Happy New Year

Not long now before the clock strikes midnight and we find ourselves in 2014!

Thank you all for the visits & kind comments on my blog throughout the past 12 months, here's wishing you all a healthy, happy & peaceful New Year.

Time

It's time for the last inchie challenge of the year...and TIME is the theme, the hours are running for 2013 and 2014 is only just under 36 hours away now! I cannot believe how the year has flown by.

Here are my shares

A Moo that has been run through an embossing folder, inked with DI - I've then added some small time related squares that are from Paper Artsy

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3 inchies cut from card run through the same EF, the top one has a small stop watch added,

The middle ones have Tick & Tock added (Paper Artsy stamp) & the bottom one is an inked scrap that has been stamped with a watch face.

News

The good news is that we have Internet at the chalet....the bad news is that the landline no longer seems to work :-(

We've had heaps of snow since our arrival on the 19th and quite a lot fell on Christmas day, as a special treat today : we have sunshine :-D

As I'm in a poor position to do any crafting I will only be sharing occasionally and today it's a couple of birthday cards that are heading to the USA for my son in law & my stepson.

Merry Christmas

Snowy times here!

Merry Christmas everyone - hope you are all safe & snug at home :-)

Food

Another week has gone by... I don't know where to, but this year has disappeared at a horrendous rate!

The latest inchie challenge is food, of course! After all, is that not what we are going to be doing a lot of in the coming days?  So here are my latest inchies on the given theme :-)

Main course: chicken/turkey. 

I have stamped twice and coloured with promarkers then layered using foam pads

Then I moved onto dessert...

A mince pie & 2 plum puddings! All 3 are fussy cut from Christmas cards received in the past and they have been lurking in my stash!

Merry Christmas to you all, hope its a good one... Mine is a white one here in the alps :-D

Joy

Joy....it's Monday! No, not joy because it's a Monday, rather, that is this weeks theme across at Every inchie Monday (& it's almost holiday time too) so here is my share for this weeks inchies

Paper scraps with stamping in archival black ink, the one on the left is a Polka Doodles stamp, the centre is from Rubber Stampede & on the right is from Hot Off The Press. I've added a few touches of white Gelly Roll pen.

Only two more themes to go before the end of the year :-( but we have our list for 2014 that I have started to work on in quieter moments so I shall be doing my best to share over the coming weeks (trying to get Wifi installed whilst we are away) but just in case I miss you all next week let me take the opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas & a happy new year. 

Christmas tags

I thought I'd share some of the tags that I sent out with my cards this year...

The snowman stamp was a gift from a friend last year

Tim Holtz mini blueprint snowman

Mini blueprint tree

Mini blueprint snowflake...

Almost there

First came some inks & stains....

a little blending....

Then came some stamping & embossing....

Another area....

then some die cuts...

I scrunched some white tissue paper that was glued to some card, once dry I added some treasure gold and the die-cut the 2 deer. They both have small golden bells tied around their necks. The pine tree was cut from card & coloured with distress stain & ink. I then glued an assortment of small sequins to the tree. The 2 banners were stamped, cut & edges inked before adding with some foam pads. There are also some strips of tissue paper that gave been inked & then stamped with sheet music they have been glued on to blend into the background. 

The big reveal

I posted some teasers on the 20th of November of a friends Christmas card & now that she has it I can share the whole piece :-)

I've got a spritzed & stamped background, Tim Holtz: birdcage & bird, holly leaves & letters- the borders are memory Box pine needle border - the gems & "Christmas tune" came from my stash

Found

A new week & a new inchie theme....FOUND

Here is my share for this week, I made a couple...

The lady with binoculars is part of a larger stamp the I selectively inked (DoCrafts) and the binoculars one is a Clear Choice Stamp mini set (Journey)

I've managed to make the rest of the ones for this year and even some of next years as we have the themes already :-)! I am starting to put my studio to sleep for the winter now as we shall soon be heading to the snow - I've got some images stamped ready for colouring that I shall be taking with we but I shall have to ration myself....also looked out some sewing & cross stitch so my hands won't be idle when I'm sat in front of the fire :-)

Off to check everyone else's entries now.....

Late!

I meant to post this last month for "movember"!

I had some rub-ions & a moustache that had been in my stash for a while ...

Smooshed tarnished brass & vintage photo distress stains

Archival black stamped gents (Tim Holtz)

Faint moustaches stamped in grey & sepia

Christmas twinchies

Show us your twinchies have a new challenge for December and obviously that would be about Christmas so her are my little creations....

All the images have been stamped with Craft Stamper cover stamps

The top 3 have been trimmed & mounted onto a gold background - I added gems for the holly,

Sparkle on the baubles (red, gold, white).

The angel has been stippled around the edges with gold pigment ink and just a touch of embossing powder sprinkled on.

All images have Ben coloured with Promarkers. 

TIOT

A new theme....a new post....a little something useful....gift tags!

Stamped & die-cut, perlé thread, all that remains is attaching them to the parcels

December tag

Tim has posted his latest tag for us :-)

And wonder of wonders.... I don't have this months ingredients! As ever, I still want to take part so I've been experimenting again - I actually had 3 options to try so here they are

I had the right stamp for the greeting :-) & at the end of his post he had done a second tag using the Holly Branch die- goodie I have that one too. 

So I coloured 1 tag with  crushed olive distress stain, spritzed & dried, stencilled using diamond mask (crafters workshop) & peeled paint DI. I then die cut some frosted shrink plastic that I coloured with DI in shabby shutters & gathered twigs. I then took a heat gun to them but only heated enough to make them twist up & part shrink!!! They've been hot glued to the tag along with a slightly aged looking bell from my stash & I've added 2 ribbons (also stash)

Option 2 used the same principle but here the colours are vintage photo + picket fence DS with Vintage photo & antique brass for the stencilling 

This time I die cut leaves & branch from some frosted plastic that was packaging I'd been hanging onto for "some day"! This got coloured with Promarkers / Spectrum Noire pens. These were gently heated to make them curl & I added a couple of paper sprigs (tattered pinecone) I found some red glittery berries in my stash so everything got hot glued again. I've added a short length of red Xmas/New Year ribbon - the last of it that I've had years!- and a little eyelash yarn to finish

So these two are quite dimensional but the final one is not....

I've used a piece of card left over from the April tag as a background & added some snowflake stencilling in gathered twigs. The branch & leaves have been die cut from some thick almost vellum like paper. It was a 2 pape advert in the Times maybe 2 years ago- cannot remember the ad though!!! Again it was something I'd hung onto in case... I coloured with DI gathered twigs & peeled paint + some Promarker green  to give a variegated look to the holly. I stamped "joyeux noel" in black & embossed, used my xyron to put glue on the vellum, the red gems are stuck on with glossy accents. Ribbon was from my stash & now I have a label for my brothers Christmas present :-). 

So there you have my 3 experiments!

Hope you all like them - see you all in blog land again soon. 

Jacket

It's Monday and it's inchie day!

This week the theme is jacket.....no stamp to fit the bill, or at least nothing remotely small enough:-(

Book jacket? No, I don't think so....

So I'll just have to go with a drawing & not a very good one at that!

Once upon a time.... I actually had a raincoat this colour but it had a full length zip rather than black buttons! Now I have a short & hooded version still in yellow - might as well look bright in the rain :-D

Off to experiment with some ideas for the Tim Holtz monthly tag now....

Blue

A couple pieces I made earlier in the week....nothing today as I'm feeling blue :-(

2 small Tim Holtz embossing folders used with Coredinations paper, I think the words are Polka Doodles but not sure about the snowman, I stamped with archival black & coloured the snowman with white Caran d'Ache neocolor 7000- I've had these for Soooooo long that I will not tell you 'cos you'd never believe me! Oh, and I added some bling to the centres of the snowflakes.

this one is the same paper thats been embossed using the larger snowflake folder & also the snowman.

After sanding images & edges I stuck the panel onto some cardboard that got the distressed edge treatment. There are 3 brads that have been stamped & embossed in white , bling added to the snowflake centres, 2 eyelets that I added some extra colour to using Promarkers.

I added a small Kraft tag stamped & embossed in white, gave the edges a light inking too...added some jute string and a little patched heart button with the shank removed. 

I have added more of the same jute string to the hanging to as to hang it with (it would not sit right to take the photo)

Banquet

These delightful cutlery stamps dropped through my door with a magazine the other day and I just could not resist inking them up and linking them to the MOO MANIA "tools" challenge

Bird

Less is more are calling for us to use birds  this week... I had several options ranging in size & style, bought & free...and decided to go with this image from inkadinkado - inked & embossed in gold on white card & mounted on a Kraft card after rounding the corners!

Simples!!!

Rope

A second post today...this time for the inchie theme which is rope this week and I have kept things very simple AND flat by using a stamp rather than the real thing!

A paper scrap (scattered straw distress ink) free stamp (got to love those!) I've coloured the rope with a Spectrum Noire pen & added some fake stitching in black Pitt pen.

Pet

A new theme across at ATCAS #27.....pets

Several years ago I saw an image of a retriever puppy on a website & I saved the image but forgot to make a note of the make :-( every time I won't over to the USA I would look, on the off chance, but always with no luck :-( so imagine my pleasure at finally coming across the little chap, turns out he's from Inkadinkadoo & I believe he comes in 2 sizes) on my recent venture across the pond! I might add that I am a retriever owner, on my third one in fact.

So here is my pet entry, a Kraft square card embossed with the cuttlebug "Swiss dots" folder, the puppy has been stamped with dune pigment ink & clear embossed then coloured with ivory & vanilla Promarkers onto a small tag (cut with tiny tabs & tags die) and finally a small piece of ribbon from my stash.

Bailey is almost 3 and he still sits like this puppy!

Twinchie

It's another challenge over at Twinchie challenge and the theme is  silhouette.

It seemed only right to go with a winter or Christmas idea so I've inked up a stamp that came with Get Stamping issue 4. It's meant to be a snow globe image but I rather liked the idea of it being a village sat at the bottom of a snowy valley with snow falling from a starry night sky.....some of you can see where this is going....yes! I will be heading off to my little bit of mountain paradise fairly soon :-)

So it's black archival on a paper scrap background,  sorry i can't remember what this one was done with.

Silver bells

Silver bells, silver bells...it's time for my share....CASology #71

The current theme is BELLS so I have a white holly wreath edged in tumbled glass with some silver "ribbon" bow & bells!

Hope you are all having a great w/end ;-)

I'll be back soon with more to share

Tools

Time for a new theme across at MOO MANIA!

I gulped a bit when I saw the subject but then I had a brainwave - does not need to be DIY tools :-)

So here are my creations 

2 different compass designs from the Tim Holtz artful tools plate -I stamped the rulers in pumice stone on the first £ drew some circles/arcs with a Pitt pen on the second (inked & embossed in silver)

This is a trio of brushes from the same stamp sheet on a paper scrap edged with salty ocean 

I then decided to ink over a piece of card that has embossing paste on it - I've used broken china & peeled paint stains

These just happen to match a moo sized scrap I had so I stamped another brush and for the second piece I've got a handwriting stamp (inkadinkadoo) in sepia with a quill in black over the top (Paper Artsy)

2 more ATCs for trading :-)

I've stamped off the brushes on a tag & will do some work on that... Not sure what yet!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

WHITE & colourful

Well, it's looking like I will be doing some digging when I get to France (only 4 weeks away now!) as this is what things looked like yesterday....

Meanwhile my grandson finally got his bedroom wall decorated...

He loves animals but elephants in particular, has a large leather elephant in one corner & a 3ft paper mâché elephant head on another wall, he decorated it himself (with duck tape) this is quite apart from the shelf of wooden & stone ellies that he has been given :-).

Off to make breakfast now, I'll do some crafting later & take pictures of yesterday's makes....it was too dark by the time I'd finished to take them !