Holly Apertures . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and are full of festive joy and turkey.

Thankfully, I rallied on Christmas Day so I managed to cope with cooking the dinner - admittedly, the 2 gammons just went straight into the slowcooker first thing (we're not greedy, we have a 6.5 litre slowcooker that I always fill lol!!!), the turkey breast joint looked after itself once in the oven and Mr D peeled the spuds. 

Mr D had already given me some money before Christmas for crafty stash but I still got a gift bag full of my favourite cheesy snacks, some chocolate (that he knows he will eat most of lol!!!) and Damon Hill's autobiography, yay!!! 

He also took me to The Range on Boxing Day where I spent some of the money and upon my fawning over yet another First Edition pad, he asked the immortal non crafter question of "why do you need another one of those, when you don't use the ones you have?"

Ah Grasshopper, one day you will learn . . . . . . .

Anyhoo, before I carry on, I would like to welcome some new followers to The Pond. Sometimes Blogger does muddle up the list, so apologies if I miss anyone, but as far as I can see, we have been joined by Pauline, Veronica, Cheryl, Candy and Sharon. Thank you so much ladies for pressing the follow button. Its very kind of you and I hope you enjoy your visits. 

Also, before I forget, Carole, CE does indeed stand for Creative Expressions but I'm too lazy to type it out lol!!!

Now, onto today's card. I had cut some Holly Flourishes out of gold mirror card for my card here and I noticed, having done it rather neatly, there was a lovely pattern to the negative and so this card was born. Ideally, the cuts would have been done facing alternate directions symmetrically but I wasn't going to waste it lol!!!

Ingredients

Ivory, burgundy and gold mirror card

Cherry Lynn Holly Flourish die

Sue Wilson Holly Octagonal Frame (hexgaons only)

Dovecraft sentiment

Card-io holly stamp

Memento Dew Drop Rhubarb Stalk ink

Versamark

Gold mica powder

Pearlage

Simple, I know but sometimes when you're under the cosh with a never decreasing list of cards to make, simple is super lol!!! This also comes under normal letter postage, hurrah!!!

I am going to make a concerted effort to make Christmas Cards throughout the year in 2017 (we'll see how long it takes for me to forget that lol!!!)

Well, that's me for today. Should hopefully be seeing Nesta before she jets off to sunny Spain for a week and also, doing a turkey, gammon and leek pie to use up the last of the left overs (after the usual turkey fricasse and turkey trifle).

And what sad news we have had this week too with the passing of Rick Parfitt, George Michael and Carrie Fisher. I have been fortunate to see The Quo in concert a couple of times, once as a brilliant warm up for Queen and love em or hate em, they would always get your foot tapping.

Hope that you all have a good day and thank you for visiting.

TTFN

Ang x

Merry Christmas One and All . . . . . . .

Good morning and Merry Christmas to all of you that have kindly taken time out of the festivities to pop by.

I'll keep it short so you can get back to the sherry and being intimate with a turkey.

Now, this is Nesta's card I've chosen to share with you as I'm sure she won't mind sharing it with you lovely blog chums as the sentiment is sent to you all.

Ingredients

Cream, green and burgundy card

Gold linen card

SB Layered Poinsettias

SB Classic Ovals

Cheery Lynn Holly Flourish

Mistletoe embossing folder (think it may be an embossilicious)

Indigo Blu sentiment

Memento Dew Drop Rhubarb Stalk ink

Dovecraft teeny bling

Pearlage

Its another biggy at 8"x10" and Nesta loves it. I told you I'd gone mad with the poinsettias lol!!!

Haven't had a great few days ad yesterday I felt awful, so I'm hoping that as you read this, I'm feeling better. Having entrusted Mr D with another shopping list yesterday, I don't want to be entrusting Christmas dinner to him lol!!!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope its a peaceful and joyful one too. For those of you that are unwell or coping with bereavement, I send caring thoughts and hope that the day isn't too difficult for you.

Yuletide felicitations.

TTFN

Ang & Mr D x

Happy Birthday 2016 Mr Duck . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope everything is well with you and yours.

I've been bobbing along quite well until yesterday but I think its because I overdid things on Sunday. When you're feeling better you feel like you can do more and so I did. Will have to rein myself in a bit.

Now, I know I have only just started the Christmas theme but I'm taking a small interlude. It was Mr D's birthday at the weekend so I thought I'd show you his card now rather than in a month's time lol!!!

Those of you that have visited The Pond for a while will know that Mr D is very fond of red and is a patriotic boy so I went with red,white and blue.

Ingredients

Red, white and blue card

CE Tartan Trellis embossing folder

Memory Box Alphabet dies

Presscut rectangles dies

John Lockwood sentiment

Hobbycraft scroll stamps

Memento Dew Drop Paris Dusk ink

The card is quite a biggy at approx 8"x10". The lettering is cut into the card that's why I love this alphabet set with separate letters so you can do this.

Mr D was very happy indeed with his card but we did have a chuckle about John's sentiment. The "question" bit is accurate as its always "why?" when I ask him to do anything lol!!! However, the "listening" bit is not quite so accurate lol!!!

Well, hopefully today I have woken up feeling better as I've things to do.

Thank you for your visits and comments and hope you all don't have too manic a week ahead in the run up to the festivities.

Be good!

TTFN

Ang x

Ps......Didn't have a good night so haven't woken up feeling well, sadly, so I won't be doing much today except hoping the tablets kick in soon lol!

Here We Go With Christmas. . . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope you are all well and ready for the festivities.

I have had a good week, so far, so have made the most of it by getting some cards done and the postal ones sent. Thank you for your comments on Nesta's Diwali card. I'm going to have a go at the DCWV Luminaries in the next few days as I wanted them for display at Christmas. 

I'll have to put a photo of the house across the road on the blog. Every year, there is a new set of lights added to the existing display, which must drain the National Grid and cost them a fortune in electricity. Its that bright, we don't actually need to put our light on, unless we're reading lol!!!

Now, this is the first of many Christmas makes. I made this for Davey (he's had it so its ok to show) and Mr D liked it so much, he asked me to do one exactly the same for his brother and partner.

I have to admit, I've gone a bit daft with poinsettias this year, as you will see on future posts.

Ingredients

Cream, burgundy and gold mirror card

SB Layered Poinsettia dies

Cheery Lynn Holly Flourish

SB Classic Ovals

CE Snowflake Lattice embossing folder

Dovecraft sentiment stamp

Rhubarb Stalk Memento Dewdrop ink

Gold Krylon Pen

Pearlage

The card is 7x7. I put them in an 8x8 envelope but make them 7x7 if there is a lot of depth or florals on them so they don't end up squeezed in the envelope.

I was really pleased with how it turned out and Davey was a happy boy. I think this is what then set me off on my poinsettia fettish this year.

Well, that's me for now. Its Wednesday evening as I'm typing and my hot Ribena has just arrived as my pre-bed tipple.

Hope your festive plans are all going well. Its a full time job keeping Mr D away from the biscuits and chocolates for the next 10 days lol!!!

TTFN

Ang x

Happy Diwali Nesta . . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope you are all well.

I'm still up and down but did manage to get out to a local Thai for lunch with some friends on Friday. There are between 10 and 12 of us that meet up about 3 times each year but they had held off whilst I haven't been well so, although I had seen some of them separately, we hadn't all been together since the beginning of the year. 

It was lovely to catch up and the Pak Tod and Pla Rad Prik (Maureen, don't go there lol!!!) were extremely tasty.

Just as well, as I was at the dentist straight afterwards as a bit of one of my back teeth had snapped off on Thursday afternoon (I was only chewing on a prawn).

Now, as I've been showing samples I made for John, I'm late showing Nesta's Diwali card so I thought I'd better get it shown before I start on showing the Christmas makes.

There was a bit of re-cycling involved as the beautiful purple card was actually the front of an 8x8 invitation to a special birthday party for Nesta a couple of years ago and I did the usual crafters thing of "keeping it as it may come in handy" . . . . . . . Don't any of you try and deny it, you know you all do it lol!!!

The surprise with this, is that it lights up . . . . . . well, it is for the festival of lights lol!

Ingredients

White card

Gold mirror card

Vintage gold card

Purple card

Re-cycled invitation

Sue Wilson Ara Mini Gemini

SB 2013 Snowflake Pendant

SB Delightful Circles

Memory Box Alphabet dies

DCWV lights and deep foam

Hobbycraft corner punch

Gold Krylon pen

As you can see the foam is deep to accommodate the battery pack, which obviously had to be placed somewhere easily accessible, so I popped it under the top corner. 

Nesta was thrilled with it and has shown it round her family, I think more for the novelty value of it lighting up lol!!!

Well, most of the Christmas food shop was done with Mr D on a day when I was feeling good so its just the fresh stuff left to get nearer the day. The most labour intensive thing always seems to be the trifle (Mr D's favourite).

Its Mr D's birthday next weekend so I'm hoping to being up to making his cake. I've got something in mind so I hope I get to do it.

Only a few Christmas cards to do now too so on the home stretch.

That's me for today. Hope that you have all had a great weekend and that you have a super week ahead.

TTFN

Ang x

When is a Doodle not a Doodle?. . . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope this finds you well.

I apologise in advance that this is a little photo heavy as I thought I'd show you how I used one of the Doodle Rose Wreath dies to make the above card and also, I made it to a local craft show so there's a snap of the goodies. Its also a bit waffle heavy, so you may want to fix a coffee first lol!!!

Now, you'll be relieved to know that this is the last of the Doodle Rose Wreath cards that I made for John's shows.

I wanted to do something completely different with the dies and I think this achieved that.

Ingredients

Bright white, sky blue and cobalt Foundations card

Doodle Rose Wreath - shaped centre die only

John Lockwood sentiment

Mei Flower navy ribbon

Pearlage

This is the die that I used from the set and how I got the cut outs for either side.

The pieces should just come apart but would just need a little snip otherwise. Then cut the flat edges to the width you want and turn them around and put them together as per above.

For the white layer, I just used the same die, matching the pattern to nip out pieces to continue the pattern (hope that makes sense).

And, you end up with a card that, I think, could be used for a male.

I woke up feeling well on Saturday so decided to go to the papercraft show at the Motorcycle Museum near Solihull. Sadly, Christine couldn't make it but Mr D came with me. I thought he would park himself in the coffee shop with his newspaper but he decided he wanted to go into the show (that's another £4 I could've spent on goodies lol!!!).

Here are my purchases . . . . .

Not excessive as its a small show, but some things were on my list so I'm glad I went.

Yes, I know there is yet another First Edition pad there but can anyone really have enough lol??? And yes, that is a CC A4 embossing folder for £3 and stamps for £2.50. . . . . Bargain!!!

As I was thinking of calling it a day, having done about an hour and a half, the fire alarm sounded and we all had to evacuate the building. As we stood outside, Mr D says "I knew there was a way I could get you out of that building" laughing. 

As I looked at him suspiciously, he profusely denied having anything to do with the fire alarm and said he was only joking.

I did then hear it had been set off in another part of the building. . . . .phew!!!

As punishment for the bad joke, I went back in for another 15 minutes lol!!!

I'm continuing with my mission to get the Christmas cards done. I've even bought a daylight bulb for the craft room so that I can work in there longer on dull days and evenings (Its at the front of the house, which is North facing . . . . . the price to pay for a South facing rear (not to mention my South heading rear lol!!!)

Glad to hear the leg is better Nancy and fingers crossed for the cataract. Maureen, I would have been mortified. I know Nesta and Davey keep their cards but I don't dare ask anyone else lol!

That's it for now folks (don't cheer quite so loudly eh lol!!!)

Hope that this week is kind to you all.

TTFN

Ang x