Gosh - A Whole Week Has Gone!

I have been so busy since my last posting and guess where I have been?

Visiting a Christmas Market.  But Where?

Does the style of this building give you a clue?  (I had to include this photo as I thought it rather good with the Christmas baubles on the left - photographers will most likely disagree).  Ok - this is the most massive clue of all and you will know straight away where I have been.

It's the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square in Prague.

We set off on Monday morning, arriving before noon at the airport.  Our hotel was ideal to find (especially for first timers in Prague) as we just caught the airport express bus which dropped us at the railway station, crossed a road, walked through a tiny park and there was our hotel (Falkensteiner Maria Prag) and to our delight a restaurant which had been recommended to us was right by the side of it (The Sherwood).

The hotel was lovely, obviously an old building which had been modernised, beautifully decorated, and we got complimentary drinks, complimentary coffee and cakes and complimentary 24 hour transport passes.  Breakfast was buffet style and huge, you could eat enough to fill you up until well into the afternoon, if not until time for the evening meal.

This photograph is in the area off reception and I had to take it because the red floral decorations were everywhere and they were so beautiful.

There are four markets in Prague and my favourite ones were the one in Old Town Square and the Havelske Trziste one.  We did find them quite small in comparison to the German Markets we saw last year so most of our time was spent exploring Prague itself.  What beautiful buildings, such a pretty city.

This is the Tyn Church - at night the towers are lit up and it is absoslutely beautiful to see.  Unfortunately my camera never managed to take a good enough photograph so it has to remain a memory.

This is a view of St Vitus Cathedral taken from Charles Bridge on our first evening.  We walked over the bridge and the views were truly wonderful.  It is a very fairytale place.

That is it for our first day in Prague.  A lovely meal in the Sherwood and off to our hotel.

Brilliant!

I think Sam's theme over on Lots to Do is absolutely Brilliant!  She gives a link to some well known chocolate bars and you choose one of them and use those colours in your work.  Obviously you have to use the colours of green and black but then you have the fun of putting another colour with them.

Not really my favourite, if I am being honest, but my first card is "cherry".  For this one I stamped with Ranger's Perfect Medium and then went over with Perfect Pearls 'Forever Green'.  I just don't use my PP's enough, apart from on my claywork, and I am going to make it a resolution to use them more as they are lovely especially when they catch the light.  It's a shame it doesn't show up in the scan.  The  background was run through my Cuttlebug and then I swiped over it with a Moss Green Mica Pad.

Got a bit carried away with this Challenge this morning and produced this next card for the Butterscotch flavour.  Again not my favourite but an ideal opportunity to use my Alcohol Inks.  This time I used Lettuce and Butterscotch (obviously) for my background.  I do love this stamp but cannot for the life in me think who it is by.

My third and final card actually does use my favourite type of chocolate - White.  Definitely a Milky Bar Kid.  I remember using this image a couple of years ago and one of my friends, Anne, liked it so much she went and bought some of the American Art stamps over the internet.  She never told me how many she bought though.
I used my Twinkling H2o's to colour the olives in and then decided to give her an emerald necklace and a greeny-yellow flower in her hair (Lemongrass).

Oh, sorry Cath - another PO at the top!

Blue and White Non Christmas Challenge

I made this card for a challenge on one of my Yahoo Groups, the parameters were to make a Christmas card in Blue and White using a non-Christmas stamp.

I used this image (not sure who it is by) which was stamped and embossed in Blue and then painted in various shades of Blue Twinkling H2o's.  I decided it looked a bit dull so I put some Stickles Icicle on the trees where the snow had fallen.  Sadly this does not show on the scan.

I used one of my Spellbinders Label dies and a couple of brads to put the sentiment on.

Left Overs

This is one of the cards I made with what was left over from my Alcohol Ink session the day before yesterday.  The images used are from a plate by Paperartsy.

This is the other one.

I also made a small one using the holly image.

Yes, Cath - the "Merry Christmas" is a Peel off.

I have been meaning to say that I got a Glue Glider Pro the other day and I love it.  It is so easy to handle and will be ideal for taking to the club - much better to take than my big ATG Gun.  It came with two refills so not sure how it will work out expense wise.  A good tip they give on the video at the above link is to put the cartridge in backwards for travelling - that way you don't get any sticky on your other things - and boy oh boy is that stuff sticky.

Orange, Blue and Green

Was going great guns with this when suddenly realised I had an appointment at Podiatry at 1 pm so had to stop at 12.30 to get ready - and all I had to do was upload the card!

This is my entry for the Play Date Cafe challenge this week, set by my friend Sarah. At first I thought it would be difficult to include the colours she had chosen, I love blue and orange, love blues and greens - but thought "all three!" I love Sarah's journal page where she got the idea from, but then I love all of Sarah's journalling.

Anyway, with the bauble from Elusive Images I managed to get all of the colours in and I stamped and embossed it in a dark blue. You would not believe all the shades of orange I used with my Twinkling H2o's. Eight of them, and in case you wonder what they were here is the list: Persimmon, Gold Dust, Ginger Peach, Mandarin Blush, Yellow Rose, Deep Coral, Dreamsicle and Orange Peel.

Mounted on two different shades of blue with a background created with blues and greens, a thin mount of silver and finally on a dark green main card, (I managed to get my squares cut perfectly because I used my Spellbinders dies) and it was complete. Had to guess the fine silver mount as they don't "step" so finely. For once my cutting with a scalpel went well.

One more card for sending - must get those envelopes done as I got my first two Christmas cards when I came back from Podiatry ... and only one was from overseas!

Another Christmas Card

I couldn't sleep so I got up in the early hours and did some 'playing' about in my craft room. First I got my Alcohol Inks out and made a couple of backgrounds with Butterscotch, Caramel and Terra Cotta. Then I used this Tim Holtz stamp with Black Archival Ink - one of my favourite stamps - and used the 'Merry Christmas' stamp as well.

I am hopeless at putting colours together and never seem to have papers that can be used (how I envy all those crafters who make those delightful cards like the ones you see with, say, Magnolia stamps) anyway, I spent far too much time looking for papers to go with my AI background. This is what I came up with in the end. The brown stripe is a satin ribbon and the stars are punched out of the same gold cardstock as is behind the main image.

I had lots of my AI background glossy left over so am making some cards using it - perhaps they will get posted tomorrow.

Following on from Last Posting - more instructions

This makes a slightly larger card - still the same width but longer. The "RED" is the tablecloth and nothing to do with the card, it is the same shape as the red one below.

The diagram below shows that you need a piece of cardstock 12" x 4" (or thick scrapbook paper which is what I used because I don't have any 12 x 12 cardstock)

• You make your cut this time 1 1/4" (one and a quarter inches) from the left hand side and 3" from the right hand side 1 1/2" (one and a half inches) from the top.
• Putting your ruler across the cardstock mark folds as shown at 1 1/4" (one and a quarter inches), 2 3/8" (two and three eighth inches), 4 1/8" (four and one eighth inches), 6" and 9" which leaves you with 3" at the right hand side.
• Make Mountain and Valley folds as indicated.
• Decorate.

Hope you can follow this and you enjoy making some cards this way.

By the way, I have written some measurements out because I found them rather confusing with the blog not changing them to fractions.