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