Another week whooshes by ......

Happy Friday ......

It is Friday isn't it ....... this week seems to have gone by so quickly, I'm not quite sure what day of the week it is!  I'm looking forward to the weekend ....... let's hope it's a quiet one (as if that's going to happen!)

Let's turn the clock back a little shall we ...... to last weekend, when it was my November workshop. I've just realised I haven't shared the projects with you.
We were playing with Distress Inks, and the fab new Distress Oxides, creating Galaxy Backgrounds and winter skies. Surprisingly, we didn't get as messy as I thought ..... aprons and the odd pair of gloves were worn by some.

Jennifer McGuire was the inspiration again ....... check out her blog/video for this technique and you'll be hooked too!

Distress Oxides applied with a brush onto watercolour cardstock ........ spritzed with water and dried (left hand piece below)

Black Soot DOX  onto a craft sheet and spritzed with pearl mica powder then applied over the top of the colour using the acetate smoosh technique (right hand piece)

Same colours of Distress Inks applied directly from the ink pad on to watercolour card, spritzed and dried as before (left hand piece)

Then black soot spritzed with mica added over the top (right hand piece)
By applying the ink directly from the ink pad you get a much more intense colour .....

And the Black Soot Distress is more black than the Oxide version ...... love it!

Here's some of the inspiration pieces ......
Simple white embossing looks great  ......

How about a cute design ...... stamps are by Clearly Besotted. 

Love these little aliens .....

Here's one you've seen before ...... using the inlaid die cutting technique ......

We also created the good old simple night sky using just blue shades of Distress Ink ........

and then flicking water over the top to remove some of the colour.  I also added a few drips of pearl mica to give that starry look

And we had to finish with a Christmas card ....... still love this little guy!

A few stamped and embossed snowflakes gives a real festive look

There's one more workshop to look forward to this year ..... the preps been done, everythings ready

Looking forward to this at the beginning of December ......

Speaking of December ..... not long to go now.  I'd better make a start on those Christmas cards!
We've almost finished the Christmas shopping though  .... well the big stuff anyway. What did we do without the internet!?
I've made a start on the festive food list too ..... don't worry it's all hidden so we won't be tempted to eat it.  I just have to remember where I've put it!
And town is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  The festive lights in Douglas switched on last night.

We took the little man down there to see it and he loved it.  Especially when it started snowing! 

Although he was quick to tell me that it wasn't REAL snow ..... it was just bubbles!!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.
I'm hoping for a quieter week in the craft room next week ..... I've a bit of catching up to do.
I've been Santa's Little Helper this week, creating this little lot ......

A ticket system for Santa's grotto at the Poker Stars kid's party

All hand painted and decorated tags ......... fronts and backs

I hope this gets me on the Nice List!!!

Cheerio until next time .....

STAMPlorations are guesting on the 25 Days of Christmas Tags with Tracey McNeely ......

Happy Wednesday .....

Welcome to Day 22 of the 7th Annual 25 Days of Christmas Tags with Tracey McNeely

It's so exciting to be part of this amazing event.  

I'm here as part of the TAGplorations team from STAMPlorations who are today's sponsors.

For my tag I've used the brand new STAMPlorations Sketchy Yule Trees along with the CUTplorations Tags #1 Nesting dies

I cut my tag from Kraft cardstock and stamped one of the trees across the bottom and heat embossed in white

The sentiment is from The Christmas Reindeer stamp set from the Bee's Knees range at STAMPlorations and I used a stencil along with some white texture paste for the snow, sprinkled with crystal glitter to add a touch of sparkle

I stamped the same tree again, this time onto white cardstock.  I stamped it 4 times, heat embossed in white, and fussy cut them, cutting each one down following the layers so that I could decoupage them and add a bit of dimension before attaching it to the tag using foam pads

All of the trees were colored using ZIG Marker pens and I added a few dots of glitter glue for the decorations

To finish off I added a strip of scalloped cardstcok across the bottom of the tag

You can see the rest of the STAMPlorations Design Team's Tags over on Tracey McNeely's Blog today.  Have fun with the challenge and Happy stamping!

I'm also linking this tag up to the 12 Tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends.  

I've missed playing along each day but at least the linky is still open so I can squeeze this one in before the deadline.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

It's back to the Santa project for me ..... it's taking me a while!  Hope I end up on the Nice list this year!

Cheerio until next time ......

It's TAGplorations time .......

Happy Tuesday .......

I hope you're enjoying your week. It's another busy one in the craft room, although I'm not actually working up there .... I've taken over the kitchen, to complete a rather large project for Santa.  Yes, it's that time of year when I'm one of Santa's little helpers ....... more about that later!

How about a little more inspiration for this month's TAGplorations Challenge over on the STAMPlorations Blog.

The theme for November is All About Gratitude ....... with the optional twist of polka dots.

There's a few of my favourite techniques on this little tag ..... inlaid die cutting, hidden words, ink splattering and, rubber stamping of course.

I stamped the pretty STAMPlorations Blossom Spray #2 onto a white tag, cut using the largest die from the CUTplorations Manila Tag Nesting dies

I then used the CUTplorations word die ... Thanks and die cut the word down the length of the tag.  In places I've only used part of the die, cutting over the edge to get a more random look
When I reached the bottom I made sure to cut the word 'thanks' in full ...... the die fits across the largest of the manila tags perfectly!

I die cut more of the word from plain white cardstock, layered them with the ones cut from the tag on top, and then inlaid them back into the tag, giving the look of embossing.

You can see I also cut the word from a piece of  dotty card which I found in my stash and layered this on top of the complete word at the bottom to add even more dimension.

A little cut off strip of the dotty card adds a bit more colour, and I finished off with some coloured ink splatters

.
There's still time to play along with the challenge. Just remember that your project must feature a TAG on it somewhere.
There's prizes up for grabs ..... a $10 gift certificate for the winner, and $5 gift certificates for the top 2 picks.

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your day.
I think I'd better go and scrub my hands and put on some clean clothes.  We're going out for something to eat this evening and I'm currently covered in red and green paint and I'm sparkling just a little bit!!!

Cheerio until next time .......

Welcome to 12 Tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends ..... Day 11

Whoo hoo! .... hello again

Welcome to Day 11 of one of my favourite Blog events of the year.  Yes ......Twelve Tags of Christmas with Loll & Friends is currently underway .......

When Loll invited me to be one of her Guest Designers again this year I immediately said Yes!
It's always a pleasure to be part of this fun event ....... and you all know how much I love making tags!

I'm loving Kraft card at the moment and I think it goes so well with white to give a real snowy look.

I cut my tag and heat embossed in white, some pretty snowflakes onto the background .....

and then added some texture paste through the Tim Holtz Speckles stencil .... I love using this to create the look of falling snow.  I sprinkled the texture paste with fine crystal glitter while the paste was still wet to add a touch of sparkle

White ink around the edges, applied with a stencil brush, finishes off the snowy sky.

I die cut some white card stock with the CUTplorations Stitched Snow Hills dies and layered the pieces onto the bottom of the tag, stamping and heat embossing the sentiment in gold

I finished off the tag by adding a beautiful die cut snowflake .... cut from white card and glitter card, layering them together to add dimension ...... isn't it pretty!  I think it's a Memory Box snowflake but I'm not sure ..... I haven't got the packaging!!

A simple white pearl in the middle adds the final touch.

I hope you're enjoying the Tag event as much as I am.  There's been some amazing tags created by Loll and her Guests over the last 10 days and it's not over yet.
There's still time to play along ....... just create a mixed media Christmas tag, any size, any style, which includes rubber stamping, plus two mixed media elements ..... that can be mixed media products or techniques.  Go on ...... join in the fun!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
I've been busy prepping a workshop today for the weekend ..... we're going to be playing around with Galaxy Backgrounds ....... it could be a messy one!

Cheerio until next time ........

Warm hands ..... Warm heart

Happy Thursday ........

I'm back!!!  and I thought last week was busy!! 

Welcome to the first of two posts today ....... first up it's time for a little more inspiration for this month's STAMPlorations CAS Card challenge

Anything CAS goes with the optional colour twist ....... and this month, that's BROWN

I think Kraft card is about as brown as I get!  

This was so quick and easy to do ...... great if you're like me and still have all your Christmas cards to make ..... well, nearly all of them!  

Both the winter mittens .... how cute are those! 

and the sentiment, are from the STAMPlorations Warm Hands, Warm Heart stamp set.

I've simply stamped them onto Kraft card and heat embossed in white, then coloured the mittens with Prismacolor pencils.

This is a great little stamp set, cute festive images and great sentiments.  There's also a co-ordinating set of dies too so if you don't like fussy cutting you don't need to, the dies will cut out the images for you.

I added a sprinkling of chunky white embossing powder ......

and finished off with a little bit of faux stitching around the edge

Told you it was quick and easy.

Check out the STAMPlorations blog for all the challenge details, and you'll also find more fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team on there too.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

It's been all go again this week although to be fair, Monday was a write-off.  We only got back on the island at 5.45AM!  so I just went straight to bed, and didn't wake up until after lunch.  

And I did go AWOL yesterday ..... it had to be done, one of my crafty friends is having a BIG birthday this weekend (Happy Birthday Gill!) and she's away, so we all had lunch with her yesterday and got the celebrations started early.

I will share more about my weekend away once everything has settled down a little ...... though I will just say I had a great time on the retreat ...... and it was nice to catch up with the family too.

Cheerio until next time ........ you won't have to wait too long!