Christmas 'Makes' - Thursday 20th December

Good Morning Blog Friends,

From me today some more 'makes' - whilst I am first and foremost a paper crafter, I do like to dabble in other crafts, especially some 'folksy'  style sewn items and I'd like to share some that I've made the past few winters, with you today...

Firstly this little felt reindeer in a twiggy wreath..

Same reindeer, this time with Santa..

These were all made from this pattern...

Some Santas...

And an Angel...

 And last but by no means least...those of you who have been following me for a while, will probably remember that a one of our workshops this autumn, my friend Amy and I taught the technique of using Dreamweaver stencils with different mediums...well I had this absolutely gorgeous card from Jan, who has been coming to the workshops (and is also a member of my Management Committee at work)...Jan has used the technique with bronze glitter and I really love the colour...well done Jan, this is beautiful!

.

Thanks for stopping by...back to paper crafting tomorrow!

Carole Z X

All wrapped up! - Wednesday 19th December

Good Afternoon dear  crafty friends!

What a nice surprise I had when I logged on here this afternoon...welcome to my two new followers and thank you so much for joining me! This is a late post and a quick one - I've ben gift wrapping all day. The presents for Tom and the close family were all that was left to wrap..well they are now wrapped, but I still need to finish the tags:)

Recently the lovely folks at Fantastic Ribbons sent the design team some gorgeous ribbons to use in a gift wrap project...I really enjoy wrapping and tend to go to town a bit on the wrapping for close friends and family...I had a wonderful time using these beautiful wired ribbons on some of my presents...

I don't often use plain paper, but chose to for this project, to show up the ribbons. I loved making the big blue bow, although it did take a lot of ribbon...hope you like them!

Sorry about the photos...there was just NO light today and I hate to use flash, expecially on shiny gold paper!

I'll be back tomorrow with some more 'makes' and a card sent to me that I'd like to share with you!

Carole X

Sunday Stampers Week 236 - The Holly and the Ivy - Tuesday 18th December

Hello Blog Friends!

I'm so pleased you were loving Jan's tatting yesterday. It's something so delicate and beautiful and I would never have the patience... so I will stay admiring her lovely work!

Today is Sunday Stampers time and this week Hels Sheridan set the theme of 'The Holly and the Ivy' -  at the moment I am making lots of tags for family gifts, they are also one of my favourite things to make, so this week's project is  a tag - and a big one!

 It's a 7inch tag, which I made with plain card, using an actual tag as a template and then covered with music paper from a Christmas collection by Teresa Collins. I inked the edges with Antique Linen.

I then used some off white/cream card to cut the window, using Spellbinders Decorative Chateau Gate and lined the inside of the shutters with the music paper. I cut some holly from Spellbinders Holly Accents to decorate.

Now for the stamping - both of these are little stamps by Crafty Individuals. I have used the sentiment stamp on quite a few cards and tags this year and the Santa is very detailed.

I stamped Santa on black card using Versamark and then heat embossed using snowflake embossing tinsel - it's such a shame that the photograph doesn't show how much it glistens. I  stamped the sentiment with black archival and heat embossed using Black Sparkle embossing powder.

To finish off  I added some 'berries', a little colour on the stamped holly with a Berry Red Promarker and some ribbon....and that is my project for this week!

Thanks for looking,

Carole Z X

Tatted Snowflakes - Monday 17th December

Good Morning Blog Friends! 

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Yesterday was spent visiting family and delivering presents, something I always love to do!

Today I intended to post my Sunday Stampers project for this week, as I actually made it last night, but when I looked at the photo I really didn't like the background I'd used to photograph it against, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

So instead today, I'm sharing some tree decorations that are hand-made, but that I had nothing to do with! They were made by one of my oldest friends, Janet (we were at school together) and they are tatted snowflakes...aren't they beautiful? Jan has been tatting for a long long time, so she is pretty expert by now and she gave them to us with our present last Christmas. When I was putting them on the tree this year, I knew I had to photograph them and share them with you...hope you like them!

I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with my Sunday Stampers project,

Happy Crafting all,

Carole X

Vintage Christmas - Sunday 16th December

Good morning friends in Blogland!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend! I am feeling happy at the thought that I have three more days at work and am then on holiday for two weeks..can't wait! 

Yesterday was so warm here compared to what it has been this week...we went into Bristol and I didn't need a hat or gloves! Tom and I decided to spend the day in our favourite part of the City: Clifton Village. It is a lovely shopping quarter, with boutique shops, delis, coffee houses and restaurants and is just so relaxing to stroll around. We bought some wonderful sandwiches in our favourite deli and then walked up on to Durdham Downs to eat them overlooking the Clifton Suspension Bridge..unfortunately I forgot my camera (that is always in my bag)and I'm never happy with photos taken on m my phone!

As we drove through the Bristol shopping area we noticed how quiet it was - we were expecting queues on the motorway, but we sailed through. Clifton was just right, the students have all gone home, so it was mostly local people..but I guess the lack of people shopping is a reflection of the times...less spending and more spending online...

Today's card is another LOTV stamped image..they are all so adorable aren't they?

I coloured the image in muted browns and pinks using Promakers and die cut on Spellbinders labels one small, inking the edges with a little Antique Linen distress ink. I die cut a large snowflake and placed it behind the labels die, just peeking out.

The card is  a 6x6 Kraft card blank covered with some paper from Dovecrafts Back to Basics Vintage Christmas 12x12 paper pad. I stamped the greeting and cut out in a banner shaper, inking the edges with tea dye distress ink, I also inked around the edge of the card. To finish off I added more die cur snow flakes and some brown gingham ribbon.

Thanks for stopping and taking a look at my blog, I really do appreciate it!

Carole Z X

Not a creature was stirring - Saturday 15th December

Good Morning Blog Friends!

Another Christmas House Mouse today...Christmas is all I seem to have been making lately and to be honest, I still have so many Christmas ideas buzzing around in my head and no time to try them, that I am really going to find it hard to switch back to every day mode. For our first workshop in January we are going to be looking ahead to St Valentines and I haven't even thought about it yet..apart from being my least favourite card making  occasion for some bizarre reason!

I came up with this design last Christmas and made a few more variations of it this year...it is a very simple card featuring a stamped House Mouse, coloured with Promarkers and die cut using a Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Rectangle.  I typed the extract from the story and die cut using tear drop circles threaded with ribbon.

The image die was matted and layered on a gold die cut the card finished off with a poinsettia, ruched ribbon and a little button.

Thanks for stopping by!
Carole  X

Sunday Stampers wk 235, The First Noel - Thurs 13th December

Good Morning blog Friends,

Yesterday was a mega craft day for me...we were having a new gas boiler fitted, so whilst the guy worked all day at that, I worked all day in my craft room....the only downside being that most of the time it was freezing as the heating was off!

 All my cards are finished now, except Tom's. I will leave his until everything else is done (ie gift wrapping) and then make it during a very peaceful and relaxed craft session!

Tuesday evening we took two visitors of Tom's parents out for a meal (along with Tom's brother -and actually his parents paid as a treat, so we didn't really take them out at all, just played hosts!). They are a young-ish couple that my inlaws used to work with a long time ago in a hotel. Christian is Italian and Gloricel is Panamanian. They live in Panama city at the moment, but are intending to come back here to live and they stopped over a few days on the way to Italy. Tom's parents had to go to a work Christmas meal that evening, so we took them out; it was great to see them again and to chat about different Christmas traditions. Much like Europe, Panama celebrates with presents on January 6th...in Italy it is Befana on her broomstick with a sack of gifts and in Panama it's the coming of the Three Wise Men.

Well I digress from crafts...my Sunday Stampers project is a bit different this week, it's a box I made today, for a card that I'll share on another post, probably tomorrow..

This week Hels Sheridan (who absolutely forced me to part with some money on Create and Craft yesterday!) set the theme of The First Noel, so I just had to use this ribbon! 

This is a plain white card box, which I covered with the 'Noel' ribbon and made a bow from the same, sewn together with the heart button. The tag is a small parcel tag; I inked the edges with brushed pewter distress stain and stamped the greeting with versa mark, before heat embossing with snowflake embossing powder. There are actually 2 snowflakes on the tag, the one you can see is a chipboard embellishment coated with versamark and the same embossing powder before heat embossing and the other one is hidden under the ribbon (I didn't notice until the photo was uploaded!). That one is a Spellbinders die cut coated in clear micro beads.

I used the Woodware Dove stamp (posted previously)again for the main image, stamping him several times and paper piecing with the different papers, plus I added some gems for the berries.

Thanks for stopping by, I really do appreciate you visiting and leaving a comment!

Happy crafting,

Carole X