House Mouse Love! - Friday 13th December

Good evening Friends,

Well I'm being a very bad blogger of late; simply a case of lots to do and little time to blog I'm afraid!

It has been a busy but good week; I've been in the office most days, but Tuesday I invited all my office and my website volunteers from work, around for a coffee morning. There were 7 of them and we had a lovely few hours natter. A few of them are new and normally two of them work on the days I'm not there and one works with me, so it was a nice chance for them all to meet and catch up.

Today's card is another House Mouse Christmas card:

This is a simple card, just using some backing paper from stash,matting and layering on gold mirri. I printed the image from the House Mouse Christmas CD, using glossy paper, matted and layered on gold and tied with a pink ribbon. I then die cut some poinsettias using Pink Petticoat 'berries' paper in pink.

I've now finished, written and posted or delivered all my general cards and just have a few friends and family special ones left to make, plus there are a few little projects I need to finish over the weekend and next week, but it's finally all coming together!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Baby Girl - Monday 9th December

Good Morning Friends,

As we start another week, I hope you all had great weekends! We had a really lovely one, nothing too much to do, so I could get on with those final 40 CAS Christmas cards and Tom could do the jobs he had lined up, including a repair to the ramp on the chicken coop!

I did manage to finish the general Christmas cards, a mixture of the Pink Petticoat designs and some of the smaller images from my House Mouse CDs...I just can't make too many exactly the same as I get bored easily. Nevertheless they were quick makes and all are written and stamped ready to post or hand deliver. I have made about 100 in a few half- days crafting, so it can be done when the pressure is on! I was going to take another 'group' photo of them, but was half way through putting them in envelopes before I thought of it!

Yesterday, no crafting (well maybe an hour die cutting some poinsettias for another project) - some ironing after breakfast and then a trip to our local garden centre for a few purchases and a lovely coffee (they make lush cappuchinos in their cafe). In the afternoon we went back up to Highgrove House, the home of Prince Charles (no we didn't have an invite to tea!). If you remember we did a garden tour in the summer? Well yesterday we went to one of their Christmas Shopping events and afternoon tea and it was lovely.

On arrival we were given a glass of bubbly, it was very nice and I had to drink Tom's because he was driving...oh dear poor me!(Poor Tom more likely!) The Christmas decorations and atmosphere was second to none, I just wish we were allowed photos. 

There were a lot of people, but as with the summer it was well managed, as you are ticketed certain times and the staff are lovely. It was really dark when we left at about 5.30pm though, no lights along the drive and the policeman on duty could have done with wearing his high visibility  vest because he could barely be seen. On the way home we passed the local arboretum where they have a 'winter wonderland' of lights through the forest. We are members and I had the cards with me in case we decided to go in.It was a lovely evening, so we seriously thought about it, but there was a bit of a queue of cars so we decided to give it a miss this week.

Now to my card...a break from Christmas today! My cousin, Brianna and her husband Jon in the USA have just had their second child, a little sister for their 18 month old son, Micah. We didn't see them whilst we were over there as they are currently living in Florida. Jon is a pilot with the Coastguard so they move around every few years. I made this card for their new daughter, Hayley.

The stamp is from the new LOTV releases: I can't believe ho quickly they arrived! I ordered a few on their day of release and they were through my letter box the next day; can't ask for better than that!

I'm not going into detail today, it wasn't a difficult card and the image is coloured with Promarkers. The polka dot paper is by Pink Petticoat and the other snippets from stash! It's another 7x7, I really am liking this size!

I'm off to work, happy Monday everyone and thank you for stopping by!

Love and Hugs

Carole X

Playing Rudolph Games!- Sunday 8th December

Good Morning Friends,

Today's card is another House Mouse creation - I love these little meeces all through the year, but I seem to be having a proper 'House Mouse' Christmas this year and have been making lots of cards with the festive images!A lot of this is thanks to the CDs that Joanna Sheen has produced in partnership with House Mouse Designs:stamping is my first love, but there are so many stamps that having CDs with so many images and papers as an option has been a great addition to my House Mouse collection...watch out there will be plenty more here before Christmas!

Today however, I have used a stamp; I  love this fun stamp! It is quite large  and was also lovely to colour - I used Promarkers. To finish I added Wow! embossing glitter, which I heat dried to give a thick coating.

The card is 7x7: I've made quite a few in this side lately and I like it, not too big or too small! The backing paper is by Pink Petticoat and I matted and layered with  red card and silver mirri card.To finish I tied with candy stripe bakers twine and added a button and bells.

For the inside I used a greeting from Pink Petticoat and added another little House Mouse stamped image.

I'd like to enter this card in the House Mouse and Friends challenge

"It's beginning to look like Christmas" Challenge HMFMC159

Sorry the photos aren't brilliant...hate the lack of daylight this time of year!

Thanks for stopping by and hoping you are all have a great weekend!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Get well soon! - Tuesday 3rd December

Good morning Friends!

I hope all of you are well and not in need of a Get Well card! I have tried to keep up with commenting on all your posts, but sorry if I've missed you! I'm still playing catch up with Christmas cards and makes and not getting the time to blog in between. I didn't get anything done at the weekend, we were in Tetbury most of Saturday and up in Oxfordshire Sunday, visiting some of Tom's cousins. They live in a lovely village, with an equally good pub just a few yards away, so we all strolled up for a wonderful Sunday lunch.

Today's card is my Design Team card for Emergency Crafters December challenge, the theme of which is 'Anything but Christmas'. I have finally (very late I know) gotten into Christmas mode with my crafting and it was actually quite hard to snap out of it, but I decided on the other type of card we might send more of this time of year..get well!

I have been very much in House Mouse mode of late, but this time instead of a stamp I chose an image from one of the project CD's..the House Mice 'nursing' this not so 'Happy Hopper'!

I decided on lavender colours to make this easel card, choosing some gingham ribbon from my box. The papers are printed from the CD and the little buds are die cut using a Britannia rose die.

Hop on over to Emergency Crafters  to check on the other DT examples and find out how to enter..there are prizes to win!

Thanks for stopping by,

Love and hugs,

Carole X

Happy Thanksgiving - Thursday 28th November

Good Morning Friends,

Another quick post today before heading off to work...yesterday I spent the whole day trying to finish off the commissions I had taken for Christmas cards, as well as getting on with more of my own, butI did stop to make a quick Thanksgiving card in celebration of this Holiday.

I have spent a few Thanksgivings with my American family and friends over the years, but the last time was when Tom and I spent it with my family in San Diego quite a long time ago, well over 10 years to be honest! But it was a special time, which is still very much implanted in my memory.

I chose this little autumnal House Mouse stamp, coloured with promarkers and  die cut using Spellbinders classic circles using the out of the die method for the leaves.  I then simply inked the edges with wild honey and added ribbons, felt leaves and string. The little gems look a bit red in the photo, but they are in fact dark brown.

Tomorrow is my first Friday 'back to normal', as I have been going in to work the past few weeks to train my Friday volunteers, but they are being left to run the drop in on their own tomorrow. I should be at home frantically trying to finish my cards (especially as we are out and about most of the weekend!), but I have a long standing arrangement to meet my friend Trish for lunch in Bath..the Christmas Market starts today, so we will also be having a meander around!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Workshop photos - Friday 22nd November

Good morning Friends....and a cold one it is too! Brrrr!

A quick post today, I'm off to work for a few hours this morning for the final bit of training for my new volunteers. I don't think I have ever seen my office as much as in the last three weeks and as a result I really am behind with my Christmas 'makes' now!

Yesterday I posted the card our group was making at the craft group Amy and I run - Out of the Blue, in Chipping Sodbury. The workshop was last night and as it was our last one before Christmas and also Amy's birthday, we felt very festive and even had lovely hot mince pies.

It was such a busy evening, that I didn't get the chance to take individual photos before I noticed some of our ladies had already packed them away, suffice to say they were all fabulous and everyone went home covered in glitter! However I did take some photos during the evening of the ladies at work...

Thanks for stopping by...I seem to be  a day behind in catching up with all your blogs lately, but I am getting there  in  the end!

Love and hugs,

Carole X

Baubles Flourish - Thursday 22nd November

Good Morning Friends,

Thank you for visiting my page and leaving a comment - it really does mean a lot to me! I have been 'missing' again this week, a combination of a lot to cram in at work, whilst still training volunteers and of course, trying to get Christmas cards and other projects for Christmas made - all I can say is thank goodness I only committed to the one craft fair!

Tonight is the last workshop for this year that Amy and I are delivering for 'Out of the Blue' craft group. We don't have another until January, so some time to recharge our batteries ready for 2014!

The card we will be making tonight is our own take on a card designed for Indigo Blu, by  the extremely talented Linda Walmsley; we have kept the main design, but used glitter for the background flourish, whereas the original card uses mica powder and instead of gilding flakes for the main image, we used embossing powder.

I have made two versions of the card - this one uses white embossing powder and the other one silver, but I don't seem to have photographed the second one so I will post that at a later date!

The card is 8x8 and although the layers appear silver, black and blue..the blue is in fact teal! It's the annoying light this time of year!

There are three stamps used on this card: Indigo Blu Baubles Flourish, Indigo Blu 'I Wish You a Merry Christmas' dinkie and for the inside I used a "Merry Christnas' stamp that was free with a magazine.

On the large black card I stamped just the flourish part of the stamp, using the flitterglu technique but sprinkle with glitter not flakes. I used Kingfisher Diamond Sparkles from Hunky Dory.

The whole image is stamped on the smaller black card. I used versamark ink and detail white embossing powder from Creative Expressions. I also stamped just the large bauble on teal card in the same way, cut it out and added it to the front using 3D foam pads.

Finally I stamped the sentiment stamp in black versafine ink on teal card and used a white jellyroll pen to highlight the Christmas.

I then stamped the greeting for the inside in the same way.

The decoration inside is simply a repeat of the background flourish on a strip of black card, matted and layered  with silver and teal.

















Thank you for visiting, keep warm everyone!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

House Mice hanging on! - Monday 18th November

Hello Friends,

Today's card is another House Mouse, I do love these little images! This is a stamp coloured with Promarkers, but the stamp is just one mouse and I made the card for a couple, so I changed it  a little!

I stamped and coloured the image twice and then die cut the first image using a scalloped circle die. I then cut out the second mouse, plus the branch he's hanging on to. I added a few of the spare holly leaves to the end of the image within the circle to give it a bit of balance.

To finish I painted the leaves with glossy accents and added some die-cut holly leaves and gems.

Inside:

I matted with matching red card and die cut the 'Merry Christmas' in gold, just adding a little holly leaf.


















Before I go today, I want to say a big thank you to Nikki Payne for the gorgeous candi I won in a follower giveaway on her blog last week. Nikki has only been blogging since March and I started following her almost from the start..and goodness has she progressed quickly in the crafting world! In fact if you happened to see Julia these last few days on Create and Craft, you might have heard her name mentioned and seen some of her designs.

Do have a look at her blog for some beautiful  creations http://nikkiscraftingcreations.blogspot.co.uk

No work for me today, but I do have a dental appointment, so does Tom, so we are both off to Bristol and then possibly some Christmas shopping :)

Have a happy Monday all!

Love and Hugs 
Carole X

Sunday Stamper week 282: Red -Friday 15th November

Good Morning Friends,

Well I may have been missing from 'blogland' since Sunday..I've been at work for most days as I'm training some more volunteers to help in our office, but in the little spare time I've had, I  have been busy crafting...I had to get stuck in to Christmas cards at some time didn't I? Having said that, I did take some Christmas card commissions before my 'sabbatical' and I am still working on them. I had to turn  down some this week or I'll never get to start my own. I have to make a lot of quick cards to send out, but at least I've got as far as knowing my design for them now! At least now I have quite a few cards to post here  over the next few weeks.

Before I get down to my card, I would like to give a big welcome to my latest follower Chris, thank you so much for your lovely comment and for following. I have just been looking at Chris's blog and there is some gorgeous Prim artwork, home decor and  gorgeous makes. Prim is one of my first loves in art, so I was lapping it all up. Chris, you were from Wales and live in Canada - my dad was a Canadian National who came back here to live and married my Mum who was Welsh (Maerdy) and now one of my best friends also lives in Canada.. so how about that?! Do check out Chris's blog: http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca

To my card...this is my red (and gold) offering for this week's Sunday Stampers challenge..do click on the link to take a look at Hels Sheridan's fab blog! To be honest, I would have posted it a few days ago, but I couldn't get a decent photo of it..the light when I've been home has been poor and trying to focus this particular card was a real pain!  A bit OTT for me, I'm not usually one for lots of glitter and bling, but heck it's Christmas and our card for next week's workshop (not this one) is very glittery so I thought that whilst I was in the mood....

I used the Indigo Blu Baubles flourish stamp, with Perfect Medium ink on red card. I stamped the complete image across the top and parts of the design around the side and base. I then heat embossed with gold embossing powder and matted and layered on gold silk mirri with a kraft card base, tying an organza ribbon around the side.

The sentiment stamp is also by Indigo Blu. 

Inside I followed through with the same theme. The greeting was a stamp free with a magazine.

Before I go, a wave to the ladies at the Thornbury craft group Amy and I visited last night. Amy really loves decorating glass and she'd been asked to demo Christmas glass ornaments with  texture paste and stencils, so I went along to help. It was a huge group of about 35 ladies and a very busy evening but we all had good fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Tartan Christmas - Friday 8th November

Hello Friends,

It's been another busy week, I have finally made a few Christmas cards, but for the few commissions I accepted before putting a hold on them..not for personal use. I really am starting to panic!

Anyway, I have hardly posted any Christmas cards this year on my blog -probably because I haven't made any, if I don't get a move on I won't be posting any in a pillar box either - but here is one for my Sunday Stampers project this week. Hels set the theme of 'You raise me up', cards with texture, so this is what I have made..

 This is an 8x8 card, which I matted and layered with red card and silver mirri, that has a silk rather than glossy feel and look.

For the top layer of red card, I used an embossing border folder that was free with a magazine. You can't really see in the picture, but the 'pattern' is Christmas words and I just repeated the embossing using my Grand Calibur over the entire card.

Because the folder is a strip, it left gaps in between which gave me the idea to use the tartan ribbon to cover the spaces! The stag stamp from Indigo Blu was stamped using the acetate and gilding flake technique that I featured here.

To finish I added two Spellbinders poinsettias and buttons tied with twine.

For the inside of the card I stamped the stag using versamark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder and added another bow

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,

Carole Z X

Happy Halloween! - Thursday 31st October

Good Morning Friends!

Two cards today, my last two Halloween cards...I took these stamped images to the craft fair a few weeks ago and coloured them whilst I was there...so nothing spooky, just a couple of fun House Mouse  cards!

I'm only working this morning as I am training two new volunteers who will work a few hours on a Friday, so this week I am going to the office tomorrow morning..so when I get home I will be bewitching the front porch and garden..I'll try and post photos later or in the morning...if you get Trick or Treaters I hope they are nice ones!

When our friends and neighbours kids were young we used to have a fancy dress party in our house and bake spooky cakes and savouries, tell spooky stories and go trick or treating. One of the most memorable was when one of my American cousins was staying because she did a term at university here..she just organised the best party ever and the kids, now in their teens and twenties still remember her. Now Elisa is married with a little guy who is almost 3 and doing his own trick or treat this year in California where they live..she tells me he wants to be a pirate, so I'm looking forward to seeing the photos!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Halloween Sparkle - Tuesday 29th October

Good Morning Friends,

I know there are really  mixed views about Halloween; I love it and love making cards and crafts for it. Sadly this year there has been very little time to create really spooky cards, but I have managed some quick ones which I have already posted, I have one more today and another that I am saving for Halloween itself.

I have enjoyed looking around the blogs of some of you who are also very  much into the creepiness and the fun  of the Holiday and also some others I have come across this last month or so, but this year definitely seems to the the year of the 'fun' Halloween card. I have seen some fabulous creations using the adorable House Mouse stamps and at the weekend, I was commenting on my section of entries to the Emergency Crafters challenge (yes it's now back up and working) and there were some superb fun entries there - there have been  a lot of entries this time, which seems to prove how popular Halloween is - there is still time to enter your Halloween project (closes Thursday) just hop over to Emergency Crafters.

I spent most of Saturday making my project for the next challenge - it's a theme I love, but don't get much chance to use in my designs as I don't get time to just craft for 'me' much any more; so I really had so much fun creating it..all will be revealed on 1st November!

So for today another Halloween Design...

I used a base layer of black card and matted and layered with this gorgeous spidery paper I downloaded last year from Chocolate Baroque. I traced the spiders web with Crystal Stickles, which gives a super iridescent effect.

The remainder of the papers I used for this card were from the fabulous Graphic 45 Steampunk Spells pad (and whisper whisper I've used this paper to make my entire DT project for Friday..sssh!).

The circle was cut with Spellbinders Classic Circles and the witches hat using my Cricut (actually I cut it last year and never used it as it was in my Halloween stash box). The little button was from a pack bought in Michaels on holiday and the sentiment is a stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

Before I go today, I thought you might like to see some photos of grapes we've harvested from our own vine this year...we've been going so many away and have frozen loads (frozen grapes after a special meal are lush!).

These are just a few..I took quite a few bunches into the library yesterday to give away and Tom to his office as well. They are pinot noir and quite sweet. The hens had a field day when we were picking the last of them at the weekend...I didn't have so  much fun washing them as there were so many spiders!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Sewing Catnip! - Sunday 27th October

Hello Friends!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend and remembered to put your clocks back! It looks like many of us here in the UK are bracing ourselves for some pretty 'busy' weather tonight, which I'm not looking forward to at all! It's such a beautiful morning here that it's hard to believe what they say is heading our way.

We actually had a Saturday with nothing that we had to do, so after a leisurely breakfast and a bit of morning crafting, we just dropped in at our local garden centre for a browse and a coffee and then came home and I was able to craft all afternoon... and as Tom's parents are in Italy at the moment, we have a day at home tomorrow as well, so more crafting...yippee!!

Yesterday, I turned some of those stamped House Mouse images that I coloured at the craft fair last week, into cards, but today's card is one I made for the craft fair (and sold) - another House Mouse, but this time from the CD.

I used some autumn leaf paper from a 6x6 pad in my stash and covered  a card blank. I printed the image on to photo paper and matted and layered on blue card. I then cut another piece of paper from the same pad to the same size and inked the edges with Vintage Photo. I used the offcuts from this piece to cut the little banners at the bottom.

The sentiment is also from the CD and the pumpkin topper was in a pack I bought in Michaels over in the US.

Another simple little card for today!

Hope you all have a super crafty Sunday, and keep snug and safe indoors tonight!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Workshop & Craft Fair! - Sunday 20th October

Good Morning Friends!

Yes a double whammy today..and a long one, so hope you'll stick with me!!  I seem to have gotten through the hectic period (relatively) unscathed! First of all though, thank you for all your lovely comments about my spooky wreath - yes I think it was my favourite too! 

I'm sorry I didn't get to visit you all yesterday, but will have a nice leisurely catchup later on..I did actually have what was looking to be a really horrendous week craft-wise but we had a great workshop and to find out what had made the week so "grrrrrrrr-some" (yes I made that up!), read on below the photos!

Workshop

Thursday night was the last of three workshops Amy and I put on using the Indigo Blu 'Stag on a Cliff' Christmas stamp and a design by Linda Warmsley and these are the fabulous cards made by my lovely group of ladies..

Craft Fair

Last week was when I was due to take part in an annual 'have a go' event at the Library, we had a social media event at work, followed by our workshop in the evening and then I had a craft fair on Saturday...by Tuesday I was getting the feeling of 'melt down' so something would have to 'give' and despite having spent quite a while prepping my craft stuff for the Library, it had to be that one because there were a lot of people taking part and it was just a drop in. I wouldn't let down Amy or our group unless (well I'd have to be so poorly I couldn't move!) and the fairs in aid of a Bristol Hospice are the only ones I do now - a) because I support the charity and b) I don't have the time, so I couldn't miss that one.

I was panicking about enough to sell, but although I made a few last minute cards, I had plenty.Then came the first big bug!!! Because I have been so busy this year, I seem to have allowed my craft room and my poor iMac to get very disorganised and have been happily saving digital stamps and images to flash drives that I haven't backed up. I used one of them Monday and it was fine, Tuesday I went back to use it and everything had gone! I tried everything, but the drive was corrupted and there was no replair!!!I had a word with our social media trainer (who also is a bit of a techie) on Thursday and it could be recoverable but a bit of hassle. I know a lot of my Pink Petticoat images are on there and Nitwit papers. I am so annoyed with myself for not bothering to back them up and have learnt my lesson.

Then on Friday, leaving it very late, I had to package the cards I'd made recently. I label the bags with my logo, the price and insert greeting details. I got my labels out, went to print them and my printer said 'NO'....for weeks now it had been flashing up messages saying its own way "Please I'm getting old, I've given you a good service but I need to be sent to the printer graveyard...please!" But in between the coughs and splutters it was still printing beautifully, so I ignored it.... then on Friday morning it just gave up and died...oh dear, I had to put on my best handwriting and do them by hand and today we are out to look for a new printer. I've had this one, an Epson, for 8 years or so and I do use it every day and a lot...I mean a lot, so it has given me great service. The problem with printers is that they cost more to repair than buy new.

Anyway, Tom and I got to the the craft fair and as usual it was great! It's in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall and between now and Christmas there is one every Saturday, but certainly this one is very well supported. It was great to see some of our craft group call in; one was helping a friend of hers on a stall too... and also to see other stall holders that I have got to know over the years.

There was plenty of foot-fall and I sold lots of cards - I was so pleased! Although I'm not taking commissions at the moment, I do have a few Christmas cards to make for a couple of regular customers and a took a couple yesterday from one of my office volunteers who called in and from another stallholder.

I always feel that in between standing and talking to people, encouraging them to have a look through the cards, it's a good idea to actually do some crafting. I like to take some stamped images and colour them and find that House Mouse is good for this; I am used to colouring them and they are fun for people to look at - yesterday I am also it encouraged the sales of the many House Mouse cards I'd made, even though some were from the CD's rather than stamped! The other best seller was cards made using Indigo Blu stamps - remember my George the Bear card from the other day? Well he went within minutes, as did the Elisabeth Bennet cards and the stag Christmas. I also took along a few of the wooden tree ornaments decorated with Indigo Blu and they sold too.

I totally forgot to take photos of the fair, it was so busy, but here is my 'work' from yesterday! I took along my Promarkers and had a good time talking to people about stamping and colouring. I only too a few markers, so some of them are just partially coloured.

Sorry for the lengthy post, catch you all later - now off to find that printer!

Love, Hugs and Happy Sunday!

Carole XX