***FESTIVE FUN FOR EVERYONE***

May Your Hearts and Homes Be Filled

With Love and Laughter For Christmas and Throughout 2012

Luv'n'Stuff

Bah Humbug! Challenge 45

For our challenge at Bah! Humbug! this week, we're looking for you to share some gift wrapping ideas, and we'd like to see how creative you can be making your presents look extra specially pretty.
I decided to keep things cheap'n'cheerful by recycling a card sent to us last year to make a gift box.   It's a really simple idea that works with virtually any card size but more importantly in these cash-strapped times ... it's "cheap as chips!"

Firstly remove the front portion of the card with the image you want to use and then cut a matching piece of plain card for the base, which you need to trim so it's slightly smaller all round ... just trim a smigeon so it will fit snugly together when assembled.

Score a line on all four sides of both card pieces, making sure your score line is the same distance from each edge, and then trim the corners to make tabs.

Glue the four corner tabs in place, allow to dry and VOILA ... you have a cheap yet pretty little gift box which has cost nothing! 
This is a great way of using up all those beautiful images on cards that you've received but can't bear to throw away ... OH YES!  I know you have them too!
Recycling at it's best.
Our Guest Designer Colleen and Humbugger Ann have their own cool projects to show you so hop over to Humbug Hall for a quick peek before you get to work on your own ideas.

Condensing

I suppose I could, (or possibly even should), apologise yet again for my recent lack of blogging prowess ... for not visiting all the beautiful blogs on my favourites list ... for not being able to admire and drool over the eye candy on show ... for not leaving as many comments as I wanted to ... BUT to be honest, the simple fact is that I just haven't got the same time to devote to blogging as I used to and that's just how it is!   
So rather than apologising for circumstances beyond my control ... for being too busy and my general lack of spare time, (which would be a waste of both my limited time and yours), I shall just condense my recent Bah! Humbug! DT examples into one single post, hope that someone will pop by to read what I've hurriedly written and leave it at that.  Take a deep breath and run with me.
READY?  LET'S GO!
Challenge 38 asked for a familiar favourite of crafters worldwide, in the form of Rudolph/Reindeer.   I opted for a simple gatefold card decorated with a lovely paper from my stash, (which I think was a Dovecraft pack from a couple of years ago), and tied with a length of silver ribbon.

Challenge 39 involved incorporating Nativity into our projects and surprisingly, the DT came up with similar ideas, but the end results were all completely different.  Take a look HERE and you'll see what I mean.
I stamped a silhouette image and mounted it onto a larger panel of black card, tied a wide satin ribbon and diamante clasp on the right and then adhered the whole thing to a white DL card blank.

Challenge 40  which is our current challenge, has been extremely popular, with oodles of entries sprinkling Christmas sparkle everywhere after we asked for Glitz and Glitter ... although I suspect the super prize on offer spurred many into joining in.   Whatever the reason for the extra numbers this week, my DT example is beginning to look rather insipid by comparison to some of the fabulous creations I've seen so far. 

But despite this, I stand by my decision to use pink teamed with black and silver on the basis that it has a fairly modern look, coupled with plenty of sparkle which is almost considered essential for Christmas by most of us crafty critters.

Hmmmmm ... looking back there's not a lot of condensing happening is there lol? ... but it's time for me to cut'n'run as there's the small matter of work to get up for tomorrow morning and sleeping in is NOT an option!
Nighty-night ... sleep tight ... and enjoy the rest of your week, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

PS: Thanks for visiting ... and please don't worry or feel guilty if you haven't got time to leave a message ... I absolutely understand. xxx

Bah Humbug! Challenge 37

Don't know why I always seem to be chasing my tail these days, but here at last, is my DT offering for our Bah! Humbug! Challenge 37 - Flourishes and Swirls.

Although it's another simple design using panels of Kanban mirrored foiled card adhered to a black tri-fold card blank, with an embossed panel matted onto black overlapping the fold, the finished result looks kind've good ... in fact I would even go so far as to say they're verging on elegant.

Last year I remember using this same design idea for my Mother-in-Law's personalised Xmas cards, making a batch of gold designs and a batch of silver and they proved to be quite popular, so I may be making some for myself to send this year.

Gold Collection 2010

Silver Collection 2010

Our Guest Designer Barb has Flourishes and Swirls galore on her project this week, so I suggest you take a peek before heading off to make your own fantastic flourishy creation for our challenge HERE. 
Go on now - run along and see for yourself if you don't believe me and enjoy the remainder of your weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Sweet Dreams David xxx

Please spare a kind thought today for the parents, family and friends of
David Christie
whose funeral we are attending this morning. 
He was far too young to be taken at only 21 but unfortunately he lost his battle with cancer last Saturday.
Our sincere condolences go out to all who knew him and loved him.
R.I.P.  David

xxxx

9/11 - We Will Never Forget

Thinking of all those who have suffered 
and remembering the heroes of that terrible event.

Bah! Humbug Challenge 36

Whoops ... forgot to take this post out of draft - silly me!
Our challenge at Humbug Hall this week is to use Paper Weaving in our projects, so armed with 2 complimentary sheets of paper from Dovecraft Fancy Pants pack, I cut narrow strips and wove them together.  
Taking a DL card blank and one of the Shapeabilities Nested Pine Trees, I ran them through the Cuttlebug to create an aperture and then placed some of my paper weaving behind it. 

The parcel above the peel off greeting was another section of the woven paper, placed onto the card front with double sided tape with a pretty matching ribbon bow glued on top.  

That left a touch too much white space for my liking, so using up the last remnants of woven paper, I cut the ends at an angle and filled the gap.    JOB DONE and another card for the Christmas box.
Hop over to Humbug Hall to take a gander at the lovely card our Guest Designer Barb created for this challenge where she mastered a new technique beautifully.

Enjoy your weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 35

This time last week my daughter was in Dublin competing as part of the U.19's Scotland Squad in her first Junior Ten Pin Bowling Triple Crown.  I'm delighted to say that the team did themselves proud, returning home to Scotland with 35 medals in all!  WHOO HOO!

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE.  

Naomi is now the proud owner of a silver and a bronze medal - not bad "at all ... at all!" ... and is looking forward to Triple Crown 2012 when Wales will be the host nation and she will hopefully be there with her teammates if selected to join the squad again of course.  Thank you for all the kind messages of support and positive thoughts which helped tremendously I'm sure.
In the meantime ... back to reality and Bah! Humbug! Challenges.  This week we have a brand new Guest Designer in the spotlight at Humbug Hall who has created a beautiful card to tickle your arty-farty tastebuds for our Christmas Sentiment/ Text Challenge.  My offering is somewhat less detailed ... actually it's embarrassingly so ... but hopefully will provide a teeny touch of inspiration for those who're short of time and 'crafting on the run' as I always seem to be these days.
It needs no explanation as there's nothing complicated about sticking stickers onto a blank card which is basically all I did.

It doesn't even qualify as a 'Bish ... Bash ... Bosh!' effort ... but if I get a chance over the weekend then I may make something a little more interesting ... maybe using stamps, ink and paper.   Oooooo'errrrr missus!  That'll be exciting ... well for me anyway LOL!
If you skip over to Humbug Hall then you can check out the other DT ideas and also get a wee peek at this week's crafty prize.  
WHOA! ... steady ... there's no need to push lol!   See you there xxx

**Good Luck Scottish Juniors**

By the time you read this, my daughter Naomi and I will be in Dublin - hopefully having an absolute blast!   She was selected to compete at the Triple Crown being held there, as a member of U.19 Ten Pin Bowling Scotland Squad and to say we are proud of her doesn't even touch on how chuffed we feel.  Whoop Whoop!  She's always wanted to play for her country and it just shows that with hard work and commitment, dreams really do come true.
So just before you tootle off to play, please take a minute over the weekend to concentrate some of your positive energy to wish her and the whole
Scottish Junior Ten Pin Bowling Squad good luck this weekend. 
Thanksky Versky Muchsky
Now just because I'm not here doesn't mean you have permission to slack off, so go check out this week's  Bah! Humbug! Challenge to see for yourself the super DT inspiration from my fellow Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers, Donna and Tracy who will sadly be leaving us this week.  Can't believe their month is up already!  
Luv'n'Stuff
Max
xxx

Congratulations Naomi

I know it's Friday ...
... and I KNOW that means I should be showing my Bah! Humbug! Challenge card, especially as I forgot to do so last week - WHOOPSY 
BUT sorry you'll have to wait 'cos I have to share some good ... 
NAY ...
GREAT ... 
NAH ...
FANTASTIC NEWS!

Naomi has passed all of her 8 Standard Grades - WHOOHOO!

Well done sweetheart ... we are so very proud of you xxx
All of your hard work paid off.

**Our Naomi - Sweet 16 **

The Birthday Girl 

... enjoying a laugh

Family Celebration Meal 

The Wok'n'Spice - Glenrothes

(31st July)

The Birthday Treat - Edinburgh 23rd July

There was birthday cake but no photo 'cos
the greedy gannets ate it 

before we could get the camera out.

Early Birthday Cake No.2

The Official Birthday Cake - 2nd August created by Susan Clunie - The Beautiful Cake Company

An amazing 2 tier chocolatey-licious creation.

Now for the cards ....

 Close up of Our Card

More ...

Whoops'a'Daisy

Have had a busy weekend and didn't realise that Mr. Blogger hadn't shown my latest Bah! Humbug! card ... maybe he thought it just wasn't worth the effort, but I'm going to defy him and show you anyway lol!
The theme this week is 'Beads' and to be honest they're not something I use often, if at all, so this was a tricky week for me ... I wasn't even sure I had any of the pesky little blighters in my stash.  However, as I've discovered many times in the past, if you look long enough and hard enough then eventually you will find and I was lucky to come across these silver stars complete with beads in a little craft box tucked away at the back of a shelf.   I think they were actually salvaged from a Christmas Cracker many moons ago ... a perfect example of why you should NEVER throw anything away!

Then it was a simple case of glueing them in a curve onto a white linen card, adding a peel off greeting and a stamped silhouette reindeer decorated with sparkly gems and trimmed with deckle-edged scissors.   

Another easy peasy card which came together really quickly once I eventually had all the bits'n'pieces together ... handy when you're in 'chasing your tail' mode!
Fellow Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers Abi and Kathy K have been much more inventive than I have, so take a look and then tootle off to do your own thing with beads.  Have fun!

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 28

Life is still running at breakneck speed but maybe if I was a lot more organised and paced myself better, things would be easier.  Which meant that once again I found myself with too little time to create anything "Fancy-Schmancy" for Bah! Humbug! Shapes Challenge and had to settle for "Easy-Peasy".
Taking a red square card blank I cut a triangle shape from each of the four sides thereby making an "X" shape. 

Using this as a template, I traced around it onto some patterned paper from the fabulous g.c.d. studios paper stack Joyful Peace and then trimmed slightly inside the lines with deckle-edged scissors ... added a red velvet bow and a greeting and 'Bob's yer Uncle!' ... or maybe yer Aunty - you never can tell these days lol!

If more inspiration is needed before you have a go then check out the DT gallery over at Humbug Hall  where Ann, Abi and Kathy K. are sharing some great ideas for shaped cards.   If you have a good idea of your own then feel free to join in, we'd love to see it.
Righty-O ... gotta' dash to the hairdresser so will see you all later xxx  

Bah Humbug! Challenge 27

Sometimes I just wish the world would slow down a wee bit ... or at least wait for me to catch up lol!  It's been another busy week with lots happening and I thought that as the schools are on holiday there would be a little more R+R time ... but I was mistaken.  It seems Time and Bah! Humbug! wait for no one so there was  nothing else for it but to knuckle down and get busy with our latest challenge and this week we're creating with 'critters' ... specifically Mice.

I started with a 6" x 6" card blank and decorated it with a small panel of the most gorgeous double-sided paper from g.c.d studios paper stack Joyful Peace  ... which was very difficult to cut into let me tell you!  It's just too fabulous for words but fortunately there are 4 sheets of 12 different designs so I still have plenty left to stroke lol!  Some red funky fibres add some decoration and make a nice change from ribbon.

I stamped the cute mouse holding a heart twice and coloured with Promarkers, before adding a foil snowflake and some gold stickles to the hearts.  The sentiment was then stamped and matted onto gold mirri card before attaching with foam pads between these two happy chappies.  
All the products used here were purchases made from Kitty Krafts where Louise and Ross welcomed me with open arms, as always.  They then plied me with coffee and the most amazing Coffee Tower cream cake before letting me loose on their stock - which is extensive in anyone's crafty eyes.  Whilst I don't manage to visit them as often as I'd like ... I ALWAYS make sure it's worth making the 60'ish mile round trip ... and this week's visit was no exception so their stock is now minus several gorgeous items - because I have them lol!
Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers Abi and Kathy K. have been busy wee critters over at Humbug Hall and have some super-dooper cute cards to show you so please do yourself a favour and go for a peek ... then if you have some wee meeces who'd like to come out and play with ours, why not join in with our challenge?
Am off to try to catch up with my tail ... which I've been chasing all week ... so see you all soon.

Bah Humbug! Challenge 26

Blimey Oh Riley!  Can it possibly be 1st July already?  Apparently so ... and that means that the school holidays will officially start at lunchtime today HOORAY!  It'll be nice to relax the routine for a few weeks ... we just need to hope for some sunshine so we can actually ENJOY lazy Summer days, rather than just dreaming of them lol!
Over at Bah! Humbug! though, there are no thoughts of sunshine as we're still concentrating on building up a decent stock of Christmas cards and for our challenge this week, we'd like to see how creative you can be with Acetate.  Now I admit that I'm not particularly confident when using this product so to keep out of trouble I opted to do an easy peasy lemon squeezy card using the simplest of ideas ... do you likee?  

Using an A5 piece of patterned card folded in half as a base card, I positioned a fancy-pantsy adhesive sticker on the front ... isn't it gorgeous? ... and then simply folded an identical sized piece of acetate to create a jacket cover over the top.   

This is held in place with narrow gold ribbon tied in a bow and a small peel off greeting was added to the bottom corner.   
TA DA!  Job done in 5 minutes!    
My fellow Humbugger Ann and our brand new July Guest Designers, Abi and Kathy K, have put a lot more effort into their projects and I recommend that you take a look ... and then if you want to play along this week, there's a super wee prize up for grabs for one lucky random entry as it's the 1st challenge of the month.   Feel free to be as creative as you like ... or you can play safe like me ... tee hee.
Enjoy your Summer ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  Ciao for now! xxx

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 25

Apologies for my recent absence but unfortunately I suffered a rather nasty bout of "Barf Humbug" ... more commonly known as Gastroenteritis ... and blogging was the last thing I thought about.  Am feeling much better now though and was able to join Ann, Wendy and Christine for this week's Bah! Humbug! Penguin Challenge.

This cute trio was stamped with black ink and embossed before colouring with Promarkers and matting onto burgundy card.    I then hand embossed some random snowflakes and used the cuttlebug to emboss the sentiment before colouring it with vivid green Promarker.
Green stripey paper and a panel of green mirri card decorated with knotted ribbon provide a colourful backdrop with some Diamond Stickles adding some sparkle to the image.

You really must check out Bah! Humbug! to see for yourself the super offerings by my fellow Humbugger Ann and our Guest Designers, Wendy and Christine who will sadly be leaving us this week.

Bah! Humbug! 23 ... "Whateva!"

Anyone with a teenager in the family will be all too familiar with THAT word ... and also the many and varied meanings it has depending on the tone used to deliver it!

Our Bah! Humbug! Challenge this week is to make a card For A Teenager which turned out to be not as easy as first thought.  
Looking through my stash I discovered plenty of lovely supplies but they were either too cutsie or too traditional.  Time was running away in what was already a busy week, so at the last minute I opted for something cool ... or rather KOOL!

The snowman and penguin image was hiding in my PSP (Paint Shop Pro) folders and I added the text before printing it off and using some Stickles for a touch of sparkle.  The gorgeous self-adhesive sparkle paper was matted onto silver mirri and the beauty of this stuff is that it is super smooth so doesn't shed glitter everywhere.  A strip of blue tartan ribbon tied in a knot across a panel of dotty mirri card helps to decorate the large open space.  I toyed with the idea of adding some silver snowflakes and then immediately discounted it as being too fussy.  So that's really all there was to it and I'm left wondering why on earth something so easy took me so long to make lol!
Over at Humbug Hall there are other great ideas to see from Ann, Wendy and Christine.   I'm confident that when you've seen them you'll realise that making something suitable for a KOOL DUDE doesn't have to be difficult.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 22

It's 'Flaming June' and the sun is shining on this beautiful Friday morning. Over at Bah! Humbug! Challenges it's always Christmas and we have another terrific theme this week - Surprise! Surprise!!  

For my DT submission I decided to attempt an Easel Card with Drawer to create a card and gift in one fell swoop!  I found video instructions HERE and set to work with gusto ... well ... I set to work at least lol!
I made up the easel card using Smirk Christmas papers, which were already glittered and good old reliable silver mirri card for matting. 

The drawer was super easy to make and I even wrapped pretty purple ribbon around it before securing with a brad.  This not only looks nice but has the added advantage of holding it together if you're not too confident that your glue will stick ... tee hee.  

Then, I got into a bit of a guddle making the wraparound base.  UH OH!  Due to 'user error' rather than inadequate instructions, I hasten to add, as everyone knows that concentration is not my strong point.   Anyway, I managed to make it all fit eventually and have convinced myself that no one will notice the teeth marks unless they look closely.  *snigger*
So there you are ... FINISHED!    JOB DONE!

You'll be pleased to hear that we have 2 surprise new Guest Designers staying with us at Humbug Hall but I can't tell you who they are ... it's a SURPRISE!   Hahahahaha!   They have created fantastic projects to show off for this week's challenge so I suggest you hotfoot it over there PDQ.  
There's also a fabby-licious Prize up for grabs for one lucky randomly selected entry, to mark the 1st challenge of a new month and you definitely wouldn't want to miss out, so grab your bits'n'bobs and head over for a looksee before joining in the fun.  G'aaaaannnnn ... You know you want to!

Bah Humbug Challenge 21

Seems like Mr. Blogger has had another 'hissy fit' and eaten my scheduled post but Naomi and I are going to Dundee shortly, so this will have to be a quick visit.
Our theme this week at Humbug Hall is "Bells" and I opted to make a simple card using elements from a Pepper and Friends Christmas kit which was originally a QVC item, but I picked it up for a 'steal' at Every Craft's A Pound.  

The base card was already preprinted so all I had to do was cut the cute reindeer from one of the sweet papers and matt it onto red foil card before adding Stickles ... (which is still wet - whoops) ... for a bit of sparkle.  
The gold bow embellishment has 2 teeny wee bells which actually jingle ... so cool!  Some Anita's text ribbon across a narrow strip of gold mirri card finish it off nicely. 
Our Guest Designers, Karen and Clare are almost finished their time with us at Humbug Hall and this is their final DT challenge, so please pop over and check out their lovely cards before they sign out.
May not be around too much this weekend ... busy ... busy ... busy ... but hope you all enjoy yours, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. 
Ciao for now xxx

Strong Winds and Sparkles

The Met Office issued a weather warning of exceptionally high winds for today across Central and Southern Scotland.  Oh My Giddy Aunt! - they aren't wrong and those nasty winds are accompanied by lashing rain too!  Sensible people are staying home where it is safe and warm.  Others who fall into the category of not so sensible and have appointments to make ... YEP! Yours Truly ... are wrapping up and venturing out, hoping they will make it back in one piece.  
Just in case the unthinkable should happen, I'd like to show a card made for my sister whose birthday was earlier this month.
The pretty glittered peacock feather was another result from when Humbugger Ann was visiting in March and I sneaked a 'steal' of her lovely metal stencil and embossing paste.  
With the stencil carefully removed, 3 complimentary colours of fine glitter were sprinkled seperately ... one side, then the other and finally the middle ... to create a graduated look.
  

Ooooooohhhhh ... sparkly-licious!
This was then trimmed before double-matting onto mega-shiny turquoise and purple foil card.   A DL card blank was decorated with alternating panels of blue sparkly card and purple foil card, which had been Cuttlebug embossed with Swiss Dots.   

A little bow, birthday sentiment and adhesive gems are all the finishing touches this glittery card needed. 
Think it may qualify for a few challenges and there's only one way to find out so here goes nothing.
Creative Inspirations - Bling
Cupcake Inspirations - Photo Inspiration 
(my colours maybe a bit too bold for this one)
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Sparkle and Shine

Bah! Humbug! #20

Another Friday ... another Bah! Humbug! Challenge and this time we're raising the bar a little and asking for Kinetic creations.   Sounds impressive I know, but the dictionary definition of kinetic is quite simply " ... relating to or resulting from motion" so all we want is some kind of movement.   Fortunately, there are plenty of wonderful ways to get action into your cards and a gazzillion online tutorials which show us how ... so there's no excuse not to join in!
I opted to make a Penny Spinner card using only an A4 sheet of mega-shiny card for decoration, black cardstock for the base, a few adhesive gems and some silver peel offs ... you wanna' see?

Okay here you go ... TA DAH!

So NOW you want to know what it does ... right?  
Watch carefully ...

Flower on the right.

Flower on the left 

Isn't it cool? 
I have a pirouetting poinsettia which spins from side to side ... and you wouldn't believe how easy it was to make.  There is a link to the tutorial over at Bah! Humbug! along with other fabulous ideas for Kinetic Cards from Ann, Karen and Clare, so shake your booty over there and check them all out.  

Bah! Humbug! #19

Well naughty Mr. Blogger managed to send everyone into a tail spin over the last couple of days when he decided to have a major hissy fit and lock us all out of blogland!  Kind've makes you wonder what we did with our lives before blogging came along because there were plenty of people who were totally lost for the last 2 days without it lol?
Hopefully he has been sorted out now and we'll have no more silly nonsense ... but just in case ... I'd better show my latest challenge offering for Bah! Humbug! pretty darn quick.

This week we're looking for cards and projects following the theme of Snowflakes and the focal image on my card was something I had a bash at when my Humbugger Buddy Ann came to stay and kindly introduced me to the delights of using embossing paste with brass stencils and then colouring by blending with inks.   What inky fun we had that day!
I trimmed the panel and matted it onto pale blue glitter card, before placing it, off centre, on top of a panel of Debbie Moore text foil paper which was also matted, firstly onto black and then onto more of the blue glitter card.  

Ice blue sparkly ribbon is knotted and trimmed to add a little interest.  The fancy peel off snowflakes are already decorated with tiny clear gemstones and provide a touch more sparkle ... just in case it was needed. 
Check out what Ann and our Guest Designers have been up to at Humbug Hall and then join in with our challenge to show us what fabulous ideas you can come up with using snowflakes.  
Reckon it's almost time for la-la-land ... but before I go let me show you the beautiful azalea bush that is blooming beside the garage. 

Stunning ... or what?

 After the rain ...

A beautiful sight to see every morning ... but such a shame that the flowers are so shortlived and will only last a couple of weeks.
Enjoy your weekend ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing.