Getting Ready for Christmas

The prompt over on Try it on Tuesday is Get Ready for Christmas so I thought I would share these gift tags.

I decided to have a break from Christmas cards and instead create some gift tags (or perhaps mini Christmas cards).  I managed to create 12 toppers from one piece of  A4 card.

I started by adding Ocean Reef and Indian Jamun Artistry inks onto a blending mat.  The ink was smoothed out with a brayer, given a light mist of water, then the A4 card was laid over the top and pressed down.  I also managed to get a second background from the same ink on a piece of copy paper.

Next, I sprinkled Pixie Powders in Purple Violet, Teal wash, Midnight Blue and White Pearl onto the background,  misted several times with water and allowed the colours to spread and run.  I dried the card with a heat gun.

Using Clarity stencil brushes, The edges were covered with the same Artistry inks as before.

Finally,  I watered down some silver Izink pigment ink and used a fan brush to add spatters of silver all over the card.  Once again,  I dried the card with a heat gun.

The master board was then cut into 7cm x 7cm squares (12 in total) and the edges darkened with Ocean Reef ink on a blending tool.

Using a combination of stamps from the Mini Word Chains by Clarity Crafts (13&14),  I stamped greetings in Versamark ink and heat embossed them in silver EP.  I made three toppers using each greeting.  Merry Christmas

 Season's Greetings.

Peace on earth at Christmas.

And finally,  Happy Christmas.

To finish, I just needed to glue the toppers to some pre made 3" x 3" card blanks.  They each come with an envelope, so they can be used as gift tags for presents or can be sent as miniature Christmas cards.

I love how each topper is so different despite being created from the same sheet of card.

Ta and ta-ta to a great bunch of TAs

A large number of our Teaching Assistants (TAs) are moving on to pastures new; one to take up a place on a teacher training course.  I made a series of cards for everyone at work to sign and as you can tell, continued with my penchant for terrible puns.

Early Christmas

This card is a bit early, but I decided not to leave things until the last minute this year. 

Non Traditional Quick Christmas Cards

I had to batch make some Christmas cards as I was running low on my stocks.  I wanted to create some cards in non traditional colours and also that were each unique.  I therefore used Brushos and Pixie Powders (Cosmic Shimmer) to create some backgrounds.

Dragonfly Tag

A quick tag made after work yesterday (my first day back in after the 'flu bug).  It was a full day, but I still wanted to make some time to craft and relax.  This is my second entry to the Anything Goes - Include Some Lime Green challenge over on Tag Tuesday.

The background was created on a piece of mixed media card using Pixie Powders in Aqua Lagoon, Midnight Blue, Peacock Green and Golden Mint.  Once dry, the piece was added to a #8 manilla tag, trimmed and the hole punched through at the top of the tag.

The large dragonfly (the fancy die from the Dragon Delights set by Spellbinders) was cut from black card and the tiny dragonfly which was one of the dies from the Crafter's Companion Advent calender sent out to Platinum customers in 2016, was cut twice.  As the 2017 advent calendar was waiting for me when I got in from work yesterday, I thought it rather apt to use a die from the previous year's.

The lime green was added by colouring through all the apertures on the wings using a Faber Castell Big Brush marker in Light Green.

Finally, three sentiments from the Small Talk sticker set by Tim Holtz completed the tag.

Peace at Christmas

This card uses a technique with Pixie Powders to create a background as seen used by many current and former demonstrators of Creative Expressions products. 

WOYWW 436: Busy Weeks Ahead

It will be a quick share this week as I have to go into work for the Prospective Parents' Evening.  I did get some crafting done with Eva on the other side of the desk yesterday as you will see, but I won't have much time today.  The photos were therefore taken as ever on a Tuesday.  To see plenty of other desks, check out our chief desker Julia at The Stamping Ground.

My side of the desk shows a card I was working on (I will share the finished version tomorrow if you are interested).  You can see my box of Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers that I was using to add colour to the elephants, earlier cut with my Cricut machine.  They were cut from plain white card, glued and sealed with Distress Collage Medium and dried thoroughly before the Big Brush Markers came into action.  I thought you'd also like to see the first page in the journal that I 'won' at the crop (see HERE for details).

Eva was working on stamping and embossing over some Pixie Powder backgrounds. 

She later used the Pixie Powders as paints to colour the embossed images.  I am sharing them today as I know how many of you like to see what she's been up to.  Unfortunately she also had to dash off for a parents' evening.  Next week we're hoping for a longer session together.  Must dash now!

WOYWW 433: Only 10 More Sleeps...

Hi everyone and welcome to the shed for another week's desk sharing.  See our hostess Julia at The Stamping Ground for all things desk!  It's getting exciting, as there are only 10 more days and one more WOYWW until the get together in LLandudno.  My crafty friend and I are really looking forward to it; even missing the home football match to attend!
My side of the desk (photo taken yesterday) shows the start of a Steampunk tag for a challenge.  I was working with the Top Hats stamp set by Creative Expressions and the Make Time clock die by Sheena Douglass.  As you can see, my cup is empty and it wasn't refilled for another two hours after the photo was taken! 

Greetings from Eva!

My crafty friend's side of the desk was far more colourful as you can see.  She was working on batch creating background papers using the Pixie Powders by Cosmic Shimmer.  Once dry, these will be cut down and stamped onto, ready to create the first Christmas cards of the year. 
The vase of flowers is inspired by April's desk each week; the roses were a belated birthday gift from another of my crafty friends who I haven't seen for a while.  If you want to see my finished tag, then come back and visit tomorrow when all will be revealed.  I'm feeling very accomplished already today as by nine o'clock I had been for my flu' jab, hung out the washing and prepared a meal to go in the slow cooker ready for this evening.  I have to go into work later (even though it's my day off) as there is a twilight training session.  Looking forward to the crop! 

Art Journal: Nature

I had fun creating this page in response to the prompt for week 36 of Art Journal Prompts: Nature.  It is a variation on a theme, as I used the same colour palette as I did for a previous art journal page (see HERE / photo at end of post).  For once I found and added the quote after the rest of the page had been completed; normally, I find a quote that I like and create the page to fit.

Themed Birthday Card

This birthday card is for a friend of my husband's whose birthday was last weekend.  He is a keen amateur Thespian as well as a Manchester United fan so I decided to combine this as a theme and a colour scheme.

Congratulations Colleague

This card was made for a colleague who was married yesterday and was signed by the staff of the school where we work.  I hope that she and her new husband had a fabulous day. 

May Mini Mission: Borders

I decided to take the prompt literally and have fun with borders and as it was for a mini mission, I worked on a tag as usual.

Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art Challenge 9

The prompts for this challenge were Nature, Tan, Olive Green and Burnt Orange.  I decided to try a new way of creating a background that I had seen recently online, although in that demonstration PaperArtsy Infusions were used.  Apologies, but I can't remember who shared the technique.  Thank you anyway, it worked brilliantly.

WOYWW: 407

The weeks seem to go around ever more quickly; I cannot believe that it's Wednesday again already.  Time to share my desk in accordance with WOYWW (to find out more about this weekly challenge you can check out the link HERE).  As my friend was able to join me for a craft session yesterday, I am also sharing her side of the desk.  It will sadly be a few weeks before I will do so again, as exam season is approaching.
On my desk, you can see the start of my 'Adventure' art journal page for the Art Journal Prompts weekly challenge.  I will share the step by step in tomorrow's post if you are interested.  I have my Tim Holtz stamp binders out as well as one of my Tonic binders where I keep most of my dies.  I number them for easy access as I have 14 in total; one of these days I'll actually make a list on my computer of exactly which dies are in each folder!  I finally made use of the Papermania stamps in the foreground; I have had them for years, but hadn't used them until now.  Part of my new resolution to actually use my supplies. 

Journal52 Week 11: Gentle

Once I had found the quote for this prompt, I knew immediately which stamp was going to be the main image for the page.  The idea of a gentle heart tied with an easy thread made me immediately think of the Wire Heart stamp from Claritystamp.  Once I got started, the ideas flowed easily.

Happy Birthday - Bright Brusho Background

I made this card for my husband's birthday tomorrow, but as he rarely looks at my blog, I think it's safe to post the step by step today.

Double Embossing!

I made both these cards following a wander round YouTube in response to a video that I saw by Marta Turska-Grochocka for Lindy's Stamp Gang.  I simply replaced some of the products  with Pixie Powders and Stampendous coloured metallic embossing powder in red and purple.  I finished my cards entirely differently having made the backgrounds.