Humbug!!!!

Humbug!! That's not me by the way, it refers to my final make before Santa arrives. I have just finished making my last card for 2013 and thankfully I only make a special few for family and close friends. My final make just had to be with Stampotique stamps and I am also entering this into Stampotique Designers Challenge week 3 of anything goes.

The Christmas character I have used is "Oh Joy" some sarcasm there when you read the quote from Scrooge which I have cut from "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Background has been made with acrylic paints, stencil, Kaisercraft background stamps, washi tape and a bit of festive bling. Tree baubles are also Stampotique, coloured and covered in glossy accents to make them look shiny, the strings they hang on have been hand drawn.

Thanks for stopping by and can I take this opportunity to thank you all for your lovely comments throughout 2013 and wish you all a very very merry Christmas.

Love

Amanda X

May Peace be your gift at Christmas

Hi Everyone, I hope that you are ready for Christmas, needless to say I'm not, but for me every Christmas is the same and I seem to get there in the end, hopefully. The Christmas lead up does impact somewhat on my crafty time so for this weeks Challenge at Crafts4eternity I have made quite a quick Christmas card for our theme this week which is an "anything goes" week. So if you have time to play you can show us anything you like. One randomly chosen winner will win their choice of 3 Digi stamps from Crafts4Eternity.

I have used an already prepared gelli print and stamped my main image from The Lynne Perrella Collection LPC018 from Paperartsy.

 The trees have been die cut from packing tape that I used to clean my gelli plate with and then stuck to black card.

Sentiment is from Kaisercraft Christmas Quotes set.

The background trees and music script are from Tim Holtz stamp sets.

I have added a little bling in the stars above her head.

 

So if you can find a little time come along and show us what you are up to.

Love

Amanda X

Christmas Chaos at C4E

Hi and I hope all your Christmas preparations are going well, thankfully our challenge, this week at crafts4eternity is another Christmas themed challenge
"Christmas Chaos"
We would like to see anything with a Christmas theme, so I got the chance to add another card to my pile, be it a small pile.

My background has been made using my gelli plate with the snowflakes being made by pressing in Tim Holtz snowflake embossing folder which has given a very subtle snowflake impression.

You might see it better here

 

the rest of the card is made up of several die cuts. I started by cutting into the card with Tims on the edge snowflakes which required a bit of precision cutting

 

other dies include Sizzix let it Snow sentiment

Spellbinders 2011 snowflake pendant

Alterations mini snowflake rosette strip die.

All have had a rough painting of Patina blue and some rock candy distress glitter.

A piece of blue burlap and a bit of bling in the centre finish this card off.

As we are all in the throws of our festive makings why not show us what you have made and join in with us for this weeks challenge.

I would also like to enter this card into this weeks challenge at

Make My Monday - Frosty Theme

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let it Snow

thanks for stopping by

Love 

Amanda X

Anything Goes at Stampotique

For the month of December at Stampotique Designers Challenge blog

 it is week 2 of an "anything goes" month.

I have made a card using my newly acquired stamps "Snowy Fran" and "Bow Heart"

Background is a very subtle gelli print where I pushed Tim Holtz alterations snowflake into the paint prior to lifting a print, if you look closely you can see the snowflake impressions that this left.

The hearts are from Dylusions stamp set "Inbetweenies. I have coloured the hearts with festive berries Distress Marker, I haven't really got to grips with these but they are brilliant at colouring over acrylic paint so that'll do for me!!

Some of the hearts have had Rock Candy distress crackle put on them and some rock candy distress glitter, you can just about see it in this photo, or then again perhaps not.

For the sentiment "Snow in love with you!" I have just cut the words from an old book which just happens to be A Christmas Carol, not that you could tell, but it did allow me to find the Merry Christmas phrase, and then doodled around..

My main image has been stamped and cut from the same book paper

and she sits upon a piece of corrugated card that I have painted with blue patina which makes it look very icy, I have sewn this on for a little icy texture. The bow heart which hangs from her has had glossy accents applied and a dusting of rock candy distress glitter.
I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:-
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let it Snow
and
Make My Monday - A Frosty Theme

Thanks for visiting and see you soon

Love

Amanda X

Taking a break from Christmas

Well I have had a lovely few days off and I have just chilled out in my craftroom, the time has also allowed me to sort my craft room out and I have done a bit of reorganising of things, why does that always take so long? I did have an afternoon with my gelli plate and I have used one of my prints to make this weeks DT piece for our new challenge starting today over at Crafts4eternity. Our theme for this week is a sketch (this can be seen at the end of this post) and this is my interpretation of that.

It was recently my birthday and with some of the money that I got I bought some of Lynne Perrella Paperartsy stamps, this image is from LPC006.

I stamped the image straight onto the gelli print and then mat and layered to match the sketch. I coloured in her cheeks with distress markers and added a little glaze to make them stand out.

  I have added some stamping using Tim Holtz text from Classics#4 in archival monarch orange , some washi tape and a dymo gun strip sentiment finish this piece.

Here is our sketch for this week if you decide to come and join in with us

I would also like to enter this card into this weeks challenge at

Simon says Stamp Wednesday Challenge the theme is make your own background

thanks for popping by and please feel free to leave a comment 

Love

Amanda X

 

You're A Star!!

A very special friend of mine has only recently found out that she is suffering from M.S.

 I unfortunately can't change that, but I can let her know how special she is by making her a little something, so this little Christmas make is for her, and it is because she is a "Star".

I have used an 8 x 8 box frame which I have distressed using acrylic paint and paperartsy crackle glaze. I have backed the piece with burlap which also has some gathered twigs distress on it. The stars are made from my newly acquired Tim Holtz 3D star die, what a nightmare but I think I have it sussed now!!! This 3D die gives you great dimension within your project.

Both stars were cut from the die using silver mirri card, then embossed with a cuttlebug Xmas numbers folder. I then painted over the lot with vintage photo and gathered twigs distress paint, wiping most of it away for the distressed look. The final step was to randomly add vintage photo distress embossing powder, trying to make them look quite rusty.

I added some rusty wire to the smaller one to represent 

it leaving a starry trail.

To the main star I added a Tim Holtz mini snowflake rosette cut from old Christmas carol sheet music.

Final touches were some little wooden stars which have been lightly coloured with gathered twigs distress ink and a little bit of bling, it's not Christmas without bling, and one of Tims Chrsitmas wordbands "Believe in the majic of Christmas" which has also had the paint and distress embossing powder treatment.

My final touch is the staple gunned kisses.

I can't believe how long it took me to make this but I can put most of the time down to mastering the die, eventually remembering I had a crease pad and the staple gunning, 2 hours to find that!!!!

She is coming over Saturday so I can hand my gift over then.

I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:-

Country View Challenges - Bah Humbug

Try it on a Tuesday - A handmade gift or tag

Thanks for visiting I've loved having you here

Love

Amanda X

Another non traditional Christmas

As I sit writing this post this Monday morning I am relaxing in the thought that I am off work until next Monday, and I am going to spend my time of wisely... Crafting!! Anyway to start this week off I thought I would post a card I made last week. I made a couple of cards as potential candidates as my DT piece for this weeks challenge at http://crafts4eternity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/r152-non-traditional-christmas.html I didn't use this one in the end, you can click the link to see what I did post and even join in with us.

I seem to be in a "using up what I have" mode at the moment  as I found this piece of kraft card that I had stamped with distress paint using Indigoblu Bubbles stamps in my bit box. I then sprayed it with perfect pearls pearl spray to make it icy and sparkle. I then punched out the snowflakes which were scraps of gelli prints on packing tape which I had stuck to white paper.
I then simply added some pearls to the snowflakes and a Tim Holtz Chit Chat sticker.
Ok off to tidy up my messy craftroom only to make another mess, I don't know about you but I always have to tidy up before I make something new.
see you soon and thanks for visiting
Love
Amanda X