A Merry Christmas to All My Blog Friends

Hi everyone and welcome back to the last of my posts before Christmas. Thank you so much for bearing with me over the past month+ - it's been so incredibly busy here, but with the last of the projects completed for now I'm hoping to get some time to catch up with all those wonderful comments and spend some precious time with the family! As previously promised I'm finishing up with my take on Tim Holtz December 2014 Tag.

This card needed to be special as it was created for and with my crafting bestie in mind - the wonderful Anne. I followed Tim's instructions for the base layer (using Weathered Wood rather than Faded Jeans) adding extra drips of Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain and a little Frayed Burlap Ink around the edges. The Watering Can Archival Stamping used the spruce sprigs stamp from the Christmas Blueprints 4 set.

I LOVED messing with the Distress Spray Stains on Specialty Paper. The mottled effects are quite something and die cut beautifully. And as this was made for Anne it was the perfect opportunity to use the Friends die with kraft core card. To make the words work I cut 'best' using the Lowercase Block Talk die - that seemed like the ideal thing to use the Distress Glitter on in the way Tim described.

Then it came to trying out Frosted sheets. If I'd used a patterned Texture Fades folder the detail of the holiday greenery would have been lost. Bring on one of the debossing folders! Boy it was all easy to use and no horrible lines from the edge of the folder either. By adding another piece of kraft core card below the debossing it not only made it stand out more, it also provided the place to attach the Frosted sheet to the card.

I know Tim added Pine Twine and various other embellishments to his tag but I just didn't want to detract from what was already in place, so I went with a sprig of holly leaves and berries and some of those gorgeous Mirrored Stars to complete the design. Even I'm thrilled with how this turned out, especially as it was for such an important friend.

I think the words on this card sum up beautifully what I've discovered since beginning this creative journey - I have found some of the best and most genuine friends ever along the way and even have the luck to work alongside so many of them.

To all of you out there who are lovely enough to stop by and visit my little part of blogland I wish you the happiest Christmas ever and hope the New Year brings you health and happiness. Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Sew Rusty

Hi everyone and welcome. I'm back with the penultimate pre-Christmas post to share a card inspired by the wonderful Shelly Hickox. Having used her 'galvanised metal' technique on a previous card I was intrigued by another of her faux finishes - 'rusted paint' - and decided to give it a go too.

Rather than use the technique over the whole background I opted for the now familiar trick of applying it to a tag to form the basis of the design. I followed Shelly's tutorial verbatim apart from using the Holiday Knit Layering Stencil to emboss the tag prior to painting it. That gave the surface a slightly raised texture which was enhanced when sanded. I highlighted the design even further by applying the Potting Soil Archival Ink and some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint through the stencil.

With the tag complete I piled it up with some vintage ephemera from one of Tim Holtz' packs, adding hand stitching and buttons to the button card and pin holes to the safety pin card. The glossy candy cane was stamped using one of the Mini Blueprint stamps before being coloured with Distress Markers, and I blended Festive Berries Distress Ink over the dress form.

The background combined more stencilling and (of course) splatters of stain along with a little washi tape and machine sewing. Adding a watery ink shadow around the main elements really helps them pop off the page too.

I hope you get chance to go on over to Shelly Hickox' blog to take a look at her fabulous array of Christmas ornaments - her creative imagination takes us to some fantastic places and will have you buzzing with ideas.

One more post from me tomorrow - my final Tim tag of the year. For now I'm off to make more mince pies and get those festive preparations finished off. Whatever you're up to take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Back to Hometown

Hi everyone and welcome. Back in November you may remember I mentioned the excitement of meeting Ken Oliver, designer of the Hometown collection of papers, at the NEC where they were being released for the first time.

You can see the moment I got my hands on these gorgeous designs and two of the cards made with them HERE.

So I'm back with two more festive cards created with the same papers. Here's the first;

Layering a crackle painted window frame over the 'postcard' section that matched this Antique shop portion of one sheet was intended to set the scene for this card. I echoed the ripped brown paper included within the paper design with more of the same at the bottom before applying a little white gesso and gold paint over the background. The rest was just a case of layering up some painted die cut holly leaves, paint stencilled festive foliage and stamped holly gilded with Yorkshire Dales Mega Flakes embellished with a selection of gems.

Now for card number two;

I used the ATC die to cut out the portion of the 'postcard' that I wanted to layer over it's matching background. To draw the eye inwards I added white gesso to the edges and blended a little brown ink over that. The bauble flourish was heat embossed with Verdigris embossing powder and provided the guide for the placement of the remaining elements. Having gilded the teardrop baubles and holly leaves as for the previous card I added Distress Stain to ramp up that verdigris look. Finally some matching chain was glued in place and I die cut a corner flourish from some card which had been painted with my 'verdigris recipe'.

I have to say I love the designs in this collection and look forward to adding a different seasonal twist to the others next year. If you want to get a closer look at the unaltered collection you can find them at Craft Obsessions.

I have two more cards to share with you before 'the big day' arrives. Tomorrow, another Shelly Hickox technique in action and on Christmas Eve my Tim tag entry for December. Hope you can join me for those.

As you get those last minute preparations sorted remember to take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Last but not least...

Hi everyone and welcome. As ever I'm making a mad scramble for the finishing line on The Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas 2014 challenge sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. It's been great fun taking inspiration from each of the weekly tags posted by Linda and if you've missed out on any of them there's a full list of my versions at the end of this post. So now a drumroll please for my take on Tag #12...

If you've seen Linda's original version HERE you'll already have spotted the things I've copied; that wooden window frame and box were a great idea, but as I didn't have the Texture Fades embossing folder I used the Woodgrain Layering Stencil both for embossing and stencilling through with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Linda' wreath was also adorable and for mine I opted for adding drops of Glossy Accents on top of punched red card as berries. If you use a heat gun on the berries part way through drying it produces a slight dimple on them.

I was thrilled when Linda used my 'faux weathered wood' technique for her background. It worked well on the tag for this card too and I was over the moon when my friends Anne and Mo used it for their own gorgeous projects HERE and HERE. 

As well as a sentiment, ribbon and die cut greenery, the card was finished with some Paper Lace Doily (stocked by The Funkie Junkie Boutique) in the window, and stencilling/splattering with Distress Inks - notice how those Distress Spray Stains have quickly become a crafting staple?!

So that's it, all 12 done (and a fair few of the required Christmas cards for this year finished as a result). I hope you've enjoyed seeing them as much as I've loved making them. There are a couple of cards still to share with you before 'the big day' arrives.

For now take care of yourselves and have a great week. Jenny xxx

Tag #1, Tag #2, Tag #3, Tag #4, Tag #5, Tag #6, Tag #7, Tag #8, Tag #9, Tag #10, Tag #11

At The Gate it's Uncle Ben!

Hi everyone and welcome back to my second post of the day (the first was HERE). You are probably wondering what on earth that post title is all about (unless you are a keen bingo player); well it's my way of introducing two more entries for 'The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas 2014' challenge, namely takes on Tag #8 and Tag #10. Before I share them with you a quick bit of 'admin'; this is an annual challenge being hosted by Linda Coughlin, the Funkie Junkie herself and has been very generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The idea is that you take inspiration from each of Linda's weekly tags and create your own version, linking all 12 before December 21st to be in with a chance to win.

So first up here's my version of Tag #8...

Hopefully the similarities with the original are obvious - a 'Holiday Knit' stencilled Christmas stocking and the inclusion of snowflakes. I took that 'deconstruction' route again, adding the background stencilling to a tag and layering the various elements up. It was fun to echo the larger stocking with the mini stocking stamp from the Tim Holtz 'Mini Blueprints 5' set. And don't forget, you can cut up the filigree metal embellishments available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique so they fit with your design as I did here.

And now here's my version of Tag #10...

The similarities with Linda's original are far less obvious with this one. In fact I went with the principles rather than the look. The whole point to this was to get layers of media going in a way my awesome crafty friend Astrid (Astrid's Artistic Efforts) does. All my efforts were concentrated on the tag element; having stencilled holly leaves onto the base with Pine Needles Distress Paint I added a thin layer of gesso over the top. Next came more stencilling with Texture Paste and the Dots Fade Layering Stencil a mix mix of Distress Spray Stains. This had the inevitable consequence of making the dots blend into the background so I popped the stencil back on and dabbed the raised areas with Picket Fence Distress Paint.

Keeping that layering going the tag was placed on top of a background which had die cut holly leaves, a spritz of Evergreen Bough Distress Spray Stain and some gesso highlighting. To complete the look, kraft core festive greenery (with gold painted holly), a Distress Glittered reindeer 'a la Tim Holtz' and the heat embossed lettering - an idea pinched from the fabulous Sue Carrington!

Thank you for bearing with the frenetic pace of posts from me recently and humble apologies that my visits around blogland have all but dried up - CHA samples and DT work have kept me super duper busy for the past few weeks and there are still a few more things to finish before I have to pack away my craft room for a little while. I'll be back tomorrow with the final Funkie Junkie tag and hope you can join me for that.

Have a great weekend and remember to take care of yourselves even at this time of year, Jenny xxx

Krafty 'n' Quick at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome. Well, the days are positively flying by right now! It's my turn to host the final post of the year over at IndigoBlu today and I'm sharing a quick card idea for those last minute festive cards.

I hope you can join me over there to see what I've come up with. I'll be back with more to share later today. Until then and whatever you're up to this weekend take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Galvanise!

Hi everyone and welcome. The flurry of posts continues as the race is now on to publish all my entries for 'The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas 2014'. Before showing you my take on #Tag 11 some happy news from yesterday to share with you; 

Yes, that's right! My 'Three Little Soldiers' card was singled out to win challenge #16 by the Curiosity Crew at Linda Ledbetter's awesome 'Compendium of Curiosities III challenge'!!! The squeals of delight that followed the realisation of this amazing news had my dog running for cover, and was probably heard across the Atlantic! A huge thank you to the Curiosity Crew for bestowing this huge honour- I'm thrilled.

And so now on to today's festive offering...

In case you haven't heard about it, 'The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas 2014' is an annual challenge being hosted by Linda Coughlin, the Funkie Junkie herself and has been very generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The idea is that you take inspiration from each of Linda's weekly tags and create your own version, linking all 12 before December 21st to be in with a chance to win. This is my take on Linda's #Tag 11 and features the results of an awesome 'faux galvanised metal' tutorial from Shelly Hickox.

As you can see I followed Shelly's instructions by applying the Distress Paint to an embossed metal foil  tag - add extra dabs of Brushed Steel and heat it with a heat gun to make it bubble for an even more aged look. The lettering was done in the same way and everything was edged with Coffee Archival Ink. For an extra touch of glamour I added some 'verdigris' Tinsel Twine, altered in accordance with Tim's instructions in the Compendium of Curiosities III, page 60. That makes it eligible for the next instalment of the 'Compendium of Curiosities III challenge #17'! This time the challenge is generously sponsored by Inspiration Emporium.

You'll spot a collection of Tim Holtz Ephemera in use again - I've ordered more of this as it's just so useful for layering. And of course there's stencilling, splattering and shadowing with Tumbled Glass, Tattered Rose and Pumice Stone Distress Inks/Spray Stains. Extra flakes have been stamped/heat embossed in silver and die cut before being covered in Tumbled Glass Distress Glitter.

Finally there's an Anything Goes challenge over at the Simon Says Monday challenge and it's been a while since I've been able to enter!

With three more tag interpretations left to share and a final IndigoBlu post to share on Saturday my posts will be coming thick and fast for the next couple of days, so until the next instalment, take care of yourselves! Jenny xxx