Journal Your Christmas Day 31 - 2009

For Day 31 I used some photographs from some of the many fancy dress parties that my sister Lucinda has hosted at her house for New Years Eve.

Favourite Five Cards of 2010

As well as taking part in the favourite five Christmas cards, I am also participating in Debby's Favourite Five Cards of 2010 challenge.

It was really difficult to choose out of all the cards that I have made this year which were my faves, but these are the ones that I chose in the end.

 

My most used stamp this year has been Penny Black Feline Count, so I have chosen this card that I made for Lisa's 40th birthday.  Lisa is one of my friends from the Twilight Addicts social group on UKS so a vampire kitty for her birthday card was most appropriate.

This card I gave to my dear niece Milly for her birthday.

This card I gave to my fellow Dizzy Dot Lynne on her birthday.

 This is the card that I made for my hubby Richard for his birthday

 And this is the card that I made him for Valentines Day.  I hadn't shown this one before as it was made before I had a blog.

I used a sweet Penny Black hedgie stamp and Basic Grey Blush papers.  The two sentiments were printed and Twilighters will recognise the second sentiment - one of my favourite quotes from the saga.  The hearts were punched from coredinations cardstock, embossed with the Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder and then sanded to reveal the pink core.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my favourite five cards and I look forward to taking a peek at other people's favourite five.

Karen xxx

Journal Your Christmas Day 30 - 2009

For Day 30 I looked back over 2009 for a review of the year

I made a vellum pocket for the page and filled it with 12 small photographs about key events from the year

Highlights of the year had included monthly crops at Cardinal Colours, a family narrowboat holiday on the Kennet & Avon canal, a weekend in a log cabin on a farm in Hereford, an Arctic circle cruise, a spa break at Champneys, a weekend of scrapbooking at Debden House and a blissful week cruising with my parents on the Mon' & Brec' canal.

The last of 2010 Christmas Cards

This really is the last showing of this year's Christmas cards - I have just found two that I haven't blogged yet.

The snowman is one of two Sugar Nellie snowmen stamps that I have (you can get them from Funky Kits).  I only made a couple of cards using those stamps this year so must make more effort to get them out next year as they are really cute.  The background paper is from Craft Creations and the image was coloured with Promarkers (I borrowed some from a friend to see what they were like and I am happy to report that I prefer using my Derwent watercolour pencils - that is a big sigh of relief as I would hate to have a new addiction LOL!!)

This next one I made for a Penny Black Saturday Challenge for a sketch challenge but then I decided that I didn't like it, so didn't bother entering it LOL.

The background paper is Karen Foster and the paper ribbons were made using a See D sentiment stamp.  The snowflakes are two Martha Stewart punches.

Journal Your Christmas Day 29 - 2009

After Christmas we always get together with my youngest sister and her family and my parents for a tradition known as the silly presents.  Each year my niece and nephews are given a budget of £1 per adult to buy presents from the pound shop.  We get some very weird and wonderful things and each year we look forward to seeing what they have treated us to this time.

I did a fold out page so that I could use lots of photographs

And a close up of each page

You will be pleased to hear that I have not needed to take the wind relief tablets LOL!!!!!  Maybe I should donate them to a blogging friend of mine who loves sprouts!!!!!!!!!!!

Journal Your Christmas Day 28 - 2009

The prompt for Day 28 was about indulgences at Christmas time so I decided to document my guilty pleasures of icecream (it has to be Ben & Jerry's Baked Alaska or Cookie Dough) and Pringles.  They are both indulgences that once started cannot be put down until the tub or tube is empty.  I keep them out of the house as much as possible otherwise by now I would have (in the words of the Divine Comedy) an arse the size of a small country!!!!

My Mind's Eye Colourful Christmas

The kit we had last December from Sarah's Cards was MME Colourful Christmas and I am amazed at how far the contents of the kit have gone.  I had already got 5 layouts from it when I decided to use some of the kit to make Christmas cards using the sheet of die cuts that was included as they weren't the sort of thing that I would put on a layout.

I got all of these from it -

I used a free teddy bear stamp that came with a magazine and some ribbon that was also in the kit

 

 

 

I was quite liberal with stardust and icicle stickles on the die cuts.

And I still have papers and embellishments left over that I can use for more cards.

Dad's Christmas Card

I'm going to try and show you the last few cards that I got made this year - not long now till I start on next years LOL (and I am not joking as I try to make a few each month).

This is the card that I made for my Dad with one of my favourite new stamps this year

  

The Penny Black image was coloured with watercolour pencils and the sentiment was printed on the pc.  The snowflakes are a Martha Stewart punch and so is the punched border.  I think the backing paper is Doodlebug it was a scrap from my box of Christmas papers.

A close up of the image

I also made this card using the same stamp

The mat was cut on the Big Kick with a Marianne D die and the sentiment was again printed on the pc.

Journal Your Christmas Day 27 - 2009

I did Day 27 about my bear Bertie who likes to dress up at Christmas.  He has quite a wardrobe of clothes for all seasons.

Journal Your Christmas Day 26 - 2009

On Boxing Day I do a traditional meal for the family and I usually like to do a small table gift for each place setting.  This year I got my ideas from Helen's blog - Its All Fiddle Fart - take a look at her blog she has some wonderful ideas on there.  I made Bah Humbug cartons filled with mints for the men and the ladies got white chocolates aka Snowman Poop.  I decorated my page with one of the embellishments from the snowman poop.

I hope to share with you what I have made for this year's Boxing Day meal before the year is out - at the time of scheduling this post I had only just started making them.

Happy Birthday Chloe

It is Chloe's birthday today - hope you have a lovely day!!

Here is the card that I made for Chloe -

Yes it Penny Black Feline Count yet again - I think I will have to give him a little rest next year LOL!!

Journal Your Christmas Day 25 - 2009

A fold out page on the lovely Christmas Day that we had last year

We have a very alternative Christmas Day here - bacon baguettes for lunch and then steak and chips followed by sticky toffee pudding for our pudding.

Journal Your Christmas Day 24 - 2009

A list of the last few things left to do - I am hoping that this year I will be able to have a quiet Christmas Eve.

Favourite Five Christmas Cards

I have decided to join in with Debby's favourite five and post my favourite five Christmas cards from this year and then on New Years Eve I will post my favourite five cards from this year.

It was difficult limiting myself to just five cards but these are the five that I chose in the end.

This was the card for my sister Lucinda and her family.  I used a Cuddly Buddly stamp and Martha Stewart deep edge snowflake punch.  The small snowflakes were cut from glitter cardstock with a cuttlebug die.

And a close up

This card I made for Richard

I made an easel card using large scalloped circle dies from Go Kreate and decorated with a sweet Penny Black hedgies.  The snow is done using Woodware fluffy stuff.

My next card was made for a challenge that I had with my friend Wendy, I challenged her to make me a cute card as she dislikes doing cute stuff and I would make her a traditional card as I tend to usually make cute cards.  This is what I came up with for her.

I used a stamp from Blue Moon and embossed it with red glitter.  The background was stamped using various stamps from Penny Black 'T for transparent' Crystalline set in red, black and white ink.  I highlighted all the centres of the snowflakes with glitter.

I don't get much time to cross stitch cards these days but did manage earlier this year whilst on holiday to get this sweet Winnie the Pooh card stitched.

And finally I made these cards in November and loved making them, they are so cute - I will definitely use this design again next year

Journal Your Christmas Day 23 - 2009

The prompt for Day 23 was all about stockings.  I did my entry on the two cross stitched stockings that I made years ago and still get hung up each year on the mantelpiece.

Journal Your Christmas Day 22 - 2009

The prompt for Day 22 was to make a list of all the things that were left to do ready for the big day

My to do list for this year looks almost identical to this - I did say I was going to be more organised this year but somehow it just didn't happen!!

Happy Anniversary Lucinda and Jason

Hope you have a really lovely day and that Jason is feeling a bit better now.

I have already shared the card that I made for their anniversary here.  So this is the card that I made for them last year - my very first easel card.

This was one of my fave stamps from Penny Black last year and with an anniversary just before Christmas I can always use one of the cute christmas couple stamps for their card.

The papers used are one of the Basic Grey Christmas ranges but cannot remember which and the mats were cut with nesties

Journal Your Christmas Day 21 - 2009

The prompt for day 21 was Right Now - you had to grab your camera and take pictures of exactly what was going on in your home at that time.  So my photos show the last of the snow disappearing from the back garden as it had started to rain that day and they also show the utter mess of the lounge and dining room.  The funny thing is that looking round the lounge right now it doesn't look any different a year on LOL!!

Scrapology December Challenge

There is another lovely challenge this month on the Scrapology Blog.

This is the lovely sketch that we had this month

I love sketches that use multiple photos and this was my take on the sketch

I used Jillibean Soup 'Old World Cabbage' with Bazill cardstock.  The embellishments are all punched from EK Success and Martha Stewart punches.  The title is cut on the BigKick using a sizzlet alphabet Naturally Serif.

The layout is of my sister's gorgeous wee doggy Toby

Journal Your Christmas Day 20 - 2009

Prompt 20 was all about surprises and the unexpected - wasn't sure what to do for this one so decided to feature a lovely gift from my sister's children.  They gave us this little xmas hug and I adore him, in fact he is sat opposite me as I am typing this, he was the first Christmas ornament to be put up this year when I started doing the decorations on the 10th December.

Journal Your Christmas Day 19 - 2009

Day 19 was all about writing a letter to Santa - something that I had not done since childhood so I did actually write a little letter to Santa