I AM SOOOOOOO BEHIND!!!!!!

Well talk about late, I'm so late it's not worth mentioning........... but I did!!!
I never even managed to blog July's cards although I did make them, but only 1 from each parcel. It was all my daughters fault, having reached 39 she thought she would try out her first "childhood" illness and went down with Chicken Pox! I have to admit she was very bad with it and I did all the right Motherly things, looking after her, tempting her to eat, worrying over her ................. well I did until i found she had passed it on to me! As I'd had it as a child I was even less amused, LOL. Luckily by then she was feeling well enough to take over the nursing duties, ........... good job too cos I can tell you now that getting it as an adult is no fun at all !!!!!!!!
So July basically escaped me, August wasn't far behind as I tried get some energy back and catch up with myself. I had to make my cards alone as Liz and I didn't manage a crafting day but luckily this month had a theme rather than techniques ......... and that theme was Christmas.
I made 4 cards, 2 from each parcel (although I may well make more in time) so without any further rambling from me here they are ...................

Firstly from Liz's parcel 2 fairly simple ones but I liked them both.

Then from Pat's parcel again 2 fairly simple ones, and again I like them but I have to admit the red one is my favourite of all. 

So there we are, finally I have August done and dusted. I can't even remember what we are doing this month (September) so I'll have to find my parcels and check that out, at least I've caught up!

BEACHY HEAD & CUCKMERE HAVEN

Some pictures from a day out with my daughter when we visited 2 local beauty spots.
First Beachy Head ................

And now on to Cuckmere Haven ........... 

WE LET THE MONSTER OUT!!!!

The monster is Jaffa, me daughters 1 year old ginger cat ........... she doesn't like letting cats out much as we are close to a small but fairly busy road and in a flat, if we had our own garden it would be a little different, ............ and this one seems to find trouble without looking!!
But she let him out the other afternoon, she went down to the yard with him, ... I went along with my camera!!
After having a look around and taking in the various smells Jaffa headed for one of the trees ............ and shot up as far as he could go!!!!!! He then realised he was still nowhere the birds he had his eye on .............. and he had no idea how to get down!!!! For about half an hour he went back and forth among the branches, slipping, hanging on for dear life at times and looking down at us for help ............. we called and encouraged (and giggled at his antics) and eventually he worked it out, well sort of, and with a slip, a slide, and a rush he made it back to the ground .........

Hey look at me, I'm can climb right to the top ....

Hmmm, it's not quite as easy as I thought ......

Where do I go now?

I'll just rest here and enjoy the view ....

Ooooops!! I don't think this is quite righ!

This is not doing my street cred any good at all ............ Heeeelp!!!

Well it was my first attempt and I did get down all by myself ......... eventually!!!!

Bloomin' June!

Half way through the year already ....... doesn't seem possible.Where does the time go?
I must be getting used to our technique challenges as I found this months a lot easier, LOL. I used Decoupage for Pat's parcel and Die cuts for Liz's and managed a total of 5 cards.
So on with the show and first up the cards from Liz's parcel ......

Both very simple cards, loved this picture as it reminded me of my childhood and picking bunches of bluebells to take home for my Mum and my Nan

This one was even easier as I just put a greeting on a tag and added it to the paper Liz had included!

So onto my parcel from Pat now ...........

I used the paper from my parcel with the decoupaged gardening bits from my stash

Although only a little of it shows the blue background paper was from the parcel and the rest from my stash

Again I used the paper from my parcel with bits from my stash

I'm quite happy with this months makes which is unusual as there is usually at least one I don't like much after I've made it, LOL

MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

Well I am almost out of time so I may well have been shouting for help if I'd left this any longer, LOL, but here I am finally.
As usual for this year I had a hard time putting my cards together again this month, I don't know why that is because we only have to use one item from our envelope on each card (more if we want of course) and whichever technique we have chosen, but somehow I am finding it very difficult.
Still I got there eventually, and managed 2 cards from Liz's parcel & 3 from Pat's, so let's get the show on the road .....

I chose heat embossing as my technique for Liz's parcel and was quite pleased with my results as it's something I've only done a few times before.

Card no 2 from Liz's parcel, I wasn't sure about this one but I like it now it's done

So onto Pat's parcel and this time I chose die cutting ......... these 3 are all fairly simple cards but I like them, 

No.2 a very simple card indeed but I think it came out ok

and no.3 another one for my Christmas stash which is building up nicely

So there we are, May cards made and blogged just before the month finishes!!
My favourites? .................. the 1st one of Liz's two and the 1st one of Pat's.

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY!!!!!!!!

Hello, it's April ............. and we are making Christmas Cards!! Well you have to start early or run out of time, LOL, the months speed along sooooo fast ..... or is that just me getting old?
Anyway, no techniques this month just the theme Christmas.
So here we go, starting with my parcel from Pat ....

For this one I just wanted to do something a bit different, it was actually the last card I made and the others were all fairly simple so I played around a little more with bits & pieces of paper and came up with this ..

This one was very simple, a stripey background paper and the greetings cut out in a tree shape ......... I did add some little peel off pieces around the tree and a starry snowflake shape on the top just so I felt I'd done a bit more than I did!!

Onto my parcel from Liz then .....

This turned out to be my favourite this month (although I liked them all), I wasn't sure about it at first but the more I looked at it the more I liked it.

Another very simple one, background paper, a picture & a greeting ..... I like it though.

I have noticed that each month both Liz & Pat manage to send me at least 1 piece almost the same, this month they both included a stripey piece of paper and a round Robin picture!!

Now one more card this month which was easier than easy! I used a piece of paper that came from a box of chocolates last Christmas and a greeting ..... that was it!!!!

So there we are, I've caught up with March and I've done Aprils ............ can't be bad, LOL.
See you next month.

I'M LATE ..... VERY LATE .....

In fact I'm a whole month late!!!! I had a lovely crafting day with Liz in March and made my monthly cards ....... then somehow the month got away from me and suddenly it was April and I still hadn't blogged my March cards!!!! So here I am catching up.
Our techniques to choose from this month were Zentangle (i love Zentangle but haven't yet used it on a card!), Embossing & Rubber Stamping.
I made 2 cards from each parcel so let's get on with the show ... first Pat's parcel, for which I chose embossing as my technique, ...........

For this one I used a lovely bit of embossed paper Pat had included along with a little picture & greeting also from the parcel.

Again the background paper was my embossed piece, although it doesn't show very well here.

Now onto my parcel from Liz and for this one I chose Rubber stamping.
A very simple card here with a little stamped bird and some lovely spotty paper.

 Again a fairly simple card, the flowers were stamped and then cut out.

And finally my piece using all three techniques, .... this took me ages to do and eventually I ended up making a little tag, ....... I zentangled the background, cut out the stamped image of the little mice under the flower and used an embossed piece of paper for a frame.

So there we are, I have caught up with March .............. now to do Aprils before the months over!!!!!