The Last Post (of the year!)

Happy New Year's Eve! Today is one of those funny days where you can regret those resolutions you made a year ago but never kept (probably being on top of the ironing for me!) or get your resolutions ready to promise for tomorrow. For me I'm not making any this year - mainly because I  don't want to make one only to feel bad when I break it in February (!) but I'd love to know if you are making one! 

I haven't had much time to get into the Studio but in a few snatched sessions I wanted to make something for the few challenges that are around. I feel like I haven't entered a challenge in ages and they are such fun to do! So I made this little hanging. For Grungy Monday Linda asked for Tim's Tissue Wrap and/or Tissue Tape (double tick!), Hels asked for anything we fancy for Sunday Stamper (tick!) and finally Simon Says Stamp and Show asked for a 12 Tags of Christmas inspired Tag - I know this isn't actually a tag but I'm hoping they'll be in the Christmas spirit and let me off (I used Tag 1 as my inspiration btw!) The stamps are all Wendy Vecchi designed and were given to me by Santa who has fabulous taste! 

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve - we're spending it with friends and seeing if the children can stay awake until midnight - 5p says they won't!!!

Winter Wedding

Well I am loving using this month's Creative Expressions DT stamp set - the fabulous Sentimental Art by Wendy Vecchi. I wondered if it could be used for a wedding card and this is what I made. 

The background is the incredibly versatile fabric background stamp from the set - I used Old Paper Distress Ink which makes it look like really old lace in real life and added a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges. In my last DT post I said that these stamps compliment each other perfectly and they do! 

The heart was stamped in clear ink and clear embossed and then inked with Old Paper Distress Stain. I scored the edges and then inked them with a little Vintage Photo as before. The sentiment was stamped in Vintage Photo I added a flourish, a few gems and an ivory ribbon.

WOYWW and Tag 1... finally!

I have finally finished! Huge and heartfelt thanks to Bella for sending me some Tattered Pinecone diecuts all the way from South Africa and so I was able to finish Tim's first tag! 

The wonderful thing about the 12 Tags of Christmas adventure is that you use the stash you have to complete them and so I have made my interpretation of Tim's tag - having said all that I did need to wait patiently for the postman to come!!! 

So, despite the fact that I tidied my desk before Christmas this is what my work space looks like today! If ou peek on the left you can see my new Wendy Vecchi stamps and Clearly for Art sheets that Santa bought me (thank you Santa!) As always, thank you to Julia for hosting WOYWW and to you for stopping by!

Celebrations!

Happy Boxing Day to you! I hope Father Christmas was kind and bought you just what you hoped for! I have scheduled this post but I have a sneaky feeling I have been very lucky on the craft front! If you have had your fill of Turkey and already reached the bottom of your chocolate box you might want to join in with this fortnight's Crafty Boots challenge! The theme is Celebrations and you can interpret that however you like! I asked the family for ideas for what I should make and they were pretty useless but they did suggest an 18th birthday card and I thought I'd show you a little trick! 

The tag is made using the incredibly fabulous Crafty Boots Deluxe Crafters Card (I urge you to buy some, especially if you are a digi stamper or use CDs etc to print backing papers or decoupage images). I stamped the fabric background in Worn Lipstick Distress Ink using Wendy Vecchi's stamp from the Sentimental Art set and added a coordinating paper border. The swirls were cut from the coordinating paper using Tim Holtz's Elegant Flourish die and the flower was Tim's Tattered Pinecone die. 

The trick I mentioned earlier is in the making of the 18. You can use regular tin foil or, as I did, sticky backed foil. The idea is to stick the numbers, or letters you need to a piece of card and then adhere the metal over the top. Burnish the metal to the card with a bone folder (I prefer to use a piece of grungeboard!) and then ink with Alcohol Inks. If you want to you can add a little 'regular' ink for definition - this can be incredibly effective so why not have a try?! Well I hope you like my take on the theme and I look forward to seeing what you make! Happy Boxing Day!

Happy Christmas!

I would like to wish you, and yours, a very happy Christmas! 

Creatively Wendy!

When this month's stamp set for Creative Expressions was revealed I gave a whoop of joy! The sets have just been getting more and more exciting each month and this month is no exception! Regular readers will know I am a huge fan of the incredibly talented Ms Vecchi and this month's stamp set is the fabulous Sentimental Art set. If you don't know Wendy's stamps then you are in for a treat. They are fabulously designed and etched on red rubber and pre-mounted so they are ready to stamp! The stamps also coordinate beautifully with each other so if you have a few sets then you'll see the possibilities are endless!

I made a tag for my SIL's birthday. The tag was stamped with blue Distress Ink on the incredibly fabulous fabric background stamp. I added Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges of the tag just to give a little definition and to compliment the flower.  For the flower I used Wendy's Funky Flower set on 
Glassine paper and curled the paper slightly. The stalk and leaf are stamped on white card and coloured with Peeled Pain Distress Ink. The sentiment is stamped onto a Journalling Ticket which was scrumpled up and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I also stamped the ticket stamp form the set twice in the background. A little coordinating ribbon finishes it off!

To show this in another colour-way Freya (11) made a tag for her best friend's birthday. She's a little bolder than me in the colour department! Having said that the purple and orange works really well together and the sentiment was stamped in Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain and it looks really fabulous stamped with the stain so I'll be experimenting with that next year!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 132 (and Tag 8!)

Oh, how I have loved my desk over the last few days! I feel like it has been my favourite place in the world (and knowing how I feel about a beach in the Maldives you should know how big a statement that was!) I have managed to do most of the 12 Tags of Christmas which has been such a lot of fun. Along the way I have seen incredible art - people with a really brilliant vision and a fabulous way of interpreting Tim's ideas to fit our own stash! So, boringly I am all tidy again! I wanted to be able to sit down and start a new project without all the mess of the 12 tags cluttering up my space! 

So, by way of compensation I am showing you Tag 8 which I have made late (after school activities and Cubs etc got in the way that Thursday!). Hope it was worth the wait! I still have Tag 1 to complete (it's waiting for some Pine Cones which are winging their way from South Africa - thank you again in advance Bella!) if you peep in the photo of my desk it's sitting to the left! 

As always it is only polite to thank your host - and Julia really is the hostess with the mostess - so thank you for being so gracious in allowing us to inhabit your blog space and share our creative messes - or in my case creative space to make a mess! Please pop on over to her blog and see what other people have been up to this week!

Tag 12!

(If you are looking for today's Crafty Boots post - please click here or scroll down!)

Gosh! The first twelve days of December have flown by! I am really chuffed that I have managed to do 10 of the 12 tags - Tag 1 is nearly ready and Tag 8 isn't even started but that's not bad going! I loved doing today's - it was relatively simple but was very satisfying to make! Hope you like it! Thank you Tim for a fabulously crafty few days!

Crafty Boots Christmas Challenge

It's nearly Christmas and this fortnight's challenge reflects just that! The challenge is to make something Christmas related and so I have made a gift box. I say made... 

I was given this fabulous box by the wonderful Lori - if you are a Wendy Vecchi fan then you need to make friends with her as she runs the Everything Wendy Vecchi group!I hope you like what I did with it Lori! 

I cut some of Tim Holtz's Christmas Kraft Resist paper and inked it with Barn Door Distress Stain. Then I attached it to the box and coloured the bottom of the box the same way.I stained some Tissue Tape with Peeled Paint Distress Stain which gives a subtle green effect. 

I stamped and cut out two Santas and inked them with Distress Stains and added them to each side of the box and then added die cuts and more stamps to other sides of the box. The '25' was doubled embossed with clear embossing powder and the ticket behind was crumbled, inked and sprayed liberally with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist - my favourite! The holly has Rock Candy Stickles for a little vintage bling!

As always, everything was edged in Vintage Photo Distress Ink - I think, if you could see my fingers right now, you'd know just how often I use that ink! A little Stampin' Up twine, a bell and snowflake finished it off nicely. 


Before I go I have the great pleasure of announcing the Crafty Boots Blog Hop winner from my blog! Crafty Boots' Stephanie-Emma put names in a metaphorical hat and chose Bev! Huge congratulations Bev - please email Crafty Boots with your details!


Thank you for popping by and I am looking forward to seeing what you make with a Christmassy theme!

Tag 11

Well, Day 11 of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas is here and I can't believe there's only one day to go. I have missed two days so I'll make sure I do those as soon as I can but I have loved my first year of playing along!

Again I didn't have the right stamps so I improvised! I loved the shrink plastic technique - such fun! Though in hindsight I might have placed the berries differently but I wanted to fill the gap between the holly and the branch... mmm... always room for improvement! Hope you have had a terrific Sunday - Monday tomorrow - how quickly it seems to come round!

Tag 10!

Gosh! Tag 10 already! Tim's 12 tags of Christmas are flying by! I did most of this tag this morning before setting off for a final visit to Lin Brown's emporium for the last time - she closes her doors on Monday and retires from shopkeeping (is that the right expression?!) but we have become firm friends and I'll get to see her (and the lovely Karen and Linda) lots which means I didn't feel sad at all to say 'goodbye'. 

So... back to the tag... I have just finished this one and I rather enjoyed it! Hope you are getting to play along too - it's much easier at a weekend! Much love and, as always, thank you for popping by!

ps - my blog still looks peculiar! Will have a play and see what's occurring! Any tips do let me know!

Tag 9!

As predicted on Wednesday I didn't have time to try Tim Holtz's Tag # 8 (too many components to squeeze into the 20 minutes I had!) so, I will do that one over the weekend if family plans allow! However in between other jobs I have managed to finish Tag # 9! Yay me! 

I'm off to have a quick look and see what everyone else has made - thank you for visiting - it means a lot and have a terrific weekend!

 

ps - My blog has suddenly started to look weird! If you know why please email me and put me out of my misery!

Tag 7 - Done!

Well, it was much easier to make Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas at the weekend - this week I'm having to squeeze them in between family commitments - tonight is Tom's Carol Concert so this post has to be a quick one! 

The Carol Concert was in my mind when I chose the stamp! I really enjoyed today's tag #7 (No. 7 already?!) - I love glassine paper and the branch looked really cool (before it was covered with holly!) 

Hope to play along tomorrow but Thursday are our busiest night so it might have to wait until the weekend! Thank you, as always, for stopping by!

What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday 131

The wonderful Julia is hosting her 131st WOYWW and if you are nosey like me you'll want to see what creative spaces others craft in! 

This is my desk after finishing my 6th Tag - lots of paint to put away! Still pretty tidy though! To my right is nothing but tidiness so no point in showing you that! Tee hee! Have just spotted myself in the the reflection in the window! The look of concentration is brilliant!

To my left is the discarded 5th Tag (details here!) which from this distance doesn't look like a disaster - maybe I'll rethink it... mmm...
Happy Wednesday y'all and a special thanks, as always, to Julia - loving the Christmassy feel to your blog!!!