Frosty Goes Grungey!

Afternoon peeps,

A few weeks ago, I made a couple of tags for the swap I run. I have already blogged the Santa tag so thought I would show you the other that I made :O))

The tags I use are from LB Crafts and are, for me, the best you can get. They are lovely and smooth so really love Distress Inks and are the perfect size, being about 6" x 3".




I started off by painting the tag with Weathered Wood Cracklepaint. Once this was dry, I used a blending tool and covered the bottom of the tag with Weathered Wood Distress Ink and then edged with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. I next inked up (using Midnight Blue StaZon) the fab Snowman stamp which is from the Tim Holtz range by Stampers Anon. I stamped this onto the bottom half of the tag and luckily, the stamp is just the right size to fit perfectly!




To make the snowman stand out more, I used white acrylic paint, which I blobbed onto my craft sheet and then spritzed with a little water. This made the paint thinner and more pliable as I do find that acrylic paint can be a little bit thick to paint with LOL I used a fine paintbrush and carefully painted in the snowman and the words and snowflakes on the stamped image. I used a cocktail stick to add little dots of white to the background to make the snowflakes stand out a bit too.




The large snowflake on the top of the tag is actually a Grungeboard shape from the Seasonal range. I had previously painted it with Weathered Wood Cracklepaint and then just lightly brushed some Pearl acrylic paint over the top to make it shimmer. I added a brad as a fastener to finish it off. Finally, I used a piece of snowy paper which is from last years stash (think it is My Minds Eye), tore a small piece to cover the join between the distress ink and the cracklepaint and added a little greeting. I forgot to take a photo of the back of the tag but it was just covered with paper and nowt special!! LOL




Thanks for looking - I can't remember who got this tag in their swaps but I hope that they liked it.

Hels x

Tagging Santa

Afternoon Peeps,

Here is a tag I made for the HCA swap this month.

I used some Cracklepaint in Fired Brick to create a ... er... crackled (!) effect on the top part of the tag and then blended Fired Brick Distress Ink over the top of the rest of the tag.

I then used some Glimmer Mist in Antique Brass to make a lovely golden shimmer effect over the surface.



I stamped the Santa, which is a Tim Holtz collection stamp and then using a fine paint brush, I coloured in Santa's beard and the holly on his hat, using watered down acrylic paint for this.




The holly motif at the top of the tag is made from Grungeboard and I finished off the tag using Distress Stickles in Fired Brick for the holly berries. The Grunge and the Distress Stickles can be bought from The Artistic Stamper.




I covered the back of the tag with heavenly Cosmo Cricket papers and added another Grungeboard piece, which was painted with Cracklepaint and then fancied up with more Distress Stickles.

Thanks for looking.....

Hels x

The Last Santa's.....

Morning all,

Here are the piccies of the final few card designs I have done for this year. I cannot believe that we only have a few more sleeps til Santa!!! Where does the time go eh?

I stuck to the same kind of theme right through my designs this year - mainly because it has been easier to do multiple versions of the same design and I really wanted to be able to send out handmade cards...I didn't want my pain to take over and stop me being able to do this!

For this card, the stamps are by PaperArtsy and the holly image is from the Tim Holtz Collection. Once I had stamped the Santa, I coloured him using watercolours and then layered up some mirri card and Bazzill for the mats. The holly was stamped using Olive Green StaZon and the berries are made using Ruby Slippers Stickles.





This one is made using this lovely Inkadinkado image, coloured with watercolours and then the border made as before. I added dots of Ruby Slippers to the holly wreath on Santa's head.





And finally! I borrowed this stamp from Andrea (thanks hun!) stamped him in black and then watercoloured him...the border is as before....yes, boring but effective!




Thanks for looking peeps. There will be a Sunday Stamper tomorrow with a little bit of Blog Candy to win too, so please pop back in if you have time :O))

Hugs Hels x

The Blue Santa.......

Morning peeps,

No, he isn't being all naughty and blue, he is actually blue, yes, really, he is blue instead of red!

I used some glossy cardstock and alcohol inks to make a background plaid pattern and then using the Tim Holtz Collection stamp of Santa from a couple of years ago, I stamped using Versafine ink.




Once the ink was dry, I cut out the image and layered it onto silver mirri card and then onto blue Bazzill cardstock.

I used the little holly stamp which is also from Tim's collection and made different borders on the cards.





I used silver Stickles to emphasize the holly berries, well, blue holly, silver berries, nowt unusual about that really LOL

Thanks for looking.....oh, BTW, I have finally made ALL of my Christmas cards, written them and posted them!

Am off to be smug for a while now :O))

Hels xx

PS - you can see some green on the photo's...that is my camera reflecting in the mirri card LOL

Postcard From Santa

Hello Peeps,

I have finally managed to get right stuck into the Christmas Card making....and have done 20 today! Mind you, they are more or less all the same designs so have been easy to put together!




This is one of the designs I have used - the stamp is an ATC collage stamp by Stampers Anon from the Tim Holtz Collection. I stamped it using black StaZon and then used a waterbrush and watercoloured Santa's hat and coat, his face and his holly wreath.




I stamped a holly border using another Tim Holtz Collection stamp using Olive Green StaZon to do this.

Finally, I added a little message which is an Inkadinkado stamp and added Ruby Slippers Stickles to the border and to the wreath on Santa's hat.

Simple design, but that is me all over LOL :O))

Thanks for looking.

Hels x

Bobby Goes Dotty

Evening all,

No crafting for me today....have not been feeling too clever...but...here is a card I made the other week that I haven't had chance to Blog.




I used the new Dotty Background stamp from The Artistic Stamper to create the snowy look, embossed with White UTEE also from The Artistic Stamper and then rubbed Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks over the top.




Bobby is coloured with Derwent Watercolours and then matted using Nestabilities, onto the cardstock.

Thanks for looking - BTW, don't forget the great Candy giveaway...featured on the post below :O))

Hels x

Bobby Snow....Again!!

Afternoon All,

More cards for Christmas!! I have made these for my friend Linda to sell to raise some dosh for her charity...every little helps after all. *check out her Blog to see her wonderful creations..she has the most amazing tri-fold cards on there...so clever :O))




Bobby Snow has shown his face again; he was the first snowman I ever designed and I have to admit, he is my favourite :O))



Both cards have been made using the new Cosmo Cricket Christmas papers....oh, they are so lovely to use and as they are double sided...well, it is double the value :O))




The images were coloured using Derwent Aquatone pencils and the holly image is another Stitchels design. I used my 'Bug and Nestabilities for somewhere for Bobby to sit and the greetings are by Inkadinkado... I love these two greetings....you can probably guess that cos these seem to be the only ones I am using this year LOL I also used various colours of Stickles to accent the designs too.




Thanks for looking - and don't forget....a brand new Sunday Stamper theme tomorrow...with added Blog Candy too! Please call back in the morning to check out the challenge and how to win the Candy :O))

Hugs Hels x

Tilda The Basket Case! :O))

Evening Peeps,

Another Christmas Card....yes, I really am cracking on with them now LOL

I used a gorgeous little Tilda stamp that my lovely friend Andrea bought me for Christmas...I know it isn't Christmas yet, but she let me open my pressie early...bless her..and thank you Andrea, I loooove this stamp :O))




I stamped Tilda with black StaZon and then coloured her in with Derwent Aquatone Watercolour pencils. I chose the pink and lime green colour theme to match with some gorgeous papers I have..and, yes, yet again, I cut off the bottom strip before remembering to write down who it was made by! I have a vague recollection that it is SandyLion...but don't quote me!!



Once Tilda was coloured in, I used my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities to make a little oval mat for her to stand on. I used some pinky paper and some lime green Bazzill for this. I then cut some fancy paper and made some mats for the rest of the card...added a little greeting which is by Inkadinkado and used the 'Bug again to cut a couple of snowflakes using glittery cardstock.

To finish the card I used lime green Stickles to add a little sparkle.

Thanks for looking - and also, thanks for the lovely comments earlier in the week which gave me the confidence to use a completely unusual colour theme for a Christmas Card :O))

Hels x

PS.....I keep meaning to say.....can any of you see the snow on my Blog? If you look carefully, you will see that there are little snowflakes falling over the photo's....but cos my background is cream, they don't show up too well....ah well, it is a little festive I guess LOL

Kitty Goes Shopping :O))

Afternoon peeps,

Another day closer to Christmas...and another card made! :O))

This one features a really cute little stamp by Penny Black. If you click here you will be magically transported to a great little online store that have the most fabulous array of Penny Black stamps, all waiting there, temptingly!!

I stamped the image using black StaZon and then used Derwent Aquatone Watercolour pencils to blend the colours on to him. He looks like he has had a good old spend up, doesn't he?





Once the image was completely dried, I used some gorgeous Bo Bunny papers to mat underneath the image and also down the side of the card. Unfortunately, my photographic skills are not working today so this one looks a lot darker than it is and no amount of PhotoShopping has made it look like the original LOL (mind you, I am pretty rubbish with computers so there is no hope!!!) The message is by Inkadinkado and is stamped using a Brilliance DewDrop in Thyme Green.




I added some lime green Stickles to the edges of the image mat and onto the little fella's jumper and bobble hat and then added a couple of golden brads as a finishing touch.

Don't forget that today is the last day for adding a post for the Blog Candy I am giving away - if you click here you will be transported, as if by magic, to the post I am waffling on about :O))

Thanks for looking!

Hels x

Millie & Bobby Snow

Hey Peeps,

I have made a couple of Christmas cards today - I know, I am getting all efficient :O)) At this rate I will be ready for Christmas on about the 24th December!!!




I used two of my Stitchels Snowmen stamps to make these cards. I coloured them with Derwent Aquacolour Pencils, used my Nestabilities for mounting them and then used Bo Bunny and PaperMania papers to co-ordinate with the colours.




I also used my favouritist new toy - the Cuttlebug - to cut out a couple of snowflakes for which I used some fab glitter cardstock. A few dabs of Stickles here and there, to highlight and add a little sparkle, finished the cards nicely for me.



Don't forget, I have some Blog Candy up for grabs - click here for the link straight to that post - all you need to do is add a comment and you will be entered into the hat. The winner will be announced on Friday this week.



Speaking of Blog Candy....my mate Jennie, over on The Artistic Stamper Blog, is doing a 25 Days of Christmas Candy Giveaway. Pop over and see her fabby daily creations and leave a message for her, then you could be in with a chance of winning some great pressies :O)) Click here to be transported to Candy Heaven LOL

Thanks for looking ... am off to make some more Christmas cards while I have my festive hat on!!

Hels x

A Blue Christmas

Evening peeps,

Another Christmas card that I have made, this time a blue one:

I used a small piece of heavenly embossed paper, cannot remember who made it though, sorry - I removed the little strip from the bottom of the paper and didn't make a note of the manufacturer!!




I matted this onto silver mirri and blue Bazzill cardstock. I then stamped the snowflake swirl (Inkadinkado) using silver embossing powder to get a nice finish to the image. Next, I poked holes in the stamped image and threaded some fine silver wire thru the holes and added seed beads to the wire. I did this twice and then added a little silver snowflake button to one of the snowflake images of the stamp. I added little blue gems to the dots on the design and then matted this onto silver mirri and blue Bazzill. I got the idea for the wire threading when I went on a great craft weekend with The Card Studio - we used this stamp on a card we made in the workshop and used the wire threading technique then - I just elaborated a bit and used a few beads to make it look pretty :O))





The sentiment is by Penny Black, isn't it a lovely saying? This was then added to the card - matted as the others were. Finally, I used another piece of thin silver wire and poked a hole through the top of the card, attached a snowflake charm which I bought from Scrapz and then added more seed beads to the wire and secured it with a silver brad.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to read yesterday's post...Blog Candy up for grabs :O))

Hugs Hels xx

Be Good With Blog Candy

Evening peeps,

Another Christmas card made using the fabulous Cosmo Cricket "Be Good" range of papers, I have to say, these are my absolute favourite Christmas papers of all time :O))

I began by stamping a lovely Holly Scroll stamp (Inkadinkado) onto a plain piece of the Be Good paper, embossing the image in gold. I added dots of Ruby Slippers Stickles to make little berries on the holly.



I matted this onto some golden cardstock and then used a small piece of beige card, running it thru my Cuttlebug to emboss a holly design onto it. I matted this onto gold card and just lightly rubbed a little Walnut Stain Distress Ink over the embossed leaves to highlight them. I added a couple of dots of the Ruby Slippers to the berries on the embossed detail.

Matted onto a large piece of the Be Good paper, I finally popped a lovely little sentiment onto the card and et voila, finished!!



Then, I sat there looking at it and thinked to myself....mmmm, it is missing something....so I had a rummage in the Prima stash I have and added a couple of flowers and a brad to the card....much better I think :O)

Now, for the important bit.....I have a little bit of Blog Candy to giveaway to a lucky reader, who will be chosen at random, on Friday 5th December.

The candy is a little sheet of unmounted Stitchels Mini-Mini stamps that I designed. Here is a little piccie of them coloured in, so you can see what you could win:



Along with the unmounted stamp sheet, you will also win a piece of Kling-On Repositionable Cushioning, so you can mount your Stitchels straight away. Now, the Stitchels are mini in size, so they are perfect for those tiny little details you want to add to your ATC's, Inchies, Moo's etc. I will however, be giving away an A5 size sheet of Kling-On, so you will have plenty left over to play with on other stamps :O))



All you need to do to enter this giveaway is add a post here & add a link from your Blog to mine.

There will be another couple of Candy giveaway's later in the month, so please come back and visit to see if you could be the winner :O))

The Stitchels stamps, Kling-On, Distress Inks, Stickles etc used in my project can be found at The Artistic Stamper.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to reading your comments.

Hugs

Hels xx

Marty Is In The Pink :O))

Evening peeps,

Yesterday I showed you a few images of the Stitchels snowmen that I had coloured in - with a promise that I would be making them into cards today......whoops...where did today go then? LOL

I managed to make just the one card today. I used one of the snowmen, this one is called Marty and here he is before he got all dressed up!





I used Fancy Pants papers, Nestabilities, Green Stickles Glitter Glue and a couple of fancy snowflake embellies I put together this:




I know, I know, if I carry on at this rate, I will have about 20 cards ready for this Christmas....so I really must get cracking because I need to make another 100 odd....eeek, how many???




Anyways, I would love your opinions as this is not a colour scheme I would normally use for Christmas and I quite like the departure from the normal red, green and gold.

Thanks for looking

Hels x

Is The Mojo Coming Home?

:O))

I have been resting today and gently doing some watercolouring - I am one of those people who cannot seem to sit and do nothing, so I had my beany lap tray and my Derwent Aquatone pencils and some stamped images. I am hoping that I will be able to move a bit more tomorrow so I will be able to pop a few cards together!

Here are the Stitchels snowmen as they are now and tomorrow, they hopefully will be complete with papers to match! If you like the stamps, click here to have a look at more :O))




I have some heavenly papers from Bo Bunny and from Fancy Pants that are in the same colour scheme so they have been watercoloured to match.

In the middle of the night I couldn't sleep, so I did actually make a simple Xmas card - and I actually managed to tie a bow! Fair do's, it took me over ten minutes to get it right but I did it!! The papers on this card are my fave Xmas papers ever - Be Good by Cosmo Cricket - and the stamp is by Inkadinkado.




Thanks for looking - I am so pleased I am actually starting to feel my Mojo returning! Let's hope that it is unpacked and ready and waiting for me tomorrow!

Hels xx

Jolly Santa!

Good Morning,

Blimey, I finally managed to get around to blogging a card I made ages ago - yes, it is a Christmas card too!!

So far, I have managed to make the grand total of three more - I seem to have lost my Mojo, which is never a happy thing for a crafter who has a trillion cards to get ready for the festive season - I was in such a fluster earlier, I actually considered......buying some!!! Before you all start to shout at me - I have talked myself out of it and decided that little and often may just be the ticket to getting the cards made. You know what it is like though...when you have a brain full of ideas that are not Christmas based!



Anyway, this card was made for The Artistic Stamper boards for Port Sunlight. I love this image, he is so jolly and happy looking isn't he?

I prepared some plain cream cardstock by spritzing it with Gold Glimmer Mist. I then stamped the Santa and edged the card with Fired Brick Distress Ink. I next matted this onto some gold card, onto red Bazzill and gold card again... and then onto the sage coloured Bazzill cardstock which makes up the most of the card front. I bent up the edges of the cardstock to make it look a little bit shabby - I must have been going for a vintage look :O))




The little embellies around the edges are actually Fragments from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology range. I love these little clear tiles, they are so versatile and to achieve this effect, I stamped parts of some Bauble stamps - also from The Artistic Stamper - onto gold card, using gold embossing powder. I then popped the Fragments onto the bauble images and used Glossy Accents to stick them down. The beauty of using GA is that it dries completely clear so you get a clear finish. However, whoops-a-daisy, by the time morning came, the GA had changed the colour of the gold embossing to a greeny colour....yikes, it is potent stuff then...but I actually quite liked the look of it, so I left it in!




Thanks for looking - hopefully there will be a few more Christmas cards coming soon - I have some delightful little Tilda stamps to play with and I have lots of ideas for the Stitchels Snowmen - click here to see them online. I have been told that they are really easy to use for colouring in and popping onto cards as a main image - and I (of course slightly biased) love them loads!

Hels x