Your Christmas Cards

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you are all enjoying a lovely relaxed Sunday Morning,  we will be having a slow start to the day after 7 1/2 hours in the car yesterday!  We had a lovely meal out overlooking Brixham Harbour, then went back to Paul's Mum's for a cup of tea before leaving to drive back, we set off at 9.45am and got back home at 10pm, the traffic was ridiculous in the morning,  I think the world and his wife & kids were heading down to the West Country for Christmas as the M5 was nose to tail, especially around Cribbs Causeway (Bristol), they must have been stopping there for last minute shopping as it's  a huge retail park. 

Matt and Becca are both coming over today to see Grandma, which will be lovely. 

Let's have a look at your cards.....

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hi, here is my card for this week,

Old poinsettia stamp, it’s called Poinsettia script, from elusive images 2006.

I found two stamped with black and embossed in clear, which I don’t use now, prefer a lighter, decoupaged the top layer. Sprayed with shimmer spray, which doesn’t show in the picture.

Hope alls well with you and yours.

Absolutely gorgeous Christmas card Lilian, you can just see the shimmer on that centre petal, I love the modern script behind the traditional poinsettia,  beautifully coloured as always. 

Thank you so much a supporting the challenge all year my lovely XXX 

Karen 

Karen made this beautiful card for her Aunt's Birthday,  using Serif to create that beautiful background and sentiment. 

Karen thank you so very much for supporting the blog & challenges this year, I really do appreciate it XXX 

Maria

Maria's Description: 

I had these cutouts of happy birthday in my box forever and thought it's time to use them and this is what I made. A AL card with the words being heat embossed and then stuck onto a cream-coloured glitter card.

The second one is a stamp with a couple of mice who are getting ready for Christmas. I first used my watercolour pencils but didn't quite like it so coloured over with the spectrum pens. Gold glitter card and a stamped fence background.  

Two lovely Bitbox cards Maria,  lovely modern feel for the first card, perfect for men too.   Your Christmas card is just so adorable, I love their Christmas tree 🎄. 

Thank you so much my lovely for 2 lovely cards and for supporting the blog all year, I am so grateful XXX

******************

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday , 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Another lovely Christmas card

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

We are walking in a 'Wet & Wild Wonderland' this Christmas,  it was awful when we popped into Witney yesterday afternoon,  the wind seemed to drive that rain straight through you.  We just popped in to get a couple more gifts and some Salmon for dinner on Sunday evening,  we aren't sure if Paul's brother is joining us for dinner, we have bought extra salmon just in case he does. 

We have an early start today as we are leaving early for Brixham, picking Paul's Mum, going out for lunch and then bring her back to ours for the night and if weather permits we will have a wander around Bourton or Burford maybe, then home for lunch and a lazy afternoon,  then wait for Darren, have dinner and see our guests off and get some wrapping done.  

I hope you have a less hectic weekend,  Lilian you will need to get your feet up and rest before your next lot of family arrives,  as I have got older I find hosting exhausting,  I think it’s because you are constantly wanting them to be comfortable,  it always feels like the kettle is never off!! 

Today's card is the card that Sonia sent me for Christmas,  I have that embossing folder and never thought of using it for Christmas but it definitely works.  Love the bauble stamp with sentiment and that darling little poinsettia to finish off.                       Such a lovely card Sonia, thank you so much XXX 

I hope that you all have a great Saturday, 

Love & Hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

A beautiful Christmas card from Maria

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

How are you all ?  Have you all finished your Christmas shopping??  I got a lot more done yesterday,  thankfully.  We just have got a few little bits to get and food shopping of course.

We have another really busy weekend,  we are driving down to Brixham to collect Paul's Mum and bring her back here to stay overnight then Paul's brother will pick her up on Sunday evening and take up to Birmingham for 2 weeks,  she is spending Christmas at Paul's sisters,  it will be nice to spend some quality time with her, we are hoping to go for a walk around Bourton on Water if weather is good. 

Today I am sharing the beautiful Christmas card I received from Maria, It's so sparkly, I love the stencilled snowflake background and that gorgeous sheer ribbon, all finished off with sparkly die cut bell and stars 😍. 

Thank you so much my lovely for a beautiful Christmas card. XXX 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Bit Box Silhouette card

 Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are being battered by the awful wind and rain, once again!!   The poor people that live the other side of Bourton on the Water (about 3 miles from us) are still trapped in their houses by the 30 + huge fir trees that fell a couple of weeks ago, they must be si frustrated, especially this time of year, they don't have phone or Internet services either due to the cables being down.  They must panic every time the wind picks up!  

You will have to zoom in to see the devastation,  the trees are having to be sawn up one by one which is why its taking so long.  

The girls and I popped into Witney for one last Brunch together before Christmas,  it was really busy but really lovely to spend that quality time together.  

Today I used one of the inky backgrounds that I made a month or so ago,  I will share a photo of it below

Its hard to capture the sparkle (its the light bits)

I used Forest Moss & Bundled Sage Distress Sprays and Pumice Stone & Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide Sprays and a few spritzes of water to create the background. 

I used my Inkylicious Ornate Deer/Stag (that I had never used 🙄!  To stamp the stag , I was thankful that I used my stamp tool as the background was Watercolour paper that was really textured,  so I needed to restamp several times,  also, because I used Oxide sprays the ink seemed to be absorbed by the oxide and wouldn't stay a deep dark black, do as I stamped the stag one last time I quickly added clear embossing powder and heat set, this made the black a lot more intense and gave a lovely shine too.  I did the same with the sentiment,  and finished the card with some tiny sparkles on the baubles.  

I hope that you all have as good a day as possible,

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

Bit Box Christmas Tags

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Happy 'Hump Day' I feel that this week is going wsy too fast and I still have so much to do,  I was home alone yesterday so I got a good bit of shopping done,  thank heavens for the internet,  I was thinking about shopping yesterday and wondered about who did our Christmas shopping as children, I can honestly say that I never saw my Mum going shopping,  not once,  so my Dad must have done it all,  I used to go food shopping with my Dad on a Friday evening,  I have no idea why Mum never used to go, in her later years, after Dad died she started to really enjoy walking round the shops in town.  Funny the things that come into your mind when you are on your own. 

I created a Christmas tag for today's post, using these two pieces of Ink Spritzed background to create the tag. 

I used Embossing paste through a stencil that I added Gold Embossing powder to, after allowing it to dry I heat set the powder and used a die to cut into a tag,  to embellish the tag I used my Tim Holtz  die to cut the Poinsettia and Holly leaves out of the two pieces of spritzed card.  I used gold shimmer card for the top layer of the die cut.  I arranged the die cuts onto the tag and added the sentiment and some ribbon to finish.  

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

2 Card-I O Wreath cards (throwback)

 

Good Morning Ladies,

Paul and I had a lovely day out yesterday,  we went first to Burford Garden centre to look for gift ideas, Paul's eye's almost popped out of his head at some of their prices,  I mean they are ridiculous!   We left there and drove through Burford that looks so pretty with the Christmas lights on. We made our way to the Fosseway garden centre which is a favourite of the Girls & I,  we got a couple of gifts there,  plus the clothe area had a sale and I managed to get a new top and we got some proper beef dripping from the amazing 'proper' butcher that is based in the food area.  You can tell that he's a proper butcher from the cuts that he sells,  he has things like Ox Cheek and Oxtail,  he prepares just about anything for you too, he even has the Crown Lamb Roast... 

I haven't seen these for years, it has an apricot & pork sausage meat stuffing.  Everything looked so fresh and well prepared, at first glance you would think its expensive compared to Supermarket but you are paying for a skill aren't you.  A different kind of craft in a way.

Matt still doesn't know what he wants for Christmas,  he was showing me something on Sunday, a battery power bank for when they use their caravan without electric hook up,  but then he scrolled down the price....£700,  the shock on his face was comical  🤣😂, I said well, I can contribute towards it but you may need a 'whip round' for the rest. !🤣😂  He said oh no don't worry.  So I'm waiting for another idea.  I have a couple bits for Becca,  we picked up a load of bulbs yesterday so that I can create her a couple of planters for Spring.  Something they can both enjoy too. Do any of you find Christmas shopping mentally draining??

After our lovely shopping day I didn't get to sit and finish a card for today so I am sharing a couple of Wreath style card that featured on the blog on this date in 2022.  

I actually totally forgot that I had these stamps 🙄,  which makes me think I need to store all of my stamps and dies in an area together,  I currently have all of my Cardio stamps in a box together, I think I need to take all the Christmas stamps out and have all brands Christmas in one place.  Is that what you all do?  

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs,

Sandra xxx 

Bit Box Christmas card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend,  we have a bonus day off together today, which I think Paul will be glad of as he was up before 7am yesterday making sure the freezer was defrosted (as you can incur an extra charge if it isn't defrosted) luckily he had all sorted early as they rang at 8am and arrived 15 mins later.  It was a little chaotic getting it in, they had to take the back door off,  I am so glad that I stayed upstairs out of the chaos.  It looks very nice though and its very quiet!  

Here are some photos of my bit box,  well....... a fraction of the collection of bit boxes if I'm being honest!!  I picked the out the more interesting bits to photograph. 

I used a piece of the red and green Alcohol ink background with gold glitter accents.  I used my Tim Holtz Festive Overlay sentiment stamp for the sentiment and finished the snowflake with a red gem. 

I am looking forward to seeing what you create with your Bit Box contents.  

Have a great week,

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx