Last minute post before the end of 2013.........

Morning lovely visitors,

Because of our midweek Christmas Day this year I was unable to visit one of my favourite inspirational blogs until the end of the week.  This year PaperArtsy have given us a whole year of fabulous projects and techniques by various very talented crafters/artists using PaperArtsy products and it fell to Jo Myhill to round off the year with more of her wonderful work.  Jo has the brilliant skill of using multiple layers in her work creating lots of depth and fabulous texture which I greatly admire.  Having caught up with her posts I really wanted to enter the weekly challenge but missed the deadline :-(.  I was enjoying myself though so decided to complete the canvas I was attempting taking Jo's first project of the week as my inspiration.  So I have an unexpected project to post on the last day of 2013 ............... thank you Jo!

I won't give the lowdown on how I made this piece as I more or less followed Jo's methods which she shows beautifully in the PaperArtsy blog post you can whizz to from the link above.

Although I only had one PaperArtsy moth stamp and struggled to find a main image the right size for the centre piece, in the end I managed to make this entirely using PaperArtsy products ;D!

Thank you Leandra and the PaperArtsy team for a year of brilliant projects and not forgetting Leandra's fab videos which you can access from the blog.  The current challenge for this week is actually based  on two such videos posted at the end of last week and I'm so hoping I get time to play again later in the week.

Well, tonight sees the end of 2013 and I for one won't be sorry to see it go.  It hasn't been the best of years on a personal basis but I have lots of hope that 2014 will be a turn around for me and mine so bring it on!!!!

I hope you all have a fabulous evening seeing in the New Year in your favourite way.  My OH and I will be enjoying a lovely meal and the company of some very dear friends with whom we have spent our New Year Eve for nearly 30 years, these days just the four of us now our respective children have flown the nests ;-).

Finally I would like to say thanks for your visits and encouraging comments over the past year and I wish you all a Happy, Healthy & peaceful New Year.

Much love
Lesley  Xx

Before Christmas is well and truly over for this year.............

.............I just want to show you a gift I made for some crafty friends for the 2013 Pay It Forward.

I got a shock when I paid a long overdue visit to my own blog today and realised it's about 6 weeks since I posted anything!!!  I'm afraid crafting has had to take a bit of a back seat to family stuff recently but I'm hoping things settle down a bit in the New Year so I can delve into all the fab crafty stuff I have waiting to be explored..

Anyway, way back early in the year I pledged to make a gift for five crafting friends who expressed a wish to receive something from me.  These items had to be sent before the end of 2013 and as I left it so late I decided to make something for Christmas that they would hopefully like enough to use for several years to come.  I took inspiration from two places for these MDF hanging hearts.  The first side was from a lovely crafter I met through Twitter and you can see Hazel's decorations HERE.  The inspiration for the second side came from a project by Anna-Karin Evaldsson in the December issue of Craft Stamper Magazine

1st Side

I used co-ordinating papers, distressing all the edges to cover this side, with lace to cover the join. I applied Versamark ink with Cut n Dry foam around the edges and applied Wow Bright White embossing powder. I used my Tim Holtz/Sizzix Tattered Poinsettia die to cut the flower and leaves adding Distress Dry Glitter to the edges and the centre. I stamped the 'BELIEVE' circle and die cut it with a Spellbinder die and then inked the edges.

2nd Side

For this side I first gave a coat of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish acrylic paint but I'm afraid I can't remember what colour it was, lol!  I also can't remember which order I did the background in as it was before the mayhem of Christmas preparations but if includes stamping random text using Archival ink and a pine branch using Versamark and then heat embossing with Wow Bright White EP before blending Distress Inks over the top.  I think the Merry Christmas is an Inkadinkado stamp which I stamped in Red Geranium Archival and then die cut with a Spellbinders label die.  I inked the edges and then using the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Tattered Pinecone die I cut and twirled and curled and glittered all the pinecones I needed, lol!  I have to admit I don't find these pinecones very easy to make and they look more like flowers than cones to me, lol, but they ended up looking quite nice I think.

I was actually more pleased with these hanging hearts (the MDF blank hearts were from the MDF Man who can be found at lots of craft shows around the country and bonus....... his workshop is only 15 minutes away from me ;D) than I expected to be and will definitely make more as gifts for next year.

Well I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and that you are looking forward to New Year celebrations now.  Thank you for making time to visit my little bit of cyber space during this busy time of year and I will try to be a better blogger in the New Year ahead.

I would like to wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2014 and especially all the poor folk who have been affected badly by the awful storms we have been lashed by this past week, I hope your lives get back to normal as soon as possible.

Lots of love and hugs

Lesley  Xx