It's Gonna Be A Blue Christmas...

Good morning and happy Monday. Well we've spent the last 2 days getting the Christmas decorations down from the loft, and turning our house into Santa's grotto. It's not that we're slow (though I am) but that every year there's something new to put out. Last year we bought Christmas bedding for everyone - changing 3 beds in 1 day is not my idea of fun! 

Anyhow, here's my second piece for the County View Crafts Christmas challenge. Speaking of CVC, you must check out their legendary Advent sale, there are fabulous bargains to be had everyday until Christmas.

 Don't look Mum and Dad, 'cos this is your Christmas card!

 I started with a Gelli plate background then added lots of Tim Holtz stamps.

 I love this Tim Holtz Thinlit's die - this is how I would write if I hadn't been bitten by a spider as a child!

 Ok these bigz dies may be old, but I love them. The Bigz and Edge dies cut through anything, and just 'cos it's old stash doesn't mean that it shouldn't be used, so there! The deer and trees have been cut on chipboard and patterned papers so they really stand out.  I had to give my deer some tinsel scarves, cos as Noddy would say It's Chriiiiiiiistmassssss. Right, now I've planted that song in your head I'm going to step away...

I have to say, I really like this card, and now that I've done one and I know where everything fits it would be easy to stamp and cut a few - maybe next year...

I'm entering my card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge Anything Goes.

I hope you like my card, and join in with our fun challenge. Have a very happy December, and thanks very much for looking x

Noel for Country View Crafts

Good morning and happy Saturday - welcome to December. I know that I say it all the time, but where did this year go! So what could the December challenge at Country View Crafts be??? Yep, you got it!

There are many stamp companies that I love, but I have to say that no one does Christmas quite like Tim Holtz, and I find myself coming back to old favourites year after year (and buying new favourites of course)

 I started by making two gelli prints, one in pink, and one in blue. The pink one looks red in the top picture, and you'll be seeing the blue one in a few days.

 I stamped Tim Holtz trees from an old Christmas set using Distress Oxides. I also added some script. I liked this but it looked a bit in your face.

 So I toned it down a little by adding some white gesso spatters, it really makes all the difference.

The Noel stamp is also from an old Tim set. I added a black layer and stitched it onto my base card.

I did say that I was using my old favourite, I've had these Bigz dies for many years. I've cut them out on chipboard and added patterned papers.

And here we are, all done. Neil always says that I should make a few of each card, but I never know how a card is going to turn out until it's done. Now I've made the first one though I know that I could make a few more, but where's the fun in that lol.

I hope you have a very happy December, and thanks very much for looking x

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Good morning and happy Wednesday. I'm back with my second Christmas themed post for Rubber Dance, and as we've had wrapping paper, I thought I'd better make some gift tags to go with it.

Brrrr it makes me cold just looking at these!

I've used

Dear Deer

Cosy Christmas

Whimsical Winter 

Winter Wonderland and

Christmas Tags

 along with lots of fake snow, and real glitter!

I hope that this has put you in the mood for Christmas, 'cos it's not many more big sleeps now!
I'm entering these into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Gift It, and Stamping Sensations  Getting Ready for Christmas challenges.

Have a very happy day, and thanks for looking.

Christmas Wrapping For Rubber Dance

Good afternoon and happy Monday. I'm just like busses, nothing for weeks, then two posts in two days. I've just returned from a lovely (and very long) holiday in the sun and we're straight back into Winter. I'm sure it wasn't this cold when we went away! It's just as well that the Rubber Dance colour/ theme challenge this month is Christmas. Here's some wrapping paper that I've made.

I've been wanting to make wrapping paper for ages, so I got a sheet of A3 kraft paper and set off stamping. It's all been coloured with water colour and sparkle pens, and I have to say that this looks better in real life as you can see all the lovely sparkle. Whoever gets their present wrapped in this better take it off carefully lol. That puts my son right out of it as he gets straight in with the ripping (yes he does get that from me!) 

I've used

Cosy Christmas

Frosty Friends 

Winter Wonderland and

Christmas Tags

The Rubber Dance store is closed at the moment as the lovely owner Bibi is having some problems with her hand. Once it's up and running again dont forget to quote SDFreeShip on any orders of 15 Euros and above.
I'm entering this into the Happy Little Stampers Christmas, the Stamping Sensations Getting  Ready For Christmas, and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Gift It challenges.

Have a happy day, and thanks very much for looking x

I See You Baby Take 2

Good morning and happy Sunday.

Country View Crafts have a fun challenge of Artist Trading Coins until the end of this month, and here are some more that I've made.

 I started by cutting my coins with a die then stamping and embossing my funky fish. I've coloured the background with these distress inks and added some bubbles with Mod Podge.

 I LOVE these  Zinski stamps, they just make me laugh!

Anyway back to the coins, when the Mod Podge had dried I coloured the fish with Posca pens.

Just look at this guy, his face is soooo funny.

Now I know the challenge was for coins, but I'm right in the middle of  birthday card season, so I took the opportunity and turned this one into a card (it was given the day after I finished it lol)

I did enjoy making these, and I hope you like them too. Have a fun week, and thanks very much for looking x

A Little Crazy

Good morning and happy Thursday. Can you believe it's November already! It's also time for our 'Summer' holidays. Since we retired we've had our holidays in November and spent the Summer at home and boy was I glad that we did that this year. So the 'kids' are in charge of the house, which means a mass tidy up the day before we're due home, and a mega full washing basket!

We have a new challenge at Country View Crafts and I'm sure it will be a very popular one as it's the latest craze Artist Trading Coins. 

 My mini crazy cats and dogs have been stamped and cut out (thank goodness for these Framelits dies) and then coloured with Tim's Distress Markers.

Now I do love coins for coins sake, but sometimes you just need a card! I stamped my white card with the mini crazy accessories, and coloured with the Distress Markers. Just look at all that white space, it's quite frightening!

Then I just added the coins, and the sentiment from my 'go to' Tim set. And there we are, a card made with hours to spare lol.
I hope that you join in with our fun challenge,  I'll be off the grid for a few weeks, so I'll catch up when I get back.
My crazy animals are joining in with the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp
Wednesday.

Have a happy November, and thanks very much for looking x

Ho Ho Ho

Good morning and happy Wednesday. I've been making some more Christmas cards (yes I did say the C word again) for the latest PaperArtsy 'stamping platform' challenge. 

 I started by cutting some gelli plate prints to the size that I needed.

Then I arranged the stamps on my  Tim Holtz platform and stamped a couple of times. 

Once the ink was dry, I coloured them with Fresco paints while the print was still on the platform. Luckily these dry really quickly, so  as soon as the paint was dry I re-stamped to add the detail back in.

Then you just pop in another background print and repeat. Yay three more cards for the Christmas pile! These were fun to make and I guess I'm now officially in Christmas mode.

Have a happy week, and thanks very much for looking x

Only 65 To Go...

Yes that's right, only 65 days 'till Christmas Day! Hey don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger lol. Seriously I haven't done a thing about Christmas yet so I thought it was time I made a start!

 I don't normally do batch making as I get really bored doing the same thing, but only 65 days and all that AND PaperArtsy have a new challenge which is to use a stamping platform.

 I love my Tim Holtz platform, for me it means no more spoiled projects where I've miss stamped something. This time however I was going to use it for batch stamping. I've had some backgrounds made for ages from when I was playing with my marbling inks, so I cut them all to size, and chose my stamp set.

 I chose these bold sentiments to go on my colourful backgrounds.

I even stamped the envelopes, all in exactly the same place - thank you Tim!

All stamped and stuck and waiting to be sewn into place.

I love these happy cards, and I shall definitely be making some more. The only problem is Neil has been telling me to do this for years, and I would hate for him to be right (again)!!

As I'm typing this, the sun is blasting through, and it's a beautiful day - just right for making Christmas cards!

Have a very happy weekend and thanks very much for looking x