To wish you.....

...all a very peaceful and happy Christmas, and hope the new year is everything you hope it to be.  Thank you all for being so supportive over the last few months....I really do appreciate it.

12 days of Christmas

What?...I hear you saying. Over at ATC Swappers Paul asked us to do 12 ATCs all the same for a mega swap. In return we got 12 ATCs all different, and a little extra from Paul. Thank you Paul.
Here's a pic of one of the twelve that I made..yep..Bentley and his little friend again.


Water coloured using pencils...polar white flower soft on his hat and snowflakes and glossy accents for his wellies.





Here are the twelve that I received. Aren't they gorgeous? My thanks go to all the following. From the top reading left to right

Jane Millard...SheilaKing aka She...GermanFerrao..Lorraine.....Pat.
Alison...Mette Reedman...Steph....Anesha.
Hazel Christison aka Dido.....Julie Long.....Paul Ford

All my ATCs, sent and received are on picasa .....the link can be found on the right hand bar. There are still a couple of swaps to arrive yet....hopefully. The November swap on ATC Swappers went walkabouts in the post, but you never know they could still turn up. (trying to be positive here...lol)

A long post.....

..for me anyway. Still got the cold, though it's more of a hacking cough now. Just hope that it doesn't turn to a chest infection. Getting a doctor's appointment will be be practically impossible now until after the new year. I woke up late this afternoon to a heavy snowfall. Thankful that I decided to venture out yesterday to the bank instead of leaving it until today, no way was I going out today! Anyway...seeing as all my Christmas cards are done..and the ATC's for this year thought I'd show you some of what I've been doing.

3 of the cards I've done for the grandchildren and young family members. I don't usually "do" cute but these images are soooo cute I couldn't resist. Square easel cards, I'm loving this style. The base card is wheat colour, matted and layered with red card and pattern paper. The paper is a download from Mad about cards. The first two images are from Pollycraft. The first image is Milly Singing.... the second one is Bronson and Beaker (love the little Robin especially) and the third one is one of my favourite stamps at the moment..Bentley. All water coloured, then a sentiment circle from Funky Fairy's and a charm added. I went with the traditional red and green for the colouring to co-ordinate with the papers.

Now this one is definitely a first for me. Cross stitch. (A kit from Cross Stitcher magazine) I did embroidery when I was much, much younger, and I used to make my children's clothes when they were little. Never done cross stitch like this though. Enjoyed doing it and there are a few mistakes..but I'm quite pleased with it on the whole. The best thing about it for me are the eyes. They are done with french knots and these are something I could never get right no matter how hard I tried. Can do 'em now though......Yippee!!! Well I made it into a card and it's going to one of my great nieces..she's only 3, so I hope she likes it and wont mind the mistakes.

Some of the quick small cards...great for using up the smaller pieces of your papers and card. I've done them tent style and I really like them this way.

Now for the last few. Although it wasn't intentional on my part, a theme has emerged, traditional colours and poinsettias.

I made this for my best friend Anne. The inspiration came from a floral punch tutorial by Jane Gill in the October issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I've had to adapt it slightly because I didn't have the punches and I made it slightly smaller. The bauble stamp is by Paper Artsy, gems Papermania, Stickles glitter glue (stamens), ribbon and charm from stash.

Two cards done in the same style as above. The poinsettia and the pricked frame is from Fred She Said, scalloped circle using nestibilities and the pale green paper from someone who's blog I read regularly and I've forgotten who! If you know where from please let me know then I can give credit where it's due. The poinsettia and branches come B&W which I coloured using pastels and baby oil

Another poinsettia...this time dufex and decoupaged.

This one is a pattern from CraftsUPrint. I've used 2 strands of metallic thread..gold and green. Mounted on to red then dark green card, then finished with gold peel-offs.

And finally.....not traditional colours this time....or Poinsettias.
A winter church scene kindly given by a member of the Imag-e-nation forum. It is a copy of a picture a friend painted and didn't like so she said it could be used. I glittered it up with Stickles, matted and layered onto dark blue, red and then wheat card. Added silver peel-offs.

Done!

I've finished...

...all my Christmas cards, except for the finishing touches to the last 2. Had a great day in town with Anne on Friday..but boy am I paying now. Was feeling tired on Saturday but I expected that and managed to get the Christmas tree up Sunday...after a lot of nagging from youngest son. (He's 20 by the way!) Got up today feeling very unwell and ended up by going back to bed. I've only been up for a couple of hours and I'm going back to bed after this. I've got a stinker of a cold..hopefully that's all it is... and will clear in a few days. Normally a cold wouldn't worry me, but on top of M.E. it makes it feel a lot worse. I'm drinking chamomile, honey and vanilla tea, with a little extra honey. It's so soothing to a very sore throat. Hopefully I will be back in a few days to update and catch up with my blog reading. There are so many of you that I haven't visited lately..and I do miss you all. Keeping up with all your blogs makes me feel that I'm part of the world when I'm unable to get out and about.

Nearly Christmas ...

..and I've been busy and almost finished preparations. This last week has been horrendous due to problems with the post office (card account) and my health. I will be back in a couple of days hopefully, to let you know what I've been up to and catching up with my blog reading list. Just too tired tonight after a mammoth shopping trip, which consisted of walking approximately 6 miles around Morrisons!

Stop the world....

...I want to get off! Not very original I know but it's how I feel right now. After last Thursday's shopping I'm only just starting to get a grip as it were. I think I've identified the problem I've been having concerning the vertigo and the late sleeping. I take a medication every Saturday for the osteoporosis, and have done for a while now. The side effects are listed and it does say that for the first few weeks these can be apparent but should wear off. Well I didn't have any side effects......but I think I am now...so I'm going to try and get an appointment with my GP and see if she agrees with me.

Yesterday I went to meet my eldest son in town, outside one of our main craft shops because it is shutting down and everything is half price. There wasn't much left but I did get a few things that you just need. Now I've been to this shop a few times and it is just round the corner from the bus stop so no problems...or so I thought. Got off the bus OK then crossed the road and then the panic set in. I was lost and didn't know where the heck I was. Managed to pull myself together and phoned son. Luckily he was already there told me to stay where I was and he would come and fetch me.....which he did. I've never had this happen to me before and I felt so foolish....but at the same time scared to death.

I've managed to get the card orders done and was hoping to start my own cards today. I didn't get up until late..again..but worked out that I should be able to make a start tomorrow and get them done this week...but (there's always a but)..my youngest's friend asked me if I could make him 5 cards. OK....who are they for...what size etc? He doesn't know..just wants 5 "bog standard" Christmas cards. Crafters dont do bog standard! I'll probably make him 5 fairly simple ones and hope he likes them. Told my eldest about this and asked his advice what sort of cards...his answer.. "ask John (my youngest) what sort of cards he would like." No good..John doesn't "do" cards, of any type, so that idea is out.

Here are a couple of the cards I did for orders. I've done them both using free images and backing papers from Jak. I apologise for the quality of the pics....blame it on the lack of daylight and my hurry to take pics before they were handed over.

Punch used is Friskars. Round sentiment is Funky Fairy's. Rest of is from my stash.