I missed out on Christmas and now I'm missing out  on New Year as well. Flu came and got me at Edinburgh on Christmas Eve and we had to come home on Boxing day. This flu is so cruel and has left me with a terrible cough and no energy at all. My temperature is all over the place.  I just want to wish you All a Very Happy and Prosperous 2013.  My wish is to waken up to-morrow feeling better. Its the cough that's weakening me. Hugs Rita xxxxx

Good Morning folks. Its quite dull at the moment here on the West Coast of Scotland this morning, but its dry and that's the main thing.  I needed a box to fit a lovely candle I bought for my friend, so what better excuse than to make another Origami box. Patricia, see what you have started, even the roses were made using Patricia's tutorial.  Quite a busy day ahead so I will bash on and hope you all have an interesting day. My craft room looks more like its usual now that I have put all things Christmas away.  Hugs Rita xx

Good Morning my Friends. Well, I found a little time last night to put to-gether my decoration that was a Tutorial from the very talented Patricia over at Summerhouse Crafts.  Luckily I had the dies that Patricia used ,but you could use different ones as long as you had the set. It actually looks much nicer in Situ as I found it hard to get a decent picture. I have distressed the edges with Fired Brick and added some tiny star gems to the peaks with a larger crystal heart in the centre. Its sitting on a Joycraft stand that matches well with the decoration itself,  I'm pleased I got time to make it .  To-day is going to be a Wrapping day, and hopefull by the afternoon it will all be finished for this year anyway.  Enjoy you day.  Hugs Rita xx

Hello to All my blogging Friends,  Hopefully this is the last of my Christmas cards. This one is for my long time friend and her husband.  This one did not take me hours like some of the ones I've done previously.  It a white 8X8 card and I used my MS punch to do a snowflake border on a smaller card, then I added the red card that has been stamped and embossed in gold. I edged the card with a Krylon gold pen added the white vellum poinsettia that has been edged with gold glitter,. the sentiment was computer generated. Now I have 2 Birthday cards to finish . I then I 'intend' to put away all my Christmas Crafting stash at least for a few months. Hope you are all enjoying a lovely week-end.  Hugs Rita xx

Good Afternoon Folks.  Its really dull & cold in Scotland to-day, so I'm not planning on going anywhere but I am going to work in my crafty haven.  Yesterday I received a beautiful card & gift from my very dear friend. Anne R, who is known to most you.  One of my gifts was in this beautiful bag and after consulting with Anne she did not mind if made one using her design.  I needed a bag to hold perfume and this way I was able to create a bag of the perfect size. I'm sure you will love both bags and maybe another idea for you to try.  Got another few Birthday cards to make as an order from my best friend for next week, so I had better move on and get started.   Hope this finds you well and keeping warm in this chilly weather.  Hugs Rita xxx

                         This is the bag I made

Hello my fellow crafters. I have been very busy all week and not had much time on my hands. Most things I cannot show because they are going to family for Christmas gifts. However, this was the card I made for Hamish my Grandson who is a beautiful redhead just like my oldest daughter.  So I thought this card was very apt for him.  It was made from papers etc that was a gift in the Crafter's Companion Magazine.  Now that he has seen it I can put it on my blog.  Sorry the quality of the pictures are not very good.  Hugs Rita xx

Good Morning Crafter's,  After a busy few days, I managed to catch up with some Christmas chores and put up the trees and finished my cleaning. I even wrote and posted my Christmas cards. I still have my wrapping to do though and finish some family & friends Christmas &  Birthday cards. This morning I finished a bag that I started ages ago. The instructions were given by the very talented Patricia over at Summerhouse Crafts who kindly gave her precious time to show us how its done. I used a vintage theme for mine as it will hold some of my Truffles either for a Birthday or Christmas gift.  The papers were  from our lovely Astrid McLean who again shows her kindness by giving us a Friday Freebie every week. So I'd like to thank both ladies for all they do to inspire us all.   I will always put a link back to the person if I use their ideas. As I really think its the polite thing to do.
 Hope you all enjoy a crafty week.  Hugs Rita xx

Good Morning All.  I hope you are well and keeping busy crafting, although its getting harder to find the time to craft. I know I need an extension added to every day so I can everything done. At least the sun is shining and the sky is blue, what more can I ask for.  To-Day I have made a card for my grand-daughter Molly who loves to dance and sing.  I've used the Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet papers for this and I think she will love it.  Lots to do to-day, so I'm afraid I will not get time to craft. To-Morrow we are putting up the trees and decorations, so that will take some time too. I'm planning a crafty Sunday though, so hopefully that happens.  Take Care & Keep Warm.  Hugs Rita xxxx

Hello again Folks, Thank-you so much for lovely comments left on my blog, its so lovely to read them and lovely to share my creations with you too.  Here is my first go at doing the Origami box, and I love it to bits, so I need to make some more to put my truffles in.  Thanks to Patricia at Summerhouse Crafts for giving the link. There are also some on You Tube too.  Its been very cold here in the West of Scotland to day, but its been sunny and dry.  I'm off to do a bit of ironing now and try to keep it down, some jobs that have to be done.   Enjoy your Day.  Hugs Rita xx

Good Evening Everyone. The last few days has been hectic trying hard to get the house in order before the week-end and then I can get my tree etc up. Trying to juggle crafting and house cleaning don't really work.
However, I have made these lovely top hats, one for each of my family, they were from a paper & printables download, but it was initially done by Tosh Leyendekker  back in January and you can see the tutorial Here. Not the cheapest gift to make, but I had fun making and decorating them.  Made from card and covered in felt, you can fill the inside with sweets etc. I used the circle dies to get the basic shapes.  I hope you like them and will give them a try.   The days are really flying in now and next week I want to keep free for my baking etc.  I hope you are all enjoying your craft time too.  I going to have a few hours watching the Royal Variety Performance to-night.   Hugs Rita xx

I am entering in to thefollowing challenges:
  Artful Times challenge : Anything Goes. 
Fashionable Stamping challenge : To Die for

Hello again , and a big welcome to my new followers. I really hope I can give you some inspiration that will help with your crafting .  I'm totally addicted to these double gate-fold cards, so here is another one for my youngest daughter Carolyn this time.  More traditional colours this time too.  Sorry the silver is not showing to well on the white. As Carolyn is mother to my youngest two Grandchildren I've kept the inside quite traditional too.   Molly who is nine years old is certainly a chip of her Gran as she loves to craft and sent me this surprise Tag that she designed and made by herself.  She even has a craft space bordering on mine. They stay in Edinburgh so when she comes through to us both she and her brother love to craft with me.  We're spending Christmas with them and I'm so excited to see what they've done.
  Hope your all enjoying a comfortable week-end.  Hugs Rita xxx

Here I am again with the other half of yesterdays card, well it has a twist to it.  After I made the card I thought my lovely daughter Annie would love it as she adores all things vintage. So I set about to make a Double Gate fold card that my blogging friend Jan kindly put on her blog a few weeks ago.  I'm sure you would enjoy having a peek at her beautiful cards and you can get the tutorial Here.  The backing papers were also from another blogging friend in the amazingly talented Astrid MacLean, who kindly gives us freebies every Friday and I think you'll agree that the BP matches up perfectly with my card to-day.  So I'd like to say Thank-You ladies for being so kind and helpful.  The crafting community are such wonderful people and its nice to be able to tell them so.

I'd also like to Thank all my followers for your lovely comments left on my blog and every one of them is really appreciated.   Hugs Rita xx

At last I managed to finish a card for Sunday Stamper's Challenge 233, and this week's theme is 'Vintage'. Most of you know how much I love anything 'Vintage', so here is my take on a Christmas card that might have been in use Many Years Ago.  I used ivory hammered card for my base and aged the edges with DI vintage photo. To this I tore a piece of chocolate coloured card to fit for my backing. The image I got from the internet, and backed it with a piece of very dull corrugated card. The music was in my stash from way back and the backing card that the poinsettia is on was from a box. I did not have any large holly leaves ,so I drew a template and cut them out to suit, I then distressed them with walnut stain and crackled them before adding my kraft card poinsettias. The greeting was stamped and hand cut as don't think dies would be in fashion in those days. The berries were kept from my Christmas Pot Pourri from last year.   Did you notice, 'No Ribbon or Lace'   I hope you have all had a really good day.  Hugs Rita xx

Well, after being AWOL for a few weeks I thought I would pay all you lovely WOYWW'ers a  visit and see what your all getting up to.  If you have never been on a visit before ,can I suggest a you pay a visit to Miss Julia at The Stamping Ground and find out all about it.  My desk here is still relatively tidy, but only because I am starting a new project and its on my other desk, but I cannot show it at this time.   The picture is the Isle of Arran taken from our local harbour at lunchtime yesterday, you can probably see a smidgen of snow on the top of Goatfell.   I hope you are all well and busily preparing for the Festive Season thats fast approaching now.  I will try and get round as many desks as I possibly can.      Hugs Rita xx

Here I am folks with a card I did a few weeks back. I started some cleaning yesterday and managed a bedroom and finished an ironing too. So to-day I intend to do another bedroom and after that it just leaves my craft room & bathroom upstairs, no point in attacking the CR at the moment as I still have stuff to finish.
Anyway, my card was created by using the La Pashe cd rom from last year.  I had a bit of a problem getting the frame to fit before adding the acetate. However I got there in the end. The card actually looks better in situ, I just couldn't get a clearer picture that would pick up the snow & sparkles.   I hope you all have a lovely day.
Its very chilly here at the moment, but the Sun is shining brightly.    Hugs Rita xx

Good Morning Everyone,  the sun is shining this morning after the dreich ( scottish word) and dismal day yesterday.  However, now that Anni has seen her lantern I can show you what its like.  I made one last year for my younger daughter before I fell and broke my wrist, so this is Anni getting hers a year further on.  The lantern template was one from the talented artist Linda Hill over at Linda's Rainbow Crafting Cabin and you can see the template Here.   They were great fun to make and decorate, if you like it ,please give this a try. Be sure to use a heavy-weight Mirri card though to make it sturdy.  Once again I'd like to thank Linda for her brilliant tutorials.   I hope you enjoy your day and Thank-You All for the lovely comments left on my blog as I appreciate each and every one of them.  Hugs Rita   xxxx

Good Morning Everyone, I hope you are all fine and looking forward to some crafting time to-day.  To-day's Tag was made for Sunday Stampers Challenge 232 where theme is 'Faces'.  So I decided to do a Christmas Tag using my favourite santa stamp. After stamping the image and distressing it a bit I layered it on to some crushed glassine paper that had been distressed too and added a small piece of burlap. I started off to do a crackled background and after giving it a coat of gold acrylic paint I put on a layer of my green glue only to find it was really thick and needed watering down. However, I left it on and dabbed some peaks etc and left it at that as the texture was lovely. After it dried I used fired brick, pine needles and walnut stain to edge and give it the colour I wanted. The christmas rose was made from glassine paper and again I used DI to get the colour. I threaded up some red and white beads along with the rustic bell to add some charm.  I really am happy with the way it turned out, a real happy accident for me.  Enjoy your Day.  Hugs Rita xx

Morning my lovely blogging friends.  Here is another rather quick Christmas card , well, I have to get through them somehow. my base card is red ,matted with green and I've used two embossing folders for the white background. Then I used a Tim Holtz stamp called First Christmas and distressed it with Fired Brick and Pine Needles and gave it a spray of iridescent sparkle from Crafter's Companion. I matted & layered it with green & gold, before adding to the card. The lampost was from a set by Jayne Nesterenko and I added some polar white flowersoft here & there, before adding the LOTV sentiment and the small holly branch.  I hope you noticed that I never put a bow on this one.  I hope you are all enjoying your crafting.  Hugs Rita xx

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all safe from the terrible flooding around Scotland at the moment, here in the west it has brightened up in the last hour.  I made this card yesterday, one for my box really. My base card is red and I've matted it with gold & white that I embossed with two different folders.. I then added on my favourite  Marianne die and the Noel die cut that I have used before. The snowflakes are Marianne and I've put on a few clear gems to enhance them.  Finished of with a lovely red bow.  I hope you all keep safe & warm.   Hugs Rita xxx

Good Morning to all my crafty friends.   Another week-end, aren't they just flying past.  I have been busy making Christmassy things, but you'll have to wait a little longer before I can show them. This was the card I made for my son's birthday to-day. The family has a Cocker Spaniel  named Ollie and so that is why I chose the image, its decoupaged and I used glossy accents on his sun specs to give them a glassy look. Off out to visit later and do some christmas shopping too. Not much crafting will be done to-day.  Enjoy your week-end.  Hugs Rita xxx

Hello again my dear friends. I had my ECG to-day and have to await the results now.  Needless to say I did not have much time to craft.  However, here is a Birthday card I did for a coming birthday.  Its another 8 X 8 hammered card and I used my large embossing folder on lilac card ,then sanded it to do the background. Both stamps were bought at the SECC from Inkylicious because I fell in love with them, you know what I mean.  I used my brayer and splodge mat ( love it ) to get the two tone effect on the parisiene lady and on the sentiment I used the same colour of distress inks. The beautiful silver grey feathers I bought in Primark for 50 pence and I halved then in two to make the embellishment.I used purple velvet ribbon to add some colour and I'm really pleased with the outcome.  I  need to make more Christmas cards now, time is going to catch up with me if I don't.   Hope you all have a lovely evening.    Hugs Rita xxx

Good Morning everyone, and a very warm welcome to my new followers and I hope you find some inspiration here on my blog.  I've been playing catch up with my Christmas cards and still got a good few still to do, but here is one that I made from the negative die cuts, I always try to leave a border when cutting my dies as it makes them re-useable for another card. So this card was very easily put to-gether and I've added the corners from a Marianne die to build it up. The sentiment is from Inkilicious and I embossed it with Alchemy EP called Midas. The holly was also a Marianne die and its beautiful.  Need to go shopping to-day as I've hospital to-morrow, so there won't be much crafting done I'm sorry to say.  I hope you all enjoy your day.   Hugs Rita xx

Hello to everyone to-day, especially my new followers.  Yesterday I spent the day playing with card and of course having a tidy up in between, well, I only made enough space so I could get to work on the card I'm showing to-day. Now, its not my template, but my blogging friend Selma put a tutorial on her blog and of course I had to give it a try.  Selma's card was a Christmas theme and its absolutely gorgeous, you can see it Here. Its called a ladder card and I made mine a birthday card  or an Anniversary card. The papers and decoupage were a gift from another blog buddy a few years back, she did it all in PSP.( clever girl ).  I made the flowers and added some leaves and this is my finished card.   I hope to get back to finish off my crafty cleaning before SCD starts.  Enjoy your week-end.    Hugs Rita xx

Hello dear blogging friends.  Thank-You so much for the lovely comments left on my blog.   I'm feeling much better to-day and have managed to finish a commission card, its similar to the 8 x 8  green Noel card I did  back in October.  I was asked to make in red with a red bow and the chosen sentiment that was computer generated.  Its not very often I make two cards the same ,but there are a few differences.  Hope you are all keeping warm as winter approaches.    Hugs Rita xxx

What a terrible day its been here in the West coast of Scotland. The wind & rain has never stopped and of course we had to keep some appointments. After hurricane sandy I really should not complain as we came home to a lovely warm house and a meal with home-made chicken soup to warm us up.  On a brighter note, here is a gift box I made, thanks to one of my blog friends  Christine.  It was so easy to make and I intend to make more of them. The link is Here    Its was made with one sheet of A4 card ,measured out and decorated.   I hope you all have a go at making one.   I'm feeling quite tired to-day, so I think I will have a rest to-night and start afresh to-morrow.  Hope you are fine and busily crafting.   Hugs Rita xx

 Sorry about the side picture, obviously shaky hands. x

Good Morning Bloggers, I hope you have all had a lovely week-end  and found some time to do some crafting too.  I'm busy just now doing Christmas makes for the family and in between I'm creating some cards.  My card to-day is vintage as really its my favourite type of card, but not everyone enjoys vintage as much as I do.  I started out with an 8" x  8" card  and used a lovely backing paper from Creative Expressions, I added some lovely cream lace and a few pearls.  I rolled down one of the corners and using gold card I embossed it and added the baking parchment I used on my marianne die. The lovely girl image is from Crafty Individuals ,  but I'm blowed if I can find who did the script stamp. I distressed them both and added the rose that I made with a pale peach paper, the beautiful pins were a gift from my dear friend Elizabeth aka The Silver Scrapper.  I added a  silk ribbon bow just to finish it off.   Now I'm off to clear up a very untidy craft room.....      Thank-You all again for the lovely comments left on my blog and I do appreciate each and everyone of them.  Enjoy your Day.     Hugs Rita xxxxx

Good Morning Folks, and a very warm welcome to my new followers.  My card to-day was created using the new Sparkle Medium from Imagination Crafts that I bought at the Glasgow Show. It comes in the most beautiful colours,but I only bought the gold and silver to see how I got on.  On my card to-day I used a stencil bought years ago. I put the stencil on black card to get the best effect and slathered on the sparkle gel, then with a palette knife I scraped off the excess, easy peasy. I used mica powders to give the holly leaves a bit of a glow and added some red stickles to the berries.  I cut some Marieanne snowflakes and added a few gems and a piece of red ribbon to finish the card.  Its quite a striking card in the flesh so to speak, but the camera is not doing it justice. Hope you all have a nice week-end.   Hugs Rita xxx

Well, I nearly forgot that I started a Tag for  Sunday Stampers Challenge 229  on Monday night, so to-day I got it finished.  I started out with a beautiful leaf embossing folder and distressed it all with beautiful shades of autumn. I used the die cut gate and leaves and coloured them also with Distress inks. The sentiment and acorns are from a stamp set by Sheena Douglas.  I finished it off with a silk bow and used the inks again to colour the ribbon.   I do enjoy the colours on the trees at this time of year, but most of the leaves are in piles in the garden and need constant clearing.
 I am also entering my tag into Crafting for all Seasons Challenge "Falling Leaves"   Hugs Rita xxx

Good Morning folks,  I dearly hope all my friends in US are safe as this nightmare Hurricane Sandy rages through their beautiful country. I spent yesterday making this wedding card, with matching bag & gift wallet.  The images and the backing papers are from Joanna Sheen CD  'Elegant Fans'.  I used a Martha Stewart punch for the border on the card, then added some pearls. The corners are a Marianne die. It seems to be a favourite with many people too.  Please stay safe & warm and enjoy some crafting time too.  Hugs Rita xx

Well, I had a fabulous day at the SECC in Glasgow yesterday. I left in the morning with Annie and her friend Val , of course we were not really needing anything and I bet you've all said that before. However, once we got there it was a different story. Everywhere was just oozing with Christmas and how the demonstrators still managed to be so cheery & helpful after 4 days beats me. We all had a good spend and arrived home just in time for dinner last night.  So all in all a very happy day was had by the three of us.  Now I'm off to make a wedding card, bag and gift wallet before 5 o'clock to-night.   Hugs Rita xxx

My purchases from the show x

I certainly don't want to bore you with Baby cards, so this is the last of them for a while. Its for the same family ,so I had to make 3 different cards. Not an easy task when your not in the right frame of mind.  However, I thought I'd let you see them .  I'm off to the SECC in Glasgow to-morrow with Annie & her friend. So I'm looking forward to that.   I hope you all enjoy your week-end too.    Hugs Rita xxx

Beautiful day here is Ayrshire to-day, the sun is shining brightly and the trees look lovely.  Here is one of the baby cards I made, its an 8 X 8 and again using the Marianne Die, in fact I don't think I have used any die so much for different occasions. You can tell that I love it.  This is a quick post as I'm going out to a Halloween party to-night with some friends. Its something a few weeks ago I could never have contemplated, so I'm putting my brave hat on to-night.  Hugs Rita xxx