Beat the Christmas Rush - May Edition

Sorry for the delay but here finally is the May Edition of Beat The Christmas Rush.  BTCR is all about getting a little bit organised and making a few Christmas cards each month so that by December you should have a nice little pile of cards ready for writing and posting.

This month I have pulled out a stamp from the bag of shame (where I keep new crafting stuff until it has been used for the first time) - it is a Penny Black cling stamp called Spruced Up - it's a little bit different from the usual cute critter cards that I make.  The scalloped cards were made using American Crafts cardstock and a Sizzix XL die.

All the bows are ones that I have recycled from shop bought cards and the gemstones are from Majorcrafts.  I lightly glittered the green parts of the skirt with eucalyptus Stickles.

I highlighted the berries on the wreath with red liquid pearls and the image was coloured with Promarkers.

If you would like to join in with Beat the Christmas Rush just link to your cards in the linky below.

Memorandum Monday

It's Monday again so it is time to pop over and see Sian at From High in the Sky and give her a wave.

The weekend kicked off on Friday with a trip over to Tunbridge Wells to see the Proclaimers.  It was an early birthday present for Mr P - he isn't easy to get presents for as anything he needs/wants he just goes out and buys it for himself.  So for the last ten years or so I have always taken him to a gig/show/play sometime between May and July.  I managed to keep it a secret until we drove past the venue and phew he was thrilled when he knew - I had a hunch that he would be pleased as he has most of their albums.  And I really enjoyed the gig too, I had forgotten how much good stuff they have done over the years.

The rest of the weekend has been laid back and quiet - Mr P has been nights all weekend so I have just pottered around quietly downstairs.  Sunday I made some quiches to put in the freezer ready for all those salads we have started to eat (though judging by today's weather I think I need to go back to casseroles and winter warmer meals).  I also cooked up loads of chicken drumsticks, again for quick and easy salads on hot days when I don't want to have the oven on.

Then whilst the oven was still warm I decided to have a play with some beads and have another go at making enamel dots by melting beads.  Some of you may remember my unsuccessful attempts from two years ago documented in this blog post.  After discussing and laughing about it on UKScrappers someone suggested that I try the EKSuccess branded perler beads.  Well I did and I am thrilled to report that they actually worked this time!!!!!!

I even managed to make smaller sized ones by cutting the beads in half.   I did them for 35 minutes on 160C (baking tray lined with parchment paper, not greaseproof) and it really worked this time, I think out of 250 beads melted I had about 6 or 7 rejects.  I now need to order more perler bead mixes to make other colours.

So Monday finds us with typical bank holiday weather - dark, cold and windy, definitely a day for staying home.  My Avon order was delivered earlier, so that needs unpacking, but first I must finish making my Beat the Christmas Rush cards, I'm a bit behind and I need to blog them later today.

Have a great bank holiday Monday whatever you are up to and hope you have a good week ahead xx

Jazzy Cats

Apologies if you are looking for May's Beat the Christmas Rush - I haven't quite finished my cards yet so the post will arrive either on Sunday or Monday.

Here's a card I made earlier for the masculine challenge over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge, I'm also entering it into the Anything Goes challenge at Penny Black and More

I made it with a fairly new set of T for transparent stamps by Penny Black called Jazzy Cats, for a friend's son.

The music score die is by Amy Design NL and the sentiment is an All Occasions Die.  The pawprint paper is from Craft Creations.

My friend shares her birthday with her son so I made her a card from the same set.

The music note dies are Spellbinder D-lites.

Memorandum Monday

It's Monday again so time to go and give Sian a wave over at From High in the Sky.

It was a very busy weekend - that saw us heading up the M1 on Friday to Yorkshire for a Pendragon gig in Wath on Dearne.  The traffic was actually very kind to us considering it was a Friday (we usually avoid Friday travel if we can!!).  We broke the journey in Leicestershire at a favourite canalside pub of ours at the Foxton Locks.

After a lovely lunch there was time to do a spot of gongoozling

We then headed on our merry way to our hotel in Barnsley.

Before the gig on Saturday we spent the day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with some old friends who we haven't seen for over 6 years.  The weather was a bit damp so a lot of our time was spent catching up over a coffee or two but it did brighten up a little bit to allow us to get outside and see some of the exhibits.

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Bob and Barbara and the park (we will definitely be back as there was so much that we didn't see).

The gig was fabulous and then Sunday we had to make the journey back home - tired but happy. 

Monday has found me trying to have a quiet day to recover from the weekend, the laundry and the unpacking can wait til Tuesday!!

Memorandum Monday

No sooner has one Monday gone then another one arrives in its place - so it is time to give Sian a wave over at From High in the Sky and report on my weekend.

Saturday was the Eurovision Song contest - so in line with family tradition I joined my Mum to watch it.  We don't take it seriously - it is always quite a giggle and we enjoy Graham Norton's funny commentary.  A special touch was asking everyone to raise a glass to Sir Terry Wogan at song 9, luckily we had just refilled our glasses with Prosecco.

Sunday found me busy crafting - I had a wedding card commission to finish (I will share very soon) and then I decided to get messy with Brushos - I haven't made any backgrounds in ages and I have depleted my stock of them.  So the kitchen and lounge looked like this - good job Mr P was at work and wasn't around to witness the mess - luckily I always put down loads of plastic so it is an easy job to clear away.  Empty pizza boxes that previously contained scrapbook supplies make a very good base for doing the messy crafting in!!

My next job is to overstamp these and gradually turn them into cards.

Monday seems to be a day for receiving happy post, first up I took delivery of these lovely notebooks - I'm planning to keep a travel journal on our grand Scottish road trip in June and a book with gridlines appealed - it made sense to avoid postage charges to order two and whilst looking up journal ideas I stumbled across a thing called bullet journals - hmmmm I think that second journal might come in very handy.

And the second bit of happy post was a lovely birthday goody bag from my dear friend Fine Bear Ted - he celebrated his 21st the other week and this is him with the card that I made for him.

The goody bag contained lots of sweets, a cake (which Mr P took to work), some novelties and a rather fetching pair of monkey sunglasses.

If we get a decent summer I will wearing the glasses a lot!!

Have a great week everyone - I will be making more holiday plans and getting ready for an imminent trip to Yorkshire.

Memorandum Monday

And so another Monday rolls around and it is time to give Sian over at From High in the Sky a big wave and report on the weekend's shenanigans.

It was our crop weekend and I was pretty productive, I finished three layouts from an earlier retreat and made a good start on another two. Afterwards Wendy, Sy and I headed off to eat out - tinged with a bit of sadness as this is the last time we will be eating at our favourite local restaurant. It is the old railway station and has been a restaurant (under various brand names for many years) but sadly has been bought by property developers and we have been led to believe it will be torn down to build flats on the land.

Monday has been a day of happy mail, my May Birchbox arrived with lots of lovely goodies to try, I have already used the balm and the bodyscrub.

Also some new dies which I straight away wanted a little play with

And finally my monthly Avon order arrived ready to distribute to customers

Have a good week everyone - my week is fairly quiet but I do have the Eurovision Song Contest to look forward to next weekend - it is a family tradition to watch and generally have a good laugh!!