The advent of Xenon

A strange title indeed, is it not? But, honestly, what do you do with a twinchie for ADVENT & XENON as an inchie???

Xenon: atomic number 54. Chemical element Xe. Electron coef Kr4d105s2 5p6.  Melting point -11.8C. 

Atomic mass 131.293+/- 0.006u

Well, let me tell you that all I could think of was xenon headlights....so a partial print of a car, some blue in it's headlight+ some glossy accent !

Advent.....well I took the soft option it started on Sunday 30th November this year so my twinchie resembles a calendar page

I'm working on my journal52 make a snowman 

and DLP add a hand so I'll be back soon and hopefully I'll have done my funkie junkie share too :-)

Magic

Another little page in my blue book....made after I'd cleared my desk, well 90% of it LOL

The snowman looks as though he's got a bit of a wry grin!

Snowflake

It's week 9 over at the Funkie Junkie & I cannot believe how the tailend of the year is vanishing, it's scary....

Anyhow, here is Linda's tag for http://thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas-funkie_24.html

Now I do like to see a black card with some gold so I could not resist doing something along the same line. I've also use some velum that's been lurking for....2 years I think, and my favourite snowflake.

I've gone with a white 4x6 card, a piece of black card that has had it's corners punched (Martha Stewart) I've stamped & embossed with gold onto the black card and also on the velum - used an assortment of images.

The diecut snowflake has been stamped in gold using Tim Holtz crackle stamp, topped with the snowflake die from the set that's been embossed with gold EP & a clear plastic one on top of that.

 Final add was the stamped circle at bottom right.....not sure who will be receiving this one!

Time for me to hop over and link this to the sponsors at  http://www.thefunkiejunkie.com/ 

Rudolph day

I can't believe that it's the last one of the year before Christmas Day! Anyway, I have some cards to share so without further ado....here are my final shares of made/recycled/stamped cards for 2014.....

See you all on Rudolph Day next year :-)

Thoughts

One of those cards that none of us, I'm sure, like having to make or send....

Chocolate Baroque stamp with shaded lilac DI, extra  shaded Lilac for the foliage and a lilttle peeled paint/picket fence DS.

Inch by inch

Inchie... X, axis

An X with a screw throughout the middle so that it can spin on it's axis!

Twinchie ...wreath

Moo....trees from Paper Artsy

And to finish off my play weekend...

Some more words in a little journal

Layer of gesso (the paper is blue!!!) then distress paints in picked raspberry,peeled paint, salty ocean.

A little evergreen bough stencilled over TCW Balzer Bits: burlap bits

Some pearlescent white acrylic through sequin waste + fluo orange gel pen & sharpie black dots.

A little stamping with some Craft Stamper free stamps.

I'm not skipping now as I had some sad news shortly after finishing this....

Ditto

Still in the mood for colour although, in fairness, the weather was slightly better today!

A very odd thing happened yesterday, after creating my little double spread (8"x6") I saw the Journal 52  subject at bedtime....wise words! 

I decided that I'd have to create another spread that was a little larger, out came some of the papers I'd coloured the other day, my pile of words & set to.

I've used some of the stamps from Tims merchantile & artful tools plates and his cargo stencil along with alphabet stamps to spell out the saying.

DLP  calls for Gratitude expressed in a creative way

So for this one I've use an under paper drawn in a frame, orange line/ red dash/ green stitches/pink circles with white & black centres.

Written out the words in black  with added white highlights.

Used 2 of my "doodle" flowers in opposite corners.

All in all it's been a creative afternoon & I'm grateful for Bill going of to the pub to watch the rugby allowing me time to play.

Colour

Needed some brightness today! I'm so fed up of the rain & grey skies that I decided to by a bottle of neon pink acrylic paint this morning in Hobbycraft!

I'd done some papers yesterday using silk paints.....I know! Crazy but why not....and after some stencilling, stamping & white pen I got some interesting "things" so I decided to stamp the same motif on some stencilled card I had in brown shades....I added some gel pens in neon yellow, green, orange & pink + a metallic brown

These may come in handy for next years journal.

This is what I did with the acrylic neon pink & some yellow I had, got a rather nice shade of orangey saffron going as well :-)

At least the bright colours have cheered me up....

Have a good weekend everybody.

Stocking

Another week into the http://www.thefunkiejunkie.com/  sponsored12 tags challenge and I have another Christmas card under my belt. I can't believe that it's the 8th!

Linda's tag that we use for inspiration has a rather beautiful stocking on it & lovely rustic colours.

So for my interpretation I've used a Paper Artsy stamp for the background (squiggly ink egg & nog1)

Which has been stamped repeatedly with shabby shutters ink. I coloured in the hearts, Christmas trees & pots.

The stocking is based on a stocking stamp from the same series, I've scanned & enlarged then cut out in paper. I've used paper scraps from my stash and the holly sprig is cut from a horticultural book page  (egg & nog3) also coloured with shabby shutters.

Difficult to get a decent photo of this one as it's rained all day & we've needed the lights on since waking! So I'm entering this for Linda's challenge as it is because the forecast is not looking any better for the rest of the week here in Scotland :-( http://thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas-funkie_17.html

I also used one of her designs to make a thanksgiving  card for the family in Maine. This is a Tim Holtz stamp using ripe persimmon, a spellbinders doilie and some autumn gatherings foliage

Magic weapon

Twinchie & inchie shares for this week....

A wand with magic dust over a top hat from which a rabbit MAY appear (or not)

And my secret weapon for Every Inchie Monday .....

The sword in the stone....& for some reason my indelible black pen seems to have decided that it wanted to run so maybe it's Excalibur  the sword in the lake!

DLP - Journal 52

It's add a map of your state for DLP...

Fortuitous that a friend had picked up leaflets & brochures Friday night and left then with me as happy mail, little did she know that I would end up using some of it.

Here in the UK it's counties rather than states so I've done a selection of pages, not very exciting, about the local castles....the American girls on the Facebook group love anything Scottish so it's been well received 

A map of Aberdeenshire & a smaller one giving it's location relative to the rest of Scotland & a foldin flap of dunnotar castle, drum castle is on the reverse.

Then it's a selection of local castles on the following pages

JOURNAL 52 requires paper napkins...I've lemons, olives, pasta, snowflakes....but where did I put them?

I've gone with a mistletoe one, covering the whole page & also added some of the bits that hung off the edge and added those too.

I've added assorted Sizzix die cuts + a piece of fabric (2 snowmen) some flat red sequins & also some pearls as berries for the holly & mistletoe ..... 

Winter greenery to get me in the mood for the changing season as all the Christmas decorations start to appear in the shops and the adverts on the TV!

See you all again soon 

Week 7

Time for another card with Linda from http://www.thefunkiejunkie.com/

This week I've chosen to use a bauble & some holly from her inspiration tag.

I've cut a black card (quarto size) & run it through the cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. Added a strip of coppery greenish brown yarn to conceal the not quite matching dots as well as break up the black.

I've used copper ink & EP with a papermania  bauble stamp on some paper coloured with Picked Raspberry DP. The holly leaves have been die cut (festive greenery) & I've used some pink faceted gems as berries.

Not the usual colours for a Christmas card but I was feeling in a dramatic mood! 

Time to go and link this to the current challenge http://thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas-funkie_10.html

Have a good weekend everybody :-)

This n that

Firstly, I found my other wheat inchie :-)

And here's my favourite colours Moo

Hot pink/ yellows/ oranges decorated with a flourish in black & some white dots circled with black...

And here's the state of my desk...a vast improvement on yesterday!!!

Wheat

An autumn harvest of wheat for our inchie this week

A rubber stamp that's been adapted. 

And for our twinchie its home a free stamp from last winter 

And now I shall go check out what everyone else has been up to.....see you soon :-)

DLP

Week 45 - can't really be that far through the year can we???

I guess we must be although I'm really not quite sure how we got there so fast. Any clues anybody?

The theme this week is to add fabric and there I was spoilt for choice....I could delve through the wooden chest, climb into the loft & raid the stash up there (no- too cold!) pull some of the bits out of the drawer in my desk or even the one in Bills office where I keep a teak unit full of books/ sewing bits/button boxes, frames, maps, cards received & treasured.

I went for 1 from the office & it's been there a long time, maybe made 20 years ago, on second thoughts make that 30 as it was when I did a lot of experimenting on my sewing machine & before I did my C&G in creative embroidery.

Some thicker metallic threads have been machine couched onto hot water dissolving fabric using a finer metallic machine embroidery thread. Once you dissolve the fabric in very hot water you are left with a lace like material.

I attached it to my page using some metallic green brads that are similar to the flower centres on the paper, I've also doodled with a gold sharpie to fill in the black of the page.

Here is a close up

On the reverse of the page I've used some Nitwits papers that resemble quilted textiles.

That's all for today folks, I'll be back with my inchie & twinchie tomorrow, I might even manage the favourite colours moo as well. Enjoy what's left of Sunday & see you all again soon.

Week 6

Time for another Christmas card with the www.thefunkiejunkie.com 

Life is full of coincidences. I was lying in bed the morning listening to my favourite Internet radio station Nostalgie ( hits of the 60s 70s and 80s ) yes I really am that old. So there I am,busy reading the blog feed for the sixth challenge over at the Funkie Junkie challenge a little light bulb went off inside my head, cogs whirred...it was just like the old Wurlitzer! I knew in a flash what I wanted to do for this card: the doily,Snowflake, gold/brown. Golden brown was the song that was playing, something was trying to tell me this was the way to go!

I've used a 4x6 card and part of a cake doily. I won't even attempt to remember how long I've had it in my stash (I've an awful feeling it goes back to our years in the Middle East when I used to bake!)

The centre section od the card has been stamped using 2 snowflake peg stamps (rubber tapestry) in vintage photo & antique linen inks. The corners have been done in a similar manner using 2 star stamp pegs this time only using the vintage photo disagree ink but some of the stars have had their centres filled in with a gold pen.

As I'm sure you can see, it was difficult to take photos....lack of sunshine today & glare from the gold doily :-(

I then coloured a white doily with some distress stain in vintage photo & tarnished brass. I also gave it a spritz with a homemade iridescent spray (pinky pearl)

The snowflake is a Sizzix die "snowflake rosette". Once pleated & assembled, I've edged it with more vintage photo & the topper with the sentiment has had the same treatment. I've used a free sentiment stamped & embossed in gold in the centre.

Time for this one to be linked to Linda's boutique - the sponsors www.thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas-funkie.html

I'm also going to enter this one over at " Less is more" as they are doing a card in non traditional colours.

November

It's a new month & a new tag from Tim...

Here is his

I've only had to improvise a little this month (paint is a mix of distress & decoart) otherwise I've pretty much followed the instructions, I splashed stain in place of spray & the embellishments are items from my stash :-)

I used some gilding flakes but I just don't seem to have the knack :-(

So I also added a little copper embossing powder!

Time to link this and see what everyone else has been creating :-)

Journal 52

This week is all about skylines!

I not live in the city, where you often see some beauties, but in the country.

I am surrounded by trees so we don't get stunning vistas, only trees!

Recently, we were lucky enough to be standing at the back door when there was a magnificent sunset happening & the real camera, as opposed to my iPhone, was in my husbands hands.... The colours just kept getting better & better.

I printed one of the photos off, it's only on regular paper, but in a way it makes it more atmospheric!

I used a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencil & distress inks to merge the flowers on the background paper even more into the page. The stencil is burlap bits & the inks are dusty concord, seedless preserves, festive berries & barn door.

Ive cut diagonal slits into the page to insert the image (I also added some glue stick on the reverse)

Whilst I was away this summer I had the good fortune to emerge from the northern gate of a local medieval walled village to a wonderful sight.

The sun was glinting onto the fort through the storm clouds & darkness of the night that was rolling in.

Normally you can't see this place for tourists or market stall parasols but at 19.30 on a week day it was  another story.

I've taken a sheet of music (mama inez, if you want to know!) and smooshed it through various shades of distress ink (old paper, antique linen, scattered straw, tea dye) & also a little iced spruce distress paint.

I did my best to feed it through big shot using a stone wall embossing folder & then brayered pumice stone over the top. I've torn a section that I've stuck down onto a background sheet (stash: fuchsia)

Added the name of the summit in the distance and the name of the village/fort in opposite corners