Kool Kitty Musings

52 Cards Challenge: Week 52

Well I hope everyone has managed to survive the Christmas weekend, if you are looking for an excuse to play with your new crafty presents, then look no further.

Here's the last prompt for this year's 52 Cards Challenge:

And here is the card I managed to make for it just before Christmas Eve - clean and simple for obvious reasons! LOL

Paper: MME
Stamp: PTI
Die: PTI
Brad: Crate Paper
Other: Chalk ink, old music paper

Thanks to everyone who has played along with this challenge over the year, and I'd especially like to thank Ang (paper&ribbons) for originally starting off this challenge. :o)

Don't worry, the 52 Cards challenge will return for 2012 with a prompt or two in week 1, see you next year! ;o)

Happy Christmas to one and all!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing time over the Christmas weekend!

Today I have mostly been looking like this...

Yes, the OMG cat.

Because I still cannot believe I have won this fabulous prize from Crate:

And to think it has been on my Pinterest stash wishlist board since I spotted the sneak peeks on the Crate blog a few months ago. Just as this line has landed on UK shores.

Wow, simply wow.

Thank you to anyone who voted for my cards, it really made my day. :)

In other news I am nearing the end of my wrapping regime, just a few more gifts to go. But it won't be tonight. Off to watch The Young Victoria and hopefully make it to bed earlier than last night, or should I say this morning. LOL Had a lovely meal-and-movie night with Zoe yesterday but could do with more Zzzzzs tonight as I have a lot to accomplish tomorrow!

This and that....

So I've been rather neglectful of keeping up with my JYC retrospective, but it has been a bit of a busy period! LOL

Today has been a lovely day.

The Christmas cupcakes I made for our annual work wine and mince pies get together were a huge hit, and I am especially happy at how the cherry cupcakes tasted. I would love to get another batch of those made before the weekend, so only time will tell!

Then I saw that my cards were featuring today on the Crate Paper blog as part of the Very Crate Christmas feature and give-away.

I never thought in a million years they'd get picked, let alone have gained any votes from people! I am just amazed! :D

The other projects are simply stunning and I am even more sad now that I have nearly run out of my favourite Peppermint papers! I may just be trawling ebay soon looking for anyone that is still selling them as I think they are all gone in the UK. If anyone spots them somewhere give me a shout please! I will be most grateful. :D

Now, back to some Christmas journal posts. I have been keeping up with Shimelle's prompts and have also been really chuffed to see some of my entries from last year featuring there. 

So where was I up to on the retrospective...

December 9th and the very addictive tradition of buying "a" new bauble every year... or three or four... ;)

Before that the 9th was looking at having the best of both worlds and both traditions. Polish Christmas Eve, Wigilia, and a British Christmas day... well after the Polish breakfast that is. ;)

I seemed a bit more organised on the 10th last year, it is now the 20th and I have wrapping to do!

I am still loving the American Crafts gift bows I managed to snag in Florida a few years ago - still have some left and just wish they sold them over here!

The 11th was about my sparkly, sparkly tree.

Yep, I have had that sparkly tree a while - in fact this year I had to change the bulb in it for the first time ever.

The 12th featured my rather mature knitted angel - she must be in her late twenties now!

I loved the quote I found for this entry - my brother and I back in the days when it sometimes did snow in the 80s. Something tells me I wasn't too happy with his snowballing efforts.

The 13th was all about Christmas music. Last year's new addition was the fabulous album by Pink Martini that is getting a lot of playtime in Starbucks this year, it is on every time I go in... which really... hasn't been that often(!).

This year the only new additions are Michael Bubblé's new album and John Rutter's Colours of Christmas - there is something about carols that just instantly switches on the festive spirit for me. It is a fantastic CD and am sure it'll be on most of Christmas Day in our house.

Another favourite CD (along with Sarah Mclachlan's Wintersong which I can never recommend highly enough) was the Starbucks CD of 2008. Excellent choices.

On the 14th I had made better progress with my wrapping. This year I have some lovely nordic wrapping paper from M&S and from IKEA - just love it! And I think it'll be the perfect excuse for some baker's twine and ribbon usage too. ;o)

There were even gifts under the tree in 2008!

The 15th was a rather tongue in cheek reference to the "annual" gingerbread house decorating session enjoyed by Zoe, her girls, and me that was started 4 years ago and cancelled due to snow the two years that followed. This year it was held in mid November when there was definitely no snow!

...merry was a nice element of Christmas.

For the 16th it was time to contemplate and stop and breathe for a moment - and simply enjoy.

Another thing to be thankful for are friends who really know you. :)

Well I'd best go check on my tea and make a start on some Christmas wrapping!

52 Cards Challenge: Week 51

The end is almost nigh for this year's card challenge.

The good news is that weekly card prompts will continue next year and will be inspired by both the prompt jar (for random prompts), my Papercrafts 365 cards book... and well, perhaps the odd pinterest pin!

But on with this week's prompt:

So I wasn't quite done making Christmas cards, I had detached some sticky chipboard from the sheet last week and never ended up using it, so this was a good excuse to get it stuck down to something other than random objects on my desk!

Paper: Crate Paper
Chipboard: MME
Dies: PTI
Stamps: PTI
Twine: The Ribbon Reel

So there goes my homage to the Sound of Music, not quite a brown paper package tied up with string... but the I couldn't help humming the rest of the tune while I was making this!

Anyway, see you next week for the last prompt of the year - I shall be working on my card in advance as I somehow think it'll be a tad busy this time next Monday. ;o)

Sweetest festive treats...

Wow, my oven has had a bit of a work out this weekend.

Yesterday afternoon ma and I got a few baking tasks completed/prepped.

This primarily involved baking up 1 loaf, 6 mini-bunts and 4 heart-shaped pierniki (Polish gingerbread cake):

The heart-shaped ones were left in my care as the chocolate glaze was still setting by the time ma had to get home and well... I have no idea how I am to transport these back to her in one piece!

We also made the dough for sugar biscuits:

They will need icing one evening this week, but I have half the dough in the freezer and a small ball still in the fridge to do another tray now that I know to take them out before there are any signs of golden-browning! I really think I need an oven thermometer as although I reduce the temp by 20 to 40 degrees from the recipe we still had some volcanic action with the gingerbread. And the biscuits were done almost instantly... :o\

But today I have been trying out some of my new flavourings to do some festive cupcakes:

My IKEA cake stand has also been drafted into use.

Red and green, doesn't get much more festive than that eh?

And under the dome are 6 red cherry cupcakes, and 6 green pistachio cupcakes. The frosting is vanilla for both and I have to say the cherry flavouring is fab.

Now I wonder if you can guess what flavour these mini and full-sized cupcakes are?

Bubblegum blue....

Finished off with bubblegum pink flavoured icing and...

bubblegum glitter, I had a fair bit of frosting left over so decorated one of the almond sugar biscuits for someone who really likes bubblegum flavour!

Spots, stripes and all things nice

This week's dare on the DCM blog is from Keilly and on the theme of spots and stripes.

A wonderful design combination!

I have combined the two on my card, but it was quite easy really since there are so many stripes to choose from at the moment with all the peppermint-themed papers out for Christmas.

I have loved my Crate Peppermint papers more than I ever thought I would and really wish I'd gone for the collection pack now, but never fear there are many more chipboard accents still for me to use. :D

Paper: Crate Paper, MME
Chipboard: Crate Paper
Stamps: PTI
Dies: Memory Box Dies, Spellbinders, MFT, PTI
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Other: Distress Stickles, Stickles, sanding file, 3D foam, sewing machine

Have to say I am slightly addicted to making snow globes now that I've used up the snow globe chipboard piece from my Peppermint set, so that Memory Box die and the library tab from MFT dienamics make good substitutes.

Also in other news I have had a couple of card projects published in the current issue (#92)of Simply Cards and Papercraft. :D It was nice to see the mag drop through the letterbox the other day and have a good flick through at all the projects including some fab ones from fellow DCM teamies. :)

And on that note, make sure you go check out the cards from the rest of the team!

Time for some more baubles I think!

So I was flicking through a few recent pics and thought it time to share some more festive shots:

My knitted angel of JYC fame in her new spot on the tree this year.

I also took some pics at my mum and dad's when we were putting the real tree up (a fine specimen it is indeed) and ma and I have decorated it with just lights, vintage baubles that have been in the family since the 50s/60s (both English and Polish ones that have survived a couple of cat climbing expeditions over the years) and the glass baubles we have been collecting over the past few years, oh and of course the odd sentimental childhood item!

And for once all the pics here are straight out of the camera - got to love cranking up the ISO for bauble pics on green trees! Silver ones are another matter. ;o)

The gorgeous white/silver church ornament my mum bought for my dad this year - it is quite a stonker!

Ma's Gisella Graham winter trees bauble - her favourite, so you know where I get my love of winter scenes from!

The clip on mushroom ornament I bought for ma this year. Mushrooms are big in our house.

One of the oldest baubles in the collection.

My favourite snowflake bauble with my favourite Polish bauble in the background. I love those swirl baubles that have a prismatic opening with lots of pretty colours of glass inside.

Yep, I totally love that snowflake bauble... {sigh}

This little one is simply lovely.

And finally the new addition my mum bought for my brother - a very sweet candy house.

It resides very close to the ornament he made back in primary school that never fails to make it on the tree. :)

Some festive cheer to start the day....

I thought it was time for some more festive photos from around the house:

I just love this bauble - I have a real weakness of any baubles depicting snowy winter scenes!

The fireplace during the day complete with my woolly "reindeer-sheep" - shame about the cable from the lights but I am seriously in love with my wooden laser-cut tree from John Lewis - and of course there had to be a seasonal Yankee Candle burning away, mmmm North Pole.

I think it looks rather Nordic....

In the kitchen the countdown began again...

And the Russian Doll collection is up on the shelf.

I'm really looking forward to the break over Christmas so I can lounge on the sofa and just wallow in the festiveness. :D

52 Cards challenge: Week 50

Things have been rather hectic here to say the least so I wasn't sure I'd manage to get a prompt AND card up today... but I had some time spare Friday evening and got the paper and glue out to just have some creative me time. :)

So on with the prompt:

Here's what I made to fit the brief (and for plaid I think anything with checks/gingham fits that bill!):

Paper and chipboard: Crate Paper
Stamps: Waltzing Mouse Stamps
Dies: Memory Box Dies, PTI, Marianne
Other: Felt, ribbon, 3D foam, Distress Stickles, circle punch

Now this particular card is an homage to the Austrian Tirol and will be going to my friends Kelly and Andreas since I am pretty sure they wish they were in Austria this Christmas again, but hopefully it'll bring back some happy Tirol memories. :)

Happy creating!

Some more jolly moments

Well I've been rather remiss in sharing more festive pics here on my blog.

Here are some more entries from past JYC projects:

Still loving my M&S chalkboard advent calendar I bought last year. :D

When it comes to chocolate calendars, I am still rather partial to a Milkybar one!

But I seem to be managing fine without a chocolate calendar this year. In fact I am really loving some of the advent ideas I've seen on Pinterest:

Source: allsorts.typepad.com via Natalia on Pinterest

 

 

Love the little pocket bunting. I wish I could sew as neatly and uniformly as that!

Source: assets4.designsponge.com via Natalia on Pinterest

 

This takes it to a whole new level - how wonderful must it be to open one of those unique little boxes each day?

Source: marthastewart.com via Natalia on Pinterest

 

I do very much love an advent calendar with proper little windows that reveal meaningful and beautiful images.

Source: lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com via Natalia on Pinterest

 

This one gets my vintage-festive-sparkle-lovin' heart a-fluttering! Just love it.

The entry for the 6th looked at Christmas past and Christmas present, and this was my merging of two traditions, Polish and British:

Now I rather wish I'd gone and bought that set of Nativity Russian dolls in John Lewis, but they were £20...

The baby Jesus is just so cute!

On the 7th last year I was not having a stress-free time of it:

Snow = no going anywhere, never mind shopping in an actual shop! My car at that time was living under a couple of feet of snow in front of the house.

So there definitely wasn't much chance of things being simple!

On the 8th I managed to get out and about with the camera and took some lovely photos in town - I just love shop displays, I am sure in another life I would be a window dresser... how cool a job would that be?

Just delightful:

And talking of Windows... the window this year at Fenwick's, Newcastle was a sight to behold, the pics aren't too bad considering it was dusk and there was the glare of other shops on the windows:

Cinderella in her pumpkin carriage.

The white rabbit who seemed to be very late for an important date!

Plenty of choice at the Mad Hatter's tea party! Bet there was some cheeeeese cake on that buffet table.

Me and ma tried to get in on the action talking to the mirror, but didn't quite manage it!

Right I'd best scoot as I'm supposed to be out for dinner tonight!

Nordic inspired

We have a lovely dare over on the DCM blog from Fran this week, just perfect for getting you in the festive spirit.

It's all about Nordic inspiration, style trends, colours and well reindeer! Fran's even provided wonderful photo inspiration to get you in the mood:

I'm offering up two cards this week, here's the more traditional Nordic look complete with a Swedish greeting:

Paper: KI Memories
Stamps: Waltzing Mouse Stamps
Velvet Thickers: American Crafts
Dies: Marianne, Spellbinders
Seam binding: The Ribbon Reel
Ribbon: The Ribbon Girl
Other: Acrylic paint, embossing powder, sewing machine, felt, button, twine, 3D foam

It's a bit difficult to pick out the white felt scallop around the heart but it's there. I love how the white embossing with the WMS stamps has come out on the red cardstock, looks like it actually has been knitted. LOL And that zigzag stitch on my little sewing machine, I will be using that more often!

Oh and I actually cut into some old KI frosty papers, but dry brushed cream paint on it to make it more subtle and less frosty for this background. And I did say I'd be using that Marianne bough die a lot more!

And the other card, well it's a more modern colour twist:

Stamps: Waltzing Mouse
Dies: Spellbinders
Paper: American Crafts
Other: Stickles, white gel pen, twine, 3D foam

And if you need more inspiration, here are some twinkly shots of a few old and new additions to my tree this year:

This is one from last year, but I think it fits today's prompt rather nicely!

The festive mushroom is a new addition this year.

As is this gorgeous church ornament my mum bought me. Not quite Nordic, but very glam!

And can I just say I totally love RadLab for these bauble shots, soooo fab to be able to save your own recipe and just apply it quickly to a bunch of photos.

A few more makes...

Here are a couple more cards from the weekend when I was trying out my lovely winter landscape die!

Die: Memory Box Dies
Stamps: PTI

Got to admit, it is a keeper, and I think will be very handy for simple yet elegant emergency cards! ;o) But I think it'll add a very nice note to more complex ones too.

Paper: American Crafts
Die: Memory Box Dies
Stamps: PTI
Pearls: Kaisercraft

Difficult to see on the metallic AC paper, but there is a snowflake behind the greeting too.

Right, I'd best get my skates on and have some tea. :)

52 Cards Challenge: Week 49

Hi everyone!

The weeks seem to be flying by right now, so here we are with another prompt to get stuck into. :)

This is what I came up with during a cardmaking session at the weekend:

Paper: Crate Paper
Chipboard: Crate Paper
Dies: Marianne, PTI
Stamps: PTI
Other: Felt, Distress Stickles

And another card on the same theme:

Paper: Crate Paper
Chipboard: Crate Paper
Dies: Marianne
Stamps: Waltzing Mouse Stamps
Other: Felt, Distress Stickles, button twine, corner chomper

Happy crafting!

A few more entries

So here are some more entries from past journals.

This is how it all began...

On the 2nd the theme was the weather, and it looks like snowmen were a common sight, with snow actually being a reality last year!

I love snow, as long as I don't need to get anywhere in it!

The prompt for the 3rd looks at Christmas cards. It's interesting to see how my Christmas cardmaking tastes and style changed:

From flat cards with plenty of KI...

To more ribbon and layers and pop-up bits.

Alas I am not quite at the "all made" stage this year!

Today's prompt looks at what would make a perfect Christmas:

Christmas wouldn't be the same without that essential ingredient - the brussel sprout.

And last year with all snow we were having I was hoping that it would at least be a White Christmas for once. For some reason it is all the more magical.

Holly Jolly Christmas

We've reached the end of our year of flowers series on the Daring Cardmakers' Blog - with the option of Holly or Narcissus for December.

Well, it was an easy choice for me this week, plenty of holly-inspired items to choose from. :)

Papers: MME
Stamps: PTI
Dies: Spellbinders, PTI
Tag and glittery brad: Making Memories
Other: Distress Stickles, buttons, twine, 3D foam, corner chomper

Have to say I am really glad I bought Picket Fence Distress Stickles, they are just lovely and really frosty when they dry out.

Don't forget to pop on over to the blog and check out the fab cards from the design team, plus our lovely new guest designer, Gez. :D

The Christmas countdown starts here!

So it's the first of December and the start of my retrospective look at the two Journal Your Christmas projects I completed from start to finish. ;o)

Although I'm not making a new journal this year I am hoping to really get in the festive spirit by keeping up with those who are playing along with JYC and other December daily projects.

And of course enjoy the daily prompts from Shimelle over my cereal on the morning.

Usually the first prompt we see is the manifesto page, but as I am writing this over breakfast while about to depart for some Christmas shopping, I think it's nice to look back at last year's manifesto. :)

A fine way to start the season right?

But for some pics from the past, here's how JYC started for me in years gone by:

With the ATC spinner from 7Gypsies.

And an A5 kraft binder from Paperchase which quickly expanded into two binders. ;)

Looking forward to seeing the first prompt when I get back from the shopping expedition.

Oh, and with it being the first of December, my blog has switched to Christmas mode! :D