Please Mr. Postman ...

... Look and see, if there's a letter, a letter for me!!!!!

Ok ... nearly 1st December and I still have the huge batch of Christmas cards to make. Quite unheard of and due mostly to lack of both time and inspiration ... with the lack of inspiration having the leading edge.

I do have very many S*N*O*W*flakes cut with the Big Shot and embossed and glittered (well, Stickled ... I am not a glittery sort of person but find Stickles give just enough sparkle to add the necessary festive spirit!) and have sat looking at them for weeks now not at all sure what to do with them.

But now I know!!!!   They will be going into my Christmas crafting box for next year!

Whilst WOYWw'ing this week I nosied further on down the fabulous SILVERWOLF'S blog past her WOYWW post and found THE most PERFECT Christmas card EVER.  Spent a frantic half hour or so searching online for the stencil (Indigo Blu Flourish Baubles ... or it might be Bauble Flourises) , ribbon, gems, card blanks etc., and just hope that at least the stencil arrives today (especially as hubby is out all day and I now can't wait to get those Christmas cards done!!!)

Colour scheme will be almost the same as last year's Christmas cards but if it ain't broke then why fix it and who can go wrong with good old black and white with a splash of red? I know I don't have enough black card on which to mount the fronts of the cards so having already bought navy blue card for my now defunct *S*N*O*W*flakes I nipped to Hobbycraft last night (first time in there for YEARS and I have to say found it quite dreadful) and got a new dark blue ink pad and some pale blue ribbon and gems and will make some in those colours when my black card runs out.  And I doubt any of last year's  recipients will even remember last year's cards so am just going with it.

Will be odd making a card that actually opens as I do favour the post-card / tag style and have never used a scalloped edged card in all my years of crafting so that will be interesting

Ooooh am all of a tingle now but have a feeling I might have to contain aforementioned tingle until in the week when the stuff arrives ... watch this space!

The birds are blue!

Following on from my WOYWW post yesterday I am DeLigHtEd to report the die came as expected and within a very short space of time I had my 21 little birdies cut out and decided they just had to be BLUE.
Will post a photo' once they are done ... one might even be my Pixie's Snippet for this week as I found some short lengths of ribbon that I had saved from something or other ... could have been some pretty soap I got in Scotland ... and if I am very careful and measure twice and cut once, there should be enough to use on the tags.
With my cross-stitching I usually only ever have one project on the go at once so I need to get my next one organised before the current one gets finished over Easter.  I had no intention of stitching another Lavender & Lace angel and fully intended to start my Christmas sewing thus avoiding my annual December nervous breakdown as I work like frenzy to get all my Christmas crafting done.
Alas, those angels are calling to me though and I think I am just going to have to tackle one of them next.  Christmas is still a very long way off, isn't it?  Plenty of time yet!
Right, first task today is to put some blue Stickles onto the birdies so that can dry and then I can attach the wings later on ... then they just need the very carefully measured and tied ribbons attaching and that will be another 21 cards ticked off the list for this year!

ALL NEIL'S FAULT !!!

Yes, Mr. Neelz Expressionz I mean YOU!!!!!
There you go - posting photo's (keep 'em coming PLEASE) of your FaBuLoUs work on your blog and then being very helpful indeed by answering my Email query and then posting step-by-step instructions on "how to emboss and paint acetate" with barely a mention that not only would my experimentally-embossed-acetate would not be the only thing covered in paint!

I was covered!  

My craft-mat was covered!

The laptop was covered!

The house-phone was covered!

My mobile was covered!

And there was even paint floating in my coffee!!!!!

And I wasn't at all pleased with the results either!!!!
BUT - at least I stepped out of my comfort zone and Had-A-Go!  
The result was this card:

Oh but what a disaster!  Once the mess was cleared up and I could see the crafting for the paint I went to bin the acetate.  Then Anna Griffin's words popped into my head ... "there are no mistakes in crafting - only layers" and I figured I must be able to salvage it somehow.  

I'd just not worked fast enough to remove the paint from the acetate before it started to dry and so had tried to "encourage" it off with a craft knife blade and then my pokey tool but, of course, this just scratched into the acetate ... duh!

Ha-ha! I thought, determined not to be beaten ... Stickles!  I dibbed and dabbed a layer of Diamond Dust Stickles all over the back and managed to disguise the scratches just fine.  BUT the stuff would not dry - at least not fast enough for me.  I decided, after several hours waiting for it to dry, to go to Plan B.  Stickles is glitter GLUE right?  So why not use it to stick the acetate to a backing card?

Because that won't work either.  Took another few hours and leaving it pressed under three heavy hard-backed books to find that out.  SOOoooooo - pealed non-sticking acetate from the tag and wiped off as much of the Stickles as I could.  Mmmmmm ... actually quite like the effect of that so further salvation from the bin.

I left the backing card (which I had distress-inked already) with the blobby bits of Stickles on as these would still "match-up" with the acetate once I put them together again ... clever thinking, huh?

Eventually the acetate dried.  Eventually the backing card dried and with the help of that "red" super-sticky-double-sided-tape-stuff I managed to get the acetate and the card stuck together ... and the tape doesn't show through!!!!!

Finally I had something I felt was acceptable(ish) and chucking it in the bin might not be necessary after all.  I decided to go ahead and finish it and then Make-A-Decision on whether it would be good enough to use.

Cut two little hearts and embossed them - even they went wrong though as I wanted them dotty but got the Texture Fades embossing folder the wrong way up so I had debossed dotties instead.  Happy mistake as it turned out ok.

Bit more dabbing of the Stickles and distress-ink dying ribbon to match and printing out a little message and I actually think I have got away with it this time!

It is a card for my friend whose baby daughter died at nine months old and each year I send a remembrance card.  Sarah would have been 25 now.  I am worried it is a little too pink and sparkly for such an occasion and have never actually put Sarah's name on the cards before ... always just put "thinking of you" or "remembering" or some other such sentiment so am quite nervous and unsure about sending it.  Will have to think on that one.

SO Neil ... see what trouble you caused me?  Can't wait to have another go mind you and see if I can get into more of a mess this time!!!!!

WOYWW 133

Nothing on my workdesk YET ... fully plan on starting on my list of cards for 2012 and as the first birthday is on 3rd Jan I need to get going!
So all I can post for today's WOYWW is hubby's Christmas card.  The pine-cone die for my Vagabond finally arrived (shame on you Royal Mail!!!) but, of course, simply "running it through the Vagabond" does not necessarily mean I could then make the bloomin' things!  Severely burnt fingers from the glue-gun and a few missing "petals" from the cones but I managed to make three that were kinda, sorta ok and not too bad once covered in brown sparkles!  Is it called  Sparkles?  I don't think it is ... oh, silly Debbie - it's Stickles!