My final regular post.

Happy new year everyone. I hope you achieve everything you wish for this year. After a long hard consideration I've decided not to continue with my blog on a regular basis. When I started out the blog was influenced by my card making. Somehow I let this totally turn around so my craft was ruled by my blog and what my followers would like to see.I felt (and quite rightly too) the need to give links to the free artwork I have used in my creations, which sometimes took me a long while to trace the origins if I hadn't already saved the page addresses.My blog also sometimes got in the way of doing stuff that wasn't really blogworthy ie, repeat stuff or items using images I didn't have links for.
I didn't do typing at school and as a result ( although I was good at  English), I can look up from my laptop and find I've done a whole sentence in capitals which is a real pain. It happens all the time, lol.
 Thank you so much to the 14 people who have asked me to carry on. I will continue to follow your blogs. I had 203 followers. 4 have jumped ship already. It sort of says it all.
If I have anything unusual or particularly seasonal to share I will post it here.

Thank you to my faves, Coops, Jules,Lee from St Agnes, Jules,always with a heart,Teresa, Incy, Liegh, Irene,Kay, Faith,Barbara, Julie Smith, Tilly, Sheila Cyprus, Triciasconfetti, Ali, Purple mad Alison, Lynn, Crafty Loops,Judi, Ali, Karen, And any regular readers.
My next project is to update my really naff rented kitchen. Curtains, tablecloth, mugs etc.Maybe a crafty make or two................

Oh and this is the real biggie....Target weight 9st 2lb. Today a whopping 9st 6lb1!!!!

Taking a little break.

Hello everyone. It's been a week since my last post and I've had to make myself do this one today. To be truthful I'm feeling a little bit despondent where my blog is concerned. I don't know whether it's because of this busy time of the year or whether I just don't want to keep it up. Therefore, I've decided to have a bit of a "trial separation" in the hope that I'll miss it and try again in the new year.
Meanwhile here is my last Christmas card for the year. Yippee!!

Well, it's actually one of a pair I made for mum and mum in law. The image is by Meljens Designs. I don.t know the origin of the paper but it's one I downloaded ages ago. It was originally pink but I changed it to sepia in picasa. That's not glitter around the edges, it's actually the design of the paper. I love my fiskars deckle scissors because it doesn't matter if you can't cut straight, lol.

I do hope I'll be back in a few weeks time. I still want to make things but I'm a bit fed up of editing photos, doing links,etc. Maybe I've just got my lazy head on.
I hope you all have the best Christmas ever. I'm going out to a local hotel for my Christmas dinner as my kitchen closes for the day.

So merry Christmas, happy new year and hopefully I'll sort myself out.

I'm at my target weight again today but as of Saturday I'm going to stuff my face for a few weeks then back to the diet.

A couple of Christmas cards.

Quick post before I get ready for work. These are a couple of cards I made for an order. They are both in my easy "go to" layout.

Both images are by Meljens designs from Whimsy Stamps.

 A few scraps, a bit of ribbon and plenty of Stickles and we're done.

Weight this week still 9st 3lb, one over target.

A card for Teacher.

I wasn't going to blog this card as it was for a special order for someone who used to teach and I thought everyone would be more into Christmas stuff at the moment. Then I realised a teacher card is probably one of the most needed but hardest to come up with ideas for at this time of year.

So here it is. It could easily be made into a Christrmas teacher thank you card. It took me ages to find a suitable image but I eventually found this one from Colouring Pages 4 Kids  HERE. It's a great site with loads of different free images.

I didn't keep the link to the apples but I found them from Google images/line drawings. I just typed apples into the search box. I resized them and applied glossy accents after colouring them.

 My sleigh's virgin outing was such fun yesterday. There is a Christmas market in town which is pretty abysmal, but we hung out and had a mulled wine and a mince pie and everyone was commenting on my sleigh and asking where I got the lights from etc. One bloke ( who I knew) asked  where they where plugged in and I gave him such an X rated answer, lol. You should have seen his face. He saw the funny side though. He should have known what sort of answer I'd give him.

The Sleigh is Ready.

Well it's December again and time to hit the streets with my sleigh. I've bought some new lights which are bigger and brighter than my old ones.

I will be going out with it for a few early doors drinkies after a bit of late afternoon shopping tomorrow. People have already been asking when I'm bringing it out as it gets them in the festive mood. You know what that means though.......yes it'll probably pee down all afternoon.
I've been of work this week using my hols and sods law, I've not been well again. This cough/cold keeps coming back and I've not felt like doing much at all. I've managed to finish my Christmas card orders though. I know I'm using capitals here but I do mean to shout. THANK YOU TO ALL THE GENEROUS ARTISTS WHO HAVE BEEN GIVING FREE CHRISTMAS IMAGES!!  They have helped such a lot. I don't really like making Christmas cards but new images cropping up makes it much more enjoyable.
As this is supposed to be a card making blog I suppose I'd better show you one. Not a Christmas one either.

Another free image this time thank you to Doodle Pantry. There's a whole page of them there. I'm not sure about the paper as I've lost the cover but it's from a 12 x 12 stack and it could be DCWV. The card is 6"X6".

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today 9st 3lb. Lets face it the only way is up for the next few weeks, lol.

Christmas bargain quickies.

Quick post this morning as I'm off to the Hospital with Speedy for his check up. I was in B&M last week and found a card of 24 gift tags for 89p. I made a set of 24 5x5 cards.

 The card bases and envelopes were in a kit and have been sitting around as I don't really get on well with cream card bases. The photo is a bit naff, it was getting dark. I gave them to Patrick, my boss as a little thank you for letting me sell my cards in his shop. They do other colours. If anyone is needing to do loads of cards they would be an alternative to resorting to shop bought ones.

A sad day for Speedy's family.

As we all know Gary Speed took his own life yesterday. Gary was my  Speedy's second cousin i.e. Speedy's dad's brother was Gary's granddad. I'll never understand suicide but my heart goes out to my husbands family especially at this time of year.

Santa pringles cans.

I went for a drink to a pub in Chester and spotted 2 Small Pringles cans on a vacated table. I pounced on them before the bar staff could clear them away. I've seen so many of these and other containers and jars altered for Christmas pressies and thought I'd have a go.

Good what a bit of red and black paper can do. The buckle was made with silver glitter card and  scalloped plain square punches. I bought a huge reel of the braid at Abakhan for £1 last year and have used loads of it on various gift boxes. I glued a circle of red paper to the lid and edged it with silver stickles.A week later I went back to the pub in the hope of scrounging a couple more tins but guess what? They don't sell them any more. Typical !!

Friday weight, 9st 2lb (target weight) Christmas is coming though............

Grinch pills for the grown ups.

When I was sitting glued to Pinterest for far too long I came across this idea for Grinch pills.

 Speedy calls one of his mates the Grinch because he's such a miserable so and so and he asked me to make some to take to the pub at Christmas.Well, you know what I'm like, I can't possibly make something so tasteful and decided to make my own version.

D'you know what? I've worked in a newsagent for nearly 7 years and have always assumed spearmint softmints where green, lol. There's always something to learn in any job !! I bought these from poundland in a pack of 4 rolls and was gobsmacked when I opened them.  Still I'm sure they'll still work.

I found the little Grinch clip art from google images.

I'm about half way through my Christmas shopping. I'm off next week so hopefully I can get it finished. In a moment of weakness I've gone and promised speedy ( who thinks he's Father Christmas ) we can put the tree up this weekend. Eeeeek!!

A million housewives every day...........

...............Pick up a tin of beans and say. I'm probably showing my age now but most of us will probably remember the old Heinz beans advert. And as we were kids at the time we just couldn't resist singing our own version could we. On my daily scavenge to the Free Digital Stamps site I found this image from Marlene at Disguised as a Grown Up.

Don't you just love his face? You have to be quick to get Marlene's images though as they are usually only available for 24 hours this one is now available from Dude Time Doodles HERE. The papers are downloaded from Summer Driggs.

Here's another version. I added the caption before printing the image.

I've had a right cold and cough this week and I've felt as "rough as our soles". I very rarely get ill so this came as a right shock to the system. I'm on the mend now though so hopefully I'll be OK for the next few years.

Friday weigh in.  9st 2lb. (target weight).

I couldn't help myself.

I was in Tesco this morning and noticed the loose "fill a bag" sweets. I spotted these false teeth and thought about my workmate's hubby who has just had 6 top ones fitted. Then I remembered the bloke who sweeps the roads outside the shop also recently had a full set.Both of them are up for a laugh. Well, what's a girl to do??

I made up the little poem and found the sad man on Google images.

I also went into Boots to look for Christmas pressie ideas and found these among all the boring toiletry sets.

Sorry about the blurred photo. The hard backed note book at the back says " little gorjuss thoughts and was £10. With the 2 for 3 offer I got the memo block free. A nice little pressie for a young lady or perhaps a fellow crafter.

Well that's it from me for now. I'll weigh myself in the morning and confess to being a right greedy madam all week. I'll be good next week.......................

Update.  Target weight 9st 2lb Today 9st 3lb. Should have been worse really.

Naughty stocking fillers.

These are neither use nor ornament really.They serve no purpose except for providing their recipient with a cheap chuckle after opening all the boring socks.

They are the result of killing time in Tesco while waiting for Speedy to meet me.I should never be left unattended in a shop for too long, lol. I saw these balloons, 20 for £2 and thought "they remind me of something". They just needed to be blown up for 5 minutes or so to make then look a bit more convincing.

I made up the little poem and found the santa clipart on google images. The bags are the size used for C6 cards. The Works usually have them for 99p but be warned, they are slightly too small for C6 envelopes but fine for gift bags. Feel free to copy the idea if you know someone who's up for a laugh.

Another quickie baby card.

I've had this idea in my head for ages but couldn't find an image of a baby in a nappy. On last Friday's post I gave a link to a site which I've just found. There are lots of baby images ( some a bit blurred but most are OK ) including this one.

A bit different to the usual "welcome baby" stuff. The backing paper is from a stack. I've lost the cover but I think it could be DCWV.

The glue on my flower and the stickles aren't dry in the pic because I was going out and had to take the photo because it would be too dark when I got back.

Off to work now but before I go............
...........Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, 9st 3lb. One back on, lol.

Ramblers Card.

Evening all, I won't say "good" because it's peeing down here in Chester.I managed to get back from town before it started though.

A friend of mine rang the other night to ask me to make a card for someone who has just completed the Wainwrigh'ts walks across the Pennines. I remember my dad doing this years ago. He used to walk for miles.In the days of using just wooden stamps, I'd have had to say no but I searched Google images and came up with a nice map to use as background paper and found a great image from Artur's Clipart  HERE.

And here's the result. I even managed to find some walking boots. I resized them, coloured them, then coated them with glossy accents.

The card base is 6"x6".

Well, I need to get myself into the kitchen now. Speedy is still not managing to eat properly and being quite picky, so I've put a chicken in the oven hoping the smell when he comes home will make him want to eat it.

RSPCC. Look away now!

I was printing out some jars and was looking in my saved images for something to go inside the jars when something caught my wicked eye. Well how could I resist, lol. I just had to make up a quickie card.

How cool is that! I wonder if anyone will buy it if I put it on sale?! The jar image is from Scrapping Turtle.

I can't find the original source for the baby but while I was looking at google images I found THESE and was well chuffed.The baby at the bottom is the one I used for this card and couldn't find it again. I printed the caption in "thread fun" font. There is a link to the cute buttons in my side bar.

Todays weight 9st 2lb (target weight).