happy new year, and two challenges

The theme at Crazy amigios is "leaving the year with a splash" and at TMTA is "countdown", so I have made this ATC for both themes. I have used the spritz and flick technique with a distress ink background, I have also flicked some black paint on the corner.Tthose are the "splash" bits of the challenge.
The stamps are mostly by Paperartsy, although I'm not sure who the watch is by.

TMTA christmas

This is another ATC I sent into the craft stamper christmas swap. this one didn't get published, so I thought I'd use it for TMTA this week.

lots of things..

Twinchies


This is my entry for this weeks Small world of inchies and twinchies. Collage images and stamps are by Inka


PaperArtsy card

I had a strange urge to play with decorative scissors!

Easy Peasy gift tags


stamps by Inka, gold bit is a "zoomz", these are really the easiest tags in the world. Bit of double sided tape of the little folded bit and you are sorted.

last minute christmas presents


we saw this idea in the sunday times magazine. paint terracotta plant pots with blackboard paint (after priming), and plant with herbs, and write on them with chalk.
The black board paint is quite expensive but you can make loads with it

make a moo or two

the theme at make a moo or two is alice in wonderland. stamps by non-sequiteur and Tim holtz.

wednesday stamper : shoes

The theme at wednesday stamper is shoes, and I really wanted to use this quote which is a favourite of mine, you can't deny it's true!

The collage images and the stamps (except the alphabets) are by Inka

hearts

The theme at Crazy Amigos is Hearts. I recently took part in a collaborative project as a gift for my friend Audrey's wedding present which was organised by Carrie and can be seen completed here. Each contributor made four squares on a love theme in Jade and cream.
These four squares are my contribution to the project. They are are each 2.5" square. all images and stamps by Inka.

I am also entering this for Arty girlz, small art challenge

santa claus is coming to town

The theme at TGIF is Santa Claus is coming to town and the theme at wednesday stamper is Bows, so I've made this card for both. The santa image is from Inka, stamps are from stampington and Inka

a few bits from today

Another wine bottle tag, I was especially pleased when I found this snowflake stamp fit in my large snowflake punch. image and stamps by Inka

A card, images and stamps by Inka


A cute christmas card,not sure who the stamp is by, I borrowed it from Maddy.


And The Kids have been placing Tiny Amigurumi Bear in various small places for me to photograph. Apparently here he was trying to get into a christmas stocking but fell and managed to save himself by grabbing the hanger...

tiny amigurumi bear

I've been wanting to have a go at making an amigurumi creature for ages. I think they are so cute. There are loads of them on the internet, including loads of help and instructions. So here's my first attempt at a tiny amigurumi bear. (amigurumi came from japan and are creatures crocheted in the round.)

I don't think you can appreciate from this first picture how tiny it is, so here are a couple of me holding it.

little rabbit

I went to the stickyfixers club today, and Maddy showed me her prismacolour/whisper technique, but using my derwent colour soft pencils. I also used one of her stamps to stamp this image and had a play with the technique at home. I've made this for a little girls birthday coming up this weekend.

Tim Holtz Tag....

....well sort of!
This isn't actually anything like any of Tim's 12 days of christmas tags, but I was inspired by Tim's tags to go make something along similar lines. Most of the stamps and collage image are by Inka, but as an homage to Tim I have used the grunge alphabet in the background. This is an absolutely gorgeous stamp that I recently received as part of my prize for winning the craft stamper ATC competition (the prize was provided by The Fruit Pixie).

To make the flower I used Inka's mirrored poinsettia stamps, this meant that they did not line up when I place one on top of the other giving a more realistic effect.
since step outside the box saturday has the theme to do a "Tim Tag" this is my entry.
I just realised this fits with Saturday's workout theme as well

crazy amigos - keeping warm

A slightly unconventional entry to crazy amigos, but the theme is keeping warm, and what better way of keeping warm than curling up with a good book (in this case, Chocolat)and a scarf book mark. I got this brilliant idea from Marie Greene's amazing blog, and I decided to knit one for each member of my bookclub as a little christmas present. What could be more appropriate!

present wrapping

You can tell that I'm still at the stage of wrapping a couple of presents here and there, as I'm still making an effort with them. This is one of the presents that I need to post off. The base of the tag is some corrugated card from the packaging of an internet order. The collage image and "25" stamp are from Inka.

I picked up this gorgeous "parcel tie" from tesco today. it's like tissue paper raffia effect, in the most gorgeous shade of deep red, which I thought would work well against brown paper. (it's about £1 if you are interested and currently on a 3 for 2)

This Thursday it's all about..

...mistletoe and wine. that's the theme at the TTIAA challenge. I was a bit limited on wine theme images, and mistletoe come to think about it. but I found I had this wine label stamp from non-sequitur (all stamps of the same plate), and I hand cut the mistletoe, the zoomz bead looked just like a mistletoe berry to me. I have used this on a wine bottle, I find this is a great way to give wine as a gift, wrapping it in tissue paper immediatly makes it look more expensive, lol.

Best Day Ever

...according to my 10 year old son! 4 inches of snow, school closed and a friend round to play.What more could you want?

Tuesday's challenges again

Once again I am combining the Tuesday challenges, Crazy Amigos has the theme of gift tags, and created by hand has the theme green and red. I've used stamps by Inka (sally and crackle) and collage images from the christmas hats and christmas wings (on acetate) sheets.

santa postcard

The theme at theme thursday this weel is santa and the theme at sunday postcard art is winter wonderland. I've combined them in this postcard, which I have then mounted onto a 5x7 card. I know I should be working on the batch cards, but these ones are much more fun.
The collage image and stamps are by Inka (I've used the marble fleck stamp again, I see a recurrent theme coming on!)
The stitching on this is real as is the gingham fabric.

batch christmas cards

Yes it's come to that time of year when I realise that I need a lot more christmas cards than I've made, and the batch making starts.
I've used my lovely new star waste stamp from inka on these, as well as the season's greetings stamps. They are made on one piece of A6 card which folds to stand, but is flat for posting, hence prtecting the tree in the post.
I made 14 of these in half an hour last night. I have the stuff made out to make another 30-40.

snow arch

The theme at Gothic Arches is Snow. I'm using all these christmassy challenges to build up my supply of christmas cards. I've used a collage image and word stamp from Inka. The speckles around the edge are actually the marble fleck stamp I gave away in my blog candy. a very useful stamp.
The background is embossed with two different fiskars boards

mosaic angel

The theme at Saturday's work out is to use a mosaic tecnique. I used my inchie punc to punch squares from anita's black and white christmas pad to create the background. I stamped and embossed over this with my new star waste stamp from Inka (I think this may be my new favourite stamp).
I also used my silver spray for a bit more sparkle.
all stamps are by Inka

the reindeer are finshed

And happily residing in the grotto. From the furthest to the nearest meet Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and of course Rudolph.

musical christmas

I keep trying to tell myself that I haven't got time to make any cards this week, I have way too much on my "to do" list, but then I see a really inspiring challenge like Created by Hand's musical christmas theme, and I find myself in my craft room. Still I suppose one of the things on that list is making christmas cards.
The collage image and stamps are by Inka, I have also used a stencil to create the background. Don't forget the Inka Sale finishes in a few days and Inka has just released some gorgeous new stamps (see my sidebar for link and info)

tag card

I really fancied a quick bit of crafting, but I really haven't got much free time today so I decided to have a go at a sketch challenge. This is tag you're it's challenge this week.I decided to use up some of the Papermania papers I bought ages ago, I seem to have loads of them, but they were just too "in your face" so I decided to Gesso'em up a bit.

I don't like this tag/card very much, but at least I had a go. The angel and words are stamps by Stamps Away. I've had them for a couple of months and not used them. I thought it was about time i did.

strut your stuff

The other quote I thought of for this card was "I feel like chicken tonight!"
I love this image, it makes me smile. I made this Card for Karin's birthday. I was trying out the core-dinations cardstock, which has a complimentary core that your can reveal by tearing or sanding.
I am entering this for TGiF's Vintage theme.
The image and stamp are by Inka

inchie card

The theme at small world of inchies and twinchies is to make a card from inchies or twinchies. This card was very much inspired by the work of Cindy Lyles at Starlit studio I love Cindy's beautiful clean style and all of her work is inspiring, but most of all I love Inchie thursday, where every thursday she comes up with a beautiful way of using inchies.

after digging out my fiskars plates the other day, I also decided to dig out my very first craft tool, my fiskars shapeboss. that's what I used for the snowflake pattern. The snowman stamp is from stampendous

I am also adding this to this weeks inchy by inch challenge as the theme is snow

recycled reindeer

I needed to make some Reindeer for the school christmas grotto, I decided to make just the heads, so they could peep over a stable door, but where to start? It occurred to me that I could base the design of a hobby horse, and after much googling found an idea of making hobby horses out of old trouser legs. after a bit of adapting, this is what I came up with.
The theme at One powerful hour is recycled,so I am entering this reindeer

snowflake shaker card

The theme at Wednesday Stamper is snowflakes. I had it in my head to make a snowflake shaker card, so I had a go. However, I haven't made a shaker card in years and I really stuggled to line up the back, still I guess I'd get it with practise. I've used stamps from Inka, and my fiskars texture plate has been in use again.

I'm including a close up as the main picture doesn't capture the sparkle (darn these dark evenings!)

tuesday's challenges

The theme this thursday at Crazy Amigos is moon, and the theme at Created by hand is Christmas tags. I combined the challenges and used this moon santa stamp from Inka.

I've been admiring embossed backgrounds recently, but I really can't justify a cuttlebug (or whatever it is that your do them with). Then I remembered that I had these fiskars texture plates tucked away in a drawer, so I dug them out and voila! I think you'll be seeing alot more of them over the next few posts, now that they are out on my desk.

there is no ribbon on this tag, because it's too dark to take photos and my scanner doesn't like bulky things like ribbons.

altered CD challenge- christmas decorations

The Paper Girls blog held another competition recently. This time it was to alter a CD with the additional rule that you must add words from a magazine.

now I've never been much good at the altered CD malarkey so I decided to chop mine up and make it into 3 christmas decorations. I entered the main picture of all three in the competition. What you couldn't really see from this was that I had triple clear embossed the pieces and then stamped into the UTEE with snowflake stamps inked in white. so I have included another picture so I hope you can see this.

The collage images and snowflake stamps are by Inka and the words are taken from the John Lewis christmas catalogue.
As the theme at Mixed media monday is ornamental christmas I am entering it for that.

gothic arches

the theme at gothic arches is silhouettes, so I used my one and only lavinia stamp again. I also couldn't resist having another play with the fantastic thread technique from saturday's workout.