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I'm Hoppity Hopping Back :)

Hi there me darlins and hope you are all OK.

I've been AWOL these last few weeks but I haven't been sitting there and idly twiddling me trotters!!
Not on your nelly  I've not. I've been getting the samples ready for next Thursday :)

It's getting very near to the big day now and I'm starting to get the odd butterfly or 12579513258 when I think about it. But at the same time I am hugely looking forward to it and fingers, toes, eyes etc available crossed that it all goes smoothly (please let it go smoothly!!).

Anyway what has tempted me back to the land of Blog and away from the old craft room and what are you doing here Miss Piggy I hear you ask?

Well it's the best reason ever because  today we are holding a Lili of the Valley design team blog hop to celebrate the launch of their gorgeous new Christmas stamps (and I mean GORGEOUS!!)

This is the second set of the 2013 Christmas collection and there are 20 stamps including some of your favourite characters and also a few more traditional designs and there really is something in this collection for just about everybody.

The stamps will be available to buy on the website from midday on Sunday August 25th (UK time).

I’m sure you know what to do by now  -  you  just need to  ‘hop’ from one blog to another following the links and leave a comment on each card, and  hopefully we can give you lots of ideas and inspiration along the way for using the new images

There is a fabulous prize up for grabs on the hop, but as always we don’t know where it is hidden so do make sure you that you visit and comment on every blog

You have a couple of days to join in, we will let you know on Saturday evening which was the ‘lucky’ blog and a winner will be drawn at random from all the comments that were left on that blog

The prize is a full set of the new Christmas stamps...

that’s 20 rubber stamps, one each of all the newest designs

Here's a list of all the blogs taking part, and remember that you will need to visit them all and leave a comment on each one to have the best chance of winning;

Ideas to Inspire
Anne
Becky
Dawny (that'll be me then!!)
Debbie
Dena
Elise
Fleur
Gretha
Jen
Kathy
Kim
Lou
Mary J
Moni

So what did I do then?

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Well as you can see I have gone all traditional.

There's something about Chrimbly that makes me want to reach for the red, gold and green stuff and this image is perfect for that.

It's called Holly Tree and I wish I had one like this in my garden. I'd show you a pic of our holly tree but you would only laugh and then report me to Alan Titchmarsh - it is a sorry sight and quite frankly there's more leaves in a tea bag.

Anyway I coloured this with Copics and I have to tell you that it is really easy peasy to colour.

I used the following colours -

E30, G99, R05, R17, R27, R59, YG00, YG01, YG23, YG99,

Don't you just love a bit of seasonal tartan :)

The papers are from Laila's Classic Christmas 8x8 paper pad and the bells were in the bottom of my stash - sorry, I cannot for the  life of me remember where I got them from, but the fab red and white saddlestitch ribbon is of course from The Ribbon Girl

The sweet sentiment is from Set 33 - Christmas Grungy Messages - perfect to pop onto your ribbon.

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Please do excuse the black shadow on some of these pics btw - the camera has been at it again, playing silly beggars!! It's probably sulking cos I haven't been near it for ages.

I actually took it out tonight because there was a report on the telly that a dolphin had been seen in the Dee very close to where we live so we went to see if we could spot it, like the saddos that we are.

We couldn't,  but here's a pic courtesy of the good old Beeb....

... and here's the link to the story.

It's quite ironic really because the next stop on our hop is our very own dolphin, it's the oh so talented and ever so lovely Debbie so you need to hop over to her blog next. Don't forget that it you get lost (like this poor little dolphin in the pic, aww), you can always go back to the beginning and pick it up from there.

Don’t forget to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog on Saturday evening when you can find out who the lucky winner is of that great prize

Enjoy the hop…    and good luck!

And cos I haven't been here for a while, extra big huggiest of hugs to all xxx