A Very Merry Christmas to you All

Hi everyone.

I am stopping by today to wish you all

A

VERY

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I thought I would share our Christmas Tree with you.  I put the lights and tinsel on, and then the girls decorated it and what a fabulous job they did too.

You probably think it is looking a little bare under that tree - we don't put the presents under until Christmas Eve night :-)

I hope you all have a most wonderful festive holiday with lots of family and friends.  I will probably have something to share with you between Christmas and New Years.

Have a great time everyone.

Hugs

Karon, Andy, Shannon and Emily

oh,

and Jess the cat.

The Last Tree - Version 3.1 :-)

Hi everyone.

Happy Friday!  Only 6 more sleeps till Christmas Day!

Are you all finished and ready for the big day!.  I did most of my wrapping yesterday and just have a few more stocking stuffers to get and I will be done.

We are expecting a significant storm starting on the 23rd and by the end of Christmas Day, we could have another 30cm of snow on the ground.  Of course, that could change :-)

I have one final tree (for this year) to share with you.  I really had trouble giving this one away !

I started off with the cork base again, but this time after painting it silver I decided to add some snow. I have had a small jar of Snow-Tex for around 2 years and really have never thought of using it - until I saw some wonderful creation's during Lori's Annual Visions of Sugar Plums Hop and Lori had used Snow-Tex.  She has the most wonderful blog, you just have to go check it out, Chouxchoux Paper Art.

I marked where I wanted the tree to stand and then added the snowman, after glittering him up a little. The Snow-Tex was so easy to use and I just used a palette knife to spread it around.  It takes around 2 hours to dry - depending how thick you make it.  Once it was dried I added some glitter to this also.

I also made up a little sentiment plaque, using a miniature artist board.  The paper and sentiment are from  Polkadoodles CDs Studio 12 Picknix 2 and Angelberry Christmas.   I distressed the edges of the paper and once secured to the plaque, went around the edges with some Faber-Castell Gelato in silver, turning the corners over a little too.  Then added some glitter to finish it off.

So, I suppose I had better show you the finished tree :-)

I gave this to a friend as a Christmas gift and she was so pleased with it.  She also loves snowmen.

I will definitely be using the cork board bases from now on, they are just the right size and now I know the Gesso works I can paint them any colour too!  I added a little tinsel around the bottom of the tree to finish it off.

I really appreciate each and everyone of you that takes the time to come and visit my little blog.  I am going to be playing catch up today on my visiting and will be around to see what you have all been up to.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Crafting.

Snow Angel

Hi everyone.  How is everyone?  Are you all ready for Christmas?

I have nearly finished the Christmas shopping, just a few little stocking stuffers to get and then later in the week I will get the wrapping done.

I am sharing this post over at She's a Sassy Lady blog today too.

I finally got around to finishing my angel.  So, she is no longer headless, but could be legless LOL!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you will know that I have now made two Christmas trees using this technique.  You can see the trees, HERE and HERE.

However, this time - you turn the book upside down for several of the pages - so that you get wings :-)  A great tutorial for this, can be found here at Five Go Blogging.

I decided to make a bottom for the angel using cork pot stands - so I first coated the cork in Gesso, just one coat would be enough, but I gave it two :-)

Then I gave it a coat of silver acrylic paint.  I am so pleased with how this turned out!

You can see the angel there in the background - looking a little headless LOL!

Anyways, after spraying her with some Perfect Pearls - Perfect Pearl is the colour I used, I also added a little more sparkle with some very fine glitter glue.

Her head is just a Christmas bauble, I kept the silver hanger attached to it, as I thought it made the perfect collar.

I couldn't resist adding some silver ribbon to her head and base.

Of course, as she is a Snow Angel I had to add some lovely silver snowflakes.

I finished off the base of the angel with some wired star garland, after all she is up in the stars and clouds there :-)

I was tempted to add a face to the bauble, but thought that may spoil it.  Less is more, as they say.

I apologise for the overload of photo's I was trying to share the sparkle :-)  Hope you are able to see it.

Maybe you could give it a go, with some old books that you may have.

I am finishing off another tree, so will share that one later in the week, hope you will come back and say hello.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

Another Tree :-)

Hi everyone.  Hope you are all having a wonderful week.

I finally got my second tree finished, although the angel is still headless LOL!  Hope to get that done in the next couple of days.

Yesterday, I had a pot luck lunch to go to - the white chocolate cheesecake I made, was delicious and still had some leftovers for Andy to have some too :-)

Part of our pot luck,  was a Christmas ornament/decoration exchange and that went really well too.

I decided to give this tree in for the exchange.

I went with a snowy tree, this time.  So a snowflake for the top, and around the tree.  And a lovely snowman. I used up another trashy novel ;-) 

Snow people have presents too, don't they?!  I made up some teeny tiny boxes again, using the template from Bird's Cards.

I also added some ticket sentiments to this one, as it's part of the exchange and not just for me :-)

It looks so much better in person - as you can see the glitter more.  The little snow person is a find from the Dollar store :-)

If you want to take a look at my first tree, you can find it here.

I hope you are getting organised for Christmas.  I am getting there.

I am entering this tree in the following challenges.

Decorate to Celebrate - Challenge #90: Anything Goes (closes 23 Dec)

Crafting for all Seasons - Challenge #92: Anything Christmas BUT a card (closes 4 Jan)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

Christmas Cards for Overseas - part 2 !

Hi everyone.  Wow - where are the days going?  I am so dis-organised this year!

I am struggling at the moment to get into the Christmas spirit and you would think that with Andy now home permanently,  I would be so looking forward to it.  Maybe, once the kids finish school and I start doing some present wrapping my mindset will improve.  Or maybe I need to have the Christmas music on full blast!

Anyways, how is the start of your week going?  I have a potluck lunch to go to tomorrow, so I have a white chocolate cheese cake to make today.  And we are also doing an ornament exchange, so I need to finish off either a tree or the angel today!

As for today's post, I thought I would share another card that I made for my overseas posting.

Once again I used a fabulous Polkadoodles CD.  This is a pre-coloured topper off of the wonderful Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs CD collection.  The sentiment was added from another CD, A Home For Christmas.  However, it is also a black and white digi - if you fancy colouring it up yourself, and is available as a single digi download HERE.

I inked all the edges and then just layered up the main image on some foam to add a small amount of depth.  No more embellishments because of posting.

For the inside I added a street lamp and some holly, along with a stamped sentiment from CTMH. 

I also added some Sakura Gel Pen to the fur trim, and candle - just to add a little sparkle.  I think you can just see it in the photo.

And there you have it.  Another set of cards for my overseas posting.  Seems I am not the only one that is shocked by the cost of postage lately!

Have a great week everyone.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting.

Christmas Cards for Overseas!

Hi everyone.  Hope you are having a great weekend.

I managed to get some Christmas cards made for overseas.  Last posting, to guarantee delivery for Christmas was Friday.  So everything else took a back burner, whilst I got some cards finished.

I do have a little bit of a rant though.  I went to the post office, to get these cards posted for the UK, and I was really shocked at the cost.  I only sent a total of 15, yep 15 not 50, cards.  Regular size no bulky ones and it cost me $47!!!  I could not believe how much the costs have gone up.  I used to send 40 - 50 cards when we first arrived in Canada, but over the years that has had to be drawn back so that the cost is not too much.  Next year, I think I will have to take a photo and email everyone a link to my blog LOL!  It's so sad, as it really does not encourage you to send cards in the future.

Anyways, enough of that.  Here is the first card I made for sending.  I will share another post with you in a couple of days.

I took an image topper from the wonderful Polkadoodles Studio 12 - Picknix Collection 2 - Gingerbread Twist.  Placed it atop an embossed piece of white card that has been inked around the edges.  The embossing folder was a Darice folder, snowflakes.

I would have liked to have added a bow to the corner of the ribbon, but had to keep it reasonably flat for posting.  I did add a second tree, on top of the main image, to add a little more interest.

Also, added a little Sakura Gel pen, and then stamped the sentiment, which is from a CTMH stamp set.

For the inside, I added a little tree and some holly, from the new Work & Play 5 - Festive Hollybobs Collection, and another wonderful CTMH sentiment stamp.

So, there you have it.  I had a little bit of a production line going to get these made, and made 5 of them.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday, I hope to be in the craft room today, in between wash/dryer loads - thats where the timer comes in handy!  Put a load in, set the time on my desk and craft :-)

These are the collections I used for today's card.  Clicking on the picture will take you to the Polkadoodles shop.

  

I am entering this card in the following challenges.

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge - Challenge: Merry Christmas and Anything Goes (closes 30 Dec)

Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes for Christmas (closes 25 Dec)

DL.ART - December Linky Challenge - Anything Goes (closes 31 Dec)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

Christmas soon to be!

Hi everyone.  Hope your week has gone well.

It`s Friday!  It`s also time for the last challenge of the year at Polkadoodles.  Nikky has been kind enough to give us a few weeks break ;-)  This will still be a fortnight challenge, and will close on Thursday 18 December at Midnight GMT.  Winners will be announced on Friday 19 December.

The theme for our challenge is ...

"Who would you make a Secret Santa card for and why?"

Now,  you don't necessarily have to make a card or project for this challenge but you could do a short post instead sharing your Secret Santa. Then go over to the challenge blog and leave your linky!

NOW as an added bit of fun, visit each DT blog and have a guess, using the clues, as to whom they may have made their project for .... leave a comment on their blog with your idea and you could be in with the chance of winning a prize of a wonderful Polka Doodles digi image. We will randomly chose 3 DT blogs (names in a hat thing) and then randomly chose a comment from each blog and the winning comments will each receive a Polka Doodles digi image, so three more winners, in addition to the main challenge winner.

This fortnight the Design Team have all become "Secreat Santa's" and we each received a secret message from Santa.  I was tasked by Santa to make a card for .....

Oh, hang on, sorry, I am not allowed to tell you, see if you can guess who my card was intended for.

I will give you three clues.

The first was posted over at the Polkadoodles Blog and stated "My Secret Santa keeps herself very fit and is very busy throughout the year."

My second clue is "She loves to dance, dance, dance!"

My final clue is "Her favourite place to be, is somewhere cold and icy!"

If you think you know who my "Secret Santa" is, leave a comment on my blog here and tell me who you think it is. You might have to do some visiting to guess :-)

There will be more inspiration and DT to visit next week too, so the more you visit and guess, the more chance you will to have win.

Of course, you can also enter the fortnights challenge too, by entering you Secret Santa project or post :-)

Oh and I better show you the card I made I suppose LOL!

I decided to use this little lady from the Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs Collection.  She can also be purchased as a single digi download or as a whole digi collection HERE.

I coloured her up with Prisma pencils and Gamsol.  I couldn't resist adding a little sparkle, using a Sakura Gelly Roll Pen.

Prisma Pencils (numbers in brackets are my own numbering system)

Holly  -  912 (97), 1096 (100), 908 (104)

Post Box  -  923 (23), 924 (24), 925 (25)

Skin  -  927 (37), 939 (42), 928 (33)

Hair  -  1034 (12), 941 (114), 1082 (115)

Skirt/Scarf  -  925 (25), 195 (26)

Coat/boots  -  912 (97), 911 (102)

For the inside, I did the pop up. All the papers and embellishments are from this fabulous CD.

Again, there is that lovely sparkle on the snowman, using the Sakura Gel Pen.

I added a little ticket sentiment to the inside too.

I love the papers in this collection - so much to choose from.

Of course, I had to add a little tiny greetings envelope for the front, after all, she is posting a card!

Don't forget to see if you can work out who my Secret Santa was, and leave a comment below.  Then it's your turn to make a project - will it be for your Secret Santa?   ;-)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

WOYWW #287 - Ok, Time to Confess ;-)

Hi everyone.  Happy Hump Day!

How is your week going so far?

I am joining in over at What's on Your Work desk Wednesday?  And I have a confession to make :-)

I have had some wonderful comments on my WOYWW posts, and compliments on how tidy my desk is (thanks for stopping by). Well, this week, not so tidy, and I thought I would show you two of my desks this week, as I am multi-tasking :-)

So, Desk 1, still contains my folded tree - in the background - still unadorned!  The angel (yep you guessed right) is all folded, it has been spritzed and glittered (although I may add more) and the head and trim is ready to go!  I have also been experimenting!

I was looking for a base for my angel - did you know that you can Gesso cork pot mats!  I gave it two coats and then it has the first coat of silver acrylic paint.  I am going to add glitter to the paint for the second coat and that will be my base :-)  This is the two coats of Gesso, probably could have left it at one.

Here is my desk, you can see the base there with its first coat of paint.  The angel, with no head LOL!

OK - not too messy.  Here is desk 2.  OK, I know, I am really not a messy person ;-)

I have several little stacks of cards - production line in process.  Embossed and inked backgrounds, and toppers all inked.  Ribbon ready to go.

Sorry I have nothing completed to show you this week - I really do not know where the last week went - it just got lost amongst life!

I hope you are all busy getting ready for the season. I will have these cards finished today/tomorrow as they have to be posted to the UK on Friday as it's last posting day for Christmas letters/cards from here in Canada!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Crafting.

Howdy Doody :-)

Hi everyone.

Just stopping in quickly.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

We celebrated this last weekend, with Shannon turning 16 on Saturday!!  Where does the time go?  Doesn't seem that long ago that she was so tiny!

This past week seems to have slipped by me, without even saying hello!

I hope to get in the craft room today, as I really do need to finish up some things and also get some more overseas cards produced.  I can see a production line in my future LOL!

I will definitely have something to share with you on Friday, as it's the start of Polkadoodles last challenge for this year.

Here's a little sneak peek.

I do hope to be back before Friday though - to share some completed projects - but I apologise, now, if I am not :-)

Have a great week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting.

WOYWW #286 - Folding Folding Folding!

Hi everyone.  How is your week going?

I had Shannon of school poorly on Monday, but she is fine now.  However, whilst she was home it meant I had to do the dreaded house work - after all that is what Mommies do whilst they are in school, isn't it ?!! :-)

Guess where I would have been if she hadn't been home?  The craft room of course LOL!

Taking part in What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday? #286.

So, on my desk this week, a folded tree, which I am making into a gift for a friend.  You can see my first one that I made HERE.  Also trying another twist on the folded tree, will show you that once it is done, I am in the middle of folding that one.

Just behind the books are some cake bases, which I am thinking of using as bases for the gifts.  

Top right, my advent calender is all finished from those boxes that you saw last week.  Scroll down to see more or click HERE  for the post.

There's some ribbon and garland, some snow flakes and a couple of little statues to use for the gifts I am making.  My mists are on the left there ready to go and will hopefully get these done over the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

Advent you had a great week ;-)

Hi everyone.  How the dickens are you all?  I hope you have all had a fabulous week.

I see you really liked the Christmas tree from a book, well I am probably going to make some more of those for gifts, so stay tuned on that one :-)

I finally finished my Advent calender.  25 boxes, cut on my Cameo using a file from Birds Cards - thank you, you are so generous to share your free files with everyone.

The little wire tree was a hanging ornament from the Dollar store, I couldn't resist adding it to the calender.

I once again, used a lid off of a gift box, but today I bought some cake circles that I might use for the next tree I make.

I inked all of the edges of all boxes and numbers with CTMH Cranberry.  The papers are from a DCWV stack called Christmas Made!

The ribbon on top of the number 25 is from Michaels Celebrate It ribbon - it was on sale :-)  I made a few loops and joined them together, and then added a sparkly button.  I think I should probably have stitched the button on to the bow - sorry.

All the small boxes are 1.5" square and the big box is 3" square.  Each box holds 4 Hershey's Nuggets quite nicely and the the big box, well that holds the mother-load for Christmas Day :-)

The advent numbers are taken from the Polkadoodles Work & Play 5 Festive Hollybobs collection.

And there you have it, already for December 1st, and we all get a chocolate not just the girls :-)

I am entering this in the following challenges.

Silhouette Challenges - Challenge #19: Advent Calender (closes 30 Nov)

Love to Create Challenge Blog - Challenge #142: Make it for Christmas (closes 23 Nov) #2

DL.ART - Thankful Thursday Challenge #144: Anything Christmas (closes 25 Nov) #2

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

WOYWW #285 - You Guessed It :-)

Hi everyone.

Hope you all are having a great week.  Happy Hump Day.

I thought I would join in again this week at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday #285.

As you can see from the photo, all the boxes are made up and raring to go - you all guessed an Advent calender for the boxes.

However, the trashy novel that was on my desk last week, nobody guessed that one.  You can see it there in the back of the desk - yep that Christmas decoration was the book.  You can see more detail and photo's on this, on yesterdays post - either scroll down or click HERE :-)

I still have to ink up the boxes and add the numbers and then it just is a case of putting it all together, so hope to get that done over the next couple of days.

The tray of "cheese cake squares"  LOL!  OK, they aren't cheese cake squares,  I have been making some little inking squares, with old blocks off rubber stamps.  That is getting ready to finally sort my ink storage out :-)

There's a little pile of things top right, I am sending those in the post soon (have to make a card to go with them) to a crafty friend.

I hope you all have a fabulous week.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.

From Trash to Treasure!

Hello everyone.  Last week you may recall me mentioning that I was going to do something with a "trashy" novel!  Some of you thought decoupage of some sort, but I'm afraid no-one came close :-)

I am sharing this post over at She's a Sassy Lady for my little visit each month.

Today I have something a little different to share with you all.  Grab a coffee and stay awhile.

Have you ever wondered what to do with those books you no longer want?

Well, I recently found this great tutorial on You tube to Change a book into a holiday tree.

I just couldn't resist doing this and found the folding quite relaxing.  You need to have a book that has 150 pages or more.  Start off folding the pages.  Here's the first few folded.

The first 50 folded :-)

You keep going to at least 150, don't think you will get much more than that but you can try.

Next I sprayed it with some Tim Holtz Bundled Sage Distress Ink.  Also some Perfect Pearls mist, Heirloom Gold and then I had to add some really fine Glitter glue, to give it a little more sparkle.

Next up, some luxury ribbon, and a lovely star.  The star was from Michaels, there were three and they are called Merry Mini's.  They are meant to be hanging ornaments but I cut off the small link and was able to use it for the top of my tree :-)

Then came the fun part, finishing it off.  I wanted to make it into a table decoration.  I took the lid from a 9" round Christmas gift box and used it as the stand.  I placed the tree on a little lid (just to raise it up a bit) from another small box.  

The tiny little gift boxes were cut with my Silhouette Cameo, using the box from Birds Cards, I sized them in Silhouette Design Studio, so that my finished boxes were 1.5" square, 0.75" square and even as small as 0.5" square. Then added some ribbon to make them look really Christmassy.

The Father Christmas was just a little find at the Dollar Store, he is the perfect size for my little centre piece.

I so enjoyed making this and can see me making more, I might even make some for some gifts.

And there you have it, from "trashy" novel to a Christmas treasure.  What do you think?

I think I will have to make another one, because I would like to see if I could add some miniature Christmas lights to one :-)

I hope to have my Advent Calender, yes you guessed right on that one, completed in the next few days.

I am entering this in the following challenges.

Winter Wonderland - Christmas Decorations (closes 20 Nov)

Crafty Catz - Challenge #255: Christmas is Coming (closes 20 Nov)

DL.ART - Thankful Thursday Challenge #144: Anything Christmas (closes 25 Nov)

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Challenge #285: Anything but a Card (closes 21 Nov)

Love to Create Challenge Blog - Challenge #142: Make it for Christmas (closes 23 Nov)

Dream Valley Challenges - Challenge #95: Anything Goes (closes 28 Nov)

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and encouragement, I really do appreciate each and everyone of you.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy crafting.