Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to everyone who reads this. Hope you all have a good one and Santa brings you lots of lovely things off your list.

All the shopping is done, just got a couple of pressies to wrap and then it's time to chill.

As I said yesterday I was still doing cards. They are all now finished so here are the last pics of this year's Christmas cards:

Mr Crafty Blogger's:

One for my Mum and Dad:

One for my Sister and boyfriend:

And finally a little message from me:

Cheers Everyone, Ruthie x

Still Got Stuff To Do

Well, it's the 23rd of December and I am still making Christmas cards! I did Mr Crafty Blogger's and my sister's this afternoon and I've got to finish my Mum and Dad's. I also did a couple on Sunday for friend's two daughters. It was a bit of a rush job to get them finished before they arrived for a visit and they were barely dry before I put them in the envelope. I still managed to get a quick pic of one of them though:

The die cut teddies and suits are from ebay, papers are from an old DCWV Christmas pad.

My Christmas celebrations officially began on Saturday when I went to 'Christmas With The Lancashire Hotpots' at 53 Degrees in Preston. For those of you who don't know The Lancashire Hotpots are a modern folk band. Or as they put it - '21st century folk, for 21st century folk!'

It was a brilliant gig, and they did all their old favourites such are 'He's Turned EMO', and ' Chippy Tea', and my favourite from their new album, a track called 'The Girl From Bargain Booze'.

One of the friends we went with filmed Chippy Tea (warning it does contain the use of the F word, just the once, don't press play if easily offended)

A cracking night was had by all!

Also on my last post I promised pics of my other Christmas tree, so here it is.

And here is one of my funky little owls.

Thanks for looking. I should be back tomorrow with the pics of all my final cards.

Cheers

Ruthie x

Tree's Up

Well I have finally caught the traditional Christmas cold and I am in the middle of a very sore-nosed snot fest. At least I've managed to do all my Christmas shopping, but I still have cards to make and write and I think my crafty-mojo has disappeared into one of many snotty tissues!

Anyway at weekend I did manage to put up the Christmas trees. As we moved house earlier this year I thought I would treat us to a bigger tree, and here it is :

I don't really like the wall behind it, but hopefully the new year will bring about a spot of decorating!

Another shot, this time a close-up of one of my favourite decs:

The little tree we had at the old Crafty Blogger HQ has also been put up but I've not got any pics yet. Will post some soon, along with some shots of the fab jewelled owl decs I bought for it.

Cheers

Ruthie x

Jug of Tea - R.I.P

Anyone who has popped over to my Flickr photostream will have seen that I rather like taking photos in Morecambe. I was minding my own business this morning (well afternoon really, it was a bit of late one last night) mooching round Flickr when I stumbled across the news that Morecambe's most photographed landmark, the Jug of Tea cafe is no more.

The Jug of Tea Flickr group has been renamed accordingly, and now contains photographic evidence of what remains - a pile of bricks! Tributes are flying in and all 23 group members (me included) are officially in mourning.

A tribute has also been posted on the fantastic I Like blog.

I will miss the old place, not to mention the fact that I have forked out good money for a room at the Midland which HAD a cracking view of the JOT. I was looking forward to celebrating my wedding anniversary looking out over Morecambe bay and the Jug of Tea. I might ring them to see if I can get some money off.

Here's a couple of shots I took of the old place: And finally, my last ever shot of the Jug of Tea.

It has been good to many photographers and passing tourists over the years and will be sadly missed. I think at one point it served jugs of tea as well!

Cheers,

Ruthie (off to drown her sorrows in a Jug of Tea!)

An Unconventional Christmas Wreath

As I said yesterday I have another Christmas crafty project to blog and here it is, my slightly unconventional Christmas Wreath:

It was inspired by THIS fantastic creation.

I used new bottlecaps as I find used ones don't flatten as easily (about 80p a bag from Wilko's home brewing dept) and the papers are all Basic Grey. The circles are cut using the large red sizzix circles die and stuck to the caps using transparent bathroom sealant (ie cheap silicone glue). I attached the caps to a cardboard base using more bathroom sealant.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

Christmas is Coming....

... a bit too fast if you ask me!

I've hardly made any cards and still have loads of stuff to sort, but never mind.

I have however done some Christmas crafting. One of the girls at work had bought a little pre-decorated tree for her desk but she thought it was a little bare and needed a few extra bits adding so I offered to make her a fairy to go on the top. I remembered that a few weeks ago the fantastic Maddy posted a tutorial/challenge on the Crafts By Carolyn forum to make peg fairies and I decided one of these would make the perfect tree topper. So here she is, Julie the Peg Fairy: (She is named after her new owner).

I took her into the office this morning and she went down a storm.

I've also got another crafty christmas project to finish which will hopefully be on here by the weekend.

On the subject of Christmas crafting, my sister has recently taken up cake decorating and sugarcraft. She has decorated the most fantastic cake for us at Crafty Blogger HQ and I thought I would share a couple of pics:

It's not all Christmas crafting at Crafty Blogger HQ, a couple of birthday cards have also gone out recently.

The Christmas tree goes up this weekend too, so Christmas really is nearly here, better get cracking!

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Die Cut Felt Christmas Gift Tag

This year I've decided to wrap my Christmas pressies in plain brown parcel paper and then tart them up with some nice ribbon or raffia. According to a recent interview I read, Nigella [Lawson], queen of all things domesticated is also a fan of wrapping presents in brown paper so I am in good company! She also said she uses Italian broadsheet newspapers, however I don't think the Lancashire Evening Post or Chorley Guardian would have the same artistic effect.

As part of the present tarting up I've decided to add some homemade tags. I started playing with a few ideas last night while watching CSI (double episodes on Tuesday, love it). Here is the first one I did:

Last year I did some cards with paper puddings on so I decided to try and recreate them in felt. I cut brown and white circles using the red sizzix die and then cut a wavy line in the white one to make the sauce. The holly leaves are a quickutz die and the raisins are mini brads. I didn't have any black ones so I painted some gold ones with black nail varnish. To make the tag stiffer I glued another brown circle on the back. It also hides the back of my very primitive stitching and traps the ribbon. To make the bit for the message I just cut one of the smaller sizzix circles from card and glued it on.

Now I just need to buy some presents to wrap. Urgh Christmas shopping!

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Why do men have birthdays?

Well I know why, but it's really hard work making men's cards. (Well I think it is!)


Anyway today is my FIL's birthday so I can't really get away with not doing a card. I opted for the easy option of the word 'Dad' and a beer. A winning combination in my book when it comes to Dad cards (unless the dad is teetotal of course).



Here is the finished item (poor light strikes again):




Ingredients:
Basic Grey 'Infuse' papers
recyled coffee cup liner
Chipboard letters cut using the Cuttlebug red tag sale alpha
Quickutz beer mug die
Screw head brads from Crafts By Carolyn
Inking and stitching


Also just a quick thank you to everyone who has left comments on my blog, I love reading them. It's also nice to know that people appreciate my attempts at crafting and rambling.

Got to go and make tea, I've promised Mr Crafty Blogger a chicken pie (his favourite). Oh what a domestic goddess I am :)

Cheers

Ruthie x

New Header and A Bit of Scottish Refreshment

Well, I've finally managed to design myself a proper header. I'm quite pleased with the result although I did spend far too long on it! The black background paper is part of the 'Love Me Forever' kit from 'Sweet Blossom Designs'. It's a great kit, so pop over there and get it. I am determined to do some more stuff with it. I found the link from another fab blog here.


I also found some time (in between faffing on Photoshop and going to the gym) to join in with today's HerSpace:MySpace:HisSpace prompt which is 'Scottish'. I resisted the temptation to pop off to Spar and but some Tunnocks tea cakes, and raided my bottle cap collection instead. So here's my take on 'Scottish' courtesy of the Calendonia Brewery.




(I'm saving the bottlecaps to make one of these fab Crimbo decs)

Cheers

Ruthie x

More Adventures in Felt

Having got the Boss Kuts die a mentioned earlier in the week, I was determined to make some felt Christmas Robins with it. I struggled at first to get the die to cut felt, although I had it on good authority from the girls over on Crafts By Carolyn's forum that it does work. So I messed about with some scraps and realised the felt I had tried originally was not nice soft stuff, it was cheapo kids stuff which is much stiffer. I stocked up on some nicer stuff yesterday so I was able to get the die to work.

I decided to combine my felt robin idea with this week's DCM Dare, set by Vanessa:

Cafe Chic!
Good morning everyone, my name is Vanessa, aka Ellepiggo, I've been cardmaking for several years now and I'm delighted to be part of the Daring Cardmakers team. This is my first time at setting the dare and as we're on "firsts" I thought about the first thing that springs to my mind every morning - Coffee!! LOL!

Yes, I'm a bit of a cappuccino/latte macchiato girl, so I want to see lots of cards inspired by coffee!! Coffee colours, cup shaped cards, card inspired by a coffee jar label, using coffee beans on your card, coffee shop logos on your cards etc etc.....

I always have loads of the corrugated cup holders that you get with takeaway coffee stashed away to use on cards and decided one would make a nice border against my robin topper. So here's my (very loose) take on Coffee:

I also realised I hadn't blogged my felt tree card toppers which I made ages ago, so here they are. Although they still have to find their way on to cards!








Sorry about the poor photos again today - the light was really against me, even in the middle of the day.

Cheers

Ruthie x

My Spanish Space

I'm still checking the prompts on HerSpace:MySpace:HisSpace, although not playing as much as I would like. However today's prompt has allowed me to revisit my photos of our summer trip to Madrid. So here is 'Spanish':
I can vouch for the fact that this really is a fantastic 'space' to while away a few hours.

I've also found another shot from the weekend which fits the 'Italian' prompt thanks to the 'Italian Inspiration' scooter:



Cheers

Ruthie x

Bluebird Birthday and a lovely surprise.

I am member of the forum over at Crafts By Carolyn, which means that other members regularly put temptation in your path in the form of crafty items that you REALLY NEED :) :) The latest was on a discussion about dies. It was the new little bird die from Boss Kuts, so a click flick of a browser tab later, and one had flown into my ebay purchases!

At least I can say I used it the same day it arrived and I made this:



I'm not totally sure about the card, but I had to do a birthday card v.quickly.

It also ties in nicely with this weeks dare over on Daring Card Makers, which is good.

Ingredients: papers are basic grey (pheobe???), boss kut bird and nestabilities die, raffia, inking and pen stitching - v.simple really.

On Monday I got a lovely surprise. I am a regular reader of the Paper and String Blog as it's full of felt lovelyness. Last week, Sarah who runs the blog was offering her monthly freebie, and as part of the draw you had to link to a crafty project on your website or blog. I wasn't really sure that card making counted, but I linked to my felt birthday card. Anyway on Monday I popped over to Paper and String and found my card featured on day one of their handmade gift inspiration week I was really chuffed to say the least. You should check out the blog, it's great and this week there are some fab ideas on there.

Cheers

Ruthie x

Always check your card photos..............

... before you pass the card to the recipient, or you will end up with this as the only permanent record for your blog.

(And this was the best shot out of 4. They were so bad, they were even beyond help in photoshop)

Never mind, the six year old birthday boy thought the card was great.

Another card which I hadn't blogged is this engagement one. I did it ages ago but had to wait to pass it on to the happy couple before I blogged.

Again it's got felt on it (cut with cuttlebug dies), the paper is K&CO Amy Butler, and the stamp is Papermania.

Apart from discovering what stunning card photos I have taken recently, this weekend hasn't been at all bad. Yesterday the weather was quite nice so I decided to get some sea air in my lungs and head off to Morecambe for the day.

I had a fantastic day wandering along the front, drinking coffee in Brucianni's cafe, mooching round the shops, and of course taking photos. My visit also coincided with a scooter rally which was good. (I have to say I blended in quite well as I was wearing my parka, although I did arrive by train.)

Amongst the shops I had a mooch round was this fantastic place:

I treated myself to 'Join Me' by Danny Wallace, and found this for Mr Crafty Blogger:


(which I started reading on the train home :)

To work up an appetite for a toastie and a lovely milky coffee (or Latte as they call em now) in Brucianni's, I decided to have a wander up to the site of the old Pleasure Beach/Frontierland theme park. I spent many happy days there as a kid so I wanted to see what is now left of it. The answer is not much, other than the track for the log flume. However the frontage is still there and a managed to get this shot, which was accesorised by a few participants from the scooter rally.

Of course a visit to Morecambe would not be complete without a visit to its number one tourist attraction the (now derelict) Jug of Tea Cafe, which as you can see is now living on borrowed time. It is however immortalised with its own Flickr group.

Here are a few more shots I took.

And finally, a trip to Morecambe would not be complete without potted shrimps so guess what I'm having for my tea.


OH is not convinced, but that just means more for me.

Cheers

Ruthie x

A Couple of Cards, a Pumpkin and fame at last.

I thought I would pop in and upload a couple of my recent crafty projects. I was inspired by posts by members on the Crafts By Carolyn forum, to have a go at carving a pumpkin for Halloween. We only did turnips when we were kids so I felt quite decadent doing a pumpkin :)

I popped over to ZombiePumpkins.com and got myself a pattern to follow, and here's the result:

I picked the 'Ghost Face' mask as I love the Scream films, and the design wasn't too intricate.

I was really pleased with the result, and even more amazed that the whole thing didn't collapse in on itself.

Onto a couple of christmas cards I've done recently. I love doing mini clipboards, nearly as much as I love felt and so I decided to add them to some Christmas cards.

(sorry about the poor pics - light is a real issue at the moment)

Ingredients:

Clipboards are made by me!
Papers: K&CO and Basic Grey

Mini bulldog clips: Paperchase (soo cute)

The usual inking, stitching and a bit of doodling.

Finally, I'm famous! I posted one of my felt cards on the CraftsByCarolyn forum. Carolyn the site owner contacted me to ask if she could add them to one the pages of her main site http://www.craftsbycarolyn.co.uk/, which demonstrates how to use die cut shapes. Needless to say I was very chuffed and my cards are now here!

Also, I've now started adding some of my cards and craft projects to my flickr pages - click on the link to the right to have a look.

Cheers

Ruthie x

Is felt the best thing ever?

Well I think so. I am totally obsessed with putting felt lovelyness on my cards at the moment and here's a few of them:

This one is a birthday card for a friend. There is also a challenge over on the Crafts by Carolyn forum to include a tag on a card so I'll stick this one on there too.

Ingredients

Paper - American Crafts,

Papermania stamp

Felt letter and flower cut with Cuttlebug dies

Primas

Button

Another friend's birthday card:

Ingredients:

Paper - Basic Grey

Felt 'Pint' cut with a Quickutz die and background cut with Nestabilities

Stars cut with a Cuttlebug Die

'Happy Birthday' Papermania stamp

Studio G mini letter stamps

I managed to track down the new Cuttlebug cut and emboss Christmas tree set the other week, and I just had to make a felt Christmas card with it:

I just love the lime green and pink felt together.

Ingredients:
Cuttlebug and netabilities dies
Paper - K&CO Amy Butler range
Gingham ribbon from Crafts By Carolyn

Finally another Christmas card, but this time without felt (probably because I couldn't find the right shades to tone with the paper)

Ingredients:
Chipboard trees made with the Cuttlebug tree die
Basic Grey fruitcake paper
Cuttlebug tag die

I nearly forgot, if you want to see some fantastic felt lovelyness check out this blog.

Cheers

Ruthie x