Happy Anniversary

to my wonderful husband of 44 years. He is so supportive of me in all that I do and I am indeed very lucky to have him. This is a new stamp by Sheena Douglass and I sent to the UK for it a wee while ago but haven't used it until tonight. I stamped it in black archival ink onto 300gsm water colour paper and then painted it with Distress Inks. I am quite pleased with the finished result. It has to come up to scratch because my husband is my strict quality control department!!! I have had a good and productive day today. Let's hope for the same tomorrow. I think it will be card writing day. Harold has offered to write all the envelopes for me/us which will be a huge help. Lucky people because his handwriting is BEAUTIFUL. If I remember I will photograph it and Blog it so you can see for yourselves. Right time for bed. 'Night 'night and thanks for visiting tonight.

Snow Globe Special

Hi again. Here is the first of my Special People cards. It is based on the snow globe idea. I bought them at the Doncaster Craft Fair I went to when I was in the UK and transported the 'globe' part VERY carefully back to NZ without mishap. I am quite pleased with these photos (the first ones I took were awful) but these give the idea very well. The little scene inside is decoupaged and I have stuck snow and ice crystals on the trees, rooftops etc and then put a spoonful of white Flower Soft inside the globe so that when you tip the card it looks like a snowstorm. The packet contains 2 each of 4 different designs so you will probably be seeing several more in the near future. Hope you like. Enjoy the rest of your day and if you hae sunshine then make the most of it.

Two more designs

Hi Everyone. We have a beautiful sunny day here in Upper Hutt today but it sure was cool first thing this morning. Still making quite good progress with the Chrissie cards. I got 16 finished yesterday 10 of the bauble and 6 of the snowflakes with a bit of bling (actually the baubles have blingy thingies on them too but it doesn't show in the photo). I could only do 6 of those because that is all the pale blue card I had left! So - I'm almost there. I have made one of my cards for Special People and I will post that straight after this. Eeeeek it's December tomorrow so no time to waste as I haven't even started my handmade gifts yet BUT I did buy 2 gifts yesterday which I have wrapped this morning so my gift list has at least 2 ticks on it now!!!

Christmas Cards at Last

Thank goodness!!! I now have 30 completed Christmas cards and ONLY another 40 to go!!! Still this time last week I didn't have a completed card in site so I'm accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative (and those of you old enough to know that song probably don't count birthdays anymore!!!) The 2nd and 3rd cards look the same but there is a difference. After I cut the card for the larger of the two I realised that I still had a decent sized piece left and since I had the holly stamp in 2 sized I made a smaller version and used a peel off gretting instead of a stamped one. That was being real thrifty with my card I thought. Henry with his Christmas Bauble is hand painted with Distress Inks on water colour paper. I had my Two Favourite Little People staying for the weekend and we had lots of fun. On Saturday afternoon we went to see a Christmas movie and then Saturday evening we went to the Summer Hummer Pool Party which they thought was pretty cool. Yesterday we made Snowman Soup gift packs for them to give to their teachers at the end of the school year. They are such good kids (not thet I'm a biased G'ma you understand!!) This morning I have been to Nifty Fifties water aerobics followed by 10 lengths freestyle swimming. It is soooo lovely to be exerciseng again. I am still doing my physio exercises as I still have a way to go with the flexion and extension of my knee but I am progressing along quite nicely. Right off to the desk to make some more cards (and gifts too if time permits) Thanks for stopping by today.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon . . . . .

. . . . That's SOOOO not true. I have been paddling like mad all day and not making much progress!!! We had four days away this last week which was just lovely. We went way up north (for us) to Katikati where my BFF moved earlier in the year. We laughed, almost cried and best of all crafted!!! Anyway now I need to DESPERATELY get some Christmas cards made. I haven't completed ONE yet. I distinctly remember Blogging waaaaaay back in January and telling you all that I had got my Xmas 2011 card design sorted - Stamp bought etc etc and saying 'What's the betting that I am still in a mad rush come the end of the year?' Guess what?????????? This card HAD to take priority today as I need to get it in the post tomorrow. My friend Joan's (in the UK) daughter is getting married on December 10. Joan and I have known each other other for EVER. We have photos of us both in saggy baggy nappies it's been that long. We have such great times when we meet up on our annual trips to the UK. Sadly she won't fly so they are NEVER going to get here to NZ for us to take them around our beautiful adopted country. Never mind! Faye and Nigel's wedding colour scheme is cream, chocolate and taupe hence the colouring in my card for them. I hope they like it half as much as I liked making it for them. Right it must be cup o' tea time. I need something to whet my whistle whilst I make some Christmas cards. See you next time and thanks for calling in today. Have a good week.

Zentangle

Have you heard of it? I learned of it earlier in the year and was somewhat intrigued by it but couldn't get going on it. Basically it is 'structured doodling'. One day last week a post from Michelle Zindorf arrived in my inbox which was all about Zentangle and was I interested in finding out more? Yes was my answer so I clicked on the link provided and became bitten by yet another art/craft bug!!! The first card here today is more or less a case of Michelle's post to me/us. This is because Zentangle was a bit overwhelming for me and I just didn't know where to start so I used Michelle's (which incorporated a stamped image - the leaf) to get me going. I am truely enamoured by it. I have looked at lots of examples on line and my second card is my own creation based on a heart shaped 'tangle I saw on my travels. I have ordered the Beginners Zentangle Kit and can't wait for it to arrive. It is said to have very theraputic powers - especially for migraines, insomnia etc. Give it a go. It's fantastic. You loose yourself completely in it's depths. There are some WONDERFUL Zentangle artists out there. You can even attend seminars and become a certified teacher. Sadly all of those are in the States so not very practical for me here in little old NZ but hey I think I am a stayer with this one. Hope you like them even half as much as I do. Thanks for looking today.

Yesterday's Play

Hi Everyone. This post is of what I did yesterday whilst I was penned in the dining room. We had new carpet laid in two of the bedrooms and so the furniture from said bedrooms was spread around the rest of the house. What with me still being wobbly on my pins I thought I was safest to stay in the relatively un cluttered dining room until the men had finished their work and Harold had moved most of the stuff back into the bedrooms. Saga over - sorry to ramble on. This technique is one of many on my latest Clarity Stamp DVD. It was lovely to do with a WOW moment cropping up often as I worked through it. This is the summer version and next I am going to try an autumn and winter version. Will show when done. Have been to the pool again this morning which makes it every day for the last 9 days. Surely it must be doing some good????? I hope so. Thanks for looking today and I hope you like the new Blog layout. You may have noticed it has changed twice in a matter of a few days? This was in response to my dear friend Ali's 'complaint'. The first change was to a Chocolate theme and she said every time she looked at it she wanted a cup of hot chocolate, a chocolate bar , muffin or similar so could I please change it to ease her torment? Always aim to please Ali!!! See you in a couple of weeks.