Dance Yourself Dizzy.

Morning everyone. Friday again so that means early start at the paper shop. It's Getting so dark in the mornings now too. I get up at 5.30 because I'm not into rushing around so early in the day. I like to get ready slowly and I have to visit the Daily Mail website every morning. Yes I know I work in a paper shop but I'm turning into my dad who had to read his paper as soon as he got up.
On to to day's card which actually uses a rubber stamp!!

Her name is Dotty and she is made by Art Impressions. I got her from Sir Stampalot a few years ago but I'm sure she's still available. I paper pieced her dress then cut her out as i wanted to put her on a " textured" background. There is so much space around her that she looks a bit lost on plain white.

I put loads of stickles on her dress and used an X Cut botanicals punch for the leaves. The papers are from my scraps but i think they are from a Papermania Christmas pad.
By the way if you have a WHS near you it might be worth popping in as I got a 12x12 scrapbook pad for  £3.50. It's a Brenda Walton and apart from 36 double sided lightweight card pages there are lots of usable die cut letters, numbers and tags etc.

Challenges.  City Crafter. Use scraps
                   Crazy Amigo. Black white and red.
                   Divas by Design. Birthdays
                   Rainbow lady's. Song  ( dance yourself dizzy ).
                   Southern Girls. Black white and one colour.

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

There is such a thing...............

.................as a useful bloke. Shame he's not real though. This little fellow is so useful he's one of my fave stamps.

The reason i love him is because i can make up lots of little captions and print them out then stamp him by the side. He looks like he could be saying so many things. His name is Floyd and i got him from Sir Stampalot HERE. I had an email enquiry about him this morning so i decided there could be a few more peeps wondering where i got  him from.

The papers are scraps and the card base is 6"x6". The printer i use has a continuous ink system and when i bought it a couple of years ago i went mad downloading and printing loads of papers, mainly from Summer Driggs. Eventually it decided to play up and no amount of head cleaning etc would stop it from printing everything with a blue tinge.I mainly use it just for black and white now but have decided to carry on printing papers until the ink runs out before buying another. I've got big bottles of the stuff so there'll probably be quite a few blue cards on the horizon,lol.

And one for the men.

Here's a version of the card i posted on wednesday, this time for the men.

There is a link to the site where i got the word art from on my last post but as i said, i didn't have the brains to keep the page it was on so happy hunting. There's loads more to be had there anyway. I printed it out and then stamped my image next to it. My favourite "blokey" stamp is by Art Impressions, i love him to bits, i suppose he reminds me of Speedy,lol. The beer barrel and the pints were from Papermania, "it's a mans world" and " stamping for him" clear sets. The backing paper is from DCWV Retro stack and the card base is 6"x6".

I decided to brave the cold and the fog yesterday and get the bus to Wrexham. I got there and it was cold but the sun was blazing, so much so that i had to shield my eyes to see where i was going. I got half way home and entered back into the fog zone. Strange how 2 neighbouring towns can have such different weather. I was a bit disappointed in what the shops had to offer so i've still got Christmas money burning a hole. Lucky me.

Target weight, 9st 2lb. Today's weight 9st 4lb. 1lb back off by the skin of my teeth.

50th Birthday Card.

How are we all today then, all done and dusted?  I've completely finished with the shopping , everything wrapped and ready to go. The ham is simmering on the stove, my little balti dishes are wafting Christmas spice everywhere. I'm just taking a little break from blitzing the flat. I don't know why because it will look like a bomb has hit it half way through Christmas morning anyway,lol.
 I had an order for a birthday card, such a pleasant change from all the Christmas stuff i've been churning out. The chocolate factory is now closed,lol.

I love this stamp because it lends itself to a bit of paperpiecing, and she can have a new frock every time i stamp her. It is by Art Impressions Not the least expensive at nearly £15 but i've used it loads. Finished with a few flowers and some leaves with my X Cut punch. The brads in the flower centers are papermania.
 Time to carry on with the chores now as i'm working tomorrow, woe betide Speedy if he messes it up while i'm out. Only working until 3 0'clock, then a couple of festive drinks on the way home. The sleigh will be having it's final outing and is loaded with smutty and respectable goodies.
Enjoy your Christmases.    ( I was still at target weight this morning but i'm going to totally go off the rails for the next 2 weeks).    See you soon.  xxx

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........................