Do you have a lot...

...of Christmas cards to make?

I do.

Every year I promise that I will be more organised and get a few done every month - every year December arrives and I realise I have loads that I still need to make.

Hunkydory have brought out a lovely stack of Christmas images called "The Little Book of Christmas". There are 144 pages , 48 designs which can be used as toppers or you can cut them up and use them as decoupage. The great thing is, you can use these images and make your cards as simple or as fussy as you like - perfect for making some quick last minute cards.

Here are a couple that I made...

 ...both use a 6x6 card blank and a deckle-edged black CS matt...

...and some red gingham ribbon.

These have been kept fairly simple so they will be ideal for posting - not too bulky so should keep the postage costs down.

The stack has a good variety of images so you will be able to cover all eventualities - cute, traditional, religious, contemporary. There is also a good mix of colours so you can go with your traditional Red/Green combo or try out blues, pinks and beiges.

The size is great for a variety of card sizes. I trimmed these down a little to fit on the matt on a 6x6 card but you could easily matt & layer the images for use on larger card blanks.

I will continue to colour a selection of images to make up into cards but it is nice to know that I have these to add into the equation.........................................................................

Digi images...

...from a number of sources.

I have lots of digi images and they come from a variety of companies. This collection of images that I coloured today are an example...

...there is a Polkadoodles image, one from Bugaboo and a couple from KennyK.
This KennyK image was a newsletter freebie for August...

 ...I think she is such fun and decided to have a play with a couple of different colour combos...

 ...in both I've used colours that will work well with the G45 papers in the Rare Oddities collection.
This was another of my winnings from Bugaboo...

 ...she is called Strength Fairy and for some reason she made me think of the pop singer 'Pink' - hence the colour choice.
A while back, Polksdoodles did some digi images of their design team...

...this one was Kath Stewart and her golden bundle of furriness, Buddy.

All the images were coloured using Copics.

Did anyone see the Tonic pens that were on Create & Craft the other day?

I would love to have a play with them as they are a rather unusual shape and I was wondering if they would be any better for when the old arfa-ritis plays up. I mean, there's only 36 of them so not too many to add to my existing collection of pens LOL...............................................

Back in July...

...I was lucky enough to be a daily winner during the Catch the bug "Christmas in July" event.

I was a second place winner which meant I could choose 7 images (21$) from the Bugaboo on-line store. It was difficult to make-up my mine - especially as during July, Bugaboo had a 50% off sale on all their digi images. So instead of 7 images, I was able to pick 14.

This is the first of the images that I have actually sat and coloured...

...she is called "Fairy Christmas" and I think she is fabulous. I have coloured her using Copic pens and I have kept to a fairly traditional colour scheme. I might add some sparkle to her wings but haven't made up my mind yet.

I think I'll do a few more of this image as I can see it making a lovely topper for my Christmas cards. I might have a play around with some different colour combos - we shall see...............................

Have you seen these...

...packs of images for colouring?

I hadn't.

Quite by chance I saw these packs of "Colourables" hanging on the wall in Pinnacle Crafts...

 ...and they looked interesting. Each pack contains 10 images for colouring and 2 sheets of words that you can also colour. The images are printed on good quality card...

 ...and the sheets measure approx. A5 in size. As the weather was rather lovely yesterday morning, I sat by the green in Barleylands and did some colouring...

...these were coloured using Copics and I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

Joanne at Pinnacles says there are some Christmas packs too so I will be on the lookout for when they arrive.

At £2.99 per pack, I don't think this is too much to spend on some lovely pre-printed images that come on good quality CS........................................................

Why do PCs...

...decide to play-up when I'm in a hurry?

As I'm off work this week I've decided to turn my alarm off. I think my alarm is actually a 'comfort blanket' just to ensure that I wake up on time as even with it switched off, I still wake at the same time. However, this morning I woke up as usual and decided to turn over...and promptly went back to sleep.

When I finally woke it was about 1.5 hours later and put me all behind because I wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine (yes, the day started off lovely).

As is my normal practice each morning I checked my emails - bit slow - and then went to catch up with my blog ready list. That was even slower and I kept losing internet connection or the blog pages would freeze.

I probably don't make things any better because I get frustrated and try to abort actions which doesn't help.

In the end, I gave up and shut the thing down and went on my way.

Let's hope it decides to play nice this evening as I have quite a bit of catching up to do.....................

I'm a...

...happy bunny!

On Friday, a branch of "The Works" opened in Stratford where I work - yippee!!!

(I can hear the groan from the bank manager already LOL)

I recently had an email from The Works containing a survey to find out why I hadn't been into one of their stores recently. In 2013 I was visiting Chelmsford & Southend regularly to cover the offices at those locations - both have great branches of The Works and I was a regular customer. The nearest branch to my home address is in Basildon. I have never found it to be a particularly good store and Basildon is not a shopping area I visit very often. So this is what I said in the survey and also asked why there wasn't a branch in Stratford.

Lo & behold, a couple of days later signage for a branch in the Stratford shopping centre appeared on one of the empty units and on Friday it had its grand opening.

The store has quite a large selection of craft stuff and a very nice large section of adult colouring goodies. Armed with my 20% off voucher for completing the survey, I made my purchases (note to self; books are heavy so don't buy too many at once and then wonder why you are struggling to get them home on the train LOL).

I wanted to get stuck in straight away during my lunch break but the markers I bought bleed through and this design has another printed on the other side of the page...

 ...so I dug out my Distress Markers when I got home and continued to play...

 ...I wanted the whole thing to be just greens & blues...

...and there is a good selection of both in the Distress Marker collection.

I sat in the sunshine over at Barleylands on Saturday and finished it off.

I'm looking forward to a week of taking things easy and just playing around with my craft stuff. Let's hope Mother Nature is kind and provides some nice sunny days................................................

A bit of...

..."me" time.

I finally got a chance to sit down and finish off my owl...

...he has sat looking at me for weeks now but I've only just had the chance to sit down and finish him off. Of course, one thing led to another and I made a start on this...

...the wooden door has turned out as I wanted it and I found the fine end of my Distress Markers was perfect for completing the 'iron-work'.

I have this coming week off work - nothing planned - just a chance to unwind after all the hassle at work recently.

I say 'nothing planned' as my intentions are very much reliant on the weather (and I don't put much faith in the man at the Met Office). So if the weather is good I may well throw my colouring 'stuff' into the car and head off to sit in the sunshine somewhere............................................................