Vintage Christmas Greetings

Greetings Everyone - today the new challenge at Divas by Design is anything goes, so pop right over to see what my fabulous teamies have made for your inspiration.

As you can imaging, I haven't made very much in the way of Christmas cards and seeing as I bought a gorgeous MME 12x12 pack in the QVC sale last year, I have just been dying to use it. The designs and colours are stunning (well I think they are), so I have challenged myself to use these papers and vintage images to get a few cards made.

I have used 3 of the DPs with some plain colours, vintage photo distress ink and white acrylic paint. A border punch, a few embellishments and some ribbon and it didn't take too long at all.

I am looking forward to see what you might be entering. Only another two and a half weeks and we break up for the Christmas holidays. I am looking forward to having the break and the time to get back to crafting.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
The Crazy Challenge - Stars or Snowflakes
The Ribbon Reel - Anything Goes
Victorine Stamps - Use ribbon
Gingerloft - Christmas or Winter
Paper Sundaes -Winter Wonderland
Sparkles Forum - Vintage Christmas

Shabby and Vintage Tags 2

A little while ago I showed you two of the tags I made while I was away for a few days over half term. We found a fabulous B&B and went out during the day, but when we got back late afternoon, I sat in our room and made these tags before we got ready and went out for an evening meal.

First though I haven't welcomed any of my new followers for ages, so a big hello to Nigel, romantyczka, Sue, Lindsay, Sara, Sara, Susan, Tee, Caroline, Ginger, Gypsy Purple, Tammy, Debby, Ozmunchkin, Caroline, Marlene, Judith, Trace, Cath, Suzanne, Sandra, Marie, Michelle, Wendy and Renee. I find it so amazing that people want to follow my creative journey and feel so blessed that you leave wonderful comments for me.

So onto tag number three. This has a mix of elements on it that I had taken with me, the rosette had already been cut for another project and not used, but was very useful on this tag to lift the butterfly. The words come from an old book I bought at an antique store we found at the side of the road on one of our days out, and it's one I will use when I finish Ken's bird album.

Tag four's image I think is from a Debbie Moore set I bought ages ago and again all the other elements I had in envelopes in my bag,  except the little lace rose which I had bought whilst out on my travels that weekend.

I hope you like my little collection.

I have actually got the Christmas decorations down from the loft and decorated the conservatory and dining room.  want to get the living room and hallway done next weekend and the trees can be bought and decorated the weekend after that. Now just gotta get cards and pressies sorted.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday, it is beautifully sunny here after a most miserable day yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by to see me.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes
Lily Pad - Use buttons
Crafty Ribbons - Tags
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Recipe include at least 3 of - ribbon, image, patterned paper, layers, brads etc.
Sarah Hurley Challenge - Buttons
Crafts and Me - Shabby Chic/Vintage

Fancy Folds at Sugar Creek Hollow

Hi Everyone

I am really pleased and proud today to be a guest design team member for Sugar Creek Hollow. They want to see a vintage, shabby chic or primitive card with fancy folds. Now I have to admit with being in the run up to Christmas at school I really didn't have the time to get into something really exotic and fancy, but I have got more than one fold, so I hope that counts. I apologise for the quality of the photographs today, they were taken at night in ordinary house light, so not the best I am afraid.

I have used an arch triptych card that I bought a pack of a long time ago and it comes with the panels already cut and embossed. I covered these panels with distress stains and shabbied and inked the edges, then decorating them with vintage photos from Crafty Individuals and other bits and pieces. I really enjoyed just finding things from my stash rather than starting from scratch and creating everything I need as I go along. I really must do this more often so as to use up more of my supplies.

I hope you are having a good weekend. I should really get myself organised with finishing off Christmas present buying and getting cards written and in the post. I have been really lucky this year as my sister Chris has made alot, and I mean alot, of cards for me knowing I wouldn't have the time, so I have no excuse. Anyway enjoy your day whatever you are doing.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

PS - tune in for next Sunday's fabulous challenge at FSC and if you are getting fed up with the Christmas themes, I will give you a clue, we have a challenge on my most favourite topic at the moment. Can you guess?

PanPastels Frosty and Bright

Hi All

I have been playing with my PanPastels again and this time I experimented to get a cold and frosty effect background using distress inks, embossing ink and my one and only blue PP.

Here is a mini tutorial to show how I achieved the background effect.

Starting with a piece of card I covered it in the fabulous new DI called Iced Spruce. Heat dried it and then stamped TH snowflakes with embossing ink. I then used a sponge and dabbed turquoise PP over it until the snowflakes appeared.

Then I sprayed it with an acrylic sealer. Next I used the same snowflake stamp and used white acrylic paint with it. 

When I had finished I sprinkled glamour dust over them to get that nice frosty/sparkly effect and sprayed it again.

The snowman was die-cut using a sizzix die and covered with snow-tex and faux snow added to the hat and scarf. I used 2 snowflake punches and my new Memory Box Frosty Border to create the rest of the snowflakes.

.......  and finally some gems, beads, sequins and a Kanban red rolled flower and some die-cut leaves.

Here you can see the frosty effects.

I was so lucky to win the PanPastels challenge last week and would like to say a big thankyou to the team at this great challenge blog.

I hope you like my frosty and bright card. I would like to enter it into challenges at -

PanPastels UK Challenge Blog - Frosty and Bright

Sunday Stamper - Frosty the Snowman

Ladybug Crafts Ink - Winter Blues

Make My Monday - Christmas Flowers, Foliage or snowflakes

CES Challenges - Snowflakes

CCEE Stampers 2 de-cuts or 2 punches (I have got both)

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

White Christmas - the new theme at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, 

just perfect for this time of year. 

But how will you interpret it? 

What about using mostly white on your card? 

Then again you might choose to link a project to the seasonal musical 'Holiday Inn'. 

Then again "White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. 

Heck whatever you fancy really. 

But for me a white Christmas is all about snow.

So as I suggested this idea I decided to use white acrylic paint for the TH snowflakes on acetate and laid it over a stamped image of Santa Claus, a La Blanche stamp inked with coffee archival and stamped onto kraft card. I used white acrylic paint and distress ink to paint in some of the face. The sentiment is a Just Rite stamp (I keep forgetting I have these) and a ribbon to finish off.

Please take a look at the wonderful creations on the catwalk, gain some inspiration, show us your stamping and come join us.

There is always a fabulous stamp as a prize.

Enjoy your Sunday.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Paper Sundaes - Beautiful bows
Scrappy Frogs - Use kraft card
Sparkles Forum - Vintage Christmas
Crafty Emma - Snowflakes
MAWTT - Let it snow

Halloween Tag Give-Away Winners

Good morning, I hope this finds you bright and cheery and ready for that Christmas shopping or whatever you have planned for today.

I have been so busy at work, I forgot about my Halloween tag give-away and suddenly it just popped into my head this morning - how does our brain do that? Anyway I promised that those who linked to my Halloween printables post would be put into a draw to receive a tag. 

Well as am so late, I have decided to give four of them away.

Here is my little box of numbers, one for each entry.

And here are the winning numbers

So well done to.............................................

MARTINA for her amazing Halloween box and she gets Tag 1

LISA-JANE for her fabulous card using her daughter's image 'Witch Dusty' and she gets Tag 2

GINA, I think it was for her Zac-a-lantern (sorry Gina your link has stopped working) anyway you won Tag 3.

and lastly LORRAINE for her Trick or Treat card and she wins Tag 4

Girls, please email me your address which is on my side-bar and I will get your tag in the post to you.

Thanks everyone who played along with me, I think I will try this again, great fun.

Have a wonderful weekend.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Tim Holtz inspired at The Stamp Man

Yay the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend.

Today it is my turn to host the challenge at The Stamp Man and I am asking that you choose any of Tim's Tags of Christmas - (so that gives you 48 to decide from) - and use his techniques to create your own Christmas project, that could be a card, tag or altered item. Just tell us which tag you have chosen and the techniques you have used from it. This really gives you the opportunity to be as creative as you want, but with a TH Christmas theme.

I chose Tim's very first tag, which you can find here. If you want to go directly to Tim's home page to find the others you could choose from, then click HERE. Scroll down and you will find them listed under Categories.

The main technique I used was a crackle paint background. 

When this was dry I stamped over it and added torn music paper, ribbons and embellishments.

Tag 1 - The Snowman

Tag 2 - Christmas Snow 1

Tag 3 - Snowflakes

Tag 4 - Christmas Snow 2

Tag 5 - Santa Claus

Tag 6 - Merry Christmas

Supplies used -

Tim Holtz Crackle Paint - picket fence, old paper, tattered rose, brushed corduroy, brushed pewter, tarnished brass

Distress Inks - weathered wood, dusty concord, seedless preserves, black soot, tumbled glass, tea dye, pumice stone, chipped sapphire, tattered rose. stormy sky, vintage photo, bundled sage, barn door, antique linen, mustard seed, ripe persimmon

Tim Holtz stamps - mini holidays 2

 I hope we will see you over at Jill's great challenge blog entering your fabulous creations and please go take a look at some amazing work for you inspiration by my teamies.

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Ginger Gem at Gingersnap Creations 

this week for my 'Ravens' piece.

Have a wonderful day and a great weekend.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

An Explosion of Colour

The PanPastels challenge this week is actually called 'Fireworks/Exploding Colours', but I wanted to show a variety of bright colours used as the background and more added in layers with masks over card and music paper.

This was achieved with just five of my PanPastels showing how versatile they are and how well they mix and blend together. I have stamped over the top and then added atyou spica black glitter pen over the top. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and PPs tapped lightly over and then Sakura glitterpen over the top of that.

I have added a shabby fabric flower, cut the bird cage from patterned paper and then highlighted it with PPs, cut the bird covered it in Tim's tissue tape and again added PPs and a couple of die-cuts.

I just love playing and experimenting with these. I think I need to add some more colours on my Christmas list.

Stamps used with archival ink are TH Grunge Circe and Fairytale Frenzy.
Masks - Tando Creative - music and Spellbinders Impressabilities - Fleur de Lis

Another inspection finished at school, now I hope we can settle down and prepare for Christmas, it has been such a hectic term.

I hope you are enjoying your week and managing some art and craft work.

Oooh nearly forgot, remember my pumpkin tag was chosen as card of the week at Sugar Creek Hollow, well I've been asked to be a guest designer for them, so keep an eye out later this month for my piece, can't wait to show you what I am making.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

PS Here is one of my cats asleep in my craft bag. He thinks he is a dog sometimes as he has to come and lay by my feet or be in close proximity. Like alot of cats he likes to get in boxes and bags when you aren't looking. Say hello to Tinder.

Shabby and Vintage Tags 1

Happy Friday Everyone - the weekend is upon us.

I am sharing some tags I made whilst I was away the other weekend for a few days in Swanage. I took a bag of bits with me which included some lovely images from the Graphics fairy and the Crafty Individuals booklets. (No stamping!!!)

First though I want to show you these great things I found at an antique market in Bridport and at Wimborne market.

The glass doored cabinet was very cheap at only £5, the thimble display box was only £2.50 and the smaller carved box was £1.50 - bargains don't you think? I also bought the little dress form, some sets of old keys, some cigarette cards and a tiny glass bottle.

I just loved this vintage picture of the little girl and  wanted to make the tag quite feminine but rustic at the same time.....

So this is tag number one. I had taken with me some pages from an old book and  bought some fabrics whilst I was there as well, so these all came together very nicely methinks. I cut out words and phrases from the book pages to give the tags a focus.

Tag 2 .......

..... now this one is very masculine. I used one of the old keys I bought and added some staples to keep the industrial feel to it.

There will be a couple more to show you another day.

Enjoy and have a great week. I am teaching at The Art of Craft in Farnborough (Hants) tomorrow - we will be making my vintage mini album. I hope you are all into fabulous crafty things this weekend.

luv and hugs {brenda} xox