Best of Everything

 

Hello everyone. Sorry for the absence.  I had such high hopes this year for more regular posting but I didn't count on Blogger letting me down.  I've been having so many problems trying to upload photos from my files.  I've had to go about it in a rather laborious fashion - via Picassa Web or something like that!  It was rather frustrating, but I got there in the end!

 

Today I'm at home as our school has closed due to the snow.  Emily is here too as her college has closed, but Edward is most put out because his school is open and I made him go in.  I did have to bribe him with a sausage sandwich for breakfast!  We've has a fun time this weekend, playing in the snow with Chloe - she adores it and wants to be out in it at every opportunity.  In fact, she never leaves Mark alone, constantly fussing at him to take her out.  Now though, I wish it would go.  We had to cancel a family celebration in Kent at the weekend for my Nan's 90th birthday, and my Dad will be 70 this weekend, so we are keeping our eyes on the forecast, and our fingers crossed.

 

The card I am sharing with you today uses a lovely set of stamps called Best of Everything.  I am very taken with them and I think they are really versatile.  I CASEd part of the card from the current Stampin' Up catalogue, but the rest is all mine!

 

I used Real Red, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight for the flowers and Gumball Green for the stems.  The Curly Label punch works brilliantly with the dotty border and I used matching ribbon and coloured card for mounting.  Of course, no card is complete without a little bit of bling. 

 

 

 

Well, that's it from me today.  I'm off to wrap up warm and take my gorgeous girl for a run in the snow.  Have a great day and stay safe.

 

Michelle x

Happy New Year

Happy 2013 everyone.  I hope you have all had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas.  I've had a lovely time and am feeling so chilled, I am almost comatose!  Mark and I have really enjoyed spending a lot of time just doing nothing, catching up on programmes that we have recorded and not had time to watch (like The Killing and Homeland) and just generally recharging.  Poor Emily was full of cold again on Boxing Day and has been feeling pretty grotty since.  She was really poorly before Christmas, so she is not terribly happy.  Having said that, she soldiered on admirably.  Edward is a typical teenager and has spent a lot of time on his Xbox, apart from when family obligations were enforced!

 

Between Christmas and New Year I managed to grab a few hours to make some cards.  I'm trying to get organised so that I don't have the normal panic of not having birthday cards for people when I need them.

 

The card I am sharing with you today was made with the fabulous Betsy's Blossoms set (Stampin' Up) and some of the new In-Colour ink pads - Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals.  This is a replica of the card that I made for my mum (see here ).  I love this card so much and really wanted to make another version.

 

I've had a go at taking the photos myself rather than getting Mark to scan them.  I've realised that scanning the cards doesn't show some of the dimension that I add.

During my tour of blogland today, I was very interested in people's round-ups of the year. Having looked through all my blog photos from 2012, it became apparent that I didn't actually do a lot last year!  I know that sounds dramatic, but looking through last year's calendar gave me the same impression.  So I'm going to try a little bit harder.  It really bothered me that I hardly made any Christmas cards, and I was quite sad that it was the first year in a really long time that I sent so few.  I also have a deadline for Emily's Scrapbook - 6 months until her 18th.  It's very scary because I've still got so much to do - so I've tried to make myself an action plan.  I'll keep you posted on how it's going (expect tears!).

Enjoy the rest of the day, and thanks again for dropping by.

Michelle x