MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The Guv, Looby, Shary, Charli, KTP, Alix and Ruth would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
We hope you have enjoyed this last year with Blog 'Til You Drop and we hope you will join us in the New Year for more fun!
Wishing you all a wonderful time, see you back here on 2nd January!!

Challenge #22 - New Beginnings

Today was our last day at the B&M store, which closed its doors for the very last time at 4pm. So I'm thinking about new challenges, new paths & new direction. I have friends who have moved into a new home today (how brave this close to Christmas! LOL) & I also know of several babies born this month (all girls, I always wanted a pink one too!) Of course we are fast approaching a new year as well - who knows what delights that might bring!
So the challenge for this week is simply this: NEW
Show us 'new' in any craft form you like: layouts of all sizes, mini books, ATCs, FLAPs, inchies, quilting, cross stitch or whatever else floats your boat.
My card was made with HOTP Cardmakers Creative Pack & Ribbons (Classic) & chipboard from Fancy Pants Biggest Board (Dreamer) - made really easy with a sketch from Di Hickman. All the deets & links to Di's challenges are over on my blog.
As always, e-mail your entry to me & post a li'l comment here so as everyone knows to go look in the gallery. There'll be a prize at the end of the month for the overall winner from all December's entries as chosen by our DT.
Good luck!!

Last Minute cards

If you haven't yet finished all those Christmas cards, and are getting stressed, here's some really quick and easy cards for you to try.

All of these cards have been made using the HOTP Personal Shopper kit, November 2007 and some A Muse sentiment stamps. The kit contains a full Finished in a flash Christmas kit, a set of Christmas brad buddies and silk poinsettias and loads of yummy patterned paper. I used nothing but the kit, and having made these 6 cards I still have LOADS left for all those Christmas pics we're bound to take!

Well, that's it from me for this year, so I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I'll see you in the new year!

Challenge # 21 - A stitch in time.....

Hi guys and welcome to this weeks challenge!!

Charli here - and my challenge to you this week is to use sewing on your projects!

Now in case you're like our Looby, and you're not keen on sewing - fear not!! The sewing or stitching could be real, doodled, rub on, or could be already on your paper as it is on the next LO I'll show you. First though, my really really stitched on LO, using the vintage sarapapers available from Bev at this email address - sales@croptilyoudrop.co.uk

I made my own flower petal template, cut round it a few times using different papers from the vintage sarapapers kit, then used a zig zag stitch to attach them to the page. I sewed a border around the page and made my own little tag with the quote on, also using papers from the kit, and a bit of stitching on too. I also added some tiny metal flower shaped embellies on the tag too. Added some button brads, and a naked chipboard button, painted pink and jazzed up with a little bit of ribbon.

Next LO - not a real bit of stitching in sight!! Used the English paper company collection of Christmas papers on this one, but just cut out the Christmas squares as my pic was not Christmas related!! Cut the title out of the same papers et voila!

So come on - have a go!! You could win yourself some fabulous goodies - email your entries to the above email address, and leave a comment here to let us know you have entered - then we can all have a peep!

Happy crafting to you folks!

Last minute Christmas makes...

If you are anything like me, you'll be running out of time about now...and realizing that all those great plans you made...are just not going to all happen in time...Fret not...here are some quick ideas that you will have time for...and one of them even reduces the amount of washing up you'll have to do!! lol

This card can be made in about 10 minutes and is suitable for both a male or female relative. You could also change the message and make it suitable for pretty much any occassion too - you can't ask more than that, can you?

I've stamped and embossed a paisley design in black embossing powder 5 times onto the front of a silver card blank. I've embossed one of the chipboard blanks with silver sparkle embossing powder and mounted it over the middle motif. I've then attached one of the HOTP Word Fragments atop this with foam pads. Finally, I've tied black ribbon from the HOTP Classic Collection around the spine and with DSST across the two right-hand corners. Job Done!

My second project for today is these rather useful glass charms. They help guests {tipsy or otherwise...} to remember which glass is theirs...so they are not always reaching for a clean one...and you get to do less washing up!!! Yay :)

Very simple to make, I've taken a selection of the Charms and attached each one to one of the HOTP Spiral Clips and tied this onto the stems of my glasses with some of the soft black ribbon from the HOTP Classic Collection. I think they look quite smart...and they even allow you to make a little comment on the personality of each person... For example...my glass would be the Champagne charm...Mum's would be the watering can, FIL's would be the tractor...and OH's would be...

the saw!! lol

I hope you have a go at these projects, and would love to see what you create...

Remember to check in tomorrow for the new Challenge...there are prizes to be won...and prizes are almost as good as presents, right?

Bye for now...

18 Days Til 2008!!!

Can you believe how fast this year has gone??

But in preparation for next year I have made a little desktop calendar!

For it used some of those wonderful Jumbo playing cards, and it works out really well, with 13 cards in a suit, you get the 12 months and a front cover, so that's 4 calendars from one pack of cards! BARGAIN!
I decorated mine with some Vintage Sarapapers and a set of free calendar blanks which you can print off the internet! I used a Helix stencil and some punched out flowers for the cover and a couple of bookrings to join it all together, the best thing is though this cards are strong enough to support themselves so it is completely freestanding! (at least it will be til it gets buried on my desk!!)They are so quick and easy to make so they would be great for a last minute stocking filler!

And secondly I am going to show off a little gift box I made, very simple using BoBunny Jack Frost Ornament Paper, I just loved this paper but I found it too busy to use a full sheet on my LO's so this was great way to use some of the paper up and still be left with enough to use elsewhere!

me again!!

Suprize, suprize...its me again!!!

And with the same yummy Bo Bunny papers! This time I've used the matching cardstock stickers too, and lots of ribbon from the HOTP Classic Collection, as well as 2 HOTP Really Big Brads and one of the lovely metal charms now in the shop!

Like dogs, these papers are not just for Christmas!! {hears groaning...lol}

I've made this page all about my fascination with fresh snow...and my urge to declare my feelings in it!!

I hope you like it...and do remember to enter this week's challenge, all the details are here.