Christmas started..

Ok I'm a bit slow off the mark for Christmas so I did a couple of tags.





I used a Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas inspiration and cheated a little these cheapie reindeers from Poundstretcher. I used old paper distress stain all over the tag, vintage photo for grunge and pumice stone to darken the sky. I stamped and double stamped snowflakes in chipped sapphire and then spritzed with radiant rain in violet. I a bit of butchers twine and a bell to jazz it up.





The second tags had the same background but then I stamped the creative impressions winter wonderland stamp in jet black stazon. The black bow was from a friends bag of bits she let me rummage through ( thank you Helen). The ribbon in the top was sari off cuts from the wonderful LB Crafts. I feel as though I've started at last and think these tags will look great on my brown paper bags presents!

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Thank you!!

Another thank you to my Out laws.. the children visited them as well this summer and I wanted to try a Tim's technique that I had used on a challenge. My MiL crafts and I took some time. The visits to them are riotus and exciting so I went for bright colours and embossed packaung but simple words.The packaging was embossed with the cuttlebug stars embossing folder and then spritzed with bronze radiant rain on the wrong side then fixed with red star brads. I managed a one of Tim's rosttesm a mirale to this who know me!! I'm a bit heavy handed and usually end up with a couple of wiggly bits rather than a rosette.. chuckle.It was all finished off with a few words using my dymo.. a right result as my FiL would say!

All that fun and care!

I've got very behind on blogging my craft.. there was a slight hold up whilst my Sister collected a Thank you tag from the Post Office.. it took her 3 weeks and that was it all my good intentions went to pot whilst  I was waiting for her to see what I had made. This was another one that got held up. I made tags for oth sets of grnadparents that had the children over the holdiays. This was my Mum and Dads and I wanted to express that we know how much they love them. I distressed and tag it wild honey and rusty hinge distress inks then stamps the unity cow parsley stamp in faded jeans, stamping twice each time the get the depth of colour on the first and a lighter touch on the second.I masked the tag and sprizted with bronze ?? rain. I liked the idea of hearts and stamped shrink plastic with staz on in saddle  brown, cherry and teal and shrunk them (memories of shrinking craip packets flooded back!). The smaller tage was a luggage label found in the drawer and the wors well that was my wonderful dymo. I think they liked it... well it's still on the dresser :-)

My lovely man..

My husband took me away to Venice on our 10th wedding anniversary and as we have just had our 16th I thought I'd make him a tag to remind him of that magical week! I cut a tag out of patterned paper K&Co Blue Awning paper and then stamped the Gondolier, B line Design stamps in Staz on saddle brown ( a bit of a favourite of mine) and distressed the edges with Tea Dye. It needed a little lift so I glossy accented to the waves in the water just to highlight the movement. I have been intrigued with stamping on fabric and decided to have a go with a bit of lining fabric from Ikea stamped with Unity Stamps "Remember" from their wonderful Beloved - Be still collection. All finished wff with an offcut of silk sari ribbon. I was very pleased with it, simple but said what I wanted!
I'm entrying it into the Simon says stamp and show one colour challenge.

Boo!

I felt I needed something to get me going on the craft front and a challenge or 2 seemed a good place to start..plus the children want a Halloween party so the challenge of Halloween at Crafty Boots and Trick or treat at Sunday stamper went down a treat..chuckle sorry no pun intended.

I made a double stretch of bunting using some Basic grey paper, June Bug - apron and another geometric paper WUBE retro rhythms cardstock. For those who know me I love different patterns together - spots and stripes florals all the lot!! I suppose I don't like to do whats expected of me?

I used the Sizzix scary cat die and Pumpkins 3 to cut the embellishments, fished around in my button box for some metallic buttons for the centres of the Tim Holtz rosettes and used a lot of vintage photo ink round the edges of the pennants. The pumpkins had their stalks coloured in and stamped with one of Tims flourishes. To give them a bit of deepth I glossy accented the stamp lines to make them shine.

I have recently purchased the Papermania "Alphamania - leftover alphabet" and stamped Happy Halloween. The children love it and it is hanging pride of place in our bay window. Note to self imossible to take a photo into the light! I thought I'd finish off with a tag to keep for longer.. Same process, the request now from Lilli is some Happy Birthday bunting ready for her birthday in January!! off to pick some paper. Boo!!

A wish for my friends..

I have the most amazing bunch of friends and some of them craft. We share that joy of a stolen hour to let our creativity run riot..
When the Grungy Monday challenge 19 was about Tim Holtz's re-use of packaging I though immediately of the Stars cuttlebug embossing folder "wishing upon a star" fitted perfectly with the Sunday stampers challenge.

I cut a tag using Tim's wonderful large tag die (get's well used in my house!!) I decided on a bright theme and used Wild Honey, Victorian Velvet and Tumbled glass distress inks. I used my "friend" Stampin up background stamp for an all over background. The packaging technique was fun and I love the idea of using it at Christmas for snowflakes etc.. I wanted it to stand out a bit more so I wiped Peony ecoGreen crafts acrylic paint over it. The sentiment stamp was from Dimension Fourth and said what I wanted and hey who can resist the dymo now I have one (I've wanted one since I was a kid!)

I need the challenges to make me squeeze my craft into my week, I am really grateful for the help so thank you to all you challenge setters :-) They give me inspiration and a deadline. My tag is really for all those friends that craft or have a special something you want to fit in, I wish for you more time and joy!

A house full..

We have had a house full of friends and family. For the last 10 days I have had at least 2 extra guests every night.. this I love but it leaves little time for crafting so this morning I snuck (very quietly) into my craft room and played with some steam punk charms and chain and a few cycles of memory wire. The de-stressing was almost immediate :-)