Taking a little break.

Hello everyone. It's been a week since my last post and I've had to make myself do this one today. To be truthful I'm feeling a little bit despondent where my blog is concerned. I don't know whether it's because of this busy time of the year or whether I just don't want to keep it up. Therefore, I've decided to have a bit of a "trial separation" in the hope that I'll miss it and try again in the new year.
Meanwhile here is my last Christmas card for the year. Yippee!!

Well, it's actually one of a pair I made for mum and mum in law. The image is by Meljens Designs. I don.t know the origin of the paper but it's one I downloaded ages ago. It was originally pink but I changed it to sepia in picasa. That's not glitter around the edges, it's actually the design of the paper. I love my fiskars deckle scissors because it doesn't matter if you can't cut straight, lol.

I do hope I'll be back in a few weeks time. I still want to make things but I'm a bit fed up of editing photos, doing links, etc. Maybe I've just got my lazy head on.
I hope you all have the best Christmas ever. I'm going out to a local hotel for my Christmas dinner as my kitchen closes for the day.

So merry Christmas, happy new year and hopefully I'll sort myself out.

I'm at my target weight again today but as of Saturday I'm going to stuff my face for a few weeks then back to the diet.

A couple of Christmas cards.

Quick post before I get ready for work. These are a couple of cards I made for an order. They are both in my easy "go to" layout.

Both images are by Meljens designs from Whimsy Stamps.

 A few scraps, a bit of ribbon and plenty of Stickles and we're done.

Weight this week still 9st 3lb, one over target.

A card for Teacher.

I wasn't going to blog this card as it was for a special order for someone who used to teach and I thought everyone would be more into Christmas stuff at the moment. Then I realised a teacher card is probably one of the most needed but hardest to come up with ideas for at this time of year.

So here it is. It could easily be made into a Christrmas teacher thank you card. It took me ages to find a suitable image but I eventually found this one from Colouring Pages 4 Kids  HERE. It's a great site with loads of different free images.

I didn't keep the link to the apples but I found them from Google images/line drawings. I just typed apples into the search box. I resized them and applied glossy accents after colouring them.

 My sleigh's virgin outing was such fun yesterday. There is a Christmas market in town which is pretty abysmal, but we hung out and had a mulled wine and a mince pie and everyone was commenting on my sleigh and asking where I got the lights from etc. One bloke ( who I knew) asked  where they where plugged in and I gave him such an X rated answer, lol. You should have seen his face. He saw the funny side though. He should have known what sort of answer I'd give him.

The Sleigh is Ready.

Well it's December again and time to hit the streets with my sleigh. I've bought some new lights which are bigger and brighter than my old ones.

I will be going out with it for a few early doors drinkies after a bit of late afternoon shopping tomorrow. People have already been asking when I'm bringing it out as it gets them in the festive mood. You know what that means though.......yes it'll probably pee down all afternoon.
I've been of work this week using my hols and sods law, I've not been well again. This cough/cold keeps coming back and I've not felt like doing much at all. I've managed to finish my Christmas card orders though. I know I'm using capitals here but I do mean to shout. THANK YOU TO ALL THE GENEROUS ARTISTS WHO HAVE BEEN GIVING FREE CHRISTMAS IMAGES!!  They have helped such a lot. I don't really like making Christmas cards but new images cropping up makes it much more enjoyable.
As this is supposed to be a card making blog I suppose I'd better show you one. Not a Christmas one either.

Another free image this time thank you to Doodle Pantry. There's a whole page of them there. I'm not sure about the paper as I've lost the cover but it's from a 12 x 12 stack and it could be DCWV. The card is 6"X6".

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today 9st 3lb. Lets face it the only way is up for the next few weeks, lol.

Christmas bargain quickies.

Quick post this morning as I'm off to the Hospital with Speedy for his check up. I was in B&M last week and found a card of 24 gift tags for 89p. I made a set of 24 5x5 cards.

 The card bases and envelopes were in a kit and have been sitting around as I don't really get on well with cream card bases. The photo is a bit naff, it was getting dark. I gave them to Patrick, my boss as a little thank you for letting me sell my cards in his shop. They do other colours. If anyone is needing to do loads of cards they would be an alternative to resorting to shop bought ones.

A sad day for Speedy's family.

As we all know Gary Speed took his own life yesterday. Gary was my  Speedy's second cousin i.e. Speedy's dad's brother was Gary's granddad. I'll never understand suicide but my heart goes out to my husbands family especially at this time of year.

Santa pringles cans.

I went for a drink to a pub in Chester and spotted 2 Small Pringles cans on a vacated table. I pounced on them before the bar staff could clear them away. I've seen so many of these and other containers and jars altered for Christmas pressies and thought I'd have a go.

Good what a bit of red and black paper can do. The buckle was made with silver glitter card and  scalloped plain square punches. I bought a huge reel of the braid at Abakhan for £1 last year and have used loads of it on various gift boxes. I glued a circle of red paper to the lid and edged it with silver stickles.A week later I went back to the pub in the hope of scrounging a couple more tins but guess what? They don't sell them any more. Typical !!

Friday weight, 9st 2lb (target weight) Christmas is coming though............

Grinch pills for the grown ups.

When I was sitting glued to Pinterest for far too long I came across this idea for Grinch pills.

 Speedy calls one of his mates the Grinch because he's such a miserable so and so and he asked me to make some to take to the pub at Christmas.Well, you know what I'm like, I can't possibly make something so tasteful and decided to make my own version.

D'you know what? I've worked in a newsagent for nearly 7 years and have always assumed spearmint softmints where green, lol. There's always something to learn in any job !! I bought these from poundland in a pack of 4 rolls and was gobsmacked when I opened them.  Still I'm sure they'll still work.

I found the little Grinch clip art from google images.

I'm about half way through my Christmas shopping. I'm off next week so hopefully I can get it finished. In a moment of weakness I've gone and promised speedy ( who thinks he's Father Christmas ) we can put the tree up this weekend. Eeeeek!!

A million housewives every day...........

...............Pick up a tin of beans and say. I'm probably showing my age now but most of us will probably remember the old Heinz beans advert. And as we were kids at the time we just couldn't resist singing our own version could we. On my daily scavenge to the Free Digital Stamps site I found this image from Marlene at Disguised as a Grown Up.

Don't you just love his face? You have to be quick to get Marlene's images though as they are usually only available for 24 hours this one is now available from Dude Time Doodles HERE. The papers are downloaded from Summer Driggs.

Here's another version. I added the caption before printing the image.

I've had a right cold and cough this week and I've felt as "rough as our soles". I very rarely get ill so this came as a right shock to the system. I'm on the mend now though so hopefully I'll be OK for the next few years.

Friday weigh in.  9st 2lb. (target weight).

I couldn't help myself.

I was in Tesco this morning and noticed the loose "fill a bag" sweets. I spotted these false teeth and thought about my workmate's hubby who has just had 6 top ones fitted. Then I remembered the bloke who sweeps the roads outside the shop also recently had a full set.Both of them are up for a laugh. Well, what's a girl to do??

I made up the little poem and found the sad man on Google images.

I also went into Boots to look for Christmas pressie ideas and found these among all the boring toiletry sets.

Sorry about the blurred photo. The hard backed note book at the back says " little gorjuss thoughts and was £10. With the 2 for 3 offer I got the memo block free. A nice little pressie for a young lady or perhaps a fellow crafter.

Well that's it from me for now. I'll weigh myself in the morning and confess to being a right greedy madam all week. I'll be good next week.......................

Update.  Target weight 9st 2lb Today 9st 3lb. Should have been worse really.

Naughty stocking fillers.

These are neither use nor ornament really.They serve no purpose except for providing their recipient with a cheap chuckle after opening all the boring socks.

They are the result of killing time in Tesco while waiting for Speedy to meet me.I should never be left unattended in a shop for too long, lol. I saw these balloons, 20 for £2 and thought "they remind me of something". They just needed to be blown up for 5 minutes or so to make then look a bit more convincing.

I made up the little poem and found the santa clipart on google images. The bags are the size used for C6 cards. The Works usually have them for 99p but be warned, they are slightly too small for C6 envelopes but fine for gift bags. Feel free to copy the idea if you know someone who's up for a laugh.

Another quickie baby card.

I've had this idea in my head for ages but couldn't find an image of a baby in a nappy. On last Friday's post I gave a link to a site which I've just found. There are lots of baby images ( some a bit blurred but most are OK ) including this one.

A bit different to the usual "welcome baby" stuff. The backing paper is from a stack. I've lost the cover but I think it could be DCWV.

The glue on my flower and the stickles aren't dry in the pic because I was going out and had to take the photo because it would be too dark when I got back.

Off to work now but before I go............
...........Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, 9st 3lb. One back on, lol.

Ramblers Card.

Evening all, I won't say "good" because it's peeing down here in Chester.I managed to get back from town before it started though.

A friend of mine rang the other night to ask me to make a card for someone who has just completed the Wainwrigh'ts walks across the Pennines. I remember my dad doing this years ago. He used to walk for miles.In the days of using just wooden stamps, I'd have had to say no but I searched Google images and came up with a nice map to use as background paper and found a great image from Artur's Clipart  HERE.

And here's the result. I even managed to find some walking boots. I resized them, coloured them, then coated them with glossy accents.

The card base is 6"x6".

Well, I need to get myself into the kitchen now. Speedy is still not managing to eat properly and being quite picky, so I've put a chicken in the oven hoping the smell when he comes home will make him want to eat it.

RSPCC. Look away now!

I was printing out some jars and was looking in my saved images for something to go inside the jars when something caught my wicked eye. Well how could I resist, lol. I just had to make up a quickie card.

How cool is that! I wonder if anyone will buy it if I put it on sale?! The jar image is from Scrapping Turtle.

I can't find the original source for the baby but while I was looking at google images I found THESE and was well chuffed.The baby at the bottom is the one I used for this card and couldn't find it again. I printed the caption in "thread fun" font. There is a link to the cute buttons in my side bar.

Todays weight 9st 2lb (target weight).

Another spice gift and some measurements.

Here's another little stocking filler for the cooks in our lives. Again, a bargain from Tesco on special offer. Not sure how much but around the £1.50 mark.

The image is from  ( oh no! I left a space here to add a link later only to find it was one of those 24 hour freebies but you may find something suitable HERE, another useful site)   and the caption is by Meljens Designs HERE. 

The instructions on the packet says " rub into poultry, meat, fish or anything else you can get your hands on " so look out speedy, lol.. I peeled the use by date off the back and stuck it onto the card so people can see it without pulling the packet off as it's stuck on with double sided tape. The piece of card is 11.5 cm x 24cm,  Score at 2cm, 13cm and 14cm.As you can see I've put some staples close to the bottom fold so the flap stays in better.

 I've also worked out the measurements for my little box on my last post;
The lid is 17.3cm x 20.3 cm and scored at 4cm on all sides.
The bottom ( slightly taller) is 21cm x 18cm and scored at 4.5 cm on all sides.
 Happy gift making.

Another spice box.

Well, here we go again, back to trying to take decent photos in electric light. This is the best I can get these to their true colours.

I know I've posted this type of box before but I'm showing you this one because the spices are on special offer at Tesco, 2 for £2.50 at the moment so it makes an even cheaper stocking filler.The links for the free image is on this post along with some slightly better photos.

I've got quite a few of them made ready as they come in handy for work mates and little extras for people who are hard to buy for.

Remember me telling you about my boss with his packet of oats last week? Well, speedy has had to go one better. He fancied nachos with a bit of chilli last night so I decided to have chilli with rice for myself. He wanted to watch the end of the film so I dished mine up and left his chilli in a dish and grated some cheese for him. I told him the chilli was under the grill on low keeping warm and all he needed to do was put half of the cheese on top, grill it for a couple of minutes, put the nachos and the rest of the cheese on top and grill it again. Easy??? No!! He goes into the kitchen and comes back with a plate with a layer of grated cheese on it, lol. nothing else, just cheese. He said "do I put it under the grill like this then?" He hadn't listened to a word I'd said. What he was planning to do with the plate of grilled cheese, I just don't know. As you've guessed, I normally do all the cooking. Useless men!

An emotional occasion.

Well, what a week I've had. Speedy had his third Hepatitis B injection last week as part of prep for a possible kidney transplant. He had a really bad reaction, partly because they gave him a flu injection at the same time. Sickness, trots, stomach pains, you name it he had it. On Monday he went to the doctor's and collapsed when trying to convince the receptionist that he needed to be seen.He doesn't usually go to the doctors without me hounding him, so he must have felt bad. He rang me to say he was on his way to A&E in an ambulance!! I managed to get there about an hour later ( on the train as I don't drive), and was taken to an isolation room.He looked so pale, he had his eyes closed, and for all the world he looked dead.I just stood there rooted to the spot. Then he woke up and saw me and he cried his eyes out. We both thought his kidneys were packing up. He was on a drip as he was dehydrated and there was also a paracetamol drip. He had been waiting for a doctor to see him. To cut a long story short it was the jabs that did it and blood tests showed his kidneys hadn't been made worse. It was very scary. He's OK now though, 9lb lighter but starting to eat again.

But that's not the emotional occasion that this post is about. We've been invited to an anniversary party on Saturday, which we will go to for an hour or so as it's only a short walk away. Sometimes I go to Google images/ line drawings and type in things such as fruit, cookies, toys etc and save free images for future use.This card uses one of them.

It was from a colouring page HERE.  The caption which came along just in time is from Create with TLC. The backing paper is Papermania. The little hearts were from the Papermill Shop before it closed down and the little tag is from the bowels of my stash. I used liquid pearls on the icing and decided I'll never make a confectioner, lol. Sorry about the photo, it's a bit blurred.

As a result of speedy not eating much, I've been taking advantage of not having to cook renal friendly food and made a big vat of bolognese ( tomatoes are a big no no) and have been scoffing it all week, so.....
Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, 9st 3lb. I did expect it to be worse.....................it will probably hit me tomorrow.

Oats so Hilarious.

No cards today but a bit of a giggle instead. Now, no way am I about to take the wee wee out of my boss as I respect his position as proprietor and besides, he pays my rent,lol. No, I love him to bits, partly because he's such a sweetie pie, but not least, because he makes me laugh. He doesn't tell jokes or funny stories. He doesn't need to. He makes me laugh just by being Patrick. On Friday morning he arrives on the shop floor with a sachet of Oat so Simple which his girlfriend had given him for his morning break as he usually skips breakfast due to the 6am start.

I'm tittering to myself now before I've even told the story, lol. It was fairly busy in the shop so I couldn't give him my full attention, but he was basically trying to figure out what to do with the sachet. I glanced at it  ( I've never had one of these either as I don't like porridge) and said well have you got a bowl ? He said  "no, I'll make it in my mug", which is quite large.  Then he said,  " oh come one Di, it can't be as hard as it looks on the packet" (!!) and went downstairs.  2 minutes later he went back to check on his gorgeous smelling brekkie. I heard a load of expletives and he was standing there with a microwave turntable covered in oats. "What happened", I said. "I dunno, it's a load of s**t ",  he said. It was only half an hour later after a load of questions, I realised what he'd done. He'd stood the packet of oats in the mug,  filled it to the mark with milk and switched the microwave on!! Well we laughed our heads off. At least the shop smelled of lovely syrup for ages. I told him he was going on my blog  which he doesn't look at anyway. Love him to bits , he's so funny, much better than working with a load of  boring women talking about bleaching and cleaning..................

Naff Christmas Gifts, lol.

Let's face it, I'd be gutted if someone gave me tea towels for Christmas but some one's going to get one of these jokey gifts in their stocking this year.

I found a pack of 4 micro fibre tea towels for £1.79 while browsing at B&M and I thought they would be perfect for this image and caption from Create with TLC. The link to both is at the bottom of THIS POST.  Lesson learned here is to use strong glue in vertical stripes then it will be easier to curve the image around. I used glue all over and it set quite hard so it was a bit tricky not to end up creasing it up. I think double sided tape might not stay put with it being curved unless you've got super strong stuff.

Today's weight. 9st 2lb. ( still at target ).

Ghostly Smut!

Back again as promised with the result of yesterdays shopping. These little gifts are for grown ups! Why should the kids have all the fun?

I've smudged the naughty word with picasa tools so Mr Blogger won't shout at me.

I got the idea when i was mooching on Pinterest and found a much tamer version. I googled Halloween in google images/clipart to find the house. There's loads of ghosts, spiders etc. I printed the poem in Hoola boola font.

Off to mother's now. when i get back I'll see if i can find the clean version from Pinterest and do a link. Meanwhile I found a great site for printable tags, journaling pages and labels etc. Its called Sweetly Scrapped . Make sure the kids are in bed and hubby is bound and gagged and spend a couple of hours browsing as it's quite a big site.

EDIT. The original treat bags with printable topper can be found HERE at Glorious Treats. I couldn't find all white marshmallows or little red sweets so I had to improvise with craisins and popcorn.

Sneak peek.

How lazy is this? All you'e getting today is a peak at my shopping. These were bought from Tesco along with a bag of white popcorn. CLUE..............Ssmmmuuuttttttttttttt.

Yes the seasonal smut is back. I need to print and bag up. See you tomorrow. xx

Cookie tin gifts.

I think it's time I got my skates on with my Christmas gift making while there's still a fairly decent amount of daylight left. I was mooching around what I call the naughty aisle ( biscuits and sweets ) in Tesco and came across these tins of cookies.

There were 5 or 6 different types and all were priced at between £1.60 and £1.99. Not a bargain for a few cookies by any means but with a bit of paper and ribbon, I made them into nice little stocking fillers.

The main background paper was already there so all they needed was a contrasting band.

Here's the double chocolate version. I got the free image from Arthur's Clip Art HERE. There are a few more useful images in the "food" pages. The caption is from Create with TLC HERE.

I didn't like the sticker on the top with the scruffy black tape so I cut around the circle and stuck it onto a punched scalloped circle.
I learned a couple of things when making these so I'll pass them on. First of all make sure there are no dents in the tins. Secondly apply all layers separately. With the tin being a curved surface the papers crinkle if you mat them up and then apply.

I cheated and drafted this post last night as it is a fairly longish one. So all i need to do then is...................

Today's weight 9st 2lb ( target weight ). Going out for a big scoff tonight for stepsons 30th birthday so that will soon change.

An older cutting and sticking habit.

I was sorting through my enormous cookery book collection the other day trying to decide which ones to give away and which ones to keep. I had far too many and my shelves were bursting at the seems. I ended up wondering which one i would keep if I was only allowed to keep one. No contest. It was one I started compiling 14 years ago. It started life as a hardback " day to a page " diary. I decided to give it the respect it deserved and here's how it turned out.

12 x 12 paper wasn't wide enough to fold inside at the top and bottom but that's OK as I'm going to cover it with some clear adhesive plastic. It took 2 sheets, one for the front and one for the back.

I've spent years cutting recipes out of magazines and copying ones from library books.

I've used each month for a different category eg chicken, beef, cheese , desserts, food gifts, preserving, etc.

And another page. I'm looking at it now and wondering how on earth chicken soup ended up in the fish chapter, lol.

And if you're not drooling enough already here's a page from the desserts chapter. Unlike the rest of my cookery books, there is nothing in this book that I wouldn't like to make and eat.
If I've inspired you to start one of these yourself make sure you buy a decent quality diary and reinforce the spine with tape before covering it as it will end up bulging quite a bit.

I'll hit the publish button now but I'll find the links to the images which were freebies and add them later.

LINKS. CHEF by TLC. HERE
              VENDING MACHINES CAPTION by TLC  HERE
              LADY BAKING by TLC    HERE
              LADY WASHING UP by TLC  HERE.
              BON APPETITE by TLC  HERE.

More Christmas Quickies.

Morning all. A quickie post and some quickie cards.

Meljens digi stamp again.This design would be great for hot chocolate gift sets.The cards are five and a half inches square again.

I added the sentiment before printing out then coloured with Promarkers and added some stickles.

I'm off to work now. Channel 4 are filming a programme about small businesses in Chester today and they are coming to our shop early this morning. I hope they've gone by the time I get there as I hate cameras. Besides I'm on the wanted dead or alive list at the cop shop...........just joking.  Oh, and we have already been filmed for don't tell the bride in November. Me and Patrick must have looked right nerds as we didn't know what was going on. We thought it was an OTT stag party who had bought an amateur film crew along until they finally told us what they were doing. That should be entertaining, lol.

Weight today 9st 2lb, (Target weight).

I'm back !

Well. I don't know what happened but my blog has been poorly for a few days. I had one of those " malware" warnings flashing up and no-one including me could get into my blog. My mate who sorts peoples computers out for a living said Google would spot it and sort it out and not to worry about it. The good news is that he was right and according to Webmaster tools I'm clean as a whistle. The not so good news is that i didn't give a monkeys if my blog never came back.I felt relieved at not having to update it, not that I "have to" anyway but I feel I should. It's not the writing of the posts as much as the photo editing and trying to get a decent pic in bad light etc. I think I really started to get fed up of it when I started entering challenges as I find it such a pain finding suitable ones and linking up and so forth. It turned my hobby into a job and I've already got one of those. So I've decided not to enter any more for the time being and see if  that helps me. I don't want to stop blogging. I'd get fat for a start, if I didn't do my friday weigh ins, lol. Anyway, I hope i'ts just a temporary feeling and that it will go away soon.

In the meantime I've made a few simple Christmas cards.

It took me long enough to get these photos too look ok. The cards are five and a half inches square and are from Hobbycraft.

The image is by Meljens designs. I don't remember where i found the sentiment tickets but there are loads if you look in Google images/line drawings.

Here's a close up of the image with a dollop of Stickles to finish.

I've got a huge slow cooker full of beef, tomato and olive casserole to sort out now. I'm trying to get the freezer full of "ready meals" for the winter . Tesco 3 meat items for £10 are 4 items for £10 at the moment so I'm making the most of it while it lasts.
EDIT. Sorry it was 4 for £12 at Tesco but still good.

Ride like the wind.

I was having a little look at Free Digital Stamps last week and came across a page of free images at Operation Write Home. I couldn't resist this little gem as it's perfect for younger men. It's my stepson's birthday next week so it came just in time.

I got the gingham card from Payperbox a couple of years ago when i was on holiday and I'm really tight with it because there isn't a Payperbox anywhere near me. So, Simon, consider yourself honoured!

I got the caption from TLC Creations HERE. It goes really well with the image.
Off to work now but I'll be back tonight to link up to any suitable challenges.

Challenges. Southern girls, Anything goes
                   Anything goes challenge. Anything goes.
                   Digital tuesday. People images.
                   Papertake weekly. Creature comforts
                   Top tip tuesday. Kids/teenagers.

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, still a slightly naughty 9st 3lb.