Out with the old and in with the new!

Hello everyone, welcome and I am so happy to see you here.

With this post I want to wish you all the most wonderful, prosperous, creative, happy and peaceful New Year. Seeing the world did not end on the 21st of December, but as some people say it is actually the beginning of a new era of time starting, full of new and creative and spiritual possibilities, I can't wait for the new year to begin! My word for the year is Possibility. Possibility to grow, to imagine, to be, to become etc. etc. Would love to know what your word is!!!
All right, I'll end this post with showing you my 12 favourite pieces from 2012:

Cover of vintage mini

page in mini album

Cover tag book

page in pocket album

page in a journal

Wall hanging

Altered box

Altered box

Mixed Media Collage

Altered Tag

Scrapbook LO 12 x 12

Journal Cover

Hope some of you will post some of your favourite pieces too. I know quite a few people did last year and I really enjoyed seeing them!!

Happiness

Hello everyone, welcome and an especially warm welcome to my new followers.

 I have called this post happiness because that is what I feel when I think of my new grand daughter and when I have the time to play in my journal. This page includes one of the more recent photos of her and she certainly is one happy little girl, and yes, she is a girl even though there is a lot of blue in this page.

 As no doubt you can see, this page is heavily influenced by the work of Anna Dabrowska (Finnabair) again. I love the way she incorporates photos into her work.

I started by covering my page with old book paper, then added numerous strips of other papers, tape, burlap ribbon, lace, metal bits and flowers and finally my photo. The next step was to cover everything with a thick layer of Gesso. I then coloured it all with various ink sprays (Dylusions, Cosmic Shimmer and Tattered Angels) I protected my photo with a baby wipe while doing this, a trick I learnt from Anna. I also added some stamping with various background stamps. The final bit was to add the sentiment which was computer generated.

 Here you can see some of the detail still.
 

Between Light and Darkness

Well I hope you all survived the last few days and are feeling happy and relaxed!

I certainly do and with the main festivities out of the way, it's just great to relax and journal a bit more. This is the next page in my Prima mixed media album, another canvas page. Hard to stamp on but great for textures... I used different stencils (Crafters Workshop and Dylusions) some Dylusions sprays, Treasure gold and Stewart Gill Byzanthium and Alchemy paints. It was great fun to dig those out of their hiding place where they had been gathering dust for quite a few month.
Here are some details still

Candle drawn with charcoal pencils, white and black.

And the winner is.....

So today is the day that I will announce the winner of my two Spellbinder dies giveaway. Thank you for all your comments both here and on the Spellbinders blog!


So I used Mr Random Org, but unfortunately I am too stupid to figure out to show you the clever picture that some people manage to show when they have a give away. Anyway, you will just have to take my word for it, - it was number 19 on my blog DEB OCHS-LA GRONE
Congratulations!! Please be in touch so I can mail your dies out to you.

Looking ahead at 2013

Hello everyone and happy Boxing Day! Hope you have survived all the festivities and found some peace and creative time as well.
Today it is my turn to post on the Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog.
I decided to make a wall calendar:

To see the full project and how I made it, please click here

Holiday Blessings

To all my blogging friends, followers and visitors, - I wish you all the most wonderful, peaceful and blessed holiday season!! You all mean the world to me, I love this blogging community!

Christmas Thoughts:

If we endeavor to celebrate Christmas in a true way

There should be within us a Shepherd and a King. 

A Shepherd who can listen out for what

Others cannot hear, who with all his powers of Devotion

Lives immediately under the starry heavens;

To whom the Angels are happy

To reveal themselves.

A King, who knows how to give,

Who does not allow himself to be

Guided by anything other than the

Star in the Heights: who sets out

To place all his gifts before the crib.

But beside the Shepherd and the King,

There must also be a child within us

Who now wishes to be born!

(This is an original piece created with soft chalk board chalks and pastels on white paper: Draw 3 layers of white chalk all over the paper first and then draw your picture with soft pastels (not Pan Pastels!) A bit of  toilet tissue helps to blend it all together and some cotton buts will lift colour if things have gone wrong. A very forgiving technique!)

Friday Freebies final two calender months

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's freebie! Well there we are, the last two calendar months, - how time has flown by. Hope you have enjoyed these and if you have missed some previous months, just scroll down and you will find them.

I want to use this opportunity to say thank you for all your kind comments, lovely emails and support! I am going to take a bit of a break from the freebies over the festive season but will be back at some point in the new year, hopefully with some fresh ideas.....
If you have not yet entered my give away, you can find all the details HERE
Wishing you all the best for the coming festive season!!

Christmas cards for Snazzys

Hello everyone and welcome. Today I am showing my second project over at the Snazzys DT blog
To see the full project please click HERE

Hope you are having fun with your last minute preparations, and if you have not entered my give away yet, please see the post below.

Christmas ornaments and a give-away!!

Hello everyone and welcome! As it is getting closer and closer to Christmas, I decided it was about time to have another Giveaway to say thank you for all your support in the last year and for all your lovely comments! As  my giveaway is actually 2 Spellbinders die sets I decided to announce this give away on the day that it is my turn to post on the Spellbinders Blog. The project I am showing  is the set of Christmas Ornaments you can see in the photo above. There is a collage sheet with images to help you in making something like this yourself which is downloadable from the Spellbinders blog also.

Alright, now for the giveaway, here are the two sets that will go to a lucky winner:

Floral Ovals

Labels Four

Remember, with Spellbinder dies you can cut, emboss and stencil and you can use them in just about every die cutting machine. This is what you need to do to be with a chance to win:

• Leave a comment on this post
• Leave a comment on my post on The Spellbinders Blog by clicking HERE
• Become a follower here if you aren't one already

That's it. The winner will be chosen with the help of Mr Random Org on December 27 out of all entries that have commented in both places and are following here so make sure to check back then.

Good luck and I hope you will all have the most amazing holiday season!!

Angel Muse

Hello everyone, thanks for visiting at this busy time of year and a very warm welcome to my new followers.
Today I am sharing a quick further journal page in my Prima mixed media album, which was a wonderful gift from Val and Don, our wonderful bosses at Snazzys

When life gets stressful I have found again and again the best remedy is to do some playing in a journal, I always feel so much better afterwards.  Earlier pages can be viewed here and here. The cover of the album is here
Anyway, here is the result, it was a canvas page. I played with various acrylic paints and the angel was created with one of the wonderful La Blanche stamps, stamped on tissue and then adhered to the background with matte medium. The gold swirly bits are also La Blanche stamps, love these, they always stamp so well! Here are few details still:

 The text was computer generated and I shaded around it with a charcoal pencil, blending it in (more or less) with a stubby, not so easy on the canvas.

 I added some little gold stars just for fun.

 Embossed with Wow gold embossing powder

All the best with your preparations for the big day!! Tomorrow I am having a give away, so make sure to come back!

Spread a little light....

Hello everyone and welcome! Like always a specially warm welcome to my new followers!!

Today it is my turn to share a project on the Snazzys DT Blog

This month the team are working with The Carta Bella Christmas Day collection and the Hero Arts Believe Stamps. For this project I used the papers in this collection and some of the elements that come with it.

If you want to see the full project and how I made it, please head over to the DT Blog, and I'd love it if you would leave me a comment there.

I am having a give away here on Wednesday, so make sure to come back for that!

Friday Freebie September & October

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to this Friday's freebie. A specially warm welcome to all my new followers again, - I am so happy you have decided to join my humble little blog and I hope you will enjoy being here.

Only two more weeks of the calendar images to go, and can you believe it, only 10 more sleeps until the big day. Are you feeling ready? I'm certainly not.... Anyway, no more waffling, here are the next two calendar month:

Bookmark in a holder

Hello everyone!
Today it is my turn to post on the DT blog of the Artistic Stamper
I created this for my niece who is an avid reader

To see the full project and how I made it, please click HERE

Bee happy

Hello everyone and welcome!

Bee happy, well that is what I was when I had a little window of time yesterday to create something fun, just for the sake of it and totally not Christmas related for once!!
A while back I got these wonderful little mini canvasses, in my local pound shop, you got 4 for £1 (that's well under $2!) They are only just under 3" square and probably not the best quality but I am sure they will look great grouped together on a larger substrate, something I definitely want to try in the not to distant future.
This one was just to have a play about with.
I started by creating some texture first, I used Viva Ferro scraped through a stencil. I dried it with my heat gun to puff it up and then played around with various acrylic paints.
The flower was created with the help of a bit of a paper napkin

The bee was stamped twice, first of paper and then on a piece of acetate. I cut and coloured the first one and glued it on, I then cut just the acetate wings and glued them on the paper one for some added dimension.
The sentiment was computer generated. Here are a couple of close ups still.

The light here is so bad that I keep having to take photos by electric light which adds this horrible shine, so I apologize for that, however, there is quite a bit of real shine on the project too, because, guess what, my final step was once more to add some Treasure Gold to some of the raised bits, love that stuff!

Well I hope you take some time for yourself too in these busy days, stay crafty and bee happy!!

I did it!! Tag # 12 Funkie Junkie style

Hello everyone and a specially warm welcome to all of my new followers.
Well I am very proud of myself as I actually managed to finish all of the 12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style and I have one week to spare....

If you don't know what this is all about, you can check out all the details HERE, and if you still wanted to join in, well, there is one week left because this challenge closes on the 17th of December. It has been a lot of fun and I have met some lovely people through this challenge too and that has been great.

Now for the details of tag number 12, like usual I have taken a lot of inspiration from Linda aka the Funkie Junkie's original tag which you can see here

Like Linda I gold embossed my background and coloured my tag red, though somewhat darker than Linda's. I then added some similar elements, like an ornament with snowflakes, (though mine, being a Spellbinders one has a bit different shape) there is some holly on my tag  like on Linda's but mine was created with a little JustRite stamp and instead of a heat embossed background panel, I ran mine through an embossing folder and then went over it with my all time favourite product at the moments, Treasure Gold in the colour White Fire. I added a little stamped heart to my ornament for some more interest and embellished with a rose rather than a poinsettia.

I did not have a Happy Holiday stamp which I liked so my message says Merry  Christmas, but I did not really need to tell you that as it is quite obvious lol....

Well that's it, 12 tags complete. This wonderful challenge is being sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique, and one lucky winner, who has completed all 12 tags and fulfilled all the other criteria, stands to win a fabulous price with two further runners up (is that a word?), how generous is that?!
Hope you like my tag, thank you for visiting and hopefully see you all soon again.