WoJ - Christmas Gnomes release day

It's release day today for the new Christmas Gnome Stamps over at WoJ, by new Illustrator Norma Fickel.

I've used 'Uru and bird' on my card today, plus the swirls and text are also from WoJ (Christmas swirls by Sonja, text from the new winter kit).

This is more of a 'grungy' affair from me as it was late, and was one of those cards that had a mind of it's own after I started adding 1 thing, which led to another until it ended up like this! Not quite what I had in mind but there you go!

Won't bother with a stash list as there's too much stuff on there but it's all the usual suspects and then some!

Happy Halloween!

Crochet Kitty

As promised, here's some photos of my finished Hello Kitty that I crocheted. It doesn't take long but I started this just before we went to Paris back in June and it's been left in a corner, until I got the crochet bug back again last week after seeing my neice (who went to US to see my sister and caught the Amigurumi crochet bug off her LOL).

Anyway, I'm really pleased with it, as it's only my second attempt at making a Hello Kitty - although the stitching together of the different body parts is still a bit ropey but should improve with practice. This one is a little bit bigger than the first one I attempted but still only stands at 5" so is nice and dinky.

I've started on a cute little moose next but it may be a reindeer - haven't decided yet! But back to the cards first before work tonight.

Thanks for dropping by & have a lovely weekend!

P.S If you are looking for the winner of my WoJ Alison Acton candy it's below this post.

Winner of my WoJ 'Baby card' candy

Hello, it's time to draw the winner of my 'WoJ baby card for Alison' candy. Thanks to all who took part.

The winner of 2 Alison Acton designed WoJ stamps of their choice is . . .

which is Rhonda Miller . Congratulations Rhonda! Please email me (link in my sidebar) with your snail mail and choice of 2 stamps designed by Alison Acton (so any from 'Henry mouse', 'party animals', 'charlotte & charlie').

If I don't hear back by Monday I will redraw.

CCT: 'Ho,Ho, Ho'

CCT theme this week is 'midnight Margaritas' so any drink/cocktail theme. So, guess what I went with. . . yup, a glass of milk LOL . Hardcore huh?!

I love colouring these santas in, especially filling in the trim on his suit with 'fluffy stuff' and watching it puff up when I blast it with my heatgun :D. Here's a close up of him

Stash:

Stamps: 'santa with snack'- Whiff of Joy, dear santa letter with plate is from an old See D's stamp set - just perfect for him! 'Ho Ho Ho' 99p Do crafts stamp

Colouring: Copics

Paper: MME

Tools: just my tracing wheel for the faux stitching holes and heat gun to puff up his trim!

Others: Woodware 'fluffy stuff', glamour dust, button, poinsettia flower

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Managed to finish my Hello kitty and am quite chuffed with myself, for a 2nd attempt - will add a photo later! Will attempt a moose next which I think would make a great reindeer if I add a red nose but first must get some more cards done - still need to show you some more WOJ and also the next release from Kraftin Kimmies which Silly Monkey will have in stock on Sunday. Have a good day!

last ever Tilda & Friends ATC: 'fall back'

"and now, the end is near, And so I face the final curtain . . . "

and so, as you break into ol blue eye's song I'll leave you with my last ever DT ATC for Tilda & Friends with our last challenge 'fall back'. It's been fun whilst it's lasted for the last 18 months and I'll hope you'll help us go with a bang and join in with our last ever challenge.

Stash:

Stamps: 'Autumn Emma', the bench and the sentiment all CC Designs from Silly Monkeys

Colouring: Copics

Paper: from scrap box (Bo Bunny but don't have the name of it!)

Tools: MS branch punch

Others: bit of creative doodling, sponging and cutting out to create the leaf from the 'happy fall' sentiment I stamped onto scrap bit of white card

All together now . . . " . . I did it myyyyyy way!"

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I'll see you tomorrow with my CCT card and hopefully my completed crochet Hello kitty I've been working on . . it looks like this at the moment

WoJ Sneek peek - New illustrator

For all you Whiff of Joy fans, you are going to be in heaven. Not only will Elisabeth's winter kit be available very soon (I have them here and they are gorgeous as always, that's next on my 'to do list') but we also have a new kid on the block.

Yes, WoJ have a new Illustrator on board - Norma Fickel and her first range will be

available this coming Saturday 31st Oct.

Here's a sneek peek of one of the little cuties.

(click on photo for closer view)

I think they are just so whimsical and cute and very scandinavian in flavour. Reminds me of their tomtes/nisse which is their little elf/gnome folk I think. Anyway, isn't she adorable?! I love her with her chunky legged reindeer :D - had a blast colouring it. I've teamed her with some fresher colours as I wanted a very girly, whimsical card and I couldn't resist adding a shiny red gem on the reindeer's nose :)

I will be working my way through the other 5 designs but if you can't wait then check out the rest of the DT (in my side bar) who are doing the same all this week.

Stash:

Stamps: girl with reindeer (not sure of her proper name yet!) - Whiff of Joy, reindeer names stamped around her is an Hero Arts stamp

Colouring: Copics, bit of distress inks around edges of image

Paper: Bo Bunny 'Tis the season- treasure' paper plus some coloured cardstock in grey and red to match

Tools: MS snowflake border punch (part of an 'around the page' combo set), branch punch, Hydrangea punch, EK flourish punch, SU slot punch for the ribbon

Others: Ribbon, paper roses, red pearl stones

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Off to mount up my winter kit now, which just landed today, so I can show you some of that next but trying to squeeze in some crochet (found a super cute moose and other stuff too that I want to try and make up as little stocking fillers) plus lots of other stamps I want to use (and building up!) - just not enough time in the day. . . . and the funny thing is, it doesn't stop me finding/seeing lots of new stuff I 'must' have - oh dear, I think it's incurable!

Thanks for visiting & have a good day!

Green Santa

Thought I'd give my red Copics a break and colour one of my santas in green (which is what colour they were before a certain famous fizzy drinks company decided to turn him red for their ads - the power of advertising eh?!)

So here he is, my jolly green Santa.

Hope you like it. (f you do, don't forget to enter my mini WoJ candy draw which has a 'baking Santa' stamp in it - it's the post below this one).

Stash:

Stamps: 'Santa with Gifts' - Whiff of Joy. 'Merry Christmas' sentiment from a Papermania set

Colouring: Copics and 'frosted lace' stickles on all his white trim - love how it catches the light

Paper:MME 'Signiture Christmas' stack

Tools: MS around the page scallop dots punch set, EK photo corner punch. tracing wheel for my faux stitching holes

Others: ribbon, clear bauble and gorgeous felt flower was my bargain from Tescos last year from their christmas gift wrap/decoration aisle - Always worth checking out, especially nearer to christmas when they reduce everthing - picked up quite a few bits like this.

Have a good day. I've got some things in the post (including DT stuff) which have been delayed due to the strikes so am patiently waiting to see if anything arrives today!

WoJ Mini Christmas Candy

As promised here's a little candy from me, which includes 2 WoJ rubber stamps courtesy of Katharina (it's Baking Santa & Henry Mouse with bauble)

To enter please link to this post on your blog (or just spread the word if you don't have a blog) and enter via Mister Linky (NOT via comments)

Candy CLOSED. will announce winner via random.org on the 1st Nov. Good luck!

'comfort & joy'

Hope you're all having a good weekend, can't believe it's the last week of October already and the clocks go back tonight/tomorrow - yeah, extra hour in bed!

Anyway, here's another christmas card I put together. I've been wanting to use this fab Alota stove stamp and finally got round to it by putting it with this cute baking Santa from WoJ and thought I use some non christmassy papers for a change (DCWV 'Nana's kitchen' matstack) and see how it would like - thought it'd make a change from the traditional dark christmas reds and greens. I'm happy with how it turned out. Santa's been raised onto foam pads for bit of dimension, then it's just lots of different punches and faux stitching around the edges.

Here's a close up of cute santa and his glittery puffy hat trim (Woodware 'fluffy white stuff' plus glamour dust before blast with heatgun to make it all puffy) - I love his slippers and frilly pinny :D

I've still got some WoJ candy to give away (which will include this cute santa) but will wait till Monday as I think Mr linky is playing up at the moment and I want to put together a few other bits but won't have time to put it all together until then so hopefully see you Monday. Thanks for visiting.

Stash:

Stamps: Baking Santa - Whiff of Joy, cooking stove - Alota stamps. sentimetns from various mini 99p studio g clear stamp sets

Colouring: Copics

Paper: DCWV 'Nana's kitchen'

Tools: Various MS border and corner punches plus snowflake punch in centre of flower

Others: gem brad, prima flower

CCT: Candy cane sweeties

CCT theme this week is 'candy corn' but it doesn't have to be Halloween themed, any sweet/candy will do. So I chose to use Henry with his cutiepie sitting on a candycane.

It's a bit busy with all that colour and pattern but I like it. It's got real dimension to it and looks better IRL as the image is raised on 3d foam but it looks flat in photo and there's lots of shimmer and texture to it with the different felt & paper flowers, embossing etc. Done my usual loopsided/mishmash layout can't help it!

Here's a close up of the cute couple, I just adore these Henry stamps and I think the sentiment is perfect for them too.

Stash:

Stamps: Henry mouse & sentiment both WoJ, the heart behind them is an Alota stamp which I stamped using masking technique.

Colouring: Copics

Paper: BG 'Eskimo kisses'

Tools: MS loopy border and corner punch. MS frond leave punch. Woodware Sakura flower punch. MS snowflake punch. Cuttlebug snowdots embossing folder

Others: homemade shimmer spray (perfect pearl powder & water in a mini mister spray bottle), pearl brads, pink heart gem in centre of flower

ATC: spooky, spooky, spooky

So, here we are, ATC day and my penultimate ATC for the challenges before we call it a day. This week it's 'spooky' and mine's more cute than spooky but it made hubby laugh so it was worth it.
Hope it makes you smile :) Thanks for dropping by & have a good day.

Stash:

Stamps: all CC Designs from Silly Monkey

Colouring: Copics with twinkling H2O for a shimmery moon and backgound

Paper: some scrap kraft card

Tools: just my tracing wheel for making the holes for the faux stitching & my Heidi swapp distresser tool for the edges

Others: orange brad

4th Dan Congrats card

Here's the Congrats card my sister asked for. It's for my nephew's Tae'kwondo teacher who just passed his 4th black belt grading (hence the 4th Dan - no I didn't know either!). Anyway, knew my Sugar Nellie karate kid stamp would come in useful one day. All kept very simple and masculine and it passed the hubby test - he loved it! Here's hoping my sister does too. Need to make another one now as my nephew also passed his 1st Dan black belt grading (he's only 10) :D

That's all for today, have a good one. Might see if anything good on QVC craft day as they've got couple of new Martha stewart shows and you know I love her punches! They had the loopy set on earlier which sold out very quick, shame they didn't have the spider web set as can't find that anywhere.

Stash:

Stash: Luca Karate kid - Sugar Nellie

Colouring: what little there is, is Copics and bit of twinkling H2Os

Paper: no dp just cardstock and silver mirri card which looks white in photo as it's so shiny and reflective!

Tools: Quickcutz embossing folder, MS lattice border punch, petite scallop ovals nesties

Others: ribbon, screw brads and some peel offs - I know! but I've got so much of the stuff from years ago - don't know what possessed me?!

WoJ: Christmas Henry x 2

Hi there, hope you had a good start to the week. Hubby was very sweet and offered to take me to Hobbycraft so who am I to refuse?! I managed to get lots of bits n pieces like pins, ribbons, tulle and some giant clothes pegs to alter (been after some of these for ages). So I'm a happy bunny.

Anyway, here are 2 cards I managed to put together using some of the images I mentioned I had already coloured the other day (still got 2 more to make up - they are super quick to colour when you do them all together as they are all mainly 'mouse colour' :D).

Here they are individually, both fairly simple and self explanatory. Just used some yummy BG 'Eskimo kisses' paper (finally looked at it enough for me to break into the pack!) and more of my MS border & corner punches - love them!

Stash:

Stamps: Henry Mouse from Whiff of Joy. circular sentiment from a 'Bear Essentials' set from Silly Monkey

Colouring: Copics & lots of stickles and Sakura stardust pens

Paper: BG 'Eskimo kisses'

Tools: MS combo punch sets - 'snowfall' & 'scallop 3 dots' various flower & flourish punches, SU word window punch

Others: pom pom rim, bellas baubles, adhesive gems

On the subject of Whiff of Joy, there will be a new dedicated blog - 'Whiff of Joy Tutorials & Inspiration' and it will do what it says on the tin! All the DT will contribute to it with tutorials, tips and tricks. This will replace the Project of the month (POM) and will start on the 1st of Nov. Hmmm, now I just need to think of something that would be worth sharing! Open to ideas/suggestions of what you would find useful.

Thanks for stopping by. Will be back tomorrow with something completely different (Sister has asked for a congrats card for someone. Requested today, for tomorrow . . so best get my skates on!)

Quick n simple card with Henry & new toy

Oops, forgot to post this yesterday.

I managed to get hold of a Martha Stewart loopy border punch and the matching corner punch so had to try it out as soon as I got it - as you do with new toys! So anyway, I did, and was left with a 5" blank card with fab loopy edges all the way round so decided to make a quick card with it with another super cute Henry mouse stamp which I just cut out, coloured and added to the card along with a bit of dp and ribbon and card done!

I wanted to give the wreath some texture & sheen so added some clear glaze pen over some of the leaves to make them look glossy like real holly leaves and love how it looks IRL - may see it better if you click on photo.

Here's another shot of it laying flat so you can see how I've matted the inside of the card with matching green dp so that the loops stand out more against the contrasting colour;

I've managed to colour a few more different Henry's seeing as I had my xmas papers & my Copic mouse colours out so should have a few more Henry christmas cards to show you . .but not till Monday (need to work tonight and it'll take me a day or so to decide on card layouts and all the embellies!) So until then, have a lovely rest of the weekend.

Stash:

Stamps: 'Henry Mouse with Christmas wreath' Whiff of Joy stamp. christmas seal is Magnolia xmas '08 stamp (OMGoodness, just saw some of the new Magnolia ones for this year over on Sir Stampalot site and they are so cute!)

Colouring: Copics with Sakura stardust pen for glitter on bow and glaze pen for the glossy sheen on the leaves

Paper:MME 'wonderful winter' stack

Tools: Martha Stewart loopy border and corner punches sourced from various shops as out of stock in many but think Stampeezee may still have some in stock. These punch sets are more pricey but I just loved this too much to pass up in the end (but I'm glad they have since packed them together as a set for the newer styles and made them cheaper - managed to get snowflake and another of the newer ones from Oyster Crafts- love them! so be prepared to see more). mini Holly punch think it's an old EK one, corner rounder punch.

Others: red gems, ribbon