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Thursday 29 November 2012

Another way to use Watercolour Winter

I am delighted to see there's another fabulous new CAS challenge site in blogland, CAS - Colours and Sketches, and I'm even more delighted to have been asked to guest for their very first challenge!  Here's the sketch and colour combination, a really lovely autumnal mix of colours, but being someone who is a bit of a lunatic likes a challenge, I gave myself the extra test of turning them into a Christmas card! Not only that, but it's Three Minute Thursday here on my blog today, so it has to be a quick card... aaargh! Can I do it? Well, come and have a look:


If I were asked what my favourite Christmas stamp set is this season, I would unhesitatingly reply Watercolour Winter! It's a two step stamping set, which makes it very versatile - you can stamp the outline images and stamp the 'colouring in' over the top OR you can stamp the outline images and colour in using an aquapainter, markers, pencils, crayons etc OR you can do what I've done today: use one of the 'colouring in' images as a background and stamp the corresponding outline image randomly over the top!


I masked my panel with thin strips of post it note and stamped my design using Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip inks. The berries were added with a Cherry Cobbler marker before peeling the strips away. The panel was then attached to the card base, leaving lots of lovely space, and the sentiment was stamped, punched out with the Decorative Label punch and added to the centre using dimensionals.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Watercolour Winter, Beautiful Season (sentiment)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip classic ink, Cherry Cobbler marker
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Decorative Label punch
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

So did I make a Christmas card using these autumnal colours? Yes! Did I come up with a design that can be made in three minutes? Yes! Am I in a heap on the floor because I've still got the lurgy? Yes! Never mind, I think my husband is going for the title of 'Husband of the Year' as he's stepped in and cooked, tidied and supplied me with lemsip and hot water bottles - well it's either that, or he's expecting a very large, expensive Christmas present this year!

EDITED TO ADD: My lurgy has turned out to be bronchitis and my poor husband has now developed an abscess on his gum so that's both of us out of action. The children are doing an excellent job of holding the fort but I think it's safe to say that I won't be here tomorrow. Hope to see you very soon though.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Snowy Serene Silhouettes baubles

It's great to see that the Snow challenge over at Addicted to CAS has proved so popular, with more than a hundred entries. I've got another snowy card to add today - come and see:


Serene Silhouettes is another one of those sets I couldn't wait to make Christmas cards with, despite it not being particularly festive looking. Here I inked the birds-on-a-branch image up with a Crumb Cake marker so that I could omit all but one of the birds. After stamping the image, I used circle punches to cut parts of the image out and the tiny ornament punch to turn them into baubles.


The circles were sponged with Pool Party ink and I used markers to add definition to the branches, colour in the bird as a robin and add some bright berries. After that, it took just a touch with my two-way glue pen and a bit of white embossing powder and suddenly there's been a snowfall!


Both baubles have been 'hung' with a line of piercing and the small bauble fits snugly in the shape that this gorgeous sentiment makes. I'm pretty sure that if you're in the US you'll be doubled up laughing at my use of the word 'bauble' - but we really do call them that here in Britain!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Delightful Dozen (sentiment)
Ink: Real Red, Pool Party classic inks, markers
Card stock: Naturals White, Whisper White
Punches: Merry Mini punch pack, 1 3/4" and 3/4" circles, corner rounder
Other: Essentials paper piercing pack and tool, white embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

It is that time of year I'm afraid, and the lurgy has struck. We shall soldier on though and, like Pollyanna, be glad that it's struck now rather than at Christmas! Thank you for visiting and for your continued support - I really do have the best readers!

Hugs,







EDITED TO ADD: Can you believe that I almost forgot about Rudolph Day? And it's the final one of the year too! I blame it on the lurgy!

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Easy Events Christmas tag card

The brilliant 52 Christmas Card Throwdown site is continuing its mission to get us prepared for the festive season in good time and this week the challenge is to use Pearls on a Christmas card. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: there were some tags left over from my Snowflake Season Simply Scrappin' kit and I'd had the idea of stamping festive foliage on them. Come and have a look:


I used the Christmas branch from Easy Events to stamp my mistletoe on the tag and embellished with Basic Pearls - I love the lustre on these! The leaves were coloured in with a Gumball Green marker


The tag was tied up with Cherry Cobbler seam binding, before mounting with dimensionals onto a panel embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots folder.


The eight diverse images in this set come with sentiments attached but I cut mine apart and mounted them on the edge of the block so that they're even more versatile. On this card though, I opted to use my current favourite sentiment from Happy Hour.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Card stock: Whisper White
Stamps: Easy Events, Happy Hour
Ink: Real Red, Always Artichoke classic inks and a Gumball Green marker
Other: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Big Shot, Basic Pearls, Snowflake Season Simply Scrappin' kit, Cherry Cobbler seam binding

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

I was curious about the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe so I looked it up.  Did you know that when a couple kiss they should take one of the berries off the bunch and that when all the berries have gone it's supposed to be bad luck to do any more kissing?! We've never used mistletoe as a decoration as I've never seen it growing wild around here; we stick to holly and ivy instead, and we certainly don't need a bunch of leaves as an excuse for a kiss!

See you tomorrow!

Monday 26 November 2012

A sparkly Happy Hour

It's been another of those hectic weekends so I'm only just getting round to posting my Less is More card today. The theme this week is Glamour and Glitz - and what a shame Mandi is still away sorting out her new business because, as Chrissie says, it's just her thing! But Jen is back from Egypt so we get to be inspired by her gorgeous samples as well as Chrissie's.

I was a bit spoilt for choice on the sparkly front - should I choose rhinestones, dazzling diamonds glitter, metallic embossing, the brushed silver or gold card stock, my die cut snowflakes...?  In the end I opted to use just a pinch of the brilliant (no mess!) silver glimmer paper. Come and have a look:


Happy Hour was one of the first stamp sets to catch my eye when the new catalogue was launched. I love how graphic it looks with the patterned drinks in those beautifully shaped glasses. Today though I opted to fill the glasses with elixir of Christmas cheer instead - that's where the glimmer paper came in!


I stamped the glasses on the back of my glimmer paper and cut out the drink part, then glued those onto the stamped glasses. These were cut out and mounted onto card stock which had been scored to provide a 'grounding'. To finish, I added a few fussy cut embellishments from the Happy Hour set...


... and one of its fun sentiments. I really like the way this one fits the shape of the glass next to it.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Happy Hour
Ink: Real Red, Pool Party
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Markers, silver glimmer paper, Simply Scored, stamp-a-majig, paper snips
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

So, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that it's now only 29 days until Christmas day - and we need to be posting things considerably earlier than that! Yesterday at lunch, the children were laughing at me for saying that time seemed to be whizzing by. "I know!" said my eldest son. "It seems like only yesterday it was Saturday!" I frowned at him. "But wait!" he added, while the others fell about laughing. "It WAS Saturday yesterday!" Those bad, bold children had better watch out as Santa only comes for GOOD children!

I've still got loads of ideas for Christmas cards and I'll be back tomorrow so hopefully see you then!
Hugs,

Friday 23 November 2012

Inspired by an early morning!

At the beginning of the week I had to get up practically before I went to bed to take our lovely French exchange student to the train station for his return home. It was cold and dark and I was not at my most cheerful, but as we left the house my spirits lifted at the sight of the sky as the sun was rising. It obviously stuck in my mind because today's card happened a day or two afterwards!


The sky really did look like this - bright orange in a strip at the bottom with the light of the sun illuminating the line of the horizon, and a purplish grey above it. It was magical. You can see some gorgeous photos of similarly dramatic sunrises here taken by my lovely blogging friend Irene.


I started by stamping the trees in Early Espresso ink onto my card stock panel. Then I made two masks by stamping the trees on a post it note and cutting along the horizon with my sharp paper snips. One half was held over the land so I could sponge in the sky, then the other half was used to mask the sky while I sponged in the ground. Sponging over the stamped trees gives them a misty sort of look and I inked up the trees again (using a marker this time, so I could use just the trees, not the ground) and stamped them again in the foreground. The scene was mounted onto black card stock to make the sky appear to glow.


I thought this design would make a good notecard, so I added the hello sentiment from Easy Events and  pierced a little home for it using my piercing template. I'm so excited about piercing at the moment - it adds detail but in a really nice, subtle way.

SPECIAL OFFER: If you love the effect of piercing too you might be interested to hear that the festive piercing templates come absolutely free when you buy the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and the Candlelight designer paper! Check here for details.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Easy Events (sentiment)
Ink: Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Black
Other: Piercing template, piercing tool, markers, stamp-a-majig, paper snips
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

Today's card reminded me of a nursery rhyme I used to read to my children when they were small:
One misty moisty morning
When cloudy was the weather
I chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather
Clothed all in leather with a cap under his chin
Singing how d'you do and how d'you do and how d'you do again.
Does anyone remember it? The children and I were amused by it and whenever it's a damp, foggy day, we always refer to it as a misty, moisty morning in our family!

Hope you have a lovely weekend with no mistiness or moistiness - but if you do, don't worry, there are always more Christmas cards to be made!

See you very soon,



Thursday 22 November 2012

Another three minute Christmas idea

It's Three Minute Thursday here and I've got a brilliant idea for a fast Christmas card today - well actually it would be more accurate to say that Stampin' Up has the brilliant idea! Come and have a look:


This is a Stampin' Up stock shot photo, NOT a photo of me and my family (just in case anyone's wondering why my three hulking great children have morphed into two infants in arms!) It's been tucked into a beautifully designed die-cut card base from the Noel Notes Simply Set kit. Isn't it amazing?!


The kit contains eight of the textured Cherry Cobbler card bases, eight Very Vanilla scallop edged card liners, eight pretty die-cut envelopes, eight gorgeous stripy envelope liners and 8 lengths of Gumball Green taffeta ribbon - all for £12.50.


I think it's a great idea for turning a family photo into a special Christmas card - particularly for sending to loved ones you've not seen for a while. But the kit is also great for stamped creations like this simple card made by one of Stampin' Up's designers using the Traditional Touches single stamp.

SPECIAL OFFER: You pay just £16.95 (a saving of 10%) when you buy the Simply Sent kit with the Traditional Touches stamp. And of course you can use the stamp for other cards and tags too!

I'd be delighted to order any Stampin' Up items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Check out other current special offers here.

Light levels are so low here at the moment it's impossible to take a decent photo - or anything else for that matter. I actually turned up for breakfast yesterday with my cardigan inside out much to my family's amusement! Sometimes I think I'm only here for their entertainment.

I'd like to wish my US friends and colleagues a very happy Thanksgiving holiday and I shall be back tomorrow.
Hugs,





Wednesday 21 November 2012

Enjoying my Fabulous Florets

Once my daughter's mid-November birthday is over, I usually turn my attention to Christmas, but I have one or two last autumnal moments in me yet! Here's a card that I thoroughly enjoyed making using the Fabulous Florets stamp set:


Don't these beautiful flowers make a gorgeous focal point?! I used Naturals Ivory card stock because I liked the contrast of the soft suede-like texture and the shiny embossed flowers.


Here's a close-up of those flowers. I stamped the leaves first, using the rock 'n' roll technique, then added the heat embossed flowers which I cut out with my sharp paper snips.


The sentiment is a lovely one from Made For You. The set contains three useful sentiments (happy birthday, thank you and especially for you) all in this lovely font.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Made For You
Ink: Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, Crumb Cake (for sponging edges of card stock)
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Corner rounder, clear embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig, paper snips
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

Life around here has returned to what is laughingly described as normality. My daughter and eldest son came in from school together yesterday and sat down to chat to me (my desk is in the living room).  I turned around to look at them and found that my daughter was lying down cross-legged, with her bottom on the coffee table and her head on the sofa, while my 14 year old son was reclining on the other sofa, whirling his blazer around his head saying "I'm a helicopter!" What hope is there?!

I'll be back tomorrow when it'll be Three Minute Thursday here, so I'll have a quick card to show you. Hope to see you then.


Tuesday 20 November 2012

Embellishing with piercing

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know I'm a clean and simple kind of a girl. But sometimes it's nice to go all out with the embellishments and it doesn't have to result in a card that won't stand up! Here's a card I made for my lovely Stampers 6 club ladies, show-casing some of my favourite items in the new catalogue:


I used Summer Silhouettes for the stamping, giving the flowers an autumnal twist with Midnight Muse and Cajun Craze. If you're considering getting this set, don't hesitate for a second - you'll adore it!


The piercing detail is quite quick and easy using the new piercing templates and makes a subtle halo round the flowers. (By the way, if you love piercing, find out how to get free festive piercing templates by clicking here.)


I liked the way the gorgeous stitched satin ribbon echoed the piercing - that's the sort of thing that makes me very happy!


To get this distressed look, I barely allowed the stamps near the new juicy ink pads! I know I keep saying this but I love the way you can layer these images so easily.


The card is finished with a sentiment from the fantastic A Word For You stamp set, with its gorgeous handwriting-style flourishes.

Click here to find out more about my Stampers 6 club starting January 2013: wouldn't you love to receive a parcel of crafting goodies each month, along with handmade gifts and cards like this one, free catalogues, free Stampin' Up goodies worth at least £25 and lots of other benefits too!

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, A Word For You
Ink: Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Cajun Craze, River Rock
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon, paper-piercing pack, Boho Blossoms punch, Metallic brads, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

You'd imagine that having a French exchange student to stay would have sharpened my daughter's language skills, but since she's just disappeared into the bathroom with shampoo and a towel professing to be about to wash her horses, I think we can safely assume that it hasn't!

See you tomorrow,



Monday 19 November 2012

Zoo Review Christmas snow

I am always delighted to see new challenges for clean and simple stampers and the latest is Addicted to CAS which kicks off this week with the codeword Snow. I've combined the theme with the sketch from another of my favourite clean and simple challenge sites, Case this Sketch. Come and see what I've come up with:


When I first saw Zoo Review in the catalogue back in September, I immediately thought of the Christmas card possibilities. Well, here's the penguin looking perfectly at home in a sponged background of ice and snow, with drifts created with a torn paper mask. The scene is mounted onto a card base decorated with scored lines.


I stamped my penguin onto Very Vanilla card stock and watercoloured him with inks and an aquapainter before cutting him out and mounting him onto the background. The sentiment is from Merry and Type and I thought it was a very apt wish for these incredible creatures who survive in the most challenging climate on Earth.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Zoo Review, Merry and Type
Ink: Sahara Sand, Pool Party, Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango classic inks, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Whisper White, scrap of Very Vanilla
Other: Simply Scored, Basic Black and Tangerine Tango markers, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

We have said farewell to our lovely French Exchange student. It was my daughter's birthday during his visit and I didn't want him to feel left out of the celebrations so I suggested he made a card for her. He entered into this project with great enthusiasm, enlisting my youngest son's help, and on the day itself sang happy birthday with gusto. This was his first trip away from France and I hope he will carry back fond memories of his time with us.

Now... I've got some catching up to do! See you tomorrow,

Saturday 17 November 2012

Nicely Knit - and some news!

I've got exciting news today: Stampin' Up has just released a free app for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. It's called Simply Sent and it enables you to make digital cards and layouts to send electronically (click here for more information). It's perfect for crafting addicts like me who would love to be able to carry on crafting away from the craft room! All I need now is an iPhone or something to use it on - Father Christmas, can you hear me?!!!

When I clicked on the Less is More site this morning, there's a lovely message from Mandi and I was also thrilled to see that I'd been show-cased with this card. It gave me a lovely boost and now I've gone challenge-tastic! Today's card is for this week's challenge Hardware and I've also incorporated the wonderful colours at ColourQ, the cue card at CASology 'Thanks' and the theme at Make My Monday 'An autumn card featuring stitching' (hope knitting stitches count ladies!) Come and have a look:


I've used the Nicely Knit wheel and I hope I've shown that it's quite happy to be the focus of a card. Aren't the colours gorgeous?!


Here's a closer view. I wheeled the image in Soft Suede and added colour with markers. I am totally in love with this woolly look!


I've made a thank you tag using the really useful Made For You sentiment set, adding a scrap of retired grosgrain ribbon and the all important hardware - a beautiful, vintage-looking safety pin from my new Vintage Trinkets embellishments pot. A rounded corner finished the card.

Here's what you'll need to make this card

Stamps: Nicely Knit wheel, Made For You (sentiment)
Ink: Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, plus markers
Card stock: Naturals White, scrap of Whisper White
Other: Vintage Trinkets, paper snips, corner rounder, Old Olive grosgrain ribbon (retired)
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.


I shouldn't have been crafting at all today but got up very early this morning as a girl needs a bit of therapy after all! We're taking our French exchange student out for lunch and to the cinema today. Last night he became my youngest son's friend for life by playing xbox with him. I was much amused to hear my son shouting "Whoa - I'm on fire!" and remarked that he seemed to be doing well. He cast me a scathing look. "No," he said, indicating a building in flames on the screen. "I'm LITERALLY on fire!"

Hope you're having a great weekend! See you soon,



Friday 16 November 2012

From our house to yours

I made today's card for Less is More's Houses theme this week but wasn't going to post it as I'm not ragingly keen on the result. However, since time has scooped me up and galloped off with me willy nilly in the last couple of days, it's either this or nothing today! Come and see:


I made a house-shaped mask with my square punches - the new 1" one fits the 1 3/8" one perfectly as a roof! - and my paper snips. Pool party ink was sponged inside the mask, before overstamping with a small snowflake stamp for a bit of texture. The ribbon image from Create a Cupcake was stamped over the top in Real Red ink and I used a marker to extend the lines to the edges of the house shape.


This wonderful sentiment from Beautiful Season is perfect for adding to square images as it wraps snugly around a corner. I embellished my house present with a little heart tag tied up with Cherry Cobbler bakers twine and you may have spotted a little 'smoke' coming from the chimney - that's inked in with a sponge dauber (and a light hand!) Well, you have to have a real fire at Christmas don't you?!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Beautiful Season (sentiment), Create a Cupcake (ribbon image), Make a Mitten (snowflake)
Ink: Pool Party, Real Red
Card stock: Naturals White, scrap of Whisper White
Punches: 1" and 1 3/8" squares, jewellery punch, owl punch (for the hearts)
Other: Red glimmer paper, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, markers, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

Our French exchange student arrived and is charming! His English is absolutely superb and he fits nicely into our happy little family. There have been one or two little moments of course - I did have to gently point out that when one asks politely whether one may leave the table, it's best not to add "I'm stuffed" afterwards!

Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you soon.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Three minute card using designer paper

I'm rushed off my feet this week because as well as all the usual business of life, we have a French exchange student visiting us AND it's my wonderful daughter's birthday today and naturally we must pull out all the stops to help her celebrate! I'm not going to show you her birthday card because it's very personal to her, but I did manage to squeeze in the quickest Christmas card for my Three Minute Thursday slot. Come and see:



This speedy design is based on Natasha's sketch at Clean and Simple Stamping this week (although I've completely abandoned the idea of scalloped edges, sorry Natasha!)


It's a great way of using designer paper  - strong geometric designs work well as would a bold floral.


I chose a punchy, stylised tree paper from the Be of Good Cheer range, added some seam binding ribbon in Cherry Cobbler and stamped the sentiment. Seam binding is the easiest ribbon for tying fast bows and it's quickest if you stick a length of it round your card stock with snail adhesive and attach a separate bow with a glue dot.

Here's what you'll need to make today's fast card
Stamps: Merry and Type (sentiment)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler (I used a marker)
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Be of Good Cheer designer paper, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, corner rounder, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

I think giving gifts is an important skill to learn so I've encouraged my children to think carefully about people and what presents might suit them from a very early age. It doesn't necessarily come easily however and I remember my oldest son, a Thomas the Tank Engine fan at three years old, being quite sure his big sister would like a train for her birthday! This is a bit of a running joke in our family and before his sister's birthday this time my son teased me by saying he'd be getting her the latest shoot 'em up xbox game!

See you tomorrow,