and so that was Christmas...

I hope everyone had a good one and Santa was good to you....

I worked Boxing Day but its been so lovely have time off since.

Thought id better show a pic of Lucy's darling Christmas tree with some special ornaments making their way onto it, all red and white this year...we went minimal and au natural this year.....i love it especially when the sunlights streaming thru the window and the aircons on so all the decorations are twinkling and moving about.

it has developed a bit of lean lol


I dropped off the blog radar well before the big day as i was busy making more pockets. I wont bore you with them all but will show you some of the pretty details....









i love the big flower on this one , ill share how i did this later , i want to do some more experimenting.

I sent off a heap of parcels two weeks before Christmas but they were delayed with the snow and are just filtering through now. Sorry peeps....hope they wont be much longer.

On Monday i made some atc's for the first time in ages, it was lovely to sit down and play catch up, only about 5 to go now for Inkurable Stampers lol
Spooky


Music

They aren't quite as dark in real life...

This one i made so i could practice painting faces, this is very new to me but i do love painting these little whimsies...takes me forever i might add and so much harder to do at atc size.
Mythical Creatures



And the only new years resolution i am making is to catch up my challenges that i started this year. Other than that, i hope you all have a Happy New Years.

Here's to your good health and happiness and stay safe on the roads.........

Easy Peasy Christmas ....Recycled Mini Phone Book Wreaths.

These are reallly fun and esy to make and would be good one for the kids.
I followed this tutorial and went a step further by adding some beads and sequinds with dimenssional magic. I liked the ones that werent scrunched up as much.



and heres a larger one....
so make sure you keep that old phone book next year.....

one month today!!!!

and she comes home, what an amazing year she has had thanks to her wonderful host families and new friends she has made...

Here she is cutting her first real tree with her host sister and what i hope will be her first white Christmas.....


She travelled around Europe on euro tour for 3 weeks and then by herself to Ireland to visit our lovely cousins just recently.

and look a snowpaul...[ thanks ciaran] spitting image of her dad! cracked us up!!!



and look at all the stuff to come home including Tedda!



what a year !!!!

Easy Peasy Christmas......Baubleliscious

Hello I'm back again , today i have a wonderful post to share with you...

Baubleliscious doily baubles, i just love these.....

I had bought some clear baubles from Spotlight last year and had been playing around with ideas for them. They had been painted with alcohol inks and covered in paints and glitter but nothing really worked and then while i was playing around with the lacy cards, i realised how lovely the doily circles would work.





you need

clear baubles or........you could just decorate the outside of bought ones... and not fill them if they are colored.
doily circles cut from table runner or old tablecloth
or cut lace circles from fabric.

gel medium

now if you want colored ones...

paint...watercolor [twinkling's work]
metallic acrylic [works beautifully]
or mix some polished pigments with some gel medium

glitter, mica
buttons, beads and bits and bobs to fill them

ribbon for hanger.....

not many ingredients , just what i like!

remove silver part from bauble....this is what Margaret guessed... i broke one cleaning it , have broken a couple actually :( so don't press too hard

Take your circle and cut the tiny centre out of it.
It will stretch so don't cut too big.

if you are using it for the bottom of your bauble dont cut leave it whole.

The paints good as it helps seal the cut edges.

If you want to paint , do it now. I brushed on different colors, the limy green came out a nice goldy color.


Leave some of the natural color too...

When its dry brush some gel medium on back and place over top and press around gently , moulding it over bauble. Alternately press it on bottom making sure its centered, this was probably hardest bit...

Clean up excess gel on bauble.

Fill bauble with your treasures, i added anything sparkly, also old hooks and eyes and press studs, till about a third of the way and higher for the bottom lacy ones. I used all my small white and cream buttons and had to buy a pack (

Glue cap back on with gel medium and thread a hanger thru....

I bought my white glitter tree and silver birds for big w ...wish i could've more of these little clip on glitter birds...

Easy Peasy ..... lots of pics cos i think they are beautiful....xxx

p.s. must get hubby to clean verandah roof LOL! its shown up in the reflection!

Easy Peasy Christmas......Lacy Cards

If you are wondering wher i went too...... I have had a little enforced rest from the computer it appears that vodka and the keyboard don't mix :)not mine i might add...



Anyway heres another very easy card so grab out lacy scraps. I've used parts of crochet doily's, a lace edge hankie but you could also lace by the meter that can be cut into separate bits.

you need
blank card
paper, 2 different sorts.
lacy bits
a sewing machine[or pen], double sided sticky or glue stick and gel medium for the lace.
Pencil



Cut your first paper a bit smaller all around than your card, then cut your second slightly smaller. I usually work out what I'm doing with my lace before i cut the second one so its a bit smaller than my shape.

Distress edges and ink.

Stitch top layer to bigger piece. Do all the stitching on this before attaching it to the card.



Now play around with different shapes. If you have some daisy lace then cut it up separately and lay in tree shape. Find a bigger piece for the base...cut it to a rough pot shape if it doesn't fit. The bigger doily's make lovely ornaments with a bit of stitching. If you don't stitch use a pen for the same effect.
Mark the lines lightly for the ornamnets and stitch up and down. Remember to use a large stitch.

I shouldve used black cotton but was too lazy to swap it over...

Glue on your lace.
Stick the whole lot to your card.


Remember the blue card i stuffed up , well i turned it into a tag, the crochet bits came off the edge and were only half circles.




There you go ....easy peasy!!
The lovely papers came from Kaiser, they are such good value these little books of lovely papers.

Stay tuned for my next tute .....doily baubles, they are beeeautiful [if i do say so myself!!!] and Spotlight has them at half price at the moment . I went to buy some more today but they had all gone :(

seems the girls at work liked them too...

and heres a little laugh for you, it certainly made me cackle...thanks Charlie..

Easy Peasy Christmas .......Simple Funky Card 2...

I love making cards and try to have some spare ones on hand. These are quick and easy to make and if you collect some cheap embellishments at the after Christmas sales you will have a head start on next year.

I've been making these cards for a while now and its one of my favorites techniques to do although it can be messy.

you will need...

white card
oil pastels, metallic is good too, they are really creamy.
fixative or hairspray will do.
embellishments

optional
sewing machine [black thread looks good]
paint or gesso
sequin waste

Start by roughly scribbling a combination of 3 colors on your card.
use your fingers to smudge it out, i do the lighter colors first, don't over mix or will become muddy. Try combinations you wouldn't normally put together...
Smudge out the edges for a softer look too.




This one was done on shiny card and it smudged out more , i even did swirls in it. The others are on matt.
The above one has a rubon which took a lot of pressing to get to work, I don't think it liked the pastels.

Spray with fixative and watch how it it becomes more translucent.


Stitch around inside the rectangle, doesn't have to be perfect, but use a large stitch 3- 3.5.

With your sequin waste stencil a drift in paint or press the crayons in really hard for some lumpy bumpy :)

spray with fixative if you use the crayon. Be warned, this is messy , you will get little bits all over card , blow them off, don't try and wipe, I made a mess of the blue one and turned it into a tag:)



now add your embellishment and a sentiment if you wish....



you can some others ones ive made here and here......


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I'm glad you all liked the pockets, i loved reading your comments and hope to see some soon......