Presents!!! :D

Hello again!! :)

Just so you don't think I've gone mad when you get further down this post: Blogger's being a real pain about uploading my pics- I've had to do them one at a time and they're taking ages if they'll upload at all- so I'm going to post this without the last couple of pics for now as I don't want to miss the LOTV Challenge deadline but I'll get the others up as soon as Blogger will let me!! :S EDIT: Hooray!!! Think it's actually worked now- only took about 10 times longer than it should've!!!

I hope you’re all having a good week despite the decidedly miserable weather- I can’t see my hand in front of my face inside today, it so dismal!! Well, I was planning to post my Grandad’s birthday card next but, as I’ve noticed I could still be in time for this week’s LOTV Challenge, I’m posting this one that I put together a couple of nights ago instead! I say put together not because it was a cut-and-stick type card (or these days, thankfully for me and my hands, a ‘pop-out-the-die-cuts-and-stick’ type card!! ;) ) – which I have nothing against, I should add, as they are my saving grace on many a low energy occasion!! – but because I feel I’ve been working on the components of this particular card for weeks!!

The image from Lili of the Valley has been sitting on my desk, coloured and ready to go for at least a couple of weeks (and calling to me all the while!) and I’ve been working on the papers for at least that long and finally finished them the other day only to have to wait ‘til I had the spare time/energy to actually get up and start the card itself!!

I’ve used the adorable James with Presents stamp and coloured him with PMs in the same colours as proved so popular with my last LOTV bear card: Cool Greys 1, 2, 3 & 4 with Slate, Lavender and Rose Pink applied with the Blender pen and some Crystal Stickles and Sakura Clear Stardust for a bit of Christmassy sparkle!! I was so pleased that so many people said they liked the colours I’d used for that card- they’re very ‘me’ colours so I knew I loved them but that doesn’t always mean others will feel the same!! ;) – and after the way this card’s come out with the co-ordinating papers, I think I might have found the colour-scheme for most of my own Xmas cards this year!! :) The matt behind the image is just a piece of printer paper with the edges coloured with PMs. I distressed the edges, used a punch on all the corners and ran a Versamark Dazzle Frost pad around the image layer :)

I’ve been really struggling this year to find packs of Christmas Papers in colours/styles that I’ve really liked or been inspired by- at least not at prices that I/my bank balance could stand anyway!! :/ - so, over the last few weeks, at times when I’ve not been feeling well enough to actually make a card, I’ve been fiddling on my netbook in bed and designing a few of my own :) I used the same free DrawPlus programme I downloaded and used to make the sentiment Rounds and have made a few papers in several different colourways- all of which I like and know will work with the colours of PMs, etc. that I’m loving using at the moment!! They’re fairly basic designs- the two on this card are just a snowflake font and some lines arranged on the page!! ;) - and I’m sure there was probably a quicker, much more straight-forward way of doing some of it but it gave me something to do without using *too* much energy and I have to admit the self-sufficient feeling of solving my own paper problem while saving myself some money (to be spent on other crafty bits post-haste, ofc!!!) is pretty nice!! :) The edges are distressed lightly with the TH tool and Dusty Concord DI :)

The snowflake is cut from a piece from my MS Snowflake Trim Punch with more DI and a Dew Drop in the centre (fixed with Stickles as I wasn’t sure what glue to use in case it showed through so now it sparkles, too!! :) ) and a few more of my favourite tiny pearls in the corners to finish!! :) Oh, and the greeting was added by hand at the last minute with a black fineliner as, when I showed the card to my mum just before adding the pearls, etc., she asked me where I was going to put the greeting...and it was at that point I realised I’d actually used the wrong paper...I’d intended to use one with Merry Christmas where I used the snowflake one- ooops!!! Ah, well!! lol

And I've taken a couple of extra pics: the first is a side-view as I've made this card Top-Opening- this is something I've seen on quite a few people's blogs and always really like...but I never remember to do it myself (I've always got the paper on the other way round before I think about it!!!), and the other is a pic of some of my papers (including the one I meant to use instead of the snowflakes!) as it was hard to show them much on the card as I'd covered most of them!! :)

I’d like to enter this card in the following challenges: Lili Of The Valley #66 – Untraditional Christmas :) ; CES #5 – Animal Antics :) ; One Stop Craft Challenge #99 – Snowflakes In September :) ; Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club #36 – Christmas Furry Things :) I did think about entering it into some of the CAS challenges that are running at the moment but, although it's definitely simple, I wasn't sure if it would be classed as 'Clean' with the Distress Ink...?

Thanks for reading and I hope you like my cards and the papers :) I’m going to stop rambling and go and link these up now before I run out of energy again- I wrote most of this last night but had to wait ‘til today to feel up to getting up to take the pics- the run up to Christmas is not the best time for a crafter to have even less energy than usual but it always seems to work out that way!! :S Also, apologies for being such a bad blogger at the mo' and going so long between posts/not managing to get round to see others' blogs and leave comments for all the lovely people who've left such nice comments for me recently :( I know I keep saying it but I truly hope I'll catch up soon as I love that interactive aspect of blogging so much and I really do appreciate all the comments people leave for me!! :) 

hugs,