Hi I'm Back!!!!

Hi everyone, hope you're ok and not too far off being ready for christmas!!!

If I was as organised as my dear buddy Lisa Jane I would have scheduled posts for the last two weeks sadly i'm not.

I've had a break to attend a fabulous winter wedding it was so lovely. 

My cousins daughter was married in a little church in Didcot in Oxfordshire last weekend.
The brass band  that she and her husband are members of played Christmas carols and a spine chilling fanfare as the beautiful bride entered the church, so lovely to sing carols at a wedding.
Sweet little bridesmaids with cute fluffy shawls, brought tears to our eyes it was so magical.

Our only regret was rain, a few snow flakes instead would have been so much better... we could have taken buckets of snow from Yorkshire.

Everyone was amazed when as part of his sermon the vicar... with the help of his very talented teenage son used a puppet boy doll... who armed with wellies and bucket thought he had been invited to help with the weeding.

The vicar then corrected him to say 'it was help with the WEDDING' and used the illustration of weeding as part of the marriage sermon, really well thought out and so different, the children loved it.

Then on Monday the bride, groom, their little girl, my cousin and her husband, my daughters and grandchildren were all enjoying the winter wonderland at Center Parcs in the Lake District, for the week.
The temperatures reached minus 12... the coldest we've ever known but it gave us beautiful winter scenes, some photos to share with you below.

I made two more advent calender chests but sadly didn't get them to my sister and friend Sue for the start of the month, but I thought I would share them any way and maybe enter a few challenges.

The stamps on this one are from the Cute Companions, Wonderful Christmas, Deck the Halls and Christmas Wishes stamp sets and coloured with Copics.

The paper and embellishments are from the absolutely brilliant kit that was my prize in the monthly prize draw on the Docrafts site. It was over £50 in value and included A4 paper pad,  linen stickers, brads, stamp set, rub ons, vellum quote pad, A4 decoupage card, A4 laser board, A4 silver vellums, A4 foiled decoupage, A4 shimmer board and two stencils all from the Henbury Lane, Poinsettia collection.
HOW LUCKY WAS I !!!!!!
I just bought extra brads for the draws.

    

   

challenges to have fun with:

Tuesday Taggers ~  Deck the halls
ABC Christmas ~   Y for Yuletide
Charisma Cardz ~   A Christmas Gift
Sarah Hurley ~       Christmas decoration... the mice are putting up decorations.
Fussy and Fancy ~   Anything but a card
Winter Wonderland ~  Christmas Baubles
Challenge up your Life ~  Advent or Christmas
Crafters Companion monthly ~ sketch or Christmas or both

Some photos of our back garden before we left.

snow scenes from our trip

The lake on Friday after a thaw.

There was still ice on the water.

Paint a pot workshop Sophie and Adam budding crafters.

I had to have a go, and check out my nose I could be Rhudollf!!

Gracie another crafter in the making!!

They were all lovely after they were fired.

Thanks for stopping buy hope the snow makes you feel cooler Sharon my Teddy Stampers buddy from Cape Town.

Love cherie  //*.*\\

Home Sweet Home

Hi Happy Sunday,
 To all you lovely folk around the world, and
for us over here hope you're enjoying your bank holiday weekend, and the sunshine whoopee!!

The challenge over at stamping for the weekend is
 "Get to know you better through your favourite book"
I used my Cute Companions mice for my favourite book "The Borrowers" so little Arrietty, Pod and Homily the Clock family are at home. They like to go into the big house and borrow all the little things that go missing, buttons, pins and needles. Have you ever wondered where they all go . You can never find a needle when you want one!!!
It's not strictly accurate they are little people who live under the floor boards not mice, but it shows  a little family with large objects, and makes a nice new home card.

Edit:  So thrilled my card won It's a Crafters Companion Challenge
and madeTOP 3 at Stamping for the Weekend


Some more challenges are:
Copic colour challenge ~ to use the colours B02 BV02 YG03
Allsorts ~ Animals
It's a crafters companion ~ 3D project

This is the view of the front, the bottom was hidden by the steps.
I printed the theme sheet from the  CC volume 1 CD it's 5x5" cut out the cotton reels and wool from the A5 that is on the same sheet and 3d them.
Most of the stamps are on the Play days set, the book and reader are from Wonderful Christmas.
This is the first time using the Tim Holtz paper distresser. Easy to do but not sure if I like it, new style for me.
 Wanted to give the impression of old and dark I inked with  TH distressing ink tea dye, faded jeans and peeled paint.
I coloured the mice with copic markers in the colours for the challenge, with E 50 51 53 R20 W1
flowered paper was a magazine freebie and the coloured card from my stash.

View from the side.
The sentiment was done on the computer the trimmings are all from my stash.
Bit of a long post if you're still with me happy crafting and thanks for stopping by.

Love Cherie   //*.*\\

Double Dutch Challenge #37 Alphabet Soup

Hi, as promised this is my second post today.

The Double Dutch Challenge is Alphabet Soup. Make a card or creation in the shape of a letter from the alphabet.

This is my card.
B is for baby.  I printed a letter on the computer cut around it ( several times). Give me the mice and a small pair of scissors and i'm fine, but ask me to follow a line and oh dear!! That's why my sister Jackie and I make a great team, she usually makes and cuts the templates, when we get together X

I'ts 15 x 10.5 cm The chequed paper is printed from the Wild Rose Studio Spring CD. If you like papers to print these are  gorgeous.  I made an insert  from Blueberry Hill paper by Papermania and also for the little shoes, arn't they scrummy. They were made from a template by the very talented Christine Ruff.
The stamps are from Cute Companions which I coloured with my Copic markers and cut them out. A couple of rub-ons from Basic Grey, Sugared some flower braid and  pearl beads for buttons and there you are.!!!

I love making cards with these stamps, if you want to treat yourself to a really great day out then a workshop with their very talented and wonderful designer Jayne Nestorenko is not to be missed. She is posting the new workshops on her site this week. Don't hang around though they go very quickly.

Loads a Hugs
Cherie  //*.*\\

Edit:  the template for the shoes was very kindly given to me by the lovely Christine Ruff. If you would like it please email her at caruff@hotmail.co.uk