Off we go ......Christmas cards!!!

Hiya All,

I've finally knuckled down to making some Christmas cards.  I don't know why it's such an effort to get started because I love making them, lol!  Anyway, the other day Mr Postie brought me a stamp and stencil set called Holiday Birds by Dina Wakeley.... I love her scribbly birds and had to have them inspite of the fact I have oodles of Christmas stamps already!

I made a batch of 10 with this first simple design.

I made my card bases 15 x 15 cm and also cut squares 13 x 13 cm.  I stamped the bird off the edge so it looks like he's peeking round a corner or in a window.  There's a choice of 3 hats in this set and I stamped this one as though it's falling off and added the little lines to emphasise it.  I then deliberately painted him very badly with watered down Distress Inks.

Next I stencilled the snowflakes (from the stencil in the set, stamped the sentiment (from the same set) and finally gave his had some Stickles sparkle which you can see if you click on the pic.  I edged the square with a metallic brush marker and stuck it to the card base.

My second design is made with a Woodware clear stamp that I bought at the Stampmagic show a month ago.

Basically, I used stuff that was out on my desk from another project.  I stamped the trees onto a piece of vellum with White Versamagic ink and embossed with white ep and then drew in the ground with a white Pitt pen.  I dry embossed some lines around the edges and also the baubles with a ball tool, glued the topper to a piece of dark blue pearl card just in the corners and placed some pearls on top to hide the glue.  

I stamped the sentiment, which comes with the trees, onto the card base, adhered the topper to the card base and added some dark blue Stickles to some of the baubles.

So I've made a decent start on my Christmas cards and need to keep up the momentum this week and they'll be done in plenty of time except ..........then I have to write on them all, lol!

I hope you're all well on the way to getting your cards done and pressies bought.  That's something else I've been putting off........

EDIT  I forgot to mention that I'm linking my birdie card to A Monthly Challenge which is a new challenge set up by the lovely and very talented Paula just for the fun of entering ie no prizes or winners.  There are hardly any rules, just a theme to kick start the creative juices and which this month is 'Take Flight'.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

A different kind of swap for me!

Morning everyone,

I hope if you're from the UK you haven't been blown hither and thither or even worse, flooded by the storms battering us this week.  OH and I did manage to get out yesterday to a lovely Christmas Market at Chatsworth in Derbyshire (only about 40 mins from us) and although we got a bit damp it wasn't cold and was well worth going to. Lots of lovely products to browse (or buy ;D), gorgeous food to sample and if I get chance next week I just might go again, lol!  I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the area.

Anyway, my post for today is to show you my makes for a matchbox swap I'm taking part in this month.  It's supposed to be 'mini' creations but I don't do mini very well plus the only empty matchboxes I have are some 'Cooks Matches' ones which I've been saving over the past few years and they are 4.75" x 2.75" x 1" so not exactly mini but they are within the allowed limits.

I began by making a wrap for the box cover using Kraft card.  I stamped the two baubles some discontinued *Chocolate Baroque sets using Versamark ink and embossed with Wow white embossing powder.  I added colour with Sakura Gellyroll pens which has given them a lovely enamelled effect.  When they were dry I masked them with post-it note circles and sponged white Versamagic ink through a circles stencil. 

 

For the base of the boxes I used Kraft coloured wrapping paper to cover them as I needed something thin but fairly strong.  The base was already a snug fit into the cover so I couldn't use anything thicker and if I'd used paints that would have caused a problem too.  I stamped another CB bauble using a multi metalic inkpad I've had for years and embossed with clear ep.  I did use Kraft card for the inside bottom of the box.

 

For the contents I decided to create a couple of Christmas decorations.  The little angel was a supermarket buy last year and only cost me 25p!  It was a horrible brassy bright gold colour with heavily glittered wings so I gave it a coat of Stone Fresco Finish paint followed by another one in Nougat.  When the paint was dry I added lots of Treasure Gold highlights.

For the hanging snowflake I used a Tim Holtz snowflake strip die and then created the medallion for the top with the CB bauble stamped onto Shrink plastic and lightly coloured with Derwent pencils before heating to shrink.  I must say I love the way the bauble turned out once shrunk.

Here they are nestled on a comfy bed of torn tissue paper.

 

And now I'm just waiting for the name of my recipients (we are swapping two each) before these go winging on their way in time for Christmas.  I can't wait to receive my swaps .....so exciting :-)!

Stay safe everyone, wherever you are!

Lots of love and hugs to you all!

Lesley  Xx

*  I checked Chocolate Baroques webshop and there is a clear set of stamps which has a lovely selection of the bauble stamps I used.  They are only in one size though, not 3 different sizes as my old sets are.

A 2nd PaperArtsy Challenge entry and ..........It's shouting 'CHRISTMAS'!!!

Evening everyone,

Are we all fireworked out yet?  I blooming well hope so because inspite of it raining heavily we have had fireworks going off since before dark (about 4 hours) and OH and I are exhausted listening to our poor Snoopy barking like crazy to protect us from the nasty bangs! Still got at least three more nights of it too I bet!

Oh well, at least after this week .......it's not long to Christmas (just sayin'), lol, and that leads me nicely onto my project for today.  I'm on a bit of a roll with the Triptych theme over on the PaperArtsy Blog and made another entry to the challenge.  I was partly inspired by Alison Bombers lovely trio of tags HERE but decided to make mine Christmassy with some of the PA Hot Picks Christmas stamps so I can either give it away as a special Christmas 'card' or keep it myself and put it on display ;-).

I chose a fairly rustic style using red and Kraft with just a little colouring of the lovely images from PA Hot Picks Xmas 03. 

Left side tag. 

Right side tag.

 

 

There is star stencilling in Chalk PA Fresco Finish on the red tags and stamped tiny black stars.  I can't believe the only PA star I have in my collection is a huge Sara Naumann stamp so the little one I found after an extensive search through all my stamp stash, lol!  I then went round the edges randomly applying Versamark ink and Seafoam White embossing powder.  I added some of the stamped stars with Potting Soil Archival to the Kraft tags at the last minute.

 

 

Middle tag.

 

On the Kraft tags I very roughly brayered Chalk Fresco Finish paint followed by stamping the music strip from ESN13.  I'm so pleased to have discovered brayering the paint onto the stamp works so well for me as I've never been successful stamping with paint using other methods.  I also stamped the holly flourish using Potting Soil Archival (second generation stamping) and then went all round the edges with embossing.

The bells and street lamp were stamped onto Kraft card and fussy cut.  I used pencils to add colour because the card I used is extemely porous and it was much easier to use pencils than paint.  The sentiment is from the new Hot Pick Xmas 08 set.  I liked the bare wood stars as they are so left them that way and added eyelets to the tag sides and laced them together with gardners twine.

Well I hope you are having a more relaxing evening than we are, lol!  Snoopy is still being driven bonkers by the bangs ....... I'm off to link to the challenge.  See you again soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

A PaperArtsy Blog Challenge Entry....Love Theme #20!

Hello again,

After my early bird post this morning showing a snippet of my triptych project as a guest blogger on the PaperArtsy Blog (not my mistake surprisingly, lol) I decided to blog the card I made yesterday, as an entry to the challenge, in tonight's 7:00 pm slot instead of tomorrow.

I love this theme of Triptychs, there's something very pleasing to the eye about trios and as I need to get in front with my birthday card stash I decided to create a card.  I also decided it was time I used some of my hoard of gorgeous PaperArtsy 'Chatsworth' designer papers instead of always creating my own backgrounds so paper piecing/layering was my main technique for this design.  It's really simple to do but can be so very effective and although the layers can be left flat I like to add some dimension by using dimensional adhesive.

I selected a couple of co-ordinating paper colours and used Lin Brown's stamp designs from set ELB20.  Multiple stamping, cutting out and layering up of the flower created my triptych of blooms and I stamped the tiny leaf image using Versamark Ink and clear embossing powder on the bottom paper layer.

Quite simple but I love the effect! Off to link up to the PaperArtsy Challenge post!

Have a good week all!

Hugs

Lesley Xx

A Bit Early for Bluebells?

.......not on the PaperArtsy Blog it isn't!

Hi everyone,

EDIT  : As most of you will know the PaperArtsy Blog posts usually go live at 7:00 pm (19:00) but there has been a little blip ;-) and mine has gone out at 7:00 am so I am altering the scheduling here.


There's a fab challenge theme of Triptychs over on the PaperArtsy Blog at the moment and I'm so thrilled (and as usual a bit nervous) to be contributing as a guest blogger tonight.  Here's a little snippet of my triptych and I hope you can pop over to see the whole project and how it was created as well as see the rest of the fabulous DT contributions.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx