When is a header die not a header die?

Hello friends. Hope you are all well. It is very dark, grey, damp and utterly miserable here in West Yorkshire so I trust it is better wherever you are and I would like to wish all my American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you all those who sent me good wishes for my birthday.I had a good day, in fact a good weekend. Hubby took the day off on Monday so we could go out for the day so it has thrown me out all week as I am a day behind now in my head!..........it's Thursday...but I keep thinking it's Wednesday...probably psychologically I need that extra day!..........in fact make it a week.....time seems to be the only commodity not available to buy and certainly once used it is not able to be replaced.

Enough waffle and on to my card which for a change is a Christmas card. I still haven't made the majority of my cards but this one had to be sent abroad. it was a fairly quick one to make...the first went in the bin though so perhaps not as quick as I would have liked.

Sorry for the poor photo but the daylight here is non existent. It sparkles a plenty though in the flesh!

This is a case of when is a header die not a header die?....when Carole just cuts it straight out of the card!
This is a Tonic header die but I just used the one half of it .the greetings are LOTV and embossed with a Stampendous Gold Sparkle.I backed the die cut in the card with some very sparkly gold glitter paper, and lined the card to cover it up on the inside.

So 4 weeks till the big day and oh so much I want to do. Are you the same? I go in the craft room and have so many plans in my head...never know where to start...... so come out again having achieved nothing! I also am thinking about the Christmas food...icing the cake, baking etc......and then there are the decorations to put up.......but not till hubbys birthday has been and gone next week!..........yes you guessed right  his card is still to make............. I am exhausted typing it!!...........Perhaps it is the downfall of being a perfectionist, we want it right!

Ok ...I will let you get on and I will too, so till next time...thank you for stopping by at this busy time of year and reading my waffle!
Thank you if you leave a comment it makes my day, but above all take care, keep safe, warm and well and I will be back next week and visit you all in the meantime.
Have a good weekend.
Hugs
Carole xx

Challenges entered :-  to be confirmed if I have the time!! :)
Fantastic Tuesday #63....Anything goes with a twist...add a tree.

Happy Anniversary

Hello my friends...how are we? Good I hope. Well another week has passed by in my blogland , all too quickly I have to say...but then you know that don't you?...cos it feels the same to you....

I had a nice weekend visiting my friend in Blackpool...no wine spilled this time round I am glad to say.(see an earlier post of you are new to my blog) On Saturday we went to Manchester to the Christmas Markets and had a lovely time mooching the stalls, there was lots of food and drink on offer and some lovely gift ideas too.
Hubby took this picture of all these Santa's...very reasonably priced when you compare to the Garden Centres. They look a bit like a choir singing!

The one thing that I can't get over was one stall selling bite size macaroons to have with a coffee...you know the sort of thing (sorry no picture).about 1 1/2 inches across......well they were charging £1.YES! £1 per macaroon...but if you bought five you got one free!...wasn't that nice. Daylight robbery....well in my book anyway... I chuntered the rest of the market over that one but the food stuffs did seem quite highly priced.

Right well today is the Wedding Anniversary of my friend so here is the card I made for her and her hubby (well it wouldn't be for the boyfriend would it! ) .JOKE!!!

I recently bought (treated) myself to some tonic header dies and this is the celebration one. I backed the cut-out with pink glitter card to make it stand out. The sentiment is Inkylicious and the die it is on is Spellbinders.
One tip I give myself for next time is to make the card a little wider if I can...one is limited by the width of your die-cutting machine......in an effort to make the shoulders either side of the cut out bit a little stronger. I suppose when I think about it...brain in gear time....then you can only cut A4 either portrait or landscape as your largest card and then folded in half...get that.?......come on keep up!!
If anyone has any other ideas or experience of these dies then I would love to hear them.

So back to the weekend. Did you do anything nice?.or anything nice planned for this weekend perhaps. A trip to LOTV on Saturday for tea and cake.......oh and shopping almost forgot!!.......yes I know I have spent a lot lately but birthday next week is my excuse...whats yours?
Anyway say hi if you are going too...........and otherwise have a great weekend.
Take care my lovely friends, please leave me a comment...I love them...they remind me what lovely friends I have out there in blogland. Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time..........£1 for a macaroon !!!!!! Ridiculous!

Crafting hugs
Love Carole xxx

50 and lost?

Good evening my lovely blogging friends....well it's night really, nearly bedtime so if you are reading this late then I hope I don't send you to sleep!

Well another week has gone past down the time tunnel , the highlight of which for me was the NEC last Friday for the Hobbycrafts and Crafts for Christmas shows. It was an early departure 6.30 am and I hate mornings! Good job hubby was driving........yes I took my best critic with me....why? I hear you ask..............to carry the stuff of course!....anyway before you interrupted me (how rude) I was saying he drove, and a good job because I had trouble keeping my eyes open! It was a foul journey weather wise.......lots of rain and spray.......and do you know that every lorry in Britain was on the M1 that morning!............ but we arrived safely.

It was a good show .........I nearly wrote you a poem about it,but I didn't..... so you can breathe that sigh of relief now. There was so much to see in every craft possible, and plenty to make you part with the pennies or pounds. I was very restrained but I did have to buy something didn't I...otherwise why did I go, and why take hubby if he had nothing to carry! I have to say our packed lunch probably weighed more than what I bought which was a couple of dies......can't resist them, (and I found one that had been on my wish list for ages), some wow embossing powders.and ....oh gosh can't remember (age kicking in here maybe) it's a while since I unpacked the bag. I did buy a beaded angel to make for the tree for Christmas...no not necessarily this Christmas! and some other small bits Oh! and a £10 goody bag from C & C (now that was heavy)......full of card and paper, a couple of punches and a spellbinder freebie(embossing folder) and a load of Craft Studio papercrafting discs....not bad value.
A good day but it took me all weekend to recover...I slept well!

Anyway enough rambling and get to your card I hear you cry. Ok ....sorry!

I had to make a card recently for a friend who wanted a card for a lady of 50 that liked ski-ing....(I did that at the NEC...spent the kids inheritance :)  )  and bike riding, and whenever she went in to Leeds to the theatre she got lost on the city loop, so some specifics there. This is what I came up with in the end.

Google maps to the rescue and the rest speaks for itself. I left the ski-ing out. It is a card of stamps, dies and hand cutting (the sign).It was not the most enjoyable project I have to say, it didn't do it for me but hopefully it went down well at the other end, my friend seemed happy with it......and if she wasn't she didn't say so, just probably went out and bought another one!

Well it's gone 11.0 pm now and I can hear you all snoring after all those ramblings so I'd best go and let you get on with your night/day.

Thank you for stopping by, please do so again and I promise not to bore you.If you would like to leave me a comment I would love to read them........they make it all worth while.

Stay safe and well.

TTFN (ta ta for now......in case you didn't know)

Crafting hugs
Love Carole xx

Just to say

Hello blogging buddies!
 Well here we are and another week gone! Into November and tonight is Bonfire Night...........how I used to love going to Roundhay park to see the fireworks.......now I still love fireworks but my days of standing in a field in the cold and possible damp have gone............misery I hear you say? Well OK then are you going to a bonfire?...or like me will you watch from the window in the warm? Anyway for those who are going out to celebrate have a good time but be careful...no accidents please.

When I went to the GNPE a few weeks ago I bought some stamps from a company new to me called Honey Doo crafts. They are stunning stamps and here is my card made with the rose.

                                                                                                                                                                     It also looks stunning in black but I wanted to see what it looked like in red....unfortunately the red I bought turned out to be more burgundy so shall keep my eyes peeled for a brighter one. I used versafine inks for the detail. The photo is a bit darker than the real thing...possibly due to the bad light these days ....bad workmen always blame their tools and all that!
I let the image speak for itself and just mounted it on white and scored down the sides for a touch of detail, sorry that is hard to see on the photo (here I go again) .

Well I had better get to the craft room and crack on. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head but the oomph is lacking today. Perhaps I could do with a Scottish power van or equivalent this week to bring me some energy? ...groan!
OK stop the groaning I'm going!

I wish you all a wonderful week (whats left) and a fabulous weekend.I am off to Hobbycrafts at the NEC on Friday so hope that oomph has come back or I will be done for the day walking from the car park! NO! I don't need anything but I am sure I will see something that I will want and have to buy when I am there.  Lets face it, going all that way and paying to go in, it's silly not to buy something isn't it?...and not just a program!
I usually do the Cake Show as well, but I am passing on that one this year. The entrance fees to these things is getting extortionate....or am I just tight?!!

Take care my friends,this card is for you all......'just to say'..... thank you for stopping by and making my day, hugs to you all for taking the time...... my best blogging buddies ever!
Be safe and well
Love Carole xx

PS I notice the count down to Christmas at the top has disappeared! I don't know what has happened there, so i have removed it altogether...you will have to use your fingers now I am afraid!