Tuesday morning and a challenge to share ....

Morning all,

Just a quickie for me, I'm busy busy busy today but - I'd like to share a Christmas card with you. I'll be entering this in the I Love Pro Markers challenge for this week. Their challenge (#140) is CHRISTMAS IS COMING - and it is, coming, that is - it'll be here before I'm ready at this rate too! I'm also entering this for a challenge on craftbubble which is (SURPRISE!) to make a Christmas project - what better than a Tilda making a Christmas project Christmas card?

Materials used:

• 12.5 cm square, 250 gsm white card and matching envelope
• 12 cm square black card panel
• 11.5 cm square patterned panel (DCWV winter stack)
• Magnolia Tilda image inked using Memento tuxedo black ink on to white card and the corners punched with a corner punch from a Martha Stewart PATP set
• Pro Markers to colour image
• Crystal Stickles to highlight and self adhesive silver "rivets" to embellish
• Matting panel coloured using red PM and corners rounded
• White satin ribbon with MERRY CHRISTMAS in silver (sorry it doesn't show too well in the pic)

Have a super Tuesday everyone, try to stay warm and cosy! I'm sure we'll all be keeping an eye on Hurricane Sandy and its progress - stay safe if you are on the eastern seaboard of North America.

Morning Monday once more .....

Hi folks,

Welcome to the start of another week - I hear the forecast warns us to bundle up as it's likely to be cold. Me? I don't feel the cold so much and (as I get older) I seem to run warmer and warmer - must be an age thing!!! So long as it doesn't snow I'll be fine. It's just a shame that I only have flip flops to protect my poor little tootsies from the cold!!

On the move much of today so guessing I won't have time to feel the cold much but hey ..... who knows?

Not much going on in my craft world so just one card to share today .... hope you like it.
 

Materials used:

• 300 gsm white, scallop edged card and matching envelope
• 14 x 9 cm white card panel, coloured using pan pastels
• 13.5 x 8.5 cm patterned panel (DCWV from their Grandma's Kids stack)
• Green fibre tied in an off centre knot
• Magnolia image inked in Memento tuxedo black and coloured using alcohol markers before edging using the Martha Stewart flourish punch and then colouring the edge with an alcohol marker
• Offcut from the same DCWV patterned card edged with the same MS punch + corners rounded and then matted (with the image panel) on to a white card panel with the outer edge coloured using an alcohol marker
• Two lime green glitter droplets (EK Success dimensional stickers) to embellish

Happy Monday, have a good week - see y'all tomorrow.  Keeping my fingers crossed for those in the path of the eastbound U.S. storm and north west bound U.S. Hurricane - stay safe everyone.

Super duper lazy Sunday

Morning all,

Yet another Sunday has rolled around and it's nice here but its been a bit blowy - I blame Hurricane Sandy! Got in the pool on Friday afternoon - it wasn't so bad walking out and getting in and (of course) it was lovely whilst in there but boy oh boy when we got out - brrrr. Now I know what it's like in the U.K. right now! Hope it warms up for you.

A little light crafting to share with you today ..... I have SO much patterned paper and seem to have moved to plainer patterns or no pattern so I set myself the project to try to use some up - after all, it takes less storage space this way too!

Materials used:

• 300 gsm white, scallop edged card and matching envelope
• 14 x 9.5 cm kraft card panel
• 13.5 x 9 cm patterned card panel (DCWV Grandmas kids stack)
• 7.5 x 7.5 cm white card panel coloured using pink alcohol ink, corners rounded
• 7 x 7 cm white card panel
• Recollections cake image inked using Memento grape jelly ink
• Clearly Wordsworth sentiment inked using Memento rosebud ink
• Green fibre tied in to an off centre knot
• Crystal stickles to highlight the frosting on the cake

And, on a roll, here's another .....

Materials used:

• 12.5cm square, 250 gsm white card and matching envelope
• 12 cm square kraft panel
• Offcut of white card with pan pastels swiped across in tints of yellow green and magenta and set with hairspray
• Offcut of a DCWV "Grandma's kids" stack - edged with a Martha Stewart flourish punch and corners rounded
• Lime satin ribbon taped centrally on the DCWV panel
• Recollections bunting inked using Memento rosebud ink and the "string" coloured using an alcohol marker
• Clearly Wordsworth sentiment inked using Memento tuxedo black on to kraft panel
• Image (unknown as I took her home ages ago and this is one that I inked before doing so!) inked using Memento tuxedo black and coloured using alcohol markers before cutting out and mounting using 3D sticky dots
• EK Success glitter droplets (3) placed to embellish

Yesterday it was off to Downtown Disney for one last injection of mouse ears!!! You guessed it - they are geared up for Halloween!

I took this one  just because the dragon was purple!!!

Lego George and the dragon - least I assume that's who they are! I COULD be sooooo wrong!

Have a great Sunday whatever you have planned

Woo Hoo it's the weekend!

Hi everyone,

Sorry to be late but I wanted to wait  until I had something to share with you as I am trying to wean myself out of the habit of more than one post in a day!

Is it cold enough for you? In Bristol it went down below freezing overnight and isn't much warmer now (at the warmest part of the day)!

Here we are feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy with high winds and a little rain - and COOLER temperatures, not that I'm overly sorry it's cooled down a smidge as I've been struggling at times in the last few weeks!

Yesterday we were out to dinner with friends and we went Mexican .... Abuelo's at The Loop. It's very nice in there (though the seats could do with refurbishment) and their combo is just great, you can choose any two enchilada's for $8.99 and three for $12.99 - I've never managed three though! I HAD intended to try the sopapillas this trip though as the idea if a honey filled, cinnamon sprinkled dessert sounded yummy but, when push came to shove I had to concede that I simply had no room left! Oh well, maybe next time!

And over on the Simply Less Is More blog it's sketch week ........

So, I had a go .......

Materials used:

• 300 gsm white, scallop edged C6 card and matching envelope
• 4 x 4 cm square mask, positioned and then a border hand drawn within the square
• Recollections cake image inked using Memento rosebud
• Recollections present image inked using Memento grape jelly
• Recollections candles image inked using Memento lilac posies
• Fiskars sentiment inked using Memento grape jelly

I THINK it probably needs stickles - what do you think?

Hmm - not convinced this was my best effort - so, I had another go .....

Materials used:

• 300 gsm white, scallop edged C6 card and matching envelope
• Mask placed on to a white panel of Bristol board and Distress Inks sponged through the mask: top - worn lipstick, centre - barn door, bottom - dusty concord.
• Border hand drawn round each square using a Faber Castell pitt pen
• Stampabilities Fleur De Lys and crown and also the Imagine That sentiment inked using Memento tuxedo black
• Image panel then matted on black card

Hope you agree that the second was better than the first! I'm much happier with the second card though I'm still contemplating the addition of a couple of faux crystal gemstones ...... what do you lot think?

Happy Saturday and, if you are in the path of Hurricane Sandy - stay safe.

TGIF peeps!

Hi there,

Out shopping yesterday with my pal and neighbour, Sally. We visited the Florida mall and I started my proper Christmas shopping but I had seen a cute handbag in J C Penney's - but they didn't have this in the Florida Mall! Oopsie! After we had lunch at Charlie's subs we headed back to Posner Park to the J C Penney's there and, yes, I DID find the bag there so bought ....... TWO!!! Couldn't decide which colour to buy - terrible excuse I know! We were fascinated by the new restaurant opened up in the mall - wasabi sushi, where you select from a conveyor belt!!! We spoke to the manager there who confirmed they'd only been open a couple of weeks. Sally's son and daughter both like sushi so I bet they'll be giving it a try soon!

And now for a quick Christmas card ..

Materials used:

• 12.5 cm square, 250 gsm white card and matching envelope
• 12 cm square black card panel
• 11.5 cm panel of green glitter card from a DCWV stack
• Inkadinkado image inked using Memento tuxedo black ink on to a white card panel, matter on to green glitter card and then black card
• White satin ribbon with Merry Christmas in silver on it
• Silver snowflake
• Crystal stickles to highlight

Cute Card Thursday has launched challenge #240 and it's SOMETHING SCARY

Pan Pastels have challenge #41 ongoing for the rest of today and it's ANIMALS

Here are some more pics from our trip to Lake Toho on Wednesday ....

Lake Toho - if you look carefully to the centre front of the pic you should see the bald eagle

Panoramic of the picnic area at Lake Toho

And now for the Friday Funny, this week another one I got off Pat - thanks Pat!! ENJOY

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.

Thursday .... but it will soon be FRIDAY!

Morning all,

Hope you are all having a good day and that it's not too cold where you are.

And now for a Christmas card - too early? I think not, lots of my crafting pals are in a near panic as they've only just started. That was me, a couple of years ago and I ended up making Christmas cards right up to Christmas Eve just to keep up and I said then "never again"!. Since then, I've always tried to make a few each month throughout the year, the last minute run up doesn't seem half so bad then .... so I make no apologies for this card!! Hope you like it too!

Materials used:

• 300 gsm white, scallop edged C6 card and matching envelope
• 14 x 9.5 cm black card panel
• 13.5 x 9 cm brick red card panel
• Hero Arts sentiments and inkadinkado snowflake trail inked using Memento tuxedo black ink on to brick layer, crystal stickles applied to the centre of the snowflakes.
• Recollections candy cane inked using Memento tuxedo black ink on to white panel and edged using Distress Ink (barn door) applied using a Tim Holtz blending tool
• Alcohol markers used to colour image and crystal stickles applied to bow, to highlight and just plain add sparkle!
• White image panel matted first on to brick red panel and then black card panel
• We R Memory Keepers black bakers twine tied in to an off centre knot

Went out for a drive yesterday afternoon - to Lake Toho (properly known as Lake Tohopekaliga) which is a lake which, at first, looks like ocean - it has a beach and a small pier too! It's a lovely place to spend an hour or so, nice walks too. The streets which butt up to it are named after U.S. states and have their state trees at the end of the road in many cases - not all flourish in the Florida climate! We were treated to the fabulous sight of a bald eagle only about 40' - 50' away from us. We both snapped away and got this one before he flew away.

I'm a bit on the shy side

Oh alright then!

HOWEVER, he came round for a bit of a fly past and I was lucky enough to catch this one during the show - NEVER seen one that close before.

I bet you wish you could fly!!!

Happy Thursday peeps

Wot? Wednesday? AGAIN?

Morning all,

Yesterday sort of disappeared in a blur ..... it started off with me finishing my book on my kindle - I always intended to get out on the pool deck but time just got away from me - ever have days like that?

I did manage a little light crafting and made a couple of cards, unfortunately, I heard from a pal that her mum had passed away on Sunday, so one of the cards was one of those difficult cards - the sympathy card

• Materials used:
• 12.5 cm square white, 250 gsm card and matching envelope
• 12 cm square black card panel
• 11.5 cm square white card panel
• Post its - to mask
• Distress Inks: picked raspberry, salty ocean and dusty concord
• Inkadinkado "Meadow" image and Clearly Wordsworth sentiment inked using Memento tuxedo black

Materials used:

• 300 gsm white, scallop edged C6 card and matching envelope
• 14 x 9 cm black card panel
• 13.5 x 8.5 cm grey card panel
• 13 x 8 cm white panel
• Distress Inks: picked raspberry, salty ocean, dusty concord
• water, flicked from fingers on to panel and left to react before mopping with paper towel
• Stampers Anonymous check and circle images inked using Studiog purple and lilac inks
• TPC Studio dressmakers dummy and matching sentiment inked using Memento tuxedo black ink
• Hampton Arts hand image inked using Memento grape jelly ink

Hubby fancied heading out yesterday afternoon so we headed north and visited the Oviedo mall - dreadfully depressing as many of the stores were closed. Moving on to the Waterford Lakes outdoor mall and, surprise surprise, it has both a Michaels and a Joann's!! Luckily, there was also a Home Depot next door for hubby to head in to whilst I amused myself. Can't share what I bought as it's a gift for a pal.

On the way home we decided to hit the Millers Orlando Ale House and I selected their fresh fish sandwich and selected blackened Mahi Mahi - it was DELICIOUS.

Happy Wednesday - here's how my work desk looks this week ......

Tuesday again! - yes, there are YET more pix!

Morning all,

Woke up yesterday feeling grungy!! Craft wise that is! Had an idea in mind - it didn't turn out QUITE as I imagined it, in my head, but I'm happy with it and I did the best I could with my limited stash!! I wanted a quirky character but the only quirky image I had was far too big for my "virtual layout" so on to plan B!! I THINK it worked and hope you'll all agree - look forward to your comments - but, play nice! One of my blog buddies recently had some unpleasant comments and she's well talented, but, I digress - on to the card ....

Materials used:

• 14.5cm square white, 300 gsm scallop edged card and matching card
• 14cm square black card panel
• 13.5 cm patterned card panel - from the DCWV OLD WORLD stack - 8" x 8" size
• White doily (courtesy of Michaels)
• Offcuts of both black and patterned card
• white grosgrain ribbon, coloured using lavender and grey alcohol markers
• TPC Studio dressmakers dummy image inked using Memento tuxedo black - stamped twice, once on to white card and once on to white paper to use as a mask.
• With mask in place I inked the We R Memory Keepers wings using Memento tuxedo black
• We R Memory Keepers sentiment inked using Memento tuxedo black ink
• Exposed edges of DCWV card and image panel edged using distress ink - dusty concord
• Blending tool (with shades of purple and black) not re-inked but used to apply colour around image
• Crystal stickles applied to wings

Our neighbour, Sally, recommended that we take a drive round the Disney township of Celebration if we wanted to see Halloween decor. We waited till dark and then, armed with cameras, off we headed to drive round Celebration. We drove round and round, frankly - it's a huge place. We found a sign which said "lights at Jeater bend" and wondered what it meant - we were both thinking traffic lights but no, it meant the photo you see below. The street was in chaos and there was a police cruiser parked - presumably to direct traffic if things got too bad!

Someone had put a signpost for this display, which came with the projection, sound ... and a police car, presumably to keep traffic moving!

This must have taken a while to work out too

This one's just plain cool!

Now this HAS to have taken AGES! It came with a skeleton projected on the house opposite AND music

Once we were done with the Halloween part we thought that we might as well park up and take a walk,, it was a pleasant evening, cooler than of late and far less humid too .... so ....

Part of the main section of shops and restaurants at Celebration township - it boasts a permanent Christmas shop ... the Market Street Gallery!

Just loved the reflections of this - across the lake at Celebration

If you look carefully, you can see there are two kids right in the middle of this - who'd want them in the car after this?!?!?

Over on the CASology blog challenge 16 has been unveiled, they have a clever idea of using a single word as inspiration and, so long as your entry is Clean And Simple, you can use the word however you choose. Cool idea - huh!? If my limited stash allows I shall be having a go at this one. Last week's single word was NIGHT and I struggled with this and consequently never got round to an entry - wish me luck this week! This week's word is WILD!

Hope you've enjoyed your night out at Disney's celebration, though I do believe it may no longer be anything to do with Disney, it was just their concept!

Happy Tuesday

Join me for a day out .... picture heavy post

Morning all,

Sadly, I have no crafting to share with you as we were woken early - see below!

We were woken by this, flying over the house!!

 Now, please feel free to join me for a day trip to Lakeland - there are LOTS of pix!!

We found the swans at Lake Parker, Lakeland

Lake Parker, Lakeland

NO IDEA what sort of bird this is but he/she did make us chuckle!

Lakeland is famous for it's swans!! In Bristol it was gorilla's!

Ah yes, it's THAT time of year! Happy Halloween!

Lakeland is famous for its swan population and we visited two lakes today, the second actually explained that a swan epidemic in the 1950's wiped out the swan population but that a gift of two mute swans by HRH Queen Elizabeth II replenished stocks. In fact we found the bronze statue (seen on TV earlier in the day) which had been commissioned by the city and sculpted by Ian Bannen from a smaller statue sculpted by the Queen's own sculptor! Situated on the edge of Lake Mirror.

The beautiful bronze statue of a mute swan and her two cygnets, Lake Mirror, Lakeland

Talk about a party!!! Lake Mirror, Lakeland, Florida

I'm SHY!!!

Right, if you've been following my trip you will know that we were joined by pals Wynneth and Tom and their son. They rented an enormous SUV which they nicknamed THE BEAST - I think this photo is for them and proves that it must (surely) have been the original BEAST!! It USED to be a Cadillac!!

Just HOW ridiculous!?!?!

Hope you enjoyed sharing our day trip! Have a great week

Lazy Sunday

Morning,

What a lovely day it was yesterday? It dawned fresh and much cooler than of late and less humid too. It was great to sit out on the pool deck with my kindle for ages too. Yesterday afternoon we had a few chores to do so it was DIY shopping for us!!

Still, I have a card and a photo to share with you .....

Materials used:

• 12.5 cm square, 250 gsm white card and matching envelope
• White card panel coloured using distress inks: Mown lawn and black soot
• Inkadinkado "Meadow" image inked using Memento tuxedo black ink
• Kraft panel stamped using Color Box white ink and Penny Black dotty image
• Black card panel

Tell me something ...... do you think THIS looks comfortable?

This cute little gecko appears to be upside down on a window sill!! DUH!

Happy Sunday