Travel memories

Well I have been getting a tad worried as even though I got lovely crafting goodies for Christmas I haven't been able to find Mr Mojo to help me play with them however today he made a very short appearance to let me make this little 4x4 page for my Fat Book, used all sorts of stamps on it, My new Tim Holtz from my lovely Sister, some Andy Skinner, Artemio and ISC, weathered wood,chipped saphire and rusty hinge distress inks. I think some of my reluctance to start crafting is down to the fact that I craft in the dining room(well its is supposed to be the dining room) apart from having our breakfast in here we don't use it except for Christmas and the increasingly rare times we have guests so its usually just a total mess however I had a very major clean and tidy for Christmas and I just didn't want to mess it all up again, well I'm well on the way to that again now so I've no doubt will soon be back to usual state !  Thought I could put this on

Fashionable Stamping challenge - Travel around the world

The Holly & The Ivy

As soon as I die cut the running reindeer I had the words of The Holly & The Ivy running through my head so went with it for this tag. The background is done with distress stains and then I stamped the swirls with distress stain Picket Fence as per Tim Holtz tag four (I think it was) , love this technique as it gives a sort of bleached out look. The deer is cut from canvas stuck to piece of chipboard, I don't have any sticky back canvas so improvise it. The holly ribbon is some I have had for ages and never seemed to have a use for, wording computer generated as are the ivy leaves at the top, I couldn't quite believe I don't have any stamps with ivy on them. I'm really peeved at the moment as I've just started with a lousy cold, right for Christmas ! only comment I got from OH was that " that means I'll get it for Christmas too " no sympathy as usual !!!! Putting this tag on a few challenges

Make My monday - seasonal tag
The Stampman Challenge - new technique
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Tim Holtz themed tag
Make It Monday - anything goes

Furry Friends

Our two little cats that we found abandoned last September in a hedge bottom have now taken up residence under the Christmas tree.As you can see I don't do designer tree ! just pile on as much as I can from the huge box of ornaments etc collected over the years, not to everyones taste but there are a lot of memories on that tree, old family ornaments and gifts from family and friends. I was expecting the cats, especially the kitten, to wreck the tree but they have been very good apart from the kitten trying to chew the light bulbs -not a good idea. Finally finished writing and posting cards and parcels now to get cracking making money envelopes and the dreaded wrapping of gifts, not my favourite job.

The Big Guy

Just like last year I have fallen behind with Tim's tags, while I love doing them its very time consuming and lots of other things need doing. This is one of the last batch of Christmas cards I made,I hope its the last lot I need to make too. Found this gorgeous vintage Santa on the internet and could not resist using him. Think this card fits a few challenges.Try It On Tuesday is sponsored by
One Step Card Crafts .

Try It On Tuesday - The Big One
My Time to craft challenge - Vintage Christmas
Make it Monday - anything goes
Sugar Creek Hollow - Always Vintage - Christmas using non traditional colours
I Brake For Challenges - Vintage
Little Red Wagon - vintage

Tag six

Now this tag is nothing like Tim's Tag number six, I have to be honest and say I really did not like todays tag ! the colours are way too bright for me, however I did use metal tape over the tag before I embossed it with cuttlebug ornaments folder, then I messed about colouring it with ordinary acrylic paints which did dry ok, it looked very boring so covered the whole tag with inka gold , I didn't bother to emboss it and just added a chipboard utee tree which was in my bits& pieces box.

Tag five

Loved this technique with the alcohol inks, apart from the time spent digging out the inks which I haven't used for some time it was a fairly quick one to make, good job as I'm falling behind already and also feeling guilty as I should be doing other things such as writing cards and getting the ones for abroad in the post.

Tag four

The worst part of making tag 4 has been trying to get a photo of it, there is not a lot of contrast on it.
 I didn't have any of the stuff so drew myself a snowman and cut him out, coloured the tag and snowman with picket fence and faded jeans stains,the only blue I have,the crackle paint I used didn't crackle so overstamped snowman with a CI crackle stamp and snowcap dabber. I love the effect of stamping with the picket fence on the stained background, what a fab trchnique, will be using that again for sure. I tried to punch a piece of acetate with my Martha Stewart snowflake border punchbut just managed to jam it all up so abandoned that idea and added a bit of torn music vellum.I like the other tag Tim did with the leaping reindeer so will try and do that as well if I find time ! We have been out to a concert tonight and people who had travelled from further up the country had been through snow, hope it doesn't get down this far, its bitterly cold tonight and everything was starting to frost up when we came home. The village is looking very festive with a gorgeous tree on the village green. Must try and do some Christmas shopping tomorrow! Also putting my tag on Inspiration Emporium's site

Tag three

Well I didn't have anything at all for todays tag.Although I would love to have tried the technique I did not have anything to make the stamp pad with or the stamp so just used my Darkroom door stamp with some chalk inks, resorted to a piece if clip art for the holly, it looked very boring so hand cut the letters for Joy, coloured them with chalk ink and distress stickles (which I managed to smudge onto the tag),charm and a bit of string and thats todays tag finished. Inspiration Emporium are running the Twelve Tags with a chance to win some prizes.

Tag two

Here's my second tag for the Twelve Tags Of Christmas. I was lucky enough to win the deer die in a raffle at a craft class and its the first time I have used it.  I didn't have any sticky back canvas so adhered some canvas from a roll onto some chipboard (not without difficulty as I had to try several glues before it stuck properly- gel medium did the trick)The background is downloaded from pinterest I think, I downloaded several different carol sheets. I did try to use picket fence distress stain on it but it just made the ink run so I had to start again ! Didn't have anything else from the list so just used bits and bobs I did have. I'm so enjoying doing these tags.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 1

Here we go with Tim's twelve tags of Christmas!  As usual I did not have any of the elements so improvised with what I could find. Cuttlebug snowflake folder, grunge paper letters inked and glittered, nestabilities leaves, bit of scrap music paper and two larch tree cones which I scavenged from a neighbours garden, it took about half a bottle of glossy accents to get them to stick on the tag and they are still a bit precarious. Also popped this on Happy Daze .

Box in a box

Second post of the night and still not a single stamp in sight.  Spent a while this afternoon making this little box in box which I did at a Stampin up class a while ago. Jill, who took the class, kindly let me have a template for a simplified version she had worked out later and it was much quicker than the original one we did.All the papers are Graphic 45. I wish I had put a different ribbon on it as the one I used is a bit heavy for it but I'm not about to take it apart now . The last two pics are a little decorated tea light (battery one of course) which we also did at the same class. The photos are lousy but the best of a very bad bunch ! I made the box for  Make My Monday which is for a box in Christmas style

1. Make my Monday - Box for Christmas
2. Crafty Bloggers - other than a card, something 3D

You used what ?

On Sunday I had a discussion with a friend on why we have all kinds of stuff we never use and one of the subjects was peel offs, why, when I don't use them, do I have a big folder full of them? and then even more strange, why did I go into town yesterday morning and buy s sheet of the perishing things,

well because I saw such a cute card made with these stockings!  at least there were only enough of them to make two cards so they are all gone now. I cannot get a decent photo as I'm having to take them in artificial light and the colours are all wrong. What appears as orange on here is promarker Berry Red believe it or not, Putting it on a couple of challenges

1.  Craft Your passion - Tis the Season

2.  Make it Monday- anything goes

bling ?

This card was a very quick and easy one and in real life it looks lovely but can I get a decent scan or photo of it ? taken three times as long trying as it did to make the card and it still doesn't look right.The card base is cream with a gold embossed tree and sparkly hologram gems, cut a piece of hologram to make the tree tub and I wish I was as happy with the photo as I was with the card !

Simply less is more - Bling
Our Creative Corner - Christmas tree

shrink plastic

Getting into making tags again, at least when I make Christmas tags they usually get used and don't just sit about in boxes like my everyday ones tend to do. While I was flicking about through challenges I saw Try In On Tuesday was shrink plastic and I just happen to have a rather large stash of it which needs using,seemed to go out of fashion although I have seen a few articles about it recently.
I love this Father Christmas stamp but it is so big its hard to anything other than stamp it for the front of a card, I did mess about making decoupage glasses with acetate lens for his glasses years ago but certainly could not be bothered now. Stamped him with ancient page on the shrink plastic and coloured him with tombow pens before shrinking, stamped a few snowflakes and the message(G45)and dabbed round the edges with snowcap dabber, finished with some bakers twine. Now I need to get on with what I was going to do in the first place !

winter morning

Just back from a few days in the Cotswolds and after a day of laundry etc thought it was time I got back to the stamps and inks, whole week with no stamping gives me withdrawal symptoms!  I wanted to do a card for Fashionable Stampings challenge which is winter wonderland. I loved doing the resist background, one of my favourite techniques and also used it on the tag background, added some stencilling with viva gold paint to tone things down a bit. The little girl is not as pink as she looks on here, she was stamped with quite a dark red (Stampin up's Cherry Cobbler) but I think its the background red which is making it look pink.The  stamps on the tag are Oxford Impressions and the background stamps are Butterfly Kisses.

Fashionable Stamping - Winter Wonderland
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas challenge - vintage/distressed
Just For Fun - favourite shape  ( tag )

last batch!

This is the one of the last batch of Christmas cards and hopefully I  have now got enough of them. I have spent the last two nights putting in inserts and finding envelopes etc, not something I like doing, of course if I was perfect I would do it everytime I make the cards instead of leaving it all to do at once. We are going away for a few days on Monday so I now need to have a big tidy up in here or heaven knows what kind of mess I would find on our return as my two furry monsters have moved in here as their playroom and although my neighbour is kindly cat sitting they are going to be able to get up to all kinds of mischief while I'm not looking! Kitten, Bramble, thinks anything with a ribbon is a toy for him and I have already lost a couple of tags ,nicely chewed up by him.!

Craft Barn Blog Candy

Fabulous blog candy on the Craft Barn to mark their 600 followers. Just need to be a follower and post this picture to have a chance of winning

oldie

This has got to be one of my oldest stamps, its dated 1995 and I've probably had it since then , I don't think there has been a single Christmas when I haven't made a few cards with it. I do try and do something different with it each year and this time I've coloured the houses for the first time, some cuttlebugged papers and loads of glamour dust for sparkle.  There's on;ly one challenge I think its appropriate for and thats Oldie But Goodie which says it all.Their theme is Let it snow.

Times Past

This is the card I made for my sister's birthday ( she is 21 about the 3rd plus time around !) The lovely lady is an Inkylicious stamp as are all the background stamps,the honey cream label is from a very old stampin up set. Think this fits the theme at Fashionable stamping  so will put in on there.

Fashionable Stamping - Times gone by
Make it Monday  - anything goes

Christmas Tree

Nearly didn't put this card on here as I can't get the colours to look right either by scanning or camera!
The embossed paper is a lovely bronze/gold, not the greeny colour it looks here. I am trying to use up things I have had a long time, I have a large box full of metallic /pearl type papers that I haven't used any of for ages, used to be able to buy large boxes or rolls of papers from a local paper mill that had a shop for a while, not sure if the actual mill is still in production now. I have not bought any Christmas papers or embellishments this year (just a few stamps!) so I am trying to use up old supplies. The gold metallic ribbon I have had for ever , it looks nicer really than it does on here. The stamp was on a sheet of free stamps from Creative Stamping and I think its lovely. plus no colouring needed !I have made 9 of these tonight, one got scrapped because the cat came in with wet feet and walked across it and another got glue on the front of it. Beginning to think I might manage to get enough cards made after all.

Robins

I tried to resist buying this Penny Black robin stamp as I had an idea it wouldn't be the easiest of stamps to do anything with but ended up buying it anyway and yes I have struggled with it! Finally decided the only way it looked right was to cut it out and what a fiddly job it was too( I have made eight cards with it, don't want to see it again this year !) I'm quite enamoured of the cuttlebug folder I used and its one of the big ones which are so useful for doing a whole card front.It meets a few of the challenges

sweetstamps - red/green/gold
Toptip Tuesday - anything Christmas goes
Make My Monday - Christmas - vintage/traditional
St Lukes Charity Card Challenge- Christmas card
Make It Monday - anything goes

Skating snowman

I got this cute little snowman at the Harrogate show in September and had forgotten all about him until I came across him while looking for something else. A fairly simple card for me, I am not even halfway to making the cards I need so I will have to try and simplify, I don't do simple easily,even when I start out with something meant to be simple it seems to evolve but feel I have been  very restrained on this one.Used some very old christmas paper and minimal colouring, tiny bit of glitter along the snowline. Bah Humbug is asking for snowmen this week so will get him of there before the challenge closes tomorrow

Bah Humbug - snowmen

Simpler Santa !

While I had the stamp out to make the card below I made a few  simpler versions although by the time I had made eight of them I decided I had seen enough of Santa for now! I think it would have been better without the twine but now its there its staying !  I found a pack of gold cards so I used them as a base, I do like the sizzex border embossing folder, just took off the blank look at the bottom of the card, didn't want to trim the card down as there are also envelopes of the right size in the pack. I am trying not to do my usual trick of making a load of cards and then finding I have no envelopes to fit, I hate making envelopes !

Santa Claus is coming to town

I've been playing around with this new Stampendous Santa Stamp I just got from the Stampman with a gift voucher I won, thought I would make a card to enter in their challenge which is Collage, something I like playing about with. Won't be making many Christmas cards like this though as it took me ages ! 

The Stampman - Collage
Sunday Stampers - Christmas
Our Craft Lounge - distressed and stressed
Winter Wonderland  - Sparkle

Poinsettia card

haven't had time for much crafting this week and when I do get a bit of time I'm trying to get on with Christmas cards. Having a quick look through challenges this week I saw that Sugar Creek Hollow is asking for Vellum this week so thought I could pop this card on their challenge. The torn piece is white vellum and although it doesn't show too well it is stamped with versamark and then coloured with perfect pearls, looks quite pretty in real life.  Its only when I put cards on here that I see all the stray bits of embossing powder, my eyesight is not so good these days! Also putting this on
Make It Monday which is , as always, Anything goes.

Early Expresso

One more Christmas card, at this rate it will be a year next Christmas before I have enough cards!
This one is for Fashionable Stamping's Coffee and Cream Challenge. I don't have much Stampin'up
card but out of the four colours I have I used vanilla, Soft Suede and Early Expresso, they just went together to make this card with a bit of inking and stamping and some diamond dust. The main stamp is Crafty Individuals and the swirls are Inkadinkado Gem Stone Flourishes.

Trouble linking?

I put the Eccentric piece on Gingersnaps and Simon Says last night but when I looked today they are not there, everytime I try to link them it comes up saying refresh in a few seconds ? anyone know what to do? I've tried deleting and reposting but still does the same thing

Eccentric

Now I don't quite know what this is going to be, I did start off intending to make a steampunk page for my book but kind of lost the steampunk theme along the way. All the stamps are from Indigo Blu, I can see I will be needing more of them !  Although the background looks a bit brown its actually Pumice Stone DI and the rest of the stamping is done with that or Versafine smokey grey as I was trying to keep to one colour for Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, I did slip up and stamp the top wording with versafine black by mistake but isn't grey just a lighter shade of black ?? also putting ii onto Gingersnaps challenge of black and grey.  For those who asked, Mamma cat is doing fine ,she is sitting on my scanner right next to the computer and keeps dabbing at the computer screen trying to catch the curser, the kitten has just run up my back, over my shoulder and fallen off my knee onto the floor, quite difficult to concentrate at the moment !  For a certain smart a.....  who has made 57 Christmas cards ,well what can I say, talk about rubbing salt in the wounds !!!!!!  I have made one more tonight, only about another 65 to go, I'll get there in the end you'll see !
Now I've just realised that the Gingersnaps challenge should have had a Edgar Allan Poe connections,well this is him visiting London on a foggy day.

Christmas Postcard

I just don't seem to be able to get settled down to doing any crafting this week, I know I should be cracking on with Christmas cards but just can't seem to come up with anything I really want to make!
My friend who came over yesterday asked me if I could store her stamps while she is moving, ha ha
like I need more stamps !! so now I not only have hundreds of my own but all hers as well so I will spend even more time looking through stamps and wondering what I could do with them instead of actutally sitting down and making something.Tonight I got out five or six stamps and made myself make a card using some of them, its not very exciting but at least I made one.  Then I played about with my new G45 stamps and made this Christmas postcard which I do like for once. We had the cat to the vets today to have her spayed,she was supposed to wear a halo collar when we fetched her home but she was so distressed with it and then nearly hung herself between the windowsill and a chair that I have had to take it off,hope she doesn't chew her stitches out!
I'm putting my card on a couple of challenges
Winter Wonderland - vintage Christmas
abc christmas challenge - vintage Christmas

Halloween treats

I was going to do all sorts tonight but sat watching tv until 10pm and then decided to make these little halloween treat bags, they have three chocolate halloween figures inside, I was going to make some more but ran out of pumpkins and decided its a bit late to start searching for more of them to print out,I think I must have downloaded them last year as they were already printed out in a bag with some other halloween bits and pieces. Have a friend coming over tomorrow and we are hopefully going to start on Christmas cards, just can't get in the mood for them this year.Just adding this to a few challenges
Craftybootschallenges - anything halloween
Make My Monday - Halloween / Black& orange - not sure if this is eligible as its not a card ?
ThereShe Goes      -   Halloween

Blog Buddies Fat Book Page

This is the Fat Book page I  sent to Caz for the Hallow'een swap, know she has got it so its ok to blog it now, the witch and cauldron are Lavinia Stamps and I just love the witch ! the rest of the stamps are from a set of  Hampton art stamps. As there are such a lot of Hallow'een challenges about at the moment thought I could put in a few.
Addicted to Stamps - Halloween
I Brake For challenges - Halloween
Papercreationsink  - Halloween

Reality Check

I've joined Caz's fatbook swap for Hallow'een and as I had never done a fat book page before was a little nervous about it, however I have done my page, just need to post if off to Cazro now .Now I've made one page I thought I'd do another just for fun and this is one I did this afternoon. Its all collage,except for the Paperartsy wording stamp. I could have sworn I had a raven(or crow) stamp but Ican't find one so maybe not. This one came from vintagegraphicsfairy and it is really a crow and not a raven.  The background and E.A Poe image are from Plush Possum Studio who have loads of hallow'een stuff  to download for free. I'm putting it on these challenges:

Gingersnapcreations           - Ravens
Hooked On Craft Challenges - something spooky
Quirkycrafts                        - Spooky
So Artful Challenge            - Crow image
The Stampman                   - night time

English Tea

Sugar Creek Hollow challenge this week is Vintage tea featuring tea Cups/tea pots, nothing better than a nice hot cup of tea,just had one to revive me after my shopping trip ! I've used bits of paper from my scrap box,the teacup image is from Crafty Individuals and the ladies image is from Plush Possum Studio free collage sheet. The stamped T labels are on a cube stamp my sister sent me a long time ago and it doesn't have a make on it. I've been looking for hallow'een bits and pieces to make some little goodie bags for trick'n'treaters but I haven't had much luck, nobody seems to have anything but costumes etc so looks like It will have to be a bit more inventive. We only get  maybe six or so little kids round as we live in a cul-de-sac with mostly old peope (older than us ! ) so its just one or two people who bring their little grandchildren round. (hope its the same this year !)

Discovery

I made this card "just because "  I wanted to try a couple of new stamps that I got at Port Sunlight.The round map one is from Stamp Camp and I just "needed" it as soon as I saw it. The large background stamp is one of the Cover A Card stamps from Impression Obsessions, I have a few of their stamps now and they are so useful. All coloured with distress inks. The little ship is from a Crafty Individuals stamp.  I'm putting on a couple of blogs , a bit tongue in cheek but they roughly fit the challenges (I hope!)

The Stampman - Circles
CCEE Stampers - The Day Columbus discovered America  ( thats the tongue in cheek bit ! as the circle stamp is France I think !)
The paper Variety  - Nautical

Tranquil

Tranquil is the title of my post and I'm anything but tranquil at the moment, in fact I'm getting over excited again !  I was over the moon to have my card chosen as the winner on Fashionable Stamping as there are such fabulous creations on there that sometimes I feel quite inadequate with my offerings!
also I was a random winner on Simonsays stamp and show and got to spend a whole $50 in their shop,had a fab time last night shopping.  Anyhow down to earth and my latest offering which is an Autumn scene for a few challenges

Try It On Tuesday    - Peace and Tranquility  - a walk in the woods always feels calm and peaceful
Make My Monday   -  Autumn Trees
Kaboodledoodles     -  Leaves

Also saying Hello to three new followers, so pleased to have you looking in, welcome !

Wicked

 There seems to be quite a few Hallow'een challenges around at the moment( wonder why !)  Last year was the first time I had ever done anything Hallow'een and although I didn't think I would like it I loved it, I do like the dark gothic type stuff but as I can't really do digital things I don't get to do it. I had great fun making this tag, love the witch stamp, she is going to be making a lot of appearances this month. Witch and wording are Hampton Art Graphic 45,trees are CI. I'm entering it for a few challenges
1.      Dragons Den      - The Whole Of The Moon
2.     Cupcake Craft Challenge - Halloween
3.     Make It Monday - Anything Goes
4.     Stampsfun   - Halloween
5.     Quirkycrafts - Halloween
6.     Rainbow Lady - In The Misty Moonlight

Had a fabulous day at Port Sunlight last Saturday, so many stamps, so little time (and money !).
Actually we spent five and a half hours there plus nearly five hours travel so it was a long day and I was shattered when we got home but I had a bag full of goodies ,nearly all stamps other than a few dies , a couple of masks and some metal charms, I still have stamps from the Harrogate show in September that haven't kissed ink yet so lots of stuff to play with, just need to find the time and to be quite honest I can make the time but I seem to waste a lot of time on the computer and also getting round to deciding what I actually want to do !

Welcome

Another quick post just to say welcome to my new followers, so happy to have you looking in. Love followers and love comments !

Trash to Trash !

Well I have spent two evenings messing about with this and although the finished result is really rubbish I have so enjoyed doing it !  I started out with a piece of corrugated card packaging and played about just daubing paints on with my fingers and getting good and messy. I bought the metallic paints inThe Works at 99p a large tube and they are fabulous, I only got three colours so I'm off back tomorrow to see if they have any left, not a lot there when I got these, I nearly didn't get them as I have so much paint etc but so glad I did. The last picture is an attempt to show the lovely glimmery finish.I also had fun stamping with gold paint, used bubble wrap and bottle caps and a stamp that is supposed to be fireworks. I am putting this on Sugarcreek Hollow Trash to Treasure challenge although I'm a bit ashamed of it ! and I'm also putting it on Sunday Stampers as it has got my Mojo working a bit.

Nautical

A quick collagey make card , too much lolling about in front of the tv tonight, had to watch Strictly and then it was too much effort to move ! finally rolled in here and put a few bits together, most of the stamps are Aspects Of Design from the Stampman and I have had them a long time, I can always rely on them if I need to make a masculine card in a hurry. All dabbled with distress inks and a bit of bakers twine.Might just manage to sneak this in on Simon Says Stamp and Show and its also for 
St Lukes challenge  both of which have a male theme.Also putting it on One Step Craft Challenge which is Just For Men

Girl Friends

Slipping this in at last minute for Gingersnaps challenge Gal Pals .  I don't know the make of the stamp ,it came from a sale box at The Stampman and its the first time I've used it altho I've had it a while, I quite like these ladies they remind me of how women used to dress in the 1940's and 50's when I was a child !
I've had a strange kind of day, trying to get the garden sorted out and tidied up while we are having such glorious weather, we have been power washing the patio and drive and I've been cutting back herbaceous plants.In between times I saw on Brenda's blog about making a blog button so I've been trying to do that and failed miserably ! I made a really nice button but when it came to doing the link bit I could not understand how to do the code bit even after finding very explicit instructions, I'm just so useless at technical stuff.  I would love to change my blog background but even though I've done it before I can't even remember how to do that now

Top Billing

Another vintage card.  The silent movie star stamp belongs to a friend and we don't know who's make it is but I  think it could be a Stampsmith, whoever made it she 's a lovely lady. Background paper from Craftwork cards, stamped panel Tim Holtz papillons set as is the front label,film strip is idealogy and the tickets are Graphic 45, I'm entering this on a couple of challenges

Fashionable Stamping - vintage
Sunday Stampers        -  Simply irresistable

School days vintage

After lolling about watching tv most of tonight I finally got down to making a quick collage type card for Sugar Creek Hollow which is ,as always vintage/shabbychic/primitive and the theme this week is children. The two little girls are from Artistic Outpost Birds Of A Feather,the public school tag is Oxford Impressions and the papers are Graphic45.