I hope you All had a very Holly Jolly Christmas

Hello my Crafty Friends.
I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas, it seems so far away now.
I was at work on the big day, but as I have pointed out to customers I am not totally stupid. We saved more than a few Christmas's for people who found their turkey was still in need of defrosting, or was off and at the end of my shift I got to come home to a dinner that was nearly ready to eat. It's a win win in my book.
I may not have sent any Christmas cards this year, but I still have loads of them that I need to share with you.

We did a class on Zentangle recently. 

Now I have to say that I am not very adventurous with it although I am getting a little better with the aid of the numerous books that I have.

I do think though that even the simplest of patterns can turn a very basic card,

into something really quite special.
We are going to make some non-Christmas cards using this technique in class at the beginning of January.

I seem to have rather a lot of holly stamps, from different manufacturers.

This one uses a Woodware stamp set.

The holly on this one is from a Tim Holtz stencil.

White stamping and embossing and a Hobby Art stamp can look so different,

 depending on what medium you use to colour them in.

 Here I used watercolour Pearlex in silver and white.

This one is a little more traditional in colour.

And this one is a very old Hero Arts stamp which has been used on red card stock.

It is a very solid image which I have used with Sticky Embossing powder, foil and mica powder.
At least I wont have the excuse of not enough cards made next year will I.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Say it with Flowers

Morning,
As this is a scheduled post I hope that we aren't knee deep in snow, it was certainly cold enough for it yesterday.

This card is another reason for the tardiness of my card writing.

Every year I make a card for my Boss's daughter. He always likes to have her name on it as it is impossible for him to buy a personalised card in the shops.

I have to make sure that it is ready a day early so that he will have it for her at breakfast on the morning of her birthday. This year it was by pure chance that I turned the page on my birthday planner on Sunday morning  and realised that I had to get something made ASAP.

I used a floral embossing folder that came free on a magazine, black card stock and my trusty gilding wax along with a die cut heart and sentiment.

The flowers are also cut from black card using some Magnolia dies.

I just love the finish that the wax adds to the petals. It makes them stand out so well.

Of course I had to add some foliage and a bit of bling.
Back to Christmas prep after work today. I managed to wrap a couple of presents yesterday, although I have requested the help of my own personal wrapping fairy (my daughter Becki) as I HATE wrapping up. I am renowned for giving gifts in a carrier bag, so she nearly fell over when I told her that I had actually wrapped something lol.
Have a great day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

A decision made and a weight lifted

Good Morning All,
Did you enjoy Jane on the box yesterday with her fabulous stamps? I had such fun playing with this particular set of stamps. I really am a very lucky Girl.
The only down side to sample making is that you are totally in the hands of the stamp company and their time frame, and this is often very short notice.
This was indeed the case this month when I had just over a week to get the samples made and sent for the new Woodware stamp launch in January. This meant that everything that I had planned got put on the back burner.
Now I know Christmas happens at exactly the same time each year, and I know that I should be more organised (I seem to say that every year), but something always seems to waylay my plans and this year has been no exception.
So this evening I came to a decision, and it feels like a big weight has been lifted.
I have decided that I won't send out Christmas cards this year. By the time that I get them all written and signed and in the post it will be too late for the last posting dates and so they will inevitably arrive just in time to be put in the recycling.
I spend far too much time making them for that to happen, so I have decided that instead I will send out a Christmas newsletter like I did several years ago.
Oh I feel so much better.

I am obviously not the only one who likes to leave things to the last minute, as a friend of mine announced on Saturday that she wanted a nice card for her Mum.

I don't usually do decoupage (pre-printed and pre-cut), but in this instance, when I had little or no time I decided that it was the just what was needed.

 And I have to say that I was really quite pleased with the results.

I didn't use all of the layers, but I did use some ribbon

and an embossing folder and gilding wax. What a surprise!!!
My newsletter is written, so all I need now is for my printer to get its act in gear and I can get this show on the road.
Have a great day.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Woodware 'Toadally Fun' on Hochanda

Morning All
Well according to my Sky planner, you should currently be enjoying the first of three live hours on Hochanda featuring Jane Gill and some of her fabulous stamp designs.

The shows are on at 7am, 10am and 2pm and they are said to be featuring Toadstools, Florals and Butterflies, so I am assuming that this fabulous toadstool stamp will be one of them.

The card was a sample that I made for the latest Woodware release in October.

I stamped, embossed, coloured and fussy cut the toadstools and then layered them over an alcohol ink background which I created on some photo paper.

If you use the reverse of the paper the inks react in a similar way to that of Yupo paper. It was very addictive playing with the inks, the only down side to the technique is that the paper won't allow for heat embossing.......hence the fussy cutting lol.

As usual I ended up with another finished card while I was creating the samples, so here is one that you definitely won't see on the TV.

I stamped and embossed the image again, only this time I coloured it in using the 'Wet Watercolour Technique' and Pixie Powders. 

I bleached out the stalks of the toadstools.

Having die cut the coloured image I layered it over a couple of die cut tree panels.

I had such fun playing with these stamps. I hope the Girls have just as much fun when they get to play with them next Saturday at Davina's.
Don't forget to watch Jane if you get the chance. The shows are all programmed in to my Sky box, so I hope that it doesn't let me down.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

Happy Birthday Reece.

Evening Everyone,
I have had a wonderfully crafty weekend, which although fun, has not seen me get any closer to writing even one Christmas card!!
It was my eldest Grandson's 15th birthday on Saturday, so as you can imagine that is what some of my creative energies were focused on, a birthday card........late as usual.

I am totally hooked on embossing folders and gilding wax at the moment,

along with this fantastically useful Alphabet die by Sue Wilson.
Reece went to London with his big sister Megan today to see the latest Star Wars film. Having gone out yesterday as well for a family meal I think that it is safe to say that he has had a fabulous birthday weekend. Back to the grind for him tomorrow as school doesn't break up just yet.
Happy Crafting and hugs
Kimx

Christmas at CraftyCardmakers

Evening Everyone.
We started our final challenge of 2017 over at CCM on Monday, and rather appropriately our theme is Christmas.

I must admit that I have been reasonably good this year, and have made one or two Christmas cards each month. Not every month you understand, but then there were some months where I got quite carried away.

These first cards were all made using a sheet of Magnolia background paper from my stash.

I cut up the 12x12 sheet of paper and then sponged each section around the edges with Picket Fence Distress ink.

I wasn't happy with the coverage so I decided to add white embossing powder to give the panels a snowy feel.

I also stamped and embossed across the panels using one of the fabulous Inkspirational Borders from Phill Martin.

The Poinsettias have been stamped and embossed onto different colours of vellum,

 and then fussy cut and shaped,

before adding them to the cards with silicon.

I also added some die cut holly leaves and a sentiment from Hobby Art.

I had quite a few stamped and embossed flowers left over so I used them up on these last two cards.
This one uses a very useful ornate frame stamp, and a repeated sentiment.

 I also dry embossed a piece of green card, and added some gilding wax and distress ink.

Another stamped and die cut sentiment and some foliage were used to complete this last card.
I hope that are able to join in with our challenge HERE.
Please note this challenge runs until Friday December 22nd, instead of the usual Sunday finish. We will re-open in the new year on January 15th.
I don't envy June having to judge this challenge. I'm having enough trouble just keeping up with my commenting, and even more trouble getting my Christmas cards written.
I suppose I had better make a start now I have put the samples in the post to Creative Expressions for the launch of Jane Gill's stamps in the New Year.
Have a great evening.
Happy Crafting and Hugs
Kimx

It's been snowing

Evening Everyone, or should that be morning now that it has past midnight?
It was definitely good crafting weather here in Whyteleafe, which is just as well given that I am working on samples for the new stamp designs foe Creative Expressions.
I've still got quite a few left to do so I will be chained to my desk after work for the next couple of days, snow or not.
I haven't even started to write my Christmas cards yet so there will be no change in my usual late posting. One day I will be on time with things, but I won't hold my breath lol.

 Here are a few more that I finished earlier in the year using bits and pieces from my box.

You will have to excuse the lack of description tonight but if I don't get some sleep soon I will be dead on my feet at work tomorrow.

At least the snow seems to have disappeared for the moment. Let's hope that I don't get up to find that it has reappeared with avengance.

Night, night.

Hugs Kimx