Merry Christmas

TLT - Anything Goes and a break

Hello Ladybug lovers...are you all ready for Christmas? I'm not...no surprise there lol. I finally put up my Christmas trees on Sunday...took 6 hours! I've got a 6 ft tree in my tv room and a 10 ft tree in my hall...why I felt the need to have a 10 ft tree baffles me. Do you know how many branches I had to fluff up??? Made me think that maybe having a real tree isn't such a bad idea as long as I have a vacuum to suck up the needles. I really believe there's a need for an umbrella Christmas tree..you know...that goes up just like an umbrella, lights and decorations included lol. I kid you not...watch this space ;-)

Apologies if your entry from our Sparklicious challenge hasn't yet received a comment from a Ladybug. We are trying our best at this busy time of year. As always the quality of entries is second to none...you are all fabuliciously talented :-D

Our last challenge for the year is perfect...ANYTHING GOES!!! It's also going to be our last challenge until February. The Ladybugs have worked so hard over the year to bring you fabulicous inspiration and I think they deserve a little rest to recharge their creative batteries. We will still be crafting but at our own leisure and without the pressure of deadlines so please keep visiting and leaving your lovely comments. I have lots of fabulicious ideas I hope to bring you in 2013 so I'll be busy busy busy!

This is my card for our Anything Goes Challenge...

I've used Christmas Robin Delight digi and colored it with my Copics adding glitter for lots of sparkle though you can't really tell from the picture.

I haven't forgotten about my birthday present for one of you...tree trimming took over on Sunday but I will get a winner posted this week :-D

Thanks so much for popping by. I hope the rest of this week isn't too stressful for you :-S

Catch ya later x

Midway reminder...late!!!

When I was younger my dad used to say 'call me anything you like but don't call me late for dinner' and it took me years to figure out what he meant lol. Now I think I should have been called Kerry Is Always Late instead of Kerry Louise!!! I can't even blame it on extended birthday celebrations but then again I might have gotten away with it lol. Let's just say that one of my New Year's resolutions is to work on my time management ;-D

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes through my blog, email, Facebook, text and the old fashioned telephone lol. My birthday has started the same way every year since I arrived in Scotland with a phone call from our friend Peter. He works at the Vancouver airport and when we moved here Peter managed to get myself, Nicole (remember she was 3 weeks old) and 42 pieces of luggage (hubby arrived the week before with two suitcases hmph!) to arrive at the same time!!

 I really did have a great day and did what I wanted. We went to see Silver Lining with Bradley Cooper {swoon} and although it was a bit slow at the start it was a fantastic movie and I would thoroughly recommend it even if it was just to drool over BC lol. Nicole did take a picture of me blowing out the candles on my cake but I think she deleted it :-( The X Factor was brilliant and although I wanted Jahmene to win I was equally happy that James did and I LOVE their mentor Nicole Sherzinger...she did a fantastic job and think she had a bit more freedom to be herself on the UK show than the US one. She's one crazy chick!

I don't have a new card to show you but thought I would reprise one from last year using Nikki Running with Buttercup. I was really happy with the way it turned out. Let me know what you thunk....

This is an acetate tent card and boy oh boy is acetate tricky to work with...especially when glitter is involved!  It was really hard to get the stray glitter off the acetate and I gave up in the end. I stamped and coloured two images and cut them out with a Nestie, glued them together (so there's no 'back' to the card) and they're hanging by a thread....literally lol.

Another NRWB card I'd like to show you is one BFF made for a magazine a couple of years ago...I LOVE this ...

Isn't it fantastic...I love the way she's put a frame round the image and the flower is fabtastic.

I'm getting on with my Christmas cards...almost finished but now I've got to make Sadie a birthday card for Thursday. I know exactly what I'm going to do and I'm going to use one of my birthday presents :-D If I don't have too many interruptions I'm hoping to show you on Thursday. 

I'd better get a move on. Thanks for popping by :-D

Catch ya later x

**If you'd like to win birthday candy click here**

Happy Birfday to me...A prezzie from me to you!

I bet you're wondering how I kept that quiet after last years 4 month 'it's my birfday' campaign lol. I think I've been trying to forget about it since it's my last year of my 40's...how the heck did that happen??? I can remember my 40th as if it was yesterday and here I am 9 years later hmph!

To celebrate my birfday I've got a little prezzie to give to one of you. All you have to do is leave a comment... preferably a nice one to cheer me up...and I'll pick a winner December 16th. Easy peasy :-D

I had planned making myself a birfday card just in case but as usual ran out of time so I'm posting the one I made last year which I LOVED :-D

Apart from being my 35th birfday ;-D ... at exactly 8:30 am 28 years ago today, Nicole (who was 3 weeks old) and I landed at Prestwick airport to start our new life. Who would have thunk we'd still be here ..not me that's for sure lol. I think I cried every day for the first 7 years...it's not been easy not having any family nearby so having an addition to our family next year is going to be amazing!!

I'll be walking the dogs this morning then Nicole, Ben, hubby, Steven and I (Ryan is on his way back from Leeds after having his teams Christmas night out) are going to the movies in the afternoon, getting a chippy for dinner then settling down to watch the X Factor final with a piece of cake...what a perfect birfday!

If it's your birfday today (that includes you Donny, Val and Lewis) I hope you have the most fabulicous day.

Catch ya later x

TLT - Sparklicious!

Good morning Lovely Ladybug Followers! Hope your week as started well...I'm sure you're busy with all things Christmas. Me? Haven't bought a present, haven't started my cards (apart from the ones for challenges) and most importantly...haven't started my Christmas baking!!!! This was actually on purpose as last year I started baking at the beginning of November and ended up eating most of it and felt like the size of of a house :-S I plan on going to Costco this week to get the pecans for my Turtles (also waiting for my shipment of Kraft caramels from DLS) and Craisins for my Rocky Road :-D Everyone waits impatiently for my Turtles...they are just so yummy :-D

Thanks to everyone who entered our Snowflake challenge a fortnight ago...apologies for those that haven't received a comment from a Ladybug. We are short staffed at the moment but we're trying to get to everyone  :-D Make sure you check the Challenge Blog to see if you were one of the winners.

Today's Sparklicious challenge has been brought to you by the gorgeous....ummm, well, I don't know lol! But it was one of our gorgeous Ladybugs and whoever it was picked the perfect challenge for me....I LOVE sparkle! Along with the Sparklicious challenge we've all used Nikki Running With Buttercup which you can still get in the 70% off cling stamp sale!

Here's my efforts...let me know what you think...

I stamped NRWB and colored her in with my Copics and paper pieced hers and Buttercup's scarves. I used my fabulicous Echo Park Winter Wishes paper pad. Believe it or not the colors blend perfectly IRL...I think the lighting has changed the tone of the colors a bit :-(

I've really sparkled Nikki up...her hat, boots, fur trim and pocket as well as the falling snow and the snow on the trees. You can't see it but I've added some Wink Of Stella to the scarves for a more subtle sparkle.

Here's a closeup of all the flaws...sack the hairdresser, the colorist and the paper piecer lol.

Now this stunning snowflake came from my BFF. It's made from acrylic and I've added an amethyst Swarovski crystal to the center. I can't remember who their from but I'll find out for you. 

I finished the inside off by adding a piece of pp to the left edge of the purple cs and zig zagged it in place.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Christmas at Sweet Stampin - Anything Goes

Divas by Design - Snow

Freshly Brewed - Christmas

Ruby's Rainbow - Christmas non traditional colors

Copic Marker Europe - A Christmas Card

Delightful Challenges - All about Christmas

Apart from being TLT it's also Doggy Daycare day which means total peace and quiet and all day to craft without interruption! The plan is to start on my Christmas cards...I saw a card on Inking Idaho's blog which I love and can mass produce pretty quickly...I hope!

Have a great Tuesday

Catch ya later x

Stop the world I want to get off!

Holy cling stamps Peeps....what's happening to the time??!!!!! First of December...REALLY??? I don't know about you but I could do with an extra 6 hours in my days and even then I don't think that would be enough. I haven't bought one Christmas present or even thought about shopping. I've had a couple of Pampered Chef table tops recently and had a fundraiser in someone's house last night. MIL, SIL and niece arrive early today (9am) from Dublin for one night and then I guess once they've left on Sunday I can really start panicking lol. Crafting has been happening in fits and starts...I haven't had a good run at making my Christmas cards yet though I have found a design (no coloring) that I think I can mass produce in a day or two and will hopefully not line Royal Mail's pockets!!

Today is my mom's 74th birthday....happy birthday mom!!! Here's a picture from her 70th and the most recent picture I have of her from Nicole and Ben's wedding (did I mention I'm going to be a grandma???!!!)....I hope I look this good at her age. Hardly any difference in 4 years hmph!

This isn't her card as she hasn't received it yet {I KNOW!} ... yes I've made and sent it but it just hasn't landed yet. This was a friend's card from last month...

I've colored Coffee Delight from the Floral Delight Too collection with my Copics and cut it out with my fancy scalloped Nestie. The pp is from Bo Bunny's gorgeous Little Miss pad...could be my new favourite! I wasn't going to stitch but when I laid the pp down it looked boring so I went a bit crazy and even stitched the fishtails!!

A little peek at the inside

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Digi Galore - Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Great Impressions - Anything Goes

OSAAT - Anything Goes

The Crafty Pad - Stitching real or faux

We're going for a collective birthday lunch today (Niece Oct 21, MIL Nov 6, SIL Nov 7, Nic Nov 16 and mine) and then possibly MIL and I will get to stay home while the rest go to Ryan's game then after dinner we can settle down to Strictly, X Factor and I'm a Celebrity....bliss!!!

Hope you have a fabulicious weekend.

Catch ya later x