A blue Christmas

The last of the Christmas cards :-) All using Craft Creations papers and Bazzill Bling in Diamond. The tree stamp is Hero Arts and the snowflake trail is Inkadinkadoo. The white snowflakes are punched with Martha Stewart punches and the blue one is done using a Marianne D die, the swirl is also diecut, a Sissix die this time. I think my favourite is the 9-patch card, the blue and white is just so clean and crisp.

So there you have it - all my Christmas cards are done! Although ........... I couldn't resist another Christmas stamp - a partridge in a pear tree! - which is winging its way to me, so I might have to make just one more ........... :-)

MIrror 3 of 3

If I have taken one photo of this mirror, I have taken fifty!!! Finally I have managed to get a halfway decent picture to share with you :-)

I glimmer misted the mirror and stamped some flourishes in red and some cogs & gears in brown. Then I embossed some metal in the bigshot, but the colour wasn't quite right - ten second studio "bronzed god", it's a very cold brown so I alcohol inked it with ginger ink. Then I punched a square out of each pattern and stuck them on, along with some mosaic tiles and pearls. A charm made from beads bought in Venice completes the mirror, I attached it with a tiny screw eye I found in our local DIY store - I bought several, so I will be hanging all sorts of things from items I decorate in the future :-)

The second photo shows all three mirrors in their (miraculously level!) permanent position on the wall. I now need to go to Ikea to get some more, I have so many ideas........ :-)

Almost the last of the Christmas cards!

But not quite ....... :-) Here are some medallions, stamped & embossed, coloured and layered up onto mirri-matted craft creations paper. The stamp is my favourite sentiment stamp of all the ones I have bought this year, gives a lovely crisp impression and I was quite surprised to find it is from the Penny Black range - I thought they just did "cute" which of course I don't do.......... :-)

"Extreme" week?

I am just coming to the end of a week off work - it was intended to be an extreme baking, crafting and housework week! However this has backfired somewhat due to the fact that I have been feeling poorly all week :-( I have managed to get the last of my Christmas cards done, the third Ikea mirror finished, quite a lot of tidying up and prepping for putting up decorations, and have baked a few biscuits - so not too bad, but I had more things planned, so it's quite disappointing!

So, here are some of the cards, I will post the rest over the next few days and as soon as I manage a decent photo of the mirror I will post that! Simple cards (as usual!) but I am really pleased with them. The holly card was stamped & embossed in gold then coloured with marvy pens and completed with a mirri mat and a sentiment stamp. I stamped and embossed the lamp post in silver and coloured the bow, mirri matted it, then mounted onto the card over a mat of embossed snowflakes, finished off with a sentiment on a tiny label.

I really like the cards that I have seen on blogs lately using nine squares - I think of them as 9-patch cards! The scalloped squares were punched out of Craft Creations paper and the letters were cut on the robo. The last card is made from the same range of papers, with a stamped topper and sentiment, then I added a ribbon and some red nailhead strips.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall......

I haven't blogged for a while, mainly because I have been trying to make progress on a piece of cross stitch :-)

Last weekend was November craft weekend, so I thought I would decorate the second of my Ikea mirrors. I had bought some decoupage papers at Ally Pally and decided this would be an ideal use for them. My original plan was to alternate the darker colour with two paler ones, but when they were all overlapped, the darker one showed through the lighter on the overlap and it looked quite odd. So I covered the whole mirror in the darker paper and used one of the pale ones on top to look like broken shards of mirror glass :-)

The swirly corners were painted in acrylic and then sprayed with glimmer mist. The mosaic tiles were left over from another project and I only had ten - spent a while trying to work out how to use them all to best advantage! A frame of flat back pearls completed the front. I hadn't wrapped the paper over the edges very well, so I stuck a strip of metal all the way around!

It was quite difficult to photograph - one pic with flash and the other without, hope it gives you some idea of how it looks!

Two down, one more to go......

Bedtime story LO

I have decided to post bigger pictures, what do you think?

This is another very simple Little Girl page. The backing paper is already colour-blocked and I cut smaller squares of the lettering paper for the centre of each square - these papers are so old, from our trip to Long Island in 2004, it's quite a relief to use them up :-) The swirls are a Prima pearl corner, cut up into pieces.

The title is cut on the robo and then run through the bigshot using a roses embossing folder, looks very effective, though it hasn't photographed very well, unfortunately!

One thing I would change if I use this design for a page again - I would ink the edges of the squares :-)

Spots and stripes

It took me three attempts to actually finish this ....... at the Cardinal Colours retreat I found that I had forgotten to cut out the question mark in the title. So for the next weekend away I carefully cut it out and packed it in a safe pocket in my tote - or so I thought, actually I managed to leave it buried somewhere on my desk at home! I cut out another one and the weekend after, at the crop, it finally got put onto the page. And when I got home that evening I found the previously cut one on my desk........ :-)

The main title words (and q-mark!) are cut on the robo, put into embossing folders and run through the Bigshot - the "spots" has swiss dot embossing and the "stripes" have herringbone! The red pennants have been embossed with spots and dots and the turquoise ones are cut out of Bazzil swiss dot. I cut a frame for the photo and put it on at an angle, which not only adds interest but also nicely covers up the unwanted passerby in the picture!

Beach LO

Another Little Girl page :-) It is quite difficult to make a scrapbook for someone else - no clues as to what or where the events are, names of people are a mystery ...... you get the idea. LG's mum sent over a whole batch of photos, some were in Cornwall, some in Ibiza, and I think there was a third beach in there somewhere judging from the shooting dates on the picture ...... I picked out a couple of pics and made single LOs with them, then lumped the rest into this one generic beach page :-)

The papers are Basic Grey (Two Scoops) and the title is cut on the robo from Bazzill (Erie). I doodled dots around the edges of the paper blocks to make them pop from the background and then drew lines between all the blocks. Shouldn't have done those lines freehand! It didn't look good at all ...... so I bought some ric rac at the Cardinal Colours crop and stuck it over the lines LOL. And actually, I think it looks better - I do love it when hiding a mistake results in something good I would otherwise never have thought of - a "serendipity" moment :-)

Distress Ink cards

I did these at the crop last weekend, using the "mask off with post-it notes and distress ink the resulting aperture" technique, as featured in Craft Stamper a few issues ago. I have previously done and blogged some of these, really like this effect!

The stamps are some of the new silhouette ones I bought at Ally Pally from Lavinia Stamps. I am rather disappointed in the bamboo one though - it ripped as I took it off the backing sheet, so I had to stick it carefully to the block with the two halves together...... it has stamped OK, but I am really annoyed about it!

The inks are a combination of Antique Linen, Dried Marigold and Fired Brick. The centre card has a soft ink edging to it, because I made a little mistake when applying the ink to the aperture and it ended up where I didn't want it - so the whole edge had to be smooshed to hide it LOL.

I think my favourite is the owl :-)

Dressing Up LO

Back over to the pink side ..................... :-( LG's mum usually sends me a selection of pics (after much nagging!) and I pick which ones to use, but this is one she asked specifically to have included. Though I think I would have done anyway, it is a lovely pic of Little Girl and Big Sis. Again I have kept it simple, a Fancy Pants circle matted onto some Bazzill Sweetheart cardstock, punched flowers with gem centres and American Crafts thickers for the title. It took ages to evenly space all the little flowers around the edge!

Pink and flowers and glitter............ all the things I don't like in one page LOL. Fortunately the rest of the batch of photos are all water or beach themed, so I can go heavy on the aqua and blue!

This is the Life LO

A bit of a change from the usual Little Girl pages - nice to get away from the dreaded "pink" LOL. The paper is Daisy D, the frame is cut from Bazzill metallic Onyx. The swirls are either Prima or Zva black crystals and the silver mesh I found lurking in a box :-) Oh and the title is done with American Crafts thickers.

Splash LO

Little Girl having fun in the pool :-) The papers are both quite old, in fact the spotty one is one of the first ones I ever bought, when we went to the States in 2004! The title is cut with the robo, out of Bazzill dotted swiss and I have used some of my vast collection of eyelets down the side.

Seaweed LO

Haven't blogged for a couple of days - have been struck down by this dreadful cold and it's been all I can do to drag myself into work :-( It seems to be shifting now though, thank goodness!

I got quite a few Little Girl pages done at the retreat, I have deliberately been trying to keep them simple so I can keep up to date. This LO has a diecut (SEI-Moravia) on a sheet of Bazzill, the lettering is Basic Grey (Two Scoops) and the title was cut on Sy's robo which she brought to Debden with her ...... I must ask her to send me the font, it's one I don't have, I think it is called Monster Paparazzi. There is even a little doodling, something which is normally right outside my comfort zone - I doodled dots over the "seaweed" as it didn't stand out from the background very well originally!

Punch crazy LO !

OK, it's a cliched title ...... but I like it :-) This LO is about the Cardinal Colours crop I go to every month.

I drew round a Bazzill large scalloped circle onto some paper (My Minds Eye) and cut it out. This went onto a sheet of Bazzill Aqua cardstock. The inner circle was cut using a large circle die, then I cut around the edge of the resulting aperture to make a frame. The pattern is made up of Bazzill Juneberry and Bluegrass punched out into diamonds and circles. I put more diamonds at each of the scallop intersections and then doodled dots all around the scallops. The title is an American Crafts Thickers alphabet, I thought it needed to be "joined" somehow so I punched out the wave shapes. The scrolls in the corner are made using a Woodware punch, as is the frame at the top corner - I punched a small scalloped circle, then carefully punched a larger one around it to make the frame. A bit of journalling and it was done.

Another weekend, another Retreat

This weekend was our annual retreat at Debden House in Essex. We drove up on Friday, came back on Sunday afternoon and I have spent all Monday recovering, having booked the time off work in anticipation of being absolutely cream crackered :-)

I got 12 LOs done over the weekend, bar a couple of titles and embellishments, and I am almost up to date with Little Girl's album. Mostly I forgot to take pictures as I went along, but I managed a couple and here is the first - Sy, Karen and I going for our monthly meal out after a crop, on this occasion to the Indian restaurant in Polegate.

The gold borders are cut with a Nestie lace border, though I have actually used the negative side of it. Then I added gems and two other borders in purple, using EK Success punches - Moroccan and, um, the swirly one whose name escapes me :-) The medallions are stamped and embossed and cut out (Artemio stamps, asian accents I think). From the same stamp set came the border around the central diamond. I stamped and embossed the title using a Banana Frog alphabet (Doobie?) and punched out the letters using a scalloped oval punch. It's all very purple and gold and hopefully at least vaguely Indian :-)

Decorated Ikea mirror

A few months ago, Sy got some mirrors from Ikea and I asked her if she could grab three for me too. They have been sitting on the shelf ever since ...... not because I can't think of what to do with them, rather I can think of too many ways to decorate them and find it difficult to settle on one idea!

So here is the "metal" mirror. It was inspired by a patchwork metal tutorial on Alix's blog. I embossed several pieces of metal, using Ten Second Studio moulds and Cuttlebug embossing folders. Then I spent hours filling the back of them with a quick drying filler - this is so that when the piece is handled the embossing doesn't get pushed back down :-) The mirror was covered in TSS killer tape, I left the red protective film on, just lifting it in the area I was sticking each piece. I dithered trying to decide whether to do squares or organic curvy shapes ....... went for the curves and regretted it after a couple of pieces.... took much longer than squares would have LOL.

Alix had ribbon on her tutorial for the joins between the metal pieces, but I rather fancied using up some of my bead stash ..... so I applied some matte accents to most of the joins and waited for it to go off a little so the beads would stick instantly.... this was quite tricky and those beads did not want to behave!

Then came all the embellishments - mosaic tiles around the edge of the mirror, a couple of charms (keys), blingy earrings (the two owls and the jewelled circle, a large button, some more mosaic tiles here and there and some nailheads. I left the whole lot to dry overnight and I am still not sure those beads are secure ...... LOL.

Next day I painted the edges - which of course I should have done first - with Precious Metal paint in bronze.

Now I have to decide where to hang it :-)

Ally Pally Loot

We don't usually go to the September AP show, but a friend of ours from Devon was going so we decided it would be great if we could all meet up. Sy drove down to Karen on Friday night, they picked me up Saturday morning, we went to the show, then Sy stayed with me that night and we had a craft day on Sunday. I am going back to work today for a rest !!!

I bought loads of Herma, found some at a good price and it is my most expensive consumable so I was pleased with that.

Several stamps: Lavinia Stamps - owl, bamboo, dragon, weedy flower thing, silhouette castle. Maya Road - geometric shapes which look like Spirograph patterns, so now I can stamp them much better than I could ever draw them LOL. Artistic Stamper - a background and inspiration bottles. The recycled Rubber Company - steampunk stamp set.

The odds and ends: some Ten Second Studio metal and killer tape, a couple of packs of magnetic snaps, some ribbon bows though the colour which I thought was a dull gold turned out to be khaki green in daylight ... never mind! ... stencil tape and brushes, Decopatch papers and brush, scalloped circle punch, brayer, alcohol inks and blending solution, one distress ink pad (Milled Lavender).

And hiding beneath all that lot is the main item on my list .... a Hougie scoreboard. I bought it first because they didn't have many and it was very awkward to carry around - but hopefully it will be worth it :-)

Stop Raining LO

This LO is of next doors' cat, sheltering in our garden because she didn't want to get wet!

The papers are all from stash, I am fairly sure the main background paper is K & Co but I am not sure about the others! The title is cut on the robo out of Bazzill Mud Pie, the fancy squares are punched from scraps of Bazzill, and the scroll up the side is Prima Say it in Studs in bronze.

Make a Wish LO

I made a resolution this year - not to buy new papers until the pile of old ones has gone down significantly - and mainly I have stuck to it. The exceptions were some Craft Creations Christmas papers and three sheets at the last crop which were two diecuts and the paper pictured above, which I think is Bo Bunny Mamarazi? I have used all three, so that's not too bad!

This LO is about DS2's 18th birthday cake - he wanted a Star Trek shaped one, but while cake baking is my thing, I am not so hot on cake decorating!!! So I made an oblong cake and "drew" the shape on top of cream cheese icing with maltesers, then cut out the star freehand from melted & cooled chocolate ..... I got no complaints :-)

This is a very simple LO, as the paper does most of the work - I just added photos, title (American crafts thickers) and journalling (done on safmat)...... oh, and the four "captain's pips" at the side of the photo :-)

Cardinal Colours Retreat

What a fabulous weekend! I had never been on an organised retreat before, in fact I had never even been to a class :-) Now I feel like I am an old hand........ Three classes were enough for me (though I could have taken five) and there were make and takes to do too - I did a little beaded charm.

The rest of the time I spent doing my own thing, I had made up several page kits and managed to complete ten LOs and part-finish three others. Plus a couple of cards and the class stuff! I really got a lot done and I am very happy with the results.

This snowy LO has a lot of cutting included, all out of Bazzill Bling Diamond - the large snowflakes and the small swirl are cut with a Marianne D die, the small snowflake with a Martha Stewart punch, the letters and long scrolls with the craft robo! The journalling is typed on safmat and there a e few small clear gems dotted about.

Butterfly ATC

This is an ATC I recently swapped, I can blog it safely as it has been received :-)

I had done the background quite a while ago and then got stuck on it, so it went in my "what shall I do with this" box. The butterfly is one of several which I had asked DH to laser cut from clear acrylic, I had planned to try colouring them with alcohol ink. The two ideas suddenly came together! I added the text - printed on safmat - and a bling trail for the butterfly.

This will be the last blog post for a couple of days, as I am off to the Cardinal Colours retreat this weekend - and I have sooooooooo much packing to do........ :-)

Gothic Arches

I should say first that I didn't make this :-) DH has a laser cutter, he found some plans on the net for some gothic arches and after much cursing and waiting for glue to dry, here is the result. They are made of clear acrylic (very difficult to photograph!) and I have put a Yankee candle next to them for scale.

The question is, what do I do with them now?? I have vague ideas of making them into a Christmas decoration, but if any of you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear them!