12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

One of the key features of Tim's Day 4 tag was the facet with the snowflake design on it. Not having any facets, I decided to try fragments, and inked up a circle and an oval, and stamped and blotted as per instructions. It didn't work at all, so I cleaned the fragments off with blending solution, washed them in soapy water and dried them. I tried again and this time it worked. I decided to make holes in them with the Cropodile. Did the circle first. No problem. Did the oval next and managed to split it into two pieces ! Then I decided the circle was too big for this piece, so it was back to the drawing board, and I managed to produce the small oval that you see below. Success at last ! The only reason I can think of for the fragments not working first time may be that I used the heat gun on the AIs, and I didn't with the ones that turned out OK.

I didn't have any Christmassy paper, so I opted to have another go at the background I created for Tag One. I'm quite partial to a bit of glitz at Christmas time, so I rummaged in the bling boxes and then had a tug-of-war with kitty over the ribbony bits. At the bottom there are three rows of silver balls. Over the card there are five glittery star/flower shapes. At the top there is silver ribbon, plain and curly, a length of faceted silver balls, three shiny blue cut glass beads, and that fragment. Now that I am writing this, I have realised that the 'Dream' adage ticket that I inked with Faded Jeans, smothered in Rock Candy and set aside to try is missing from my picture ! Will add it tomorrow when it is dry ! The finished tag is really glittery. More so than the impression the photo gives.

To see lots more tags that people have created visit Artyjen.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 3

I loved making the background on this tag. The colours of the inks blended so well, so I shall be using this combo again. I also loved the effect of the droplets of water and of Tim's script stamp. The branch stamp is Artemio, and the bird is made as Tim made his, with tissue tape, grungeboard and Rock Candy Stickles. The nest is ribbon and fibres stuck with Glossy Accents. I would have been quite happy to leave it at that with a bit of lace, tinsel and ribbon as embellishments, but decided to try to complete the exercise and add the picture and flower too.

I was a bit stuck about what to use for the little picture, but while searching for the tinsel, I decided to tidy up the drawer where I keep my gift wrapping stuff. Of course this was paradise to a one year old cat, and she found the tinsel for me, and all the other strings, tapes and ribbons, and pandemonium ensued. Anyway I found some little old fashioned gift tags, and have used the picture from one here. I didn't want to use up all my tissue tape making the flower, so instead I used the two smallest flower dies, cut several of each from sheets of music, and coloured them with the green DIs.

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Day 2

For the second tag in Tim Holtz' Twelve Tags of Christmas I had none of the felt stuff. I thought of just putting the distress colours on with paintbrushes, but decided to experiment with some felt which has a synthetic content and is what I use on my alcohol ink applicator. I placed the felt on my craft mat which sits on top of a sheet of foam that I use when stamping. At first I used a bit too much ink and had to blot it with kitchen towel. However, the end result isn't too bad. I've put the felt in a plastic bag as Tim suggests in the hope that I can use it again. If it turns out that I can't use it, then it won't have been a very economical use of the inks, and I will just put it down to experience.

'Nollaig Chridheil' is 'Merry Christmas' in Scots Gaelic. The little tree is made of dark green glass. The 'baubles' are wooden beads painted gold and attached with eye pins to a jump ring. The inks are the same colours Tim used, and the tag looks bluer in real life than it does in the photo. Don't know what make the robin stamp is, but the other stamps are Crafty Individuals, Heritage Scotland and Tim.

First Tag of Christmas

Yesterday Tim Holtz started his 12 Tags of Christmas for 2010. For me it was a case of improvisation to have a go at Tag No 1 as I have neither the dies nor some of the materials that he used.

I used a Crafty Individuals chipboard house as a template to cut the shape from a piece of grey board (the back of an old paper pad) and ran this through the brickwork embossing folder. Thought the chipboard looked a bit brittle to survive the Big Shot. Used a CI picket fence shape as a template to make a longer stretch of picket fence out of the grey board which is more bendy than the chipboard. Have all the paints and inks, so no problem there, and I substituted Pearl Glimmer Mist for the Perfect Pearls spray. Under normal circumstances I would have had a rummage in the garden or hedgerows to find some twiggy bits for the tree embellishment, but as it's all under a foot of snow at the moment, I had to pass on that and I used some sparkly flowers I found in my box of tricks. Had to make my own version of the ticket. Surprise finds among my stash were the ribbon which was actually lying on the table and looks remarkably like the stuff Tim used, and I didn't know I had; and the little star which I also didn't know I had ! Have tried several times without success to get a decent photo to show colours and textures.

I've mentioned in a previous post my little friend, Robbles who turns up every morning when I am feeding the chickens, and helps himself to a few layers' pellets from my bucket. Since the snow has arrived he has appeared every time I'm in the garden and of course he gets something to eat each time. I've grown really fond of him so can never resist trying to get a few pictures.

Keep warm everyone. Get those woolly jumpers out.

First WOYWW of December

I'm up late having lost track of time trying to do a few more Christmas cards. As I'm at the stage of waiting for Stickles to dry, and it is the very early hours of Wednesday, and my desk will still look the same when I wake further into Wednesday, I decided to post now. So here's the desk with what I've been doing with a Kaleidacolor pad, Crafty Individuals stamps and Stickles. They don't look much at the moment, but I'm hoping that when they're dry, they will look good. I've already made some ATCs with a similar design.

I'm still loving the tiered basket I showed you last week. You just lob stuff into it. How do you like my puss cat on the top shelf?

He's heavy and clunky and made of metal bits and springs.

Speaking of felines, Charlie is tucked up in bed after having spent quite a lot of time outside in the cold and snow. He's quite an old boy now and has a dicky ticker, so was very brave to be out. He's had a lovely snooze all evening long.

You may have noticed some puncture marks and a tear in the bed. These were caused by Daisby (posh name Daisybelle), Charlie's housemate, who routinely transports said bed up and down stairs. Daisby has another habit which, I confess, I do find very touching. When she wants to play, she brings me her toy of choice. Now I do have to say that on the two occasions when I have found her standing over me, toy in mouth, at 4 am, I haven't been terribly touched. Nor am I particularly happy when some object clatters on to the dinner table just as I'm about to take a mouthful of food. However, it is now a matter of routine, morning and evening, that the little princess brings to me her current favourite toy to instigate some play. When it's the squeaky mouse or the miniature teddy bear, I oblige by throwing it across the room and Daisby retrieves. It is quite satisfying as she places the toy in front of me, and there's none of the fighting for it that you get with a dog. However, her recent favourite toys have been creatures attached to elastic attached to sticks, and these you have to swing and swish and swirl while she leaps and pounces. I'm sure you will appreciate that it is not something you really want to be doing while rubber stamping. However, I have now contrived to do this by hurling the whole kit and caboodle - toy, elastic and stick. Of course, she dutifully retrieves, but it gives me just that bit longer to do the next stage of my inking and painting. Here's her latest favourite toy - with a festive theme and with glittery paws, and bells on. I had to buy Rudolph Reindeer only last week, as its predecessor, Skinny Cat, fell apart through excessive use.

And here young Daisby is, rushing to bring me the retrieved toy. I do apologise for the poor quality of the photo, but this is the best of the bunch. She's so fast that either she doesn't appear in it at all or she's just a blur.

Well, I mentioned snow at some point and we'd been promised it for the past week. It finally started last night. Now it's still autumn. You can see that from the beautiful colours of the leaves on the trees outside my front window. We expect snowy wintery photos to show leafless trees.

It has snowed steadily all day, but very lightly, so it's not horrendously deep. More snow is forecast, and I'm all stocked up with logs and provisions, and Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas is about to start, so bring it on. Happy Wednesday all. I'll look out my window over the fields while I ink and paint and stamp and stick.

All these ramblings and the mention of WOYWW mean that you need to connect with Julia's blog to find out what it's all about, and have a good old snoop around other peoples' work spaces.

WOYWW 77

Push back and pile high is a technique many of us use to reclaim a bit of desk surface to work on. Well, how's about this for a way of being able to cram more on. For some time I'd fancied having one of those tiered wire basket sets, and now I've got one, it's just brilliant for chucking stuff into. It can be stuff I'm currently using or stuff I need to put away. Of course, we all know what could happen. The whole lot could collapse under the weight of accumulated stash. For the moment it lets you see a bit of bare table and what I'm currently doing.

On the left is box with a drawer in it. I made it at our stamping club last week from card covered with paper, and I did some stamping on the top. It is now waiting for further embellishment and to have some ribbon attached as a handle for the drawer. I've also been playing with dies, making frames and rosettes. The frames are for photos in my yearbook, and I'm hoping to incorporate rosettes into some of my Christmas cards and gift tags.

For the opportunity to have a nosey round a multitude of crafters' desks, zip on over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog. Happy Wednesday.

CCC 22 - Alcohol Ink Splatter (in autumn !)

I love this technique on page 52 of the Compendium of Curiosities. I first tried it when I found a can of air on special offer at a local stationers, and am hoping to use it again to make some Christmas cards, though I fear there may not be much more air left in the can ! CCC is my favourite challenge, and I am hoping that when we have got through all the techniques, Linda at Studio L3 will have devised a way of letting us do it all again, or Tim will have produced another book !

I wanted to make a snowy icy Christmassy page using blues and pearl and silver mixative. However, when I got to the stamping stage, you will see that I'd been a bit heavy handed with the silver mixative in places where I wanted to stamp.

So back to the drawing board, and time to try a design for a Christmas card with different colours and this time some gold used more sparingly.

As we're well into November now, and even though I am still enjoying the autumn colours, I have let myself start to think about Christmas and got my box of festive stamps out ready to start on cards. We've had lots of disgustingly wet and windy days, but these have been interspersed with beautifully clear dry sunny ones.

On one recent walk to enjoy the autumn colours, when I climbed over the wall at the top of my garden, three sheep were staring at me, but two decided to make off.

Then the third turned her back on me and strode out across the field which is strewn with fallen oak leaves.

Here there are oak, hawthorn and holly trees. A couple of frosts towards the end of October started the turn of the leaves on the deciduous trees. Some oaks have lost their leaves, which I think have mostly ended up in my garden !

On some the leaves are brown and look golden in the sunlight.

On others they are still mostly green and clinging on to life.

There are plenty of holly berries at the moment, but by the time I want some for Christmas decs, the birdies will have devoured most of them.

We lost many of our old oak trees in the Great Storm of 1987 when they blocked our road for two days while local people worked with a chainsaw to remove them. The devastation was indeed a sad sight. But there are lots of young oaks growing.

When I first saw this young oak uprooted, I felt very sad.

Then I took a closer look, and realised that it still had roots in the ground and was very much alive.

What were limbs now appear to consider themselves trunks and are reaching for the sky. An amazing sight. What will happen? Presumably at some point their weight may prove too much for the root system, but I guess if it does succumb, it may not be in my lifetime !

Another tree common in this area is the silver birch. The sunlight in this one drew my attention and admiration. A real metallic look: the silver bark and the golden leaves.

From the field there is a fine view of mixed woodland where it is so peaceful to walk.

More autumn scenes.