Postcard from Spain

Well as you will guess I nearly didn't post this at all.  I had thought I would challenge myself to actually draw something as I didn't have any appropriate stamps, its years since I really tried to draw anything and its taken me all week to produce anything remotely good enough to use, I gave up on the front view of the dancer as I couldn't draw a face that wouldn't scare anyone witless !  I was totally shocked when I logged onto Darcy's challenge and saw her postcard, obviously she is a so much better artist than me and I would hate anyone to think I was trying to copy her idea. Anyhow in the end I thought well I'm just going to post it anyhow and hope for the best.  The correspondence has not progressed much since last week but hope it will get more interesting as the weeks go by. 

Time

As soon as I set eyes on these Kanban stamps I just HAD to have them, love the steampunk manequins. especially that wonderful frock coat ! The clock was from a separate set and I really like that it all separate stamps, the outer ring,the number and the central cogs as well as the hands.The background was stamped with a stamp from ISC and clear embossed then coloured with pumice stone DI . I'm putting it on a few challenges

Sunday Stampers - Time
Try In On Tuesday - Resistance
Make It Monday - Anything goes
Rainbow Lady - travel in time

Nature

Had a lazy afternoon    instead of tackling the pile of ironing that has somehow stacked up again I've just been playing about. One of the challenges I noticed asked for "all your own work" no background papers or stickers etc and I have always enjoyed making my own backgrounds although over the last year or so I seemed to get waylaid with all the pretty papers that just beg to be used(after I've stroked them for the appropriate length of time of course!) I started  embossing flower and bird background in white and then coloured in with distress inks,overstamped the Hero envelope pattern with bundled sage and then the little sprig stamp all over(doesn't show much on here) The bird panel was done with distress inks on the craft sheet,then also overstamped with the same two stamps.Hero bird stamped  twice and the bird and flowers cut out and 3d'd. The sentiment is from A Stampman set that I bought in a sale  a while ago just for the verses which are all about nature. Enough waffling !

Try In On Tuesday - All your own work

Make My Monday - Nature/birds

Papertake Weekly - anything goes

Think I'm out of my depth!

Think I've bitten off more than I can chew on this one . I thought I would try the Postcard Challenge(button on left of blog) but what with Mr Mojo still on vacation and total lack of any imagination whatsoever  I think this might be my only postcard !  I thought about what I knew about Austria(visited the Tyrol once lots of years ago), my first thought was of the amazing scenery(and my first ever scary trip on a cable car),my next thought was of Julie Andrews dancing across the meadows and that then led me on Johann Strauss ,viennese waltzes etc  so my PC became a collage of these things.
Then to the charactors ,this is the really hard bit for me as I don't seem to have a "fantasy gene" . My first charactor is Elsie Jones, who is a Variety Show Artiste and her admirer, Edward who is a classical musical artiste, I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen to the two of them !

Angel In Training

I'm still working without Mr Mojo and I'm really missing him .  Finally decided I would just have to press on without him but its quite hard work!  The background papers are from a New Melissa Frances pad I got last week ,pity I covered up so much of the bottom piece as its really pretty. Its the first time I have used this stamp although I got it last October at Port Sunlight, got a bunch of Lost Coast stamps and they have been languishing in the bottom of a box while I have been so busy with Christmas cards, I would normally go for distress/grungy look with their stamps but she is actually quite a pretty little angel so went with the pink thing. The bit of lace trim has been around for some time and the buttons are old ones from my massive button stash (memo to self that I must try and use more buttons)Think it fits a few challenges

Fashionable Stamping - Anything goes with New Stash
Paper Sundaes  - something old/something new
The Squirrel and The Fox - Something new
Simon Says Stamp and Show -something old/something new
Make It Monday- anything goes

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 .