Favourite Five from 2010

I had so much fun visiting blogs looking at everyone's favourite five Christmas cards that I just had to join in Debbie's follow up challenge which is to choose your five favourite projects from the whole year.  

Oh my, that is a toughie, but here goes...

Had to choose this card featuring Alice in Wonderland simply because I love the secret pocket. It was a card for my daughter Laura, who is a complete PINK addict, but she still loved the card.  Amazing!

 Card number two has to be...

A card using a Dreamweaver tree stencil with embossing paste and then coloured with Distress Inks before being finally sprayed with Crafter's Companion Glitter spray.  

In at number three comes...

an acetate creation using a digi by Crafty Ann and a Cuddly Buddly stamp.  Think it's the charm attached to the sentiment that makes this one a hit for me.  It took me so long to find the charm that I knew I had somewhere in my stash that I just had to love it once found.

Number 4 is...

I've chosen this one because I love Sweetpea images.  I've bought far more of them than I've actually used, but they are just so magical.  

Last, but not least favourite card number five is...

The snakeskin effect paper on this is just so tactile.  It really feels scaly and it was great to use one of an incredible set of charms that Father Christmas brought me last year.

The card was made for my daughter's boyfriend to give her on Valentine's day.  I'm not 100% sure whether they love my cards or they love the price of them (free!), but oh well I have fun making them.

Do join in with Debbie's event and check out everyone's favourites of the year.  It's fun and going by the Christmas favourites there will be some stunning cards on display.
Happy New Year to Everyone.

Hugs and Smiles.

Ann xxx

Memories...

As my Mum's memory becomes worse and worse I've realised just how important it is to cherish and preserve the photos we have of people and places from years gone by.  I must admit I have been meaning to do something with my Mum's photos for some time and while Boxing Day might seem a strange time to make a start it was actually perfect at our house.  Mum was able to show off how well she can remember things from the past and Laura and I spent a lovely afternoon creating the first two pages of an album about our family. 
The wording was printed onto acetate and then attached to the card cut from the original folders that the photos were in.  I've laid a piece of black over the names as being paranoid you just never know what information should and should not be included on the internet.  
 

The background paper of roses is by DCWV and we both agreed it was perfect for the theme as we wanted to use black and white, but most of my papers were way too trendy.  This one seemed to fit well, especially seeing as my mum loves roses and had some in her bouquet.

We did consider adding some pressed red roses that I remembered were somewhere in my stash, but one of the memories Mum came up with was about her bouquet.  She remember wanting red roses, but was told that they would look black on black and white photos so she plumped for pink instead.  She can't remember opening a Christmas present from five minutes ago, but her Wedding Day is as fresh as ever.

Seems like ages since I entered any challenges so I'm really pleased to be able to link our pages to the challenges at...

• Allsorts Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
• Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
• Charismas Cardz Challenges - Pearls and lace
• Rainbow Lady's Challenges - My choice from last year's themes - mine is 'Lest we forget'
• Simon Say's Stamp - Anything Goes

My early New Year resolution is to do much more scrap booking, especially as my daughter loves it so much and we can play together.  As she says in the future she will look at our album and not only remember Gran, but also the fun we had doing the pages.

Enjoy your day whatever you have planned.

Hugs and smiles.

Ann xxx

Five Favourite Christmas Cards...

Debbie at A Scrapjourney wants us to choose our five favourite Christmas cards of 2010 and post them on our blogs.  I think this is such a fun idea and decided to have a look back at all the cards I did for Bah! Humbug! throughout the year.  

I think our favourites tend to change depending on the mood we're in, but anyway here come my most loved Christmas creations ...

 

 

I was going to write a little about each card, but hey it's CHRISTMAS  - much more fun to just look at the pictures.

Only two more sleeps now - yeah so exciting! 
I am trying to visit all my blogging buddies, but seem to be running out of time so I'll take this opportunity to say 'Hope you have a wonderful Christmas time.'
Ann xxx

It's Christmas....

Yeah only days to go to the big event - still got masses to do and 'am I bovvered?'  

Think I've given up all hope of doing any crafting at the moment as I'm busy at work and racing round like a mad women (more than usual) to get things done for me and my mum.  Who isn't?  So before I close up shop till the New Year I just wanted to wish all my dear friends a very, very Happy Christmas and a Wonderful New Year.

I'm really looking forward to playing with my Christmas crafting stash.  Santa was sent a list with HOUSE MOUSE and LOTV stamps in capital letters, but I must admit to being a bit worried as I've not really been all that good.  Maybe he was looking the other way when we had the team's Christmas night out.  I really hope so!

Big hugs to all and hope your Christmas stockings are bulging with your favourite goodies.

Ann xxx

The Last Batch...

Well the 'poop' bags have sold like hot cakes at the Nursing Home my daughter works at.  The Christmas Fair had to be cancelled due to bad weather conditions, but I sent the bags I'd made in for the residents anyway.

I'm really not sure whether that was a bad or a good move for me really as ever since all my crafting time has been spent making further supplies of the latest craze in Meadow View Nursing Home.  Oh my they have sold well?  Even the oncall doctor didn't get chance to leave the building without buying a few packs.  I've made just over a hundred and raised enough money to cover the cost of an entertainer at the residents' Christmas party.  

Due to making such a massive number of them I must admit the design had to be modified slightly in that I printed out a 'ready coloured' reindeer, which speeded things up quite a bit.  I'm really sorry that I can't remember where the reindeer came from.  I know it was a freebie, but unfortunately I didn't file it properly on my computer.  I think it might be a Pollycraft one from last year.  The text was computer generated too.

I hadn't got a coloured image of a snowman, but used this fab digi by Torico.  I think it was one of the first freebies Torico gave out and is just so cute.  The snowmen were coloured using Promarkers and then I added a touch of glitter.  Again the text was computer generated.

Hopefully now I've completed these I may be able to enter some challenges again, but for the moment I'll add these as my entry to the following challenges...

• Digital Tuesday - Sparkling Christmas
• Cupcake Craft Challenges - Non-traditional Christmas (Be it colours, image, or something my fluffy little brain hasn’t even thought of -) Think my entry qualifies for the latter!
• Alphabet Challenge - G is for Glitter
• Fussy and Fancy - Anything but a card

I do apologise for the poor photos, but I had to take them at night before my daughter packed them up again to take to work.  If anyone is wanting to do a little last minute fund raising I found that the bags of marshmallows sold at Sainsbury's are fantastic value at just over a pound with no pink ones in.  Used carefully each bag could be streched out to make 20 bags of poop.   

Have a great day all and I hope your Christmas preparations are going well.  Not long before Santa comes along now.

Christmas Birthdays...

or birthdays very near to Christmas.  When I started this card it was going to be another Christmas card, but it sort of changed along the way.  The image and backing papers are taken from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD and printed on to glossy photo paper.  The image was mat and layered on to two shades of brown card and gold mirri card to add more glitz.  I've added border and corner peel offs to both the image and the outside of the card and a gold leaf with berries that has been in my stash for ages.  The gold peel off sentiment looks a bit wonky in the photo, but it was straight on the card I'm sure.

My card is for the challenges at ...

• Crafty Ann's Challenge - Christmas and a sketch (spooky how I started this card yesterday and yet it is so close to Ann's sketch that I just had to enter it)
• Alphabet Challenge - Foliage (think the lady sitting on the branch holding her bunch of mistletoe should count)
• Tanda Teaser - Ladies Only
• CD Sunday - White Christimas ( I do hope this card is okay even though it is a birthday card - I did print the image originally with this challenge in mind - honest!)
• Allsorts Challenge - Monochrome

Well I'm back to work tomorrow providing the snow doesn't get any worse.  Have a great weekend everyone.

It's that mouse again!...

This House Mouse guy seems to be appearing everywhere this week.  This time he's got himself into a snowglobe I picked up at our local Home Bargains store.  I really like this globe as it's flat backed and has a huge magnet on so that you can stick it on the fridge, etc.  It was nice and easy to open and has a much neater finish than the last globe I used.

My globe is going to make it's way on to my Mum's fridge this afternoon when I go on to do her tea, but it's also for the challenges at...

• Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - Christmas Animals (wow Cynthia can you believe I entered on your very first day?)
• Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Anything for Christmas but not a card.
• Ooh La La Creations - Here comes Santa CLAWS (lol)
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Christmas Cuties

Hope this snow melts soon.  My Graphicus goodies are still being held at the Post Office and our milk and bread supplies are running dangerously low.  I'm not sure which of those things is worrying me most!  Probably the Graphicus box as they are like gold dust to get hold off.

Take care everyone.

Ann xxx 

Bah! Humbug! Part 2...

Just got back and changed into dry clothes after our lovely walk, which was only spoilt a little by the drivers who soaked us through by driving too close and scaring the living daylights out of us.   Unfortunately the pub was closed, but the walk was still good and it was lovely to be out in the fresh air taking photos of our very own 'winter wonderland'.

Trees look stunning with a snowy coat.  Whoops there I go with my thing about trees again - if Lorraine reads this she will be giggling. 
 

We really walked much further than we should have done especially seeing as we weren't able to have a meal while we were out.  Luckily the garage was open on the way home and although a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk hasn't got quite the same attraction as lasagne it at least fuelled up the energy levels enough to get us home.  Sadly the garage had sold out of essentials such as milk and bread which was a bit of a pain, but being made of stern stuff we didn't let it get us down and came out with two bottles of wine instead.

It's all good I think, but please can the snow go quite quickly now as I've taken my photos and I've seen enough of it for this year. 

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug!...

I'm sorry, but the snow I like is glittered and on Christmas cards.  The real stuff is also okay for the occasional country walk, sledging and building snowmen, but on no account should it fall when people need to get to work or even worse know that they have a huge parcel from Graphicus stranded at the Post Office and there is no way they can get their hands on it.  Eeek!

Anyway grumble over and on to more fun things such as this totally cute House Mouse stamp from one of the sets on the Joanna Sheen website.  How cute is he?  I love him to meeces!

I missed the last challenge at the House Mouse and Friends Challenge blog and was determined not to miss this one which is all about the 'envelope'.  To compensate for missing out last time I did a card to match the envelope.  Actually not sure which came first - a bit like the chicken and the egg query really.

The envelope was stamped with the mouse and then using another stamp set in my collection I stamped the ground and the snowballs using a bit of masking and a pen to join things up.  I coloured the image using Promarkers.  I was a bit unsure as to how they would blend on the envelope paper and I must admit I put an protective piece inside the envelope just incase the ink went through, but it all seemed to work fine. The snowflakes are one of the really tiny corner stamps by Clarity bought at a show years ago and were stamped in Versefine Sepia.  I added the address to the photo only - I don't really know Maxwell's address!

My card is a really simple one with the mouse image mounted on a fab die cut by Nellie Snellen and then matted on some of my favourite wording paper by DCWV.  Organza ribbon, die cut tags and corner peel offs have been added for a touch of oomph.

My card and envelope set is perfect for the following challenges...

• House Mouse and Friends Challenge Blog - Envelope Art
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Script (background paper)
• Promarker Challenge - Old and New (new is House Mouse stamp - old is DCWV paper and snowflake corner stamp)

Well, I'm off for a walk in the snow.  I must be mad, but I do think that it will be really beautiful on the pastures near us and am hoping to take some good snowy day photos.  Also hoping that Pasture's Lodge is open too as I think on a cold day their lasagne, garlic bread and chips meal would go down very nicely accompanied by a glass (or two) of red wine.

Have a good day all and keep warm and safe.

Ann xxx

Feeling Blue...

It's not just the awful cold that I came down with the other day that's causing the blues.  This week sees our very last challenge at Bah! Humbug! till the New Year.  Yep, we Bah! Humbuggers! are taking a break and as it is our last challenge it seemed appropriate to have the theme of 'Feeling Blue'.

Even though I was so snuffly I wanted to just curl up under the duvet I really, really couldn't miss the last challenge so out came my favourite glitter card and a gorgeous snowflake die from a set by Marianne.  The snowflake is set behind the circular aperture cut into embossed white card.  A really simple card to make, but a useful one to send out.

My card is for the challenges at...

• Cute Card Thursday - Blast from the Past (Week 91 aperture's)
• Crafts and Me - cards with snowflakes on
• Pollycraft - anything blue
• Incy Wincy Designs - blue and white. 
• Fussy and Fancy - Christmas with no red or green

While I was in my blue phase I had a little play using a Kaleidoscope ink pad I have that has loads of shades of blue in it. Using art card and ink dusters I shaded the whole of the card with the lightest blue in the middle and getting darker and darker towards the edge.

Then using a Hero Arts sentiment stamp that I've had for years I stamped the word 'Joy' in the bottom corner.  I must admit that I was intending to add white embossed snowflakes to the tag at this stage, but while I was searching for snowflake stamps I found this wonderful Stampendous branch that hasn't seen the light of day for years.  Eeek too many stamps - NO never!  Having stamped the branches I felt the need to add a bauble and decided to use my Sizzix die again.  This die cuts the circle and tag part separately so I cut the outer tag ring in blue and the inner circle in white art card.  Then using the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder I put the circle over one of the snowflakes and embossed.  To make the bauble match the rest of the tag I dusted it with ink and for a bit of glitz added a gem stone to the centre and a touch of glitter to the branches.

As well as some of the challenges listed above my tag is also perfect for the challenge at...

• Oldie but Goldie - glitter (really must enter this challenge more often and get some of my old stamps used.  The Stampendous branch is a design from 1992 and there was I swooning over the new Waltzing Mouse stamps when I had this in my collection already.)

I hope you will have chance to pop over to Bah! Humbug! to see the work of the rest of the team and maybe join in.  Next week, although there will be no challenge, we will be announcing the winner and runner up in our loyalty club so that's something exciting enough to banish the blues for quite a while.

Have a great day everyone.

Ann xxx

It can't be Friday already...

Sheesh, where are the weeks going?  Time is just flying by and it's getting nearer and nearer to Christmas.  I know I've said this before, but thank goodness I've been a part of Bah! Humbug! over the last year, because we may not have a cake yet or a hundred and one other essentials, but at least the cards are well and truly underway. 

Plus I've got my Christmas hat too!  Have you checked out my new profile picture? 

I shall be wearing it to do all my commenting for Bah! Humbug! from now on.  Both my team mates, Max and Irene, are hoping to get one too.  Irene says I look like Maria out of 'The Sound of Music'.  I think she's jealous cause they haven't got them at her Poundland store.  LOL!

Our challenge this week is entitled 'Lovely in Lilac' and we would love to see creations in many different shades of lilac.  Now one of the Bah! Humbuggers! (see card above) got the wrong idea completely and just did a card with a touch of lilac.  Oh dear, I really must pay attention in future!

Anyway no worries as my card did give me chance to use my lovely new embossing folder, by Papermania, given to me by my dear friend Susan.  I love it.  Thank you so much Susan.  Think I will be using this one often.

My card is a very easy one to create and is a style of card I have used many times before.  It's larger than the normal cards of this shape as I have some envelopes that measure 9" x 4.75" which I was given by my local Hallmark shop.  They were throwing away all the old card stock and envelopes.  How wasteful is that?  Anyway they allowed me to salvage all the envelopes and some of them have been so useful.  This particular size is great, because it allows enough space for the whole width of embossing folder and enough to matte and layer too.

I've used lilac gems to embellish the embossing and a sizzix bauble tag die cut for the sentiment.

My card is also for the following challenges...

• ABC Christmas Challenge - X is for Xmas
• Simon Says - Sparkle (my gems and mirri card)
• Tuesday Taggers - Peace. Love and Joy
• Crazy for Challenges - A Christmas Card or item
• Secret Crafter - Sparkle and Shine

Have a great weekend everyone and do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to check out the samples by my team mates and our super talented Guest Designer Pat.

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day... Rudolf and Reindeer...

Friday has come round again.  I just can't believe how fast the weeks seem to fly by and Christmas is looming every nearer.  Thank goodness I have been making cards each week for the Bah! Humbug! Challenge since the beginning of the year.  I still can't believe that this year there will no last minute rush to get things finished.  So smug I could almost smack myself!!

This week our theme is Reindeer either the famous red nosed variety or maybe an elegant deer such as mine.  When I first started to think about this challenge I was going to make some Reindeer Poop bags similar to the ones I did last year as I need to do some for the Christmas Fair at Laura's Nursing Home, but this year I'm adding raisins instead of marshmallows and I haven't really had chance to get them yet.

Oh okay confession time - I ate the raisins, but I am gonna buy some more - honest!

Anyway the less said about my chocolate addiction the better!  

On to more important things.  My reindeer contribution to this week's challenge was just such a quick and easy creation I felt like I had cheated big time.  

The gold metallic reindeer is a die cut from a Create and Craft set that I won in a recent competition.  The white embossed and glittered background was one of the cards from the same set.  I'm afraid I cut the 'pretty' part of the card off and used it as you would use designer paper matting and layering onto silver mirri card and then on to a base of gold swirl embossed card.  To finish the card off I added a gold sentiment peel off and three gold 'mock' brad peel offs in the top left corner.  

In the words of the famous meerkat 'Simples', but while it may not be one of my favourite cards I do quite like it and much as I love making cards you just can't spend a whole morning or day on every card.

In addition to Bah! Humbug! my card is also for the following challenges...

• Crafts and Me - Glitter
• ABC Christmas Challenge - Winter Wonderland

Have an amazing weekend everyone and do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to see the work of my team mates and our brilliant guest designer Pat.

Oh Baby...

Yeah, this week I'm one of the Guest Designers at the Raise the Bar Challenge and the theme is the fun title 'oh baby'.  New Baby, Christening or maybe baby's first Christmas were all ideas that came to mind, but as I had bought the full sheet of LOTV stamps that features this cute baby at the NEC last week I decided to do a new baby card for a boy.  Already got a couple of baby girl cards in my box so now I'm covered for all eventualities - well maybe not twins!

As I was putting the card together I was thinking about how fab the Cuttlebug embossing folders that feature words are and how it's such a shame that so many of the words get covered up when we add our images and other papers and embellishments.  This line of thought got me thinking about cutting the image out and mounting it on the embossing, but that wasn't quite the look I wanted.  After quite a bit of head scratching it dawned on me that if I mounted the image on acetate and then framed the acetate in the blue card the embossed writing would still be visible and the frame would mean that there was still an eye catching focal point.

As you can see in the close up picture although the frame covers some of the words you can still see enough of the writing to get a sense of the meaning.  I think I'm going to give this a try out with some of my other word folders as I really like the effect.  The frame was made using a Spellbinder die.

My baby card is also for the challenges at...

• One Stop Craft Challenge - embossing (think I may have entered this already, but this card features embossing more so I'm entering it - hope I don't get 'done'!
• Anything Goes Challenge - embossing
• Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
• Lili of the Valley - anything goes

Have a fab Friday everyone and do pop back later as it's Bah! Humbug! day too so I'll be adding my latest Christmas card.

Ann xxx

Hot Pink! ...

This just has to be for Laura.  It's the same colour scheme as her bedroom and I must admit I do love the combination of hot pink and black.  My designer paper was one of the freebies in a card magazine some time back and it led me into using this combination of colours on my card.  

The stamp is by LOTV of course and oh my, are there any uncute LOTV stamps cause if there are I haven't seen them?  The sentiment is from the same sheet of stamps and is a very useful one especially to use with this image.  All the colouring was done using Promarkers and as you can see I've embossed the border using a Cuttlebug snowflake folder.

I used the sketch from this week's challenge at Sketch Saturday.  I always love their sketches as they are very easy to work with.

When creating this card I also had the following challenges in mind...

• Crafty Ann's Challenge - A Christmas Card using non traditional colours
• Lil of the Valley - One for the Girls
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Embossing
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Square Cards

Thanks for looking and the super kind comments everyone leaves me - they do mean a lot.  Have a great day everyone.  Hope it's not as wet, wild and windy where you are as it is here.  I seriously need to hibernate.

Ann xxx

Snow Globes...

I love snow globes.  My daughter bought a beautiful musical one with two skaters inside while we were away in Birmingham. Just so pretty and I would have treat myself I think had I not been trying to save my pennies for the NEC.  Anyway since arriving home I remembered that I had a spare 'photo globe' in my stash which led me to making a Penny Black Christmas Snow Globe.  Ahhh poor hedgies getting shaken up like this.

This is other side of the globe with hedgie resting against his stocking.  Both Penny Black stamps I've used are from one of the Christmas clear stamp sets which I've had quite a few years now but it seems to reappear every Christmas.

As you slot the pictures up from the bottom of the globe there is a piece of polystyrene also slotted in to hold the pictures in place which means that the side view is not very appealing.  To hide the polystyrene and edges of the pictures I attached ribbon decorated with punched snowflakes and gems all around the dividing part of the snow globe.  I think it looks a far neater finish.

My snow globe is intended for the following challenges...

• Penny Black at Allsorts - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
• The Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter and snowflakes
• Penny Black - Let it Snow
• The Stamp Man - Anything Goes for Christmas

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.

Love and hugs.

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day... Fancy Folds...

Having created at least one card per week since the start of the year for our challenges at Bah! Humbug!  I must admit that I have quite a lot of special cards and really need to make some smaller ones for the neighbours.  While looking through one of my old magazines during one of my many 'sorting out' sessions I came across a lovely little origami Christmas tree and decided to give it a go.  Using some papers from a DCWV Christmas pad I quickly made my own little forest of trees which I made up into simple tiny cards like the one above.

Just in case anyone else fancies a go at paper folding I took some photos of the various stages. 

1. Cut a square piece of paper.  My paper was 4" x 4", but the trees can really be as large or small as you want them.

2. Then cut the square into two sections along the diagonal line.  Each of these pieces will make one tree. 

3. Put one triangle to one side to use later and then score down the centre of the remaining triangle from the point to the middle of the base.

4. Using the score line as a guide fold each of the side points into the middle.  Just to make sure you are all paying attention I turned the triangle round in the picture below.  Sorry!

5. When they are both folded in your work should look like this...

6. Now turn your work over and keeping the open point at the bottom fold in the two sides points to the middle to form a kite shape.  It helps to use a bone folder at this stage to get a nice crisp crease.

7. When you've done both sides and turned it round it should look like this...

8. Now comes the tricky part - no only kidding - easy really!   Turn the tree over and open out the two side flaps.

9. Fold the each of the side points up to meet the kite shaped central portion of the tree.

10.  Now fold the two points of the kite itself into the centre.

11.  Nearly done.  Fold the bottom point up as shown in the photo.  This creates the tree trunk.

12. Now fold the two side flaps back into position.

13.  Finally turn the tree over and admire your work.  So cute - well I think they are and much easier to make than loading all these photos on to blogger.  Sheesh putting photos on is so slow these days!

As this post goes live I will be travelling back from the NEC.  I'm only going to look of course (LOL) as there is nothing I need, but should I buy something I will show over the weekend I promise.

Have a good day everyone and do pop over to Bah! Humbug! to see what the rest of the team have been up to.  We have a very talented new Guest Designer this month and I can't wait to see her creations.

Ann xxx

PS:  Just arrived back in time to add that my fancy folded trees are perfectish for the challenges at...

• Winter Wonderland - Sing a Christmas Carol (oh Christmas Tree)
• The Stamp Man - Anything Goes Christmas