Happy Christmas Everyone

I did promise all my pages that I did with the All is Bright kit...but with the preparations for Christmas I still have paper and stickers left and reckon I can get a few more pages done with it, so here is all of the pages and projects together so far!

And I want to wish you all a super Christmas and New Year

Katherine

More Christmas Cards

4 more cards for you today, another bit of stamping through a mask - this is a mask I used before on the recommendation of Emille Chamel, it is some of the remains of the paper from a die cut paper so you use the left over bit of paper that you have popped the die cuts from as the mask.  In my kaisercraft stamp set there was a floral stamp which I used for the background, then inked and cut out the ticket stamp, added some washi and American Crafts thicker holly as well as some spare snowflake negatives all layered.

Here are the stamps that I used

Same background, but bits of doily and lace and washi tape for this card.

Same background and the Angel on top which I cut out, and then layered up loads of offcuts too - getting through all those scraps.

Another angel, I used my self made square mask and painted through with a distress stain, added the angel and liquid pearls, and then the sentiment (and this one I went wrong...the sentiment with these stamps is very small and it was dark and I stamped it upside down on the card, so cunningly hid it with a mounted one the right way up :))

Some Christmas Cards

I have a few cards to show you, I did contemplate doing a card a day at the start of December, but was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep...plus I would need to post them.  However I did challenge myself to use a reduced set of Kaisercraft Christmas stamps from last year and they feature on most of them.  For the top one I made myself a square frame and stamped through it with a grey ink, then added some white snowflakes, a little star and stamped the sentiment in red - really easy.

These are the stamps

For my next I had a go a colouring the wreath with promarkers (something I rarely do with stamps so I wanted to give it a try) and then inked and mounted it all up, as well as creating a little pile of embellishments all from offcuts at the bottom corner - the papers are last years MME and the washi tape this years.

Another coloured in wreath, but a little different, some lace and buttons and different coloured stamped images.  I will be back with some more to show you soon.

On the Slopes

It's the sketch challenge over at the Studio Blog for the next fortnight, with another great sketch from Val (they do make my scrapping quicker!).  I stuck quite closely to the sketch and decided to make a wintry page with some photos from last year and more of the MME All is Bright papers.

I started with the kraft cardstock and have finally found a white ink that gives me a nice white image :)  It is just one of the little memento white ones and I used my October Afternoon Farmhouse doily stamps to make the pattern.  I then layered up a doily and some of the MME paper, cutting a left over portion of the banner from one of the sheets too - I am quite determined to use the whole pack of papers....so I will post all the pages in one go once I have used them all up!  I inked and distressed, made my own tag with some washi and stamping and added some wooden snowflakes that I found in Hobby craft and a a swirl of pearls that I picked up at a haberdashery stall.  I added a subtle blue frame around the central paper mounts by watering down a little glimmer mist and just brushing it on, I did add some white paint flicks and stitched my title (which is from one of the sn@p sticker sheets).

Here is a link to the Studio Blog where there is loads of inspiration and beautiful pages.

Monster Hug

A few weeks ago I had a look a misting over on the A Trip Down Memory Lane blog...and for it I had a go at some serious misting (inspired by Anna Dabrowska - Finnbair).  The reason I went for the heavy mist look was because the background I had created for my page didn't look right, so to cover it up I did lots of misting.  I started by misting each item separately but I do wonder whether you could be slightly more economical with the mist if you do whole layers of the page in one go.

So the background started with Aqua Lagoon, Purple Violet and Peacock Green Cosmic Shimmer mist and then a little Chalk White tattered angels over the top.  I then masked and splattered some watered down white gesso down the centre of the page, and once that was dry added some lines of zig zag stitch and left all the threads hanging.  I misted and crumpled tissue paper and book paper behind the main photo area and used some of Graphic 45s Nutcracker Suite purple paper as my only piece of patterned paper. I misted Tando Chipboard cogs and arrows, and some fabric buttons I inherited from my Grandma, which really sparkle with the mica in the mists, and then added some old metal embellishments which came from curtains!  The title is a mix of American Thickers and Authentique mini letters.  It was a really fun and messy page to make, so if you ever go wrong with a background have a try.

The photos are from Disney and not the best in the world but I love Monsters Inc and the excuse to use purple on a page so the colours worked really well!

Here's a link to the post if you want to check it out.  Also a quick apology as I haven't posted so much lately or got around all the blogs I would like to with all the Christmas rush....but I will :).

Some Quick Gifts and Cards

The challenge for this week over at the Tando Blog was to make quick and easy gifts or cards.  So I started with the little smartie pockets - I used a glassine envelope and some stamped images I stamped using my friends stamp last year!  The instructions involve what colours of smarties to eat depending on how you are feeling.  I decorated the envelopes with washi tape by MME and lace and doilies as well as a tando reindeer and snowflake

Next the cards

 I used up lots of offcuts with some washi tape and Kaisercraft Christmas stamps, I also inked up a Tando stocking with red and a matt gold ink, which I then added glossy accents too and spritzed with some glimmer mist whilst it was still wet - hence the dabbled effect on the red boot.

This card was so striaghtforward - I used the snowflake mask as a stencil and then used a corresponding chipboard piece inked white (and then around the edges with brown distress ink) placed it in the middle and added glitter, and stamped Merry Christmas in the corner.

There will be ideas on the blog all week so here is the link

Jane's Christmas Decoration - ATDML Retreat

Here is another one of my creations from the ATDML retreat....I have to confess to putting myself down for all 5 classes on the Saturday - so I did lots of crafting that day!  I know to give myself a bit of a break inbetween classes next time so I can finish off some of the items I start.

This set of Christmas windows was devised by Jane Hewitt - and I wanted to do the class because I can often be a little intimidated by Graphic 45 papers and the wonderful things that I see made from them....so it was lovely to be taken through a class step by step which fantastic instructions - I didn't vary off the instructed path either - so mine is as close a copy to Jane's model as it could possibly be!  We used a 7 Gypsies chipboard base, and then covered it in Graphic 45 Nutcracker suite papers - this is the 6 by 6 pad.  There was lots of fussy cutting and great  ideas to help the papers shrink to fit the chipboard shapes we were covering - like the fact that the toy soldier is on the page with the dancing fairy that is at the back of the house.  Just to add to this decoration is the flameless candle which we wrapped in a journal card.

A Room With a View

The next fortnights challenge over at the Studio Blog is layering........which is something that I love.  I used a picture taken from my room over a frosty line of roof tops - it is hard to see from the page, the sunset was just beautiful and I tried to echo that in the colours of the papers - so used lots of Studio Calico HeyDay collection, along with some Dear Lizzy papers too.

I started with my parquet flooring style paper as the main matt (I love woodgrain :)), and then distressed the edges and ripped one a little layering lace and papers behind it.  I then cut a few journal tags, and several layers for behind the photo, ruffling, inking and adding lace.  The clouds are from Tando and I covered them in some texture paste to get that lumpy cloud feeling, and then made some banners of punched hearts which I stitched together.  I cut out a little mason jar from the Dear Lizzy papers and added a camera wood veneer - the word photos is from the October Afternoon Mid Way collection.  I stamped the title with Kaisercrafts typewriter stamps and then added my journalling in the bottom corner and a few flicks of white paint.

If you would like to join us this month in layering things up on your pages then here is the link,

ATDML Retreat - part 1

A little while ago, over half term I went on my 1st ever retreat with A Trip Down Memory Lane at the lovely Stoke Nyland golf club.  It was lovely, when I arrived there was a desk set up for me and a pile of goodies to get me going as well as a list of challenges I could enter.  Then there was the shop - piled high with paper and embellishments, lovely food, a great list of classes and fantastic ladies to craft with and be inspired by - I loved it!  I still haven't finished all my classes as some were mini books and  I need to fill them up with photos and finish them off before I show you, but here are a couple of pages.  

My 1st page was a little kit that we were challenged to make something from, I am not sure of the paper manufacturer but the colours went really well with this rather damp beach scene - my kids love the beach as you can probably tell and even when it has been wet they are still up for spending a couple of hours digging and seeing what they can find.  The flowers are prima and some lovely maya road natural buttons, I added a few ink splatters using my distress stain, and stamped the title with the Kaisercraft typewriter stamps and the other words are from the Teresa Collins Vintage Findings stamp set.

 Next for my class.....

This is the class that I taught using the lovely Cashmere Dame papers by glitz - packed full with colour and distressing and hexagons.  The photo is from our holiday state side and is of Naples Pier and all the pelicans that fish around there, there are 2 photo tabs which have some pictures of my Dad and my son watching the pelicans from the sea as they flew around.  So alongside the papers and paint there are some prima flowers and alphabet and Websters lace - we used some cosmic shimmer mists to change the colour of the flowers, and milk bottle tops to do some printing too - so generally fairly messy!