Going Crackers

Late again Mrs J!!  There's such a lot going on at school at the moment, what with Christmas Productions just around the corner and costumes and props still to  finish off - I've come home and either fallen asleep early or carried on with scene making!

So, consequently I didn't manage to get my project finished in time to get it on the Midweek Magnolias blog before it went live this morning.  Our theme this week is Starlight, Star Bright, and we want to see at least one star on your project to be in with a chance of winning that fabulous mystery prize from Magnolia in Sweden.  My fantastically creative teamies have put their talents to great use and come up trumps yet again to produce some amazing projects and they would love you to pop over and see them!

I have used another of my own 'retro-vintage' papers on this handmade christmas cracker which I have filled with sweeties and am donating to the school Christmas Fayre this weekend.

The children are all asked to make a cracker and bring it in for the Cracker Tombola stall and I love seeing them all spread across the tables and the huge queue's of hopefuls waiting to buy a ticket.

I'm also showing it off as my #2 offering at Tilda's Town for their Anything Goes theme this week.

Please pop by the blog and give my teamies a big hug for all their hard work!

Thanks so much for popping by and have a great week - wrap up warm, there's an icy blast heading our way in the UK!! :o) xx

A Vintage Christmas

 

I am feeling verrrry Mondayish today - and cold!!  And then they tell me it's about to get colder?  Oh No!  This is all the excuse I need to stay indoors and create though, and this weekend I have been getting digital to create my Retro-Vintage card which I am showing off in Marvellous Magnolias for their Non-traditional Colours theme and Tilda's Town for their Anything Goes theme.

 

This card came about after I'd seen some gorgeous retro-vintage cards, crackers and gift tags at my local garden centre and I was immediately whisked back to my own childhood.  I stood gazing at them for absolutely ages, pondering on whether or not to go spend.  However, being a crafter, you can't help think "Hmm... I could make that myself!".  So I came home and parked myself at the pooter for a couple of hours.

 

First I took the image which I had previously coloured with pencils, and I scanned it onto my pc.  Then I played around with some photo-editing software and came up with this 'Vintaged Tilda'

Original image                                     Edited image

Next I took the edited image and played around re-sizing it and created a digital stamp with it.  I then made the background paper in Craft Artist and stamped the image all around it.  After that I printed out the sheet and used it as my background paper.  Here is the finished card:



The whole thing is mounted on Kraft Kard which I think gives a wonderful Retro/Vintage look.  I didn't stop there though - I was so proud of my efforts I went on to make several more with some of my other images, and I had the best time ever creating this card with non-traditional Christmas colours!  I hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!  Hope to see you back soon! :o) xx

Something that flies!

Argh!!  I hate being late with DT posts, but unfortunately life did it's usual trick and got in the way of my pooter time, so I'm afraid I am late posting my offering for this week's Delicious Doodles project based on the theme "Something that flies".  As soon as Teri released this magnificent image, I couldn't wait to get colouring on Angelique!  Isn't she just the most stunningly gorgeous angel you ever saw, and I feel so priviledged to be one of the first to get my pencils on her!  Here is what I created with her:

Once again the bg paper is my own creation which I made using one of Teri's gorgeous Snowflake images.  You can't really tell here but her wings are covered with gilded flakes - here is a close up before I played around with the image:

After that I got crafty with Craft Artist.  I took a b/w outline image and erased everything but the wings, then overlaid them onto the scanned image to produce the 'feathers', like this;

 

Hope you like!  Please find a few moments in your hopping to pop over to Delicious Doodles to see the other stunning creations that my uber-talented teamies have made, and if you would like to take part, then we would LOVE to see you!

 

Hope you're all warm and dry wherever you are, and looking forward to a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!  :o) xx

Brrrr....!!!!

Oh my goodness, it's a frosty one this morning!  Perfect weather though for turning the fire on, making a hot drink and cosying up with your favourite craft!  And it also gets me more in the Christmas Spirit.  I am very much a traditional Christmas gal myself.  Pinks and lilacs don't work for me at Christmas time - everything has to be Red, White, Gold and Green - my tree, decorations, lights - everything!!! 

My creation today is based on those traditional colours and I made this Bauble Card:





I used this gorgeous image that my lovely friend Suzi sent me because I'm very poor at the moment and on a total new stash ban!  Boo!!  (please feel free to sympathise!! LOL!).  The idea is very simple.  I had this tag top die for absolutely aaages, but I haven't yet found a proper use for it, and then yesterday, I suddenly had one of those Magic Moments when the idea to use it as a bauble top came to me, and I got creating!  It does open as a proper card, but I won't be sending this to anyone as tbh, I was foolish to use Pritt Craft Glue (the liquid kind!) which sets rock hard (good thing!) but made the cardstock buckle (not a good thing!).  So I've done my best to photograph it without showing off it's little imperfections!

The bg paper is one of my own which I am very proud of and happy to share if anyone thinks they can find a use for it!  If you do use it though, I would love to see it on it's project, so please let me know! ;o)

The pointsettia's are all Marianne's Dies and the foliage is from Tim Holtz's Festive Greenery strip!  I've finished it off with some Stickles and Liquid Pearls.  Edwin was coloured with my pencils



Hope you like!  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm showing my 'bauble' off at

Marvellous Magnolias - Traditional Christmas Colours
Tilda's Town - Anything Goes
Magnolia-licious - Use Stickles

Well that's my lot for today.  Youngster has got the first Harry Potter film on the telly and I am going to go and make us some hot choc and snuggle up on the settee with him!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week and keep warm! :o) xx

Oh Christmas Tree!

 

Are you ready for Christmas yet?  I wish I was!  I love Christmas, it really is my most favourite time of the year and I really, really want to get making stuff but other things keep getting in the way and i can't seem to get round to it!  My head is fit to burst with ideas, but I could do with having about a fortnight at home, on my own, no hubby, no kids....  I'd be sorted in no time!

 

Anyway, over at Midweek Magnolias this week our theme is O! Christmas Tree - or is that Oh Christmas Tree! ?  I can't decide.  Here is my card:

 



This is my first Frame Card - bit fiddly, despite what anyone will tell you.  Not sure if I would do another, tbh!  The bg paper is Bearly Mine Designs and the image is one of Michael Powell's (LOVE this stamp!!!).   this reminds me of one of my own stamps that I made back in 2008 , though I have to confess I do much prefer MP's:

Bimey, I can't even remember what I used to colour this in, though I suspect it could have been Prisma's and Sansador!  Give me my Faber Castell's any day! LOL!!

Well, if you have a few minutes to spare and you want to be incredibly inspired, I would highly recommend popping over to Midweek Magnolias and taking a sneaky peak at their gorgeous samples - you WILL want to play along, I guarantee, especially when I tell you that you will be in with a chance of winning a fabulous mystery prize from Magnolia themselves.

Thanks for popping by and have a great week!  :o) xx

Remembering......

Delicious Doodles Challenge this week have set the theme "Remembering" and I thought that using Poppy would be a beautiful and slightly different way to highlight this very important weekend.

Thank you for stopping by :o) xx

Pssst.... There's a new kid on the blog!

Ooooh, you can never have enough Magnolia challenge blogs, and there's a new one just started yesterday!  Marvellous Magnolias are the latest addition to blogland and they have a fab DT with the most wonderful inspiring samples!  Their first theme is Anything Goes (always a good one to start with!) so I am going to join in the spirit of things with this card that I made today:

 

Right at the beginning of the week I started out with the best of intentions and began sorting out my Craft Room (guess what, it never got finished!!!)  Sometimes it's nice to just go for a rummage because I found a huge box full of these tapestry stamps that I've had for years but tend not to use.  So I brought them all down and have been stamping away like mad with them and this is what I created with this Christmas set.  I stamped out the first wreath and cut it out, then I stamped a second larger wreath directly onto the card and mounted the smaller wreath over the top using foam pads.  I added the darker berries on at the end using a copic pen.  Cute Tilda is coloured with pencils, though I didn't spend half as much time on this one as my previous offering!

 

Well, all that remains is for me to wish the girls at Marvellous Magnolias the very best of luck with their new blog and I look forward to their future challenges!

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!  :o) xx