Alternative advent calendar #10

Last weekend we met up with MoMa and MoPa for lunch and a little Christmas crafting,  I took down some stamps and other bits a bobs for us to use.  After a tentative start MoMa found her style and made these great Christmas wreath cards using Yellow Owl Workshop stamps!

Alternative advent calendar #5

You know it really helps having a screen printer as a husband, it means I get the off cuts of some really nice card and paper.  I have set myself to work creating cards and gift tags in an attempt to minimise the cost of Christmas, here is a sample of what I came up with!

The materials I used:

Fir branch stamp: Conifer Stamp Set from Yellow Owl Workshop

Babushka stamp: from Pretty Tape

Fir tree stamp: via Sieben Morgan

Star stamp: Image Tree Alphabet Stamp set via Amazon

Turquoise ink: 'Glacier Lake' by Colorbox via A Life Handmade

Red ink: Ink It Up! via Amazon

Grey ink: 'Seattle Sky' by Colorbox via A Life Handmade

Yellow ink: 'Lemon Yellow' by Versacraft via Snuggly Monkey

Red polka dot washi tape: Christmas washi tape via Pretty Tape

Bees

It's a certain MozzyMa's birthday soon, I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what we have got her but I did want to show you the wrapping paper we made before we have to post it off.  Using the bee rubber stamp set I purchased from TC Witchcraft Factory we customised it to the max!

The Wonderful Box of Happy

Sometimes life is rubbish, it just kicks you in the nuts and spits in your hair and I think some of our lovely friends are going through one of these times.  It came to a head when they discovered that someone had shoved a rock through their rear windscreen an expense few can afford during these lean times.  When I spoke to my friend she sounded utterly deflated and pissed off so I thought a Wonderful Box of Happy was in order....

Pigga helped with the glow bracelets, bicycle spoke beads, sweets, seeds, cat toys, 'Eat Your Greens' pencils, bubbles and tiny pom poms.  Actually she just wanted the pom poms.

All packed and ready to go...

The cardboard box was a little uninspiring so a little tarting up was in order, happily I have been building my rubber stamp and washi tape collection which came in handy.

I hope it puts a smile on their faces, it put a smile on mine collating it :)

Birthday prizes!

We have been celebrating mum's birthday this week, a little early as her actual birthday is the first week of January but as my brother goes home today it was the last opportunity we had to celebrate together.  So after the rich fruit cakes, mince pies, and cream I thought I would make Nigella Lawson's Lemon Syrup Cake as it's really zesty and fresh.

Birthday cards were made using the stamps MozzyMr gave me for Christmas, and presents were wrapped using the fab tape measure sticky tape I found in Totnes on our jaunt there late night shopping.  Brown and turquoise was the card/gift wrap theme. 

Following a meal out we relocated back to Plymouth where we sat around drinking port, did a crossword and watched films, nice and chilled, the perfect way to celebrate. 

The slow realisation that Christmas is on it's way....

As a kid, and on a family holiday in America my mum and I went to a craft class one evening in San Diego.  We did some rubber stamping, which for a craft-challenged kid was an easy way for me to make cards and things that looked good, back in Blighty I got into the hobby and made Christmas cards etc for everyone.  Then years later when I left home for university the little collection of stamp bits and bobs I had gathered were unceremoniously sold by my mum at a car boot sale.  Gutted.

Well several more years later I am building my little collection back up and what better starting point than Yellow Owl Workshop?  I've bought a number of presents for friends but had to buy this set for myself:

As the title of this blog would suggest Christmas has somewhat snuck up on me so this morning with a mini hangover and not a lot planned I settled down to make some cards for Christmas:

There are several more designs but I want to keep them a secret for the people who might receive them.  Other craft projects on the go: knitted petrol blue scarf, yo-yo placemats for Christmas table (yes, yes that is still on going), and Christmas gift tags.

Watch this space...