Jingle Your Own Damn Bells

Good morning and happy Monday. We're continuing with our Christmas in July theme over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground and I've made some fun Christmas coasters.

Yes, I found my old box of kitchen tiles at the back of the garage so out they came to play. I painted them with PaperArtsy Fresco's then added some stencilling in white, all ready for the stamping!

Don't you just love this zebra! He's from a Katzelkraft set which can be found here in Dot's shop. There are three stamp sets used here, Jungle Animals, the Accessories, and Noel Keep Calm. I made a bit of a rookie error on this one. I edged my words with a black Sharpie and then varnished my tiles. Of course, solvent varnish on top of a solvent pen equals smudges - Doh! Now I'm not going to say I'm glad it happened, but I don't think it looks too bad. In fact, if I hadn't told you what had happened you would think it was meant to look like this, so forget I said anything!

 Here's everyone's favourite Grumpy Penguins who have been teamed with hats and scarves from The Accessories, and a Stampotique sentiment.

Here's Gangnam Christmas Style, I'm not fond of the words in that order so I stamped them out and chopped up and re-arranged.

And last but not least, here's my Christmas Donkey! He's from the Farm Animals set. Do you like the crackle? I don't know how it happened. It had the same Tripple Thick varnish as all the rest, but this one crackled. I don't mind, I think it looks quite nice.

I must admit these did make me smile when I saw them, but they're all packed up now ready for Christmas. Of course, I'll lose them way before then, and find them again sometime in the New Year lol.

Have a very happy day whatever you are doing, and thanks so much for looking x

Stay Calm, It's Christmas In July

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Today I'm over at the Ink Art Designs Stamping Playground with one of my favourite themes, Christmas in July. I've made a couple of fun cards and matching envelopes.

I received these fab Katzelkraft stamps from Dot on Monday, and my post was due today, so I knew I had to stamp fast lol.

I made the envelopes first, these are cards that I will be hand-delivering so there's no need for a real stamp. I think Sherlock looks very sweet as an angel.

I stamped him on my stamping platform and left him in place while I coloured him with my Prisma pencils. I love Prisma's on kraft card. When I'd done I re-stamped to add the detail back.

And these are the cards. The footprints stamp is a Visible Image one that was in Craft Stamper years ago.

I've added a few sequins and some snow - real of course!

You can find lots of Katzelkraft and other fabulous stamps here in Dot's store.

I'm entering my cards into the ABC Christmas challenge where this month N stands for No Fuss

Have a great day whatever you're are doing, and thanks very much for looking x

Year One Before and After

Good morning and happy Friday. I'm really happy to be sharing the second piece that I made for this month's Country View Crafts challenge. I chose 'Do More Of What Makes You Happy' for my theme. Many things make me happy in my crafting, such as bright colours, and stamping, but this has neither of those. I also love to take classes and learn new things, and to make things that I know (hope) the recipients will love. 

This was made after a Clare Charvill online class. It's for my son and his partner. They have been in their 1st home now for a year! It's gone by so quickly, and although their house was ok to move into, they've done wonders with it already.

I made a couple of brag books and a box to put them in.

The box has been made with papers from Studio Light. The key and number 3 are pieces of Tim Holtz hardware that I've had for years, and the fence has been made with a TH Edge die.

 This is the side of the box. The tree is a die-cut from Art By Marlene, and the cat is my furry grandkitty.

 We spent 3 weeks before they moved in,  painting and cleaning, etc. It was hard work but fun and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I drove everyone mad snapping away on my phone, but I knew that I wanted to make an album of 'before' pictures.

This is the day they got their keys. I'm not showing any more photo's 'cos we don't look our best lol, but you get the idea. The albums are 6x4 so I've just trimmed a little of the edges.

Chris's partner has her own Instagram page with lots of photos of their house which I've 'borrowed' for her album.

So I hope I've inspired you to do what you love, (in a crafty way, not bank robbery or anything like that) and share it with us at Country View Craft.

Take care, have a great week, and thanks so much for looking x

Do More of What Makes You Happy For Country View Crafts

Good morning and happy Wednesday - welcome to July! So this month the restrictions are being eased again, and life should hopefully feel a little more like normal. Except for queueing at Primark, that's not normal! And don't get me started on leaving all the litter on the beaches, what is wrong with people!!
I must admit the longer that lockdown has continued the less I have gone out - even when I could. We are very lucky, we have a lovely garden (thanks to Neil) but I could easily turn into a hermit. The virus has made me see that life is very precious, and you never know what is around the corner, so we should all do more of what makes us happy, hence my choice of theme for this month's challenge at Country View Crafts.

I do love to take crafty classes, and as that has been a no-no, I've taken quite a few online and watched lots of Youtube and Facebook tutorials. 

This was my Dad's Father's Day card from last month and was inspired by a tutorial on the Graphic 45 blog by the amazing Gloria Stengal. She makes such beautiful things and makes it all seem so easy and do-able. I'm a stamper and have never made an album or anything like this, so it was WAY out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed making it, and Dad loved it too (phew)

I scaled everything up from the tutorial as I like an 8x8 card, and I wanted to keep the photos to 6x4.

This is the front, it's taken from one of my favourite collections, 'Kaleidoscope' Don't try and make me choose between this and 'Ocean Blue'  The only problem is the spelling of colour/color but it just looked wrong when I covered this bit up, so I gritted my teeth and left it alone.

 This is what you see when you lift the cover. They are papers from an 8x8 pad and ephemera cards. There is a selection of G45 goodies here in the store.

 The photos just flip out and are stuck down with photo glue so they can be taken out and changed.

 All of the photos are selfies on my phone and mostly from holidays, so I seem to be on most of them. You think a photo is just a photo until you need to use them in an album or a card. Then you realise that a)some are landscape, and others portrait. b) You never get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. c) The camera adds 3 or 4 chins/stones, and d)someone always gets half of their head chopped off!

 More photo's on the back, with a very rare one of us all from Christmas (it's a few years old now). My Dad is always photo-ready - that's definitely not something I've inherited from him, I'm the one that's squinting, sneezing, or just looking like a muppet in general.

This is the very back page with another ephemera card, I've also written the greeting here.

There's also a little video here showing the grand opening. I was doing the filming so I've not suddenly developed hairy hands. We had a great system, I would elbow Neil on the head and he would turn the page!

So I hope you join in with our challenge and show us what you love. Take care and have a very happy July xx