Christmas is coming

Yes Christmas is coming so fast.. it doesn't seem that long ago we were enjoying a beautiful Summer but today we have had wind rain .... and then hail making a deafening noise on the conservatory roof followed by thunder and lightening which brought Jasper down from upstairs where he had been snoozing
Anyway I decided I better get on with decorating the Christmas cake which I made last month, I ended up covered with icing sugar, but here is a photo of the end result:

 

I just hope it tastes good because I totted up how much it cost for ingredients, electricity and (wo)man hours and I reckon it would have been cheaper to go to Harrods and buy one of their top of the range!! But I secretly enjoyed baking again.

 

well that's it for today, short and sweet ... a week to now we will be enjoying Boxing day tea  followed hopefully by some good tv and then Christmas will be as far away as it ever is 364 days to be exact... I'll leave you with that thought ...Bye for now xx Annie

 

Last of my Christmas Cards made

Hi there
what a milestone today I finally finished this year's Christmas cards... fingers crossed. I have promised myself next year I will start much earlier....

Thank goodness for dies because they do almost always give you a result... these dies are Memory box dies very filigree but easy to cut ... but I am now ankle deep in tiny bits of card so I will have to have a deep clean !!! well I'll run the hoover over ... :)

Bye for now xxx Annie

Fussy & Fancy Challenge #104 .... CHOCOLATE

Here it is then... the last F&F challenge of 2013 and what better theme than Chocolate. I thought I would concentrate on packaging this time..I had already made a box and bag and then realised we needed to use  a sponsor's digistamp ... this time it was provided by Freshly Brewed Designs

Well you may be asking what has that brightly coloured box got to do with chocolate... well I tried to go along with the chocolate theme but it didn't work ... I wanted it to be bright for a child so the chocolate .. well it's inside:

a famous little chocolate reindeer (with his little bell) guarding some chocolate coins. The digistamp I used is called 'Snow much Fun' you can see I used the whole digistamp image on the lid and then blew it up slightly and cut it into 4 to use 1 image on each face of the box which I made from craft card and matted up with some pretty Christmas papers from my stash. Here are the four sides of the box:

Back to my original 2 DT pieces I made a gift bag out of chocolate coloured lightweight card and prettied it up with some mint coloured diecut snowflakes. The pink and chocolate box was made using heavyweight brown card again prettied up with some patterned paper and some Christmas Tim Holtz dies, which I really love. Here are a couple of closeups:

Nearer the time I am going to make some homemade chocolate truffles to fill this box as a pressie for one of my neighbours. The snowflakes are cut using spellbinders dies and are actually a very soft mint colour which doesn't show up very well in the photo:

So that's it for today it's been a good day as well as finishing these projects I managed to bake our Christmas cake so the whole house smells of mixed spices. I got a bit nostalgic whilst mixing it because I had found my grandmother's great big mixing bowl, I had forgotten what hard work it is mixing a fruit cake by hand .. so if this one is successful I might have to invest in a kenwood before next year !! Once the cake was in the oven I got to lick the spoon which the boys always used to fight over and then  .... I got to eat the last few remaining glace cherries ...........bliss

So why don't you give our challenge a go ... our sponsors this month  Fresh Brewed Designs are offering a Candy Prize to one lucky person who enters our Chocolate Challenge.

It will be 3 digi's of their choice  along with a fun candy prize...  A stamp case filled with goodies
to create with.
Remember our winner is chosen randomly... so everyone has an equal chance of winning ... Good Luck and most of all have fun with it

Bye for now xxx Annie

Clarity Challenge 10 ... Scene Building

Well I have been bogged down with Christmas card making ... all my own fault for leaving it so late, but when my Clarity NDC stamp and tutorial dropped through the letter box I gave myself some ME time and played ....what did I make.... you guessed it another Christmas card.. here it is:

I had such a relaxing hour or so making it....and I was so pleased with it he is winging his way to someone as I speak...hope they like it.

So I hate to say it ...I am going to kill two birds with one stone,, ( Sorry Bobbin' Robin) and enter him into the Clarity Challenge which is scene building. As always there is a £50 voucher waiting for the winner so off I go

Bye for now Annie xxx