X - FACTOR

Is X Factor on tonight love?

No - it's T-Rex Factor again!

TWITTER

I joined Twitter some time ago basically to keep up with all this technology thingy.
Mario, who is Tim Holtz's business manager, has just blogged on Tim's blog to say that he will be giving away freebies to folk who comment on his Twitter posts. Time to dust mine off me thought.
I somehow managed to include the Twitter widget on my blog, but as you can see, it's blank. As far as I can make out, whichever Tweet I note, a record of it will appear in the box. I don't know how to do that so this box could just remain blank!!
At least I tried. Perhaps if I put my contact lenses in I may just get further!!

I just gave up and deleted the box!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER

What's for dinner tonight then love???

Oh! helicopter again!!

MORE STASH

I was bad again yesterday.

I am lucky enough to live close to Cardcraft Plus in Preston. They are printers for several well-known craft companies such as:

Kanban

Hunkydory

Towards the back of their shop is a large pigeon hole rack which is 'stuffed' full of seconds or trial pieces of card and paperstock. An A4 box (depth 4cm) full of your choice is a mere £4.99!!!!!!

Just look at my choice this time. Coloured mirri card, shiny 320gsm card, glitter card, foiled card, Hunkydory toppers, foiled paper inserts, foiled aperture card, etc. etc..

Some of this card was on Create and Craft today presented by Leonie. The card samples were amazing.

All I have to do now is try and find somewhere to store it!!!!

DONE AND DUSTED!

All finished and wrapped - that's the Christmas presents sorted.

I've always got this bit over and done with early because I can't stand the stress of leaving all that shopping to the last minute then having to cope with the hoards of equally stressed Christmas shoppers. Even though I shop online quite a bit, there are always some things that have to be bought locally from shops. Besides, there are other things to do in December such as:

TIM HOLTZ 12 TAGS OF CHRISTMAS

Once again, Tim has decided to create his infamous 12 tags from 1 December to the 12th. You know what I shall be doing from next Tuesday. I have spare ink cartridges ready for my printer so I can print off each set of details daily and make a binder that I refer to throughout the year. Thank you Tim for this exceptional experience.

Also, the dates are now coming in for next years crafting. I have booked 2 of Lindsay Mason's workshops at the Dawn Bibby Design Centre which I know will be so exciting.

Heather, Lindsay's sister, has also planned some more ATC swaps which I await with anticipation. So, crafty excitment galore.

Heather has blogged some photos of ATCs she has made this week. Do check out her blog as there is candy to be had too. On one of her cards she used a photo of her Christmas tree from last year. What a smashing idea. Here's a photo of mine Heather, I wonder what you think of that?

I GOT MORE

I received more ATCs this week, this time from Sharon (Ward).

It's lovely to see bright colours. They make this miserable weather more bearable. Ooops! no pun intended as one of the cards is of Daisy.

Sharon has used some lovely tiny stamps on the bottle top card. I would like those myself. The little peel off flowers have been carefully coloured in but I especially like the coloured edging to the acetate. Sets everything off just right. Buzzy bees and clocks and stamps are exactly what you would expect to find in a little boy's pocket, so Boys Stuff is an apt name for that card.

Lovely set once again. Well done Sharon.

PAPER ARTSY

The December issue of Craft Stamper has a reader offer from Paper Artsy for a set of 4 Nut & Meg Squiggly stamps and a Xmas paper pack. Having seen some of these stamps used by Jo Capper-Sandon, I was already on a mission to obtain them so this offer was just too good to miss. I did not hesistate and ordered them.
The lovely staff at Paper Artsy kept me informed throughout my order process. However, because they felt they were letting me down by not processing my order straight away (they were tied up with the NEC show), they decided to send me some 'goodies'.
I just wanted to let you know how fantastic their service is. There was absolutesly no need to send me anything extra, but as they have, I felt it only right that I play a drum roll for their friendliness.
Thank you again Paper Artsy, and as I have said - Beware, I shall be back!

LATEST ATC SWAPS

Sonia, one of my swapping buddies, sent me a batch of 3 cards this week. Aren't they brilliant?

1. Serendipity - I love these colours. Browns and oranges are amongst my favourites. The neat, little message says it all.

2. JP - What can I say? This is specially for me. The lovely flower and leaf paper is the perfect size for an ATC and Sonia has cut away part of it to make some of the leaves stand out around the card. I love the delicate initials and the glitsy highlight she has given them. One to treasure me thinks.

3. Summer 09 - Despite the words I felt warm and definitely in holiday mood with this card.

Sonia has a very clever knack of using pictures and different elements that are tiny and perfect for ATCs. I am so happy to swap with her.

TAKE A PEEK

There is so much 'candy' to be had out there. My blog list is growing by the minute because each time I see a gorgeous card, there is a link to another that I simply can't resist.
Take a look at these blogs. They are listed on the right hand side of mine and you will be amazed by the talent out there.
The latest I've found, with candy too, is: http://clairebsd.blogspot.com

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY

Today is my very special son's birthday.

I went round to his home this morning for a big birthday hug.

Have a lovely day sweetheart. xx

XMAS BOXES

As promised, here are some photos of the exploding box I made on Saturday at Lindsay's workshop. We also had enough time to be shown how to make little gift boxes by simply folding paper, oh, and 4 little cuts.

Hope you like them all. I do.

OH HAPPY DAY

I sooooo enjoyed yesterday. The weather was awful, rain, wind, cold, but who cares, I had a ball. A complete 'me' day, all to myself, full of indulgence, singing to myself in the car. I didn't even shout obsenities at the stupid drivers I came across every now and then, and all those red traffic lights and road closures, all those holes in the road that are there to break your suspension so mechanics can make a living - well it didn't matter. I was on a high. Why? because I went to a workshop with the enormously talented Lindsay Mason. And, as an added bonus - she brought along her mischievous assistant, David. Whoohooo! bring it on.

We made Xmas boxes. It was great.

Silly me forgot to take any form of colouring so I'm going to finish my little exploding box today and make another tiny Xmas box, both of which I'll photograph and pop on later. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of the class.

GUARDIAN ANGEL/CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT SWAP

I've done it.

The photos could be better, but this dull weather doesn't help 'cos the camera is a good one. Anyway, I hope these will be ok and also hope the ornament travels well throught the post. Heather certainly set a hard one this time.

I am also entering the ornament into the Craft Garden November challenge - Sparkle.

JUST POPPED ON TO SAY...

I havn't disappeared, I'm so involved with Heather's latest swap.
I've managed to make the ATC although I did have to search around for inspiration, but the ornament posed a different challenge.
I day-dreamed, thought out loud (much to hubby's dismay!), gathered all kinds of bits and pieces together, put them all away again! woke in the night thinking about it, tried this and that, AND finally came up with a plan. I'm still trying to get it to work and even did a bit more at daft o'clock this morning - 5.30am actually. I suppose that's the difference between those who know and those who don't.
If this thing works and doesn't fall to bits, I'll take a quick photo and blog it before the next challenge - how to post it!!!!!!!!!!!

FOLLOWING THE PACK!!

Having had a few past requests from folk inviting me to join Facebook, I finally took the plunge today.

Not really sure whether I've done the right thing because there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to complete all my blogging, emails and surfing as it is, so another excuse to spend hours sat at the computer may not be the way forward. Anyway, I'm only hoping that it keeps me up to date with the folk I know and doesn't mean an extra batch of computing or dubious/'naughty' comments and jokes coming over the wires.

GORGEOUS CARDS

I waited to see whether Lindsay would blog some of her cards from the weekend demo before I posted a couple of the pictures I took of them. See Lindsay's latest post for her photos.

The samples she makes are so amazing that once you look at one you just have trouble putting it down in order to look at an other. I spend ages drooling over the details, then poor Lindsay gets bombarded with, "how did you do that bit?" or "is that done with inks?".

Anyway, enjoy having a look at these. Just a shame you can't touch!!

A MEASURED CHRISTMAS

This is a picture of one of the six ATCs I've made, all the same. One to swap at workshops, demos etc. and the other 5 are for my swapping buddies.

I found an old Craft Stamper magazine which had some lovely card examples made using Stazon ink pads and vaious rubber stamps. I liked the colour combination so much that I 'shuffled' things about a bit and came up with this ATC.

I used distress ink pads, a Hero Art Flourish Wave stamp, inkassentials white gel pen, peel offs, Adirondak pitch black paint dabber, Paper Artsy Christmas stamp and a number stencil.