Monday 25 December 2017

Shabby Christmas Card - Holly - and Christmas Greetings

This was the second of my shabby seasonal stand up cards which has almost the same technique as the first one I made ( which you can find here if you missed it).


I did a make and take at Ministry of Mixology and created a shabby vintage card which you can see here. The boards were cut for me by Di at Tando Creative and I have been using to make a set of cards to put into the Pack House.


I dribbled and daubed some watery washes over the chalk paints to create some contrast and depth of colour.


I added Tim's easel die-cut as the stand .......


... and used this die-cut for the sentiment, cut from textured card like core'dinations, sanded and inked.


Well the big day has arrived, I hope it is one filled with love, happiness and some quiet peaceful moments for reflection.

**********************

My Christmas tree this year in the conservatory, I love it.


Ella, my 11 year old Granddaughter on stage at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford in their pantomime for this year - Dick Whittington.



So proud of her.


And from me to you, with my family and Santa, I wish you a very 
Merry Christmas.


hugs Brenda xxx




Saturday 23 December 2017

Abstract Christmas Art - DecoArt MMDT

AS my grandchildren said to me yesterday today is Christmas Eve Eve and I hope you are now ready for the festivities.

I have a Christmas canvas over on the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog  which originally started out as an experiment in abstract art and morphed into a Christmas canvas.

If you would like to see all the process steps and photos please pop on over when you have a minute to see how I brought this together.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 22 December 2017

Shabby Christmas Card - Santa's Wish

I have so enjoyed making this selection of cards with chalk paints, chipboard pieces and die-cut card. Others can be found by scrolling back (or clicking Reindeer Wish or Snowflake Noel) and you will see completely different designs but more or less the same technique to make them.


The backgrounds are painted with the DecoArt media acrylics ......


..... and the white is chalky finish paint stippled over. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz die.


I die cut an easel from mountboard using the Tim Holtz die and added it to the back to give it the support it needs to stand up.


My wish for Christmas is for a peaceful world where people live happily and in harmony together.

Only three more sleeps.

hugs Brenda xxx

Saturday 16 December 2017

Shabby Christmas Card - Reindeer Wish

The fourth in the first series of shabby cards for the Packhouse, this time I used one of the large Reindeer from Tando Creative and some of their snowflakes with a die-cut border, stars and sentiment. I actually taught this card yesterday at Let's Be Creative and had a fabulous day full of fun, laughter, fabulous outcomes and festive cheer.




I really love this one as I really like the varied the background colours using the DecoArt media acrylics and chalky finish paints. They really stand out quite strongly on this card.


You can find a few more photos and details over on the Tando Blog today.

Have a fabulous weekend, only one more week or 10 more sleeps till the big day.

hugs Brenda xxx




Monday 11 December 2017

Shabby Christmas card - Snowflake Noel

Following Andy Skinner's class at Ministry of Mixology where he used layers of chalk paint for the base layers I came home and tried out using those layers as the actual technique for a set of shabby stand up Christmas cards to put into the Pack House to see if they would sell. (Fingers crossed).


I used DecoArt Chalky Finish Legacy with a tiny amount of black and Everlasting for the two layers with some beautiful tando Creative snowflakes and some die-cut stars and a border and I also used the Tim Holtz Vintage Tidings sentiment words.
I'm not going to share the exact technique here but it might well come up in one of my Technique Tuesday posts that will return in the new year.


I love the very shabby, snowy effects ........


.... and the wintry feel to this card.


The sentiment has been die cut from coredinations card and sanded so that it is in keeping wth the overall effects.


A Tim Holtz easel die cut means this card can stand and be a piece of Christmas art in it's own right.


There are a few more details over on the Tando Creative blog and I've got another couple of designs coming up before the big day arrives.

I hope you're snug and warm at home if you've had the snow this past couple of days, I am on the Surrey/Hampshire border and apart from some sleet showers have not seen any of it. 

Take care and have a good week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 8 December 2017

Craft Stamper - Vintage Tart Tin Christmas Tree Decoration

This is a Craft Stamper project published in the magazine a couple of months ago which I thought I would share with you. Trish, our lovely Editor, sent out this small tartlet shaped tin to be altered and because my conservatory is decorated with white, cream, silver and light gold I thought I would keep to those colours.


Process steps
Paint the metal tart tin with two layers of Rustic Chalky Finish paint.


Rub over with candle wax and give a coat of Lace chalk paint and rub away the paint, repeat this a second time with a creamy colour.


Paint on a coat of cream creme wax, let it dry and buff, then repeat with dark brown wax and rub off as much as you need to to leave a shabby aged vintage look.
Stamp snowflakes with coffee archival ink.


Prepare a Christmas token and word band by painting over the lace chalk paint and carefully rubbing back with kitchen towel to leave the lighter colour in the word crevices. Use Teakwood alcohol ink to darken the edges.



Make up a little collection of shabby beaded berries and white painted pine cones and wire them together to create a little posy.


Assemble the elements together and add some ribbon to hang your decoration on the tree.



For me it's definitely 'the most wonderful time of the year', well one of them.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

hugs Brenda xxx

Wednesday 6 December 2017

Two Friends Blog Post with Marjie Kemper.

It was a little while ago now when I was contacted by the fabulous Marjie Kemper who asked if I would like to join her in a blog series she was planning calling it 

Two Friends’ Favorite Blog Posts

Firstly I was surprised to receive the email and felt very proud that she calls me a friend and secondly thrilled to be asked to join in. When I got the link and graphics for the post going live today I was even more excited to find I have been paired with another very lovely blogging friend Jenny Marples at 'Pushing the Right Buttons' so that both of us share the post together.

I would be very happy if you could pop on over to see Marjie's post and you can see what I chose for my project in the graphic below.


Thanks Marjie for choosing me and letting me share some space on your wonderful blog.

Hoping you all are having a great week and keep an eye open for some more very exciting news I have to share - coming soon.

hugs Brenda xxx


Friday 1 December 2017

Winter Wonderland stand up card

It's Winter Wonderland over at A Vintage Journey with this being the theme for the December challenge.


My sample for the challenge is one of my Tando stand up cards.


Di at Tando Creative has cut me boards to the exact size I wanted to make these cards using the white backed greyboard. The grey side was painted with a thin coat of gesso and when dry dipped into watery decoart dazzling metallics crystal green and ice blue paints and dried, then stamped with archival cornflower blue using a stampendous vintage text stamp. As always I distressed and inked the edges.


The snowflake background and snowflake have been created the same as a card I made in 2015 which can be found HERE. You can see I added some shabby seam binding ribbon to it before adhering it to the background.



The stand is soooo easy to make out of two pieces of card.


 I added the Lin Brown sentiment from PaperArtsy which fitted perfectly across the board and when all was assembled I splattered with some titanium white media acrylic paint.


I hope we'll see you enjoying entering your winter projects with us at AVJ and now I need to get myself in full Christmas mode with getting cards made and out, decorations up and some traditional sweet treats made for my kids and grandchildren.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx