Scouts' cards ....

... I've finished them!!  It's been a really busy day today.  I had an electrician (brilliant guy) who came round this morning to sort out my lights - the house is now really bright!!  It's wonderful, I can see things!!

And I've been in my craftroom most of the afternoon and this evening working on cards and presents for my Scouts.  I've kept the cards really simple - I used some lovely Kanban toppers from a kit that I got from QVC.  But to make them a little different I added some stamping, using lots of stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps and some that I got cheap in a bargain bin.  All the cards are the little 3" x 3" cards (Anita's) in a soft pearly white.

For my Assistant Scout Leader, I made an A6 card - again used a Kanban topper with stamping. 

Finally, I made some very simple presents for the Scouts.  I had a large jar of cherry and apple flavour sweets - Christmas tree shaped!!  Perfect.  In the Around Christmastime set from Waltzingmouse stamps there is a super little stamp that's for a "Nice Person" - so I stamped 15 of them in red and green tinsel embossing powder, cut out with a circular punch and stuck onto a plastic bag.  In each bag I put three green and three red sweets.  The bags were sealed with a card topper - the pattern was created using another Waltzingmouse stamp from Off Beat Backgrounds - I created a plaid background using red and green memento inks.  I added a punched border using my Martha Stewart ornament punch. 

Tomorrow night we're taking the Scouts to see the local panto - Aladdin!!  It should be great fun.  I'll give them all their cards and presents then.

I've been busy making lots of cards, but I can't put them up just yet - they're for my fellow craft club members and some of them pop in here from time to time.  I'll post them after Christmas!!

Anyway, that's all for now.  It's time for a nice cup of coffee and to settle down and watch Chuck!!  Drop by again tomorrow - I'll have a few more cards to show you.  I also need to complete a couple of challenges!

Comments ...

...  I've finally managed to read through all the lovely comments that have been left on my cards while I was away.  I did fully intend replying to them all personally, but there are so many that I'd be here all night!!!  So I thought I'd post a my thanks here.  THANK YOU!!

I still have quite a bit of catching up to do.  I've managed to sort out bits and pieces in the house.  I've had a look to see what challenges are out there and I've made a note of several - will hope to post some of them in the next few days.  They're all likely to be Christmas cards of some description or other - still have lots to make.

I had some super parcels delivered while I was away - my news stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps - they're fab!!  Can't wait to play with them and I'm sure they're going to feature on some up coming cards.  I also had a few parcels from QVC containing Martha Stewart goodies - some wonderful new puches.  Look out for those too.

Anyway, that's really is all for today as I must get tea for us all.  Both Kathryn and I are off to our Scouts Group this evening - should be fun!! 

Monochrome look ...

... that's the look I've gone for with my card for the Clean & Simple challenge.  The sketch for this week's Fall-to-layout (FTL114) is as follows:

I like this sketch - it really is clean and simple!!  So, what did I do?  Well, I changed the shape of the card from a square to a DL landscape and decided not to bother with stamping at all.  I bought a beautiful Kanban kit from QVC some while ago.  The card is simply wonderful - lovely colours, with flourishes and swirls and deeply foiled, and it came with some wonderful die cut flowers.  I tried them on the black and silver swirly card, but felt it was a bit too much!!  Yes, I know sparkly is good, but sometimes, too much.  And that's how I came up with this:

Card:  Papermania

Embellishements:  Kanban kits from QVC

I've got another busy day today - I've got to sort out the Scouts programme for the next couple of months, finish the ironing (again!!), do some of my MCC homework (the fun bit) and start to work on my next OU course.  This time I'm doing a course about the planets in our Solar System - brilliant!! 

That's all for now.  Back again tomorrow.

That's the invitations done ....

... so tomorrow I get to walk around the village and deliver them all by hand.  You know when you've had a good day?  That really nice warm satisfied feeling - well that's me right now.  I'm happy with the invitations I've made and, more importantly, I've been doing homely things too.

I thought it was time to sort out the ironing backlog.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who hates the job.  But the thing is, I like the feel of freshly ironed clothes.  So unless it's leggings or the like, then I'm afraid I have to iron it.  And there are now only 3 baskets of ironing left (hides head in shame) which I shall do tomorrow.  I've also been shopping for Ben - he's got a food technology class tomorrow and he's going to make a Mint & Pea soup (Gordon Ramsay recipe) which we'll have for tea.  I think I'm going to have to help Ben pack it up to take to school.  However, I'm looking forward to tasting the soup.

Now, the cards I'm going to show today were made for Ben - he was 14 this year, and for Annabel (Kathryn's friend) who was 9. 

Ben's card is A5 and I made it using rainbow shaded card (blue and taupe) to which I added the co-ordinating vellum (both from QVC).  I used a piece of black coredinations paper which was embossed with the cuttlebug stars folder.  I sanded the paper to reveal the blue core and then layered it onto a piece of the blue card.  The topper is a fabric embellishment that I got from a Docrafts kit purchased from QVC sometime ago.  The peeloffs, also Docrafts, were coloured with a blue pen to match the blue core.  I think Ben was pleased with the card.  I wish I had another of the fabric toppers.

Annabel's card is red, red, red!!  Her favourite colour is red, so I decided to base the card on that colour.  Again it's A5 in size.  The vellum backing is a Dawn Bibby design onto which I layer some pink paper from Docrafts.  Once again the image is from Pink Petticoat - a really cute cat.  The dress was coloured on the PC (using paintbox), I added a black rectangle so that I could add a personal greetign.  Then I layered it onto some red metallic card.  I used a Martha Stewart border bunch on the backing paper and finally added lots of flowers and some gems. 

Finally, I'm going to include the last of the invitations that I've made for the Stampin' Up party.  As I said yesterday, I've used the Circle Circus set.  I opted for one design which I stamped in lots of coloured and then clear embossed.  I cut out all the circles (I don't have a punch that fits) and then matted them onto pinked circles (Nesties).  In all cases I used Tim Holtz's distress inks to add colour to the backing circles and to stamp the trio in the corner.

One final thing - I've got a follower!!!  And have now had two comments.   Thank you both - you have no idea how excited I was when I saw that!!  Actually, maybe you do :)   I do hope that you find my blog interesting, and maybe even helpful.  Anyway, it's time to log off now and have a nice cup of coffee.