Christmas Eve and a Quick Post

It's Christmas Eve and I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.

Whether it's hot as and Summer like here or cold as and snowing may you all have plenty to eat and drink and family all around you lots of joy.

If you see someone who looks sad or lonely give them a moment, a smile, even a hug if you dare.

I quickly whipped up this sweet little Christmas Ornament to give to my grandson for their Christmas Tree.  I have already made a decoration for Sophie for the tree and thought suddenly that he is 3 now and more aware and would probably like one too.

I have used one of my blue Alcohol ink backgrounds cut with a round die, I also cut a plain white background to attach it to and an acetate background to go over the top. The Alcohol inks were done on Yupo paper. The wonderful trees were a gift last year from Bozená and worked perfectly for this. I am still trying to work out how to do trees with my Scan N Cut (a work in progress)

The silver outline is cut from silver fun foam and I used 'Pretty Pink Posh' die.

Finished off with a piece of silver ribbon attached to the back and tied in a bow.

We are celebrating Christmas today with the grandchildren then my son and I are spending tomorrow with mum and dad at the Nursing home, hemming dads new trousers cause he is such a shorty. And we thought it would be good to sit and share a bit of time with those on their own at Christmas time. Talk about last minute decisions. John and Elysha are not worried at all, after all they get to sit at home and eat prawns, swim and relax, who could ask for a better Christmas day.

Love and best wishes to you all and see you in the New Year if not sooner.

Aileen

A Few More Beautiful Watercolour Christmas Cards

Another four watercolour panels made into Christmas cards for you to look at. All quick and easy from my panel collection. This first one was a loose watercolour using Tim Holtz Distress Ink blue and lots of water on the panel. Added the paint to a piece of acetate and sprayed with water then just squished onto the watercolour paper. Kept adding bits here and there till I was happy. Drying in-between additions. 

I have  used a new stamp from  Stamplorations  (I absolutely love this set)- comes in a set of 3 reindeer, a set of antlers and a few sentiments and embosses beautifully. Silver embossed on this piece of watercolour paper.

I then used the small Pretty Pink Posh frame die to cut a frame around the reindeer

image but then places the piece back together again and added to a layer of yellow fun foam

to lift slight from the front of the card.

Easy pretty looking card.

This next card was done with a mix of very pale pink and flesh colour zigs and water .

It is a very soft looking card and looks really pretty. I ended up adding a very light amount of gold paint that I added lots of water to before adding to the card here and there just to add some contrast.

I have heat embossed with gold embossing powder and the stamp set is from Mama Elephant

and comes with lots of wonderful little sentiments to add to the inside of the card that are relevant to the sentiment for the front.

I love the two doves that come with this stamp set as well and they are separate so you can decide where you want them placed. This time I have used the large rectangle frame die cut from Pretty Pink Posh (I have added the link to the blog today as the shop is closed for the holidays and there is no link at this time)

Here is I have used a Penny Black Stamp again (love this one) from a set 

Isn't this fabulous.

Anyway as you can see here this is the acrylic block technique again using Zig inks pink, orange and yellow and a spray of water. I Added colour twice to the block and then squirted water onto the paper to move the colour around and dried as I worked to get a nice controlled look.

Gold heat embossed, small rectangle die Frame  then put back together. Added a layer of gold glitter paper to a layer of pink fun foam  and attached to the card front at an angle then attached the watercoloured panel at a different angle. 

This last watercolour panel is Distress Ink Oxides, my favourites at this time. I do love the colours and the texture and feel of chalkiness and look of the colours together when flicked, sprayed with water, dried, wet again, colours added, cross coloured just looks wonderful.

Gold heat embossed. Looks really wonderful but not showing up so well here in the photo.

Die cut (sorry cant think of die used at this time)

Added flat to card base. Very bright, flat easy to post, easy to put together.

Thank you so much for coming to have a look and I hope you come again soon.

Challenges:

Muse Christmas Visions 90

Christmas......

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge #334 GAH!!! Pink

Peace on Earth card

Tuesday Throwdown #372 Anything Goes

Sending you Christmas Cheer

Crafting From The Heart #188 Anything Goes

Merry Christmas bright Orange and Pink card

Use Your Stuff #293 Holiday Stamp

Christmas......

Stamplorations Never Ending Anything Goes

Sending you Christmas Cheer

Christmas, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I shared this photo on Instagram last week but thought I would share here as well. This is what you do on a Sunday instead of doing housework. I had nothing ready in Christmas cards, I had lots of bits and pieces die cut and lots and lots of coloured and cut pieces but it all needed to be put together and suddenly I needed to go to Canberra and spend a couple of days as things were not going well with mum and dad and my sister and I had to make some decisions.

What to do, well of course you drag out all those fabulous backgrounds you have been making all year, and I tell you I have literally hundreds to choose from and I spent the day embossing in gold, silver, bronze and white.  Also got some vellum and black cardstock sentiments done.

Monday saw me cutting all the panels with basic die cuts and attaching to the front of the cards.

I love how they all turned out, each is individual and totally different in colour and stamped image.

I got to use lots of the stamps I had purchased and not used so far and only had two instances where

there was flecks of embossing powder because I forgot to use the anti static pillow first so I did very well. In this instance I have used the idea of adding  zig watercolour to an acrylic block then sprayed with pearlised water then pressed it down on Canson Watercolour paper.

You can just see the pearl effect in the above photo.

I have added fun foam behind the diecut panel to give the card a little more style and feel that works without having to fuss. I needed these cards to be quick and easy for posting as well. I love the white embossing on this one. The stamped image is Penny Black and comes in a set, love it.

Now this one is Canvas look watercolour paper I have added Distress Ink Pink and Orange and water to get a nice mix then a bit of rock salt. Love the effect I got.

This is another Penny Black stamp, also comes from a set of stamps with both greetings. Stamped and embossed in gold.

Die cut with Pretty Pink Posh Frame Die and then put back together. Love it.

Okay these are todays cards. And just so you know I got 40 done using this style and posted off to my friends overseas, a wee bit late, but better late than never.

Challenges:

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge December

Stamping + Watercolouring + Die-cutting

Seasons Greetings

CAS Watercolour Card Challenge December

Christmas

Watercooler Wednesday WWC149 Marsha's 

Christmas

A Gem of A Challenge #209 Anything Christmas Goes

Seasons Greetings

Penny Black Saturday Challenge December Winter or Christmas

Christmas

Simon Says Monday Challenge Christmas/Winter Holidays

Seasons Greetings

Thank you so much for coming to have a look and I hope to see you again soon.

A quick share of a beautiful photo of Elysha I took the other night just before she went out for a Christmas dinner. I have already shared this on Facebook but for those who follow me here I thought you might like to see how well she is looking.

Elysha loves to get dressed up and go out especially if it includes dancing (as long as she doesn't have to dance with anyone else!!) Although this year has had some hard times in it Elysha has managed to shine through, working hard at the gym to beat her pre-diabetes which wants to hold onto that body weight.  

She has managed to loose 7 kilo this year and has added a kilo of  muscle working with a gym buddy a couple of mornings a week and walking every evening with her brother Aaron and his fiancé Rachael.

We are all so very proud of her.

The Flower Challenge #15 Reminder Post Anything But A Card

It's that time of the month when we remind you that there are only 10 more days left

if you want to enter in The Flower Challenge. It's been very slow to take off this month,

probably with people all rushing to get cards finished and sent off to friends and family

for Christmas.

If you don't have time to join us this month there is always next month and just let me say

'have a wonderful Christmas and may it live up to all your dreams and expectations'. I hope the weather is kind to you all throughout the winter regions as we swelter away over here.

Each afternoon as John comes home from work it makes me realise how lucky we are to have the luxury of a pool in the backyard as he staggers in from working all day out in the heat (he is a carpenter and works on houses) then drives home in peak hour traffic often two hours or more each afternoon. So he is in the door, walks straight through, and dives in to cool down. An hour or so later, a few cool drinks and life is all balanced out for another day.

 Now onto my notebook cover for this reminder. This time I have done an even easier version.

I have used floral pattern paper to make the notebook cover and if you haven't seen my previous post you should go back a couple of posts to check it out as there is a link there that takes you to a You Tube tutorial on making these covers. If you look on the side there is a place for a pen to slide into

place but I forgot to put the pen there before taking the photo.

I found this fine wood piece at a Dollar store. They were selling at 8 in a pack for $2 and it is very similar in feel to cork. A mix of patterns in each packet. I cut a piece of gold cardstock to place behind it to highlight the piece more then added the  wooden flower again from a packet from the Dollar store.

Makes a great gift, I found these really good for mum, she would write herself lists of groceries she needed to get and the bright cover made it easy for her to find the notebook on the sideboard.

Now its time to go to The Flower Challenge Blog and see what the Design Team have been up to. From what I have seen so far there are some amazing tags and Christmas gift ideas there, totally worth checking out. So many easy beautiful ideas. Each persons design links back to their blog with directions on how to make their particular item.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Sophie's Birthday Card and aChristmas Decoration

It was my granddaughter's birthday and she loves me to colour in unicorns for her so it was a natural that I pick this for her birthday. I went rainbow theme, used Copics and it was a quick and easy colour as I didnt worry about any shading with the colours.

This unicorn stamp is from Neat and Tangled and includes the unicorn, floral branches and

sentiment.

I decided to add Sopie's name and stamped with the Altenew Alphabet stamps, but didnt realise how big they were till I started stamping and really had to squeeze her name in (rather typical of me). I then decided to add glitter to the letters and black glittered. Was a bit over powering but to her 5 year old eyes it was perfect and that was all that mattered cause I am the best Craft Nanny in the world. And I am happy to wear that title.

I then decided to have a go at making a Christmas decoration like Jennifer Mcguire had shown on her website but with smaller dies from Hero Art. I used a Christmas Tree die cut and cut 6 in white card stock and 6 in pink glitter.

Folded each in half, added tape on each side of the fold, joined all the pieces together, added a pile of gems to the white pieces of cardstock then added a piece of elastic to hang the decoration.

It was one of those things I wanted to try, wasn't so impressed with once finished, felt I used a lot of gems on but Elysha thought it was 'beeeutifull' and it should join our other decorations so it has.

Thanks for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Challenges

Seize The Birthday without the Topping

Have a Magical Day Sophie

Addicted to Stamps and More-  #271Anything Goes

Have a Magical Day Sophie

Crafting By Designs - December Anything Goes

Have a Magical Day Sophie

Update on Mum and her sister Pat

I thought I would share this photo from happier times when mum and Pat still knew each other and shared their love of life. For those of you who read my last post about Aunt Pat you know we were taking mum so Aunt Pat could see her. My sister got mum there and Pat looked at mum and smiled and it was all worthwhile. Mum didn't know Pat or her other sisters but we expected that in reality. 

Aunt Pat died on Friday and will be missed by us all. We will celebrate her life with happy memories and my only wish is that mum could join us in this celebration of her life. 

The Flower Challenge #15 Anything But A Card

As soon as you say to me it cant be a card I freeze. Finally came up with an idea, then

the ideas kept coming. Will just share this one for now. I love how it turned out. Bright and colourful

and it will make a perfect Christmas present for someone.

Everyone needs notepads for next to the phone or on the kitchen bench. I started off

making everyone ones with Postit Note size last year and the year before now I've decided to go bigger.

Check it out. Perfect size for the 8 x 8" pad, actually I cut it down to 8 x 7" but you need to look at the size of your notepad.

See how its peeking out there, perfect size for those grocery lists, or to do list.

To hold the pad in there I used the double sided tape, the red one that is extra sticky

strong.

I have used a piece of pattern paper with that wonderful bright pink and green stripe on it

and see how theres an additional section on the side so you can secure your pen to the pad.

You can see the panel a bit better here with the additional fold for the

pen to be held and that is also secured with the red extra strength tape to hold it firm.

I wanted to add these flowers that I coloured with Copics. They are from MFT and I love them

I coloured then fussy cut, I fiddled around for ages then was about to give up and started looking through one of those boxes of bits and pieces you buy from the junk shops and found the tags and ended up with this layered framed idea and just loved it.

Finished it all off with the wood 'hello' which was also from the junk shop and came in a box of assorted wooden words and shapes.

The red tape I got from Stampin Up and is Sticky Strip, it has a red coating but  that is removed to leave clear tape.

MFT is My Favourite Thing 

I used my scorepal to add the lines for the folds.

Here is a brilliant easy tutorial for a Post-it Note Holder Tutorial

and all you need to do is adjust the size depending on the size of

your notepad.

CraftTestDummies

Now its time to go check out what the rest of the 

Design Team have been up to at The Flower Challenge. 

We have been joined this month by Guest Designer Michelle from 

the Card Grotto and she has the most amazing

blog (don't forget to come back after checking out all her wonderful cards).

There is so much to look at, then its your turn to have a go and join us this 

month in making anything but a card.

Thanks so much for coming to visit.