Can I throw my hat in.....long overdue post.

Hello everyone or should I say anyone who somehow notices that I blogged 😉

Well, I have gone even longer between posts than last time I think and as a consequence I am sure I have missed taking pics of some of the things I created in the meantime but for my own records (as the old memory is not what it used to be, lol) I'm going to catch up on the ones I have got.  It's going to mean a couple of long posts so sorry if you find them too boring to stick with....as I said posts are really for my own benefit now as I've 'retired' from DT work, lol!  You can always just enjoy the pics!

Okay, I'm going to make this post all about the Christmas creations I made for 2018.  I found it quite hard to get motivated for Christmas last year (gawd, that sounds so long ago, lol) so to try and get in the mood I recycled an old chunky little canvas and created a piece of home decor.

 If I remember correctly I used PaperArtsy's Fresco Finish acrylic chalk paints to create an hombre effect background.  I then stencilled some clear texture paste and sprinkled silver embossing powder whilst it was still wet.  Once it was dry I heat embossed and then I used more acrylic paint to stencil the tree and added a bit of sparkle down one side.  I added some silver embossing to the star (from Anna Marie) and did some die cutting for the flourishes and some foliage.

I selected some berries and tiny pine cones (again from Anna Marie) and a few white flowers from my stash which I thought looked like Christmas roses.  I always think of my lovely late Mother in Law when I see Christmas roses as she had some in her garden and always gave me a little bunch for the Christmas dinner table.  I arranged all the embellishments, stamped and cut out the words and added the metal star to the tree.  By the time I finished I really loved this little canvas.

Next came the Christmas cards.  I'd left it so late I'd almost decided to buy some ready made cards but my guilty conscience got the better of me thank goodness.  I started out with some small batches of relatively simple scenic cards.

This first set used up lots of the offcuts I end up with after making my favourite 8 x 8 cards bases and I rather like the elegance of the DL format.  I used a mask and blending brush to create the soft snowy hillocks and then used a tall elegant Lavinia tree stamp and Claire Versafine Twilight, 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation to stamp the trees.

I stamped a Chocolate Baroque sentiment  and finally stencilled a star with clear texture paste, sprinkled embossing powder and left it to dry before heat embossing.  Who saw the optical illusion I inadvertently created as soon as they looked at this card.  I'll own up, it wasn't intentional but it's hard to decide whether the palest tree is in front or behind the middle tree, lol.  I've decided it's a poorly tree that is falling backwards 😜!

This second batch is created in a similar way to the previous one except I used a smaller Lavinia tree stamp and changed it to a square format.

I also stamped matted the 'topper' onto a slightly larger square base card, edging each one with a marker first.  I also added some subtle Stickles sparkle to the front tree.

This third batch was created by stamping the trees directly onto my square card base.  Sorry I can't remember who the stamp is by and I've packed them away for now, lol.  I then stamped again onto some of the Christmas designer papers I have in my stash and decoupaged them onto the card base. 

 The sentiment stamp makes up the set with the tree stamp and I cut it out and edged in black before adding to the card.  The little snowy mounds are from a Hobby Art set which is coming up in the next set of cards and finally I added red Stickles to the baubles.

This final batch of cards was created using a lovely fun set of stamps from the equally lovely Jenny Mayes (Hobby Art).   I bought them at the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight last Autumn because I fell in love with this snowman.    There are a total of eight stamps used in this little scene and typically I forgot I could have used my stamping platform, lol!  I really enjoyed making these though and stamped the scarf and nose and the little pile of snowballs onto separate care to colour (with pencils) then cut out and decoupage on 3D foam.

  The little heart is glazed with Glossy Accents and I added sparkle pen here and there and blended some blue ink at the top. Finally I edged each topper with a marker pen in a colour to co-ordinate with each snowmans scarf.  

So, they were all the small batches I made and I'm so glad I didn't give in to buying cards because, as usual, they were a pleasure to make and helped set the mood for Christmas.

Next post up will be what I call my VIP cards so come back later if you can.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx