Get Ready For Christmas

Time for our next challenge at Try It On Tuesday and this time we're kick starting Christmas preparations.

I had some wooden circles left from a previous (and very old) project so I made a couple of 'baubles' by simple stamping and colouring, highlighting the edges with either a Posca pen or a little bit of white embossing.

The backs of the wooden circles were simply stamped with a Christmas Greeting.

The pics aren't the best as I am having difficulty holding camera/phone steady at the mo. It's only temporary but certainly ain't good for trying to get clear images!

Hope you can join us this challenge - looking forward to seeing your creations and thanks for looking today. x 

Traditional Christmas at Try It On Tuesday

 Christmas is looming and our challenge for the next 2 weeks at Try it On Tuesday is called 'TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS'
There is nothing more traditional than a Christmas Tree is there?
So here's my take on the theme -

I am not very good at sewing but I confess to having such fun making these - so much so I ended up making a whole forest in different sizes! (Well quite a few anyway!)

I have long been promising to get round to using up scraps of material and lace which have lain in a box for years.
I also have a massive amount of stash (like everybody else) which I hoard because in 48 years time I might need it for something...........

I made a little dent in the pile and enjoyed myself!
I hand stitched most of the decoration on the triangle trees which were sewed on the machine and were cut from the remains of a fat quarter.

The 'trunk' is a pencil wrapped in twine
I used some stuffing from an old cushion to fill the trees, then glued a little bit of stuffing to the pencil before glueing again and pushing into the tree top.

I was a bit bothered as I wasn't sure if this would work but happy to say it dried well inside and the glue didn't seep through to the material.

The pencil trunk was glued into oasis which had been glued into the little buckets. Again I wasn't sure how good this would turn out but it's dried solid and the trees are quite stable, the biggest one measures about 12 inches tall.

Added some snowy stuff, some glittery bits of a scrap of yarn and wooden shapes (which I have had FOREVER)
Hope you will join us for this challenge!
Will share some of the others in another post. Thanks for looking. x
Linking up at
Pixies Playground with all of my lace and odd leftovers!
Crafty Catz - A/Goes
Simon says Stamp - Trees
Double Trouble Thing 1 - Stitch it Up

Traditional Christmas at TIOT

 Here we are at the end of November and time for another challenge at Try It On Tuesday.
Our theme this time is 'Traditional Christmas' and there is nothing more traditional for me than a Christmas Tree!

This is a little different for me.
I have been wanting to try something like this for a while and having been gifted a HUGE (and I mean huge - like 3 storage boxes worth!! 😵😵) amount of costume jewellery from my Mum in Law during one of her 'clear outs' with the words 'Take to the Charity Shop or do whatever you want with it', I did precisely that - what I wanted with it!

I have made four of these 'Christmas Tree shapes' using some of the jewellery - all different and there's enough left for at least 3 more!

The rectangular ones measure 9" x 7" in their shadow box frame and a square one which is 8". I'll share this in another post as it is a little different.
I have a small table at a local Christmas Market next week so I shall take a couple of these with me.

I wanted velvet for the background but decided it was simply too expensive - (how I wish we'd have kept all the material during a previous M-I-L clear out!) so opted for felt as an alternative.

I spent ages arranging bits of jewellery to make the shapes! A variety of gold, pearl and sparkly diamante brooches, earrings, and pieces from a pendant all framed with a yellow metal chain made this piece.

Am sorry the pic isn't brilliant - the camera doesn't like all the bling!

I was thinking though when I was making it that these would make lovely memory keepsakes - I have a few pieces of my Mum's in my own jewellery box so I may make one for me to keep.

Hope you can find some time to link up a make this challenge and please have a look at what the teamies have come up with - we all love visitors! 

Sharing over at -
CFTH - A/Goes
Use Your Stuff - Shine Bright
Peace on Earth - A/Xmas
Holly and Ivy - A/Xmas

Baubles

So -  it was wet this morning. I had a really good excuse then not to do a lot (I did the ironing though....😇😇)
Ironing completed I had a bit of fun messing about with faux snow. Well, we've seen enough of the real stuff lately (and more to come) but surprisingly I am not sick of it YET....and decided to remind myself what it looked like ahead of the forecast for later this week.

These were really cool to make and not bad for my first attempts. I am going to make some more and be more adventurous colouring the acetate a bit more - perhaps adding moons and stuff!

I need though to get some more of the ribbon that you can gather - it has string attached that you pull and does the gathering work for you (as shown on the right hand side one) - better pic here I think - so if anyone can help I'd be really grateful as I don't know what it's called to search!

I popped some tiny lights behind to take the pic - these lights are tiny battery operated ones and the battery compartment is really small and light so might try and make one with the lights inside and hide the battery compartment at the back.
I think these will look really nice on a tree!

Baubles and Fairies are of course from Lavinia. Faux snow and glitter was in my stash (now all over the table....LOL)

Sharing over at -
Inkspirational - Mythical
Not Just Cards - A/Goes
CHNC - A/Goes
LPOCF- A/Goes
Pile It On - Circles ( well a bauble IS a circle!)
Crafty Friends - A/Goes

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves whatever you're doing! Thanks for looking.x  

Bird House

I had a mass clear out when we moved house last year - and amongst the things that went to the Charity Shop were lots of Christmas ornaments and decorations so I took the opportunity of the challenge to make something which I will hang on a wall somewhere!

I had a devil of a job taking a pic of this.

The birdie house is a wooden template - part of a set of 2. This was the smaller one and it measures  just over 5".
I used up odds and ends of paper scraps and rescued a torn die cut - so entering this into Pixies Playground too.

I painted the wooden base with a white gesso wash then used up an oddment of woodgrain paper (had to join it in the middle but simply ran down the join with a grey promarker to hide it) as the background.
Used modelling paste on the roof and in the hole in the centre, just slapped this on and once dry painted over it again with white acrylic paint and while the paint was still wet threw some glamour dust over it - instant bling!!

The snowflake die was the rescued piece - I had cut it from some thick sparkly paper when making this card here but it hadn't cut all the way through and I ripped it - but thankfully it was just the right size for this.

The holly die was a new buy. Once cut, embossed the berries with red and then ran over 'Mowed Lawn' DI.

The rolled roses were just done from oddments of paper and randomly embossed with silver and the white fibres were from my stash. I stamped a tiny sentiment and embossed in red.

And here is my little robin ready to be placed strategically (!!) when I decide where I'm going to hang his house! 

Challenges - 
Pixies Snippets Playground - week 149
Completely Christmas - Anything Goes /Twist add a robin
MAWTT - Winter is Coming
Fab n Funky - Christmas
Glitter n Sparkle - Anything but Square
CHNC - Anything Christmas Goes
The Crafting Cafe - Not a Card
  Thanks for looking in today Have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Winter Wonderland

Another beer can! Basics are the same as the Winter Birds further down in this blog - a beer can ungrudgingly donated by the Other Half, the frame is the same Cuttlebug embossing folder. Wanting to create a 'cold' feel this time I used 'Sail Boat Blue' and 'Stream' alcohol inks with a silver mixative.

I mixed two different sets of beading along the bottom to try and represent varying shades of icicles. The snowmen image was printed onto canvas type card for texture. The greeting was in a pack of Christmas buttons and the pearly snowflake is from my stash with some fluffy snowy white fibres wrapped round it. I used the same fibres to make the hangers.

I have submitted this to Gingersnap Creation's, whose December challenge is 'Winter Wonderland' and also a very late entry into Theme Thursday's theme of 'Christmas Holiday Creations'.

Have a stiff drink......

..... before you look at this card!!! I can see you all now saying.. 'there's no way she made this' but I can honestly say this is deffo all my own work!!!!

Who said I don't do cute??????????????? Is this cute??? I don't know!!!

Mo Manning draws these digital stamps and I know a lot of seasoned cardmakers love them so I decided to try a few out for myself! This card will soon be winging it's way 'across the pond' to our lovely little niece in Texas.

The striped backing paper is Paper Artsy, I used the 'dots' stamp from Stampers Anonymous with heat set white Versamark ink on the red card which was then matted onto white card. The punched lime green pearlised border was done by Maureen who was showing off her Martha Stewart punches when she visited..LOL - (waste not want not!). The digi stamp was coloured with watercolours and promarkers and I added some 'frosty glitter' round the hat. Lime green and red flowers with a sparkly red snowflake and brad and the words were stamped onto the same lime green card with red stazon.

I am actually feeling quite smug on the completion of this card....it is such a huge diversion from my usual stuff..... may have to go and make some more! And I have found a site Cupcake Craft Challenges whose theme this week is Digital Stamps and another site called Digital Tuesday... so this has been submitted as my entry!

Christmas Flurry number 2

Not exactly a snowstorm but a few more Christmas card flurries!

Have decided to do my latest offerings in 2 lots as one card I am submitting for a challenge so will post that separately.

Quick descriptions - the top cards were made using Papermania 'Christmas Carol' papers. Played with my new Martha Stewart punch for the maroon one, and mounted the paper onto maroon card, added some broad ribbon and a silver Christmas tree charm secured with an organza bow. The two 'snowflake' cards were matted onto dark green card, the stamp is also Papermania and co ordinates with the backing paper. The snowflake and words were stamped stamped using a mix of Antique White and Holographic embossing powder.

The holly decoupaged card was a quick one made from a kit.. just distressed the edge os the backing card, added some red ribbon and matted onto dark green card - made in about 10 minutes!

And finally St Nick and the Christmas Cake recipe was stamped onto white pearlised card, matted onto a grey background then mounted onto a silver grey/white/blue Christmas script paper (which I bought at the NEC and have no idea who makes it....!) , which had been layered onto grey and white card. Added a sparkly white ribbon to finish.

I have suprised myself that I have been so disciplined to carry on making cards... when all that luscious metal and other bits are sat here waiting for me to play..... but cards it is for the next few days! I am staying with Maureen at the weekend as I am at a Presentation Dinner near where she lives - the metal stash is also coming to stay with me!

Enter The Dragon!

I have had so little time lately. I haven't even put up the Christmas Tree and am still a couple of presents short. The other things that have required my attention have prevented me from doing any serious crafting and I have felt real guilty that I haven't been able to send all my very good crafting friends a little something to show how much I appreciate their friendship, encouragement and inspiration. I had started to make a few things earlier in the year so for the last few days I have set about finishing them and sending them off to their intended recipients. The whole Christmas thing has had me really stressed out this year with so many other family things that I have needed to do.

This hopefully should have arrived at it's new home by now. It's ATC size and the background is acrylic paint, shimmer powders and red embossing powder. The fabric dragon was one of my purchases at the NEC earlier in the year.

Catching Up

Sadly, a family matter has prevented me from posting or crafting recently. I made these two Christmas ornaments before things took a downward turn and have been meaning to post them for a while. These are both now at their new home. They were made from parchment overlaid onto metallic gold card. The card had eyelets punched into it at the top of each triangle. Before threading the ribbon through I put in a tiny 'surprise'. Once I'd finished the parchment overlay I added some glitter glue to highlight the 'bauble's' on the tree and the petals of the Christmas Rose. The ribbon was then threaded through the top of the parchy and knotted to make it secure. Both ornaments are now with their recipient waiting to be opened on Christmas morning. Although I still have things to do family wise, I am hoping that very soon I now will be able to find some spare time to do some crafting before Christmas, I need the solace and comfort that losing myself in the creation of something can bring.

Decorations

Margaret is hosting a Christmas Bauble Decoration swap. All the baubles are the same size and shape and we could embellish in any way. Time has been at a premium for me this past week but I found a few hours yesterday to craft.

My new work room is almost completed, so I really need to be sorting out the stash all crafters accumulate rather than actually creating....but I am so ill disciplined!

The poinsetta decoration was cut from a piece of Christmas ribbon and fixed onto some strong card. I then mounted it onto some glitter card and embellished the edge in gold. I used gold and pearl seed beads to highlight the centre. The back is identical to the front.

The other is an attempt to use some of the christmas craft stuff housed in a red box! I found the domed snowman skulking away at the bottom of the box and the foam words and snowflaes were in yet another box inside the big red one!

I really am going to have to be more strict with myself... I still have so much to do...my backgrounds for my jigsaw jams to finish, some more cards for my crafting friends, (daren't send THEM shop bought ones!), blinds etc to buy for the new work room, the whole house needs cleaning as we have also had some work done inside whilst the builders were here and of course I have to sort the crafting stuff out as mentioned earlier! That LITTLE job alone will probably take me to Christmas!

But I have just had a quick look through the challenge sites.....and there ae sooooo many interesting challenge themes this week..................................

Wings of Joy

Double dose today! Don't post for a week then put two on together..(not really together as it's now quite late and the other post today was this afternoon!)

Anyway, this is the final altered jigsaw for the Christmas swap. Margaret had set the theme as 'Wings' and had indicated she wanted to use the piece as a hanging decoation and not mount on the usual piece of canvas with the other pieces. Her colours were white, gold and red.

I used this parchment pattern for some Christmas cards last year and thought the huge oversized wings would suit Margaret's theme.

I triple embossed the jiggy background before assembling the angel. The body and the wings are done separately, and the wings are in 3 separate pieces. The angel is then assembled using silicone glue to give a 3d effect.

I have also decorated the back of the piece in a simple manner just by using a white embossed background as a base and stamping some script over and finally adding a small paper dove in an attempt to complement the 'Wings' theme.

The parchment angel is very delicate and I don't suppose it'll stand up to a lot of bashing about - so it'll be lashings of bubble wrap tomorrow before I post it., then I shall just keep everything crossed and hope that it arrives at Margaret's undamaged.

Now this is done, I can look forward to the postman bringing my completed pieces from the others in the jamand get on with ding my own pieces and my canvas background

June is offering blog candy for the best altered jigsaw piece and has invited me to enter. As I don't know which one to link, I have just linked them all!

Yet another Jiggy......

This week has passed me by completely. I've been watching the builders get on with the garage conversion (the new workroom/office looks great and I can't wait to get in there), visiting the physio, attended a family funeral, went to a craft fair in Birmingham (spent lots!) and finally today sat down and did some crafting!

This is another jigsaw piece for the Christmas Jam. This is for Carol who had set the theme of 'Vintage' and the colours red and gold. I painted the piece with acrylic paint and blasted with the heat gun, adding some embossing powder in red, gold and my favourite 'enchanted gold' (which I confess to being completely addicted to because I love the 'fairy stardust' effect it gives) I used gold embossing powder on the chipboard embellishments and the vintage image inside the 'jolly holiday' frame is one of my favourites.

I secured the frame and the dangling star with gold star brads and added fabric stars, some sequins and beads on gold thread and threaded gold ribbon through the 'Christmas' chipboard to finish.

Over at Objet D'art this week the challenge is to make something altered and include a frame in your piece. Jennie (who has created some fab things) suggested I enter this for this week's challenge.....duly done Jennie!

I really enjoyed doing this piece. Have one more to do then I intend to sort out all the stash from Friday and sit down and play with it!

June is offering blog candy for the best altered jigsaw piece and has invited me to enter... problem is I don't know which one to put in.....so have just linked them all!

Jiggy's Galore!

I'm taking part in a Christmas Jigsaw Jam swap and another jigsaw jam on any theme. When each person receives all their swaps back the finished pieces are mounted on canvas to make a complete art piece. As our garage conversion is now under way I am hoping that my two jiggy jam canvases will be the first to be displayed in the new work room/office.

The jigsaw piece on the left is for Wendy's 'Oriental' theme made by using mulberry paper and stamping with gold embossing powder, adding some threaded beads and chinese lucky coin and the one on the right is for her Christmas theme of 'Angels'. This was done by stamping the Angel image, then inking over in varying shades, sprinkling some gold dust embossing powder over to give the sparkly effect, then I added the stars and chipboard words.

These two are for Sherry. Sherry asked for a 'Folk Art' Christmas piece and a red and gold piece which had to include a musical reference. These two pieces are both mixed media collages. I used some 'Shaker' embellishments for 'Happy Holidays' and as I didn't have a gold angel charm I improvised by using gold leaf over a silver one for the 'Angel of Joy'.

This piece is for Cindy. Cindy's theme was 'Things with Wings'. I had been sent this image by Anne and thought it was spot on for Cindy's challenge!

The background paper is from the 'Once Upon A Time' stack and I embossed the edges of the piece with gold embossing powder, after putting a tiny piece of torn vellum in the top left corner.

The words came with the image and I added a gem dragonfly and a gem 'buckle' to the dress!

Finally some gold and green fibres were fixed to the bottom for a 'dangly bit'!!

June is offering blog candy for the best altered jigsaw piece and has invited me to enter. Can't choose which one I like best so am just going to link them all!

Work in Progress

Card making has taken a bit of a back seat lately, mainly because I made a mountain this year for my breast cancer fund raising but also partly becasue I wanted to be doing other challenges!

Christmas card making is seriously bad this year, will probably end up having to buy some! With a distinct lack of enthusiasm, I've probably made about 30 to date with half of these done with basic stamping. Here are a few I did using just a couple of different stamps. The Santa stamp is one of those that you can use plain and colour in, or if you're in a hurry just stamp with embossing powder (which is what I did!) as is the group of trees. The Holly card was embossed onto vellum and red acrylic paint used for the berries and the door was a stamp with UTEE over to give a glossy finish.

All need greetings to be added apart from the holly one and as usual I shall be doing that just before I put them in the envelopes!

O Christmas Tree

Halloween not yet here and the shops are already full of Christmas stuff! Quite depressing really, it seems to me all the magic of Christmas I experienced as a young girl has disappeared completely. I remember well the excitement of seeing the first Christmas tree in the front window of a house or the tree and Nativity scene that was placed outside the local church mid December...now the decorations are up at the end of October, making the christmas 'season' almost as long as the four natural ones!

Anyway, without wishing to become like 'Scrooge' altogether I decided to take part in this weeks challenge on Tag You're It - Christmas Tree!

This tag is a scaled down version of a hand made Christmas Card. I sponged the white card with 'fir tree' colour ink and drew the 'tree' in gold pen. Overlaid a piece of vellum that had been edge embossed with 'seafoam white' and added gems for sparkle on the branches of the drawn tree. A piece of green organza ribbon and a red corrugated card tub finished the tag.