Top 5 of 2012

Hi all,

I hope you have all had a wonderful christmas, with lots of goodies both crafty and none crafty. My best present was a Grand Calibur from the hubby - which we got on deal about a month back but wasnt allowed to have until xmas day!!!  - I have treated myself to a set of Grand Circles to go with it so cant wait to be able to get all my crafting stuuf back out and have a play. Little miss Abigail has been a bit poorly over christmas although it hasn't stopped her getting excited about things. Both of them have loved all their presents they received and their new tablets have been keeping them quiet and entertained lol. I myself was a bit off on christmas day and after eating a fantastic lunch cooked for us by my stepmom - proceeded to throw it all back up with the space of 10 mins, it doesnt seemed to have settled properly yet so am having to be very careful with what I am eating xx

Anyway today I am joining in with Debby's top five of 2012, Its been a great opportunity to look back over my year of cards and see how I have improved and look at different styles I have tried out. I can see some definate improvements in my colouring over the year as I have tried new tricks etc and have also loved doing a lot of shaped/easel style cards too - I hope I can pick just 5 lol!!!!

Here goes :-

 My hubby's valentines card, trying out a new shape card which I sized up and printed out a template for. I loved how the faux lace edging worked out.

 This little cutie was made for friends and love the sweet image and how pretty it all turned out. Again love the circular easel style - which was all cut by hand (not anymore)

Just love this everything about this card, from the cute little girl to the pretty papers and gorgeous flowers. 

 Love the shape of this one and the gorgeous papers and sweet image. I have been really lucky to work with the Milkcoffee girls and love all their sweet designs.

Just love the boldness of the colours on this and was really pleased with how the image turned out. 

Another sweet image and all things pretty on this one, love the cool colours 

Finally I think this has to be my fave from the whole year, love the beautiful SC image and all the gorgeous flowers and embellies. I really went to town on this card and still have it in my box as I cant seem to part with it.

OK!!!! so I ended up with my top 7 - trust me it could have been more, I really struggled to choose my fave ones as I seemed to have made a few this year that I really liked. I think its obvious that my fave style is all about the pretty things and love adding flowers, ribbon and little trinkets to my cards.

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Top 5

Hi all,

One more sleep to go, one more sleep till Santa - whos getting excited - meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!.

Anyway I am here today to join in with Debbie's - Top five Christmas cards - every year Debbie asks us to show our fave Christmas Cards that we have made, so here are mine in not particular order lol!!!

This one was a challenge set by Gill & Steve from Little Claire - to make a Christmas card using a none christmas stamp. I was really pleased with how it turned out and think I made a fab job of turning the image into a little snowy scene.

I love this cause of its funky shape and those little owls are just toooo cute - 

What can I say about this one other than gorgeous Wee Stamps Topper, fabby papers & such gorgeous ribbon 

Obviously one of my faves is Hubby's card - just love how it came together and the gorgeous gold bow!! 

Finally just love this Beach Huts image from Little Claire - not an image you would usually associate with Christmas and I also love the fabby colour combo. Plus the colouring took me ages lol!!!

Thanks for popping by my blog today.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas

Lyndsey xx

Animal Cuties

Hi all,

Well we are nearly there, I am sooooo looking forward to Christmas Day - having our lunch cooked for us round my Dad & Stepmom's so I can just relax and take things easy!!!!

Another 2 quick cards to show you today, these were made for my friend who asked me to make a few special cards for her. Time was running out (as always) so I reached for my fabby Wee stamps Toppers again.

I kept the layouts quite simple and added a few flowers and some gorgeous ribbon (my bargin from Wilkinsons) for decoration. The sentiments were computer generated.

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Stockings hung on your fireplace

Hi all,

Another Christmas card that we made in class to show you today, for this one we made the card Z fold and then cut an aperture out to swing back on itself

The image is Molly Blooms and came with a special edition mag, along with papers & accessories. The holly flourish is a Cheery Lynne and then I added WOC flowers on top. The sentiment was added after to personalise it for a friend.

Sorry about the pants picture - I have done something to the settings on my camera and cant seem to get it back right again!!!

Thanks for popping by my blog today

 Lyndsey

Circle Stepper Class Cards

Hi all,

Today I am showing you a couple of cards that I made with my class the other week, I found a fab circle stepper card on Pinterest - so decided to make a template and get the girls making those.

We used a set of stamps from Papermania Noel collection and some great papers from Avec which have fab glittery designs on them.

The sentiments are the Christmas Sentiments from Little Claire and a £12.99 for a set of 12 designs.

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Eskimo Kisses

Hi all,

Well the big day is nearly upon us, my xmas cards are all finished and I am almost ready - apart from the fact that I have a poorly girl in the house who is very clingy at the moment so not getting much of those lats minute things done lol!!!.

We did have some lovely news yesterday in that Oli came home from school with 2 invitations for the Golden Child of the Term awards tomorrow and both my kids have been given the award from their classes - so going to take Abbie down to the church tomorrow to take part.

Now today sees a new challenge over at Milkcoffee and the theme is Christmas, unfortunately with Abbie being poorly I haven't had any time for crafting this week so don't have a card. Although I am sure the girls would love you to pop by and see their creations on the blog.

So today I will show you the card I made hubby, love him to bits - he has just got me a new phone even though I lost 1 two months ago when drunk & then dropped another one down the toilet last week lol!!!!

I used a gorgeous Mo Manning Topper and teamed it with some fabby papers that were free with a magazine, the glittery snowflake is a tree decoration (£2 for 10 from Asda) and some gorgoeus gold organza Ribbon (another bargin £1 for 3 meters from Wilkinsons)

Thanks for popping by my blog today 

Lyndsey xx

Away we go

Hi all,

How you all doing, are you nice and prepared for next week or running round like headless chickens lol!!!!, I am all prepared at home but have been very busy up the school helping out with different things. I have spent all afternoon helping to make the christingle candles ready for tomorrows navitity (all 180 of them) and tonight I have brought home some books to wrap ready for santa to give out at the party on Thurs - have already spent Fri afternoon wrapping at school and will still need to go up tomorrow afternoon to finish off - I must either be too soft or have mug written across my forhead lol!!!!.

Anyways today I have a cute little card made using an adorable Mo Manning topper available from the Hobby House and have teamed it with some freebie papers from a magazine.

I have kept the card quite simple- as to be honest getting a bit fed up of making xmas cards now so I seem to be going more simple with them and adding less embellies - cant wait to get them all out of the way so I can start using some pretty papers and colours lol!!

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

How many more sleeps?

Hi all,

Today sees a new challenge over at Little Claire, how ever the card I made I cant show you as in my infinite wisdom I used a new stamp thats not released till Jan - having a right numpty week!!!!!!

So I thought I pop a different Little Claire card on that I made with my class ladies following a sketch the other week. The image used is called Sleep Tight , which I teamed with Dovecraft Vintage Christmas papers.

This cute little stamp is on offer at the moment for just £4.50, so why not get it in early ready for next years cards.

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Glamour puss

Hi all,

3 days on the trot I must be feeling a bit better, well after seeing the consultant this week it turns out that after all this time the reason I am still in pain is that my body is still not recovered from my operation and I need to take things easy for the next 3 months or so. His exact words to me were - there are hysterectomy's, difficult hysterectomy's, very difficult hysterectomy's and then yours!!!!!, so I need to cut back and rest a bit more. Also it seems that my bladder has been effected from when they had to un-attach it from my womb and I now have an overactive bladder with stress incontinence. I have been put on a bladder training plan and told to avoid certain things which can irritate the bladder - so have been banned from drinking anything with caffeine, fizz, alcohol, citrus & sweetener in it - which doesn't leave much apart from water and I have to have measured amounts of fluid at certain time throughout the day. So looks like its going to be a very sober xmas for me!!!!

Anyway today is showcase day over on the Milkcoffee Blog and our theme for this week is Party, we were given a mixture of party themed images to work with and I was lucky enough to be given this gorgeous glamour puss Tiffany in couture dress to work with.

I coloured the image with promarkers, then using a quickie glue pen added glamour dust to some of the pattern to make it stand out. The papers are MME and I made the flowers myself buy cutting a very wonky circle and then cutting it into a spiral.

If you would like to see what creations my teamies have made, please pop by the blog and check them out.

Also before I go, I have had 2 lots of very exciting news this week. One I can't tell you till Jan - but I was jumping up and down in the living room about it!!!!, but the other I can tell you and that is I have been asked to join the DT for Inky Impressions so I am now an Inkette whoop whoop!!!!

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Let it snow

Hi all,

I am having a lovely time today, both kids at school and Rich at work so am having a full on crafty day. I am hoping to get the last of my xmas cards finished off and only have a few left now and a couple to make for my friend and thats it!!!!

Anyway today I am showing you the card I made for Oli and have used an adorable snowman from the Digi Garden.

The papers are from Avec and every sheet is glittery and are so fab, I picked them up at the NEC and were on offer of 4 pads for just £10 so bargin. Me and the girls I went with all got 1 so we could get the deal. The big green snowflake is a chipboard shape which I coloured with Pro-Markers and then added a wooden snowflake and fab glittery button on top. The Son sentiment is from the Dictonary Definitions set from Little Claire.

Thanks for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Owl Christmas Tree

Hi all,

Back with a christmas card today am trying to get them all finished by the end of this week so I can relax a bit next week.

Todays cards uses the Christmas Owl Tree from Little Claire and I kept the design layout very simple and stuck to the more traditional muted colours.

The papers are by Kaisercraft and were free with a magazine, the snowflakes are a Marianne Design Die and the fabby sentiment was a stamp I found in Next!!

Thanks for popping by my blog today 

Lyndsey xx

Walkies!!!!

Hi all,

I haven't fell off the end of the earth, just not been feeling too good this last week and have had no energy for crafting - I am now seriously behind with my Christmas Cards so need to get cracking really. Now saying that you would think my card today would be a xmas one, but no! I wanted a bit of a change from snowflakes and such and so have gone all pretty and feminine.

So its time for a new challenge over at Pink Gem Challenge and the theme this week is

Lavender & Lace

I went for a very girly card for this one and used the gorgeous image Butterfly Chloe which is available in store for just £1.50.

I teamed Chloe with some gorgeous papers from LOTV - oh my I really didn't want to use these, have had them for weeks and keep looking at them but not wanting to use them. Well they just went so well with the challenge theme I couldn't resist. A few WOC flowers, organza ribbon and of course some pretty lace to finish. The image has been cut out using the lovely Floral Oval Die by Spellbinders - I love this die and is fast becoming my fave.

Thanks so much for popping by my blog today

Lyndsey xx

Take it easy

Hi all,

Today sees the release of the December Little Claire Stamp Club set, this month we have a cute little set called Darling Daschunds. The set comprises of 3 images, 1 circular sentiment and 3 further greeting sentiments. On top of this you also get instructions and materials to make a card and 2 further full colour project instructions for just £8.99.

Dont forget when you join our club you also get 10% off any purchase online, instore, by telephone or at shows and you also get free P&P too.

So here are the samples I made using this set.

I wanted to make my cards as bright and funky as possible to make them a complete change from all the christmas cards I have been making.

The papers were free from a magazine a while ago, and i added a few wooden & punched flowers just to finish off.

If you would like to see what my team mates have created using this set, please do pop on over to the Blog and check them out.

Thanks for popping by my blog today xx