The end of another year

Can't believe how long it is since I last had time to sit down and post. It's been crazy busy - the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas went by in a blur of cleaning, shopping, making gifts, finishing orders, - had a sudden urgent order for Stained glass angels and fairies from a shop in Ireland!, cooking and more cleaning!
We had my sister and her lovely family to stay from the 23rd until today, they're on the train back to Hampshire as I write. So no time for blogging but we had fun eating, drinking and being merry although we were plagued by sneezes, coughs and stuffed noses! Nearly everyone was suffering from colds at one stage or another, Neil suffered most on Christmas Eve and on the day itself and then Steve, my brother-in-law succumbed to the bug and ended up with a nasty chest infection!
Christmas Day was lovely though and we had 13 for turkey and all the trimmings (the 2 youngest escaped upstairs to play the Wii), everyone was happy with their presents and we all were happy to be together for the festivities.



I got some great crafty presents - a Big Bite from Neil, a set of Prismacolor pencils from my lovely daughter Lynsey and a couple of jewellery making kits from my sister as well as lots of little crafty bits for cardmaking and scrapping. I have been trying to practice a little with my pencils and the results of my first attempts are below.
The first and last cards are made with a couple of the new stamps by Leanne Ellis from Funky Kits.







Now the end of 2008 is almost upon us I would like to take the opportunity to wish any and all readers of my blog a very Happy New Year for 2009.

Another FANTASTIC Blog Candy chance

Paula is offering an opportunity to win £40 worth of gorgeous Elf stamps over here, 10th of December is when the draw will take place.

Happy Christmas Birthday

Was asked this week for a card for a Christmas Day birthday.

I used Pink Petticoat backing papers and image coloured with Sakura glitter pens using a water brush for a water colour effect. Don't know if you can see the glitter in the pic but it's a lovely subtle effect. Finished off with a computer printed sentiment and organza ribbon. Had to try to find a suitable sentiment for an insert, (I must say that I don't usually bother with inserts so that customers can add their own words, I think it makes cards much more flexible) anyway I turned to my friends on the Trimcraft website for help and this is the sentiment I chose:

I wish for you this Christmas Day, all you wish yourself,
A birthday wish in bright array and cards upon your shelf.
And should you need some special thing, a gift for which you pray,
I wish for you that the Lord may bring you many more birthdays..

and here is the card:

Angel card

Have made a quick card just because I loved the background and was desperate to use it. It was a free download from Retrodiva designs.
The stamp is Sweetheart Angel from Uptown Rubber Stamps.

Another Whiff of Joy Blog Candy

Fran is offering two prizes on her blog, go and have a look at the gorgeous cards she has made and leave a comment before tomorrow (2nd Dec) for a chance to win one of the great Whiff of Joy stamps.