"Street Life"

Hi, no gripes or groans this week, I'm far too busy panicking about last minute.com christmas things. Only managed to get the cards in the post on tuesday and even then most people have ended up with a cheap Asda card and not a handmade beauty! So to those of you who got the bog-standard one's I apologise and promise to try harder next year. One of my resolutions is going to be to join a challenge that just does Christmas cards all year through, then at least I should have enough decent ones to go round!

On to this weeks card and it's a Digi/hybrid card. The young lady is a Kenny K character (as I'm sure you all knew just from looking at her!!) called Da Bomb and she is on a Make It Crafty background. I also used a bit of really old Basic Grey paper which I found at the bottom of my off-cuts stash. I finished it off with a Lily Of The Valley sentiment and a little key attached with a little ribbon.

This has been one of my favourite cards of the year, mainly because of the colouring. It took ages to do and that's just the way I love it at the moment. The colouring can really take you out of yourself and for a little while you just forget your worries and concentrate on something really positive and enjoyable.

The I Love ProMarkers challenge this week is Anything Goes and runs for two weeks, so get over there and show me what you can do.

Have an amazing Christmas and New Year, Jo and I send you all our very deepest wishes and hope that 2012 is a great your for one and all!

See you agin soon,

Andy

x

Entered Into: Bearly Mine Challenge #26 - Anything Goes

Everybody-Art Challenge #173 - Anything Goes

Party Time Tuesdays Challenge #47 - Use Ribbon

Try It On Tuesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Robyn's Fetish Challenge #88 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time Challenge #94 - Use A Digi

Sparkles Forum Challenge - Anything BUT a Christmas Card

Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes (must include a sentiment)

Basic Grey Challenges #59 - Anything Goes

"Blue is the Colour..."

So in the fine tradition of using song titles in your blog headers (okay, so it's my tradition, but I like it!), I couldn't think of another one that only used blue in it, so please don't think I am a Chelsea supporter - I may just gag! I'm a Newcastle Utd supporter through and through, but they don't quite fit in with this weeks theme at I Love ProMarkers, which is Blue & White.

For me, the theme screamed 'Christmas'; you can't beat a nice crisp white against a blue background and I am really happy (for a change!) with this weeks finished card. The stamp is another Gorjuss (I bought about five different ones and this is only the second one I've used!!), and for a change I did a bit of paper piecing on the coat, then finished it off with some very tiny buttons. The snow is glitter dust which I just love to bits and the die on the side is a new(ish) die from Paper Box. The Poinsettia and tall leaf are Marianne Designs and the leaves at the bottom of the flower are from Sizzix. All of this is laid over a piece of plain blue card, covered in some printed acetate which I have had in my (12x12) stash forever but had no idea when I was going to use it.

As it is the season for the old Christmas party, I decided to join my fellow work colleagues this week for our annual sojourn. We went to the Ocean chinese restaurant (in Lincoln) and as ever the food was amazing. I did however consolidate a feeling I had long held and that was that I really DO NOT like being around belligerent, drunken women. My ex-wife used to be a bit of a nasty drunk and as I am on long-term pain medication I no longer enjoy the odd tipple when I go out as it just makes me feel ill. Being around drunks isn't usually a problem for me, as Jo and I don't really go anywhere in the evenings these days, we are very much home bodies now but on the odd occassion I do go out, I don't mind being with people who are drinking. Sunday night was totally different though as one of the girls (she shall remain nameless) was drunk when she arrived. All through the evening I seemed to be her target and while I am not one to make a big scene I really didn't appreciate the (sometimes quite hurtful) comments she was throwing about. Rest assured though, when I next see her at work and she isn't sozzled I will definately have something to say!

Anyhoo, on a lighter note, hope you are nearly ready for Christmas. Jo and I are getting there slowly (which is how we do everything these days!!) and I am getting quite excited.

Hope you like the card and I will of course see you agin real soon.

Take care,

Andy

x

Entered into: 4 Crafty Chicks #68 - Christmas

Christmas Card Challenges week #3 - Non-Traditional Colours

Creative Inspirations Paint - The Holidays

Dream Valley Challenges #22 - Christmas

Gingerloft Challenges #30 - Christmas and Winter

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz Challenges #74 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time #93 - Anything Goes

Opus Gluei Challenge #120 - I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas

The Squirrel And The Fox Challenge #7 - Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #51 - Anything Goes For Christmas

Bugaboo Stamp's Catch The Bug Challenge - Baby, It's Cold Outside

Di's Digi Designs Challenge - Show Us Christmas

Marks Finest Papers Challenge #86 - Make A Christmas Card

Card Makin' Mamas Challenge - Christmas Inspiration

Delicious Doodles Challenge #8 - X-travagent Xmas

Glitter Geeks Challenge Week 28 - Anything Goes

Hot Shot Craft Challenge #1 - ProMarkers

"It's A Hard Life"

So this week has been a real challenge for both Jo and I. I have a really bad back problem which has been ongoing for the last 12/13 years now. During all this time Jo has taken really good care of me but now things are beginning to look really bad for us. Jo has recently been diagnosed with severe arthritis and it has flared up like nothing else I have ever seen. She is off work at the moment but I'm beginning to think that Dark Days are coming!

Anyway, onto lighter things. This weeks challenge over at I Love ProMarkers was for a shaped card so I thought it was the perfect time to use my free dies that came with my Grand Caliber (courtesy of Create and Craft, thank you!). Apparently they are exclusive to the deal I got so hopefully you won't see loads of these shaped cards out there.

I used Gorjuss and Lily of the Valley stamps and a Marianne Designs Poinsettia to finish it off. Things have been a bit hectic so it was finished a bit too quickly and the photo isn't very good either but i'm afraid this is as good as it's gonna get this week. Hope you like it and see you again soon,

Andy

x

Entered into: Craft Room Challenge - Make Your Own Flowers

Creative Card Crew - Tis the Season

Papertake weekly challenge - Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown #77 - Celebrate The Season

Heartsong Inspirations #27 - Christmas and/or Red, Green and White

Kaboodle Doodles #96 - Colours of Christmas

Make It Monday #66 - Anything Goes

Pollycraft Challenge #120 - Christmas Fun

Truly Madly Crafty Challenges - Christmas images & Colours

Come And Get It - Colour Challenge: Red, Green and your Choice

Dream Valley Challenges #22 - Christmas

Gingerloft Challenge #30 - Christmas and Winter

Let's Ink It Up Challenges - Christmas Projects

Paper Sundaes Challenge #99 - Anything Christmas

The Squirrel and the Fox Challenge #7 - Christmas

2 Sisters Challenge #69 - Christmas

Crafty Calendar Challenge - Cold and Frosty!

CES Challenges #65 - A Traditional Christmas

Summer or Winter - Which One Are You ???

I'm very much in the autumn/winter camp myself. I have nothing against sunshine and the spring of course but I love to see the beautiful colours of autumn, nature going out in a blaze of glory and all that. Winter for me means cosy nights in with the heating on and the curtains drawn nice and early, making sure the cats are all in before it gets too dark (two of them are black and white and in the dark they seem to be invisible!!), evenings spent crafting or just going to bed nice and early and of course, our old favourite, Christmas.

I hate shopping up the town so the internet is absolutley brilliant for people like me, I barely buy anything these days that isn't purchased electronically! My faith in Norton is unconditional i'm afraid. In all the years i've shopped over the web I have only had one problem and that was with I-Tunes!!

Anyhoo, on to the card this week. The I Love ProMarkers challenge this week is #94 Snowmen/Snowflakes, so I combined both. I was a little confused though because one of our upcoming challenges is for a shaped card so I made this one round because I had confused two challenges into one! However, once it was made I felt it lent itself to the snowglobe shape perfectly. The backing paper was bought at a craft fair from one of those stalls that promises to sell you a tonne of paper - as long as you can fit it all into one box! The blue and white checked paper was a lucky scrap I found and the big snowflake is made from a Nestie (the beautiful Ironworks ones). Finally the image is from Robyn's Fetish, a great site for some lovely Digi images. So there it is, hope you like it and I'll be with you again real soon

Andy

x

Entered into: Cooking It Up With Katie #86 - Anything Goes

Digi Stamps 4 Joy #33 - Merry Christmas (but no animals!)

Divas By Design #16 - Anything Goes

Fab 'n Funky #101 - Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter #42 - Anything Goes

Scrapbook Sisters #62 - Anything Goes

7 Kids College Fund #35 - Non-Traditional Christmas Colours

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

365 Cards Day 274 - Winter Theme
Creative Craft Challenges - Free For All
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - Christmas
Jens Digi Stamps - Merry & Bright (Non-Traditional Christmas Colours)
Party Time Tuesdays #44 - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog #92 - Winter
Craft Your Passions Challenge #86 - 'tis The Season
Craft Boots Challenges - Anything Goes

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges #47 - Must use a Digi + Be Christmassy

Hooked On Craft Challenges #13 - Winter Wonderland

"I Believe In A Thing Called Love......."

So in case you didn't guess, I went to see The Darkness at Rock City in Nottingham last night. Newly reformed and with their original line-up it was an amazing night out. Support band Foxy Shazam were a bit of a mixed bag, the lead singer came on stage and was really aggressive with the crowd, he then went on to tell a story about killing a dog and going to prison for said dog murder! After the audience turned quite ugly they began to perform and they were awesome, really great performers with a quite unique sound. One particular bloke in the audience kept giving them abuse so they brought him on stage and walked off!! this resulted in the crowd turning against one man and the band came back on stage to cheers - utter genius.

But I digress. This week's card was a REAL challenge for me. I had to use an image from Digi Doodle Shop and while their images are very cute, they aren't really in my style. I originally did a carousel horse but I didn't like the way I coloured it and I struggled to think of a colour scheme I could live with. In the end, I spit the dummy out and found a different image, which I have to say I loved doing. I even did an insert which is highly unusual for me, so it all worked out okay in the end!

The papers are (of course!) Basic Grey - they are from the latest Christmas range and the letters are from a Sizzix Strip Die which I got rather cheaply from Sir Stampalot who recently had a bit of a sale on. They are one of my favourite shops on-line, they always have the newest Magnolia stamps and their service is excellent, very friendly and helpful if you have a problem.

So, there's the card, hope you like it. I'm really happy with it for a change!

See you again soon,

Andy

x

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends x

Entered into: Crafting For All Seasons #14 - Thanksgiving, Thank You or Sketch

Crafty Creations #145 - Thanks/Gratitude

Creative Belli #131 - Thanksgiving

Little Darlings Challenge #12 - Thank You

My Mums Craft Shop Challenges # 33 - Things With Wings

Papercraft Star Challenge #72 - Anything Goes

Creative Craft Challenges - Free For All

Going Grey with Scrap Creations - Thank You!

Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog #91 - Anything Goes
The Stamping Boutique Challenge #20 - Thanksgiving

Make It Monday Challenge #64 - Anything Goes

Tiddly Inks Challenge #74 - Anything Goes

Nettie G's Digital Gems Challenge - Gratitude Is My Attitude

The Pink Elephant Challenge #126 - Giving Thanks

Victorine Original Stamps Challenge #21 - Thanks

The Corrosive Challenge #137 - Give Thanks

Sorry i'm a bit late!!

I'm not really sure how I feel about this weeks card! It took me ages to put together but you can't really see what it was that I was trying to do. I cut a load of octagons out with my cuttlebug and then wanted to make a sort of quilt pattern with it but you can't really see it can you? The I had to put the little snowmen squares in which was a bit of a nightmare to do. I made the big flower using a Chocolate Baroque stamp (Glenda Waterworth is really such a classy designer) and then used a Lily of the Valley stamp to finish it off. So there you have it and I hope you like it too, see you again soon x

I won something !!!!!!

Well I know it might not be a lot to some people, but I won one of the many challenges I usually enter. I get a really sweet acrylic stamp (chosen by me) and the enormous sense of self fulfillment that comes with winning something. So thank you very much to all the ladies on the DT at Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge Blog, you have no idea how much this has meant to me.
Cheers
Andy
x