What? No Christmas?

Monday was my day off and as it looked very slippery underfoot i decided not to venture out. I thought i'd take a tiny break from Christmas stuff before i go into mass production of the gift samples i've been showing on here. I was decidedly short of men's birthday cards and with a few birthdays on the horizon  i made two.

The papers are Papermania, they seem to last forever.  The Stamp is by Art Impressions from Sir Stampalot.  The leaves were done with an X.Cut Botanicals punch which comes in handy as i don't have many masculine embellishments.

Here is the second one which i like better for some reason. The little sentiment was printed from my computer. I like this little chap as i can think of a few more things he could be standing there saying. I've jotted them down for future use. One thing i have bought last week is an A4 day to a page diary to put my ideas for next year into. A sort of card makers year book. I will add little made up ditties, colour swatches wish lists and borrowed ideas with web/blog addies to give credit to, plus sketches and projects for each month. This will be almost as absorbing as the card making itself. It's still very slippery out so i think i'll be confined to barracks again today.  It's a hard life........................

Naughty Nanny McSpeed !!

Before you shoot me down in flames, I'm not really a naughty grandmother and i wouldn't dream of doing this if little Michael could read, but i couldn't resist as he's only 4 months old. I know his mum and dad have the same sense of humour as me so this is what iv'e done.

Once i got the idea in my head it just wouldn't leave me alone,lol. I'm sending it through the post and putting " to mummy and daddy, love from Michael" inside. I don't know what the other two grandmothers will say but i don't really care. The image was a download i got ages ago but i don't know where from as i've only recently been taking note.  Of course, a sentiment like that could only come from my computer !
I got home yesterday to find that Speedy had put the Christmas tree up!!!!! He hadn't decorated it of course as that's womens work. Although i'm glad he saved me the job i wish he hadn't done it yet. Apart from the cleaning blitz that needed to be done first i'm sure i'll be sick of it by Christmas day. There is Christmas shopping dotted all around the flat as it is and now there's boxes of decorations everywhere. MEN!!!!! Determined little sod he is, i said we'd put it up next weekend but he just wouldn't wait.

More little origami boxes.

I'm determined to use up as much Christmas design paper as i can this year so i can have new stuff next year. This pad is the only one i bought this year and it's Papermania Home for Christmas.

The papers are 8"x8" and the little boxes are a bit smaller than 3" square, just the right size for my handmade bracelets with a bit of tissue paper inside.Scroll down to sundays post for a link to instructions. The little toppers are by Crafty Bits and are usually found on those twirly stands. It was nice and light yesterday so i got quite a bit of colouring done including replacement gingerbread man tags with the right spelling,lol. Mothers chocolate mountain is almost dealt with so i'll be able to start on mine next week.   
That's all from me for now as i'm off to work.   Di.xx

Target weight 9st 2lb todays weight 9st 0lb.

Gingerbread bags at last.

After finding my gingerbread men in Tesco i've finally been able to make my little bags. Sorry for anyone who missed this free digi from Pink Gem as it was free for a limited time but i think it's still available to buy.There is probably plenty of gingerbread man clipart on Google images.

I added the little caption myself before printing out. There is 30 biscuits in a tub for £1.50 so i put 6 in each bag. They had a long date on them but as i've got one of those bag sealers i sealed them in a smaller bag then put them into a bag for 5"x7" cards. No fancy colouring on the tags as they'll be binned straight away,lol.

I bought 2 tubs of biscuits and have made 10 gifts but i'm going to get more as mother will probably like to give these to her neighbours. OHHHH!! And if you live near Hobbycraft, i went to my local one today and they had a big sale tub. There where lots of stamps for between £1.50 and .£3.50. Quite a few Hero Arts and some Forever Friends and Inkadinkado. They seem to be having a clear out of stamps so maybe they've got new stuff due in. I hope so.
That's it for me, i've got a big pan of  chilli simmering so i'm going to colour in some more gingerbread men until Speedy comes home.       See you soon.   Di,xx

Edit, i've just had a message from Shaz from Docrafts pointing out my typo for the word exist. Hopefully the peeps who get this first batch won't notice but my next lot will be perfick. Thanks Shaz.

Origami Boxes.

Hello peeps, what time is the rain going to start then? It's very dark and dismal here in Chester as usual on my day off. Still it might brighten up a bit later on.

Meanwhile here's the next stage of my mums chocolate mountain gifts.

These boxes are so easy to make. You can get the instructions at Splitcoast Stampers resources pages HERE. Always remember that your piece of paper for the bottom needs to be slightly smaller than the top.These were made with mums grandsons in mind as the paper (DCWV stack 6) is great for young lads. Believe it or not the design is actually diagonal before folding.

I did the little verse on the computer. A few masculine flowers and leaves and we're done. The chocolate mountain is now a bit smaller,lol.

Right, time to feed Speedy as he is trying to look malnourished. We are just having a bit of crumpet with cheese as we're eating out later.

Oh and guess what........... I've found some mini gingerbread men in Tesco, £1.49 for 30,  they were there all the time but they've moved them to the bottom shelf for some reason.

 Thanks for looking.   Di,xx

Nice respectable choccie bags.

My mum can't get about much as she is 90, and lives in a small town with not many non food shops (although there's 3 butchers and a green grocer,lol) and every year she frets about what to get us all for Christmas. We all say just give us a small cash gift and we'll come and show you what we've bought. Understandably she wants to give us a surprise pressie, after all she is a mother and we are still her children. So i go shopping with her and get whatever chocs we can find in her local Aldi and i turn them into gifts. It's still a surprise for me as i don't know which one i'm going to get,lol.

We bought these and a milk chocolate version ( and a shed load of other stuff) so here is the first gifts for decent, law abiding, clean living members of the family. I don't think she'd appreciate the smutty stuff.

 There is a link to instructions on THIS POST.  There were 25 chocs in the bag for £1.99 which made 4 bags of 6 as they have quite big wrappers. Why do they always put a spare one in so i have to eat it,lol. The sentiment stamp is from a Docrafts clear set. Still got quite a few chocs to deal with but some truffles are going in these milk cartons as i had some striped card left, i'll just put "Merry Christmas" on the tags.
 That's all from me for now as it's time for work.  See you soon, 

Friday again, target weight , 9st 2lb.  Todays weight 9st 0lb. I do put about 2-3 pounds on every weekend but it seems to come off by friday with good behaviour.

Another naughty stocking filler.

Why oh why does it rain all day every time i have a day off and plan to start my Christmas shopping? There's no way i'm going out to struggle with shopping and an umbrella so i've spent the morning getting up to no good in my den,lol. I went to Aldi on monday and spotted these very naughty looking chocs.

You see what i mean? Well i just had to buy some didn't i?  I must admit they don't look quite as good in the flesh (excuse the pun) but they still fitted the plan. All i needed was to think up a little ditty and that only took a glass of red to dream up, and Bob's your uncle !

I thought i'd better blank out the naughty bits so i won't get shouted at. The chocs are a bit lighter than they look in the photo. If you make some of these beware of two things. One, they are covered in cocoa powder and so will anything around you be so put them into the bags in the kitchen. Two, almonds can clearly be seen on the box but they aren't listed in the ingredients. I ate one that was left over and there were definitely bits of almond in it so i've written "contains nuts" on the back of the label. I can't remember how much they were but they were under £2. Not bad for 5 little jokes.
I'm of back into my dark den now for another play.....clean fun this time.

Gingerbread what?!!

I've been looking for some mini gingerbread men for a while. I saw some in M&S in the summer and a gift was born in my head. They were in cello bags and enough to make 2 of the gift ideas. So i went to work on some labels with this free digi image from Pink Gem designs. I went back to buy my gingerbread men to find they had turned into posh little boxes of 9 for Christmas. So i shopped around and found boxes of 30 for £1.40 at Tesco but i had too much to carry and didn't want to crush them. Great, carry on with the tags i thought.

And here they are, all ready to go. So yesterday i went back to Tesco to pick up my men. I was inspecting them to make sure there were no broken ones when it dawned on me that they were actually gingerbread santas and snowmen ! Eek !! Who's air brained idea was that i wonder. So i'm still without men. Someone on the docrafts forum said they had them at Sainsburys so i'll have to make a special trip next week. Meanwhile this is all i've got to show you. Sorry peeps but i'll show you the finished bags as soon as i get my men.
Edit. I've just tested my link and the page no longer exists so i guess the image was available for a limited time. Hopefully some of you may have already grabbed it.

Six for the Chix.

What a wild and wet day it was yesterday. I waited all morning for the rain to stop then legged it to Tesco and back before it started again. I got myself plenty of casserole type ingredients so i can top up the freezer for days like these.
I spent the morning in my den . At Christmas i like to give the girlies in the family ( including my 90 years young mother) a little stash of cards. Luckily i have quite a few already made for blog samples throughout this year but i still need to top them up a bit.

This little dress stamp is by Stamps Happen and it is perfect for paper piecing. The illustration on the front of the stamp makes it look like it's a solid colour stamp but it's not , it's an outline.

I used various scraps of paper from my growing mountain. It seems to manufacture itself in the box,lol.

I made 8 of these but 2 were repeats. The little hearts are from Hobbycraft and are made by Papercellar.The cards are 5"x5". The caption was done on the computer before i stamped the image beside it. I used to work in a posh wool shop years ago. We sold angora, cashmere, silk, alpaca and all sorts of lovely textured stuff. Not that "string" they sell these days. My boss always said, " Don't let them just look at it, put it in their hand. To see it is to want it, to touch it is fatal".  He was right and i often think of him now, even if it's only a bar of chocolate i've touched. He was a lovely bloke but he died of a heart attack at 68. These cards are a tribute to him.
 I must get off to work now but see you soon and thanks for visiting,  Di,xx

Target weight 9st 2lb.  todays weight 9st 0lb.

Little Christmas pouches.

Evening everyone. Uploading tonight as I've got to work an extra shift tomorrow. My boss is having a well deserved week off. It was his 23rd birthday on Monday, bless him so he's having a week of peace and quiet away from Joe Public.
So anyway, here are the little pouches, AKA diaper or nappy fold pouches.

I did some of these at Easter and HERE is the post with more details and a link to a tutorial. The father Christmases from Aldi  89p for 9 (ok I ate the spare one, lol). The papers are old stash and are 6"x6" square. I didn't have any double sided papers so I glued a contrasting triangle to the top and bottom of the inside before I started folding. The little characters on the front were free with Crafts Beautiful mag last year. They've come in handy for odds and ends and if they are free with any more this year, I'll snap them up. I got the little bags from Craft Creations. I secured the bag to the pouch with a bit of double sided tape. You could add a ribbon and hang these from the tree. They are so easy the kids could make them for teachers gifts.
 I think a little glass of wine is in order now.   Thanks for looking, see you soon. Di.xx

Hopefully the last.

I think (hope) this is my last Christmas card for this year apart from Speedy's and the 2 mums. Oh to make an Easter or spring card,lol. Something with flowers or rabbits on it. At least this one has spring colours.

I love this Little Clare's elephant, i sometimes paper piece the umbrella. The leaves are done with an X.Cut
Botanicals embossing punch. I will be spending my Christmas money on more of these. I've got some of the Woodware ones but they are a bit too big. The backing paper is DCWV.

Well, enough about cards for today because i need to go into town to get a frame for this.

Our grandson Michael at 3 months old. Sweet or what?

Note card Giftbag.

It took me almost as long to take these photos as it did to make the set yesterday as it was so dull again. I tried in the afternoon then I tried at night with these stupid low energy bulbs even the daylight bulb in my den made them look awful. So apologies again for more naff piccies but I had to do them yesterday as I'm taking the set to work for someone's birthday pressie today.

I did another post about this little bag with more details and a link to instructions HERE. It is made from one sheet of 12"x12" paper. I made my first folds half an inch rather than an inch to make the bag slightly taller I did say in that post that it fits a 5"x5" card but the envies dont fit so it's no good for set but ok as a gift bag with a 5" card and no envie, confused yet? HERE is another link then .

The little note cards are 4"x4". I made 2 of each design and put some envelopes and a little fancy pen with them. For the handles I like to stick some ribbon to strips of card. They need each other, lol. the card for a bit of stiffness and the ribbon for strength. I did the wording on the computer. I learned from Docrafts that if you do each word separately before adding to the page you can use different fonts and move them around , marvellous, there'll be no stopping me now! This is for an 84th birthday for a young lady who likes to frequent the pub opposite the shop i work at. She's about 4ft tall and is Scottish. I call her super gran, lol, she's got one of those hairstyles where they wind long wispy hair around their hand and pin it at he back of the head willy nilly, she makes me titter.
Well I'd best get a move on while I've still got a job to go to.   Love Di.xx

Target weight 9st 2lb, today's weight 9st 1lb. 1lb heavier than last week. The result of lots of lovely scrumpy on Wednesday.

Quick and easy Chistmas card.

Well what a dull dark day. Not good for colouring or taking photos, so i decided to go for a basic card today. Well i actually made 3 the same but when i tried to photograph them together they just cast shadows on each other,lol.

The stamp is by Penny Black and requires no colouring. The sentiment is Papermania, and i found the bauble embellies when i was sorting out some bits to send to a little girl at Docafts. I hope tomorrow is a better day as i need to make a couple of birthday cards.
I'm off to a beer festival tonight at the local pub. I dread to think what the scales will say on friday but i'm off tomorrow and won't be skimping on the old scrumpy,lol. Oh, and there's going to be food as well, oh dear.
I think i'll just hop on the treadmill for a couple of hours.........................