Tag number two and a girl's day out

Hello all and thank you for your visit today, always so much appreciated.
Today I am sharing a second tag and some photos of a crafty get together I had while over in Australia.
Here first of all, is my tag. If you missed number 1, just scroll down.

The base of this one was done with the help of some extra thick gesso and a mix of acrylic paints.

I dabbed some kitchen roll over the centre bit just before the gesso and paint had dried. That lifted the paint and gave it the shabby effect. Not really what I had planned, but I quite like the result, one to remember...

The next layer was created by dry brushing some paint over the textures. I also did some background stamping with white gesso and a crackle stamp and a small text stamp stamped in black archival.

Here's a close up of some of the textures and below the finished tag, embellished again with some Calico Craft Parts and a flower and some strips of tissue tape..

Now, as mentioned yesterday already, I had a wonderful day meeting up with crafty friends. These kind ladies took me out for a wonderful day exploring Hahndorf, shopping, eating, lots of laughter and we all exchanged some crafty gifts we had made for one another.
Below a photo of the 5 of us together

From left to right: Margaret, Heather, me, Helen and Adriana. I will show you the gifts I received below, but here are some photos still of each of us writing messages in the gifts we received, - such a lovely memory and keepsake.

And here finally the wonderful gifts I received:

A stunning, multi layered tag from Heather. You can see many more photos of this beauty on her blog

This beautiful textured card was from Adriana, I just love the vibrant colours and pretty embellishments

And finally, this amazing little folder was made by Margaret, she did one for each of us, just incredible. It is her own design, but a bit like Tim Holtz's file folders, just smaller and with loads of pockets and photo mats. Below a picture of one of the inside pages:

She made it specially so that we could keep the photos of this special day. I am completely in awe of the clever design of this. Margaret has promised she will do a post one day of how she made it. Meanwhile she did a beautiful description of our special day with extensive photos of our projects. She is a much better photographer than I am, so if you are interested, do check it out, - just click HERE

Well, that's it for today, thanks for dropping by and happy crafting!!

Last of the Christmas cards

Hello all, welcome and I hope you are surviving this busy time of year.
This will be my last post before the big day as I am taking a blogging break while spending time with my grandchildren and other family.
I thought I would share my final Christmas cards with you today. These were made a while back and are now safely on their way to their recipients.

I have been having great fun experimenting with different kinds of backgrounds this year. These ones were made with the help of foil, using sticky embossing powder, and a mix of Distress Paints and Decoart, both the Media Fluid Acrylics and the Antiquing Creams.

Each one is similar but subtly different and they are all only 4 x 4" in size.

The colours are not traditionally Christmassy, but I have been attracted to Blues Greens and Browns this year for my cards. Unfortunately the weather has been so dark here, it's been impossible to get decent pictures, and of course the gold shimmer of the foil has totally disappeared....

This one uses pretty much the same techniques, just different die cuts and background stamps. Here you can see the additional texture achieved with some Decoart Snow Tex a bit better.

This one is almost the same as number one, just using a different stamp for the background with the Sticky Embossing powder.

For this one finally, I used some of Tim Holtz's Gilded Holidays remnant rubs. Beware, you need to apply these before doing anything else to your background or they are likely to get lost. Tim has a great video of how to use them here.
Below is a close up, I love these rubs, and will definitely use them again!

Well, that's it for today, thank you so much for all your support and your lovely comments, they are always very much appreciated !!!

Thanks for your visit like always and I hope you will have a peaceful, joyful and blessed season!!