There's no going back now!

Hello!  Well the weather thinks it's Christmas already what with all of this snow, so I guess it must be close at hand!  I've posted my cards so I am now making my attempts at the lovely easel card for DD's.  I've printed off the images and have coloured them today so tomorrow I can have a play.  In the meantime I wanted to share some cards with you.

Above is the plummy version of Claire's gorgeous snowman/postbox image.  I really loved colouring this and did quite a few different colourways.

 

This Santa image is also from Claire's shop and she's just listed some new images too.  There is a really gorgeous tree that I will be getting soon so you'll see my version of it next year!  Santa was used to make an A6 size voucher holder so I didn't want to distract from him so left it quite unadorned!  He is the coolest Santa in my collection!

These cheery chaps are from Cuddly Buddly and were free images, aren't they just adorable!  

I think I've uploaded enough!

Thanks for looking,

Keryn x

Is it still Christmas?

Good morning!  It's a lovely bright chilly winter's morning here on the South coast and I'm upto my eyes with family xmas cards.  

I apologise in advance as this is a fairly long post!

I was feeling quite pleased with myself (read; smug here!) having made my biggest xmas order in November and made some boxed sets for my daughters and charity and then I realised I'd sold all of my individual cards so I'm now flat out making more to send to my family!  I can't complain as it is a lovely thing to sit here trying to be creative and enjoying all of the beautiful inspirations on everyones blogs.  I'm saving making my 1st easel card for my girls and DH.  I hope they go well as I've so many beautiful ones on blogland.

Here is one of the card's that I have made for the little great nephews/neices in the family (plus neighbour) and it is a note from Santa!  This is the 3rd year that I have made little cards for them saying that if they are good little boys/girls then I (Santa) will visit them soon!  Apparently they love them and each year I get asked to make a few extra for other people to send to their grandchildren.

This fabulous image is a free image from Graphics Fairy .  Karen runs this site and she is amazing!  She posts the most fabulous vintage images free for anyone to download and they really are just gorgeous images!  Please call in as I'm sure you won't be disappointed!  The image was just beautiful so I let it do the talking and kept the layout quite simple.  The thin strip on the left doesn't look very nice but IRL it is white glitter card and just sets it off.

  This is the first time that I have used Mo's 'Nutcracker'.  I think she is just adorable!  I have made this card for my eldest sister who likes the vintage look so Ive distressed the image & the sentiment with TH's Walnut stain.  The crumpled ticket is another freebie but this time it's from Miss Cutiepie Inspiration.  It is from a sheet full of tickets, all xmas themed and they are gorgeous and I will be finding as many places to use them for the rest of my cards!

I used:

images - Graphics Fairy & Mo's Digital Pencil

pp - all are pink petticoat

cardsstock - all Papermill

flowers - Prima

gems, ribbons from stash

punches - MS, fiskars, L-Em & X-cut

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday, hope to be back later with more makes.

In the meantime, thank you so much for visiting and for lelaving yor comments, it is so lovely to read them!

Keryn x

and finally

for my last post tonight I am showing a card that I've just posted today.  This is the first time that I've used one of the papers from the Papermania 'Joyeux Noel' set and I really like it in this setting.  The image is one of Mo's amazing creations and I just love it.  I have also used the MS corner punch on the gold mirri and I am REALLY loving that set at the moment too!  The flower was from a set I got last year (or maybe even the one before?!) and hadn't used any because they were in the pale modern colours of pale pink and mint green and it was not appropriate for this card so I used my PM's to change the colours, oh it's such a lovely thing to do as the colour bleeds so quickly and it transforms before your very eyes - blimey Keryn, you really need to get out more!

Anyway, that's enough from me for one day, my tablets are working and I'm fit for bed!

used: 

image - Mo Manning

medium - PM's

DP - Papermania

cs - Papermill

stash - ribbon, sentiment, buttons & brad

Thanks for looking!

Keryn x  

A letter from Dasher

 

Hello, It's been a nice dry and bright winter's day here so we trekked the dogs through the woods again.  Amazingly by the time we arrive back home again the dogs are both white again, they sure aren't white when we're on the walk!  Luckily it all drops off onto the towels in the back of the car - Steve cleans the car so that's not so bad!

Here is the card I have made using Claire's fabulous reindeer image.  I am very honoured as she drew this specially for me to use for Santa's Reindeer letters.  Please pop over to Claire's blog as she has offered this image free and besides that, her blog is fab!  

I have decided against sending 9 identical cards so I've made this one as the 'intro' and the inside says that Tyler has been specially chosen to receive letters from Santa's Reindeers during December.  I have made all 9 reindeer letters and sent them all off to the c/o address so she won't be effected by any postal strike.  I've asked that whoever opens the package delivers one every few days to her.  I do hope she enjoys them.  It will be a terribly poignant time for the Mum as Tyler's sister: Postpal Madi, is seriously ill with nothing left that can be done for her.  This upsets me greatly but at least I have tried to bring a tiny diversion to the youngest sister.  I will try to load the reindeer letters to my sidebar if anyone wants to have a smile!

Back soon with another card.

Thank you for looking,

Keryn x 

ETA - I am unable to link a word doc to my blog so I can't show a reindeer letter, sorry.

Christmas Production

Good afternoon peeps,  it has been a glorious bright and sunny day today so we walked the dogs in the woods; now Im not sure whether Steve or the dogs are more tired!  lol

As previously mentioned I am regularly asked to make some cards for 2 or 3 youngsters who partake in Am/Dram in Dorset, it is that time of year again and this time only 2 of them are performing.  My directions were: The Nutcracker and Jack & the Beanstalk, here is what I have made.  Finding images that I could print was very time consuming but I am happy with the end result.

The beanstalk card was made using a great little sketch No. 21 from Papertake Weekly and I used my new MS PAP punches which arrived this week from Quixotic Paperie, I haven't used them together yet but I am loving the edges that they create.

used:

pp - Pink Petticoat - teal

punches - MS PAP

sentiment - pc generated

gems & ribbon - Fabricland

stash - mirri card & rubons

Off now to sort the Steak & Kidney I put in the slow cooker before the walk, time to make a few dumplings and sort the cabbage then off to record 'Strictly' and watch XF , thank goodness Jedward or should I say Deadwood have now gone!  As Dannii said, 'is it a singing contest?'!!

Keryn x 

More Snowman Hugs

Hello, I am back with another couple of cards made with the Fred She Said digi-image called Emma hugs Snowman.  I am entering this card into the Papertake Weekly Challenge #28 which I believe will close tonight so I'm just in time hopefully!

I love the colours on this version, it's right up my street at the moment!  I am entering this into Friday Sketchers Challenge #79.  Pop over and have a peep at the DT cards, they are really smashing and my fav is Jeanette's as I just adore her papers.  I'd like some of those myself plus if you enter you have a chance of winning a really lovely stamp or two!

Pinky mentioned earlier that she remembers hugging her snowman when she was young but sadly, violins playing in background now, we in Southampton don't get enough snow to have ever made a snowman!  I always got excited if I could make a snowball - and no, not the eggnog version!

Catch you soon I hope.

Keryn x

used

image - Fred She Said - as above

medium - PM's

pp - Pink Petticoat

sparkle - glamour dust

card - Papermill

dies - snowflake & corners - sizzix

stash - ribbon, heart button & gems 

sentiment - Kanban

Snowman Love

Hello,  here is a card I have made using the Sketch & Stash Challenge .  Pop over and join in too!  For this card I used one of a set of images that I bought much much earlier in the year but hadn't got around to using until today.

Used:

image:Emma the Hugger

medium- PM's

pp - Pink Petticoat - dotty snowflake turquoise

card - Papermill

punch - The Range snowflake

stash - ribbons, glamour dust

I enjoyed using this set of images from Fred She Said so will be back later when I have finished some more cards!

Thanks for looking

Keryn x

                

Just a quickie

Hello and Happy Sunday to you!

I hope you've had a lovely weekend despite the weather and I hope no-one has been personally effected by these awful floods that have hit the north of the country.

I have to firstly apologise for the picture quality, I love to use a little mirri board here and there but you know, it just does not like the camera!

I was asked to make a couple of cards for a couple who sadly have just lost their 20yr olf Jack Russell, Molly.  It was quite hard trying to find an appropriate image and luckily for me Chris Dark's amazing talent hit the spot perfectly.  I chose her Sunflowers and Poppies images and hope you like what I have made with them.  I just had to have a play with my new Nellies Frames that arrived this week from Cuddly Buddly so I've shown the inside of the Poppy card!

Steve is today actually out of his bed so things are very slowly improving here.  I am totally exhausted but I think he has passed the worst now so that is a relief!  Thank you to everyone for their good wishes for him!

 

Thanks for popping by,

Keryn x 

 

In Memory of Layton

Hello!

It's lovely to be back in the land of blogging!  I've done plenty of visiting and commenting and even crafting but just not actually managed to finish and photo anything until today. 

Steve's arm is healing nicely but -and Im sure this could only happen in this household! - he put his back out as he woke yesterday.  I have never seen anyone in so much pain before and trying to get him to the loo was an effort worthy of a Duke of Edinburgh Gold award I reckon!  Had no choice but to call out the gp.  He has spent most of the last 24hrs sedated and prone so at least I know where he is and what he's doing!

Here is a card I have made using one of the 2 images that I bought in memory of Layton.  For those of you that don't know he is the 16mth old great nephew of Jak Heath who recently very sadly succombed to meningitis.  Jak has 2 great images available for just £4 which is going towards finding a meningitis vaccine.  Please do pop over and see for yourself, you will be buying 2 fab images and helping a great cause also, it couldn't be any easier!

 

My apologies for the picture quality of the close up I was just trying to show the glamour dust on him!  I really struggled trying to make this card, the image was a dream to colour but actually trying to use it was quite awkward.  I used a 6" square base card and seperated it with 3 strips of red card.  I had no option but to use peel offs, not my fav thing but I think it just about works.  I mounted the snowman soldier on white 'gemstones' card just to give a little hint of glimmer and raised him up on foam pads for a little height.  

I am going to enter this into Creative Inspirations which this week is to use sparkle.  I hope you like it.

Thank you for your visit!

Keryn x

Stamp Something this weekend!

Hello,  Firstly, thank you very much to everyone who has asked after Steve.  He is recovering well after his op on Thursday but he hasn't really been the most 'patient' patient which has made things somewhat more difficult than they needed to be!  Bless him though he is only trying to reduce my workload but you know what's it's like, it just makes more work than ever plus, Poppy dog has got some awful stomach bug and I keep finding out.  You can train a dog where to use the toilet but when they are poorly, there is no hope.  She is now on starvation for 24hrs in the hope that she will be better very soon or it will be an expensive trip to the vets again with her!

Anyway, back to crafting!

I got all excited when I was blog hopping and got to Stamp Something blog as I really liked their recipe so I went and made a card using it and it was only when I was going to post it and I cross referenced the challenge again and found that I had missed the vital element!   The card to be made was meant to be sent to a young girl, Jaimie,  in the US who just weeks ago was maliciously & seriously attacked in her bed and lost her Mum to the same brutal thugs and is now trying to recover with her Dad.  I couldn't possibly begin to explain the situation regarding Jaimie so please pop over to Stamp Something for full details of how you can help too.  

The card I made is for my MIL so I made a seperate card for Jaimie and will be posting it off on Wednesday.  I now don't feel that I can submit this card but it was made following their recipe which is: 1 ribbon, 2 papers, 3 embellies. 

Seems it was a great show at the NEC, maybe next year!  I hope everyone has had a really lovely weekend!  Thank you for popping by.

Keryn x

I used:

sketch - perfume bottles by the very talented Chris Dark

coloured using - PM's

pp - Pink Petticoat

sentiment - computer generated

flower, frond,mirri card, button & ribbon - stash

ooh la la!

Hello,  here is a card I've just made for my eldest niece, she's mad and always has a giggle so I'm hoping she will have like this!  I used a Pink Petticoat image and I saw a similar card on their site but this is my version of it; it's the first time I have done lacing and Im quite pleased with how it has turned out.  Sorry that the colour look's quite flat on the photo, IRL it's a really lovely RAF blue which actually is the result of my printing black and white papers but the black running out mid print!  Hence, a new shade for the lovely PP papers of RAF blue! lol

Today Mr Postie brought me the surprise candy from Fiona all the way from Austria!  It was such a welcome surprise and I cannot wait to have a play with it asap!  Thank You very much Fiona!  

I received 6 gorgeous double sided thick patterned papers, 2 PM's (Cinnamon & Satin), 2 sets of beautiful pink button brads, a great set of Sakura Glaze pens, A Lily of the Valley 'Birds & Branches' stamp, a hot pink Happy Birthday organza ribbon and lots of beautiful pink blooms plus a lovely card made for me by Fiona!  There is just nothing nicer than receiving a beautiful hand made card by another cardmaker!

Next is a photo of my mad girls taken on Saturday night!  Laura - wearing the witch mask opened the door to all of the 'trick or treaters' with this mask on and all of the little kiddies were dressed up and had their Mums waiting for them at the end of the drive.  One little boy, who must have been only 3 was just about to put his hand in the sweetie dish when he looked up and saw Laura's mask!  Well, he froze and shrieked 'whats that?'  I quickly had to pull her mask up to show him that she wasn't really a witch but he never took his eyes off her even when he walked backwards down the drive!  He did manage to grab a sweetie though so that was ok but I nearly needed my inhaler after shutting the door and laughing so much!  That poor little mite!

Just to add, the cobwebs and rats weren't as a result of my lack of housework!

Steve has his operation Thursday so I doubt that I will be able to flit between blogs as much as I'd like so I must excuse myself in advance.  In truth Ive not been feeling like myself of late and havent been online much but hopefully things will soon improve and I will be back to 'normal' soon.  Meanwhile, happy crafting everyone and I look forward to seeing your gorgeous creations even if Im not adding any of my own!

Thanks for looking in

Keryn x 

This is It

Hi,

DH took me to the flix today and we saw the MJ film.  It was amazing but quite poignant.  He really, really still had it.  Dont believe reports that he was frail and unwell, he was as fit as a fiddle and his voice was just as it always was, unlike  some other artists of his age.  
How very sad that he was taken so suddenly & just 8 days before he was due to fly here to start the concerts.  I really wish he was still here.


x


ETA : The image of MJ's silhouette containing all differents shots from his film is actually a collage of his fans and Ive just found out that my photo is on there!  DH is a bit miffed!  Meanwhile, I am tickled pink!  lol

Im now a PostPals Reindeer!

Hello,

I hope everyone has had a really lovely weekend and enjoyed their extra hour! 

The reason Ive come on is to say that I've volunteered to be one of PostPals Reindeer!  Oh thank goodness it doesn't mean that I've got to climb on rooves or pull a sleigh as we all know that there are already 9 special reindeer that do that job, no, I've been allocated a little sister of a very poorly little girl who seems to be on borrowed time at the moment.  

My task is to send 9 letters to her during December each one from a different reindeer telling her all of the things that busy reindeers get up to at this time of year!  My jaw nearly hit the desk when I realised what I'd volunteered for but the more I thought of it, the more I am really looking forward to it!  I will start 9 reindeer diaries and store them so all I will need to do is hand write each one as and when it will be needed in December and hopefully Mr Postman will be able to deliver them.

If anyone would like to join in with either being a reindeer or being  an elf then please could you contact PostPals for more details.  All in all over 400 volunteers are needed and it needn't cost more than 9 postage stamps.


I'll let you know how I get on!  Wishing everyone a great week ahead - it's half term here in the South, so enjoy your kiddies or grandchildren!


Thank you for popping by
Keryn x

  

PN Boy with Stocking PTW Challenge #26

Hello,  it's been a wet and miserable day here in the South so I've made a start on xmas.  I know it's months behind the seasoned crafter but hey - ho!

I mooched and twiddled and made a few basic cards then turned to my blog reading list for inspiration and thanks to PaperTake Weekly who have this great sketch as this week's challenge.

I used:

image - Paper Nations Xmas Stocking Boy

coloured - Faber-Castell w/c pencils

pp stripes - pink petticoat

pp snowflakes - Funky Hand - Funky Yule

bp - Fiskars 

die cuts - nesties

sentiment - peel off

I've stamped many of this little chap and I've coloured them all slightly differently just to lift the boredom but I think I will use this layout for all cards I make with this image.

Keryn x

Madison with Attitude

 

 

Hello,  Here is a card I made this weekend using the lovely Madison from Charmed cards and Crafts site.  I love their images as they really cover a wide range of subjects.  Here is Madison and she's got attitude, well you would have wouldn't you if you had size 15 feet?!  lol

I tried to soften the overall edge of this card by using my newish sentiment stamp and I crushed up the image, just like all teenagers stuff really - and prettified (new word of the day!)  it with a shocking orange ribbon!  Talk about polar opposites!  Well I hope you like it as I had great fun making this.

I used:

image - charmed cards & crafts

coloured - PM's

pp - Papermania Clare Curd's The Big One

stash - eyelets, ribbon, buttons and BP by Fiskars

Keryn x 

 

Rachel's Birthday & Penny Black Challenge

Hello,  I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend.  Friday night I was 'babysitting' my daughters 4 month old Cocker Spaniel pup, Chester.  It was hard work but he is so adorable that I really didn't mind at all, even though I am still tired today from it!  It's the closest to grandchildren for many a year for me so I wont grumble!

I have been trying to get ontop of my birthday cards so I can devote some serious time to making a xmas card order of 120.  I've been gradually gathering all of the gear together, ready for the 'Off' and I think I can mallinger no longer!   I have no excuse as I have seen so many wonderful creations by you all yet why is it that when faced with such a task and a card blank, my mind empties?!  Oh give me back my driving pupils, that was so much easier!!

Here is a card I have made for one of my nieces and it is a Penny Black image I received from Jules, thanks Jules and I so love it that I have the stamp on my xmas wishlist.  

The challenge this week over at PB Saturday Challenge is the great sketch, although it is on it's side here!

I used:

image - PB Uplifting

colouring - water colour pencils

die cuts - nesties

pp - Funky Fairy

flowers - xcut punches

stash - gems & rubons

Thank you for calling in, have a great week!

Keryn x

Floral Bouquet

Hello, here is a card I have made for one of my sisters.  I used the fab new digi image from my friend Claire at Hope Jacare.  As a birthday present she kindly designed me some beautiful images, all of which are available along with new festive xmas images over at her shop.  Pop by to have a look, you wont be disappointed!  I kept the card fairly unembellished as I think the image and the pp were enough.

I am also the very lucky winner of Judy's World Cardmaking Day candy!  The candy was donated by Elaine at Quixotic Paperie  and it is below, what a lucky girl I have been and I had a lovely time blog-hopping on WCD, it was great!

I went to Birmingham last weekend with both of my daughters to see the Wedding Show at the NEC.  The best thing to come from it was I think my daughter has now confirmed which dress is 'the one' and that happened to be in the very first shop we went to in Southampton!  Oh, isn't it always the way!?

I had the most awful time there in one of the mobility scooters.  I wont bore you with details but lets just say, some people are just animals.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, doing things that make you happy!

Keryn x