A Not Quite Christmassy Post.... lol

Well as the title says it isn't really Christmassy, except that I gave this album to my daughter and partner for their christmas present. He is South African and they visited there back in June/July, I stole the photographs from his Facebook page and made them an album so that they would remember their time there.

The above is the box I made for them to store the album in.... I wanted it to say Memories Are Forever, but didn't have enough "e"s to do this, so Memories Are Precious it had to be...

The papers I used are Scenic Route Ashville, my daughter should be honoured as I wouldn't have used these papers for just anyone, they were one of my favourite Scenic Route papers and now Scenic Route doesn't exist any more, so even more reason to cherish the papers you have.

The pages above had 3 tags hidden behind the photographs, one of them you can see says Special Day, these also had journalling lines on them so they could write their own memories of the day on these.



The photograph with the giraffe had 2 hidden tags behind the photograph with more photographs of a zebra and some kind of deer, there wasn't enough room in the album for them so just added them as an extra. There is also a tag behind the man with the champagne to write their memories on so they dont forget in years to come.

After vowing to do some crafting today, I never got round to it as we went to the Cinema to see Sherlock Holmes, we took 3 of our boys with us, and even though 2 of them were under 12 (it is a 12A) they loved it (or was it the popcorn they loved... lol). Must say I think I am addicted to Stampin' Up!, during one shot in a house I was totally sure they had Bella Bleu Patterned Paper on the walls.... ha ha!! After the cinema my 8 year old son wanted to buy an MP3/4 player with his Christmas money, we had checked out some the other day and went in to buy it... not only did he change his mind on the one he wanted but they had neither in stock!! He was so disappointed, but another shop not too many miles away had one left in stock so we paid and ordered it instore and then went off to pick it up.... He is so pleased with it, it is so heart warming to see them so happy with something they have saved their money for.

Have a great evening all xx

Yes you guessed it.... another Christmas Post.... ha ha

I only make presents for the teachers at the junior school, sorry secondary school teachers, but there are just too many of you.... lol

So it transpired that I needed to make 3 gifts for each of my boys teachers once you add in Teaching Assistants etc, and as money is tight I couldn't afford a big box of chocolates for each, so bought some Ferrero Rocher and split them into the six boxes, I also put some gorgeous holly and berry tissue paper inside the boxes with the chocolates so they didn't rattle around.

Again I used my Stampin' Up! Scrappin' Kit, I think there is also paper there from last year's kit, they seem to last forever. the little tags were made using the 2 sizes of Tag Punches, these are such useful punches for this sort of thing. The boxes were made using the Bigz XL die.

And here is a close up picture of one of the boxes. They looked gorgeous once finished and the boys couldn't wait until they took them into school for their teachers.

Have been shopping today for party food for the New Year's Eve party and also visited my son as it is his 18th birthday today......

Still have loads to share with you... look out over the next few days... have a great evening all xx

Trying to Finish all Christmas Posts...

Well I am desperately trying to finish up all posts to do with Christmas, but still have a few days left to go yet.... lol! Then we will move on to pastures new....

So today I will show you the little gifts I made for my Stampers 10 Clubs, if you would like to join a Stampers 10 Club or a Stampers 6 Club, both starting in February, email me on LindaLloyd@gmx.net for more details, or click on the links at the top of my blog to find out more details... each month I will include a little something in your parcel, either a tutorial, a little gift or even some SU samples. I am also starting up a special forum where all my Stampers Clubs can meet and we can have fun one evening every now and again crafting and winning prizes... I will let you know more when you sign up to the club.

Anyway, here is the little gifts my Stampers 10 Club got for Christmas...

Aren't they cute? I used all my Stampin' Up! Cardstock for this, but did use a sizzlits die for the antlers that I bought recently, I think they made perfect antlers.... just had a bit of trouble packaging them so the antlers didn't get bent. They were filled with bars of chocolate. I got the idea from this blog... http://www.staceystamps.com.

Last Sunday at church the children did a Nativity play, I have only included photographs of my children as I dont want to put other peoples' children on my blog without asking the parents first....

This is my little boy Elijah dressed up as an angel.... wow you can almost read the words on the page in this photograph... lol

And this is my little boy Malachi dressed as a Shepherd, can you see the sheep at his feet? Lol

He is always the clown and this is him posing before the play started.... I have sorted out a photograph of all the children from church and will print them out and put them in a photo frame so all the parents can have a photograph as a reminder of the Nativity Play 2009. I will be able to give them out on Thursday evening as me and DH are running our Church New Year's Eve Party.... we are going to have a quiz, dancing for the children to things like Time Warp, Superman etc, and then (hopefully our Pastors and Assistant Pastors don't read my blog) we are having a Mr and Mrs Game Show with our Pastors as the contestants... we have warned them we are doing a game show but haven't told them what it is so that they dont spend the week asking each other their favourite food, favourite place etc.... should be a good evening...

This last photograph is of my son Jared, he is 13 and is at the lectern, he was telling funny stories about Health and Safety along with our lady Pastor, but I haven't included her in the photograph as I haven't asked permission, so here he is...

Hope you all had a great day, we went out for lunch with most of my family as it is my son Joseph's 18th birthday tomorrow. He always comes round for dinner on a Sunday after Church with his girlfriend, so I told him this week we would go out for lunch, what I failed to tell him was that 3 more of his siblings, their partners and children would be there waiting for us... lol. Oh yes, and we obviously had to embarrass him by having a birthday cake brought to our table with all the candles lit... thanks to his sister Ashleigh.... I forgot my camera so will steal some pictures from Facebook once my son puts some of his photographs on there....

Take care all xx

My Team - The LadyBugs.....

I have a wonderful team of ladies and I have called us The LadyBugs, if you would like to join my team then please email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net and I will help you to join with us and let you know all about the wonderful promotion for anyone joining my team during January and February.

For Christmas this year I wondered what I could get for my wonderful downline and decided that making something for them was the way to go, and that I would make them mobile phone charms with little LadyBugs on.


I then made some little boxes to put them all in so they would have a safe journey to their new home....

And here is a close up of one of the boxes....

I used all Stampin' Up! stash for the boxes, including the new Christmas Scrappin' Kit, which is still available if you want to scrap some of your photos from Christmas.

I hope all my downline liked their little gifts.... I also sent a Christmas Card alongside the gifts....

Hope you all had a great day, take care xx

A Very Merry Christmas To You All....

I would just like to wish you all A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Incase you are not having as much fun as I am I will show you what my 25 year old son has been up to today... my daughter and his wife buy each other hate and love presents each year... this year daughter bought daughter in law, for her love present (?), a mankini.... as from the Borat film... now dont ask me why, I would have thought this was more a hate present (although the hate present was just as bad; it was a "She Wee", where a lady can "spend a penny" whilst travelling.... bleurghhh not my cup of tea I must admit)... so who better than to show off the mankini than my son, and before you look away in horror, this is a family blog and he has kept his clothes on.... yep, I hear a big sigh of relief....

Christmas Crackers....

As there will only be 4 of us for Christmas Dinner this year I decided to make us all personalised Christmas Crackers and I bought some little gifts to go inside of them, (don't worry I closed my eyes when putting mine in my cracker).... and lo and behold they fit in really well with this fortnight's Stamp With Us Challenge..... so here goes, my entry to the challenge. I really need to get on with some non christmas items now as it is my son's 18th birthday on the 28th, I have an idea, just need to make it. Plus what about all those thank you cards I will need... better go, off to church soon and the children are doing their Nativity Play, better remember to take my camera. Have a great snowy Sunday all, keep safe and stay warm. xx

Stamp with Us Challenge

I thought I would enter the Stamp With Us Challenge this week, so have made 2 cards, well why not.

I didn't use too much Stampin' Up! Stuff but if you look carefully you may spot 1 or 2 bits....

Have a great evening all xx

Snow, Snow and more Snow.....

Last night we went to give blood, it was not snowing when we left home, but whilst we were giving blood the snow started and didn't stop.... it was so cold and snowy when we left the Blood place and was very slippy on the way home. Luckily DH had brought all the stuff home from work that he needed to work from home today so he didn't have to go to work. The younger boys finished school yesterday and the secondary school children didn't have to go to school as it was shut today, so all had a really good time playing in the snow, first of all at 9pm last night and then again at 6.45am this morning.... they loved it. The guy over the road took a load of the children from our street over to the hills with our sled and they all had goes sliding down the hill and after coming home and warming up, off they went again to build snowman, play snowballs etc in our cul de sac. This afternoon I faced the snow and walked to the post office to post my Stampers 10 parcels and took my camera (always an excuse not to have snowballs thrown at me) and took loads of photos on the way there and back...

How cool is this snow.... poor DH obviously got the brunt of the snowballs... there is more snow forecast tonight and below freezing temperatures, so a bit worried about tomorrow. We had our cat spayed on Wednesday and she has a follow up appointment at 10am tomorrow, lets hope the main roads are clear.

Well here is a photograph of the cards I made for my Stampin Up Customers who purchased from me this year...

These were nice and quick to make using the Simply Scrappin! Kit from Stampin' Up! but they looked very effective, I was really pleased with the way they turned out.

Have been busy today again, making crackers for our Christmas Dinner table and finishing little gifts for my Stampers 10 Group, also putting together a newsletter for them, packaging their stash into parcels and posting it to them so that they get it before Christmas.... and I also had some new stash too... looking forward to using that now my Christmas projects are finally finished. Got a couple of birthday cards to make, it's my sons 18th birthday on the 28th and my nephews 17th on the 30th, so would like to finish these before Christmas...

Have a good safe and warm evening, take care all xx

Long Time No Blog......

I have been so super busy as you all have trying to get stuff finished in time for the big day. I am glad to say I am now on top of it, just have a few things to finish off tomorrow, and fingers crossed my Stampers 10 order will arrive before Christmas and I will be able to send that off too so everyone gets their scrummy stash to use once the big day is over. I am starting a Stampers 6 Club in Jan/Feb so if you would like some great stash to look forward to for the next 6 months, contact me for more information or click on the link above this post. Lots of clubs starting next year with lots of goodies for free too.

I still cannot post some of the things I have made as no one has yet emailed me to say they have received it, so not wanting to ruin the surprise I will just post a few things that I can share with you. These are my Christmas cards that I made for the people in church...

I stamped onto the Stampin' Up! Window Sheets with White Staz On, using the Snowburst Stamp Set (I just love this set, it is so versatile...), I left it to make sure it was really dry and got to making the image. I stamped the image onto Whisper White Cardstock and embossed it with Black Embossing Powder, I then inked around the edges and over a large part of the card using Close to Cocoa and then distressed the edges using the Cutter Kit (great bit of gear... lol). I mounted it onto Always Artichoke and then stuck the Real Red Cardstock inside the card making it look like it is matted under the Always Artichoke so that you cannot see the glue holding the Always Artichoke Cardstock in Place. Using a Martha Stewart Punch I punched the edge of some MME Patterned paper, I made two of these for each card so that I could stick the second one directly onto the other side of the acetate inside so there were no unfinished edges. I then tied the Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon all the way around the front of the card securing with a double knot. I cut more Whisper White Cardstock to stick inside the card to write on placing it directly under the Real Red so that you cannot see it when the card is closed. I then matted that using Always Artichoke again, but sticking the Always Artichoke onto the back of the card, again so that you cannot see the glue. The Poinsetta is a Spellbinders Die and the leaves are a Martha Stewart punch. Unfortunately acetate cards do not photograph well and look much better in real life.

I have lots to tell you so hoping to be back tomorrow with some catch up news and some more of my makes.... have a great (if not snowy) evening everyone...

Take care xx

Wish List Service

I am offering my Wish List Service again this year, I had some very happy customers last year and would just like to repeat this service for them, but this year there is an added bonus, depending on the amount your loved ones spend depends on what extra stash you get added to your parcel.

All you have to do is send me your wishlist (email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net or email me for my phone number and I can talk to you personally). Then point your friends and relatives in my direction when they ask you what you would like for Christmas and I will help them to chose the goodies you will really like.

So here is my offer... if your friends and relatives spend:-

£30 on your Christmas Pressies you will get a free 1/4 grosgrain ribbon - colour of yours or their choice. Page 87

£35 - free Classic Inkpad - Colour of choice - p 72 - 73

£40 - Free Snail Adhesive - p 91

£45 - Free pack Designer Buttons - p 83

£50 - free pack of Mixed A4 Cardstock. Pick between Earth Elements, Soft Subtles, Bold Brights and Rich Regails - p 72.73

£55 - Free pair of Paper Snips - p 90

£60 - Free Mat Pack - p 91

£65 - Free Stamp A Ma Jig - p 90

£70 - Free Hello Again Stamp Set - p 48

£75 - £10 of free goodies of yours or their choice from the catalogue.

For any amount over this I will still give free gifts according to the amount spent. P&P will be £3.95 and I can even gift wrap your prezzies if required complete with handmade tags. Plus there will even be a little gift wrapped prezzie included for your friend or relative as well.

So get writing those lists girls and hand them out to your friends and relatives today... I look forward to hearing from you.

Take care xx

Can You Guess....

Who we went to see on Saturday....? Yes it was Madness, excellent concert and yet again we were at the barrier at the front. Unfortunately on our way to the concert we had a car accident with another car. The weather was awful, very wet, raining and we were down a very bendy country lane. DH braked to take a bend (we were doing less than half the speed limit of 60) and as he turned the wheel to take the left hand bend the car just kept going sideway and there was a car coming in the opposite direction and we hit him side onto side. Luckily no one was hurt and the guy was very calm and not at all angry, he said he had debated using that lane as he thought it was dangerous in the wet.... yep, he was right. Luckily after details were exchanged we were able to go on our way, our car was not too badly damaged, but his was much worse....

Anyway, after that we managed to arrive at the concert safely, and despite some real idiot guys who were so drunk behind us and threatening to kill everyone who didn't get out of their way (unfortunately 2 girls who we had been chatting to and who had been standing behind us had to move because these guys were just too violent). I have rub marks on my back bruised ribs and back because of them, but hey... no way was I giving my space on the barrier up... lol


Anyway, onto my makes.... I made 70 of these cute Father Christmas cards for my boys to give to their school friends, I cased it from a very talented ladies website (unfortunately I do not remember her blog at the moment, will add it later) and she cased it from someone on SCS... how cute are they? Not so cute after making 70 of them I can tell you.

Recipe: Cardstock:- Stampin' Up! Real Red, Close to Cocoa, Basic Black and Whisper White. tools: Cuttlebug folder, Crinkler, Stampin' Up punches.

The next card was made using Papertrey Ink paper... I glittered the snowflakes to give them a bit of sparkle.

Recipe: Patterned Paper: Papertrey Ink. Cardstock:- Papermill Shop, Stampin' Up! Certainly Celery and Real Red. Tools: Stampin' Up! Tag Punches, Nestabilities Snowflakes. Ribbon:- Stampin' Up! Real Red, Stampin' Up! Silver Cord.

Hope you like them, will be back with a couple more tomorrow... just wondering how to photograph them as they are acetate cards and photographs just do not do them justice.

Have a great evening all xx

A Really Good Day.....

Today was my first Card Workshop.... one wonderful lady turned up and we had an awesome time making some Christmas Cards and a box to match. It was really nice talking to you Denise and hope we meet again sometime soon.

Chris from Stampin' Up! rang me halfway through my class to tell me I had a new downline (I did already know this and a big welcome to my team Caroline), and that because of this I have been promoted in the world of Stampin' Up! to Silver 2, this means I get another pin to match my other 3 and £150 to spend in the catalogue.... woohoo, so after Christmas not only do I get to spend my £150, I also get to earn free Saleabration Stamp Sets, so I think Christmas will be coming slightly late to me this year (or is it very early next year... lol). Have had a quick flick through the catalogue but cannot decide on what I want, so will leave it a while.

Dont forget, if you give you send me your wish list for Christmas this year and point your loved ones, family, friends etc in my direction, not only will you get the stash you wished for for Christmas, you also get freebies too which I will wrap nicely and add to your gifts, plus there will also be a small gift from me for your kind gift givers...


Anyway, I have made some cards, I am desperately trying to get my pile of Christmas Cards finished before the weekend, but failing badly, I have now made around 30, but still have at least another 20 to make and I am intending on doing something with acetate for some of them, but am still throwing some ideas around my head at the minute and not coming up with anything.... but tomorrow is another day. I have decided to list the stash used on my cards in a more orderly fashion.
Recipe: Papers - Papertrey: Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Certainly Celery, Real Red, Whisper White and The PaperMill Shop. Tools - Spellbinders Snowflakes Nesties, Cuttlebug Snowflake folder. Bling - button and gems from stash. Ribbon - Stampin' Up! Certainly Celery and Silver Cord.

This card above is my favourite so far, I cut the letters out using my Cricut Expression and the snowflake too. I punched snowflakes out of the backing glitter card and then stuck it onto the Night of Navy card underneath using Dimensionals so that the holes were more obvious, they really are in real life... lol

Recipe: Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Night of Navy, Glitter Card from stash. Patterned Paper - My Minds Eye. Bling - button from stash. Ribbon - Stampin' Up! Gold Cord.

That's it for now, off to cook tea.... and is this rain ever going to stop?

Take care all xx