Monday 22 December 2014

My Last Post of the Year and my Last 12 Tags of 2014 video!

Hi Everyone.

Made it!!  Here is my final tag offering of this year…..I love this challenge and I managed to get all my tags made each month even if some of them were down to the wire!!!!  I have enjoyed playing along with this challenge so much.  If you have watched any of the videos in this series you will know why.


Love that the sugary glitter has created a really snowy feel in this photograph.  I will have to check out all the tags posted by my fellow Tim's Tag Artists on hubbies laptop as my Mac is off to the menders tomorrow - all I have left to do is copy my files and then wave bye bye…..I have a feeling I am going to feel a bit bereft!

One final video before I go though of all the fun I had creating my last tag of the season.  I kept Tim's Winter Wishes phrase but created it a little differently.  I had fun creating my own frosted film using old acetate packaging……It will keep me going until the real product arrives over here in the UK and I didn't have the lovely Reindeer die that Tim used to finish off his tag so I stamped, frosted and decoupaged my snowman instead.  Check out all the fun I had on my video.


Here is the link to Tim's blog so you can pop by and see all the fun you too could be having next year…..mind you you still have time for this year if you are quick!!!!   I am hoping that Tim is playing again next year!

I posted a really long video yesterday and I have been thrilled by your response and how many views it has had already.  All the lovely comments have really fired me up to get designing and bringing more projects to you very soon.

That is it from me though this Year so I would like to wish you all a Fabulous Festive Time and I look forward to sharing more crafting with you in the New Year.  Sending you all virtual hugs and kisses and a hug thank you for joining me on my creative adventures.

Thank You for Popping By X

Sunday 21 December 2014

Faux Altered Christmas Book

Hi Everyone

Well the computer goes to the menders on Monday.  It is going to be strange not popping in here to talk to my screen!!!!  Here is my penultimate video for the year and it is a long one!  In  fact I think it is the longest I have ever put up.  I think you may be better off watching it in 2 or 3 sittings - make it in to a serial!

It does have a couple of great tips and techniques though so it is worth persevering to see how to make this!


The clue to this project is the word 'Faux'.  A little while ago I went to a workshop with the MDF man and the lovely Karen and we all had great fun making a Faux altered book.  In the video you will see the secret to the aperture in this book and it is not hours and hours of gluing pages together and then cutting out an aperture!  Genius!

Here is the link to his website and if you are in the area his workshops are a real treat.  Great value for money - fun projects and lovely people…..oh and did I mention the shopping!???

I was itching to come home and see what I could do with my new kit and of course it had to be Christmas.  This is the book from the outside.


I decided to decorate the cover as I want to display this book on a table and tempt people to peak inside and discover the magical world within!  So why is the video so long - well there was lots to show you.  As I put this together I show you how to make faux leather, I try my hand at creating my own texture paste and I have to say it worked a treat and of course there is the creation of the little winter wonderland within.


We are going to take a photo of us all together at Christmas and I am going to include that in the pages and I may add Christmas 2014 to the spine of the book later on.

So without further ado and chatter here is the tutorial.  I hope you like it.

Hope you are all having a fabulous time…..not many sleeps until Santa arrives …..hope he remembers I've been good and really really need some Pitt Brush Pens ;-)

Thank You for popping by X

Thursday 18 December 2014

Art Journal - Page 4

Hi Everyone

At last I managed to make time to have a play in my Art Journal - I must do that more in the New Year…..better resolution than the diet one again ;-)




You will see in this video that I was never sure that I could translate my idea of an old plastered wall to my pages!  But Art Journalling is all about having a go and exploring so I persevered and I really like the result after all!


As usual my pages contain pockets to add tags for journalling about our pets. We still miss Bart and Simba but wouldn't be without Comet even when he looks at us as if to say come on then let's go for a walk in the cold oh human of mine ;-)

I hope that my video inspires you to be experimental and not to panic (I did a bit and turned the camera off for a minute or two!!!!).  Just persevere knowing if it really does go wrong you can start again with a new layer of paper or paint!

This tutorial shows you how to use acrylic paint to transfer images to your Art Journal pages as well as another way to add pockets to your journal.


Off to finish up the ……..put your fingers in your ears I am about to use a bad word……..Housework ….eeek!  My Mother-in-Law arrives today for the holidays so I had better get things looking spick and span!  I won't be letting her in my craft room or the cupboard where I am going to hide the ironing pile!

See you again soon.  Thank you for popping by X

Wednesday 17 December 2014

Christmas is Coming Series - Card 5!

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all managing to stay afloat during this busy run up to Christmas!  I started out with good intentions, as you know, to have all my cards made and ready to send out of the door on December 1st!……..and here I am on the 16th posting my last video in this mini series and I am off to post the last two of my cards as soon as I have written this ;-)

I really hope you like this one as I loved how it turned out.  It is definitely the longest of the card batch making sessions but I hope you will agree it is worth it.  May I present to you the window shaker card using Rubber Dance Stamps!


Lots of frosty goodness in the window shaker and fabulously festive foliage to decorate the card.  I hope that even though this series took a little longer than I intended you agree this one was worth the wait!  If you have friends and family visiting at Christmas this is the perfect card for them.  Put aside an afternoon and you will have a batch made in no time.

I am going to do a separate page for all the card dimensions of this series which means I will have to watch the videos as I have sent all my cards out!!!!!  I think a little fast forwarding will be in order ;-)

Here is the link for all the card dimensions!

As usual the inside definitely matches the outside:


The stamps I used were from the Pines Fir Yew and the Christmas Greetings stamp sets both by Rubber Dance - follow this link!……Almost forgot to mention there is a sale on!!!

I thought you might like to check out this link to visit my friend Annie who used one of my designs (Card 4) as a starting point for some of her Christmas Cards this year.  They look fab and I was really pleased to see I had helped a bit with giving some inspiration.

So without further ado here is the tutorial to show you how you can make this window shaker design.


I am not sure how many more videos or blog posts I will fit in between now and New Year as I really must relinquish my computer to the mender men before my Apple Care runs out!  I am going to be bereft but I hope to give my craft room a thorough sorting and dusting and wiping down while it is away.  Maybe I should promise to do a craft room tour video to give me more incentive ha ha!

At the weekend I hit 4000 subscribers on my You Tube channel and was as pleased as punch!  Thank you all so much for supporting me and cheering me on.  I love sharing both here on my Blog and over there on my You Tube Channel and of course selling my workshops over on my ETSY shop.

I hope all your Christmas preparations are progressing nicely and that you are a little better organised than me!!!  I have an Art Journal Video uploading as I type this so I should be posting that tomorrow and I have 3 crafting things I would like to get done before the New Year ………keep your fingers crossed for me.

Incase I don't manage to do all that before my Computer is wrestled from my grasp I would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas (with lots of crafting goodies from Santa!) and a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Hugs

Helen
X

PS……Thank you for popping by X


Monday 8 December 2014

Sneak Peek!

Hi Everyone

It is my time to post a project on the Rubber Dance Blog this week and here is a sneak peek to tempt you to take a look by following this link!


This card features the latest stamps from Rubber Dance!  There is a tutorial and if you are popping in from my YouTube channel follow the link to hop over for your cutting guide…….

or click on this link to take a closer look at these lovely new stamps!

Thank you for popping by and don't forget to hit subscribe to be sure you never miss a thing!

Hugs

Helen
x

Saturday 6 December 2014

Christmas is Coming Series - Card 4

Hi Everyone

I am so late with this series ….which considering that it was the exact opposite of why I decided to make this little series of what I hoped were keep me organised with my card making this year designs!!!!……oh well back to the drawing board!

Actually this card is perfect for those of you who like me are finding it hard to get everything done at this time of year.  This is a quick and easy card design to put together and it looks fab….if I do say so myself :-) !


In fact it was so quick I made tags too!  So if you don't have the same die as me then you could use something similar - die cutting machines would do the trick too and punches!  Failing that you could choose to stamp the snowflake with Ranger Sticky embossing powder and then add the glitter.  So lots of options for this design.

I used my lovely Rubber Dance Christmas Greeting stamps for my stamping.  Love that 'do not open till xmas' stamp - perfect for tags or wrapping paper.  You I am sure have lots of Christmas Greeting stamps you can substitute.


Don't forget to make the inner match the outer!  It was fun using up the waste from my cards to make pretty tags for my presents this year.  I hope you enjoy the video and that it gives you lots of inspiration for quick and easy to put together cards - this one is quite flat so great for posting too.


Today there is frost on the ground and we will be outside putting up the Christmas lights!!!!   Brrrrrr - I think I will get a hot chocolate inside before I venture out!  Might tuck a hot water bottle in my coat too!

Hope you are all feeling festive whatever you are doing this weekend.  Have fun and thank you for popping by X


Tuesday 2 December 2014

12 Tags of 2014 - November - Part 2!

Hi Everyone

Here is the link to the video for the November tag I posted on the last day of November!


Lots of frosty products used to make my shaker tag this month.  I have been fitting in my crafting in between starting to prepare for Christmas.

We have two Christmas trees in our house and the first is up.  Check out the lovely sunshine I had whilst I was decorating it:


Actually the photo doesn't look sunny at all!!!  It was though…..can you spot the ghost in my photo!  Here are the lights and beads going on the tree.


Opening the box of decorations - This box of Disney ornaments on the top is about 20 years or more old now.  I remember buying them each month for a year when my eldest son Damian was little.  It is always Callum's job now to put them all around the bottom of the tree.


As he is the tallest in the house at the moment so he also likes to put the stars on top of the trees too!


Here it is all decked out in jewel coloured baubles.  Most of them were collected when we lived in Germany.  I can spot a few fabric baubles that I made.  Did you ever make them?…….They were a bit of a craze all those years ago and there were classes being run for them all over the place.  If you look in the photo above this one you can see one that I made (bottom left with sequins) and one that one of my boys made! (looks like a pine cone in green and purple)  I remember sitting down with Damian and Ivan and getting them to make one each for prosperity!  My Mum made one too.  Callum was still a twinkle in his Father's eye then so now I come to think of it I will have to get him to make one.

I love all the traditions that families adopt or make at this time of year.  I know it is those traditions that we celebrate that my children (now not so small) remember fondly of Christmases past.  I will share some of them with you over the coming days as I like you prepare the house for the holidays.

What is your favourite Christmas tradition?

Oh…..and while I remember those of you guessing Advent Calendar on my 'Guess what it is' post the other day……correct!  I have yet to finish it so I have decided I am not late for this year but early for next ;-)   ho, ho, ho!

Have a fun week and enjoy the frosty tag video.  Thank you for popping by X

Monday 1 December 2014

December Colour Challenge over at the Rubber Dance Blog!

Hi Everyone

Do you need a bit of a break from Christmas colours!  Why not pop over to the Rubber Dance Blog and join in with our colour challenge this month.  Here is what I came up with…..


I have to admit that these colours were a challenge for me but I couldn't wait to try out my new Hibiscus stamps (NP8-M).  Look at the detail and the delicacy of these images!  Yummy!


Of course no card is complete without a matching inner!  I really had fun getting inky for this card and you can see how to create this look if you watch my tutorial.


Oh almost forgot - check out the birthday greetings - BRAND NEW TODAY over at Rubber Dance so please pop along to check them out - two brand new sets and lots of possibilities - love them both ;-)

Cutting Guide:

Base Card - 11 1/2" x 8" scored at 5 3/4"
White Card Frame - 7 3/4" x 5 1/2" Cut 2
White Card Inner and outer - cut 2 - 7 5/8" X 5 3/8"

I hope I have tempted you to play along - follow this link to the Rubber Dance December Colour Challenge to see what everyone on the Design team came up with to inspire you using Pink, Purple and Blue!

Get creating there are stamps to be won!!!!  Thank you for popping by X
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