More Christmas Quickies.

Morning all. A quickie post and some quickie cards.

Meljens digi stamp again.This design would be great for hot chocolate gift sets.The cards are five and a half inches square again.

I added the sentiment before printing out then coloured with Promarkers and added some stickles.

I'm off to work now. Channel 4 are filming a programme about small businesses in Chester today and they are coming to our shop early this morning. I hope they've gone by the time I get there as I hate cameras. Besides I'm on the wanted dead or alive list at the cop shop...........just joking.  Oh, and we have already been filmed for don't tell the bride in November. Me and Patrick must have looked right nerds as we didn't know what was going on. We thought it was an OTT stag party who had bought an amateur film crew along until they finally told us what they were doing. That should be entertaining, lol.

Weight today 9st 2lb, (Target weight).

I'm back !

Well. I don't know what happened but my blog has been poorly for a few days. I had one of those " malware" warnings flashing up and no-one including me could get into my blog. My mate who sorts peoples computers out for a living said Google would spot it and sort it out and not to worry about it. The good news is that he was right and according to Webmaster tools I'm clean as a whistle. The not so good news is that i didn't give a monkeys if my blog never came back.I felt relieved at not having to update it, not that I "have to" anyway but I feel I should. It's not the writing of the posts as much as the photo editing and trying to get a decent pic in bad light etc. I think I really started to get fed up of it when I started entering challenges as I find it such a pain finding suitable ones and linking up and so forth. It turned my hobby into a job and I've already got one of those. So I've decided not to enter any more for the time being and see if  that helps me. I don't want to stop blogging. I'd get fat for a start, if I didn't do my friday weigh ins, lol. Anyway, I hope i'ts just a temporary feeling and that it will go away soon.

In the meantime I've made a few simple Christmas cards.

It took me long enough to get these photos too look ok. The cards are five and a half inches square and are from Hobbycraft.

The image is by Meljens designs. I don't remember where i found the sentiment tickets but there are loads if you look in Google images/line drawings.

Here's a close up of the image with a dollop of Stickles to finish.

I've got a huge slow cooker full of beef, tomato and olive casserole to sort out now. I'm trying to get the freezer full of "ready meals" for the winter . Tesco 3 meat items for £10 are 4 items for £10 at the moment so I'm making the most of it while it lasts.
EDIT. Sorry it was 4 for £12 at Tesco but still good.

Ride like the wind.

I was having a little look at Free Digital Stamps last week and came across a page of free images at Operation Write Home. I couldn't resist this little gem as it's perfect for younger men. It's my stepson's birthday next week so it came just in time.

I got the gingham card from Payperbox a couple of years ago when i was on holiday and I'm really tight with it because there isn't a Payperbox anywhere near me. So, Simon, consider yourself honoured!

I got the caption from TLC Creations HERE. It goes really well with the image.
Off to work now but I'll be back tonight to link up to any suitable challenges.

Challenges. Southern girls, Anything goes
                   Anything goes challenge. Anything goes.
                   Digital tuesday. People images.
                   Papertake weekly. Creature comforts
                   Top tip tuesday. Kids/teenagers.

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, still a slightly naughty 9st 3lb.

Not quite PTI.

I have always yearned for the Friendship Jar stamps from Papertrey Ink, but they are not available over here and the shipping costs from USA are so high. Still, every time I saw a card made with these stamps the yearning started again. For anyone who's wondering what the hell I'm on about, the set has an empty jar and an assortment of things to put in it. One day I had one of those "Hmmmm" moments and Googled "jar" in Images/line drawings and there it was. I didn't share it straight away as I don't know if there's a copyright on it. It was part of a newsletter and doesn't seem to be available to buy on the website. If anyone disagrees with me sharing it please say so and I'll delete the link. Meanwhile, i got it from Scrapping Turtle newsletter HERE.

I coloured it (badly)  with promarkers. I added the strawberries before printing. These are from Fimolas Arts HERE.   For more jar ideas checkout the gallery at SCS .   I don't know what I'm going to make with it but at least I can stop yearning.

EDIT. Just checked the link for the strawberries and it appears to have expired. There should be plenty more on Google Images though.

Glamour.

Still not really in the mood for this card making lark but my craft room is slowly getting tidier. I hope I kick in again soon as I need to get on with all the Christmas stuff I've started. I haven't had much time this week though as I went with Speedy to Liverpool hospital for his tests on Monday and Tuesday.  Two nuclear heart scans, one after exercising on Monday and one resting on Tuesday. Both appointments took 4 hours !!      15 minutes to do the actual test and the rest was spent hanging around waiting for the Chemical injections to take effect. On both days it didn't work first time so had to be redone. Still, that's over with now.

Here's a card I made a few weeks ago using an image and caption from TLC Creations.

It was one of those days when I didn't make a note of the page addy. I've just realised the paper matches the box in my last post  so I will give these both to the same person with some chocs in the box.

It was my wedding anniversary on wednesday so we went out for a big scoff to our local, The Mill Hotel. One of the lads who works behind the bar had paid for a bottle of champagne for us. He's such a nice lad. As another bonus the kitchen staff knew we were there so we had larger than average portions. I had a trio of fish, salmon, cod and sea bass and it was no way supposed to be that big. I was really stuffed at the end of the night.
So guess what?  Target weight 9st 2lb.  Today.............9st 4lb.  Worth every ounce though.

Vintage gift box.

While I'm not in the mood for making cards as such, I thought I'd start decorating my pile of blank boxes. Most of these boxes are a result of mis-measuring and getting sizes wrong for the stuff that I want to put in them. Others are from when I've forgotten to cut the card for the lids bigger ( always 3mm to get a good fit ) than the bottom and having loads of half boxes waiting for other halves to be made.

This one is about 6" square. The pic makes the lid far too big but it isn't in real life. The paper I've used is from a big K & Company stack.

The image and sentiment are both from TLC Creations. If you look up TLC in my labels in my side bar there is a link in one of the posts to both images.

Here's a close up. The flowers were made with punches using a You Tube tutorial. There's loads of different ones available.

Challenges.Craft your days away. Make your own flowers.
                 Di's digi designs. Anything goes.
                 Secret crafter. Inspired by a song ( Lady in red ).
                 Critter sketch. Anything but a card.
                 Anything goes challenge. Vintage.
                 Charisma cards. Inspired by a song ( Lady in red ).

Speedy's hospital check up was fine. He's waiting for the go ahead for a kidney transplant ( hopefully mine or his sister's will match ) but as they messed up his heart medication there has been a delay while they get that sorted. He's got to have a nuclear scan ( not as scary as it sounds ) tomorrow and another on Tuesday but the doc is more than confident that there will be a good result and we will be able to get things moving again. He has kidney damage, caused by a virus rather than kidney disease so he doesn't actually feel ill. In fact he says he's never felt better.

Birthday gift.

Hello there. Has anyone seen my mojo? I seem to be having a little  "I hate card making and blogging" phase at the moment. But that's ok because I know it won't last long and in the meantime i can blitz the flat. I have got a couple of unblogged cards to keep me going and here's one of them.

The image is from Meljens and the paper is by Papermania.

I downloaded the ticket sentiment when i had my stupid head on and forgot to copy the webpage addy. If I'm bored enough tonight I'll try and track it down. I know i got it through the free digital stamps website and the date is in my file so we may be in luck.

Edit. I found the ticket sentiment freebies at SG Stamper HERE. There's a whole page of them too.


 Challenges. My  Mums Craft Shop.  Layer it up.
                   Cards for Men.  G is for.......( gift ).

Meanwhile I've got to go to Liverpool later as Speedy has a hospital appointment.

Today's weight 9st 2lb ( target weight).

Variations.

 Another sunny day here in Chester. The first two weeks in September usually are nice though. It's like last chance saloon before the autumn sets in. I don't mind it getting cooler but I can't stand dark mornings. I like to be awake early and the lack of daylight fools me into sleeping for longer. I hate waking up on my day off and realising it's 8 o'clock. I love the summer when i can be awake at 5 o'clock. I'ts hard to believe I used to lie in bed all morning in my teens. What a waste of life.

On to today's card share. I needed a couple of men's cards so I went down the easy road and made 2 similar ones.

The stamp is from a set called "Ethel and Murray" which I got from Create and Craft a few years ago.

The caption is from Gingers House. The patterned paper is from Papermania Henbury Lane and the main paper is an unidentified scrap.

Another TLC caption and again the main backing paper is an unidentified scrap. The striped paper is by Summer Driggs. Both card bases are 6" x6".

Challenges. Allsorts challenge blog.  Green and blue.
                  Challenge up your life, Something for a man.
                  Creative stamp friends.  For a man

Another Anniversary Card.

A quick post today as I need to get ready for work. Another anniversary card, this time for my mum in law to give to her son.

Made with another Meljens digi image. The paper is from Craftwork cards. I got it earlier in the year when they were doing those goodie bags for a fiver. Card base is 6" x6".

Challenges.  Sweet stampin'  Anything but birthdays.
                   Alphabet challenge. P,  pretty pastels

Target weight 9st 2lb.  Today,  still 9st 3lb.