A bit late or very very early?

 

Yes, it's a Christmas decoration :-)  I did start it in late December, but then Christmas itself got in the way and I never got around to finishing it! 
It's inspired by an article in Craft Stamper a little while ago, the designer had decorated a block of wood about 6" x 4" x 2".  So I bought a 6ft length of 2" by 4" timber for around £10 and got DH to cut it into 6" lengths, 12 altogether.
The magazine project involved stamping on card and layering the images onto the block, but I decided to paint mine.  I wanted to try out a crackle effect and used Paperartsy crackle glaze, the base coat was a deep burgundy acrylic, after that had dried I applied the crackle glaze with a palette knife - I had never used the stuff before and the first side I did is not great, that's why it's at the back LOL.  When that had dried I applied some Paperasrty fresco paint in Irish cream over the top and it just about crackled as I watched, amazing stuff!
The borders and the tree are diecuts, Dienamics and Memory Box, I also die cut a trellis to go on each side and the back - forgot to photograph that - the small decorations over the tree are made with some of the 'waste' from that die-cut.  I put red crystals all over the tree.  The top has an embossed piece of card stock to hide the end grain of the wood.  All the cardstock pieces are attached and sealed with Mod Podge.
I got the lovely handle from Amazon, they have a staggering amount of drawer handles, would you believe :-)  The feet are proper box feet from a specialist seller, though the carriage charge was horrendous - next time I will buy several sets of four rather than just one!  DH drilled the holes for handle and feet, I didn't trust myself to get them straight :-)
I don't want to put it away now!
Hmmm ... now what shall I do with the other eleven blocks?!!!!

Texture paste masterboard

The first full weekend in any month is always my craft weekend, consisting of a craft day at my house on the Saturday and going off to the Cardinal Colours crop on the Sunday.  Sy arrives early-ish Saturday morning and we fill the dining table with stuff, then get going!
Sy makes me *do things* ...... this time she brought some texture paste, which I have never used before.  I also have some masks, bought two years ago at Ally Pally and never used.  So I scraped some texture paste over a mask in various places on a 12" sheet of card, which I had smooshed over with distress inks in shades of blue.  The idea of a masterboard is that you then cut it up and use it for ... whatever .... cards, or scrapbooking or ATC's......

I sprayed through another mask with a golden-ish shimmer spray, it doesn't show up very well in the photo but it is there!  I stamped in various blues in all the spaces, then when the texture paste was dry, I repositioned the mask over it, and rubbed over with a gold ink pad.

A couple of close ups:



I do like the way this has turned out, though I am not sure how I will use it yet.  Although, the Scrapology challenge this month is T for texture paste......

And, I liked it so much that we had to go out shopping in the afternoon so I could get a tub of my own :-)

ATCs

I had got out of the habit of making ATCs, but have re-discovered how much I enjoy doing them!  These are for the ATC trail over on UK Scrappers - it's a great swap as you just make one ATC each for the person before and after you on the trail, so no big commitment to worry about.

I have done my favourite smooshy ink / overstamped background on two of these, with text / butterfly added.  The third one has some embossed cardstock, butterfly and die-cut trail.

Come and join us on the trail :-)

Update on boiler situation:  Mark the lovely plumber came round Monday afternoon and fixed it - we are very relieved because the boiler is 35 years old and we had thought we might need a new one.  It turned out that 35 years of dust, dirt, etc had obscured the sensor that allows the pilot light to work.  He took over an hour to clean it out (assisted by DH who was very interested in the inside workings of a boiler!) and it cost us £60.  Bargain!  It did take ages for the house to warm up again, it's amazing how cold the place gets with absolutely no heating - you don't appreciate these things until something goes wrong!  And having hot water again was bliss :-)

52 cards challenge week 4

 

One thing I am determined to do this year, is to take part in more challenges.  I especially want to try and keep up with the 52 cards challenge over at Kool Kitty Musings, making a card and a Christmas card every week inspired by a prompt.

I am sliding in under the wire for last Monday's prompt, which was to use paper from a paper pad.  The birthday card uses a sheet from Bo Bunny's Timepiece 6" paper pad as the background, plus I have made the rosette from a 12" strip out of the same collection.  The mats are cut with Dienamics Dainty Doilies dies, the ribbon border is also Dienamics.  The sentiment is a Tinchies stamp, haven't used it before, but it stamps beautifully, will definitely use it again.

As for the Christmas card.... well it appears the Evil Pink Genie has struck again!  These papers are from a Papermania pack, which someone bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The snowflakes are punched, the mats are Nestie dies, the tree is a Dienamics die.  The sentiment tag is punched, with a peel off sticker on top, then I scattered some gold crystals around.

argh ... now must rush off as DH has just informed me that the boiler has packed up, we have no hot water, and he has to go to work .... I have to call a plumber :-(

More pink!

 

These are the next couple of cards from the pink magazine paper ..... I probably have enough left to make just a couple more, then I can move on!

Nothing very complicated about these - the butterfly is done with a Martha Stewart punch, the flourishes with a Dienamics die, the sentiment tags with a Nestie label die, and the ribbon strip with another Dienamics die.  The square crystals have been hanging around in my bling box for years :-)  The paper panels are matted with bazzill bling 'Hollywood' on the first card and framed with peel-off lines on the second.

A bit vintage

I was playing around with some distress inks at the crop and decided to cover a card blank with an inked/stamped background.  Antique linen and tea dye inks were blended together than I started randomly stamping.  I used a new cogs stamp from LaBlanche, have never used those white foam ones before, they are definitely different!  I used it with distress ink, they don't take that ink very well, but the washed out impression was exactly what I wanted.  I also used a crackle stamp, some swirls, some random dots (done in aged mahogany ink) and an architectural element (done in gathered twigs) which I have had for years and hardly, if ever, used!
Next time I do this, I will remember to take a photo of the background when it's done - it always seems a shame to cover it up!  I had a stamped and embossed poppy image in my 'bits' bag so matted that onto the card.  But it needed a little more .......
I attached a charm with some sparkly twine, die cut a sentiment tag and some pennants for the sides of the image, then added some crystals.
I am really pleased with how it has turned out and will definitely make some more like it!

A bit pink and pretty .......

 

Pink.  Flowers.  Two 'pretty' posts in a row.  Oh dear. 
I haven't actually gone over to the pink side :-)  In line with my determination to empty my craft room - at least enough so I can see some surfaces - I decided to take some card blanks and several freebie magazine papers to the Cardinal Colours crop last weekend.  I made several 'bases' and am now working my way through topping them!  The papers are from Making Cards magazine, which has good quality proper paper, not that horrible shiny magazine-y stuff, it's rare that I buy any other cardmaking mag.
Something else I need to concentrate on this year is to use the stuff that I buy, which then gets put away never to see the light of day again.  I have used my new 4" scalloped circle woodware punch - actually bought a couple of months ago, but not used! - the stamp is from Inkadinkadoo, also bought ages ago and never used, I stamped and embossed in metallic green.
The pink bling cardstock used for the mats and butterflies is new, I won a whole pile of assorted colours in the crop raffle, yummy :-)  The green and yellow bling are I think Emerald City and Hollywood and are from stash.
There are a couple more of cards using these pink papers to come, but I need to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while........ LOL.