Shameless copying!

I hold my hands up and say that last Saturday while at our all day crop - my friend made a set of these and I was enthralled....  On Sunday while out food shopping I strolled by the yogurt aisle and found some little jars of layered yogurt and bought 3!  (should have bought 6 LOL!).

My home decor this year is this teal shade, so I selected some MME papers (swoon!) and some Crate Paper stickers.  The felt was cut with my BigShot and added some twine - Simples!

I LOVE THEM!!!  Can't wait to light them up!

Really this is just a form of recycling!  So let's all eat lots of yogurts in glass jars and make something with them!!!!!

Christmas is HARD work!

Every year I start with great intentions.  Start shopping early, start wrapping as I go, make and freeze what I can and even start buying the non-perishable groceries in advance.  I plan the made gifts, and try and have them ready before the start of December...  Every year I have a huge panic attack that I won't be ready, that I have forgotten something huge (and generally have) and this makes the last 2 weeks stressful.

This year, I did all the above planning, and here I am in the last 2 weeks still in the same state!  What does that teach me - well no matter what I have done, or plan to get done early, the last 2 weeks are HARD work and nothing you do can make it any easier!

So out come the lists - divide my nights out to complete one task, and make the time work for me.  I am so glad that the X-Factor is over cause I just could not waste another hour on the couch watching it.  My Saturday and Sunday nights were just taken over with TV and not crafting.

Here is a card that I made for the Crafty Bloggers Challenge blog - I love the simple design of it,

The papers and ribbon were left over and sitting on my desk from the kit I got from Handmade Hannah, and I had the leaf punch out for another project.  So the card just fell into place.  The little birdie is from a Myra Road set, and I inked it and covered it with Glossy Accents.  The NOEL was from a Making Memories Alpha set.

See the little leaves sit up and surround the ribbon, but after being squashed in an envelope it won't look like that!

I have a lovely project I want to share with you, but just waiting on a quiet moment to photograph it and post it here.

My new motto will be Stress Less, do More!

Making Memories (for me!)

Way back in August I received a message to ask me if I would be interested in doing a guest design spot for Making Memories!  OMG I did not have to think twice about that one, and I replied with as much reserve as I could muster,"Yes, that would be great!"  Translation - OMG OMG OMG YES YES YES!!! Can't breath!,  Jump around, run around, and then try and explain it my family who say...."Is that good?"

So it's been ages, the projects have been hanging in my home since September but here you go....

This is the link for my guest spot - and I am a tad excited, but not too happy with the photos, as they don't really do either project justice, but the light is cruel in this part of the world in the winter.


http://blog.makingmemories.com/2011/12/guest-designer-michelle-la-grue-.html

Must be rusty!

For the last week it has been one thing or another that prevented me from getting to my craft room.  There was a card on the desk half made for nearly 10 days and by the time I finished it, the reason for making it was gone!

So I FORCED myself out the office last night, and had a fab creative time....  These cards fell into place....

This card was one I did not expect to have to make.  I had just made one for a lovely older gentleman who died and just over 3 weeks later his wife suddenly died, and this has been devastating for the family as she was a very robust, lively woman.  The card will go in the post tomorrow.  A doily coloured black, one of the new EK success flower punch flowers, and PTI die cut and PTI stamped sentiment.  The patterned paper is a small bit left over from the Handmade Hannah Christmas kit, that worked perfectly.

This card is really lovely in the hand, but hard to photograph.  I use my fav Spellbinders Die's to cut the snowflake apertures, and then layered some more white snowflake die cuts on the inside of the card and the red background is embossed. The card is simple, but very effective.  The best way to probably show you it, is to lay it flat.....

My final card tonight is one that I loved, it was super fiddly, but I was so happy with it all the way till the end, when I suddenly felt it didn't look like what I wanted it to look like. That's what I get for leaving it sitting for nearly 10 days.  It was a card made with a challenge in mind, but as I ran out of time, I can show it here!

I know I am using the same die again!!! BUT really this is the only time of year I can get to use it and OMG it just oozes fabulous!!!!!

I cut loads of the snowflakes and glued them into a 3d shape and ran a thin nylon string thru the middle and suspended it on the top of the card.  Added a few white gems and ta-daaaa!  Instant hanging snowflakes!!!  LOVE it, but not sure of the final impact...  Probably nicer in my head!

So that's it, one night's work, 1made from start to end, and 2 finished, more nights like that would be great.

Back soon with news!!!!

The Special Paper!

I know that in all the craft rooms out there, each one of us has a favorite line or favorite paper!  Over the years I can think of 2 or 3 that I just adored and would buy more sheets than I could ever use if I found them and the Pink Paislee line called Tinsel Town Collection is one of them.

This range is about 3 yrs old and I think it was their first Christmas range, but from the first use I have loved it and have a small amount of it left.  To be honest, purple, pink and green are not the most Christmasssy colours, but they work for me!

So this is my version of a Tussie Mussie, which is a cone shaped holder, normally used to hold flowers.  But this time I used it to hold a lovely pink / purple lollypop and this could live on your Christmas tree with a little bit of Ribbon.

The papers and label are all Pink Paislee, and the flower is made from the pink tissue paper and some leaves punched from spare paper.  The swirls are from a die borrowed at the last crop and I think it might be one of my next purchases.  I found the lollypop in my local supermarket (Tesco) and noticed the colour was perfect for the papers, and then had to hide it from the kids when I got  home.

Loved how this turned out, makes me want to make more!