Lost in transit

On 5th December I posted off a Christmas parcel to my daughter Janet and her Partner Neil - they live in Spain but work in Gibraltar so I sent their Christmas presents, Christmas card and it's Neil's birthday on boxing day so it also included his pressie and this card I made for him.  It is now 9th January and the said parcel is still missing .  I know I know I should've sent in by recorded mail or some such other method - I should have sent it to their home - but I thought it would save them a trip to the Spanish Post Office to collect as they are out at work all day.

Anyway it doesn't look like they are ever going to get it so I thought I would share the card I made  for Neil.  Towards the latter end of last year Neil took part in a poker tournament run by the company they work for and HE WON the Gibraltar competition - well done Neil, then he was flown to a hotel in London to take part in the National Finals - and he won that too so very well done - I think the prize is a holiday anyhow I digress but that was the reason behind this shaker card

I had this sheet of card that I have had for years at the bottom of a box of patterned card - I bought it not long after I started papercrafting thinking it would be good for a man card - I have never used it - until now.  Even then I haven't cut into it as I sanded back some white shrink plastic and photocopied it!  Now I knew it wasn't going to dry until I shrank it so I was ultra careful

 I cut them all out leaving a tiny rim around the edge and then shrank them to make tiny little playings cards that I could put inside to shake about.

I also had the playing cards and token stamp from a set that came free with creative stamping mag - again several years ago.  I needed a border and some random bits to fill in and so I turned to my padlock set from Clarity I stamped out loads of the suit blocks that are made to put on the key stem.  I embossed them all in clear and cut them out so that I could make the border 

after that it was just an assembly job keeping to the colours on playing cards.

I enjoyed making this card as its a bit different from my normal style - shame its gone walkabout !

bugs

Good Morning  I am up with the lark today  which makes a change for me,  I have a bit of shopping to do this morning then hoping to get to my craft table this afternoon - working on stuff I cannot share - which is what I was doing yesterday.  So here's another inchie for the UK stampers network .

The inches we do are based on an ATC size card but the little squares are just one inch.

I had some scraps left over from a shaving foam play so I chopped em up!  The background is actually from the same piece as the squares but its not showing very well in this pic I think its not got as much colour as its cut from the edge of the piece. I decided to use some stamps that were around on my desk as I had been having a tidy up session I have had them ages and were freebies from a magazine .  I just stamped in lack and coloured in with a SN pencil .

New Home

Hello - I said I would try to blog a bit more so here I am again.

I have an elderly neighbour who has been struggling at home especially with the very steep stairs that are in our houses so she has moved into a small apartment in sheltered housing.  I decided to pop by and see if she had settle in but of course I had to take a card with me.  So here's a little quick make

I stamped the funky little house then used the word chains for the words - now there wasn't one that said new so I made that up out of "wedding".  All was well and I put the stamps away ready for the quick colouring when damn an blast a smudge of ink.  So this flower stamp was floating about - I think it might have come as a freebie on a mag at some stage I have had a long time but it was just the ticket for covering the smudge.

So off I goes to visit - I rang first to make sure she would be in and bless her she moved in on Monday between Christmas and New year and has been poorly ever since, she is recovering now  but she was glad to see me and I did a bit of shopping for her .

brusho Inchie

Here's a little Inchie I made for the Inchie group  more offcuts of a brusho session , a bit of ink added around the edge and some poppies from a memory box die 

Short post today cos not a lot else to say really lol

little flower

Good morning! 

Yesterday I read a blog by the lovely Maria Simms and she said her resolution for this year was just to try and revive her blog, which in turn got me to thinking that I have neglected my blog too last year so in the spirit I think I might try to do the same.  Now as I already posted this month's claritystamp challenge yesterday I am already on a roll!

Many of you may know or not as the case may be, I am a member of the UK Stampers network . It's a great club with lots of different lists you can join, I am on the atc list, the tag list and the inchie list so I do send and receive lots of happy post. Follow the link to check it out...its mega expensive its a whole £2.50 for a years membership. 

Anyhoo this is an atc I have made.  Love this club as its a great way of using up random bits of stuff.

This was part of some brusho cut off, I used a crafters companion die for the flower, more brusho scraps, and a clarity stamp flower along with a tiny flower.no idea where from and the word is from the million thank you from Clarity 

It's Friday so I should probably do some shopping, time to get life back on an even keel after all the festivities although for some of you there are still three days before the return to work.  Have a great weekend xx

Things with Wings

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Have you had a good Christmas - did you get lots of lovely stuff?  Are you hungover this morning?

We had a very quiet Christmas this year but it was lovely just the same my eldest,her hubby and the bump came in the morning but they were having Christmas lunch with his family this year.  My youngest in Gibraltar sadly still hasn't had her pressie, neither has her partner Neil and his birthday was on boxing day so everything went together - so thanks Royal Mail - I posted the parcel 5th December so I was in plenty of time.

Anyway its all happening here isn't it? Sad to lose most of my teamies at one fell swoop but with all that is going on at Clarity towers they are somewhat busy.  It has been great working with them but I won't be saying bye bye as some of them I do see quite regularly, others just now and again but thanks to fb we will all still be chatting on a more or less daily basis! and so its time to say hello to my new teamies - and haven't they done some fantastic stuff?  I feel sure that they will keep me on my toes!

We had lots of lovely entries again last month its always a very difficult job to pick my top five and then Sally Anne has the unenviable job of counting up all our fave fives and calculating the winners - good job the voucher winner is picked my machine!!!!  At this point I would also like to give her a massive THANK YOU for all that she does behind the scenes on the Claritystamp challenge blog she does an excellent job as chief Admin and guru especially when we all get stuck with the technicalities!

So this month's them is things with wings - Oh what to use? Birds? Butterfiles? Aeroplane - no not got a Claritystamp of one of the those - so in the end I decided to go with Dragonfles .  

I used my gelli plate to create the background - there isn't really a pattern in it just lots of grungy colours -- red, gold and blue   I left the circle in the middle to so that I could create a landscape - I did this with a moon mask, torn paper and my ink brushes with inks.  I stamped the funky flowers and large and small dragonflies in archival ink then used speccy pencils to colour them in but the flowers didn't really stand out so I stamped them again on some smooth heavyweight paper, coloured them in again, cut them out and stuck them over the top.

In real life there is some shading as the bulbous flowers are lighter in the middle and shading at the top and bottom but the picture doesn't really show that off.  The dragonflies are shaded too and that doesn't show - I need some lessons in taking pics I think - but then again my house is so dark - well that's my excuse 

Well that's it I have waffled on enough for today so please visit my teamies blogs and leave them an uplifting comment especially the new ladies who are all very nervous and many of whom have been past winners or have made the top five previously so see where your entry may take you?

I hope you like this piece and I have inspired you to have a go at this month's challenge- why don't you make it one of your NY resolutions to give the challenge a go each month - we have some great themes on the agenda.