One for CraftyHazelnut's Challenge #105

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick share today - a Christmas card that would seem to fit well with this week's CHNC challenge #105 - Anything Goes

Edited note: At Hazel's suggestion this card is also being submitted to her CHNC challenge extra for January - also Anything Goes. Thanks Hazel!

Hazel is asking us to show any Christmas card that hasn't been seen before or make a start on cards for next Christmas - this is one that hasn't been seen before.

This was a quick and simple card to make but only because I had already created the embossed paper used for the topper ... you can see how this was made in this earlier post. All I had to do was trim it to size, ink around the edges with Tim Holtz DI, Festive Berries.

Then wrap a length of white vellum ... stamped with the greeting using VersaMark and embossed with gold powder ... round the lower part of the topper. Voila!

To finish, the inside is stamped with one of my favourite PB stamps and another greeting.

Materials: white card base; smooth white card; Tim Holtz distress inks in Festive Berries, Shabby Shutters and Scattered Straw; Penny Black Holly Bough stamp; Papermania greeting stamp from Noel set; gold mica powder; Darice Snowflake Swirl embossing folder; strip of white vellum, VersaMark; gold embossing powder.

That's me done for today - I've been merrily crafting away for much of the day and, at the same time, making a serious dent in the snippet pile - more of that later :) 

Life will be getting back to normal for you all, as it is for me ... in my case, that's normal for someone who no longer has to go out to work. The odd thing is, that even though I've been fully retired for three years now, I still look forward to the weekend and the holidays. And, I treat Saturday and Sunday quite differently from the rest of the week. The EM, who has been retired a lot more years than I have, keeps telling me that taking off and doing fun things does not have to be confined to the weekend anymore. That being the case, we are off to visit my sister tomorrow :))

Take care everyone and happy crafting,

The first WOYWW of the year 2013 - #187

Good Morning Everyone,

A good New Year to you all too - I hope you've had a great holiday and are now refreshed, rested and and raring to get crafting again :)

It's WOYWW, time to show what's going on, or not as the case may be, on our desks. For anyone not already familiar with WOYWW, it's easy, just snap your desk, post it on your blog and then pop over to Julia's at the Stamping Ground and add your post to the link to this week's line up - it's fun and you get to meet a great bunch of folks in the process :)

Here's mine today.

I've had a bit of a tidy up and the scrap layout that I was planning before the holiday is back - today it will be done! Hardly seen, but there all the same, is my brand new craft mat - the old one was a disgrace!!! To the side is a pile of notebooks filled with crafting ideas - they are there for reference. Behind that is one of my, now probably infamous, cat food boxes filled with all manner of goodies received in a swap with the lovely crafters on UKPC - it's there to remind me to put together a wall hanging with the lovely artwork that the members created.

That leaves the book lying in the forefront which I found going second-hand on Amazon just before Christmas, 52 Scrapbooking Challenges by Elsie Flannagan. I haven't had time to read through it completely yet but what I've seen I like. Ms Flannagan is the Elsie of the no longer available Love Elsie paper collections - she has a very individual style which may not be everyone's cup of tea but when my mojo has gone on strike and/or I need a challenge, I think this book will be a useful go-to resource.

That's the desk this morning - nothing too exciting. I did take a trip to my favourite crafting haunt on Monday and blew the vouchers Santa brought me. Bought lots of lovely goodies but as I've already tidied them away - well, I blitzed the craft space yesterday in a fit of 'can't stand this mess, got to sort it out before I can craft again' !!! - so there's nothing to see today.

A lot of you will be making your new year resolutions known this week but, like Julia, I won't be doing resolutions - I just know I won't stick to them so why set myself up for the inevitable fall :) My only intention is to be completely hedonistic and enjoy the year ahead, have fun with the folk I love, and spend as much time on doing the things that give pleasure - well, at 65, I think I've no more time left to waste on anything else :))

Which doesn't mean to say I won't be interested in what your aims and dreams are for the coming year, and what crafty projects you are working on - no, I'll enjoy reading about them as much as ever. So just give me a few minutes to make a cuppa and I'll be back to see what has been revealed on WOYWW this week.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful WOYWW, take care and keep crafting,

Hello 2013 ...

... and a Good New Year to you all!

However you brought in the New Year - perhaps you were partying to the wee small hours or maybe not - whatever you did, I hope you have had a wonderful first day of the year.

We managed to stay awake for the bells, toasted each other and then thankfully went off to bed :) Which is probably why I was up bright and early this morning and out in the garden with my camera spotting what was in flower. I like to note, if possible, what is flowering in the garden on the first of January ... not always possible if there is a covering of snow but this year it was clear.

Not much going on really ... mainly leafy shrubs but there was a surprise or two and one of my favourite heralds of spring, the Hellebore, was in bud.

I can't wait to see this plant in full flower.

The first of the surprises. I forget the name of this Clematis but I have to admire the tenacity of these buds ... will they ever open!

And the second surprise, this tiny blue Phlox. It lives in an old sink that sits at the side of the front doorsteps and has just kept on flowering despite the foul weather we've been having.

This Viburnum was one of the shrubs I robbed for my vases of Christmas greenery - love the froth of white flowers.

The last two photos are not of flowers but foliage.

This Euonymus has enough colour on it to brighten up any winter's day.

And finally our Escallonia showing fresh new growth ... hinting that spring is just around the corner :)

Sticking with tradition, we drove down to Culzean Castle Estate for a bracing walk this afternoon. Although it was decidedly chilly, being out in the fresh air certainly blew the cobwebs away.

I haven't been a good blogger over the holiday period. There were so many other distractions that kept me from the craft room, but it's a new year, the holiday is almost over ... here in Scotland we have the first two days of January as a holiday ... and normal service should be resuming shortly.

So I'll be back soon but in the meantime I'll leave you with this blurry photo the EM took of me at dinner this evening. It's a rare sighting of me with a glass in my hand.

Slàinte! Good health to you. 

A guid New Year and mony may ye see.