3 French Hens

I made this card with the Penny Black Saturday blog in mind but was 22 mins too late to upload it..but I will enter Pennyblack at Allsorts November -All creatures great and small  (my camera battery was flat!) This lovely stamp is actually a birthday stamp and has 4 hens and a birthday cake but a bit of masking and cutting out and embossing and extra present instead of the birthday cake and Volia! a christmas card is born LOL.  I am very into chicken stamps at the moment as I am still in the honeymoon period with my three 'girls'  actually one is a White Sussex and I was getting pretty fed up that she had stopped laying since moving them to the poly tunnel for the winter....until I went to put some tools away and discovered 8 white eggs laid in the corner behind the tool rack! 
I would like to enter:Sweet stop sketches #sss134-November  I reveresed the sketch
Really Reasonable ribbon.#36 cas christmas ribbon RRR36  using the fab gold mesh ribbon
Ribbon carousel # 29 sketch  which I turned over
Christmas crafting #5twelve days of christmas
Crimbo-crackers Callenge #2 Make it sparkle!
Creatalicious challenges - for Christmas and make sure it sparkles.I just LOVE sparkle, I have been making christmas cards and using glitter all year!
I used: Image: new Penny Black 'Cluck Cluck Cluck' stamp, Promarkers,Nesties & Marianne star dies, SU punches, beautiful gold mesh ribbon from The Ribbon Girl, card and dp from stash, gold embossing powder on the presents.

Blue Christmas

I am a bit of a Little Claire fan and a few of their Red Gingham Christmas Stamps accidentally fell into my shopping basket recently! I recently inherited my OH old Hp printer as mine (2 years old)threw a fit when I loaded a re-filled cartridge and is now landfill. This one has better settings for graphics and does not assume everything is a photo with the result that my downloaded paper stash, which to be honest never looked that good printed out,  like this lovely Pink Petticoat paper are printing out lovely on Rymans bright white coated 200gsm  card and their  Ultra smooth 120gsm heavyweight paper that my do-crafts buddy Incy told me about.  I bought it when it was on offer and it was great value. This printer does not winge about e-bay ink and I can re-set the dry time so that it is even possible - really quickly, as the paper comes out, to sprinkle embossing powder on the image (although only the black ink works) and heat emboss.  Lots of playing going on this week! I also used a papermania 5x7 embossing folder (fab size as I don't often make small cards), SU punches, Nestie star, Promarkers, Viva pearl pen, new stardust pen adds just the right amount of glitter, I'm loving it

So I would like to enter: Little Claire #14 Christmas ,  Papertake 1st Christmas, Winter Wonderland Christmas blog challenge - Make your card sparkle Sir Stampalot challenge - Blue & Green Partytime Tuesdays #41 bling it on, anything sparkly (stardust pen and viva pearl pen)

While not card making this week I have been busy with the chickens who are enjoying picking over the veg patch, except for Ginger who, like her namesake in 'Chicken Run' is a mistress of escapology! although today I think I have found where she is getting out.  Toby the dog comes and gets me when she has escaped.. he is partially sheepdog after all, and doing so well after his knee surgery. Our vet advised us to get another dog, a female so Toby is above her in the pack order. A friend of Toms has a beautiful Pyrenean Mountain Dog puppy from a working line, nice chunky legs! We have reserved a little girl and will collect her just before Christmas. Puppies are a lot like babies, you forget how much hard work they are!

while I was writing this post a rather strange 'card' decided to sit on my white photo booth....This is Stumpy......................... he was a  rescue kitten with his brother Late. He is a blue eyed , 3 year old siamese-ish moggie rescued by the lovely people at Pheonix in Bergerac. He loves a cuddle as he and Latte were hand reared after being dumped when only 24 hours old.

Surgery

Tom and Poulet, Ginger and Cinders

Toby with his trendy paw print bandage

Toby is home after his op and getting around ok although we have to keep him in the house for several weeks so no walkies for a while. 
One of the chickens has started laying! I found a small egg right in the middle of the chicken run yesterday, just lying on the grass... I suppose it must have taken the chicken by surprise !!  today there was another small egg, this time layed in the chicken coop on the floor.  Tom had the smallest fried egg ever for breakfast today LOL
Lots of guests coming and going, I feel like I'm running a Hotel and no time at all for crafting or gardening.

Surgery for Toby

I have been very busy with a house full of visitors and building a chicken run..
This afternoon/tomorrow morning  Toby the dog is having surgery to insert a plate in his left leg.  We finally got a diagnosis, he has severed a ligament in his knee and arthritis has set in.  I am so NOT looking forward to having him in plaster for ages... although he will not be able to chase our three new feathered friends... Ginger, Cinders and Picpoul de Poulet!