Beat the Christmas Rush - July Edition

Apologies for being a day late but I am finally here with this month's offering for Beat the Christmas Rush.

BTCR is all about getting ahead for Christmas by making a few cards each month so that you won't have to make them in a mad rush come November.

I have gone for a simple one layer card this month so that I can enter it into the one layer challenge over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge, I am also entering it into the challenge at Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with a Stamp.

Once more I delved into the bag of shame and pulled out a T for transparent set 'Holly Scroll' - a bargain I got in a sale but hadn't got inky yet.

Though a simple design, they were not quick cards to make as the stamp was pretty detailed and needed careful colouring with Promarkers.

The sentiment was from the same stamp set and I went round the edge of the design with a pastel blue promarker to help the image pop from the page.  The gemstones are from Majorcrafts.

If you would like to join in and share the Christmas cards that you have made then please add your blog link to the linky below.

Memorandum Monday

It is Monday so time to go and give Sian a wave over at From High in the Sky, welcome back from your holiday.

It was a very quiet weekend here - the weather was glorious so I finally got my tubs in the back garden finished, it isn't Kew Gardens but it gives some colour to the garden and I love sitting out here and looking at the pretty flowers.

I spent Saturday evening with my parents - no DVD this week as there was a Spiderman film on TV so we watched that - I don't usually like those comic book super hero kind of films but it was rather enjoyable.  I got another knitted penguin finished so my family of penguins for the fundraiser is growing, I will get a group photo done soon.

I also worked on my Beat the Christmas Rush cards - they aren't quite finished so if you came here today looking for BTCR I can only apologise and they will be finished tonight and I will blog them tomorrow.  Here is a sneak peek for now -

Today the weather has been lovely again - not too hot and a nice breeze which has made it the perfect day for line drying the washing -

I have a fairly quiet week ahead as far as appointments are concerned - there is plenty of laundry and housework to keep me busy and I need to start making some lists of what I need to do for my fundraiser in October - I have about 9 weeks left to get ready for it, best to get organised and not leave everything to the last minute!!  Have a great week whatever you are up to!!

So Fabulously Odd

Challenge 3 for the ATDML cybercrop was Coldplay: Yellow, feature a long title perhaps a lyric from a song.

I used some lyrics from Marillion's Separated Out as I thought they went really well with these photos - Am I Enough of a Freak to be Worth Paying to See.

The paper is Amy Tangerine Cut and Paste and the chipboard is Simple Stories Carpe Diem.  I used a mix of AC Thickers for the main title.  The Fabulously Odd is natural Sunrise Thickers coloured with Promarkers.

New Year Memento

Challenge 2 for the ATDML cybercrop was Sam Sparro: Black and Gold, use the colour scheme of black and gold.

I used leftovers from a couple of retreat classes for this challenge - the papers are Teresa Collins 'Glam Factor' and the gold stickers are Heidi Swapp. The gold heart vellum is by Stampin' Up.

Christmas Day Memories

Last weekend's ATDML cybercrop had a music theme.  The first challenge was Kaiserchiefs: Ruby, to use red or red rhinestones on a layout.

I used Prima Bella Rouge 'Les Amours' and a photograph from our first Christmas cruise in 2012.

The tickets are cut from Kaisercraft On Stage 'Applause', the blossoms are by Prima and the Zva Creative bling swirl was originally clear, so I coloured it with a Ruby Promarker to match the layout and cut it apart into two swirls.  The title is American Crafts glitter Thickers.

Memorandum Monday (except it is now Tuesday!!!!!!)

Ooops I'm a day late - I had my photos all ready to upload but was just so hot and in the end I couldn't be bothered to try and do a blog post - so here I am a day late!!

The weekend was a busy one taking part in the A Trip Down Memory Lane cybercrop from Friday evening onwards.  I try to join in every year as it is a great excuse to do some stash busting.  So apart from scrapbooking very little else happened over the weekend.   This was my view for the weekend -

So by Monday I had eight layouts that I was really happy with and I still have loads of classes for inspiration as I only managed 1 class and five out of the six challenges.

Much of Monday was spent restoring order to downstairs and getting a lot of my crafting supplies put away again upstairs.

Tuesday finds me about to get the air conditioning going (it is another scorchio day in GB) so that I can tackle the ironing pile monster.  Have a great week and I am off to give Sian a wave over at From High in the Sky

Happy 21st wedding anniversary

It is our 21st wedding anniversary today and as always I have made a card for Mr P.  I will be entering it into this month's challenge over at Penny Black and More which is Anything goes with a stamp

I used Penny Black 'Love and Roses'.

 The papers are magazine freebies and I used a Stampin' Up framelit to cut the image out.  The image was coloured with promarkers and I used wink of stella on the roses to add subtle sparkle.

The sentiment stamps are Stampin' Up (Love You) and Stamps Away (Happy Anniversary).  The flowers were punched with SU punches and the foliage is a die which I think might be by Cheery Lyn.

Ten days before our wedding anniversary we celebrated our 24th anniversary of being a couple.  The cash cow joke is still running (see my Valentines post!!) so I dug out another one of my Penny Black cow stamps - 'From the Folks', the sentiment was printed on the computer.

The square die is MFT and the ovals are both SU punches, the glitter hearts were also made with a SU punch.

I'm currently drowning under a pile of papers and photos as the A Trip Down Memory Lane cybercrop has started this evening.  I will take a break when Mr P gets in from work to enjoy something pink and fizzy and we also have cream cakes in the fridge!!