Something to smile about

Well after a mammoth weekend of card making i have completed all these christmas cards. 27 packs of six cards in each and a few single cards left over!

I have used up a load of envelopes that my mother had for god knows how long!  Coloured card that i just can't face using in any other type of card has been used up! Oh am

Nd some dratted glitter card that covered me and the room, the cats and half the house in glitter!!

I have used digi stamps from pink petticoat and digistamp boutique.  My spellbinders dies got some heavy use and my poor big shot is wondering what happened lol.  Finally my poor friskars circle punch died. Poor thing, but it died for a good reason!

Anyway having had the home where my mother is now living selling my cards for 25p........not happy at that, but what can you do after donating them for their summer fair, well i digress.......i decided that i needed to mark the cards up with a price that people would pay, but make it obvious.  So i decided to use the image from handmade harbour, colour it and make it into a label, stating the cost of the card packs.  If i say so myself they really look the business.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfullness

John Keats. 1795–1821

627. To Autumn

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,	5
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,	10
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;	15
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;	20
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day,	25
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;	30
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

As we harvest our garden my thoughts turn to the above poem that i had to study and learn so many years ago.  Whats sad is how much i had forgotten.  We have a bumper crop of grapes and a good number of apples.  Today even saw me dashing through the rain to pull rhubarb to make crumble.

I'm a winner!

Wow talk about being made up, i have won at Handmade Harbour with my cards I entered.  It is so much more about someone saying that i did a good job as opposed to the prize ( which is great, don't get me wrong).  Too m.any times i can show a card to hubby and he says oh that looks ok! Well ok is no help at all lol.

We all need constructive criticism, there is always something we can do to improve.  But we don't always know what it is.

Anyway, today has seen me finish more xmas cards , at least i have plenty to spare this year.

When good things go wrong!!

My crop-o-dile died today, it was only making a hole through some laminated sheets and shoot......look what happened!

So thats not good, and for the past couple of years I have been in love with these, to the point that I got rid of my Silent Setter.

The next problem was silicone glue that refused to set and instead made a grease spot through my card :(

What a shame!  I used the birthday tag from 

Handmade Harbour and made the flowers from magazine pages.

Happy Birthday card

So at the moment I am quite in to colouring the wonderful images from http://sassy-cheryls-stamps.theshoppad.com/#/ the images are lovely with the children and their poses reminding me of my kids when they were younger,  the image I used is Backpack Max and I coloured using my copic and prisma markers.

The check and brown papers are from http://www.pinkpetticoat.co.uk/ a company that i have downloaded from for many years.

The happy birthday banner i actually printed off in works and coloured using my markers!

Finally, the happy birthday tag was downloaded from http://handmadeharbour.co.uk/, that was yet again coloured using my markers.

Just a quick note, the image was cut out using a spellbinders die, and i edged the papers using distress inks.

After making this card i decided to use up the leftover papers so I made the following card........

Sympathy cards

The other week I made a number of sympathy cards.  You never feel able to make them when you get the bad news and i know it seems morbid being ready in advance, but i wanted to create something  less dreary than most shop bought cards.

The digi stamp is from www.pinkpetticoat.co.uk  a company i have downloaded from for years, i think that their images and papers work really well and i return to them to see what new. Items they have on a regular basis.

The other cards are made using scraps to the best if their advantage.

Christmas is coming!

So Christmas is coming and as each year I make cards thinking I have enough cards, until my daughter comes along and helps herself to her chosen card selection!  Then my mother ends up having some cards to send out, with the result that I either have a mad rush to make more, or horror of horrors I have to buy cards!

Well this year I refuse to not have enough cards in my stash, so I have started making.

BUT

I have set myself a challenge to use up as much of the bits and pieces from previous years card making.  Even down to using up tiny pieces of paper to make Xmas trees to use on the cards.

Anyway, I have to get on and cut, stick and create, I hope you like the cards made today, and don't forget...........,.,,,,Christmas is coming!