Quick catch up .....

Happy Wednesday .....
I think I made it before midnight!

Where has this week gone ......... it's nearly Thursday already ...... and what happened to November!!! Only 24 days to go before the BIG day that's all ..... help!!

It's all go in the old craft room too.  New Blog Challenges will be getting underway in the next few days.  I've still got Christmas cards to make ..... never mind write and send!  And, I've got a huge class to prep for next weekend.  The ladies are all getting very excited about this one ..... it's the last one of the year and it's going to be a busy one!!  More about that later.

Speaking of workshops we had a lovely one last weekend.  There was only a few of us this week so it was a little more relaxed shall we say ...... quieter too!!! (Sorry if any of my regulars are reading this ..... we did miss you!)

We decorated MDF baubles ........ very festive (there was even mince pies .... yum!!)
Here's a couple of the designs that I made to give them a little inspiration ......

The baubles and all the MDF shapes came from a company called Calico Craft Parts.  They produce fabulous wood shapes and craft items all ready to alter and decorate.

I used the large plain bauble shape as the base and then gave them the crackle treatment ..... a thin coat of white gesso ..... a layer of paint in a dark colour, for this one I used Ground Espresso Distress Paint. A thin layer of PaperArtsy's Crackle Glaze followed by a coat of Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Paint.

I love how this works ..... you never get the same results twice.

Once it was all dry I gave it a spritz with Perfect Pearls mist to give a nice shimmer to it and then added a little bit of texture paste over the top through Tim Holtz Speckles stencil.
You can just about see I added some fine crystal glitter over the paste whilst it was still wet for a touch of added sparkle ..... you can never have too much sparkle at this time of year!

I then painted one of the cute little reindeer with a brown paint and added glitter to his antlers before attaching him on to the bauble

I added a die cut sentiment ..... cut 3 times and layered, then the top layer was painted with a red pearlescent paint

Some festive foliage finished everything off ..... a few berries, some die cut and punched leaves and a mini pine cone along with a pretty satin bow.

Here's another version .... you can only have a little look at this one for now ..... all will be revealed later in the week on a Blog Challenge ......

Again .... I used the same techniques .......different shape.

We even decorated the back of the baubles ........ crackled paint again only this time stenciled with texture paste over the whole thing ...... this is so sparkly in real life

This was another option I gave them ..... I made this last year and I still love it.  The mistletoe is my favourite I think

Just look at all the detail you get in some of the shapes .....

These are great for hanging on the tree, but why not use them as gift tags.  Those special presents for the important people in our lives deserve an extra special gift tag!

Speaking of tags .... remember the 12 tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends event from earlier this month ..... you do, well, the winners have been announced today and guess what ...... one of my tags was chose in the Top Tags ....... yeah!! and one got an honorable mention too!!  Thanks guys .... it was a pleasure to be part of the event.

Thanks for popping by ..... especially if it's still Wednesday!!!
I'm off to bed now ..... an early start tomorrow.  I'm off into town with Lauren, lunch out then I've an appointment with the optician.  Nothing major, just a check up.

Cheerio until next time ...... see you in December!

Night night!

Sneaky peeks ........

Happy Thursday .......

And a Happy Thanksgiving to all my blog friends from the US ....... eat, drink and merry.  Spend the holiday with family and friends and have a wonderful day.  Sounds like a plan to me!

It's been a busy week this week ...... DT stuff finished and in the post on Monday.  The lovely Lucy and Sweet Poppy Stencils are back on our screens tomorrow.  That's Friday November 25th ...... on Create and Craft ..... at 11.00am.
Lots of new goodies to feast your eyes on and fab demonstrations from Lucy on how to get the most from your Sweet Poppy products.  Here's a couple of sneaky peeks of what went in the post .....

Something a little festive maybe ......

This one can be used for so many different occasions ......

And there's pretty florals too ......

I've also been busy prepping workshops ...... I've just got two left before the end of the year.  One this weekend, and a big one in December.

We're going positively festive this weekend .... well, with only 30 days to go before the big day, my thoughts are turning to this years decorations.  I've already bought some (just a few to replace the ones that Lauren has taken), and I've ordered new lights for the big tree.  It'll all be getting decorated this time next week!

With all that in mind, we're going to be decorating baubles this weekend ..... pretty little MDF ones.
The ladies will be using paints and inks, maybe a touch of crackle in there, There'll be reindeer and snowflakes, holly and mistletoe, and maybe the odd snowman or two.  Berries and pine cones, die cuts and gems, and lots of sparkle!
I've been busy making up some inspiration pieces for them ......... these were so much fun to make.

Traditional red and green colours

CAS design ..... love the mistletoe!

And here's a sneaky peek at a DT piece made for one of next month's challenges ........ this one's my favourite

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off into town later ..... yes, you guessed it .... Christmas shopping!
It's the start of our late night shopping tonight and the big Christmas lights switch on so it's going to be busy down there.  You never know if I'm still down there when hubby finishes work I might just get out of cooking this evening ...... tea out sounds like a good idea to me!

Cheerio until next time

Are you ready to Hop with the Happy Little Stampers .......

Happy Sunday evening ......

Yes it's Blog Hop time again ....... Happy Little Stampers have a fabulous new stamp release so we thought we'd showcase them all in a Blog Hop.

Six brand new stamp sets .... something for everyone, and every occasion ...... you'll love them!

By joining in with the Blog Hop you'll have the chance to win s $50 Gift Certificate to spend in the HLS store ..... WOW!!!
All you have to do is hop your way through the blog list at the end of this post, and leave a comment on each one .....  easy!
The winner will be drawn from all the names that leave a comment.  Make sure you visit ALL of the blogs to be in with a chance to win though.  The hop is open until November 28th so you have a whole week to visit them all.

So ....... new stamps to add to your collections ..... grab a cuppa, there's a lot to get through.
I've been paying around with three of the new sets, first up,  Especially for You  .....  a lovely set of stamps perfect for all sorts of cards

I love this large daisy flower.  A simple bit of masking to create some depth, and then add colour

Add one of the fabulous sentiments that also come in the set ..... lovely font

And a few sparkly sequins and dots of glitter glue to finish

Next up ...... Rainy Days ....... again great images and gorgeous fonts on the sentiments

Nice and colourful again ..... and a bit more masking .....

And a touch of glossy accents on the raindrops .....

Finally, my favourite set at the moment ..... Christmas Joy .... gorgeous festive images and some great sentiments ........ perfect for this time of year

Great for making quick and easy cards ......  I love these funky little trees

A simple way to add a bit of dimension ..... fussy cut one of the trees and attach using foam pads

Add a little bit of festive sparkle with a few dots of glitter glue .....

Another really CAS design .....

Layered up again to add a bit more interest

And of course some added sparkle.

And finally ....... that gorgeous poinsettia.
I love these plants and I always have to have a least 2, maybe 3 in the house for Christmas.  The sad thing is I can never keep them much longer than the end of December .... (sigh!)

For this design I started out by stamping the sentiment and the poinsettia onto watercolour card using Versamark ink, and embossing with a white powder

Next I spritzed the card with water and sprinkled red Brusho into the centres of the flowers and then spritzed again, quite heavily this time, and let the colour develop and spread over the card.
I mopped up the excess water taking some of the colour out of the background, and then repeated the process again, this time with a green Brusho trying to keep it to the leaves only.  I love how the colours blended on the background.

Once I was happy with the background I added a little more red Brusho to the poinsettias and spritzed again ..... finishing off by moving the ink around with a paint brush until I was happy with the depth of colour.

 

I applied more green Brusho to the leaves this time like a paint ..... mixed the pigment with water and applied with a brush ........ I love how this turned out!

You can see I've sprinkled Chunky White embossing powder over the top ..... another thing I like to do on my Christmas designs.  Simply sprinkle the powder randomly onto your design ..... no need to use a Versamark or embossing ink ....... and then heat the powder from underneath.   Because your're heating from underneath the powder stays in place ...... even without an ink!

I hope you all love the new stamps as much as the HLS Design Team do.  Don't forget to visit all the blogs and see what we've created using them, and if you leave a comment on each one then you could be our lucky winner of the $50 Gift Certificate.

Here's the list of all the participating blogs .......

Happy Little Stampers 

Kylie Purtell

Michelle Dees

Anita Bowden

Linda Walmsley (you are here)

Julie Beech

Jane Taylor

Laurie Schmidt

Valentyna Komisarenko

Carol Steedman

Susan Renshaw

Stephanie Lanzalotto

Neha Parab
Amy Siegler

Happy hopping folks!

Thanks for popping by ........ you next stop should be the lovely Julie Beech but don't worry if you get lost all the designers have the full list on their blog posts so you won't miss a thing!

Cheerio until next time .....

We're on the final day ........

Happy Friday evening ......

Drum roll .............
Welcome to Day 12 of the 12 Tags for Christmas with Loll and Friends

It's the final day of what's been a fabulous Blog event yet again and guess what ..... I'm the Guest Designer today ..... whoo hoo!!

I was thrilled when Loll invited me to join in the fun and be a Guest Designer again ...... of course I said Yes!!!  It's an honour to be part of such a talented bunch.

If you've been with me for the last week you'll have seen that I've been playing along each day ..... how could I not ....you know how much I love making tags.

So here's my final one ......

Inspired by a workshop I planned a while ago .......... one of my favourite techniques at the moment, white ink on Kraft card and then stamping in brown.

I started out by stamping the gorgeous Winter Lodge from Inkylicious onto the Kraft tag.  I used the Java Bean Dye Ink from Ranger and my MISTI.
I love using my MISTI with detailed stamps like this, no need to worry about getting it perfect first time.  Just keep re-inking the stamp and repeat as many times as needed to get the depth of colour, and the detail ... easy!

Next was the white ink ..... I used a brush to apply it around the edges of the tag, then I cut myself a paper mask to create some snowy hills in the background

I used a white gel pen to add the snow on the lodge and the trees ...... apply a little of the white pen around the edges and then use a water brush to spread the ink around.
Here's where the MISTI came in handy again ..... some of the white ink had gone over my stamped image so the detail wasn't as crisp as I wanted.  Because I hadn't removed my stamp from the MISTI I just put my tag back in position, inked up the stamp again and Voila!  perfect image.

I stamped one of the Clarity trees onto the side and embossed using WOW's Golden Pine embossing powder .... not sure it comes across in the picture but it's a lovely soft green colour with a hint of gold in there .... very pretty

I die cut the gorgeous reindeer from chipboard and inked him using Distress Inks.  To add a bit more detail I stamped some snowflakes onto him and embossed them in white

Some sparkly glitter on his antlers and a festive bow around his neck give him the perfect Christmas look.

I added a little festive foliage to the bottom .....

and some words to the top .... along with a sprinkling of chunky white Embossing Powder

And there you have it ..... all twelve tags done.

There's still time for you to join in with the event .... the linky is staying open until November 25th.

Thanks to Loll for inviting me to be part of this year's fabulous event ..... it's been a fun 12 days!

And thank you for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a fabulous weekend.

Cheerio until next time .......