Christmas Views

I am not usually a scenic person, but some chistmas scenes are nice with the snowy effect.  We did a triangle slot pop up card.  Sounds harder than it is.  The top sections were pyramaged to add a little dimension.

 

Front view, showing the pop up and the pyramage sections.

Side view,so you can see how the middle looked.

Back view.

We also done a simple decoupage card of a winter scene, and by adding some sparkle it comes to life.

The last one we attempted was a little fiddly.  I cut out some houses and we places mirri card behind the windows.  We embossed the background by using a stencil and the light box, arranged them on the card to make a small village scene.

Only 7 weeks until christmas!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Shaker Card

This week we did a shaker card, as it had been specially requested.  Everyone had a choice of which background they would like and whether they made it into a shaker or not.

Its easy to make a shaker as long as you remember a couple of important steps.  Firstly you need to create yourself an acetate window.  This needs to be raised, and when doing so there must be no gaps in the foam tape.  If there are gaps all your shaker stuff will fall out.  It is always best to use a dry glue, ie tape or foam rather than wet glue, i.e pva or silicon.  If you use a wet glue the shaker stuff will stick to it and not shake.

The choices were:-

The Family

Father Christmas

The Snowman

The snowman was the most popular by far.

We also used some vellum toppers, Jeanette and I spent the evening crafting, it was great fun, we don't seem to get to do it much anymore.  We had the vellum and no matter what colour we tried, most of them seemed to make the vellum appear dark.  We then tried a yellow card, it was not my first choice of colour, but it worked.  A nice double bow and a greeting.  Topped of with a peel off or two.

I had the same toppers but in card, here we used them with matching papers and made an easel card.  Every card was slightly different depending on what topper you had.

The last card was a simple stamped one.  We stamped the wreath in versemark and using green embossing powder.  Embossed it.  Stamped a bow and embossed it in gold.  Layered it up, then added jewels for effect.

Only 6 weeks until christmas!!!

Distressed Christmas

This week we did some distressing, some love it and some hate it, but something different.

The cards were fairly straight forward not to much distressing but a little here and there.  Some had never distressed before, so a technique for some to learn.

 

This one was my favourite as I love black and white cards.  We used black and white card with black soot distress ink.

We used browns and white's here, with vintage photo distress ink. 

As I only have one of each ink and stamp whilst everyone was doing this we did a couple of simple decoupage, otherwise everyone would be sitting with nothing to do.

I love christmas cards that are cute, so this one was good, raising a glass or bubbly.

I am not usually a flower person, but I did think this was very pretty, I think it would also be really nice with Happy Birthday in the middle.

Well only 5 weeks until christmas!!!

Parchment Christmas

Parchment can be as easy or hard as you want to make it, I done a few cards to give people an idea, but from there usually a sparke starts and everyone goes on to their creative side and all the different cards are designed.

This was all created using the grids, and everything was going fine until I decided to put merry chritsmas on to it.  I had the grid and parchment round the wrong way, so for it to read right most of the star is debossed.  But never mind who every I send it to probably wont realise.

 

This one again was a pattern traced and coloured using pencils, with grid work around the edges.





 

Both of these were also done using grid work, moving the grids around until you are happy where they are.

 

 



Crafting with Rita October

 

As always here I was rushing around, the builders were in doing the bathroom, and it was half term, so had to wait for Graham to come home before I could leave for Rita's, as Kayleigh was not aloud to be home alone with the builders as it was council rules.

It was alovely afternoon, Ann, Connie, Sandra, Jeanette and I was there.  The cards Rita had done were beautiful as always.

We used the happy Cuts machine and cut out poinsettias, we used Chloe's stamps to stamp the poinsettia.  We also used our pro-markers to colour in a beautiful stamp.

I have actually already used one of the cards and forgot to take a picture, but here are the other two.

Easy Cards after my Holiday

Well This week we did nice simple easy cards, as being away in Turkey for two weeks, I had to have something prepared before I went, and something I could remember when I got back, so here goes, nice simple decoupage.  They are all easy to work out.

Then everyone had a choice between these ones.

Adding a little sparkle where required.

Well only 8 weeks until christmas!!!
 

My Holiday in Turkey

Well what can I say,  my holiday was great.  The first week there was five of us, Jeanette and Peter and their son Andrew, Graham and I.  The flight was ok as flights go, but no film, so I sat there on the plane beading.  The weather was fantastic the first week.  We sunbathed, went to the market, swam, ate and basically we were lazy.  Well Graham and I was.  Jeanette, Peter and Andrew went on several trip, visiting towns and markets, laying round the pool is not their sort of thing.

On the Thursday my step-sons Scott and Jack, and Jacks girlfriend Emily came out to join us.  We waited up for them, but their flight was delayed until 3.30am.  The funny thing was I went back to the room about 1am and changed into my pj's and sat in reception in them waiting for them to arrive.

On the Friday the rest of the crew arrived, My Mum & Dad, My Brother, his wife and two children, my girls Kayliegh and Samantha and her boyfriend Ryan.  Well there was now 17 of it was a big group.

This is our family having a great time.

Whilst we were there it was a big birthday for Jeanette and she took us all out to the local village for a gorgeuos meal, it was such a great evening, the five of us had been the week before and had a good time, so we new it would be good.  The owners really made a good effort, with cake for Jeanette, and sparklers and fireworks. 

The second week we had a lot of rain, thunder and lightning, but we all still had a good time, when it rains out there it really rains.  So we sat around playing cards, Jeanette and I were beading, so everyone happy.  To get from one place to another we were using our towels and black sacks to cover up, to try and not get too wet.

 

 

 

We also went on a boat trip, it was all planned for 15 of us, Emily hates boats, so she wasn't coming and Jack was staying back to be with her.  But on the day Jeanette was poorly, so Jack took her place and the girls stayed behind.  It rained and was dull, the sun came out occassionally, but we still had a good day, jumping in the sea and having fun.

 

 

When we were out there, a lady walked passed and I really admired her haircut, so much so that I walked up to her and asked if I could take a photo of her hair.  Due to the weather I considered having it cut out there, Jeanette had been to the hairdresser in the first week and he had done a really good job.  Jeanette offered to treat me, and I am so thankful she did, as once I had had it chopped and seen how nice it was I was really greatful.  It was the night we were going out for the meal.  So I felt great.

The ladies hair

My hair

Well that was soon over and we are back home, and now I have to get my christmas head on as there is only 8 weeks to go.