Christmas Easel

Good morning to you ...

The rain is still falling in the UK ... It was estimated that a month's rain fell yesterday alone ... causing more misery for so many people and freezing temperatures are now being forecast ...

Nature can be incredibly beautiful ... but also a force to be reckoned with...

I hope you are ready for a new challenge at City Crafter where we have the lovely Linda hosting for us ... Linda is asking that we make a Christmas easel card ... Simple right?

This week we have LeAnne as our Guest Designer ... a very worthy winner from week 127 ... Please pop over and leave her some love ..

I chose to use the soft grey paper from Astrid ... I did warn you that you would be seeing this paper and colour combination again ... Not traditional I know but colours I really love together

The lilac coloured paper is from my supplies ... just from a pad of rainbow papers bought at a £1 store to which I added glitter before I adhered it to the card

The lovely ribbon is from The ribbon Girl .. pearls and crystal from my supplies

The sentiment is a WaltzingMouse stamp ... embossed with silver embossing powder and the star was cut on my big shot using a sizzix die

I do hope you can join us this week ... I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with ... 

Have yourselves a wonderful day wherever you are

Thanks for stopping by 

~ Ros ~

Floods, Firemen and Tags

Hi there ...

I hope you are having a good weekend ... 

I know lots of people in the South West of the UK are really having a bad time with the floods and high winds ... 

My thoughts are with them all ... The idea of being flooded out is awful and with only weeks to Christmas and a bad winter being forecast ... Well, I can only thank God that my family and friends are safe ... The emergency services particularly the Firemen have their work cut out!

Talking of Firemen ... Here's something that gave my husband a laugh 

I have always had a penchant for men in uniform ... maybe that stems from the fact that a few of my family are Royal Navy people ... Anyway, I answered a knock at my door a couple of days ago to find a stunningly handsome young fireman standing there ... Talk about being dumbstruck! Now I don't know about where you live ... but here we are fortunate to have the Fire Brigade come to check that we have fire alarms installed, that they work ... and in the event that you are silly enough not to have at least one ... they will install one for you free of charge. 

We have 2 alarms ... one upstairs and one downstairs ... my handsome young man came and checked both of them but just as he was about to take some details ... my name ... phone number  ... The fire engine sounded an alarm to say they had an emergency and had to go ... 

I was therefore surprised (but smiling) when the same guy came back the next evening to take details ... 

I said to my husband .. "Isn't life unfair ... why didn't that guy knock on my door 40 years ago to check out my equipment?" ... My hubby laughed and said "Well at least he came to see you twice..." "Yes ... I said ... "That's called rubbing my nose in it!" 

Ok ... onto a little creativity ... I've finally made a start on a few Christmas tags ...

I did all the wording on my computer and cut the tags on the Big shot

The paper is by Papermania 

I'm getting panicky now ... only a week till I leave for Lincoln and all the mail going abroad has to be bought, packed and sent before I go .... not to mention the Christmas shopping ... Like I said ... our forecast is to expect the worst winter in 100 years!! Sheesh! I could be in Lincoln till 2013!

Better get going ...

Enjoy your sunday ...

~ Ros ~

Happy Thanksgiving ...

To all my sweet friends ... I am so thankful for your friendships... your sharing and your caring ... have a beautiful day!

A lady I worked with many years ago asked me to make a card for her daughters' upcoming wedding ... The brief was 'traditional' ... verse not too sloppy .. That was it. But she did let me know that the wedding colours are ivory and red ...

I hope this will suffice ... 

I apologise for the photos ... we are experiencing high winds, dull skies and rain ... not perfect for photographing indoors ...

This is the box I made to accommodate the card

My card stock was printed first with Pink Petticoat digital paper from the Old Fashioned Girl collection which I slightly altered to get more of an ivory blend

The card itself is in pure white with a hint of Ivory and a single red rose

I cut a frame and embossed it then layered it onto pearlescent ivory paper before using foam pads to adhere it to the card - The frame has a scattering of perfect pearls in silver which contrast with the pearls in the little spray and on the lace

I cut the tag from the same pearlescent paper and stamped and embossed a sentiment from a WM stamp set "Text It"... 

The verse

I had a slight problem with the ribbon fraying ... so a little tip for you if you too encounter this problem ... if you hold the ribbon edge above a flame ... a candle, match or even better a lighter ... it will seal the edge. It's a bit like when you make flowers over a flame ... but be very careful you don't hold it too close or it will curl like the flowers and you want it just to seal and not curl.

Ok ... I have a group to prepare for so I'll leave you to enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner ... but before I do I just want to say Thank You to my lovely blog friend keren ... We spent a few hours together yesterday and her company was just what I needed ...

Till soon

~ Ros ~

City Crafter ... I'll Be Home for Christmas

Hey there! ...

I'm a little late posting this morning ... I always schedule my DT posts the night before ... but just as I was about to write I got a phone call from a very distressed nephew ... who just wanted to talk really ... by time I came off the phone I had completely forgotten about the post!

So as you all know it's  City Crafter Challenge day and this week our hostess is sweet Kirsty who has given us this beautiful inspiration photo

Kirsty is asking that we make a card or project inspired by the photo

Well who could resist such beautiful colours? And there's a prize up for grabs this week ... No, I'm not going to tell you what it is ... you have to pop over to the blog to check it out ... and whilst you are there ... take a look at all the lovely projects from our DT this week ... and our Guest Designer Lynnda

Here's my card

Digital paper from Gennifer Bursett ... which I stamped and embossed with those silver snowflakes

The background paper shape was cut on the cameo ... as were the hearts ... the white one I embossed ... following the embossed wrapping paper in the photo and  I stitched a little silver bead into the centre 

... and added little pearls to capture the baubles in the photo

I adore this colour palette and can't wait to see what you lovely people come up with ... 

Thanks for visiting ...

Have a beautiful day 

~ Ros ~

Jingle Belles Rock ...

Hello there ...

This is the last challenge at Jingle Belles Rock .. If you've been joining in - you should have a nice collection of Christmas cards by now ...

Stephanie and Lauren have worked hard to bring us a new challenge every fortnight since January ... Thank You ladies!

The final challenge is to use something related to food on your card ... I used a candy cane

... Sticking to the postal theme that I love and using digital paper from Pink Petticoat ... an image from a shop bought tag and my frosty border die

I glittered the border die this time ... doubt that you can pick that up though ...

It's only 15.40 here and it's as dark as night ... really over cast 

I hope it's a brighter day where you are ...

I'll be back tomorrow for the City Crafter Challenge ... till then

Keep safe

~ Ros ~

Paris Christmas

My it's chilly here ... 

This morning was sunny and crisp and my husband and I took a trip to Costa Coffee (our favourite thing to do) and then a lovely stroll around Allerton road ... Ok ... so that probably means nothing to you ... but any Beatles fans out there know it is where the famous Penny Lane is ... not that far from where I live.... Now the sun has gone down it's positively freezing!

I had the urge to do some embossing with one of my TH stamps ... I haven't used this in a while so I tried it for a Christmas card ...

The BG paper is again the digital from Pink Petticoat and I stamped onto black paper then embossed with clear embossing powder ...

I guess it's a kind of 'across the miles' card

I have to say that apart from my Pink Petticoat digitals ... which you will be seeing more of in some DT projects ... I haven't bought any Christmas themed papers this year ...

It's all about utilising the things you have ... which leaves me money to buy new dies or stamps occasionally ...

I hope you are having a lovely Sunday

Stay warm

~ Ros ~