Beat the Christmas Rush - the April edition

Apologies for being a day late with Beat the Christmas Rush - I was hoping for better light today for photographing my cards.

Anyway these mini snowy cards are very fitting for today - it has tried to snow a few times.

The background is made with a Stampin' Up embossing folder and the image is from Penny Black T for transparent set 'Winter Play'.

The sentiment is by Personal Impressions and the image was coloured with Promarkers.

The sentiment mats are punched with Stampin' Up punches and the scalloped circle is a Spellbinders die.  The snow is Nuvo Glitter drops in Blue Lagoon and the glitter on the hat is Stardust Stickles.

If you fancy getting ahead for Christmas then please do join in and share any cards you have made nice and early in the linky below.  Don't forget to link back to this blog post in your post and thank you to those who took part last month, I enjoyed coming and taking a peek at your blogs.

Memorandum Monday

As usual on a Monday it is time to reflect on the weekend and look forward to the coming week.

The weekend was a quiet one at home, I tackled a big pile of mending -

Took delivery of my first Birchbox -

And made a start on my Beat the Christmas Rush cards for April -

And today I kick off with a dentist appointment, hopefully the end to this chronic toothache is in sight.  Then the rest of the day will be spent continuing with our holiday plans for our roadtrip to the Shetlands and Orkneys this summer.

If you want to see what the other Mondayers are up to, hop over to Sian's blog From High in the Sky

Memorandum Monday

It is still just about Monday, so I still have time to report on the weekend and what the week has in store.

The weekend was a fairly quiet one - Mr P was working all weekend so I took the opportunity for a bit of messy crafting whilst I wasn't going to be getting in the way.  I had some layouts from a class that I took last weekend at the A Trip Down Memory Lane retreat that needed the messy backgrounds doing before I can mount the photographs and other embellishments.

I am really out of my comfort zone doing this type of crafting and I know they will look a whole lot better once they are finished if the class examples were anything to go by - watch this space!!

Saturday evening I did my usual visit to my parents and as it has now become custom due to lack of anything decent on TV on a Saturday evening we watched a DVD.  This week's offering was 'The Theory of Everything' and it was really good.  Of course I didn't sit idle - I got on with stitching up more knitted offerings from my Mum ready for our next fundraiser - it isn't until October but I need to keep up with things or I will end up doing a few midnight oil burning sessions if I leave things till after the summer.

This weekend I did a santa, a penguin and a mouse -

This week is strangely quiet on the calendar - a rare week with no appointments.  I need to get on with booking more hotels and more plans for our great Scottish roadtrip in June.  There is also an ironing monster that needs taming and I also have plenty of crafty stuff to keep me occupied.  Hope you all have a great week!!

Jazzy Cats Birthday

The theme for this month's challenge at Penny Black and More is Birthdays.  I recently got some new stamps from the latest Penny Black release and they are perfect for Birthday cards.

This is one that I made using a stamp from T for transparent set 'Jazzy Cats'

The patterned paper is from DCWV Rock Star paper stack and the die cut music is a Spellbinders D-Lites die.

I coloured the image using Promarker pens.

I know this card has been received so I am safe to share it.

Supersize Me

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend at the A Trip Down Memory Lane retreat at a beautiful hotel on the Essex/Suffolk border.  I attended five fabulous classes run by the really talented design team.

Here are the layouts that I made in Mel's class which was using really large photographs paired with papers from American Crafts Shimelle Starshine range.  Luckily I had some photos from our recent cruise that I was able to scan and then get Photobox to print for me in the big sizes.

We started off by cutting up all the individual pieces on the papers and then making piles of which ones we thought went best with each photograph plus a pile that at first look didn't fit at all.  It was certainly a great way of using those cut up sheets and I don't think I will be so daunted about using them in future.  I also punched out butterflies, hearts and stars from some of the solid patterned blocks.

I have loads of pieces leftover so will look at making some layouts with the leftovers.  Thanks Mel for a great class!!