Friday fun!

Wow, had a great meal today at Fir Tree Farm with Mum - Roasted brisket ( an inch thick at least and so tender!) on a bed of pumpkin and thyme mash with veg (carrots, parsnip and cauliflower). It was over too soon! I haven't had such lovely brisket since my mother-in-law Maud died. She was a great cook and her Yorkshire puddings were legend - they looked like castles!

It was a bit scary approaching Kings Moss where Fir Tree is a the stone humpback bridge was closed for strengthening and they had erected a temporary bridge in its place. It looked like a piece of Mechanno construction, unlikely to carry the weight of my Punto. Mum commented after that she only got scared because she thought I had shut my eyes as I drove across! I drove slowly, convinced that the structure would collapse but my eyes were firmly fixed...... on the horizon! 

I am also posting a card to enter in the Pink Cat Design Studio Challenge.

The Kissing Penguins digi stamp is from Melissa at the Pink Cat Design Studio and it was one of the first digi's I ever bought or downloaded. I have made several cards using the kissing duo this year. The image was coloured with Promarkers and I added a touch of glitter glue (from a set of coloured  glitter glues from Tesco) 

I used Pastel Blue, Denim Blue, Lavender, Orchid, Black, Gold, Blush, Crimson and Pear Promarkers. The sentiment is one of my own and was coloured up with the Lavender Promarker. The image and sentiment were matted onto green snowflake paper and then onto black cardstock and then on to a 5" by 7" card  on which had been matted some red Core'dinations card. The snowflakes came from my stash but I don't know who made them. Apologies for the quality of the photography - it gets dark so fast at this time of year, lol.

I must get off and make our tea, unless Mr H is willing to do so (hugs sides with mirth!) so I will say cheerio for today!

Hugs, Hazel x

Blog Candies

Here goes with the details of blog candies:- I went to Bev Rochesters Blog (http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com ) as I am a follower and she has a Promarkers giveaway if you are interested but she also has a link to Meyer Imports who have a giveaway of a German Glass Glitter set (http://meyer-imports.typepad.com ). Had me at the word glitter, so I nipped over to take a look and its shiny heaven. Loads of people have entered but not to worry; its all about getting it out there.

Love you and leave you

Hazel x

PS I don't have the skill to 'hide' the URL's !

No snow!

Don't know about you but I have mixed feelings for snow. On the one hand, it is beautiful and magical and gives the dullest outlook a makeover and the fun you can have with snowballs and sledging..... on the other, it's cold when you land on it bum first and I hate when my car skids on it or gets stuck. But I'm for it when you weigh the balance up. Do you begin to have mixed feelings the older you get? Ho hum, my daily philosophy query!

I've made some other cards for Christmas:-

This is for my daughter Sian who likes bunnies.Its a Mo Manning digi stamp coloured with Promarkers and heavily loaded with gold and diamond Stickles. The stamp is matted onto embossed gold shiny cardstock and this is mounted onto a gold shimmer card blank. I used PM's poinsettsas and Red Stickles for the embellishments. Sian will just notice the bunny!

I always make my girlies more than one card each - and I always bought them more than one before I began to make them, so its not a show-off thing! Now they have partners I usually do an individual one each and a couples one (6 in all). Course, now I have Mark's family to make for too - lovely.

The two cards above are variations on the embossed acetate window theme using some left-over Kanban toppers. I went a bit barmy with the craft knife cutting the apertures so on the snowman card I edged the aperture with the same border as the toppers and on the Santa card I used paper to disguise the mistake! However, I have posted these and forgotten the final stage of putting a sentiment on! Blame it on the hormones or lack thereof! Too busy showing off to do a good job, my mum would say.

I was going to do a link to a free prize draw of some German glass glitter but my sister just came and I have forgotten the details. I'll have a blog hop and post it up later.

Cheerio, Hazel x

Blog-hopping

With the very best of intentions I logged on to post a blog and then got caught up looking at blogs and hopping from site to site. I've been doing it for one hour and twenty minutes! Mr H was very kind and made me toast and a cuppa whilst I was tapping away.

I have been able to upload onto the Do-crafts site earlier this morning and I was so pleased to be back. Nevertheless I will also post the pic here.

The digi stamp is from Pink Cat Studio Designs which is a great source of digis. I love digis because of the minimal storage requirements and the colouring opportunities. I used my promarkers and a white gel pen here on my serene skating polar bear. The backing papers are from PM's Deck the Halls pack. matted onto black cardstock. The two smaller panels have christmas ribbon and ricrac added. The ticket sentiment I made  on the computer having been inspired by Lisa who has the onehappylittlecrafter blog - http://onehappylittlecrafter.blogspot.com - and who gave some ticket sentiments away as freebies. She is rather good and you should pop over and have a gander.

I have also been chasing some blog candy and will do the links after this post goes on but why not see for yourselves at http://bearlymine.blogspot.com and http://whimsystamps.blogspot.com . It sounds as if that's what I spend my days at but it's not; I followed a link from Kimmi's Blog which led to another and so on and so on. Anyway it's nice to join in.

I must really go now and get a shower and dressed - what a shambles my day has become through logging in before 8am just so I could try to upload successfully!

Cheerio from a less than fragrant Hazel x (lol, in case you were taking it seriously)

Exhausted.

For those who want to know, me and Mr H loved Harry P & the Deadly Hallows. My sister reckons it is unseemly for a woman of my advanced years to like what she sees as a children's book (which she hasn't read) so I am not going to say more.

It has been a bit of a tiring day has our little outing to seek a dog to take the place of Miles. And sad; there are so many dogs that need a home and it seems horrid to choose one over another when they stand at the wire and look beseechingly at you. I had tears.... it was cold.....windchill....I wanted to take them home, okay! Call me marshmallow.

Morag could not choose either and so we broke for lunch at Bents Garden Centre - huge queues but lovely butties; I had soup and all I could taste was celery - in leek and potato soup! Mum and Morag had smoked salmon and prawns on onion foccacio - was I green with it; actually as green as my soup! There are just some flavours that overpower my palate, celery is one and coriander (fresh) is another and I normally don't add them to my cooking. I am making too much over a bowl of soup so I am stopping now!

After lunch we went to a second rescue centre and Morag could not decide. She felt apologetic for dragging us along but we were happy to be with her despite being knackered. After I had dropped them off at their respective homes, I treated myself to a Martha Stewart punch at Crafts 4 U 2 Do and have elicited a promise from them to show me a cricut cutting machine when I next pop by - and they have got plans to set up a crafting club & asked would I be interested. How good was that?

No pictures today; I am in the middle of making a card  for a challenge on Do-crafts which I am hosting. I will post it up here when I finish it.

Cheerio for the present, Hazel xx

(This is the dog I would want if Mr H wasn't such a grouchy gizzard; ain't it cute?)

Guilty of Hubris

May I explain? Yesterday I replied to an email from my friend Bernadette and told her that I would post my new card makes on my blog as it always worked compared to the lack of success I was having uploading to my Do-craft gallery. Naturally, I was not able to; the Internet link crashed for the umpteenth time and I could not even post the blog. Granted, it could have worked later on but I am getting too frustrated with the whole technology black hole in my life so went to Carole's Crafts for a reviving mooch and to buy the latest Creative Cardmaking. Oil on troubled waters right enough and it set me up for a long and relaxing natter with Bernadette on our first phone call to each other. We met through Do-crafts and for me it was like finding someone who I knew already and who knew me. We chatted for ages and Mr H says there must be dozens of three-legged donkeys round here as I can talk the hind leg off a donkey and yesterday was a marathon. Why do men disparage womens chat when it is the fuel on which society feeds? It is how wisdom and folklore pass on and so much more - if it was left to men, it would be all monosyllabic grunts and no emotion!
So much for the philosophy, I am going to try to upload the star cards:

This is a card I made for my daughter Morgan whose favourite colour is pink. I love the star card shape which Bernadette sent me - can you tell? One tip; mixing diamond and red Stickles may make it look pink when wet but it dries red and diamond so I did not achieve the look I was after!

Same shape, different Tilda's and colours and very therapeutic to make.

This next one is for my great nephew Niven and I used an idea in a craft mag which I can't just lay my hands on. It is Mr H's favourite in this batch and uses patchwork, acetate panels, faux stitching and decoupage.

The acetate is embossed before sticking over the aperture and there is paper on the inside of the card showing through. The Santa decoupage is from Jolly Nation with some gold Stickles on the belt buckle.

I have been messing about with different folds but not entirely sure of the results. I will post pics soon and you can reach your own conclusions. Maybe I am too slavish when it comes to trying new things but I like the effort if not the results!

Mr H and I are off to see the new Harry Potter film today; Mr H has worked out the optimum time to avoid noisy kids and therefore whispering and rustling! He can't hear me shouting to him that his tea is ready but rustling and chomping in the pictures drives him mad. I'm looking forward to the film but not the 3 hour sit which will involve a quick dash to the loo at some point, I'm sure, and I'll miss Voldemort doing something dastardly which will be the best bit in the film! Ho hum.

Review to follow; cheerio for the present. Hazel x