90th birthday card

It's my Auntie's 90th birthday today!

We are going to the tea party to celebrate the occasion this afternoon and this is the card I've made for her.

I covered the numbers with paper & inked the edges for definition.

I added the flowers & the leaves. the leaves are punched & the ivy leaves inked over the white card to show the embossed veins.

The opposite corner has the ribbon bow, pearl strands & the hat pin which I added coordinating beads to.

My entry to Xmas all year ...............

This is my entry to Hazel's new weekly Xmas card challenge - week one

It's my first Xmas card of the year! :-)

Will try to keep it up with Hazel's help & get a head start to next Xmas ...

Thanks Hazel - I always have good intentions but life gets in the way!! :-)

Better late than never .....................

Sorry it's late Sue but here is my '5 Gold Rings'

A gold version of the necklaces i make :-)

in fact I'm wearing one of the silver, multi coloured beaded ones today :-)

I blame the camera 'borrower' for the lateness of my entry into the 12 days of Xmas day 5! for Sue's 12 Days of Xmas challenge/quiz over on Crafts by Carolyn

I managed to get most of the rest in on time :-)

My not quite Tim tags!

I got myself organised this year & made my Xmas tags

Not quite Tim! I loved the 12 tags of Xmas that a lot of you joined in with :-)

I had a lot of tags to make so settled for simple :-)

Just the Xmas stamp stamped with distress ink

and the hohoho sentiment stamped in gold ink .......

Nephews Xmas Present ......

Started out like this

A plain plastic box.

It was based on this Recipe box that I made a few years ago for my daughter.

This one was made from scratch using mountboard.

as this photo of the inside shows.

I used the same paper that I covered the box with to make these reinforced corners to the box for added protection.

I used my Go Slim Sizzix alphabet to cut the Recipe letters & inked them for toning colour.

I finished it with a cardboard fastener which I again inked.

So back to nephews pressie ........

Firstly I inked all over using my alcohol inks.

As he has just left home for Uni life I've kept things quite simple

I mounted the title onto a label cut & embossed using my Nestie die, the paper was cut at the same time as the mountboard then stuck on & the edges inked to blend in ...............

I random stamped all over the box with the cover stamp from the Jan issue of Craft Stamper magazine (cup & saucer) but didn't have chance to take a photo due to the absconding camera!!

and the finishing touch was the ribbon 

which brings the eye to the opening lip.

I made sections inside using mountboard 

and added a few recipes ...

The idea is that relatives & friends can add to the box & so can he :-)

No doubt the local takeaway numbers will be included!! :-)

Happy New Year!

........................ to all my blogging friends all over the world & thanks for sticking around this month whilst I haven't been around .................. I'll try to do better in the New Year :-)

One problem has been that I lost my camera with a lot of the 'before' pictures on it! Well actually I hadn't lost it at all as it turns out that hubby had 'borrowed' it but forgot to tell me! so I spent lots of time searching high & low for a lost camera which wasn't actually lost!! 

We have also been dealing with the unusually cold weather - this is the high/low thermometer in my well insulated greenhouse showing minus 10, so it was even colder outside in the garden! and the burst pipe & the chaos it caused  ..................................................

I've also been working on a project that I can't reveal just yet, which along with making Xmas pressies & Xmas cards has taken up a lot of time.

I need to have a tidy of my craft room now before starting another project!!

More crafting projects tomorrow .....

Watch this space ......

Keeping Warm

This was my high/low thermometer in the greenhouse at about 1pm today.

and a picture of the garden at the same time .....

As you may know we are having an early cold snap in the UK!

Pretty isn't it?

Hubby has been feeling a bit 'fragile' & feeling the cold so yesterday out came my Grandmothers trusty Jones hand sewing machine that I inherited & I whipped up this heat bag for him.

He's been using one of the 'normal' ones but complained that he needed a 'hands free' version

So I set to work & came up with this ........

I managed to prise it away from him to photograph! :-)

Keeping the 'core' warm really helps :-)

I've made it adjustable so that it can be worn by lot's of different sized people.

Close up of the fastening

Hope everyone is keeping warm & safe ..........