Getting ready for Christmas

Here is my Husband Julio checking the first tree he saw, " that looks good", so we purchased the first tree we came upon, I think Julio was too cold to look around, now if the boy's were with us it would have been a full investigation for the right tree, we opted for a smaller tree this year we like to get the Norwegian spruce as it has long needles that don't stick you when you decorate. We usually go for a 6ft but we was not sure if a 6ft would fit in the car. Maybe next year boy's.

Here is our tree going through the netting funnel, we like to buy our tree from Elveden, nice and fresh, there are little shops for gifts and a food hall for local produce, I got me some chutney for the cold meats.

So here is our tree resting before decorating, Julio trimmed the trunk like you do for flowers, we let it rest for 2 days that way the branches could settle down. We had to put the tree on a platform as it was a bit short.

Here is this years new decoration, I like the little Nativity on the C, at the top of each letter sits a tea light candle. We also bought some new candle holders and the Yankee Candle Home Jar.

There ya go all done up and lighted with my Thomas Kinkade village underneath, still looking for a train to go around the tree, but not TK one. We did not put all our ornaments on just some of the nicer ones.

I think I should have took a close up of some of the ornaments. Maybe on the next post. See you all later.

CD Calender

This is for my friend Debbie, you will have to google to find a supplier in the States, or ask local craft store, they are clear cases but not the ones you use for your music, some business use them for advertisements on tables. You have to work out the measurements as different suppliers have different sizes. These can be used for all occasions when you want a mini book.

Wedding

Dawn does not care for the traditional cake so it cupcakes with one small tradition cake.

This is Dawn and Richmond with their four dogs, one of the dogs is white.

After the meal was really good, we made the trip back home it only took us 2 hours and ten minutes. The wedding was held at a hotel in nice surroundings, some of the guest stayed there over night or nearby hotels.

My Little Sister got Married

So after going to the Christmas market on Friday we then had to head out early on saturday towards Nottingham for my sister wedding, here she is with her husband Richmond, Best Man and my oldest niece Katy.

All three sister together as you can see we had a very cold winter wedding but it looked fantastic.

Here is Julio and I before the wedding started.

Julio and Reuben

Myself and Reuben

Christmas Market in Bury St Edmunds

The day after Thanksgiving we spent the day with Alex ( Bible student) and the Vigori's, we all headed into town for the annual Christmas market that has been running for 7 yrs now. We bought a few present and sampled some of the food on offer, for the first time I had mulled wine and roast chestnuts, not to be repeated, the best was funnel cake that you can get in the USA. In the evening it was back to my place for hot soup, hot chocolate and leftover turkey.

In this picture is me, and Reese.

Reese buying a silver bracelet for herself.

All the traders had to dress up in Victorian costume, which really added to the atmosphere.

Alex, bible student from Uganda, this was Alex last weekend with us before flying back home as he had been here for a year, so he got to celebrate last Christmas with us, and the rest of the yearly celebrations through the year, he is very much missed by all.

Another trader, this year we had wooden huts set up in the new shopping centre.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010, here we are at the Vigori's house, the house was packed, and the feast was huge, we all had a good time, the bible students joined us also.

We formed a long line to the kitchen, and there was enough for leftovers the next day. yum

I Said there was some more post, well this is a little something we made in class at Crafty Women club, our guest teacher was Annie Hafferman. Annie showed us how to make these cute little scrapbooks, they were very simple to make.

The blue one I did in class and the stripy one I did at home. Thinking of making a few more for Christmas as gifts.

Below is another one we learned from Annie on another date, using blank calender CD cases, these are for Christmas gifts

The girls at the Brandon craft group got to make these as I found an on-line site to order the cases from. I have a few more cases left so I will try to some more.

Home made Christmas Cards

Well its been a long time since I last posted something on my blog, so I have alot of things to show you. At the bottom we have some Victorian looking easel cards which my friend and crafting buddy Tracie showed my. The images are 3D and I have used stickles for a bit of bling effect.

Below are some cards made from free paper in Creative Cardmaking magazine I think I made a dozen in total. Again I have used stickles for some bling and 3D on some of the images as well as the greeting.

Still making more cards, I am using some other free papers from last years magazine, will post later. More posting to come.

Summer

Hello all, I hope you all had a good relaxing summer, my family and I did not go away this year only my boy's got to go away to a Christian youth camp for a week. our car died and so we have been blessed by a brother in the church who has had to go away for a while, he has leant us his car for the time being.

I did not do any crafting just bought supplies, its very hard to craft when there is a house full of boy's. I did get to go to a local car boot sale and was able to pick up some things for Christmas crafts and extras.

Last week I had my gall bladder removed so I am still in recovery I hope to be up and running next week.

School is up and running so now the house is empting out, with 2 going to college next week, it will be nice to get back into a routine again as its been late nights and lie -ins in bed.

Here is the booty we came home with, my husband bought 3 magazines for 30p, the boy's got a trivial pursuit game that was never used for £4, they like Lord of the Rings, we got a Christmas puzzle for 50p, we like to put a puzzle together after Christmas. I got a tea light candle in the shape of a snowman and plaque welcome with a snow man on,candle holder used once still had the price tag on it, a welcome plaque in the shape of a tea pot which will I know can be a gift with some selected tea bags to go with it, a wooden box that can be filled with anything, 2 picture frames that I intend to alter and a banana husk basket Im thinking of filling for a gift. I got these ideas from my friend Suzie who likes to go to car boot sales and make home made gifts. During the summer I have also been saving jam jars to make some home made preserves.

Watch this space as I start to make my home made gifts.

Blog Candy

Blog Candy to one over at http://stamping-fantasies.blogspot.com/2010/07/candy-to-be-wonfour-times-over.html

All you have to do is find out which city Brenda and her Husband are visiting on their holiday, she will leave a clue and a picture, which you can google.

1950s Apron

Well I spent the afternoon yesterday making this apron, its just a try out as I did not want to spend a lot of money just in case it did not turn out well, and guess what! it did not turn out the way it should. So on my notes I have made adjustments or I may need to look for another pattern, although I used gingham it could be to soft of a fabric. I will try again but I think I will use a better fabric.

Project Tuesday Lip Balm Holder

Inside of card is the holder for the lip balm.

Front of card.

Materials:-

card, patterned paper, flower stamp, stamp greeting, versa ink, glitter glue, gem ,ribbon.

June Challenge for Sir Stampalot/ Week 60 In the Garden

Hi everyone I got inspired this weekend by the new edition of Magnolia Ink Mag. Just wish I could afford all the nice stamps they do. This card is for my mum as it is her birthday next month. I shall also be putting this project in at http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.com/ and at http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/

It would be nice to win something, but hey its still fun to create.

Ingredients :

Stamps; Tilda with puppy and rustic bench, Magnolia greeting, flower and leaf stamps

Inks; Versa fine sepia, and regular versa inks, Promarkers, Copics and gel pens.

Papers; K&CO, cardstock

Punches; 3 different size daisy punches, Martha Stewart fence and leaf twig.

Circle cut out using a Fiskers circle shape cutter.

The instructions for making the card was not very clear but I think I managed it OK. I used K & Co for the paper's, I cut the butterfly's out of the paper, and I punched the flowers from the paper too, the fence is a punch from Martha Stewart also the twig leave thingies. Its a kind of box card that does not open up, the back is decorated with the same papers with the greeting on top. Mum has 2 dogs so that made it easy to pick which stamp, Tilda with a puppy.I stamped the edge of the circle with some flower and leaf stamps also at the base of the fence, I used my chalks for the background of Tilda so as to cover the whiteness. I used some gems on the centre of the flowers I made and on the tag. I coloured Tilda with promarkers and some of the copics that I have, but I think I should have stuck to one kind, someone said you could mix the two but I am not so sure. If you look close enough you can see a side view of a butterfly to the left of Tilda

If you would like to order Magnolia Ink Magazine or the stamps you can get them here in the UK

from http://www.craftsulove.co.uk/magnolia.htm or from http://www.sirstampalot.co.uk/rubber-stamps.php

In the USA you can order fromhttp://www.magnoliastamps.us/

Hope you all had a nice Sunday, mine was quite a day to my self.

Recipe Box

About a month ago at Crafty Women we did a joint effort of making a recipe box, the idea was taken from a magazine, one of the ladies had her husband make the template for us, some of us had loop sided lids, I was one of them, but we went ahead and came up with different décor. As you can see I chose a Baking Tilda on a rolling pin. I chose blue to match my kitchen. I plan to make another one in the future, might make a nice Christmas gift.
I coloured my image with promarkers and copic pens, I used a glitter pen for the lace edge and a white pen for highlights, unfortunately my camera does not always pick this up.
Project Tuesday has a easy project so go over a check it out, I may make one, but I have so many things I want to do but not always the time. See you all again soon.

Tea and Cake

Just made this at lunch time, its a cupcake trinket box, my nearest thing for cake on this diet.

Inside the card bookmark

This is the inside of Angela and mine, the bookmark is the strip at the bottom. I plan on dressing mine up some more as there is a birthday coming up soon.

This one is of Robinah

Here is Tracie's

And this one is Denisa, she plans on giving it to her friend, I like the idea of putting a photo inside.

Scrapbook in a CD case

Inside the CD case.

This is the front of the one I did, below is one of Tracie's.

We shall be doing some more of these in July, I managed to find a web site to get these particular CDs, they are called calender CD. I managed to put two together for the bible student girls who are due to leave this month, the one I made a crafty women I gave to the other girl Violeta Pantekoska who comes from Macedonia. I think this is one project I will do often as it makes a nice gift.

Craft Group Projects

By Robinah Doolo, one of our bible students from Uganda

By Tracie Cole

By Denisa Horvathorva bible student from Czechoslovakia

By Eunice Jackson

By Angela Fairbard

On Saturday a bunch of us ladies did some crafting, we did the Project Tuesday card/bookmark greeting card, I am also showing the scrapbook in a CD case that that was done at Crafty Women with Annie Haffermann.