Underwater Birthday Card

I've had a bit of an unplanned blog break but at last I'm getting back into the swing of arty crafty stuff, and to start off I made a birthday card for my brother-in-law.  He used to be a dive instructor, so I wanted something with an underwater theme! 

 The card below is the first attempt but I didn't like the bright blue micro-beads that I had added - they seemed a good idea right up until the moment I threw them on the wet glue!  

I am joining in this week with What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

Getting Organised and WOYWW

I'm back after a bit of a blog break but I don't have much to show I'm afraid.

Both Christmas and New Year have been an up and down time for me - lots of fun with several pantomimes, shows and social events, but also two funerals, a really bad chesty virus thingy and then last Wednesday my little Guinea Pig Archie died after a lot of intensive looking after.  I've been a bit all over the place and apologise for being a lax blogger!

I have however taken a leaf out of Shaz's book (Silverwolf Cards) and purchased a selection of plastic wallets and re-organised my shoe box of die-cuts.  Whenever I use a die I always put it through the machine a couple of extra times for spares and they had become a huge tangled mess, so thanks to Shaz and her wonderful organisational skills I am feeling very smug with how neat and tidy I am!  Shaz's blog post is here.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW.  

Winter Collages

I have finally finished making Christmas cards at last - what didn't help was my Big Shot breaking down a couple of weeks ago - my hubby has mended it several times but this time it's beyond help - so I've been die-cutter free and really missing it.   Of course from that moment on all my ideas required die-cutting, so I've been struggling to be creative!

I've had these little winter garden scenes hanging around from last winter - they just needed some extra embellishments to finish them off, so that's been a relaxing little project in between bouts of chaos and stress (namely present wrapping and supermarket shopping!).

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW.

Thank you for your support and friendship over the past year and
 I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2017.  

Christmas Cards

Here we are screaming towards Christmas and I don't feel anywhere near prepared for it!

Here are a few snippets of cards and tags I've made, I've only managed a small handful this year.  I started crocheting small woolly trees thinking it might be a quicker and easier way to make a bulk lot of cards but I then discovered that Carpel Tunnel Syndrome and crocheting just don't work well together!  I forgot to photograph them too!  Oh well, perhaps I'll be more organised by next week - or not!

I'm linking up with What's On Your Work desk Wednesday this week.  I hope you have a great week and are on schedule with all your preparations!

Christmas Tags

I have finally managed to make a handful of tags after quite a struggle to come up with any ideas - in desperation I went back to my die-cut scraps bag and used up a load of bits from the last couple of years.  

I'm happy I've made a start!

November Birthday Card

Oh goodness, I'm struggling with Christmas - I still haven't come up with any ideas and several attempts are in the bin!

However, I managed to whip together a quick birthday card for my cousin-in-law and I've just gone and splashed out on some new stash in the hope it might inspire me - any excuse huh!

I gave it a more frosty November feel by adding Rock Candy Stickles to the flowers.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Halloween Tag

I know I'm late with this but thought I'd share it anyway.  

I made a Halloween Tag to go on some fancy chocolate to give my sister when she brought her boys round Trick or Treating.

I rather like the way the flowers and die cut twigs have a spidery feel - or perhaps that's just a vivid imagination!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who offered good wishes for the speedy recovery of my Guinea Pig Archie last week - he is still doing well and hopefully will be back to his old self very soon!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week

October Birthday Card

I have managed to make a quick birthday card for my sister's October birthday, despite all the mayhem of looking after our sick guinea pig.  He became ill and had to have surgery and for the last week and a half we've been nursing him back to health.  I've been too worried to do much arty crafty stuff and I must say a huge 'SORRY' for not returning quite a few visits - I did my best but as soon as Archie was home from the vet's life became very hectic!

Here's the birthday card...

...and matching tag  - I got carried away stamping and nearly didn't leave any space for writing a message - I remembered just in time!

And here's my boy, taken back in the summer.  He seems well on the road to recovery now.

I'm linking up with Julia over at  What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.