Tree Inspiration

Today I have a little tutorial to share with you, but it's not my own - it's my mum's.

Last year she made me a tree decoration - a wooden cutout tree, painted or sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Mist, and then stamped and heat embossed.

This year I gave it a go myself.

After spraying with my Cosmic Shimmer Mist (Peacock Green, which is actually quite tree-y), I stamped some swirls in a copper colour.

I sprinkled holographic white embossing powder over the copper ink and heat treated the trees. Next I stamped some snowflakes on in white, but just left the ink to dry - I didn't heat emboss with powder.

I then stamped on some different snowflakes, but this time I did sprinkle white embossing powder and heat embossed it.

I finished off by tying some twine through the whole in the top of the tree so that it could be hung on our Christmas tree, which is in fact a Christmas branch:

Thanks Mum for leading the way here!

It's Chrrrrriiissssstmaaaaasssss!

Now my fiance's birthday has come and gone, we can officially begin to get into the spirit of Christmas. As if to confirm this, at a music club's Christmas get together on Wednesday he performed an acoustic version of Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody', which went down a storm.

About a month ago, he told me a joke, as he does from time to time.

Q. What's the best thing about being an insomniac?
A. Only three sleeps till Christmas!

Back then, it was hilarious. Now I'm kind of wiping the smile from my face as I see Christmas looming and know that I am un(der)prepared. That's not to say I haven't been doing anything. Oh no. I've got a million photos as proof, mostly of the cards and tags I made for a Christmas fair stall I had on Wednesday (I kept that one quiet, didn't I?). Well, it might not have happened, so I didn't want to shout about it. Or, it might've been a flop, so I didn't want to shout about it. I spent some time (I'm not going to disclose how much time) rush-making things to sell, and in the end it turned out quite well, but I'm too exhausted to shout about it. I didn't even get a photo of me in market mode.

I made a whole bunch of small (4 x 4 in) cards using kraft paper. The first two I already posted about, I know. But I love it so much - I only want to make cards with kraft paper now. I can't believe it took me so long to find it. Resourceful as I am, I used the cutouts from these cards to make a topper in themselves. The padded gingham stars speak for themselves.

 

I got really stuck on stars. I cut quite a lot of them, and didn't vary too wildly from the layout above.
Some I stamped with snowflakes, inked the edges, and stuck on with foam pads. I made some into matching gift tags too.

Some I stamped with winter foliage:

That snowman paper from the Basic Grey 'Jovial' collection is so fun! I also made matching gift tags for these stars:

Then I went back to the shop and bought some more gingham stars. I used a little bit of border and a little bit of swiss dot paper to accent these cards.

I got off the star train for a bit to experiment with some stamping. I drew a little pencil circle on white card, and joined up a few wintry stamps in a few colours to make a wreath. I still don't consider myself a 'stamper' so I was quite please with how these came out.

 

I also made some cards I really did not want to part with. I love the cleanness of these ones - there are a few white snowflake stickers on the card which you probably can't see in these photos, but that is it. Nothing fancy. Just a nice cookie of a fallen branch and a little cutout.

 

 

The warmth of the wood against the white card really feels Christmassy. I am going to make some more of these for my own personal collection, because they sold out at the fair!

I had to go back to stars in the end. I went with some more gift tags. I really like that it looks like I've cut the star from patterned paper. In fact, I covered my acrylic block with stamps and made sure it was all too big for the star, and just stamped:

And here is my little basket of gift tags, which also sold out:

If you weren't before, you'll definitely have the Christmas spirit now you've read through this post. Happy penultimate shopping Sunday!

Lipstick Chick December Challenge: What's Your Style?

For December's challenge on the True XOXO Girls blog, I created a layout which depicts my Modern Rocker side. Since all of the Lipstick Chicks have chosen a different style there is, again, a ton of inspiration over there so check it out and get lifting! This month's challenge is sponsored by Candy Shoppe Designs, who have the most amazing kits that you will just drool over.

I began here:

and sketched a little idea for my layout:

 ...feeling very pleased with my little pun. Then I got making:

Almost everything on the page is reclaimed - a postcard, a beermat, a good handful of clothing tags. It is possible to keep it simple. You just have to save everything you come across, in case it comes in useful!

Some of the stars are raised up with foam pads to give body to an otherwise quite flat page (I didn't use any patterned paper except for the Basic Grey lined paper from which I cut the stars).

And most of my title I wrote by hand:

The thick cardboard and the beermat added further body to the page:

Actually, it didn't turn out at all how I had imagined. I think at this point, after trying this style twice, I can say that even if I am a fashion chameleon, I'm not necessarily a scrapbooking chameleon. I much prefer this style, which - although disordered - is softer, more visually stimulating... and more me.

A Snowstorm before Christmas

With all the snow outside there's every excuse to hole up and make, make, make! I've been quite busy with my cards these past two weeks.

First of all, I'm LOVING using kraft card for Christmas this year - it gives that homey, warm feeling of being around a tree and a fire, surrounded by presents and family.

 

I love the gingham fabric stars too - they're lightly padded, which really gives the cards dimension.

Next, I was asked by a friend to make her a few cards for her family, which would feature her daughter. She sent me a cute christmassy photo, and I immediately knew I wanted to put little Rosie in a bauble...

 

 

 

I used a big rectangle mask to make a snowflake border, and - as always with Christmas cards - stamped a few images on the envelopes.

Then, I made some simple gift tags:

 

After that, I turned away from the traditional colours and used the gorgeous Christmas scene stamp from LaBlanche, which I talked about in Tuesday's post.

 

Again, I used a big circle mask to get the snowflake border. Also, I highlighted the snowy parts of the stamp with Stickles (although you can't really see that in the photos). BIG disappointment though - the two products didn't combine well. The ink was Memento (Tuxedo Black) and the Stickles were Ranger (Frosted Lace). I'm not sure which one to blame, but after applying the Stickles to the inked parts, the (black) ink seeped out and into the (white) Stickles, resulting in a pink-tinted snow. I'm really disappointed as the ink is supposed to be fast. And I did let it dry before applying the Stickles. Any recommendations for better inks, anyone?

Paris, Here I Come! (One Day...)

The December challenge for the Mini Book Anonymous DT was titled 'Cream, Blue and Paris, Too'.

I LOVED this challenge as soon as I heard about it. I was excited about the possibilities - it was the perfect opportunity for my first visit to Paris! Especially now we live quite close, there really wasn't an excuse not to go.

Well, after one thing, and another thing, we didn't end up going to Paris. Instead I made a mini book - without photos - filled with my impressions of Paris and a sense of hope that one day we will go there. (Incidentally, instead of going to Paris, we went to Brighton, where I happened to find my wedding dress, and get my dad to buy it for me. So it ain't all bad.)

My snapshots of Paris come in the form of tiny shadow boxes, glued to the inside of my mini - little windows into the Parisian soul. With two on the right-hand side of one page, and one on the left-hand side of the other page, when you close the book, they slot together nicely.

Oh, and I made another video. Those of you who watch it - please bear with me! It's only my second video attempt. This time I tried the 'make and speak at the same time' technique. I'm not great at coordination or multi-tasking, but I think I did OK. The only problem is I'm a bit slow, and take up too much time talking, so the video is just a snapshot of some of the aspects of my mini book, not a step-by-step from start to finish. Maybe I need to focus less on the music and graphics and more on the content? Feedback welcome!

Don't forget to head over to the Mini Book Anonymous blog soon to check out all the other DT projects!

PS thanks Mum for those Paris rubons you got me many years ago. They finally achieved their intended purpose!