Friday Freebie, July & August

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to you all. I don't know about you, but as far as I am concerned, - time seems to have wings right now...... only just over two weeks before the big C day.... I don't really want to think about how many things I have to do still. But no use getting stressed, Christmas should be a time for joy and peace, - so I for one am trying to stay relaxed and creating these little freebies for you is one way to take the mind of other things. I hope they will bring some joy to you too

Just in case you are new here, you can find further calendar images by scrolling down the blog and on last week's post there is a link to where you can download beautiful 2013 calendars for free.
Have a good weekend everyone!

A card and some class samples

Hello everyone
It has been pretty quiet around here but that is because I have been busy prepping samples for a class I am running on Saturday afternoons at the moment. A group of total beginners (including two men yay!) Some of them had never seen rubber stamps before!
Anyway, here are just a few tiny samples of the kind of thing we have been doing and will be doing this coming week. The central stamp on the card is Edinburgh Castle, just for fun.

They have all been doing really well, I'm always amazed what beginners can come up with.....!

12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style # 11

Hello everyone and a warm welcome to my new followers too. Today Linda aka The Funkie Junkie posted her tag number 12, well I only just managed to finish my tag #11, so once again I am running behind....
If you don't know what I am talking about, check HERE for all the details. You have until December 17 to participate and there are fabulous prices to be won sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique

Like every time so far my tag is loosely based on Linda's original tag, you can see her tag #11  HERE. Like always, I don't have the same products so have had to adapt but I kept to the same colouring which I loved and the lay out and elements are pretty similar too. I created my back ground in pretty much the same way, just using different stamps, I also used Spelbinder dies in stead of Tim Holtz/Sissix ones and as I am using a smaller size tag I could not fit a lace border along the top, so I used a lace tie instead. I really love this challenge and using Linda's ideas and then adapting them has been part of the fun, thank you Linda, your work is always so inspiring!.
Here are few details still:

Well, one more tag to go, I am well chuffed as for once I think I am actually going to manage to complete this whole challenge. Thank you for visiting and I hope you will have a creative week!

Christmas ornaments

Today my second guest design project will be shown on the Calico Craft Blog. I had so much fun making these! Here is a sneakpeek:

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

Friday freebie May & June

Can you believe it is nearly December.... scary how quickly time just seems to fly, but I guess, better than being bored.....

Thanks for stopping by today and again, welcome to my new followers! I really enjoyed making these two calendar months, makes a nice change from all the autumn and wintery projects. If you have missed the previous months, you can find them HERE and HERE, so without further ado, here are May and June:

I have been asked where I get my actual calendar months, - you can download wonderful free calendars for 2013 from Call me Victorian. I have linked to my favourite one, but there are several other ones too.
Have a great weekend everyone!!

One of Many

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping by!

I thought it was about time I showed you one of the many Christmas cards I have been making:
This one uses many of my favourite things, inking, stamping, using an embossing folder and die cuts, oh and some stenciling as well. The stamp is from La Blanche, the embossing folder is a Tim Holtz one and the colours are chipped Sapphire , Vintage Photo and Brushed Corduroy. I highlighted the embossed bits with some Treasure Gold, one of my all time fav products at the moment...

Final calendar pages

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting! A special warm welcome to all my new followers!
I have finally managed to finish the last of the calendar pages I have been making for someone. The light has been pretty bad these last few days, so I have had trouble getting even half way decent photographs. Most of the elements used in these pages are from the Graphics 45 Place in Time collection again. You can see the first few pages HERE

Christmas wall art for the Artistic Stamper

Hello everyone, welcome to my new followers and I hope you are all having a good week.
Today it is my turn to show a project over at the Artistic Stamper.
I decided to make a little canvas wall hanging using some of their awesome Christmas stamps

To see the full project and how I made it, please go HERE and any comments are of course much appreciated!!

12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style #10

Hello everyone, - here is my next tag for the challenge over at the Funkie Junkie. If you are a regular visitor here then you will have seen all of my previous tags for this challenge. This is number 10 inspired by Linda, aka the Funkie Junkie. You can see her original tag HERE

This week Linda provided us not only with a beautiful tag, but also with a lovely vintage image, in case we wanted to use it, - and yes, I did. For my tag I used a similar lay out and similar elements, but like usual I also had to substitute several others, but I used a bauble, a flower and bricks, just like Linda did, only I stenciled my bricks as I don't own the embossing folder she used. I drew the icicles at the top with a white pen, again, because I don't own the folder she used. 

The flower is made with the Tim Holtz pine cone die

In case you are interested to play along, this is what Linda has to say about the details of the challenge:

• This is an inspiration challenge. Each week, I will post my tag and you will use it to be inspired to make something. You can enter any sort of craft. It can be a tag, a card, a home decor project, a scrapbook layout - your choice but please make it winter/holiday related. 
• You must take inspiration from something on my tag and tell us in your post what inspired you. You don't have to use my style, my layout, my colors, my theme or anything except be inspired by something on my sample. Your make can be shabby, it can be grungy or it can be clean and simple. I don't mind if you CASE my work, but if you do, please give me credit. 
• We will have 12 weekly challenges beginning today, Monday, September 17th. You can link your project using the linky provided. If you don't have a blog, you can use another hosting site such as SplitCoast Stampers or PhotoBucket, but you must link back to this challenge and tell us what inspired you. 
• To be eligible for the drawing at the end of the 12 weeks, you must: 1) enter all 12 challenges, 2) provide a link back to this challenge and mention that it is sponsored by my store The Funkie Junkie Boutique, with a link to the boutique. 
• All 12 challenges will remain open until December 17th. You can play any challenge up through that date. To be eligible to win, you must have submitted an entry into all 12 of these challenges by midnight Eastern Time December 17th. 
• At the end of the 12 weeks, from the pool of players who participated in every single challenge and provided a link to the challenge on my blog and a link to my store on their post, I will draw three winners. There will be one $50 grand prize gift certificate toThe Funkie Junkie Boutique given out plus two runner up prizes of $25 gift certificates. 

Because Linda is moving her store will be closed for a while, but HERE is a link to her shop and as you can see from her description, her boutique is sponsoring this challenge.

Friday Freebies, the next two calendar months

Hello dear blogfriends! For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful time! Here are the next two calendar background pages, I hope they are useful.

Printable jpeg

re-sizable pngs

Remember, free printable calendar months can be downloaded from the "Call me Victorian site HERE

2013 Calendar pages (freebies tomorrow!)

Hello everyone and happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it!!
I have so many things to be thankful for, too many to list them all, but my many online friends and blog followers certainly feature high on the list!! Please know that you are all so much appreciated!!
Today I am showing you the first few pages of a little desk top calendar I am making for someone. I am not using my own designs (they will keep coming in the next few weeks) but the wonderful new papers from Graphic 45 Place in Time Collection. Here are a few samples:

Delightful Die D-lites

Hello everyone and welcome again to all my new followers!
Today I am showing you a box I made using the new dies from Spellbinders called Die D-lites as embellishments.

To see the full project and how I made it, please hop over to the Spellbinders blog by clicking HERE and I would love it if you leave me a comment there.

12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style tag 8 & 9

Finally managed to do my next two tags for the 12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style. I was running two tags behind and I know that today Linda, also known as the Funkie Junkie, will be posting number 10.

If you don't know what I am talking about, you can check it out HERE. There is still time to play and one lucky person is in with a chance to win a fab prize sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique!!

Well, now for my tags, here is no 8

Of course like usual mine is totally different, but there are a few similarities that I used as inspiration from Linda's tag: A Santa stamp on the right (mine is a Crafty Secrets stamp), the Season's Greetings sentiment on the left, a strip of hessian/burlap at the bottom and a big flower, plus some background stamping. You can see Linda's original tag here:

I made my flower using a Rose Creations die from Spellbinders

My Santa image was coloured with a mix of Distress Inks and Inktense pencils and cut with another Spellbinders die

And now for tag #9

Again, mine is very different but I stuck with the star and button theme and also added a gingham ribbon, with a ticket stuck behind. You can see the original here
I had great fun creating the background with a mix of acrylic paints, crackle medium, embossing powders, Distress Stickles and my heat-gun. The stars are grunge board which I treated in a similar way to make them look old and rusty. The ticket is a Tim Holtz stamp and the buttons I have had in my stash since forever and I was so pleased to finally use them.
Here are some close ups still:

Well I hope you like my tags. I have greatly enjoyed making them and can't wait for Linda's next tag to appear later today....

Christmas Recipe Book guest designing for Calico Crafts

I feel honoured to have been invited again to be a guest designer for Calico Crafts this month. I was asked to use some of their beautiful papers. Now I like making my own backgrounds but I adore using gorgeous papers, so this was right up my street!

 Christmas  is a big affair in our house and with a large extended family, Christmas dinner is a big occasion with up to 20 people every year.The moment I saw the beautiful Kaisercraft Turtle Dove Collection I knew I wanted to use them for a book to keep all my Christmas recipes in, handy to have them all together and also making a lovely keepsake to pass on to my daughter when it becomes her turn to host this annual affair….. (I wish......)
Here are a few of the pages, to see the full project please head over to here, you won't regret it as there many wonderful projects from their talented design team. There is a cool shop too with many unusual products!
Anyway, here are a few more pages to whet your appetite and I would love it if you left a comment over there.