Merry Christmas everyone! WOYWW #238

I hope you are having a great Christmas! All I want for Christmas is - painkillers!

A couple of last minute cards, which I had made last year apart from a greeting on this one...

and baubles, ribbon and a fairy on this one!

I then resorted to making up a Forever Friends kit I got with a magazine!

Anyway Yesterday I just didn't stop all day, shopping in the morning for last minute gifts and food, working with my son and his girlfriend to prep as much as possible for today's dinner, ironing, tidying, wrapping presents and making those final cards - my back (which you might already know is in a bad way, have been offered surgery as an option), was so sore!

This morning when I woke up I could hardly move, my knees are also full of osteoarthritis and getting down stairs was painful, and yet I had to clean the kitchen and bathrooms so just got on with it. Then I was cleaning the windows where Shaun missed them and fell over and into the pile of presents and had to shout for ages for Shaun (who was outside) to come and help me up. Some of the presents might now be a little squashed, and my back is even worse than before - hence wanting painkillers! I rang my dad to ask him to bring his drugs when he comes over, he didn't need to take them after his surgery last week!

I have joined in WOYWW at the Stamping Ground, missed it last week as I was just too busy.

Tree colouring tutorial

I thought you might like to know how I coloured the trees on my last card.

I picked 3 colours of green, you can pick any three colours as long as one is light or bright, and two are dark green, or any colour you wish to use.

I used Promarkers in Bright Green, Forest Green and Pine.

Step 1. Colour the main part of the tree in Bright green (it looks quite flat with just one colour). You could colour all over the baubles then go over them with a stronger colour, or liquid pearls or glitter glue.

2. Try your two darker colours to establish which is darkest, in this case it is Pine, using pine colour the edges of the shapes and feather inwards, that is make little horizontal lines tapering towards the top, making sure to add a shadow under the tiers. (Last tier left out to show the difference).

3. Take your second darkest green, in this case Forest Green, and feather some more inside the original feathering.

3. Take your lightest green, in this case Bright Green, and blend over the other two colours. It will look dark but will dry lighter.

Finished trees. Image is by The Cutting Cafe and is called Christmas Stocking Line.

Should there be six geese here?

I love this Little Claire Christmas geese stamp set, and the geese are just perfect for this card which is for some friends who raise geese and poultry on their smallholding.

Image coloured with Promarkers, and die cut with Spellbinders dies. The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons.

I used the sentiment from the Geese set inside the card.

I have entered the following challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge - Anything goes ends 4th Jan

Crafty Ribbons Challenges - Anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Inspired by Stamping - Anything goes (Dec 31st)

My Time to Craft - Christmas birds (Sat)

Quirky treasures, a reminder to enter the challenge

This is my make for the Quirky Crafts challenge reminder, the challenge ends on Saturday midday and is sponsored by The Cutting Cafe.
I thought this image would be perfect for my treasure, which this time is the Woodware mini light bulbs I found hiding in my biggest Christmas stash box! As far as I know you can't buy these now, I have searched for them without success. I have a little wooden box with 4 compartments holding these, and they are so cute I didn't want to use them up so never opened the pack.
They look good hanging on the Christmas Stocking Laundry line from The Cutting Cafe, don't they!
I coloured the image with Promarkers, and added some stickles for snow, and a bit of sparkle with my Spica pens.
The card the image is mounted on is also quite special, I won it in a Christmas lucky dip from Card Making and Papercrafts magazine and I only have one sheet, I won a second similar sheet but this is the only one that says Love at Christmas.
I used some Crafty Ribbon's ribbon either side of the card, and another card ready for Christmas. I have family and friends cards to make still, and some to post, and it is the last day tomorrow for posting in time for Christmas!

I have entered the following challenges:

Cards Galore - Christmas
Coffee Chocolate and Cards - Happy Holidays (Fridays)
Crafty Ribbons - Anything goes with Ribbons (Thursdays)
Feeling Crafty - Christmas (Dec)
Craft Mojo - Christmas (Dec)
Passion for Promarkers - include a sentiment (Jan 7th)
Christmas Cards Challenge - optional to make words the focal point (Sunday 22nd)
Avenue 613 - Anything goes optional CAS (Sun)

From our house to yours!

 Christmas is coming closer and I thought I better make some cards in in a batch for the neighbours, and I normally end up doing these on Christmas Eve so this is progress! I still have family and friends cards to make though, I might have to go for a similar approach!
I used rubber stamps by Unity Stamp Co. and these are from a set called Winter Tortellini and Spinach Soup by Jellybean.

The tinsel Ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, and I found some little wooden shapes in my stash and thought they would look cute.

I had these card blanks cut in several colours of embossed metallic card, which saves on adding a greeting. I need to cut more now.

Finally two bauble shapes from a pack of Woodware shaped cards.

I have entered the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations - Free and Easy (Dec)

Craft Mojo - Christmas (Dec)

Christmas Cards Challenges - optional to make words the focal point (Sun 22nd)

613 Avenue Create - Anything goes CAS optional (Sun)

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

woyww #236

It is Thursday technically and way past my bedtime, but this is a post for what's on your workdesk Wednesday at The Stamping Ground.

 First the bedroom makeover is going sort of well, the new carpet is in, the curtains are up (we had adventures with these and they might be the wrong choice as they are very sheer, only the same colour lining stops this, so the first choice ones might have been better), new bedding except we didn't manage to get new valance sheets - I bought what I thought was valance sheets only to find after washing them and trying to make the bed, that what I had actually bought was valances that go under the mattress. I want to wash them often because of the dog rubbing round, so wanted the sheets with built in valances which is what Wilko normally sells me!

Matching teal cushions and lampshades, never had cushions for show before - very posh! I am sure Sooty will love them!

Matching artificial Gerberas, the vase I remembered I had already, so moved it from the kitchen windowsill.

Finally the desk, I have been tidying lots today but mostly paperwork which has been logged and filed or shredded, but there is a lot more to do. I was going to make some Christmas cards too, I really must get on with it.

Wonderful Phyllis Harris at Unity

These stamps are from a set of Unity Stamps by Phyllis Harris, I love her art. I love horses, used to work with them and own one (long story, don't ask), and I used to draw them all the time side view only and I could never get the proportions just right.

I wouldn't have put pink and peach together, but it works, and the reason is the Inspired by Unity challenge, I sort of went for the sketch, but have some of the colours too. The image is coloured with Promarkers, and die cut with Spellbinders dies, the mats are also cut with Spellbinders out of pink metallic card. I added pink polka dot ribbon to complete the sketch.

I am entering the following challenges:

Inspired by Unity - see above

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Anything except Christmas (Saturdays)

Crafty Ribbons - spots or stripes (Thursdays)

Passion for Promarkers - include a sentiment (7th Jan)

Stamping Sensations (2nd entry) - free and easy (Dec)

Stampotique Designer's challenge - anything goes (Dec and up to 4 entries)

Splatters here, splatters there....

I made this card for the Take it Make it Craft Stamper challenge, sadly I looked at the Inlinkz closing time, and not the date in the post, and the Inlinkz is still open for a few days despite the winners just being announced.

So I thought I would show you it anyway. The multicoloured card is a result of me "painting off" my brush after painting the organiser that I still need to finish. I added splatters to it with some runny rose pink Fresco paint, the other paints used were Fresco by PaperArtsy and some English Cottage Acylics paint by Indigo Blu. The bird is an Indigo Blu stamp called Take Flight coloured with Promarkers and cut out by hand and I tried not to position it so it looked like it was creating the splatters! I die cut my large panel with Spellbinders A2 card creator biggest size rectangle and die cut the fancy lattice to go on top as a frame, this is a tricky one to attach, I wonder if it was Spellbinder's mistake that it cuts out the middle too? When looking at demo's on the card creator dies I see that every presenter shows the lattice dies then quickly puts them down and demo's a different set! If anyone knows of any examples of cards using the lattice dies I would love to know.

You could attach the lattice using brads, or do as I have done and use glue dots but put something over the top to hide them.

I cut out some flowers with a Joy Craft die, from the multicoloured card and decided to use the negative too, it is too good not to.

The burgandy leather effect card is splattered with Alcohol inks, a couple of colours of mixative, copper and pearl.

I added some teal ribbon, and some Card Candi by Craftwork Cards. Hoping someone will love this card.

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts challenge blog - anything but Christmas (Saturdays)

Artful Times - Die cuts or punches. (also max 5 challenges allowed)

Pan Pastels - anything goes (Sundays)

Stamping Sensations - free and easy (December)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenges - make your own background

Quirky Christmas Treasure time!

I think I still have the altering bug after last week, and I bought this frame in a charity shop (is that the same as thrift shop in the USA, a charity shop is where people donate goods to sell to raise money for a cause, the cause runs the shop). I also had a previously unopened pack of treasure in the form of Tattered Angels Glimmer Glass, I was so awestruck I couldn't think how I could use these shapes on cards and give them away, and so it stayed put for a few years - until now!

The challenge at Quirky Crafts starting today, is to make a Christmas project and to use your treasure, this could be something like my treasure, or the last of something you can't get any more, or a personal keepsake.

It can be any project you like too, you just need to tell us what your treasure is and why it is so precious.

The very generous sponsor for this challenge is The Cutting Cafe who provided the team with some great images to use. I used Christmas Laundry Line and Christmas Sentiment Shapes on my upcycled frame. 

I painted the frame with one coat of gesso, then two coats of Fresco Snowflake, then allowed it to dry before applying Ice Blue Fresco then Squid Ink with blending foam. I inked the Christmas Sentiment Shapes with Distress inks. The Christmas Laundry Line is coloured with Promarkers, including silver for the stars, and I added Stickles glitter glue. The white stuff along the bottom of the image is glass ball gel medium, and in this photo it hasn't dried yet so I will replace the image when it does dry (image now replaced, I built the glass ball gel up a little more and it is as dry as it will get, and I went over the whole thing with sparkling Mod Podge to protect the image, not sure where the little line above the tree came from).

The Glimmer Glass is stuck to various parts of the frame with Decopatch which I hope will hold.

So hop on over to Quirky to see lots of lovely examples by the team, and to join in with the challenge which runs for two weeks.

I have entered the following challenges:

ABC  - A for Almost Christmas

Anything but a card - Withdrawn

Feeling Crafty - Christmas

Craft Mojo - Christmas

Passion for Promarkers - include a sentiment (Jan 7th)

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge S for sheep.

This is my second page for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge, S for sheep! All the sheep are Penny Black stamps.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge S for Scooter

It is S for scooter at The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge, not sure my Kraftin Kimmie girl is on a scooter or motorbike so I added a couple of Kanban scooters too.

WOYWW #235

It is time to head to The Stamping Ground to nosy round people's desks again. I haven't managed to catch up and return visits from last week, sorry about that, I will do my best to catch up this week.

Part of my reason for not visiting is this, a couple of years ago we bought some new duvet covers and pillow cases, this is one side.

This is the reverse. We both liked them, they were different to what we were using and in a sale with vouchers off. We intended to decorate the bedroom, change the carpet and curtains to something that went with this set, the colour is described as Aqua. Well a few years passed, the old duvet covers are still in use, and we didn't get round to decorating, and initial attempts at new curtains didn't come to anything - until the weekend just gone! It started with the ensuite bathroom being decorated, then I said my wardrobe needed painting inside so had to empty it, then couldn't sleep in the room due to the paint smell so moved into the other room for a couple of days.

Then I said we might as well decorate the bedroom as we are already moved out, to save doing this again, so Shaun painted it but the same colour as before because we kinda like it! It is sort of pink, but an orangey pink that would be the colour of the poppies on the Country Diary of an Edwardian lady on the current curtains, if it was the darkest shade of the colour. So we had to find some carpet that went with both the new bedding and the pink walls, that was tricky, but we found some in the end which I hope will work, it has fleck of the light colour above. So then we set out to look for lampshades and curtains and found some in dark teal which we liked, but these have caused so much work this evening! First we didn't like how the shades showed so much of the lightbulb when fitted to the bedside lamps, and then we weren't sure the eyelet curtains would work for us, as we have problems fitting a pole due to sloping ceilings. So we set out to look at some lampshades in another store Homebase. We found that they had 4 shades of teal, none of which quite matched the curtains, though we liked the shape of the shades. We didn't buy any, but we bought smaller lightbulbs! Then we got home, decided to keep the lampshades so put them up, and the curtains, but realised we had the sizes wrong, the width is first and so they are too long and not wide enough, and the curtain pole won't work so I have to take them back tomorrow. I have spent ages seaching online on various stores to try and find some more curtains, finally google found that the store we bought the lampshades in sells what we wanted, only our local store is so small they didn't have any but I have ordered them online and they should match the shades!

Here is my desk, a bit neglected, and covered in gold paint from my crafting disaster below, and a project I am working on and stuff to be put away. I have got rid of 3 years of photography magazines I was keeping because I have never got round to reading more than a few, I have a couple of years worth left and I am going to cancel the subs until I can read them or recycle them, that freed up a bit of space in here but there is a long way to go, and upstairs I have loads of cones of yarn for the knitting machine, one day I will get the machine out and use it - I intend to so I can't bring myself to get rid of any of the yarn, but it all came out of the wardrobe, and that is only the best yarn, I have two trunks of it in the garage and a bag full in the airing cupboard!

Very late Quirky Reminder post

You have until Saturday midday to enter your altered vintage Christmas themed item into the Quirky Crafts challenge and win a prize from our sponsor, Stitchy Bear Digital stamps, and I am so late reminding you but there has been a lot going on, in my life. As well as working on next year's challenge schedule with our sponsors, we have been decorating our bedroom and bathroom, and searching for soft funishings, and we had to take my Dad to Salisbury hospital, he has a melanoma on his face which is to be removed, so he had to see a consultant, but they didn't have the results of the biopsy done in Bath so he had to go back next week. It is very worrying for all of us, Dad told Mum he isn't worried, but we would rather drive them there as driving when stressed isn't good. So we spent all afternoon mostly waiting, then stopped for a meal on the way back after which I was so tired I couldn't function and forgot to place my Riverford order in time!

So for the challenge - I had an idea on Friday that I would use Kroma on a box I had painted gold to give it an antique green crackle overlay, then to add an image, but when I re-read the Kroma instructions I realised it would take days to dry! Now it has dried it didn't really work and I think I put most of it on too thinly. So Projects number two and three, alter a watch box I found in the wardrobe when clearing out, and alter a sweetie jar.

I am showing you the end results of both, I am ashamed of the box, I spent hours on it and only when I looked at the photos could I see how awful it really is! 

You can see the watch box above, and I used cheap gold acrylic paint on it, which was a bit bright for vintage so...

I first added Rock Crystal crackle glitter by Tim Holtz, and some dabs of Tim Holtz crackle paint in old linen, and let that dry and crack. Then I applied some distress ink in soot colour to age the cracks, which worked better on the sides than the Lil Angel who ended up with a sooty fingerprint on her skirt, whoops, and her hair looks awful and unblended, when I thought it was fine, must get a magnifying glass or new glasses! I did add a bit of Crafty Ribbon's ribbon to the front., 

and a die cut (Spellbinders) poinsettia to the top with a gem in the center, and it is cut from pearlescent card.

I was happiest with the sides which I did first, using Poinsettia corner.

On the back I used the tree image and I clearly didn't paint the distress glaze over it properly because when I applied Distress Ink the poor nymph's legs ended up very sooty indeed. 

The front opens to reveal the original black velveteen inside of the box, I am thinking it would be funny to use it for a gift card, which would slot into one side of the watch slot. Poor Lil Angel ended up a  mess. I think the whole box is a total mess, nothing really worked but sometime it goes like that, just have to write it off to experience and carry on!

After that disaster I decided to share the altered sweetie jar I also make, using Winterville from Stitchy. I painted the brown lid gold, added the image which I had added some colour to, and sealed it, and tied on some glitter ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. I should have done this one first!

So if you have something to share with us at Quirky Crafts please do, so far we have only two entries that qualify for the top three, because no cards are allowed and all the other entries are cards!

WOYWW #234

I nearly forgot it was Wednesday again, and time to stomp over to Julia's den at The Stamping ground and proudly show your workspaces craft bomb sites , and visit some others (mainly more tidy ones).

Here is attempt number two at a hat for Kenny, from a free pattern I found via Raverly courtesy of  the talented and generous Sarah of Repeat Crafter Me blog, cute I think. This one is in Aran yarn, which I think is what Vanna's Choice is. I had to convert the USA stitches to UK ones, I wonder why they are different? Did the Irish immigrants of the old days get over there and forget what the stitches were called, or remember them but so vaguely they made a few up and changed a few? You can just see a corner of a swan doily that is waiting to be washed, once washed it needs to be pinned out to dry and in this weather not a great idea. I made it many many years ago!

 My first gorgeous model, chocolate ted had a head too big so it was bedtime bear who modelled here!

Sooty also modelled the hat, I think it is deeper than the owl hat that didn't really fit, this looks a much better shape so I am hopeful, it will be on it's way for Kenny to try in a couple of weeks, and if it fits I might make another one or two! The pattern goes right up to adult size, and the eyes were supposed to be buttons but on consulting a colleague who knows from experience, I crocheted some eyeballs again!

For Julia, I bought the box from the fish and chip shop where I saw them, it has never had fish or chips in it, I just liked it! Sort of thought about altering it, but I like it the way it is, at least for now (has been here a couple of years or three).

On the desk, I bought some EZ mount finally, from Paperartsy with a couple of small stamps and my first pot of Treasure Gold, and they sent me a freebie rubber stamp of a double decker bus, how cool and generous, thank you Paperartsy! So anyway, where was I, oh I know - mounting and cutting rubber stamps, but then they need putting away! I should be making Christmas cards!

Now I know I have a few people to return visits to for last week, I got round all the 7's, and a few of those folk who visited me and some favourites, then I got busy working on the Quirky challenge, and now sorting out next year's schedule (or trying to), contacting sponsors and waiting for replies so I can fit them in, and starting off next year's themes so we can get ahead a little for a change.