Santa's sleigh

Just wanted to share with you the great cake my daughter baked. The main criteria was it had to be gluten free so that her father could eat it too. I think she's done a great job, just wish she could learn how to clear up after herself ;-)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving comments.

Hoping that next year I'll be more productive and not accidentally delete those valued comments instead of the spam ...... doh!

Tim Holtz giveaway

Please click here for full details.

Metal Flower Christmas tag

I made this flower at the October Artsycrafts event and thought it would be great on a Christmas tag, I didn't realise that the middle layer had swivelled around a bit when I took the photo but I'm sure you get the general idea.

To see more metal flowers visit Lin Browns Blog.

Matchbox Advent Calendar

I set the challenge to make a Matchbox advent calendar.

This consists of 24 matchboxes - surprise, surprise covered in paint, paper and distress ink, then accented with stickles. The base and top were made from chipboard painted, spritzed with glimmer mist and rolled off gesso then topped with prima flowers.

Too good to miss!

Charmed Crafts has a fabulous blog candy of 72 Copic Markers, check out the details here

Artsycrafts part 3 The Flower Frame

The Flower Frame in Citrus Sorbet colours. The colours in real are cooler tinge more with lime. The frame measure approximately 50cm x 20cm.

Sorry to break this down into 3 parts but it's the only way I can upload it.

I'm looking forward to the next event in February.

Thanks everyone for a fantastic time. xx

Artsycrafts part 2 Book of Wisdom

Book of Wisdom in Peacock Feathers colours this one has loads of gold glimmer the camera didn't catch it all!

Artsycrafts part 1 Shadow Box

Shadow Box in Cloudy blue colours.

I'm loading these up individually as my internet is too slow for anything else!

Hallowe'en Canvas

I set the challenge to make a Hallowe'en styled canvas, I had several ideas of what I wanted to do for this but this simple canvas really just evolved from the moment I got the acrylic paints out.

I trapped a skeleton in the spider's web in the recess part of a canvas and add a few spiders (I don't think the camera has found them) so I made a double sided canvas.

Forum Birthday Card

I made this card for my forum friend Carrie, using one of my favourite stamps from Paperbag Studios on a distressed ink background. The base flowers I brought back from holiday and topped them with Prima flowers. The background paper is from Graphicus. Hope you liked it Carrie.

Happy Birthday Steve

These 3 cards I made for my darling hubby, from my mum, daughter and me. The flash has washed out the colour. I've tried to keep these as simple as possible for him incorporating his favourite colours, black, gold and green. His hobby of fishing and love of cars. Toilet card is a private joke between him and our daughter ;-)

Old Jewellery Box

I thought I'd show you the battered old jewellery box that Steve found for me at a car boot sale last week. Today I've removed the old veneer, fittings and then given it a good rub down. I'm hoping to get this piece finished over the next week or so.

Tag for Chris

Here is my final tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Chris who chose the theme of children/childhood. I've used Tim Holtz and PaperArtsy Dies, Prima flowers, a feather and dewdrops to embellish this tag. I found the little girl image already cut out hiding under some papers on my desk and can't remember where she came from, the background is a wrinkle free distress and crafty notions spray and stamped using distress inks. Hope you like it Chris.

Tag for Joanne

This is my eighth tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Joanne who chose the theme of children/childhood. The background is a wrinkle free distress and crafty notions spray and stamped with a variety of stamps using distress ink and also a touch of sparkling embossing powder and a scattering of dewdrops. The main image is a Paperbag studio stamp coloured in with Promarkers. Hope you like it Joanne.

Tag for Penny

This is my seventh tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Penny who chose the theme of Sea. The background is a wrinkle free distress with a touch of added blending using distress inks and crafty notions spray. I was inspire by a section Katsushika Hokusa famous wave, this one is made from silver TSS metal and black and white gesso plus glimmer mists for colour. The sand has been created out of Terra with tiny shells added. Hope you like it Penny.

Family Matters

8x8 double page journal - titled by my daughter.

Happy Birthday Kaz

My good friend Kaz couldn't make it to the ArtsyCrafts weekend ran by Leandra and Lin, due to Volcanic ash. I made her this tag using the same size of tag and some of the techniques we used making the Secret Garden. Another time moo x

A close up the texture.

Tag for Deb

This is my sixth tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Deb who chose the theme of Quotes. The background is a Blended Batik using distress inks the quote says "Thank haven for little girls". Hope you like it Deb.

Shabby Chic Technique & Flowers

I set the forum challenge for May to use the Shabby Chic technique from Tim Holtz's book "A Compendium of Curiosities" and flower(s).

I love how the grain from the wood still shows through this making it look even more distressed.

ArtsyCrafts Sampler and blog candy reminder

Here's the technique sampler. This is my favourite piece of the weekend , the one that we had to make a colour choice for, I'm so please how it's turned out after a bit of water drama one of the corners ended up in a very goopy mess! I didn't have the right stencil or colours of Inka Gold to do just that one corner so I cleaned off two corners repainted the board then used a mini mask and the Old Silver Inka Gold (we all loved this versatile colour) which I coloured using mica powders. Then it ws just a matter of arranging the tiles and metal pieces onto the board, again I'm really happy that I decided to put this together at home I doubt very much that I could have salvaged much otherwise.

This was truly a wonderful weekend, shared by so many like minded people and a fantastic team. Due to their hard work and professionalism they made it the most amazing weekend ever. Thank you.

Quick reminder about the blog candy on Leandra's blog, you'll find it here.

ArtsyCrafts weekend - Secret Garden project

Here's the Secret Garden project, I'm really glad that I had decided to put this together at home. The tag and background on the tag got severely damaged by water leaking out of a bottle, I very nearly started the background again on a new chipboard tag but firstly wanted to see if I could salvage the original. Having the right stamps certainly helped and also Crafty notions white matte spray. I had to glue the layers of the chipboard back together and then sort out the background on over a third of the tag. I'm really pleased with how this has turned out it's very close to how it originally looked.

I've still have the main project to blog but I need to decide how I'm going to repair the damage on the background canvas.

I would definitely recommend the ArtsyCrafts weekends to anyone. This is crafting at it's best! Run by Leandra and Lin who are both pioneers of technique along with their fantastic team of very able helpers. Thank you for a wonderful weekend.

ArtsyCrafts weekend - Birdhouse project

Now that the second ArtsyCrafts weekend is over I can show you the projects we made.

I'm starting with the last project as the other two still are in need of tweaking, due to an accident with a water bottle lid not being fastened properly. OMG when I took them out to look at I was so upset but all is not lost as you'll see in my next post.

As most of my friends know, I really don't do cute but I adore this. The top picture doesn't show the metal roof so I've included another with a glimpse of it.

Carrie's Tag & Blog Candy alert

This is my fifth tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Carrie who chose the theme of Quotes. Hope you don't mind a short quote Carrie. The quote comes from a TSS mould. The main background from a Sizzix embossing board plus a bit of freehand and TSS tools. I started off creating the background by using Black TSS metal, embossed it,then applied Alcohol inks,Black Gesso, Glimmer mists & Stickles. Both moths were created by using PaperArtsy's new dies, the purple one I also used TSS Mould and roller for the background and quote, then applied alcohol ink and rock candy distress stickles. The other one is stamped using PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1004 plus a little bling. Hope you like it Carrie and sorry for the wait.

Blog candy alert

Leandra has some fabulous PaperArtsyMega Goodie Bag give away on her blog

Tag for Audrey

This is my forth tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Audrey who chose the theme of Butterflies.

Unfortunately the flash has stripped out some of the colour it's pretty much the same colour at the top and bottom of the tag, somewhere in between the two. The background paper was slightly sanded and inked with Bundled sage and Broken China blue distress inks then over stamped with flourish stamp, The quote is a rub-on. I made the large hydrangea mop using lots of Prima flowers and the butterfly shape I spotted on a net curtain in a shop so had to buy it! cut it out, then wire it from behind and sew on a few beads. Hope you like it Audrey and sorry for the long wait.

Birthday Card

I've used a combination of promakers and distress inks to colour in this Mad Hatter image.

Hope you had a great day Alimoo! :o)

Blended Batik Technique and bird(s) challenge

I set the forum challenge for April to use the Blended Batik technique from Tim Holtz's latest book "A Compendium of Curiosities" and Bird(s).

I had great fun doing this and never realised how easy the technique is. I'll definitely be using it more often.

Birthday Card

I've used a combination of pencils, promakers and distress inks to colour in this Alice image. The Graphicus backing paper and image was mounted onto mirri card and couple of ribbons and rub-ons were used to embellish the card.

Tag for Carol

This is my third tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Carol who chose the theme of words or quotes. I've used part of a Tim Holtz stamp for the quote inside the Tattered Angels Butterfly chipboard shape which has been painted with two different colours of Viva Precious metal paints then filled with crackle accents. The lace has been coloured with a dye ink pad and embossed using a glittered embossing powder. Unfortunately I can't find the lead to download photos from my camera so this has been scanned. I'm glad to say that the flower has sprung back to shape after being a bit squashed. Hope you like it Carol and sorry it's a bit late!

Quote reads " Life isn't about finding yourself life is about creating yourself."

Spring themed Tag

Wrinkle free distress with a Spring themed tag was the forum challenge for March, which I set. Sorry I'm so late with posting mine girls I got a wee bit behind last month!

The letter S is embossed metal, I think the scanner has made it look black when in fact it's a bright shiny silver colour.

This also fits in with this weeks Tag You're It! theme of "On a bough" thanks for the reminders.

More birthday cards

Another two forum birthday cards and I've pinched their photos too, hope you don't mind girls.

The first was for Paula and the second for Joanne.

For both cards I was inspired by Tim Holtz, the first from watching one of his DVD and used the brushless water colour technique the second was from his fabulous book using the perfect distress technique. Hope you both had a wonderful day.

90th Birthday Card

Commissioned card for a 90th Birthday using Martha Stewart around the page punchs and butterfly punch & stamps on vellum.

A couple of forum birthday cards

Sorry, I've been a terrible blogger of recent. My poor old computer is on it's last legs and it seems to take a lifetime to do anything here.

The first card here is for Chris and the second for Galina.

These cards are a little late coming onto the blog there should be more over the next couple of days.

A tag with words

This is my second tag for a collaborative forum challenge.

This time I have made one for Jo who chose the theme of words or quotes. I've used part of a verse from one of the new TSS moulds, Cuttlebug embossing folder, TTS metals, Alcohol inks, Gesso and Glimmer mists to create this piece. Hope you like it Jo.

The words say:

A bird's little chirp can turn into a beautiful song as life comes and goes ten seconds long

Time tag

I've made this tag for another collaborative forum challenge. This time I have made one for Paula who chose the theme time or place. I've used Tim Holtz masks and distress inks along with PaperArtsy stamps for the background, the metal embellishment and the UTEE timepiece. Hope you like it Paula.

Snow themed tag

Snow is the theme and pale blue the colour for this tag swap. The background is made from metal and viva terra. The bird is made from pearl UTEE and coloured with stazon.

A couple of birthday cards and calendars

Birthday card and Calendar for Penny. Hmmmmm I should have checked the photos before sending off the Calendar is actually shades of purple not blue!

Birthday card and calendar for Seona