Magnolia Anniversary

 Hello Friends...how are you doing? I hope you are well and I am so pleased you have popped by.

Still using last years creations that never got blogged!

Today is Anniversary Day...not an actual anniversary but a day to show you a couple of cards.

First up......

Memory Box Magnolia

Not clear to see on the photo is that this was on pearlescent card with some scoring down behind the magnolia which was created from the die. Coloured with oxides and a dauber.

and secondly......

Again using Memory Box and the flower cut in pearlescent card and created from the embossing folder with the corresponding die. The background die and the heart also Memory Box.

Well it is snowing here in West Yorkshire today, but thankfully not settling....yet! The flakes are getting bigger but the ground is very wet. Yesterday was a sunny spring day!

Not sure if I will get by again before 'life' renders crafting off the 'to do' list for a few weeks due to my shoulder op on Monday..eek......lots to do before then!.....things I know won't get done for a while again!

Thank you all for stopping by, your good wishes and comments are so very much appreciated and I do hope when I get back to the creating and blogging you will still be around and pop by again.

Funny how mojo returns when you know you cannot use it!..lol.....

Take care everyone......wherever you are, and enjoy whatever you are doing.

Crafty hugs

Carole xx

Silhouette - Birthday

 Hi Folks

Whizzing in...just like the month of February has done..or perhaps I should say sneaking in?...either way this year promises so far to go even faster than the last one!..along with my life!!...and yours! (sorry if you didn't want to think that).

I thought I would share the birthday card I made for my DIL  and never blogged. She is mad keen on horses..hence the image, and teaches riding. She loved this card...me? not so sure about this one....see what you think.

It was the first card I have made her that I have been able to put DIL on!

Have a good weekend everyone! and 'Thank You' for your lovely comments on my last post and for stopping by to read this one. Blogging friends are the best!

Crafty hugs till next time

Carole xx

Late as usual!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well January is whizzing past as no doubt the rest of the year will do so I thought I had better wish all my lovely blogging friends the above before it got too late....so Happy 2024 everyone!

I hope this finds you all safe,well, warm and that you had a good festive season...seems ages ago now doesn't it!

Apologies for my lack of blogging yet again...life happens and shoulder surgery due a couple of weeks ago was cancelled and is now next month. 

As I haven't much new to blog I have delved into the folder with some cards I did last year that never made it here.

I had cause for a couple of 90th Birthday cards last year (wonder if I will make another two decades?)

Here they are just different colours. I think I like the lemon one best, which is your favourite?

I think the embossing is a Lisa Horton folder that comes with the die to cut it out and I coloured with oxides, very gently applying with a sponge finger dauber. and then placed in the aperture cut with a  circle die

The sentiment and numbers are old from my ever growing, never decreasing stash.

Sorry the photos are not the best for showing detail. The lemon one is bazzill card..remember that? and the pink one the same but already bobbled in effect.

So there we have my first post of 2024 and if you have not given up on me, and kindly stopped by to peek, then please let me know. It's good to have friends and know that I am not talking to myself ( I seem to spend a bit of time doing that anyway!)

Thank you for popping in...see you again soon I hope with some more 'left overs'.

Crafty hugs

Carole xx

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

 Hello friends...and huge apologies for my bad blogging but here I am now.

Life took over amidst the wedding and my significant birthday and time ran away for me resulting a very few handmade cards this year. Yes I know my New year Resolution for 2023 went completely out of the window didn't it.! (a card a week)..Maybe next year? I'm not promising this time round as shoulder surgery could be looming which will put paid to quite a bit.

One special card I have managed to make for Andrew and Becky, based on a similar one by 'John Next Door' and his dies. I can share now as they wont peek at my blog...yes you are right last minute so will be giving tomorrow (head hung in shame again!)

Apologies ( I seem to be doing a lot of that) for the photo, the light has been terrible here the past couple of days.

Behind the Happy and the Christmas is gold mirri card...not so obvious against the wood. Word dies and the mistletoe are 'John next Door' and the berries are tiny pearls with a black dot from a sharpie pen. The tiny gold bow is from a Lisa Horton freebie on similar lines.

The card is bright white though it looks cream on the photo.

So that's it for this year folks...another year beckons and I hope it doesn't whizz past as fast as this one seems to have.

Thank you to each and everyone of you who have visited my blog and left me encouraging comments this year. They are all so much appreciated .

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year and for those of you who for whatever reason are finding it hard, I wish you the peace and strength to see it through.

Here's to a crafty 2024! everyone! Cheers! 

Love Carole xx

Wedding!

 Hello everyone!

Life has been busy and time just keeps getting away from me, so big apologies for my bad blogging and I hope you are all still with me.

Crafting has taken place sporadically but sad to say not a Christmas card in sight yet!

Let's start my catch up with the wedding which seems ages ago now.

Here is the invite.........

.......and here is the wedding card I made for them........

Love this Memory Box heart, and I was able to carry the theme through.

So..... to the Bride and Groom who were blessed with the weather on the day and it was quite warm too. The day after we were marooned in the hotel in Chester by the floods caused by the storm.

 Not a traditional dress for the bride, but she looked stunning nonetheless, and also where the green theme came from. It shimmered blue too in different lights.

No posing ! just happy snapshots from guests.

......and after all that stress...me and my outfit...yes I ended up with green after trying really hard to avoid it. 

 My younger son (Iain) that flew in from Australia for the occasion and to be a witness (on the left in the picture)...the rose between two thorns in the middle! and Andrew on the right.. It was so lovely to see my two sons together and to see Iain again after four years, but very hard to say goodbye again the day after the wedding. Fortunately for him he left early for Heathrow before the hotel was cut off by flooded roads. 

I will be back again soon I hope with a few more makes...but still not Christmas. If I get to make any maybe I should save them all for next year..I would be ahead of the game then wouldn't I?  I seem to remember my New Year Resolution was one a week...hmmm..say no more on that one..lol!

On that note I will wish you a good weekend as we are nearly there. I hope you are all well and here in the UK I hope you have not grown webbed feet...so much rain!!

Take care now

Crafty hugs

Carole xx

70!..embossing folder & cautionary tale

 Hello Friends

Sorry it has been so long since I posted...but ...like most people I am finding this year is hurtling by at a rate of knots and time slips away from me. Thank you for joining me though..your love and time is so very much appreciated.

So first of all..a card.......

A Creative Expressions 6" x 6" embossing folder coloured with oxide inks and a finger dauber. The 70 was cut several times in white and layered...the top layer was cut from a piece of card that I had coloured with the same colours used on the folder, Finally the addition of some matching enamel dots.

Now for the cautionary tale......

I recently used, or should I say tried to use, a 3D embossing folder from Memory Box in my Gemini machine....now I know that these folders are thick...and plates have to be adjusted which was what I did ..right? The machine started to take the combination and then stopped...it wouldn't reverse...and was well and truly ..you guessed it Stuck! 

I rang Crafters Companion...quite upset by this time...where was Alan when I needed him (late husband)...he used to be the official repair guy in the UK for Spellbinders and rescued many a stuck plate from a Grand Calibur. I know you would think I would know better...but it did start to accept the sandwich until it got to the really thick part.

Anyway Crafters Companion were brilliant and for £35 they collected my machine, rescued the contents and returned my machine and embossing folder. I had only one tiny piece of card in the folder  just covering one flower.

SO......my cautionary tale is not to put 3D folders (other than Crafters Companion) in your Gemini...or if you do then double check  the thickness of your sandwich. (not the one you ate for lunch!)......you probably are more sensible than me and already aware of this!

I have resorted to my old Big Shot with card shims and now am very wary...in fact quite scared to use my Gemini for anything other than cutting. 

Crafters Companion also advised that Sizzix 3D folders would not go through the Gemini.

ON a last note a question for my blogging friends in America who MUST have these Magnolia 3D folders (so pretty)  with dies from Memory Box...what machine do you use? and what is your sandwich?

My sons wedding is now less than 3 weeks away...outfit almost sorted! (It's been a nightmare) and I am looking forward to seeing my other son as he flies in from Australia soon. A shame the rest of his family will not be here, it would have been lovely to see the children too.

Thank you for staying with me, I hope you are all safe and well and hopefully I will be back soon.

October tomorrow!......not started Christmas yet!!

Love and crafty hugs

 Carole xx

'Just for the record '

Hi everyone.......at last I have something to share!  A male card for a friends husband cased from one I saw on pinterest. ....thanks to the designer whoever they may be.

Male cards are not my favourite cards to make and I seem to have exhausted the ideas relevant to the person in question...mini cars (green ones) and canal boats on past birthdays............so this was what he got this time round!

I guess it speaks for itself really but the base card was cut from an 8 inch square card base and the rest from varying sizes of the same circular nesting dies. 

The 70 was cut from dies in my stash that I use quite regularly as they are not too big...and I didn't want to rub it in!..lol The writing was hand written.

So life continues to be very busy here, organising workmen for varying maintenance and repair jobs in the house and garden...and costly too. I can never settle when I have people here whether they're inside or out. Are you the same?...or is it because normally my hubby would have been keeping an eye on these people? and doing all the organising of them to come in the first place too! 

Anyway enough of that..what happened to our summer? I know we wanted rain for the gardens but now it doesn't know when to stop! No drying washing outside here..!

If you are struggling in the heat out in Europe I do hope you are staying safe from it and keeping well. Seems we have to have extremes of weather now and no happy mediums.

I've also been making wedding invites for my eldest son who is getting married in October. A small affair due to costs of course, but I hope it will be a memorable day for them both. All being well my other son in Australia is flying over for the occasion, so it will be good to see him as it is 4 years since I last saw him and the family.... a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then so to speak. sadly though Nicole and the children can't make it as the children are in school now...so disappointing that I will not get to see my grandchildren.

I am also waiting for shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff and so hoping it will now not take place before then. I have still to find an outfit for the wedding........no back zips please!  Birthday suit and arm in a sling would be different!..lol ......but maybe not in October!

So my friends I hope you are keeping as well as you can and as happy as you can and I Thank You for stopping by my blog and taking some of your precious time to read this.

If you are still with me...here is the card I made for the Birthday Boys wife to give to him....

Apologies for the photos not cropped...taken on my phone and then the files are too big to load! Why does technology change daily?

Crafty hugs to you all

Carole xx