It's 2010!!!

Craft Review of the Year 2009

Hello, all..

I first saw this concept on Kath's blog, although I gather it's spreading like wildfire! I'm not surprised.. It's a great idea! The thing is to choose your favourite card from each month. Here are my twelve favourites from 2009 (so far!)...

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

That was a very enjoyable exercise! For me, anyway! lol ;o) Thanks for the idea, Kath.

Hugs,

Only One Wedding Stationery CD Left!

Hope you've all had a BRILLIANT Christmas, that Santa came and you are now all mince pied out! ;o) New Year next. Ready with the resolutions list? Mine is a work in progress.

Aaaaaanyway ~ back to reality ~ as regulars will recall, my employers, the Papworth Trust, set staff a challenge a few months ago to take £10 and use it for some kind of fundraising endeavour and multiply it. I decided to use it to cover my costs to produce 10 of my wedding stationery CD-roms, so that all the proceeds from every sale would go to the charity, which provides services to support equality, independence and choice for people with disabilities.

The target was to sell all 10 CDs by 31st December, which is when the challenge ends. Thanks to Linda (Lindyloo), I have now sold nine! Of course you will still be able to buy CDs from me on Ebay and 10% will go to Papworth Trust, BUT there is only one more to go that will give 100% of the proceeds to the charity, and that's only until New Year's Eve.

So.. if, unlike me, you have any money left after Christmas, and would like to purchase a CD-Rom (£9.99), please do get in touch with me by email, and I'll send you details of payment options. (And don't worry.. you can pay Papworth directly! lol.. It won't disappear into the 'Craftling Secret Stash Fund', I promise! ;o)

Meanwhile, huge thanks again to everyone who has either purchased a CD-Rom or helped by placing a post or a link on their blogs to promote the challenge. You are absolute stars!! Mwaaaa!!

Hugs,
Chris xx

Christmas Cuteness & Merry Wishes

I received my 'Merry Christmas' email from Scrapbook.com, and it included a link to a video of employees' little children answering questions about Christmas.. Soooo cute!! Go HERE if you can spare a couple of minutes for some Festive Ahh Factor!

Well, that's me for Christmas, I think.. I shall be starting by remembering the reason for the season at the midnight service at my mum's local church tonight, then out to a restaurant for Christmas dinner with my family tomorrow. Boxing Day at my sister's for her wonderful meatloaf, then my daughter's coming home on Monday.

However you are spending your Christmas, I hope it is safe, peaceful and full of fun, and that it takes you through to a great New Year.

God bless..

For Linda (Lindyloo) re. my Wedding Stationery CD

Hi, Linda..

There isn't an email link on your profile, so I hope you come back and see this note! :o)

It's very good of you to offer to buy one of my CDs for the Papworth Trust's staff challenge. Thank you! :o) I thought the last two had sold, but neither person followed up, so they're still available.

Right.. details for payment follow.

There are a number of options..

1. You can pay Papworth directly on-line by card by going to THIS link.. (There is a comments page, apparently, and it would be helpful if you could say this is a donation for Christine Fraser's £10 Challenge, so they know what accounting 'pot' to put it in. If you choose this method, please forward on to me the email receipt they'll send you, and I'll get your CD to you ASAP.)

2. Alternatively, you could pay me by Paypal to veritycrafts@btinternet.com

3. You can also pay by cheque (payable to Papworth Trust) or by postal order. Please email me at craftling@btinternet.com for my address.

Oh, and don't forget to let me have your address to send the CD to.

Let me know what you decide, and soon as you've made your payment, I'll get your CD posted.

Thanks again, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! :o)

Might have to re-think this one..

My daughter will be starting a new job in the New Year, as a Community Care Officer for Hertfordshire County Council. It's a fab job ~ her first that will really make use of her recent psychology degree ~ with an unbelievable starting salary! I won't tell you what it is, but I was gobsmacked.. for the first rung on the ladder for her, it's amazing. Not that money's everything, but she's struggled to put herself through university and everything, because neither I nor her father could help, and I am sooo very chuffed for her. She's worked so hard and so deserves this break! :o)

Karen will be coming for a visit just after Christmas, and this is her card. But I'm not happy with it at all, and I'm thinking she deserves something a lot better. I may very well re-do this one.. completely differently! lol ;o)

Guess-Who's roses again! ;o)

And this is my finest creation (but I had a little help)...

Hugs,

Chris xx

Not a holly sprig in sight!

Standard Craftling fayre, here.. A card for a colleague who will be moving to a different office in the new year...

Nesties Labels #4, Martha Stewart border punch, pine branch and ash branch punches, lovely glittery card, metal word embellishment (live, love, laugh) and have used the rose tutorial from Brenda's blog again.

I won the Stempelglede Card Contest...

See, I knew that would get your attention! Ha! ;o) We-ell, actually.. not quite. I didn't win any of the main prizes by merit, BUT Gunhild very kindly offered ten additional prizes for a random draw, and I was fortunate enough to be among the winners. This is what I chose... The beautiful 'Maribel' stamp. Isn't she lovely? I doubt she'll get across the North Sea from Norway before Christmas, but what a treat to look forward to in the New Year! :o)

For more details about Gunhild's beautiful stamps, go HERE.

Weihnachts Candy!

Don't you love how that sounds? "Weihnachten" (Christmas). I love how the German language sounds. Maybe it's because I was born in Germany? lol.. No, I don't think so, but I always enjoyed languages at school, especially German.

But this Candy is not from Germany.. It's Swiss! :o) From Karina. Please visit her blog to enter the draw and have a chance to win this cute little (discontinued) teddy bear stamp from Lily of The Valley.

Karina will be making the draw on New Year's Eve.

Fröhe Weihnachten!

A Few Things To Show You..

Firstly, I must confess... My name is Christine, and I'm a blogaholic. It has been nine days since my last visit.

Oh, man! Is it busy, or what? Still, I am just about organised, but I'm not a very patient person, and I want it all done NOW!! You hear me? I said NOW!!
But.. in the meantime.. I wanted to show you the pretty card and gift I received from my lovely blog-buddy, Lesley, from Paperlicious Delicious. The gift is.. err.. a 'thingamajig'... a very pretty thingamajig.. the kind you decorate and put pictures in. I am very excited about that.. something a bit different for me! Thank you again, Lesley. :o)
Do you know what these are called?

Then there is a box, made somewhat hurriedly, to house my sister's birthday presents... two Swarovski crystal bracelets I made (but didn't think to photograph). The box decoration is not great, but - hey - it's crafty so you get to see it.

My second attempt at one of Brenda's roses. (See tutorial here.) It's OK, but "Could do better" is my summation.

Finally, as I felt I was depriving you of craftiness, here is a Christmas card I made for my mum in 2007. She returned it to me recently with a batch of old cards for recycling. Simple, but I still quite like it, so as I haven't shown it to you before, here it is...

The only slightly unusual thing I did on here that isn't obvious is the use of Crystal Tulip paint for the baubles on the tree in the front. You can just about see them. Do you remember Tulip paint? You never see it mentioned any more, but at one time, it seemed really popular. I still have loads of the stuff. Must use it more often.

Well, that's yer lot for another little while. Not sure when I'll be back. Soon as I can. I do have a small list of things to make before Christmas, though, so I'll see you before Santa does!

Thanks for popping by. Do leave a note if you pass this way!

What the Dickens...??

This is for my sister, Lynn's, birthday on 10th december. (I'm almost certain she doesn't read my blog, so I'm safe showing it now!)

This is revisiting my lovely Personal Impressions stamp from the Beryl Peters Collection that I absolutely adore, and I threatened to use often.. the Victorian Street. Some time before acquiring the stamp, I saw a wonderful image on one of my favourite freebie blogs... ART FREEBIES (June offers some fantastic stuff on there, folks!)... which I thought would go perfectly! Printed in greyscale.. They're such a Dickensian-looking bunch, don't you think?

Stempelglede Contest... By Day!

Same card, but photographed in daylight this time! Took a sick day today.. Had my swine flu and pneumonia vaccinations on Wednesday, and woke up this morning feeling like I'd got the 'flu! Poor lamb. Feeling a bit better now, though. But the good news is at least I was at home so able to take daylight photos for once. Yayyy! :o)

Slightly darkened close-up below to try and show the glamour dust on the blue rondelle. So hard to capture that stuff! It's much more sparkly in the flesh.

Anyway, a better result than the previous post, eh? :o)

Thank you. by the way, for all your kind comments. You are lovely! :o)

11.12.09 - EDIT: Ah, well, I didn't win anything, but I didn't expect to, really, as there were so many beautiful entries, and the chosen winners' cards were nothing short of spectacular. You can see all the entries and the winners on Stempelglede's DT blog, HERE. Congratulations to the winners!

Stempelglede Contest...

EDIT: PLEASE SEE POST ABOVE FOR PHOTOS TAKEN IN DAYLIGHT!! :o)

Gunhild Bay, the brains behind Stempelglede, is one of the most kind-hearted people you could wish to meet on Blogland, and I'm not just saying that because I want to win her card competition (although of course I DO want to win!), but because I have had dealings with her and I know this to be true. She is also extremely good-looking and talented. And so is every member of her DT. Extremely.

We-ell... Have you seen the stunning cards people are entering into this thing? I have to build my part somehow if I'm going to stand a chance! lol ;o)

These are the lovely images Gunhild provided for the colour palette...



The following notes refer to the card pictured in the post above.
I used stamps from the Stempelglede 'Grunge Collection' (the only Stempelglede stamps I own, currently), Antique Linen & Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks and Dark Brown Chalkeyes. Faux stitching on the white card, but REAL hand-stitching on the Nesties label. The gorgeous genuine vintage music paper is part of my blog candy prize from Lean (thank you again, Lean!! I love it!)

The punches I have used include Fiskars 'Threading Water' border punch, Kaleidopunch and Carlcraft snowflakes, Woodware holly leaves, Martha Stewart pine branches, and an SU circle punch.. one & three-eighths inches.. which fitted perfectly! A key, a rose, raffia, crocheted lace, glamour dust & gems and a heart charm, which says ' My Heart belongs to Daddy', and a computer-generated greeting complete the card.

Free Gilbert!

Well, I forgot to do my blog candy draw for Gilbert. To make it up to you, I decided to send him to everyone who commented on the candy post.

And if anyone else would like a copy, just leave a comment here and send your email address to craftling@btinternet.com.

Get Funky! Challenge ~ Autumn Woodland

Hi.. These are rubbish photos, but my excuse is they were taken after dark, and it will be my only chance to get them done in time to enter the November challenge over at Get Funky!

This month's challenge theme.. Autumn Woodland.. was set by my very talented former Funky Hand teamie, Enfys.

You wouldn't know it, but the Funky Hand element on this card is the paper. I used a beautiful, very subtle paper from the 'Occasions' section on the 'V. Funky' CD-rom. I would describe it as yellow with a very subtle shading in it. It's gorgeous, but I had to spoil it with some distressing with Dark Brown Chalk Eyes around the edges! Does it still count? I hope so!

I've also used dark brown Bazzill CS, with some gold mirri card and my favourite white cardstock from Madaboutcards.com. The card is finished with an Inkadinkado flourish stamp and some maple leaf brads in gold, copper and dark brown.

One Word Answers... Who, Me? Are you kidding?

My friend, Olga (very talented lady.. go check), awarded me this (thank you, Olga), which reminds me.. I must have a small ceremony, as I have quite a collection of lovely awards that I haven't shared with you yet, so get ready with the posh frocks and bling, girls. Anyway, this one comes with a long list of questions which you have to answer with one word. Hmm. Not always possible, I found, but thought it would be fun, so here are my answers...

Where is your cell phone? Hall
Hair? Grey-ing
Mother? Wonderful
Father? Heaven
Favourite Food? Lettuce. Ha! No.. Mrs-Beeton’s-Rum-N’-Raisin-Ice-Cream
Dream Last Night? None
Favourite Drink? Elderflower-fizz
Dream Goal? Novel
What room are you in? Office
Your Hobby? Crafting
Your fear? Poverty
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Ramsey
Where were you last night? Home
Something you aren't? Unkind
Muffins? Chocolate
Wishlist Item? Tim Holtz’s ‘Forgotten Garden’ stamp
Where did you grow up? Everywhere
Last thing you did? Movie
What are you wearing? PJs
Your TV? Miracle on 34th Street
Your pets? Puss
Your friends? Precious
Your life? Tenterhooks
Your mood? Relaxed
Missing someone? Yes
Vehicle? Va-va-voom
Something you are not wearing? Coat
Your favourite store? Liberty’s
Your favourite colour? Purple(s)
Last time you laughed? Today
Your best friend? Mum
Last time you cried? Recently
One place you go to over and over? Blogland
Person who emails you regularly? Viagra-merchant
Favourite place to eat? Mum’s

I am supposed to pass this on, but I think most have had it already, so I'm just going to invite anyone who hasn't had a go at this to please lift it and answer the questions on your blogs.. and let me know, so I can come and check out what you said! :o)

Wanna be a tree fairy?

This one is for a new friend who is becoming dearer to me every day. And she likes fairies. I think. (I hope!)

Only one.. maybe two.. more Christmas cards to make, then I'm done for the season! Yayyy!

Hope you like the unorthodox distressing technique? I smudged some ink, so decided to go for it and make it look deliberate!! lol ;o)

The tree is an Artemio stamp, heavily embellished with mini tinsel and 'baubles'.. Couldn't tell you who the fairy stamp is by, sorry.. it's unmounted and out of its packaging.. and the text is 'puter-generated, in a typewriter font from a Lisa Bearnson CD-rom.