Red and Green at PanPastel UK

Yeah, another Christmas card (well two actually) and my DT contribution to the PanPastel UK challenge for this week.

The background is just two red PPs blended together then sealed. Twigs stamped with dazzle EP and gently patted with various greens and yellow PPs and sealed again.

Tim Holtz Holly die-cut using brown, green and red card, covered with PPs in appropriate colours, sealed then covered with Rock Candy crackle paint.

The vintage image is from Gecko Galz Old Fashioned Christmas collage sheet.

Red and greens are the colours of the season and if you enter the challenge you are in with a chance of winning a starter set of PanPastels from our regular sponsor 'Your Creativity Store'.

Have a great Sunday whatever you have planned.
See my last post to see what I am doing today ....... so exciting.

hugs {brenda} xox

PS News of Becca - she was finally allowed home Friday afternoon, ....... so wonderful.
The whole family came round last night and we had a great meal and catch-up together. Considering all the trauma she has had to deal with she was bright and chirpy and wanted to talk about her experiences, which is healthy.
Thanks for all your comments and support, you have really helped me over the past couple of months and I so appreciate it.  B xx

Home Sweet Home at FSC

I am not here today,  I am off out to have an inky, painty, grungy time with the fabulous Andy Skinner. Can't wait to have a whole day learning new techniques and I am going to meet the fabulous Laura Liddell - As Happy As ....  We both have booked 5 days with Andy, one Sunday every month till March 13 at The Stamp Attic - 

I wonder who else will be there??????

My second post for today is for Fashionable Stamping Challenges and a theme of 'Home, Sweet, Home'. 

This got me thinking and the rest of the DT too and we brainstormed lots of ideas, so it would be great if you go take a look at their fabulous work.

I have made a hanging with lots of stamping and embellishing.

The background is done with layers of stamps, inks and Goosebumps, which was great fun to do. Colours used are coffee, rose madder, spun sugar, victorian velvet and walnut stain.

Each piece has been tied together with wire, embellished with lots of metal pieces painted with aged bronze patina paints and I added some vintage images.

I hope to pop round and catch up with everyone after dinner tonight and then I have got to get myself packing as we are off for a holiday on Thursday to Lanzarote. Just hope we will get some sun.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

Tag 8 for Funkie Junkie and Tim's November tag.

This is tag No: 8 for Linda’s 12 tags of Christmas and I have combined this with Tim’s November tag as well. I am still making my extended tags and love the extra length they give me.

My inspiration has come from both Linda and Tim. I have used the techniques Tim has shown and used Mario Junior’s fabulous toy soldier blueprint stamp. From Linda my inspiration has come from the fact that she also used part of Tim’s tag herself for inspiration, but I also loved the use of the red hessian and flower.

These photos were taken at different times of the day which is why they look different colours. You can see the tag before and after embellishing.

The layers of ink for this technique are fabulous and I love the emboss resist.

I hung little gold bells onto a swivel clasp, attached an eyelet and tied it with some ribbon.

The Poinsettia is a Crealies die, cut with distressed coredinations card.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.

I am catching up again with the tags for the challenge and loving making them. Thanks for looking and all your lovely comments on my work.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -
Out of the Hat Creations - Use some of your stash
Crafty Bloggers - Christmas Anything Goes

PS I don't know if I dare say this but, 
all being well with blood tests etc, 

BECCA IS COMING HOME TOMORROW - yay.

My very big thanks again to all those lovely people who sent her cards, the last batch being Buttons Pushing the Right Buttons, Trisha Easily Amused Hard to Offend, Lucy True Colours, Yvonne Meggy's Way and a second one from Margreet Margreet's Scrapcards.

Tag 7 for Funkie Junkie

No: 7 and I am still playing catch up with Linda's challenge, plus I am away for a couple of weeks soon, so I hope I can get all 12 done. Yep just checked the closing date which is the 17^th December, that means I stand a good chance of finishing them all in time – got to keep motivated.

I used Linda's tag for inspiration and I have tried the 'crumpled kraft suede' technique by the guru, himself, Tim Holtz, and I have to say I shall be doing this one again, but trying different colours. The texture and feel of the finished piece is amazing. I have also used snowflakes, but very different to the way Linda has, but do go across and see hers if you haven't already.

I stamped the snowflakes using picket fence distress stain, (which meets the challenge at SSSS), I die cut the pine tree and used distress embossing powders and deco-art snowtex for the snowy branches.

The lettering is all from the typeset die and I used glittery card and rubbed a little PanPastels into it.

More punched snowflakes and embellishments finished it off. The green ribbon came from Yvonne (Journey into Artistry), thank you so much Yvonne for sending it and some beautiful brads when you sent Becca's card, that is just so thoughtful and kind of you.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.

Hope you are having fun with Christmas projects. The big day is going to be upon us so quickly now.

There are some challenges I would like to enter -
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stamp without ink 
Funkie Junkie - Tag 7
Joanna Sheen - Cold and Frosty
Our Creative Corner - Make your own background (my extended tag is DP but the main tag is my hand made one).
Rebel Challenge - Uncard
Alphabet Challenge - Tags
Crafts for Eternity - Terrific Tags

Better news about Becca again - her Mum stayed at the hospital with her over the weekend and took her out shopping on Saturday and Sunday. She was shattered when she got back, but that must have lifted her spirits tremendously. She gets hooked back up to her tunes at night so the freedom during the day must be wonderful for her.

Thankyou for all your support, good wishes and prayers. I am sure they are making a difference.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

PanPastels - make an embellishment

Back to making Christmas cards for this DT piece and I have made 4 of these.

  

Welcome to the PanPastel UK make an embellishment challenge, we hope you will join us this time around and be in with a chance to win your own set of pans from our regular sponsor Your Creativity Store.

My focal image is from the Christmas Chic collage sheet available at Gecko Galz. If you haven't visited their shop or blog I do recommend you take a look, especially if you love vintage images you can print out yourself.

The background for this card was made with PanPastels and the freebie snowflake stamp from the Craft Stamper magazine this month. Two A4 sheets were enough to make my four cards.

The snowflake is my hand made embellishment, die cut from offcuts of the backing paper with a movers and shapers die, heat embossed with sparkly ep and a shrink plastic snowflake for the additional layer. All sparkly bits are diamond Stickles.

A memory box frosty border die-cut, music paper and a computer generated sentiment complete the card.

Another update about my GD, when I visited Friday she was in the hospital classroom, helping a younger boy make a model pirate ship. She was bright and chirpy and is now eating solid foods, a very bland diet though and just small amounts. 

I took lots of cards with me that had arrived over the past week and she was delighted with them and loved looking at the different styles, patterns and colours. I have to say a huge thank you to Sue (Scrumplescrunch), Lynn (Trash to Treasure art), Silvia (BarniesBaustelle), Yvonne (Journey into Artistry), Joyce (Gram's Treasures), Karin (Creativity), Marjie (She who stamps and scraps), Rebekah (Berrylicious), and Trace (Inkypinkycraft). Thank you all for brightening her day and her room.

Happy Sunday.

hugs {brenda} xox

Christmas collage stamp - Crafty individuals

This is one of the new stamps from Crafty Individuals and as soon as it arrived I couldn't wait to play with it. Jean has put it up on the CI blog along with some amazing pieces from her and others from the team.
There are a whole set of new stamps and other products just out and if you enter our Festive Sparkle challenge you can get a whopping 25% discount on everything in the on-line shop. That's a Christmas present in itself isn't it?

So onto my card. A distress ink background, flicked with water and edged with a CI flourish stamp and then snowflakes, (another CI plate), stamped over the top. 

The image was coloured with prismacolors. The greeting was computer generated and stickles added to give some sparkle.

This is simple and totally flat and perfect for posting for Christmas - guess I need to make more of these then lol.

I am going to see my grandaughter today, I haven't seen her for a week but the news is she is making good progress (again!!!), lets hope this will be sustained progress this time, I just pray there are no more relapses. Apparently she got out of bed yesterday, got dressed and felt good enough to put some make-up on, now that sounds so good to me. I am taking a whole batch of cards that have arrived for her in the past week, so I will be back soon with my thank you's. I so appreciate all the support and love you have been sending our way.

Take care, be creative and have a happy Friday.

hugs {brenda} xox

Tag 6 for Funkie Junkie

I am playing catch-up with Linda’s tags, but here is #6 and my inspiration was taken from preparing the tag with the book paper first (although you can hardly see it now). I also used the iced spruce and added a bow, flower and tag similar to Linda’s.

The gorgeous stamp is from Tim’s Christmas Blueprint stamped straight onto the tag which has been covered with picket fence and brushed pewter distress stains and then given a coating of white acrylic paint. I punched out some snowflakes in white, adhered them to the tag and covered them with the brushed pewter DS and then painted some white acrylic paint over.

I masked the snowman and inked further with the iced spruce then highlighted him with a white pen to make him pop more.

By providing a backing tag I have extended the space to use which I love doing and I have added a corner, lace and flower embellishment from the Funkie Junkie Boutique, and will enter this into the Frilly and Funkie Sunday Share. Thanks to Alison I popped over to find I have won a 25% off voucher at the Funkie Junkie Boutique. Thank you Linda. 

Both tags have been distressed along the edges and inked with walnut stain.

I am really quite pleased with the outcome of this. Thanks again for inspiring me Linda.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.

In hope your week has started well.

take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -
Sunday Stamper - Blue Velvet
The Crafty Bloggers Network - Christmas Anything Goes
Crafty Ribbons - Christmas
The Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes

Musical challenge at FSC

I am taking the chance to build my Christmas card collection by another one this week with my DT piece for the musical challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges.

A music paper from MME for the background stamped with holly from Tim's mini holidays, a La Blanche stamp with musical notation and a music score die from Memory Box. Add to them some red Stickles for the holly berries, papers for the collage layers and some embellishments and sentiment.

Looking forward to seeing you over at the FSC challenge blog for a fortnight of musical fun. Even if you can't enter this time round, it is always worth taking a peek at the fabulous inspiration from the most amazing team.

Have a great Sunday, hopefully there is some crafty time available to you to have some creative moments.

hugs {brenda} xox

 

Bonfire Night - PanPastels

Well this challenge really got me thinking about representing fireworks and using PanPastels as well. Remember though if you enter the challenge you can use any medium you like.

 I decided on a small 6 x 6 scrap page.

I stamped the row of houses (Crafty Individuals CI-271) using black archival and coloured them with Graph'it alcohol based markers. I love the way these blend together and move around with the clear blender. If you fancy having a try with them they are available from our regular sponsor Your Creativity Store. The colours I used were Mocha, Pink Grey, Caramel and Light Caramel.

Using dazzle versamark I stamped the firework design and went over with pastel shades of PanPastels. I also use some Sakura sparkle pens over the top.

A vintage Brocks Fireworks poster or box lid and a couple of embellishments finished it off.

The photo? My youngest grandaughter last year.

Looking forward to seeing your interpretation of the challenge. Please pop over and seeing the fabulous variety from the team.

hugs {brenda} xox

Festive Sparkle at Crafty Individuals

A festive sparkle canvas - snow storm

Welcome to the Crafty Individuals November challenge and I have been lucky enough to choose the theme for November, so I'm really hoping you are going to join our amazing team in showing some sparkly, festive projects.

Christmas Sparkle

I loved making this project this month. I always wish for snow at Christmas and this was the inspiration for my piece.

Firstly I stamped plate CI - 138 with Versamark dazzle embossing ink and used sparkly EP on it. Luckily found a punch that almost fitted the snowflake and good enough to use. To get variations on a theme, I inked the snowflake part of the stamp with walnut stain DI and the Versamark ink, again using the sparkly EP, and this gave me a very different look. Using this technique I made quite a number of snowflakes for embellishments.

A Tando frame was painted white, when dry it was sanded, painted in places with picket fence distress crackle paint and inked with vintage photo. I also added some Stickles to it. The background for the frame is paper from the CI background papers Bk 2 for Christmas.

The canvas is 30 x 30 cms. I gave it a cover of gesso creating some texture in it, when dry I used PanPastels and a mask to create the background. At the same time I gessoed some chipboard snowflakes and added PPs to them too when they were dry.

I also set about making a large snowflake as the backdrop to the coloured centre. This took me a while as I cut piece of card with an angle of 30 degrees to make a template for the snowflake arms then cut 6 of these and stuck them together. This was also covered with gesso creating rough texture in it. When dry I added PPs and then more gesso over the top sprinkling glamour dust all over it to dry in. Again when dry I inked the edges with walnut stain to create a border so that it would stand out more on the canvas.

When put together I added some gems to the snowflakes and eh voila my own festive sparkle snowstorm.

I think this will look good in my conservatory or dining room this Christmas.

Have fun making your own festive sparkle project and join us in the challenge. 

There is some fabulous inspiration already on the post and more will be coming over the next few days/weeks.

Jean is again offering a massive 25% discount on shop products if you enter the challenge this month, that's everything on the website, including the stamps. 

Woo hoo gotta be worth a look don't you think?

Yay it's Friday, the weekend starts here.

Positive thoughts to everyone who has been affected by hurricane Sandy, I am so thankful that my UPA teamies who live in the area are safe.

Have a great weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox