Jingle Belles card 32 ... and a busy Saturday ..

Hello ... lots to share today ...

Thank you for your well wishes ... I am feeling much better tummy wise ... really enjoyed the girls get together on Friday ... something we do occasionally and have done for more than 20yrs ... though I can hardly believe it's been that long! And the Anniversary party went well ... it was lovely to see the happy couple and catch up with my friends from the old neighbourhood ... my friends who were celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss have been together since school days ... a true love story ... which made last night all the more special and I got very teary when they took to the floor and danced to a beautiful song ...

I hope they have many more happy years ahead ... they so deserve it.

Here we are together

I also had a visit from my brother and SIL yesterday and their two grandchildren ... Ross and Sophia ... how I adore those cuties ... it was such fun seeing them ... 

... and somehow I managed to fit in my card

for this weeks' challenge at Jingle Belles ... which is titled "Shape Up For The Holidays" ... make a card that is any other shape than the usual rectangle or square ones ... 

Yep, just a mitten card ... nothing that fancy I'm afraid ... I printed the shape from my computer onto my cardstock and hand cut it (don't own a cricut) and then covered it with MME paper and a few embellishments 

And now I'm going to leave you with the beautiful song they played for my friend's last night ... enjoy!

~ Ros ~

Anniversary Card

Hi there ... how are you?

I have spent a lot of time in my little room this week ... actually I suffer from IBS and this week it has been particularly bad ... my own fault I fear ... had a piece of rocky road cheesecake last week and that's enough to make me suffer ... so crafting takes my mind off the discomfort ... and today I have the card I made (to go with the wall hanging ... that goes with the box) ... for my friend's anniversary ...

Made with MF papers and a gorgeous charm from the Pixie Dust Paperie July kit

I'm just hoping that my tummy will be ok for the party tomorrow night ... and tonight I am meeting some friends for a girlie night ... so I'll have to be good! 

I hope you have wonderful day ... thanks for stopping by 

keep safe

~ Ros ~

Birthday Wishes

Hello and good morning ...

Having gotten over the shock of the returning cat (which I am calling Gypsy ... for obvious reasons) ... I now realise what I didn't miss ... and that is the meowing that starts at 4am and continues no matter what ... I fed her (numerous times) ... played with her ... stroked her ... let her out and let her in ... still she meowed ... and yes ... I tried ignoring her ... so this morning I am rather tired! 
That aside ... did you see THESE beautiful creations on Mona Pendleton's blog? ... My that lovely lady creates some stunning things ... and I immediately fell in love with the TH embossing folder she used for these cards ... so I went online and found a store in the UK called The Glitter Pot which ships for just £1 ... well I ordered there and then and would you believe that the next morning I had them? ... what a service!
As it happened ... my husband asked for a birthday card for one of his friends ... he needed it that day (typical) ... so there was my reason to use my folder straight away ... 

I was delighted at how well this folder embosses ... and I swiped my SU white ink pad over it just to give some more definition ...

His friend appreciates a glass of red wine ... so the inside of the card reads ...

"You've aged to perfection" 

and the charms are a wine bottle and a tiny corkscrew .. the text paper is Eline's Huis Roses are Red and the image is from the web 

Have yourselves a wonderful day and keep safe 

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Stranger than fiction!!

2nd Post 

I wasn't planning on writing a post this evening ... but I have to let you know something VERY strange ...

I wrote on my earlier post about the cat ... my DH reminded me that in fact it is more like 6 weeks since we last saw her ... I was touched by your comments ... and when I finished reading them I started to clear up my craft room then .. "MEOWWWW!!!" ....... there she was ... honest to God .... she was standing right beside me!! I thought I was seeing things but that cry ... I knew .. I screamed to Mikey and he came running down stairs ... OMG ... how did that happen?? But here she is again .. a little thinner but non the worse for wear and following me everywhere ... To be honest I am a little stunned ... Ok ... I am in shock! wondering where she has been and why .. after I write about her - she comes back .....

How weird is that??

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Cat ... Aperture Box ... & CR84FN

Hello ... 

I hope you are all well and enjoying what is left of the summer ... In the USA I see that you are getting ready for the new school term whilst here in the UK the children are just starting the Summer break and so far we can't complain about the weather ... 

First up I wanted to let you know about "our" CAT... since a few of you have commented ... We lost the sweet little cat about a month ago ...  having decided to secretly keep her ... she was so happy here and did not want to go home .. she settled in ... my son adored her (so did I) and she him ... then one morning she went out and never came back ... At first we thought her real owner had kept her indoors ... We looked for her ... even got up in the night to search ... Then after 2 weeks of not seeing her... the owner came here to ask if we had her ... I knew then that we were never going to see her again .. I have no idea what happened to her and was angry that it took the owner 2 weeks to check up on her ... But either way she is gone ... I want to go to the RSPCA to get another cat but I am wary as cats here seem to go missing a lot ... So we'll see ...

Now yesterday I said I would show you the box I made for the Anniversary wall hanging ... so here it is 

I made the box from heavy CS and covered the top with papers ... then cut through all layers with my Sizzix heart die ... I made a little shallow 'tray' from CS and adhered some flowers to it and then sealed it to the underside of the box lid and neatened it all off with another piece of CS ... this is the back

I decided against using acetate ... simply because I wanted the flowers to be free to hang over the heart ...

and here is the gift in the box 

CR84FN Colour Challenge this week has the most beautiful palette

I have not entered any challenges for ages but now my Thursday Club is closed for the Summer break ... I have a little more time and I have so many birthday's coming up this month ... it was the perfect excuse to get creative ... this is my take

Sorry about the quality of the photo .. I am struggling both with my camera at the moment and the light conditions ...

Both my papers are digital ... the grey dot is Vintage Finding from Jen Allyson and the floral paper is from the Evergreen collection of Jopke Design both from DHD ... the flowers were made with some paper from my stash ... sorry I don't know the make ... it was single sided so I covered one side with TH distress stains ...

Rather a long post today ... so now I'm off for a nice Cappuccino ...

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by

Till soon

~ Ros ~

City Crafter Home Sweet Home

Good morning!

The weeks seem to be going awfully quickly ... It's Tuesday again and here we are with another challenge at City Crafter ... Thanks so much to everyone that took part in last weeks' challenge ... you really are a creative lot ... so many stunning entries once again. Today we are hosted by our creator the lovely  Kirsty and she has chosen the theme Home Sweet Home ... Such a fun challenge ... anything with a house or home image on your card or project is required or even an altered house ... 

We have Sandi Taloumis Guesting for us too and Pixie Dust Paperie is kindly sponsoring again ... 

 I love to make houses as you will know if you follow my blog ... but something caught my eye one day whilst looking around other blogs and it was This by Melissa Samuels ... I book marked it for a later date and with a little tweaking here and there ... it was my project for this week ...

Some dear friends are celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary this week and I wanted to make a little wall hanging to give them along with their main gift ... and this is the result ...

It's a lot larger than the keychain book made by Melissa and as I didn't have any of those little houses I had to improvise ... I did have a lot of these chipboard fames ...

and a lot of these blank mats

so I glued the frames together ...  

... painted them and distressed them a little and cut one of the mats in half diagonally to make a roof which was also painted ... 

I covered the roof and the 'house' with MF papers before adhering them together ... then covered another mat and adhered it to the back of the frames ... so a little house was made and then just the decor was needed ... I didn't have any wedding photos of them but they sent one as their invitation and I scanned it in ... cropped it and changed it to black and white ...

(Grateful thanks to Melissa Samuels) 

If you pop back tomorrow I will show you the box I made for it .... 

I hope you can join us this week at City Crafter ... look forward to seeing you there

Till soon

~ Ros ~