Card with recycled topper ... and something that made me smile today

Afternoon Everyone,

I neglected to post yesterday because I went shopping. Not for crafting materials, oh no, having taken the vow to Use It Up, I couldn't possibly do that. No, I went shopping for clothes ... in fact, I hit M&S with some vouchers I received recently, determined to augment my wardrobe with a new top or two. Cruising the aisles of the shop and being spoilt for choice, I realised that it had been simply eons since I had shopped for clothes ... in fact, it has become such a rarity since I retired that I had forgotten what a pleasure it can be :)) When I was a member of the workforce, a freelance businesswoman no less, I had to have a wardrobe of clothes that reflected that ... I couldn't possibly meet a client wearing my favourite jeans and sweatshirt, no it had to be a sharp suit, etc., etc. Now my sartorial needs are rather less sharp and more designed for comfort ... rather like I am myself ... sigh :( The moral of this little saga is ... I should dress up more :)

Anyway, now you know why I absented myself yesterday. However, late on I did finish this little card.

I have a few projects on the go at the moment ... unlike me I know, I usually finish one project before moving on to the next  but I was waiting for some paint to dry ... boring ... so I started this little card to fill in the time. It was intended for a challenge, with the theme of recycling something from Christmas, but was too late in completing it  ... such is life :)  The topper is recycled from a card received in 2010 ... yes, I have a  hoard of cards from way back!  After removing the topper I trimmed it back, then edged it with gold embossing powder. The base card was plain white, now brushed with red distress ink and stamped with little sprays of holly leaves in the same colour. The stamp is from a set of stamps I received in a giveway last year and as I may have, with all the sad and tragic things going on in my life at the time, neglected to post it up here it is now:

Thank you Janet, I've really enjoyed cracking open the stamp set for this card. Also known as Clarky J, of Clarky J's Play Space, Janet has a fab blog dedicated to all things Christmassy, Christmas Preparations and is also one half of the duo that is Lovin Ink. (It is they who organised the retreat that I was going to attend in September last year but, unfortunately, Alan, my DH, became ill and I had to cancel.) As you can see it is a lovely selection of Christmassy materials, fab die-cuts, K&Company's Holiday adhesive ribbon and Inkadinkado's Holiday stamp set and several sheets of 'handmade by' labels. You can also see the Christmas card Janet enclosed with the package - absolutely beautiful. I'd not seen this stamp set before but it is a really useful collection of greetings and tiny seasonal stamps, and it comes with its own peg block - the little stamps fit on the end and the longer ones along the length ... a brilliant idea :)

The inside is simply decorated with the little holly spray.

I don't think you need two guesses to work out why I had to brush the back of the card with the red ink too, yes, I got some spots on it so had to do a cover up job :(

Materials used:

- Kanban ready-made 5" square scalloped edged base card
- Tim Holtz distress ink - fired brick and Inkylicious ink duster
- Inkadinkado Holiday clear stamp set
- VersaMark
- Heat-It-Up find gold embossing powder
- Recycled topper
- Gold metallic cord

The EM got one of those label-maker things for his Christmas and he has been steadily working his way round the house labelling all the electric plugs, files and folders, etc. He's now running out of things to label ... you can see how desperate he is  here:

This is what I came downstairs to this morning :)) He tried to tell me that The Boss had a hand in this - the spelling is terrible, only a cat could be responsible for it, surely. Bonnie is not amused!

Okay, I'm off to cook up a storm for dinner and if I don't get a wriggle on there will be one starving EM in this house.

I hope you are all well and enjoying your weekend so far.

Happy Crafting,