A tad late - Round II Card 26

To be honest, I am much more than a tad late with my Winters Wonderland  card for my Christmas Card Club. Over three weeks late, in fact!

I found this Stampin' Up Welcome Christmas image when I was sorting out my room. It is another one of the precut kits I made long ago. They may even be from a crop evening! The image was already stamped, and even matted on the brown card with some iridescent glitter to finish it off.

 I decided that to a child...this was the definition of a winter wonderland! I love the feeling of excitement and  movement that is contained in this playful image.

I rifled through the rest of the precut snippets in that envelope, and put together this card. I have had these elements sitting ready to finish for so long and somehow lost the original sketched idea. Not sure what the card was supposed to look like originally, but I just added bits and bobs till I thought it looked finished.

I went over the ivory embossed snowflake card with my Wink of Stella clear pen. It has a subtle sparkle but also has that faded look that WOS creates on any coloured card. I liked the look of the fading so I swirled a bit on the dark brown card mat around the image...I hope it gives the look of snow!

Here is a bit of a closer look at that faded effect.

The card stock, the DP, and the border punch are from Stampin' Up. I think the snowflake embossing folder is from Cuttlebug...not sure about the kraft card EF...maybe an old Stampin' Up one.  The ivory snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch and the bling, and  twine were added from my stash.

Feels good to finally get this envelope of old stash actually made up into a card!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Marks Finest Papers Speedy TV Inspirational Challenge - Vintage Girls -  I chose images 2 and 3. The background ivory shades on 2 reminded me of the faded look of the WOS pen on coloured card. 3 as it reminded me of snowballs fights and sledding are a kids version of a Winter Wonderland.
3. Christmas Card Club - Winter Wonderland

October Rudolph Day - Found Treasures - Cards 22, 23, 24 and 25

I have almost finished sorting out my craft room.  I am working on filling the last box of older supplies for the thrift shop. I think I have pared everything down enough to fit into the new room, which is about 3/4 the size of the one I have now.

I scrapbook 12x12 as well as 8x8,, so a zillion pieces of DP as well as cardstock in those sizes keeps my stash very full. I managed to donate all my 6x6 books and page protectors, but probably should do the same with the 8x8! That would free up a lot more space...but I sort of like working with that size...sigh...

One of the bonuses about going through stash to purge and then organize the rest, is that you find hidden treasures. Treasures you ferretted away in years past and then forgot about! I was delighted to find a 12x12 file pocket full of card kits that I made up a couple of years ago (or maybe even longer).

There were enough precut designs for three different card designs and several of each style. What fun that was to find!  Perfect for Rudolph Day which runs on Sarn's blog Stamping For Pleasure. You have from the 25 till the end of each month to make 2 Christmas cards, the same design or different designs, whatever you chose. Show them both on the same blogpost and link up to her challenge...easy peasy!

I made 4 cards this month, for Rudolph Days. It was easy as I had the design right there in that found treasure chest. I did vary the card bases though, as I am trying to use up the prescored and folded bases I have already made up.

I tried a cream, green and a brown card base,Which do you like best? I think my fave is the brown...have to do the inserts still, but should probably just use a simple white or cream insert.

Recipe
Card base - prescored and folded bases I made from stash a long, long time ago
Cardstock - Kraft, Bown. Red, Green and Cream card
Punches - Stampin' Up Curly Label punch; Stampin Up ornament punch and square punch as well
Stamps - Stampin' Up Delightful Decorations Ornament Stamp
Martha Stewart glue pen and
Stampin' Up iredescent glitter hilighting the swirls on the stamped image
EF - not sure the make but the burgundy card is a damask embossing folder and the brown square is i think, a Stampin' Up version of Swiss Dots.

I am entering these cards in the following challenges:

1. Stamping For Pleasure Oct  Rudolph Days - must be 2 or more Xmas cards
2. Pixies Crafty Workshop -must use snippets

Christmas Card Club - Christmas Reindeer - Round II Card 21

I finally managed to make a card. It seems so long since I spent a little time with card stock and paper.
Last night I went to a crop at my friend Gloria's house and managed to make 8 cards...so finally have something to share...lol  Gloria puts on a lovely crop once a month, from 4 till 10 pm...sometimes even later! She always has a wonderful meal prepared and we all take turns bringing desert and side dishes. It is so much fun to spend time with other crafters and all the creativity in the room is inspiring.

This fortnight was Rita from RMG Creations turn to chose the theme for the Christmas Card Club and she chose Christmas  Reindeer. I decided to use my Wild Rose Studio deer topper for this theme, as I just love their reindeer toppers

I kept my card fairly simple as  I made up card kits for the crop, and they were fairly basic kits at that.
My theory was to get as many cards made as possible and then take them home to add any extra embellishments, if necessary

The scalloped card base is from England,, and the patterned paper is a snippet from a RAK I won last year from Ali Wynn @ Two Peas. The snippet of red card, as well as the snippet of beige embossed card, were found when sorting and organizing my room in preparation for the upcoming move. I just had two teensy pieces of the beige, but slid them under the main image and hoped for the best.

The bit of 3D ivy at the top left corner is K and Co as well as the wee presents in the bottom right corner. The sentiment is a rub on...BoBunny I think.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets
2. Christmas Card Club  - Christmas Reindeer
3. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - always anything Christmas
4. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use something forgotten or unused (I used the beige embossed cardstock which had been packed up in an old kit bag, and forgotten  for a couple of years)

Sold in Four Days!

It has been nearly four weeks since I last posted. Four very busy weeks that have kept us  busy, getting our house sold!

Rather than having fun creating cards, I have been busy helping DH get the house in showhome shape. We weeded, pruned and deadheaded the gardens...and dug up pieces of a few treasured perennials to take with us. Ordered a huge load of lovely black bark mulch, and my daughter and DH spread it through the front and back gardens.

It is common here to stage the house for the photos and videos. So we staged the porch for Fall and gave the house a good declutter. I even packed up our out of season clothes into our suitcases, so the closets did not look so full!
Here is a peak at the porch. Not as fancy as some, but we like how it turned out...

Found the Nest pillow a while back, and having been waiting to use it...

Here is the other side of the door...I managed to break the birdhouse support post in the planter, trying to straighten it for the photo...lol

Rugs were cleaned and a few little careful painting touch ups were done with one of my craft paintbrushes. Most were the size of a freckle...but they looked so much better after that careful dot of paint was added. Ground floor windows were given the once over and we all pitched in with the most dreaded task of all...washing the wood blinds. Uggh...how I hate that job!

The other big job was my craft room.  As you can imagine, I have not been able to do much creating in the craft room. Instead I have been going through each drawer and box, one at a time, and purging some of my stash. My new craft room will be smaller than the one I have now, so purging is a necessity. I did as much as I could till the house  photos and video day, but then  I had to just tidy (errrr...shove) what was left, into the cupboards and drawers.

We had about 5 viewings a day and got an offer on the fourth day. The offer is now finalized, and we breathe a sigh of relief that it is all over. Till all paperwork was finalized and the subjects removed, the realtor still had viewings continue throughout, so it has been a busy time....
In Canada, once the inspection report, mortgage etc are done and subjects are signed to remove, there is no going back on the deal. Earnest money is fairly hefty, so we feel blessed.

Everything purged has gone the Hospice Thrift Shop. It makes it easier to part with my supplies, knowing that the Hospice can use the funds. I think we managed to donate about 40 boxes of gardening supplies, garden hoses, sprinklers, tools, craft supplies, Halloween decorations, Xmas decorations, Xmas lights and so on.

We have bought a slightly smaller house than this one but it is on a much smaller lot.
All the back and forth to the lake takes its toll when you are 60! We have loved our garden here, but are looking forward to a life with only a postage stamp sized garden to maintain and a generous sized covered deck for outdoor enjoyment. No fuss and no muss!

Here is my new great room...it goes about 6 feet further past the charcoal chair...there is another 3 seater couch sitting in front of a bank of windows there. Think you can just manage to see those windows in the next photo...

We liked that it still seems to have separate areas even though is it supposed to be open concept. We liked the way the dining room is tucked into this area here...and yet still is part of the great room.

There is a living room too, just behind the kitchen fridge wall...just to the right when you walk in the front door. You can just see the doorway opening there and the window in that room off to the side of the door.

Here is a shot of the dining area. I have a bigger table though...with 8 chairs, so it will be a tighter squeeze. I might have to pop a leaf out of our table...

Our new front garden is nice, but nothing is done out back yet. We can sculpt it into what we would like. I am cruising Pinterest for water feature ideas! I quite fancy having no lawn out back...just the deck, patio and perhaps a water feature. One border of perennials and we will call it done!

Hope you enjoyed the wee tour...will try to get creating cards again soon!!!