A fun afternoon creating mono prints.

Look what I got for Christmas! 

Today I went shopping, intending to have a look round the sales and just have a 'mooch', but I got bored and I was home within the hour, desperate to experiment with my gelli plate. Wow, it took me back to my college days and teaching days in the classroom, what fun I had.

This photo was taken after I had started clearing up, the stamps and masks were already in a sink of soapy water.

The prints kept building up on the floor as I played.

My most favourite four mono prints

This being my most favourite of all.

My most favourite 'ghost' prints.

My least favourite ones.

But saying that, now I have got them up in the craft room under better light, I have to say I love these too and can see me using them.  I got 23 prints in total, so expect to see some of them in projects over the coming weeks. In fact I received the new Crafty Individuals stamps before I went on holiday and I can see them both going together really well. So more fun to have. 

If you haven't seen the new stamps they are fabulous, so NOT my style, but they are calling me to have a playtime. The new designer is called Alice Palace and her blog can be found here. The stamps can be found on the new CI web site

I think I am going to have alot of thinking time with these lol.

I hope you have had a great Christmas and everything went to plan. Hopefully you have got a day or two to have a bit of a rest before the new year celebrations.

Thanks for all your Christmas wishes and for stopping by again to read my blog, I feel so honoured that you are here.

See you Sunday for the new year challenge for Fashionable Stamping Challenges.

 hugs {brenda} X0X

Christmas Frame

My last Christmas piece for 2012, in fact I have cleared all my Christmas supplies back into the box and put under the spare bed lol.

This was a Marianne frame I did with my workshop ladies last week at The Art of Craft, it was great fun to make and they loved theirs to take home and display over the festive period.

Design papers from Best Creations Inc ........

Coredinations papers, computer generated words ..................

Punches and Tim Holtz, Memory Box and Marianne dies ...............

Vintage images .................

Glitter, acrylic paint, crackle paint and embellishments.

Only one more sleep. We have the family and some friends for dinner tonight, the family come again for dinner tomorrow, then off to our son and daughter-in-law's for Boxing day. It's a busy holiday as we will be out for a friend's birthday on the 28th and to another friend on the 29th and then a small party here for new year's eve on the 31st.

Wishing you peace and happiness this festive season wherever you are in the world.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Desert Island Christmas cards 3

Just a quick post before I take some things back to M&S, thought I would go now rather than wait till after Christmas when the queues are horrendous lol.

The last of the cards I made when on holiday in Lanzarote earlier this month - it seems like an age ago now.

I had already punched the borders before I left home.

I love the pink and red together on this one.

Here you can see everything I took packed into a very small space.

One more post tomorrow to show a Christmas frame that I did with my class last week.

I hope you are nearly there with preparations and it won't be too busy a day.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Desert Island Christmas cards 2

Some more of the cards I made whilst I was on holiday.

All four backings were made from one sheet of A4 DP, chopped into four pieces with different vintage images and embellishments.

I hope you are having a good week. It's my last day of work today, I will just have some paperwork to do tomorrow and that's me then finished - yay. Hopefully I can get back to blogging.

I just want to say hello to Debbie of  'A Scrapjourney'. Debbie and I have been commenting on each other's blog for a long time. I knew she lived in my area but we had never met up, but she suddenly appeared at The Art of Craft where I was doing a workshop last week. It was lovely to meet you at last.

See you all soon.

hugs {brenda} xox

Christmas masking

Happy Sunday, I hope you are now well into your Christmas preparations. I still have quite a bit to do, but we are getting there.

Today I have one post for both Fashionable Stamping Challenges and PanPastels DTs. The challenge today at FSC is 'Mask It' and at PanPastels it is 'Christmas Time' and by putting them together I have made a Christmas card for my hubbie.

I used a mask and Maimeri modelling paste, available from our sponsors 'Your Creativity Store', to create the texture on the background and then when it was dry I added PPs and also used a holly mask to create further interest.

The toy soldier is a Sizzix die coloured with distress stains, inked round the edges and edged with black pen.

The Marianne trees have been dry brushed with white paint and I created texture on them by using the die for embossing over them to make it look like branches.

Finally one die cut and two punched snowflakes, a die cut 25 and computer generated sentiment complete finish it off.

I am not around again today, I will be attending day 2 of the Andy Skinner workshops at The Stamp Attic. I am looking forward to having some time over the Christmas and New Year to play with the techniques I am learning.

Sorry I haven't been commenting this week. The catch-up with work after my holiday, a day being a governor at a local school and then prepping and doing a workshop at The Art of Craft has prevented me from doing much else. But hopefully I can catch up with you all this week.

Take care, only 10 more sleeps before Christmas.

hugs Brenda xox

Desert Island Christmas cards

Good afternoon from a wild, wet and windy Surrey.

I thought to cheer myself up I would show you some of the Christmas cards I made whilst I was on holiday - hence the title lol - (actually I am procrastinating, I should be doing paperwork, writing Christmas cards and getting the house decorated but my head isn't in it), but I am missing the warmth and sunshine.

I made this card after visiting some friends in Fuerteventura, the colours of the sea and foam were my inspiration. I sent them the card from Lanzarote, before we came home.

I took such a small amount of supplies with me. 2 pencil cases with glue, double sided tape, one DI pad,  a glittery and a gold pen, scissors and ruler. A plastic folder with some designer papers, punched snowflakes and small embellishments, some music paper, ribbons and lace.

This is Ken and I on our balcony the day we came home, seems strange it was only a week ago yesterday.

Enjoy your day.

hugs {brenda} xox

Song or Carol Title for PanPastel

Happy Sunday Everyone.

This is a Christmas card with 'O Christmas Tree' as the inspiration this week for our PanPastel UK challenge.

I used Crafty Individuals paper and stamp using the pans to colour the tree stamped with embossing ink. I used a zig glue pen on the stars and added glitter and when it was completely dry I drew around them using a white pen.

The background paper from one of the CI Christmas paper pads was given a wash of white acrylic paint and lightly blended with green PP when dry. I sealed it and then covered it with Tim's frosted film to get that opaque sparkly look to it. I used cream glittered card for the embellishments and music paper with the carol title and music on to give a collage style.

Today I am visiting my sister and delivering her Christmas presents and I hope to get back to get one of my Christmas trees decorated. I hope you are in full swing with all your preparations.

A big thank you to Anita who sent me a card for Becca, it arrived yesterday Anita, I shall see her tonight and be able to give it to her.

Have a great day.

hugs {brenda} xox

I am home and a Christmas card catch up.

What horrible weather to come home to. Ken and I have been on a 2 week winter break to Lanzarote and loved it. We have never been away at this time of year before, but it's certainly something I would do again.

So my posts have been scheduled and everything seemed to go fine until Wednesday when the post went live but no photos!!!  Thanks to those of you who left me comments but I didn't have access to a PC, only had my Ipad, so I couldn't do anything about it. But here now are the pics.

I used a Gecko Gals image and MME backing paper, cut from a 12 x 12 page.

So I got 4 for my collection. Trouble is I haven't written one yet, got lots to do now.

Some Frantage to add a bit of bling.

And the snowflakes made from punches.

The washing machine is on, I have a project to get made today for a workshop I am doing on Thursday, I have to work most of next week and the decs have got to be got down from the loft.

But I am now excited to get into preparing for Christmas and seeing the family again.

By all accounts Becca is doing well, she is back at school part time and doing her mock GCSE exams to see what she needs to catch up on. The Consultant was pleased with her when she saw him last week. Thanks everyone who has kept in touch with me about her and thanks Terry for your parcel which I saw when I checked my post this morning. I will be getting in touch with each and every one of you personally.

See you soon, thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

hugs {brenda} xox

Christmas card - Gecko Galz

Still on my making Christmas cards trek - aren't we all??? I made four of these to add to the box.

This is a vintage image from Gecko Galz, layered up, some frantage enamels, snowflakes and poinsettia all punched out.

I am so loving making collage things again at the moment.

Enjoy.

hugs {brenda} xox

Gift Time at PanPastels

Today the new challenge at PanPastels UK is about 'Gift Time' and I have created a gift to give someone at Christmas, I don't know who yet lol.

Using a Sizzix die I cut a note-let holder from greyboard and painted it with white acrylic paint. When it was dry I gently blended green, yellow and blue PanPastels to give a smooth background and sealed it.

I over stamped with various stamps using Versamark Dazzle embossing ink and gently patting pans over the top to create all the images. I sealed the covered stamped areas as I went along and gave a final spray at the end using a colourless fixative.

I glued the top together, added some magnets as closures and glued the positionable notes inside. To give the cut seams some support I added silver metal tape (next time I do it I will alcohol ink the tape before I stick it down) and added some message words.

Now I have a tree present for Christmas day.

Don't forget you could win a set of PanPastels from 'Your Creativity Store'if you enter, so why not have a go?

hugs {brenda} xox