Where did the time go!

I am off schedule with my christmas posts (lots of things going on here)  - I meant to blog this before now - better late than never I suppose!

Designed for a class at Forget Me Not Kraft Kabin in Rochford, its a 20cm board canvas - a sampler/patchwork of lots of this years christmas stamps and my go to christmas mini JM07.

A fun project - these look great framed (Ikea frames are a perfect and inexpensive option) so can be brought out each year.

ho ho ho

Frosty the Snowman....

... isn't quite the snowman that you might expect... he's feeling a little under the weather....

The tickets/labels on the this panel make me chuckle - this snowman probably dreams, hopes and wishes he had a head (in its apropriate place!)

The canvas in painted with Baltic Blue and Sky Fresco Finish paint, touches of snowflakes (seems apt!) and Metallic Glaze.  The punches are Martha Stewart (LOVE that big snowfake)



AND:

Thank you so much to everyone who has posted a message, or tweeted me, or emailed me about the stamps - it is so nice to get feedback and messages.  Its all been very exciting - the stamps sets are going far and wide- as far as Australia and Japan!! 
So, thanks very much for taking the time, I really appreciate it... and I hope if you've bought the stamps (or won them!) that you are having fun with them.

Yours festively

Christmas... part 4...

The temperature is definitely dropping, and all the leaves are falling off the trees (which is keeping Mr JoFY and his newly acquired leaf blower busy)(can't get my head round that - he's basically hoovering the garden isn't he! lol) so Christmas is on its way - confirmed by hearing 'last christmas' by Wham! played in a shop - that's how I know its christmas!

Here are the last of my Christmas samples. First up is another Cabinet Card pennant:

 this time I embossed the pennant (made from mount board) with the Sizzix 'starry night' embossing folder (see this post for more details.. or just scroll down - its in 'christmas part 2'), coloured with distress inks, distressed with water, added a bit of bling with 'frosted lace' stickles - gotta love those for subtle accents of sparkliness!  'frantage' embossing powder around the edge and I covered the big iron work star (under the rosette) with the same - love that embossing powder! So much so that I applied it to the edge of the rosette too - blinging it up!  It is christmas!!

So the pennant is a bit distressed but the next sample I made is more shabby chic but without much shabby! lol 
This sample is just.. erm.. well.. hhmmm.. pretty, yep its pretty.  I wanted to do something with the rosettes other than sticking them onto something and so I made a hanging decoration:

The main rosette (slightly larger that the die made rosettes- this one's made using a Martha Stewart scoreboard) is made out of Tilda double sided paper - such a pretty spotted paper - lovely soft blue. Its topped with a book text rosette & another ironworks star/snowflake (I'm getting a lot of use out of these dies aren't I lol)

On the other side of the rosette is the pretty rose print, all the fixings of the rosettes are hidden by another rosette, and a Martha Stewart snowflake - bought last year & I still love it!
All blinged up with stickles and a self adhesive gem!

Pretty!

This is the decoartion from the side showing the layers of rosettes:

Once our tree is up - scheduled for the weekend - I'll take a picture of it on the tree....

I'm off to watch my youngest nephew in his Nursery's play - he's 3yrs old and very cute - I may require tissues....  Its all getting very christmassy!!

Wrap up warm and have a nice day..

PS before you go - maybe you could help me - I'm putting together a 'christmas alphabet' any suggestions for the letters v-z??  Please leave any suggestions in the comments! Ta muchly in advance  :o)

PPS - Just a reminder: 100 followers or over on this blog by 2012 and there will be a give-away!! 
I'm just going to mention this every so often, not every post, or it'll start to sound like nagging! lol

Its beginning to look a bit like Christmas!!

On the first Saturday of each month The Craft Barn has in-shop demonstrations and this month I was providing one of them... I had a lovely day, lots of lovely peeps came and watched the demos - bought the products I was demo'ing which was great - but in the afternoon it meant that it was as much an improvisation as a demonstration! lol
Here are some sneak peeks of my samples - a few of the originals will go to the shop...

Lots of techniques & products on these - Rosettes - created with Tim Holtz die (I think I've mentioned before how much I like these! lol); Distress Inks (antique linen, frayed burlap, weathered wood, black soot); dry embossing - with Sizzix folders - these give a really good deep impression; die cutting - Spellbinders - great flourishes (love); and wet embossing - covering the die cuts making them look like metal - this effect was achieved using Stampedous 'Fran-tage' embossing enamels in 'aged silver' and aged black (which is a really lovely colour.. we're talking reeeeeeally nice! (& so is the 'aged silver' judging by how fast it sold out!)

Thanks to everyone who watched the demos, I hope you were inspired.  Demo's wouldn't be the same without you!

xx

Paper Engineering, Part 1: Me, Martha & some sheets of paper....

I love a bit of paper engineering - I find it relaxing (when it works!) - the methodical manner in which the pieces are cut and pieced together..
a couple of weeks ago I tweeted this:

I made it using the Martha Stewart 'party crafting template' a great tool which gives guides for cutting the individual pieces - no measuring - LOVE tools like that - its not that I'm a lazy crafter but if there's a tool that makes life/crafting easier then I'm interested!
This star was cut from one of my favourite papers - My Minds Eye - spots on one side and typed text on the reverse - LOVE! and I love how the star turned out - much nicer than the similar star that turned up on the front of 'Making' magazine the following week! lol (in my opinion anyway! lol)
The star measures 16inches top to bottom - I'm going to make some in a single colour to go on the christmas tree - I know 16inches sounds big for a tree decoration but the tree is 7ft tall, and it'll look great with these wooden snowlake decorations that we already have:

I think they're about 8-10inches - I really like big ornaments on a tree (as well as the little ones) statement pieces!

New Classes at Imagine That Papercrafts...

I'm teaching these two new classes at Imagine That in Upminster in February and March....

Butterfly Dreams:
03 February 2011 : 10.30-12.30
05 March 2011 : 10.30-12.30
25 March 2011 : 10.30-12.30
Card making class, with distress inks, stamps, and a bit of sparkly stuff!

Winter Joy:
03 February 2011 : 13.30-16.30
05 March 2011 : 13.30-16.30
25 March 2011 : 13.30-16.30
Making a gorgous (even if I do say so myself) scrapbook waiting to be filled with lovely christmas moments - die cuts, stamps and sparkly stuff (well it was christmas it would be rude not to have sparkly stuff!)

Call the shop to book a place.  Hope to see you there!

Winter Cottage...

In my first post of the year I mentioned projects, & said I would show you... & I haven't (sorry!) ... well now I am!
Better late than never.... here is 'Winter Cottage'... it was a while in the making 'cos ...erm .... well... other things took precident.... & I couldn't decide how to finish it... blah blah blah

... on the bright side, & with a view of excellent planning (ahem) I've started the decorations for christmas 2011! :o)  I'd actually finished it before christmas but I kept adding bits to it, taking them off, adding them again ... generally faffing about with it really!

The cottage is quite small (as normal!) about 12cm tall.. & created with all sorts of dies (Tim Holtz' snow flurries & paper rosette; Quickutz scallop border) & punches (Martha Stewart snowflake)(had a lot of use out of that punch this christmas! lol) There's also a liberal sprinkling of 'frosted lace' Stickles ... snow snow snow

Christmas cards...

...this year's cards are sooo simple - in previous years they've been stamped, sewn, embossed (dry and wet),  but this year I've gone for a 'less is more' approach! - I was a cats whisker away from buying cards to send - shameful I know! shock, horror! Simple was the best way forward.
I  really like the papers by My Minds Eye and the Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is Hero Arts.
I did consider stitching around the paper squares but remembered that I was on a deadline, and have a longish to-do list before christmas and so no stitching will be involved this year! ("Jo, put the cards down and move away from the craft table")

I love the traditional, slightly Nordic, feel of the cards... I love a bit of Kraft card stock.

ho ho ho

oooh baby its cold outside... so I've been staying in and making stuff....

I'm in Essex and I realise we don't have half the amount of snow as the rest of the country - yesterday on my way up the garden to feed the birds I stuck a ruler in the snow, when M told one his colleagues (based in Pickering, Yorkshire) how much snow we had the colleague scoffed a little & said "call that snow we've got 3ft's worth!"  !!

Ooh I'm glad I'm in Essex!  lol

but it looks like it warming up if these are anything to go by:

and below is the mother of all local icicles (from neighbours guttering) which is getting longer as the day goes on, thankfully its not anywhere that people could be walking under as it could do someone serious damage! (as anyone who has watched Grey's Anatomy knows! (remember Christina & the icicle!!) ouch!)

and one more snow picture:

small spiders web - I tried to find bigger ones but with no luck..... I wish I could remember where I saw a photo of spiders' webs on traffic lights - very cool - on someone's blog -sorry I can't remember who's it was (EDIT: it was Angela Weimer's blog! - go take a look: http://pagesbythesea.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-begining-to-lok-alot-like-christmas.html  its a really great picture...)

Aaaaanyhooo, enough about the weather...

I made this for M, its an advent thingy-ma-jig and each little box contains little notes or treats.  Made out of matchboxes and coasters, its small- measuring just under 10x10x10cm. The little boxes' labels work as a tab to pull them in & out and text was created on the PC. 
Papers are My Minds Eye, snowflakes are Nestabilities and Martha Stewart, ticket stamp is Purple Onion.
I'm pleased with how it turned out but next time I'm going to use sturdier and bigger matchboxes! lol

(if you want to know how to make one of these look in back issues of Craft Stamper (I'll look back when I get a minute and let you know which issue).

Banana Frog Blog Hop

Yesterday I didn't think we'd see any snow down here in Essex - I was wrong! Yay!  ...Though the snow might get boring very quickly - I think OH is bored/fed up already after it took him 2 HOURS to get to work - it normally takes 30 minutes! ouch!
So I think this months blog hop is going to more of a blog sledge & ski trip - so wrap up warm and take a look around... just follow the links...

So here's my card featuring the lovely Rudolph from the 'Its christmas.. deer' set - love that stamps - I always think Rudolph looks like he's had one christmas sherry too many! lol  The background is stamped with 'Retro Snowflakes'

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop - and don't forget to leave comments along the way - there'll be prizes!!

Next stop Lori : http://lovescraplife.typepad.com/il_mio_weblog/ where she'll have something lovely to share with you..

Enjoy & keep warm!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!...

Here's a pretty tag I made with things that came in the post last week - making a tag lets me quickly use new 'toys' ahem sorry, craft equipment.  Snowflakes are Martha Stewart Scandinavian snowflake punch (large) lovely, lovely snowflake (and it looks like these are the only snowflakes I'm going to see - our area of Essex seems to be the only part of the country that doesn't have snow - humph).  The blue panel is a Tim H punched tag embossed using one of his embossing folders - love those!

There's an acetate tag peaking out on the right handside (sanding picks up the embossed design), and some scallop edged cardstock 

Its christmas and glitter is expected, no - its an essential requirement! I really like glittered chipboard but it can be a bit of a pain when the glitter ends up EVERYWHERE! But I discovered the solution (and duh! how could I not have realised/used this before) when I went to Imagine That on their birthday weekend..... STICKLES!!!!  Emma had covered a chipboard Eiffel Tower in stickles and it was soooooo lovely! I can't believe that I've only use stickles to dot accent things! Oooh so much more to do (and cover!) with stickles! (or any glitter glue for that matter)  Pretty!!
So I glammed up a chipboard 25 (sizzix dies) with Stickles. Lush!

I think duck-egg blue & pale gold are going to be my christmas colours this year - on a white tree....

November!

A pinch & and a punch for the first day of the month! by that I mean a pinch of embossing powder and a Martha Stewart punch - of course - what else could it be?! {chuckle}

The pc is now mended - yay - though after the tower was fixed the screen died! ......

So, I like a tag, or several, they're great for using up scraps from the desk, or testing out new stamps and/or techniques - whatever the reason - I like tags!! (and now I've bought Tim H's big tag die I'm liking them all the more because I can cut them out of all manner lovely cardboards, acetate, paper etc etc etc - the list could go on!

This tag was created with a plain luggage tag & a piece of leftover corrugated cardboard - love the HotPicks PaperArtsy stamps : the flower head is from HotPicks 1005, long 'branches' 1008, & words are from HPXT04.  I liked how this turned out - especially as I am continuing to embrace yellow (if you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I'm really not keen on yellow but now I coming around to it)(when I find the photos I'll show you my recent ArtsyCrafts project - lemon&lime!! bring it on!)

You'll have to excuse the wierd angle of this photograph (in the folder its landscape oriented but on screen Blogger seems to think it would look better portrait! gggrrrr) aaaanyhooo - I wanted to include it to show two level of black image stamping - I stamped the long branches, dried them, and then stamped the flower heads & added embossing powders and heated.  I liked how it made the flower heads 'pop' as they are now 'shiny'. (you can just about see that in the photo - tilt your head to the right.....)

Edit:  I altered it in Photoshop - yay for me! lol - see you learn something new every day!!

This tag is again using a parcel tag & another piece of leftover corrugated cardboard - there's a lot of that on my desk at the moment! lol  These dimensional paper flowers are all over crafting projects at the moment - I think this is first/second one I've made and they're really easy to make - though to glue them in future I'm going to use hot glue.. Leaves are PaperArtsy dies, the loopy border strip is a Martha Stewart punch (punching atlas paper) and the wording is a Tim H stamp.. oh and there's a little Sizzix flourish die in there too.. & some distress ink, silver versacolor & a scrap of book text....

Take care

enough about cakes how about a nice cuppa...

... its more about a nice cup actually - how cute is this cup that I bought in Primark the other week - too cute - they put these things in the racks along where you stand in the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge queue!  I love it - its going to sit on my desk providing somewhere to keep the camera and my mobile phone out of paints way.  I love the retroness of it.

So the mug inspired me to make these cards - the one of the far right was M's valentine card.. I couldn't decide which way to spell 'pair / pear' so in the end I left the picture to do it!  Lots of Kraft card stock, and my new favourite punches make quite a few appearances on these cards.

I particularly like the tall slim card on the right of this picture - all the little elements... its got a bit of everything going on - cuttlebug, text, nestabilities, stamping, buttons, sewing and of course more punching from my new favourite sets!  The stamps are from Hero Arts and the paper is Lemonade from Basic Grey.