Purple Christmas Card

 

Hi again! It's challenge time once again at Christmas Crafting, and this month the theme we were asked to work with was purple.  Our adorable digi's were kindly supplied by Sassy Studio's Digital Stamps, and this lovely lady is called First Snow.

I have to admit this is probably the most challenging month for me to date, I went through my stash and realized I didn't have one - not one - purple piece of designer paper, Gah!  So I worked with what I had and created a clean and simple design, I hope you like :o)   

I have used the Nestabilities Heirloom Die (2011) to create the frame around the digi, which has been coloured with a combination of both Copics and Prismacolor pencils, and finished with a little embossing and a sprinkle of Stickles.

Maisie Caroling

 

This week was my birthday and I received a long admired set of Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor pencils, and I have been having a blast experimenting with them. They are oil based, whereas Prismacolor pencils are wax based, as such they have a harder core. They feel very different to use, and I have found a much lighter touch is required than with the Prismacolor. The only complaint I have about them so far is the limited colour range, 72 in the Rembrandt range versus 120 in the Prismacolor range, with the most lacking gap being the brown palette.

  

As well as the pencils I also bought a few tools that I have been pining over for a while. I got a Crop-o-dile edge cropper, and a few dies by Tim Holtz. I have also used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower Garland strip die for the flowers, and the juniper sprigs are from the Tattered Pinecone die.

I've used the small easel die to create a stand alone picture rather than a card, and I have a feeling this is one die I will use a lot :o)

I am entering this into Mo's Digital Challenge, the theme this week is Anything Goes.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

... when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

It was my turn to choose the theme this month at Christmas Crafting! and I chose the poem Twas The Night Before Christmas.  

I tried a new technique with this project.  The stamp is from Magnolia, and I stamped that onto Bristol Board using black Stayz On ink.  I then used Distress Inks and a water brush to colour the main parts of the image.  Once completely dry, I used Prismacolor pencils to deepen the shadows and put in any fine work such as the berries.

I used Bristol Board rather than watercolour paper because it's intended for multimedia, and it takes the addition of the coloured pencils better than traditional watercolour paper does.  I can see where a few watermarks have been left, but overall I was happy with this as a first attempt and can see the potential for a lot of creativity, and I feel I had a lot more control of the inks using the Bristol Board.

The box that I chose to decorate is an upcycled box from Domino's Pizza, they use these for their dippers and sweets.  The manager of my local store was kind enough to give me some brand new ones to play with.

 

These little boxes are great for altering.  They have a lovely parchment colour as the base, the commercial branding is easily covered with paper, and the inside is wax coated, making it ideal for giving food treats.

I hope I have given you some inspiration this month, why not try altering or upcycling a project! 

Gingham Christmas

It's the first day of a new month and that means Christmas Crafting challenge time!  This month we were challenged with using gingham on our project.  When I think of gingham I think country kitchen, jam jar covers, tea towels, aprons etc.  So for this project I decided to revisit a sketch I did earlier this year.

The first version can be found here.  I loved the concept so much I have several I am going to make over the coming months, and being directed to use gingham was just the excuse I needed to make another!

I've used Kraft card for the base, sweet Tilda has been stamped using Stayzon.  I first started stamping about a year ago, and back then I was warned away from Stayzon as being too difficult to use and clean up, but I have to say it gives the crispest most defined images from every type of stamp.  Little Tilda has been coloured with Prismacolor pencils, which I love using on the Kraft.  The Christmas patterned papers are from Kaisercraft, and the gingham paper is the reverse side of a Graphic 45 paper.

The recipe card is removable, with the gingham strip across the bottom acting as a sleeve for the card.  If you are interested in my recipe I posted it back in December last year, you can find it here.  The sentiment is a free download from the Shabby Princess, it came as part of a holiday recipe kit.

I hope you have been inspired to go forth and create your own gingham Christmas creation!

Christmas Cookies

Hello again!  Welcome to another challenge with Christmas Crafting!  This month's challenge was set by Arline, and she asked us to use an ordinary image to make a Christmas themed project.  The little cutie I used is called Christie Angel, and was generously provided for us to play with by Robyn's Fetish. 

The primitive style of this image is very cute, and very country, which led me to thoughts of my kitchen and from there I decided that she would be perfect for a tag giving a gift from my kitchen.  I'd seen cookie mixes in jars before and always thought they looked so lovely and rustic, so I set my hand at creating one of my own.

The tag is made using two Kaisercraft papers from the December 25th collection, and sweet little Christie is coloured with Prismacolors.  The sentiment is also a stamp from Kaisercraft.  The tag is cut using a Tim Holtz die, tied around the neck of the jar with a bit of raffia.

If you'd like to make your own 'cookie jar', below is the recipe I used.

This recipe is enough to fill a jar designed to hold 500g (17.6oz) of coffee. Place the following ingredients into a jar in the order listed.

2 cups plain (all purpose) flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups quick cook oats

1 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 white sugar

1 cup dried sultanas (or any other dried fruit/nut combo you prefer)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Pour dry ingredients into a large bowl and add: 3/4 cup butter (almost melted), one lightly beaten egg and one teaspoon vanilla essence. Mix thoroughly and roll into 1 1/2 inch sized balls. Bake for 10 minutes.

Yields approximately 40 cookies.

 

Feeling Blue Get Well Card

Card Positioning Systems is celebrating their 5th Anniversary by releasing a sketch a day for 15 days.

This card is my interpretation of the day fifteen sketch, the last one!  I can't believe I did all fifteen, woohoo!

The cute little guy that is feeling blue is Chester, you can find him over at Pollycraft and I've coloured him with Prismacolor pencils.  The designer papers are by Kaisercraft, part of the Toot Toot Collection.  Another clean and simple design, made fun with the use of spots and stripes.

A Fairy Happy Easter

Card Positioning Systems is celebrating their 5th Anniversary by releasing a sketch a day for 15 days.

This card is my interpretation of the day fourteen sketch, my goodness only one more to go!

The fairy postcards are Graphic 45, part of their Once Upon A Springtime Collection.  The designer paper is Kaisercraft, part of their Sweet Nothings collection.  I've inked all the edges with Antique Linen and Bundled Sage Distress Inks.

The leaf accent is cut from a Spellbinders die, the butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch, the roses are from Kaisercraft and last but not least the bow is a fabulous crochet yarn from my stash.