Advent Artwork

I do hope you are having a good rest and having a great holiday. We had our Christmas Day with my children yesterday,( as they spent Christmas at their Dad's), all the trimmings , turkey, pudding, brandy butter etc, then the ritual of opening presents under the tree. It was fun, and different. Watching grown-ups play the Wii is hilarious, and competition is always rife in our house!!!

I managed to make a short movie of all the pieces I made during Advent. I confess I have to experiment a bit more with making movies, and think an investment of a video camera may well be in order, or that I have to learn to use my movie maker programme!

The blog candy for Christmas Day is still up for grabs, so add a comment here or become a follower and be in it to win!

Have a good day.

Big Blog Candy Give-away

It is very quiet in my house today, everyone is stil asleep, and I am sitting here at my desk blogging! I promised myself I would try to have time for myself, but it has become addictive, so here I am again with a little piece of artwork I made but didn't show. Just a reminder that the blog candy featured HERE, is on offer until 1st January when I will choose a winner. You need to post a comment or become a follower until then to be in it to win it!
 I silver uteed the Father Christmas on an Oval Stampbord, and then layered him on piece of card I had alcohol inked red with a bit too much with silver. It has tendency to take over if you use too much.

I rather like this piece now, but at the time wasn't sure, so if you would like this piece of artwork, then all you have to do is comment. I will choose a winner when I next blog . Don't forget to comment to win the massive blog candy too!

Have a quiet Sunday....

Christmas Day

A Happy Christmas to you! I hope your day has been good, that you have eaten much too much, and that Father Christmas has brought you all you wished for!
I have 5 winners for Christmas Eve's blog candy,

SARAH

JANE

ANN

BEE

CRAFTYCREATIONS

Please email me your snail mail addresses so I can post your candy after Christmas. (The email link is on the side of my blog:)

The Christmas Day blog candy is this massive pile of goodies-all *stuff* I have used over the past 24 days. It is worth over £40, and includes stickles, alcohol ink, stamps already on Kling-On in a storage box, Seasonal Grungeboard, distress ink and more....

I shall choose the winner on 1st of January 2009 from all the comments and the followers. You can comment as many times as you like too!
Have a very Merry Christmas and wishing you a Healthy and Happy New Year.
Hugs

Day 24 of Advent

Christmas Eve is here, and I am getting excited. I do love Christmas . It is a magical time of the year. Roaring fires, turkey, mince pies, carol singers, the sound of sleigh bells ( okay I am getting carried away lol!). But I am sure you know what I mean. My DH and I are spending a quiet Christmas at home, out to lunch at friends, which means I have no cooking to do. Hurrah! For the piece for Christmas Eve I have done a simple embossed and distress inked layered card just to show Christmas is not about glitter and glitz, but for some people has a special meaning too.

The last but one set of candy goes to

KATH

MANICSTAMPER

NITAFB

NICK

JUNE

Congratulations, and please email me your addresses, so I can post your candy after Christmas.
I shall be back tomorrow with the blog candy that will eventually go to the winner of my Christmas Advent.

I do hope you enjoy your Christmas, and that you have a happy peaceful day,and may your mince pies be tasty!

23rd Day of Advent

Well technically 1 more day to go, and I have done the last minute bit of shopping, spent far too much, had a lovely lunch with DD, and now sat down to make tonight's piece. A bit of different one for me, and I used a new Stitchels snowman- Cedric. He is by far my favourite , and will be available next year.
I used a pre-made card and black embossed him, then painted him in with pearlescent mica powders. These didn't quite soak into the card, so not as brght or solid as I would have liked. Then I used Snow Writer to make a little bit of snow, and glued down some silver snowflakes from Paperchase, from the same packet as the reindeer and star.He looks a bit cheeky with all the snow on his hat!

Yesterday's winners drawn by Random Integer Generator are

A ROBINS NEST

IRENE

BOLHA

JOANNE BROWN

SHAZZA

Congratulations and please email me your snail mail addresses so I can post your candy.

I hope you are all almost ready for the big day, and I am off to make some yummy chocolates to make as gifts for our friends who are feeding us on Christmas Day.

See you tomorrow with the last of the candy, and there will be 5 more winners tomorrow, and on Christmas Day the final blog for Advent!

22nd Day of Advent

Today the Christmas tree is going up. I am a bit of a traditionalist, and don't do much in terms of decoration. We used to, years ago, for the children, but only very close to Christmas and usually Christmas Eve. I do leave the tree up for 12 days though. Then it all gets swept up and the cards taken down, and boy does it always look so bare!
I have made a decoration today. I am not so happy with it. The technique is good, but time was getting on, and I kind of ran out of it!! I have used the chipboard flowers and ultra-thicked them in gold and silver and then inked the swirl stamps in Versamark, and while the utee was still hot stamped into the flowers. I dry brushed gold mica powder on the silver ones and silver mica powder onto the gold ones. I then hung them on a beaded gold chain ( bought for 50p). Photographing them was bit difficult so I have scanned them in.

Yesterday's blog candy (chipboard flowers) winners are chosen by random.org and are

MELISSA

JUDE

JULIALYNN

LIVERPOOL LOU

DONNAS DEN

Congratulations, and please email me your addies, so I can post off your goodies!

More blog candy tomorrow , this time stamps, so post away .....

21st Day of Advent

Today I picked up my daughter who promptly comes home, eats here way through the food cupboard ( say aah for starving students!lol) and goes out with her brother! I am so excited she is home, love spending time with her, and am looking forward to the next few days while she is around.
We are off out to friends for drinks in a while, so thought I had better post before I have a drink *hic*, so this one is a bit earlier than normal.
Yesterday's winner for the blog candy is CRAFTYCAROL
Congratulations and please email me your address
Todays Christmas piece is a card! Yah! I made another one, so I have made several now. Haven't counted but they haven't gone to waste. LOL!
I ran some gold card through my Big Shot on a snowflake embossing tile, and then did the same with the Grungeboard Reindeer and bauble. I distress inked the reindeer, and the bauble, and then rubbed gold pearlescent mica powder paint over them. A few itsy bitsy beads on the top of the bauble and hung it on the antlers. Poor Rudolph looks a bit bemused! Not the best picture as the gold card reflected in the scanner, and showed up all the bad bits!

On Christmas Day I shall give away a HUGE BUNCH OF GOODIES as a Christmas present for a lucky blogger. You will get a chance to comment as I shall wait a week before choosing the winner, as I know you are all busy in the run up to Christmas.
From tomorrow I shall be giving away 5 PIECES OF CANDY everyday until Christmas Day, either stamps or ribbons or inks or whatever I can find !
Please post on your blog or website, and comment, and if you are not a follower add yourself!
See you tomorrow

20th Day of Advent

Well I hope you are almost ready for Christmas. I have bought most of the pressies, done most of the food shopping, and not wrapped a thing, done the tree or made any food treats! There is still time. I always am exhausted by Christmas, but I just love the build up to it, and how everyone gets excited by it. All we need now is snow! But you can get that on my blog, so why worry!!!

Yesterday's winner is LINDA

Congratulations, and please email me your address, so I can send your blog candy.

Today I pinched an idea from Mr Holtz, again! I don't think he will mind. I didn't stamp anything but used a alcohol ink background in lettuce and gold, and a little bit of red round the edges. Then layered on some Papermania paper on the bottom, and then added some baubles and mistletoe from some gorgeous paper from Paperchase. I then put a large square from the square fragments on top and held it together with a hanger.

More blog candy and Christmassy "stuff" tomorrow....

19th Day of Advent

I finally have sent off the parcels that needed to be sent, and while writing this am also tidying up my daughter Aimee's bedroom,( she is home for Christmas) which has some of my "stuff" in it!! Multitasking is not the word! or you could say a woman's work is never done! Firstly the winners of the bottles of Alochol ink are

DAWNE

RACHEL

&

H

Congratulations and please email me your snail mail addresses!

I made another Christmas card today. This time I layered Crafty Individuals papers, with Co-ordinations and then chalked the card. I embossed baubles from my collection on to the card in black, and stickles them I have a passion for the ruby slippers stickles! Then i punched holes in the top of the baubles , and glued on ribbon to them. It has become sort of ethereal!

More tomorrow... off now to dust and vacuum!

18th Day of Advent

Firstly I have to thank everyone for commenting on my postings. I would love to give everyone candy, but I do hope that you are enjoying what I am doing, and will continue to follow after Christmas. Today's winner is

JANEYc49

Congratulations, and selection of flowers and ribbons will be wingng their way to you when you email me your snail mail address.

 I had very little time to create today's tag, and it shows! But the idea is there. I found this idea on Tim Holtz's blog, in his 12 Tags of Christmas( Day 6). I put a little bit of several colours of alcohol ink into a palette and let it dry. Then I filled a Sakura Water Brush with Alcohol ink blender, and re-wet the dried ink. I painted the embossed tag ( which is embossed on glossy paper) with the re-constituted alcohol ink, and blended the colours. It is not my best work as I did it in a hurry, but it gives you an idea you may not of thought of before. I love alcohol inks, and this to me was new way of using them.I hope you like.

Today's candy  is a bottle of alcohol ink each for THREE bloggers, so post away and if you are not a follower become one to have a bigger chance of winning!

Day 17 of Advent

I cannot believe that is almost a week to Christmas Day. I am not nearly ready, have to make food, ( all those nice nibbles the family expect!), wrap the presents, err make and write the cards ( not a hope! lol!), put up the decorations (never do those before Christmas Eve, though,) and generally tidy up. It is one of the few times, that I take off, and just watch television, or read a book, and just rest!
I have made three different tags tonight, all using the black chipboard, and I gold embossed two of them , and colured in with gold Stickles. The other one I painted with pearlescent powder paints.And the third one I embossed with glitter embossing powder and put red stickles into the spaces of the letters.

The winner of yesterday's blog candy is MONI

Congratulations, and please email me your address.
I promised you something special for today's blg candy, and it is some flowers and ribbons. Something to remind you of spring! I shall also throw in some stamps too! Well worth adding a comment to make sure you have 2 chances of winning.
See you tomorrow

16th Day of Advent

I am a bit late with this posting as I have been very busy today lunching, Christmas shopping, and chatting business with Hels , my creative co-ordinator! Actually we did do a lot of work in between eating our Christmas lunch of Nachos in our favourite pub! No drinks were not on the menu, but if you having one while reading this then have one for me! Cheers! Consequently I haven't had time to create anything today, so I have a canvas that I did for a workshop instead.

The winner for yesterday's blog candy is  CLAIREABELLE

Congratulations! Please email me with your address, so I can send you your candy!

See you tomorrow with extra special candy....so leave a comment, and if you are not a follower please do add yourselves to be in with 2 chances of winning!

15th Day of Advent

Have you ever had a day where you seem to be running backwards to stand still! Today was one of those days. I could waffle on about all sorts of stuff, but today the post is short and sweet with a Christmas card I made for some friends. It kind of made itself if you know what I mean? A strip of Crafty Individuals Christmas Paper ( I do like their papers), a stamp from one of my Christmas Plates, a few zoomz, and a distressed ink background. I do hope you like it.

The winner of yesterday's blog candy is SUE.

Congratulations, and please email me your address.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Day 14 of Advent

Today's Christmassy piece is in conjunction with my Objet D'art Challenge blog, where this week you can take a tag, and create somethiing extraordinary with it. I have been following Mr Holtz's 12 days of Christmas along with everyone else, and have loved what he has created. I like to use my chipboard tags as they have a white front and are 2mm thick, so will take lots of pounding, and heating without warping. I have several ideas in mind for altered ones, but seeing as I needed to do a Christmas themed one, I thought simple and clean , so here is what I made for both this blog and my challenge blog. If you take part, or comment or add yourself as a follower, you can have the opportunity to win yourself a Mr Holtz lunch tin!

Here is my tag for today
I distress inked the background in old paper and light blue, and then randomly stamped snowflakes over it. I white embossed a few of them ( it didn't melt quite how it should, so is a bit bobbly, but I like the effect!) Then I tore a strip of Crafty Individuals paper and glued it to the bottom, and added the gorgoeus silver reindeer (bought from Paperchase). I finally added very small clear dewdropz to the middle of some of the snowflakes.
The winner of the stamp yesterday is

BLUEVIOLET

Congratulations and please email me with your snail mail address. Todays blog candy will be a set of 15 chipboard tags, so comment all you like, and if you are new to my blog add yourself as a follower, and be in it to win it!

See you tomorrow

13th Day of Advent

Well it is pouring with rain outside and very cold and windy, and the best place to be is indoors by a roaring fire curled up on the sofa with a book! However I am in front of the computer typing this, and feeling a little chilly in my office which has draughts from the Arctic blowing through the windows!
 Yesterday's winner is

SHAZ!

 Congratulations! and please email me with your address so I can send off your stickles to you.
The blog candy alert today is a new yet to be released Stitchels rubberstamp called Cedric. He has to be one of my favourite snowmen, and if you spend over £15.00 in my shop you can get him free too! This is a special only for my current customers and blog readers!

In the spirit of Christmas I made another card today, which I used Crafty Individuals Christmas Papers, and grungeboard which I did run through my Big Shot on an embossing plate( which failed miserably ) and then distress inked them and added gold Stickles to decorate.

 As usual leave a comment , and if you are not a follower become one.You have to be in it to win it!
Keep warm.

Day 12 of Advent

Today has been a very productive day, and I have  managed to make 2 Christmas cards! Yah! The first one is this one

I used the flourish from Tim Holtz's masks which sadly we have sold out of (stocks due back in the New Year, but there are still the others), and I laid it on the card and distress inked around and over it. Then I lifted it and distress on top , so you get a paler version of it. I stamped and red embossed the Father Christmas, and used Thickers letters to make the word. The star fitted perfectly in the middle of the O. A bit of a different style of card. I have made another one but am waiting for the stickles to dry........

Yesterdays winner of the ornament is......

LOTTIE

Congratulations and please email me your snail mail address so I can get post it to you.

The blog candy for today is a bottle of Stickles, so same as usual leave a comment or if you are a follower you are in with a chance too!

Day 11 of Advent

Today has been one of those days where everything I have touched has fallen out of my hands or gone wrong! Must be a woman thing! I took myself out this afternoon to get some air, and do a little bit of Christmas shopping. All I managed to get was a chocolate yule log and some icing sugar in preparation for making something for Christmas!

Today's winners of the blog candy (who will get a little bag of beaded chain each) are....*drum roll*...

Debbie    and     Nikki

Congratulations! Please email me your snail mail addresses so I can send your blog candy to you.

I liked the ornament so much yesterday that I used a square one today with clear utee, and dropped in a little bit too much of green To Dye for Ink from Ranger to colour it-oops! Came out very dark green! Be careful if you add coloured ink into clear utee as it has to the right ink. Otherwise it may cause you problems. 

This time I used a texture mat Christmas tree from CaroLines, and using a dry paintbrush coloured in the trees with our gold mica powder paint to highlight it. It is not the best picture I have taken, and doesn't really show it very well. You can also remove it from the frame and punch a hole in it, to hang. Might try one of those tomorrow :)

If you would like to win this ornament, all you have to do is post a comment or be a follower, and it will be winging its way to you on Saturday! Winner anounced tomorrow evening.

Happy Creating!

10th Day of Advent

Fifteen more days to go (eek must make some Christmas cards!), and today a new idea, which I discovered on Suze Weinberg's blog , and which I have been dying to try. Using my meltpot, I melted our ultra thick silver powder. Then using a rubber stamp ( this is a christmas snowflake one from CaroLines). I laid a memory frame on top of the rubber die. Note you cannot use clear stamps, and then poured the utee into the frame. No ink is necessary. I allowed it to cool, and then rubbed ruby slippers stickles over it. I am definitely going to do some more of these.Voila! a Christmas decoration for the tree

To celebrate that I now have 65 followers ( I am amazed, and thank you all, and for the lovely comments), I am giving away 2 prizes tonight, both stamps, and both random from our wonderful collection. So comment away to be in with a better chance, and please add my blog candy link to your blog if you feel inclined.

Yesterday's winner, picked by the Random Integer Generator is Susie Little.
Congratulations and please email me to send me your snail mail address.

Back tomorrow with more....

9th Day of Advent

Thinking about today's post while I was trying to warm myself up at 3.30am, I realised that I am very lucky really, as I have an infinite number of "things" I can use to make artwork for you to enjoy ( hopefully!). Most of the time when I get new product in, I snaffle one away for myself, and if I find time, I play with it.

With this in mind, I thought that for the BIG Christmas Day giveaway, I would let the winner choose whatever they liked from the website up to £25.00  and get it all for FREE! I now have to work out how to give the winner a gift voucher!! For those of you worried how you might get topost on Christmas Day, I shall run the post for at least a couple of days to give you time to post or become a follower if you are not already.

Now down to business...Today's winner is Melanie

Congratulations! and please email me your snail mail address. I am sure that some of you are wondering what the blog candy is? I have sent printed twill, stamps, and today it may be something completely different, all in the element of surprise ....

Todays tag is on a similar vein to the others I have done. This time I used the yellow and orange distress inks, and the words from Christmas Greetings 2 and the Santa from Victorian Christmas 2. The embellishment came from a Woolies ornament that I cut up and coloured with alcohol inks. I also gently used the Ranger Opaque white pen to colour his beard and pipe smoke, and outline the words.

Hope you like, and now off to create more from my pile of stash.. Good Luck in the draw, and keep posting.

8th Day of Advent

I cannot believe that it is Monday already, and today I have another chipboard tag for you. This time a very simple one using Grungeboard Swirls from the Dots Elements pack, and purple distress ink background. I also used the full Merry Christmas from The Christmas Geetings 2 die sheet. I highlighted the dots with some stickles.

All the elements are available from The Artistic Stamper. Hels has some fabulous blog candy to give away too here.

Finally the blog candy winner of the gorgeous Stitchel bee stamps is

Gayle

Congratulations! Please email me your snail mail address so I can send you your candy.

See you tomorrow and more details of what the Blog candy on Christmas Day will be !

7th Day of Advent

It is only 17 days to go to Christmas, and I haven't even made my Christmas cards! I guess I am having too much fun making for the blog ,and just for fun today I am giving away this set of stamps

Hels designs the Stitchels, and you can find them here. Such fun stamps to work with and very versatile. Take a look at what Nicky has done with them.

I know you look to see who has won yesterday's blog and give-away so

Clare

Step up onto the podium, and collect your prize! Please email me your address so I can send you off your goodie.

This is today's offering
I took one of the bamboo tiles and added an image from Crafty Individuals Christmas Papers. I stamped over it with a snowflake, and then glossy accented the whole domino. The wire is threaded through and glued and beads etc added. This is more of an idea than perfection!

6th Day of Advent

Thank you for all the posts yesterday, you have had a much longer time to post, as I was away yesterday, so without much further ado, here is Thursday's winner, and yesterday's winner too!

                                                      Lucia   &   Max
Congratulations! Please email me your snail mail address, so I can get you your blog candy asap!

Today's piece is a mini canvas that I made for my challenge blog Objet D'art which you can find here. It is a fortnightly challenge blog, and hopefully will make you work out of the box, and create something you wouldn't normally do. This week Karen from Scrapz has showcased her talents!
I used a mini canvas and Crafty Individuals Christmas papers glued on to it. Then I used the bookplates from the Elements Grungeboard, a Junkitz Sticker, and distressed inked the small Reindeer from Seasonal Grungeboard. I gold stickled his antlers! The bookplate was attached using the washers and long bards from the idea-ology line. The "Christmas" Stamp came from Christmas Greetings 2 ( a long forgotten stamp of mine).

Reindeer Canvas

Keep watching, you never know you may be the next winner!

Day 5

It's another 20 days to Christmas Day, and another 20 pieces of artwork and blog candy to go! I am out all day today in London seeing my gorgeous daughter at one of her plays she is working on, so the blog candy choosing will wait till tomorrow, or if I am feeling up to it, later tonight!

I am chuffed that you like what I am doing, and I have tried to change the ideas everyday. I am not one for cards, but prefer other mediums. However I will slide a card or too into the days...

Here is today's offering,another simple tag ( do you think I am hooked on these?) This time it has distressed ink background in old paper and frayed burlap. This time I stamped one of my Swirls on the background, and the Grungeboard tree is distressed in pine needles. I used a set of icicles decoration for the ornaments, and glued them on with Glossy Accents. I gold stickled the Grungeboard Star.

Keep posting and following, you have to be in to win!

4th Day of Advent

I am sitting here surrounded by Christmasy stuff , and all I can seem to make is tags! So today I have made an ornament using an oval piece of Stampbord, and Bronze Utee, and the infamous Father Christmas. I stampede into the Utee with Stazon, and edged the Stampbord with a bronze Krylon pen. Nothing I am making is hard , and if you want detailed instructions just email me. I then hung it on a Christmas ribbon which was in Tesco's Bargain bin!!

The winner for Day 3 is Sian. Congratulations!

Please email me to let me have your snail mail address.

By the way in case you are wondering I am choosing by Random Integrator, and from the followers and comments. So if you comment and are a follower, you get a double chance of winning!

By the way there is more blog candy on Hels' Blog too...see here

See you tomorrow with more goodies.