I got a Bigshot for Christmas and its Friday!

Whoohoo! Matt got me a BigShot for Christmas! How lucky am I! I also go some lovely new PJ's, speakers for my pc, the cutest little teapot, a mini greenhouse for bringing on my seedlings early and some fabby pennies! The greenhouse was from Matt's Mum and is great as it means I will be able to bring on the flowers Im going to grow for our wedding on nice and early, and speed them up if they need it, such a thoughtful gift.

Christmas day itself was lovely, we went to a gorgeous watchnight service, Ive never been to one before and it was beautiful, lovely to sing carols in such friendly company and the minister was really funny, smiley and caring. It was so frosty it looked like it had snowed, really beautiful, I tried to take some photos and will have a go at loading them later if they came out. Had a long lie on Christmas day morning and then spent the day at Matt's Mums house which was really relaxing. It was so nice just to chill out together and chat and share.

Then boxing day night, after a sloth like day, I came down with a nasty pukey bug and only really surfaced properly yesterday night, realising it was time for our latest dare...eek! Luckily this weeks is nice and easy. To make a simple and Stylish Thank you card. Mine's a blatant copy of a previous card I've done *blush* but I hope to do some more now I'm feeling better, to say thanks for all the gorgeous presents I received so as I do them I'll share them.
I've also received some more gorgeous birthday cards, lucky me again! I'll put them up shortly. I always keep all my birthday cards up as long as my Christmas ones so I'll still get to show them off for a bit yet. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too.

My Gorgeous Birthday Cards

I'm such a lucky girl to get all these beautiful handmade cards, arent my friends talented! Thank you to each and every one of you and for all the texts, emails and e cards too, you're all such fabby friends. And if this works I did my first slideshow!

The recipe for a good New Year

...is apparently a tall dark man arriving after just after the bells with coal and bread which represents the food and warmth you will have for the coming year. The reason a dark man was preferable seems to date back to when the vikings were pillaging in Scotland so a blonde man could be dangerous. Funny how these things start!

My recipe for a good new year is at home or at a friends home with lots of food and drink, good company, but not too much drink that you fall over, been there done that and I'm quite happy to see some of january the first instead of spending it hiding from the daylight nursing a hangover moaning why do I do this to myself. Familiar?

Anyway, we have a slightly different recipe for a new year dare card this week, see what I did there!

It's to make a New Year card using 3 brads or eyelets, 2 patterned papers and 1 die cut or punchie and daadaa!
I used DCWV papers, An Auntie Sarah's Daisy Bloom, Angel Kiss from LCC, Lil Davis foam stamps (part of my Birthday Stash) for the 2007 stamped in brown acrylic paint, brad from Dovecrafts, other brads and clip from a swap and QK Olivia for the greeting. Ok I know I used more than one die cut but I only used one alphabet... will you let me off?

So if you've completely missed the Christmas card posting dates how about doing New Year ones instead, I reckon you can send them til at least february!

Have fun playing and I hope Santa brings you lots of crafty goodies to play with.

Thank you

Thank you all for your lovely comments, its fab to be able to tell everyone our news, whoooohoooo!

I had a great birthday, was working, but hey it was crafty working so it was fun and I'm not complaining, then got treated to a gorgeous home made chinese, Matt's a star in the kitchen, king prawn stir fry, yummm, with profiteroles for afters. He lit the fire too and generally attended to my every need. What a star he is and by next years birthday the love of my life will be my husband *still grinning*

But I did promise to share my crafty stash with you, heres a pic of the bits I chose myself from LCC for Matt to give me.
Basic Grey luch tin with loads of bits inside, cherry arte stamps, the gorgeous flower ones, Lil Davis Foam alphabet, chipboard, my first proper chipboard, Ive been using homemade stuff til now! Ickle buttons, mahoosive brads and fabric blooms. Fab all of it, and cause it had been at least a week of waiting to open it (felt like a lifetime lol) I'd forgot what I'd ordered! I also got the sizzlits windows and frame set which is full of basic shapes, havent had a chance to play yet though, but the holidays are coming!

Matt also got me a beautiful Amarillis which is just about to bloom, a few other things and made me a card! Im so impressed I think its ace, he just used bits from my very messy desk. A huge thank you to all the fabby talented people who sent me birthday cards too, when I get a mo, I shall take pictures of them all and have a go at one of the cool slideshow thingys.

And tomorrow's friday, which can mean only one thing, dare day!

Now I can share...!!!!

...my exciting news with all the world! Whoohoo!

On the 3rd of december Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, and I said yes! We've been together 6 years and lived together for the last 4, he is the love of my life and now we're going to be husband and wife *Big Grin*. I've been dying to shout it from the rooftops for 2 weeks and its been so hard to keep my big mouth shut, but we wanted to make sure we told some really special and important people first, and they've been bloomin hard to pin down cause apparently there is this thing called Christmas happening soon !?!?Heres a piccy of me wearing my ring that we chose together, and one of it on its own. I love it, its so not traditional and its comfy and feels part of me already. *Another Big Grin* Its made by a local jeweller Michael Kay who's a member of my crafts association, you can see more of his work here. Oh by the way the paper background is one of the Scrumptious Basic Grey Blush papers, gorgeous!
We're planning on getting married in August next year in an intimate way with close family and friends although we haven't pinned down a date yet, so much to do! Its fantastically exciting and a little bit nervewracking as neither of us are very good at being the centre of attention!

And its my birthday tomorrow too, whoohoo!

Whats Black and White and Red all over?

A sunburnt penguin!
Black and white Christmas cards, maybe with a splash of colour! A nice easy not too challenging dare to get us through these busy weeks, heres what I came up with...
A simple stamped card using Royal and Langernickel clear snowflake stamps, Purple Onion background text stamp, a do crafts snowflake punch and a circle punch.

This one's done with the cute Bosscuts snowman. Snowflakes and sniny bits are done with a glaze gelly roll pen. I hope you're inspired, and if you have a few more Chiristmas cards to get made and sent then this is your chance. The design team has produced an amazing selection of cards.

Only 3 days til my Birthday and some rather interesting brown boxes have been arriving by courier. I gave them a quick once over and I know what I hope might be inside... They've now been hidden away from my grubby paws!

The only other thing to report is that last night I started the mamoth task of tidying my craft room. It was getting ridiculous with barely a path to my seat from the door for stuff, and of course every surface covered. Digging down through the layers was a bit like archeology, and there were random bits for a good few dares ago at the very bottom. I found some things I'd mislaid too which is always good. Today Im going to hoover and dust while I can see carpet and surfaces and then make some new mess.

There's a lot of nasty bugs going round right now, big hugs to everyone who's feling poorly and get well soon.

More Christmas Cards

I think hopefully this is almost the last batch for this year, all very similar, and only 2 pics came out, but it was getting too late for my head to come up with anything new, I think I have Christmas fatigue! I have almost finished my christmas presents shopping though, which is a huge relief. Its been the most horrible wet and windy weather but the blessing of that is that the shops are a bit quieter. I can't wait til its all finished then I can just laze about watching cheesy films and eatting chocolate, fab.

On a bit of a tangent, isn't it amazing how you're faith in the general good natured-ness of the human race is reaffirmed just when you need it. I went into town after work the other day on a mini mission for a couple of things. I was feeling a bit frazzled, tired and couldn't really be bothered as you do... and as I parked, I got a tap at the window and someone offered me their parking ticket which still had an hour and a half of time on it, what a lovely man. It's a small thing but it made me all warm and smiley inside and as I fought against the wind and rain to find what I was after I was all happy and filled with cheery thoughts.

Next week I'm teaching Mini books and waterfall cards, then its holidays, hooray! Is it just me or is everyone else knackered too and in need of a break?

Mini Book I can share!

I made this yesterday for my Grandma and Grampy's Christmas, luckily they don't do computers so I can share it safely knowing it'll stay a surprise for them. Its my first attempt at anything like this so I kept it simple but I'm quietly pleased with how it turned out. I made it so it can be hung up as a merry christmas decoration too. They stay down near Bath and don't travel much anymore so they havent seen our cats or where we live, the snowy photos are out the front and back of the house last february when we had tons of snow, hopefully they'll like seeing the pics. I just need to make a tag, trim the ribbons when I finally wrap it up and I'm done!

Now just a million other things to do today, lol!

Oh Christmas Tree

We put the Christmas tree up last night and it got me right into the whole thing, which was what I needed because I went into Arbroath yesterday. It was Manic. So busy that I had to park way out of town down by the water. And why did I think it was a good idea to leave going to the Post Office til Saturday afternoon. Doh! Still, I love the sense of cameraderie you get when things are so crazy in the shops, a rather tired looking random stranger in the supermarket was telling me if I thought this was bad, she'd been in Dundee all day. Hooray for internet shopping, no queues and you can do it in your pj's.

Got my wee brothers Birthday bits off in the post and a couple of prezzies and my to do list is getting shorter and my birthday is a week tomorrow, whoohoo! Very bad family planning to have me and my twin brothers birthdays in december, lol!

Then I thought I'd start writing my Christmas cards as putting the tree up had made me all smiley in a Christmas way, only to realise I don't have enough, so had another making spree til 2am. Heres one of them, inspired by the challenge on UKS
Its a scan as the light is so bad here with all the drizzly cloud, but that does mean the frost has melted today! So more cardmaking today and with any luck I can get them all off in the post tomorrow.

Have a great day whatever you're up to.

Stamping With A Twist

Keryn set this weeks Daring Cardmakers Dare, which was to stamp with a twist using something other than a commercial stamp. Luckily, my fantabulous Matt had been making me a hot water bottle a couple of weeks ago (Ahhh isn't he a sweetheart) and discovered one of them had perished over summer... and he suggested I might want it for some crafty thing! What a mind reader. So as soon as this dare was set I chopped it up and realised he was bang on, it had some fantastic textures!
This one is made with HOTP Christmas papers, the embossed stripes on the letters are stamped with the outside of the hot water bottle and the gold flecks on the green are stamped with the inside which has a great texture because the rubber has gone all bumpy and gnarly. It sort of looks like gold leaf flecks which is a great expensive look for free! The stitching is a Leave Memories UM stamp and the greeting is Hero Arts.

I used the outside stripes of the hot water bottle stamp for this one too, as the background to the 18, along with some DCWV papers from the Black and White Stack.

Thanks Keryn for a great dare, I really wish I'd had more time to play as I have one of those blue heatable blocks that you can make textures with for stamping and have never used it and want to have a go now! I'm very happy that now I have 3 more texture background stamps in my collection from something that would have ended up in the bin, Yay!

I can't wait to see what you do for this dare!

Bad Blogger

I can't believe its been a week since I posted, I have to say Ive been really busy and I have some fabby things happening in my life right now. Im not quite ready to share them with you all just yet though so you'll just have to wait, evil aren't I!

Teaching the teachers was fantastic, they're just exactly like normal people but with stressful and responsible jobs! They had a ball, made a huge mess and the biggest shock of all was they tidied it all up again in time for the bell! Wow! Normally I have to nag my students about tidying up time so well done you fab teachers, Im sure it's because you spend so much time tidying up after the kids. We did 3 of the 4 cards I had prepared, which is what I expected we'd get through but I like to be overprepared. Here's the pics of my examples although a few of them went freestyle which is always great to see. I think they liked the fact they didn't have to do the curricular activities and we allowed to play. A fantastic class all round.

Then last weekend I started my Christmas shopping, yes I know started when so many people are smugly saying mine's finished and wrapped but there you go, Im a last minute kind of girl when it comes to Christmas, though I hope Im not going to be anywhere near a shop on Christmas eve. I started at my Crafts Association Christmas fair and it was amazing. So many wonderful things created by people living just round the corner, there really is so much talent in the area. Sunday I went back to help man the raffle for the morning which is actually more fun than it sounds nattering to people.

The beginning of this week is a bit of a blur to be honest, and in a good way, but one final thing I want to share with you is what the postie brought me only half an hour ago...Basic Grey BLUSH!!!!!! Yay!!!!!! Sorry about the excessive exclamation marks but its even more gorgeous than I fist thought when I saw the pics. Im so glad I got the little pad too, much easier to cut into to get started with it, and its all mine Mwahahahahah, but you can get it too from loads of places, mine came from here.

So until tomorrow my friends, when the next fabby dare is revealed, I shall love you and leave you in suspense. lol

Happy crafting!