and even managed a Christmas card to add to the pile for next year.
I am really looking forward to sharing this with the Girls tomorrow, I am sure that they are going to have great fun.
Hugs Kimx

A Beautiful baby boy........or girl.

Evening Everyone,
It must have been all of the Christmas cards that I've been sharing lately, it caused a major cold snap in the weather. The frost was so heavy this morning that it looked like snow.
Perhaps I had better give Christmas cards a miss for a few days, so here are a few baby cards.

 

This one uses one of my 'go to' Huge Word stamps from Woodware, some paper piecing and a lovely Marianne Collectable baby die.

 Another Woodware stamp, more paper piecing and a few buttons.

 I have several fabulous animal dies from Marianne Collectables.

They have lots of little details, so I cut them from both pink and blue card to give me two seperate cards suitable for either a boy or a girl.

I also cut them from yellow and green, which I actually think I like best. I sent this one to my Niece when she announced that she was expecting again,

and this one to my Sister and her Husband as the prospective Grandparents. As my niece doesn't want to know the sex of the baby till it arrives the colour scheme seemed a little more appropriate.

He even looks rather fun cut out of gingham.
Hugs Kimx