...snowflake luminary

I get so grumpy if i don't get to make something every day!! Anyone else like that? Problem is there's no time!!! we've been decorating for Christmas and looking after icky babies, runny noses sneezing everywhere that sort of thing.

This took seconds, cut a sheet of PTI Linen Vellum cardstock along the length. Put double sided tape along the short side of one of the strips and adhere to the other end to form a short fat tube shape. Punch snowflakes out of the other strip and curl it up so that it fits into the tube you've just made. Easy peasy.

USE BATTERY OPERATED TEALIGHTS ONLY for this project please ladies and gents.

Hope it tickles.

...Congratulations Laurie G

Went to the random integer generator and it threw up number 6. The 6th comment was from Laurie G who said:

"My favorite Christmas tradition is going to church on Christmas Eve and celebrating the reason for Christmas which is Christ's birth..."

couldn't have put it better myself Laurie - please PM me your address on the PTI forum or drop me an email and I'll pop the book in the post - you might just get it before the holidays!!!

Thanks to all who played along - I was really interested to hear the various traditions as I'm hoping to start a few with my own young family this year. Tonight we brought down the tree - we used to always get a real one, and my father always came along to help choose - since he passed on I haven't really had much heart to go out looking for a real one so we purchased a huge fat artificial tree which works out quite well because we can put it up early. The downside is it takes up nearly half the living room - small children have become lost behind it lol.

Thank you all for visiting - it really does mean something to me to think that folks on the other side of the world are even a little curious about what I'm making!! Thank you all.

...oh look! a Christmas card

I love everything about this card - it's not that I think it's the best card ever made but it has everything I love - broad gingham ribbon, embossing - scallops and Ripe Avocado PTI card, with Versamark!! yum. I do also like the design and plan to make a few more.

This started as a 'no idea' card and i fell lucky - got some cheap ribbon at the supermarket and was dying to use it. Made backing paper with versamark using the oval sentiment from the Merry and Bright stamp set. Embossed some pure white CS with a scalloped nestabilities die and wiped all over with the ink pad (Spring Moss) Used a sentiment from PTI Holiday Wishes in Ripe avocado ink. Used the Merry and Bright tree stamps to make the wee tree and surrounded the oval cut out with a scalloped oval - both nestabilities. Heat embossed a white snowflake and punched it out with a marvy snowflake punch (PTI) added a wee brad. Had a load of fun making this.

Now here's the interesting bit - as a thank you for all you ladies and Gentlemen (Hi Curt!) who come to visit me often I have a fab Martha Stewart book to give away. The wee counter passed 50,000 the other day - you have no idea how much I appreciate your visiting - and I thought it was high time for a treat. If you click on the link it will take you to an amazon page showing the book. It is a new paperback edition of Martha Stewart living - Holidays.

What you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite Christmas family tradition is - or just your favourite family tradition if you don't celebrate Christmas. I hope to draw a winner on that random number generator thingy around 10pm on Friday night (my time - sorry I've no idea what time that is where you are!! Lol) Good luck and Many many thanks for coming to visit.

Hope that tickles.

...a flower card for blog hop

Blog hop is upon us once more - if you haven't heard of it check it out here.

Sorry - you may have seen my ribbon flowers before ( I can hear you yawning!!Lol) so I'm sorry it's not that exciting tonight, I very nearly didn't make it and this is all I had time for - really these are quite fast to make once you know how. I usually have tons of ideas for bloghop but flowers aren't my thing (tree person) - I don't even really like cultivated flowers - I'd much rather look at daisies and wild flowers out in a meadow. I did want to make an engagement card for my cousin tho' and i fancied trying one of these ribbon flowers with sheer ribbon - it turned out ok but it looks much better underneath a light source, the gold ribbon has a nice glow.

I do love Melissa Phillips little flowers that she cuts from old book pages - would like to try that soon.

I finished this card five mins ago - time is disappearing fast this week. Can't wait to come back in the morning to see what all you folks have made.

I'm not crazy about the 'leaves' - think I should have left it alone...but it's a poor day when you learn nothing. Lol.

And, I have managed not to buy any stamp sets with the word 'congratulations' in it - how'd I do that? so had to use something else. Ho hum.

Tell you what's fab tho - today I received my latest PTI order!!!! That gold shimmer cardstock is pretty special - cuts like butter - gorgeous sheen, especially if you're a non-sheeny person like me. Going to need more of that - I'm away to play with my new apple set... have fun and hope it tickles somebody!!

...got awarded and tagged

The hugely talented Michelle Ramlochan awarded me an award!! Thank you for thinking of me Michelle - now fly on over to her blog and soak up the creations, this lady has style!!

I also got tagged by Polly. Sadly I am not interesting enough to have 7 little known fascinating secrets!! So I'm just going to say thanks Polly for thinking of me.

Alternatively pop over to the five people listed below who I'm passing this on to - I had a helluva choice to make as I am Mrs Indecisive and also because there are so many people that I am in awe of. Picking just five is painful as everyone listed in my blogroll is fabulous but here's a potted version:

Lynn Mercurio - as far as I am concerned Lynn IS the Oracle.
Beth - really hides her enormous creative light under a bushel - go dig her out!! Lol.
Jak - the Queen of flowers, and a terribly nice lady to boot!!
Jennifer - Oh my! - style, taste, talent, everything.
Niki - I stalk this woman daily - if only she knew how much - I've learned loads from this lovely lady/girly - she can't be old enough to have kids...
Julie - This woman can do anything/everything beautifully - and has 4 small people to look after...where...time?

Ok I know - that's six but you don't mind do you?

I think the idea is as follows:

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Have fun

...a few wee tags.

I promised these a few days ago but I've been having trouble taking the photo. Usually I wait till about 4 in the afternoon when there's a lovely golden glow outside and take the pics beside the window - lately the sunshine dies around 2 - just when I'm on a school run. Been having to take pics at night with artificial light - what a difference it makes - might have to look into one of those wee light box tent thingies...

Anyhow, the 2008 Holiday tags collection by PapertreyInk is superb - I love them all - they had all the designers contribute at least one tag and they're fab!! I'm going to stamp out a batch more when I get a chance, these are such fun to make. The tag designs are also incredibly useful for making background papers - I haven't even scratched the surface here - but like everyone else I'm short on crafting time at the mo, tho I do have a lovely project in the offing - hope to put some pics up soon.

Just stamped and punched, stickled a few too. Decorated a wee tin to put them in as these are for my mum.

Hope they tickle.

Stuff used
Cardstock - Kraft- LSS. Pure poppy and Ripe Avocado - PTIPapers - PTI Holiday Vintage papers
Stamps - Merry and Bright stamp set, 2008 Holiday Tag collection - PTI.
Ink - Pure poppy, Ripe Avocado PTI Versamark, Versacolour white - LSS and white embossing powder - PTI
Tools - Making memories hole punch tool, plain and scalloped hole punches, nestabilities.
Ribbon - Pure poppy saddlestitch PTI, white sheer, LSS. 6mm red satin - LSS

...few more simple Christmas cards

Here's the rest of the simple Christmas cards (see previous post) - All supplies are PTI except for the wee white button. Think they're all easy to reproduce - the last card was clear embossed on white and then ink sponged over. Any questions, leave a note in the comments - sorry for the short post - have to make dinner for my inlaws!!!!!!

Hope they tickle.

...quick and easy Christmas cards

Ed - I sponged ripe avocado and spring moss around the edges.

This was the first and easiest Christmas card I made for the Guest star stamper challenge at PapertreyInk, about 5 mins for this. I masked off a square and used the flourish, sentiment and star from the Silent Night set. Then I sponged a little Ripe Avocado round the edges and took away the masking paper. mounted it on Ripe Avocado - I was quite pleased with how simple this was.


The next card was basically the same but I added a wee embossed frame with my nestabilities and embossed the star. Think it just finishes the card slightly better. There's a couple more variations below - I like how this works with any set. I made around 8 of these I'll post the rest tomorrow hopefully. These may just be what I send out this year, they're so quick. Hope they tickle.

...MMmmmmm

I love shortbread - but it has to be the real, melt-in-your-mouth-type, too-crumbly to-pick-up-nearly shortbread. The prepack stuff you get in the supermarket just doesn't do it.

Here is my all time favourite recipe. This recipe is the result of my footering in the kitchen over the years trying various recipes and tinkering about till I came up with a failsafe formula. It takes less than five mins to prepare this and not much longer to cook.

I made this so's I could whip up some christmas packaging, just to see how it worked - 30mins after the shortbread was out of the oven it was all gone. There was nothing to package - you'll have to wait 'til I make some more. In the meantime - here's my recipe. - All you ladies with Nicholes recipe cards, here's something to put on one of them!!

Ingredients:

• 8oz plain flour
• 8oz unsalted butter
• 4.5 oz icing sugar (I believe the american for this is confectioners sugar - anyhow it's the real fine stuff, like sugar dust)
• 4.5oz really fine rice flour

What to do:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
2. Pour it out into one large baking tray or two small ones - I have two 8"x 11" trays that I use for this. You want a tray that has sides but not too deep.
3. Give your tray a shake to make sure you have a fairly even layer of crumbs all over. Do not be tempted to use a wooden spoon or any thing else to smooth out the shortbread.
4. Bake at about 170 degrees centigrade/325 farenheit/gas mark 3 until the shortbread is a light brown colour. Mark/cut into squares while it is still warm but leave it in the tin to cool.
5. Eat.

Alternatively, for shortbread circles like I made above, punch out a couple of dozen circles of waxproof paper/baking paper and line the bottom of muffin tins with them - put a spoonful of mixture in each hollow and shake the tray to even it all out.

Hope it tickles.

...ribbon flower/tree

Anyone who liked my ribbon flower will recognise the process in making the tree version. been meaning to do this for ages - had a second or two this morning.

If you haven't seen how to do this - go here to my tutorial and you should be able to follow the process - once you get the hang of it there'll be no stopping you.

Imagine how cool it would be to make one with lots of different shades/patterns of green ribbon.

I promised tags today but they're still drying - won't be long tho!!

Hope it tickles.


Stuff used
Cardstock - White- LSS Pure poppy - PTIPapers - PTI Holiday Vintage papers
Stamps - Merry and Bright stamp set - PTI.
Ink - Pure poppy PTI Versamark - LSS and white embossing powder - PTI
Tools - Making memories slot punch tool
Ribbon - Pure poppy saddlestitch PTI

...hmmmm

Not sure about these - I was trying to make a couple of 'cheap' cards for my brother - he wanted some to sell in his workplace, but his pals don't want fancy expensive cards so I tried to use up stuff I had lying around. I had the gorgeous christmas bird stamps from Inkadinkado and I thought they might look good, but once I had stamped them i really felt unsure about how to mount them - I went for 'plain and decent' as my Da used to call it. One thing I do like about the second card is the vertical pinstripe scoring - I've seen Jak do this many times, I love it. I greatly admire Jak's work - she is the Queen of flowers - I visit her blog almost daily and was so sorry to hear about her Dad's passing last week.

The cards are ok but one thing I learned was that I felt a little tied to a traditional feel with these stamps - I'm gonna revisit it in a day or two with a more modern approach - I don't like to be beaten!! Lol. Don't get me wrong - I love traditional - I just like to feel that when I'm starting a card that I'm the one setting the style and not the stamp! Lol - talk about control freak...another thing I like to do is have that card planned exactly before I make it - I usually have it all mapped out in my head - didn't do that here...

Think that's why I love PTI so much - when I'm using PTI stamps i don't feel tied to any particular approach - there seem to be endless possibilities for all sorts of styles with PTI - tomorrow I'm gonna break open the holiday tag set - can't wait!! Lol - I have purchased some punches especially, should be fun!


Stuff used
Cardstock - Kraft card and white- LSSPapers - DCWV last years christmas stock- LSS
Stamps - Christmas Birds - Inkadinkado.
Ink - Versacolour Burgundy , Spring moss, Plum pudding - Palette PTI Encore honeydew.
Tools - Nestabilities, Scorepal
Ribbon - Burgundy Organza, LSS

...a few Gingerbread men tags

I love gingerbread men. I have two real live gingerbread men in my house - they both have ginger hair - but the wee one is cuter and he inspired me to paint a little watercolour picture of a gingerbread man.

I had originally intended to get it framed and add it to the Christmas decorations but I ran it through the scanner, shrank (is that even a word?) it and turned it into little gift tags that I could use on cards. I also used him in the header on this blog - Here are a few cards I've made with him. I printed the wee gingerbread man onto PTI vintage cream cardstock or plain white.

The tag pictured from the top is from a card not shown here - I make these at night and in the daylight the colours jarred!! Lol - it needs cosmetic surgery before I can show it here!!

It's good to get into the holiday mood again - I had sort of got away from it with halloween and all. Now that I've finally received my new PTI stamp sets I'm good to go. All supplies are PTI with the exception of the Kraft card and the weeny brad, the patterned paper on the last card is DCWV old stock I bought cheap in July, ribbon from LSS. Been trying to use up stuff I already had.

Tools used were - circle punches, plain and scalloped. X-cut snowflake punch. Marvy snowflake punch - the blue one. EK success corner rounder used to make scalloped border. Scorpal.

Stamp sets - Silent night, Snowfall and Snowfall additions, 2008 Holiday tags collection. All PTI. The graphics around the gingerbread man and the sentiment were done on the computer - the font was Chopin from Dafont.com

...a few pics for Michele

Michele wanted to see a pic of the city!! The top pic is a shot of one of the entrance ways to Belfast's newest shopping mall. We have a few malls that seem large to us but I'm sure they're nothing like the scale of an American mall.

If you click on This link it will take you to the gallery page of the Victoria square shopping centre - there are several shots of the mall including an aerial view of Belfast. Click on the thumbnails - they get bigger.

Dublin is bigger but I've no digital photos of it - my last visit there was some time ago - I usually try to get as far away from 'civilization' as I can - many parts of Belfast are not pretty and the city suffers from a general lack of interest in its appearance - it can be grubby in parts. Dublin is much prettier but it has run down areas too much like any city. There is still a lot fine architecture tho.

Any spare time we get, we head for the west coast so nearly all of my pics are from that area, but the other two pics in this post are of the coast road from Belfast to Bangor and a slipway in Bangor itself. Bangor is a small town on the north coast of County Down.

My personal opinion is that the rural areas are far and away more interesting than the urban areas and a good lot of the country is still very unspoilt - however major tourist areas for example Killarney, suffer from an overload of none too pretty hotels etc. Having said that Killarney is still well worth a visit.

We have a few large stores here, mostly supermarkets and home improvement stores but I often wish there was a Target or indeed a Michaels here judging by what I read about them in American blogs. Hope that helps Michele - I'll be on the lookout for some more city shots for you.

...few pics

Haven't put any pics up for a while so here's a few to tide you over till I get my latest cards photographed.

The top two are Kilgeever Abbey in Mayo, I forget just how old it is but you can tell by the carved cross that it's centuries rather than decades. The bottom one is a view of the Southern end of Lough Mask - the place to be for all you fisher people out there.

Hope they tickle somebody.