Christmas Projects

Ahhhh! Christmas! You've got to love it. I spend part of yesterday watching my granddaughter being the Angel Gabriel at the Christmas play. Brilliant! That's what Christmas is all about - it's so lovely to see children play out the nativity.

I've been really busy this year making advent calendars. My first calendar was made with the Colour Create Challenge theme in mind. The challenge colours this time are set by the fantastic Sharon L and they are Blue, Silver and White. The optional extra is embossing. Unfortunately I forgot to do the embossing on the calendar so I made the card above to cover that option off.

I'm entering these into the following challenges:
Crafts and Me - Anything Christmas
Everybody Art Challenge - Blue and White
Cupcake Craft Challenge - Sparkly things (Don't look at the light)
Addicted to Stamps - Snowflakes
Gingerloft Challenge - Winter and Christmas
Lollipop Crafts - Happy Holidays


I almost wore my distress inks out with these creations - thank goodness for re-inkers. The blue one is in use with my grandson and my granddaughter wanted a pink and purple one....hey presto!


I think these bottom two are my favourites - the colours are so rich!

I'm entering the red and green ones into the following challenges:
ABC Christmas - Y for Yippee! It's almost Christmas
Heart Song Inspirations - Snowflakes and/or Doileys
Ooh La La Creations - Anything but a card
Let's Ink It Up - Christmas Projects
Paper Sundaes - Anything Christmas
Crafty Boots - Christmas
The Pixie Cottage -Anything Goes Christmas Style



The colour create challenge is sponsored by Michelle's scrapbooking and she has given a $30 gift certificate for the winner of this challenge.


I want to send a big thank you to Michelle for her fantastic monthly sponsorship.

I also want to thank all our other sponsors for their support in 2011.

And last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to the fantastic design team, both past and present, for your sharing your amazing talent with us throughout 2011.

Thanks for looking - and don't forget to peek at the other incredible creations by the Colour Create design team.

Happy Christmas
Sharon xx

Day 2 - 12 Tags of Christmas

Well, here is my version of Tag 2 from Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas.

Again, there was lots of improvisation but that was half the fun. I really wish I'd had some canvas because it'd be lovely to use that on the reindeer and distress it, but Hey Ho, all I had was a little wooden reindeer. I think it looks just fine and dandy as an alternative.



So, now that I've ordered my hammer texture kit before they all sell out because it has been discontinued (can see there will be oodles of things to do with that!) I'll be able to batter the brads around a bit to make them all distressed. For this tag I used my screw head brads, which gives it a bit of a manly touch.

For the gold paint I substituted a gold promarker and I must admit that it 'weathered' down really well.


This shot shows the colours on the background a little better. Sorry for the dodgy camera work but I did take these on a really overcast and rainy day.

I'd like to enter this one into the following challenge:
Our Craft Lounge - Tag - You're it
Thanks for looking,
Sharon xx

Lost the stabilisers! Tag 5

Well, I had intended to learn the techniques Tim Holtz is giving us in his 12 days of Christmas event, by making tags as close to his as possible and then going back to 'do my own thing' with the technique.........but I was so blown away with today's technique for Tag 5 that I threw away the stabilisers and just went for it.

I still took inspiration from Tim's tag - the leaves from his wreath and the pearls, but that was about it. This is not as shabby or vintage as I wanted it to be, but I'm pretty pleased with the results all the same.

..........now, if only Santa would deliver some more Tim products........ ;-)


I really apologise for the rubbish photos but it is 10.30 at night over here in the UK, so electric light is all I can capture this by at the moment. Well, I'm off to leave a few comments before I head off to bed - work again tomorrow (groan).

Thanks for looking,
Sharon xx

12 Days of Christmas Tags (Day 1)

As promised yesterday, here is another of the 4 tags I made over the weekend following the Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas. This one is for Day 1. I'm so glad that I found out about this event - it is wonderful to learn all these new techniques.

Part of the fun of joining in with this is learning the fabulous techniques as you craft along with the photos provided on the Tim Holtz Blog. The other bit of fun comes in the form of searching around your stash and getting creative when you don't have one of Tim's products. (There's plenty of that on this tag!)



For a start - I haven't got the NOEL die. Then, I don't have the tattered Pine cone die either (that's on my wish list now). On top of that, I don't have the festive greenery or tattered banners dies either (They are now on my wish list too).

So, what do I have of Tim's that I used on this tag? Distress inks, Tim Holtz Coredinations Distress Ink colour paper stack, and a Flourish die cut! But hey, I'm really pleased with my 'make do and mend' crafting using normal punches, sizzix individual letters, glue and a pair of scissors. Not a patch on Tim's gorgeous creation...but all the same, it's not bad, eh?




Hopefully this shot give you some idea of the dimension on these tags - amazing!

I'd like to enter this one into the following challenges:
Cooking it up with Katie - Anything Goes
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Christmas Carols (The First Noel)
Just For Fun - Winter (no cute)
Crafty Ribbons - Make a tag
The Artistic Stamper - Christmas (A great place to get the items for the tags of Christmas - they have a link on their blog!)


Thanks for looking - I'll be back tomorrow with a tag for Day 2.
Sharon xx

Sheer Bliss!!!!

Hello everyone. How has your weekend been? I've had THE BEST weekend for a very long time. I had the luxury of some spare time all to myself - what bliss! So I spent some of that time crafting for pleasure and tagging along with the Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas. Ha Ha...Tagging - Tag - get it? ((GROAN)).


As this is the first time that I've come across this event (I know - it's amazing that someone could have their head so far in the sand that they miss this!), I thought I'd give it a go and just try to emulate one of the tags Tim has done - just to learn the techniques. Well - FOUR tags down (will be posting the others during the coming week) and I am totally smitten. This one is Day 4's tag.

Even my hubby remarked:
"Those are a bit posh, aren't they? We'll have to use them again next year - make sure you don't write on them!"
Men! Honestly!

We get a whole month to post our tags, so I think I'll do one of each "a la Tim" and then go back and create a few of my own in some of the different styles over the Christmas break - yes...that is how much fun it is to make these tags.


While I'm here I'd like to enter this into a couple of challenges:
Sir Stampalot - Bingo (Pearls, Stickles, Ribbon)
Let's Ink It Up - Christmas Projects
Come and get it challenge - Anything Christmas
Craft Your Days Away - Buttons or Bows
One Stop Crafts - Let it Snow.

Thanks so much for looking,
Sharon xx

Snowfall Snowflake

It's December!!!! Only 25 days until the big man in the red suit has been to visit us all. Have you been good this year? Hope so.

Today is Colour Create Challenge day and the amazing Sylvia has set a wonderful Christmas challenge for us.

The Colours are
RED, WHITE and GREEN
with the optional extra of SNOWFLAKES.

Well, I didn't quite get the right shade of green on my first attempt because I was so excited at the Bo-Bunny snowflake stamp and the Tim Holtz limited edition Winter distress inks landing on my doormat that I had to use the Evergreen Bough ink straight away. It's a gorgeous, icy green colour (the lighter card) but it's just not the right shade for the challenge. So my second card used the Shabby Shutters ink.



Oooooh! I love this snowflake stamp. It's probably one of the best purchases I've made this year. I did a search a couple of nights ago and here are the links I found where they still had some of the items in stock:

Bo Bunny Stamp Set - Snowfall : available at Charmed Cards and Crafts, also at That's Crafty and Oyster Stamps

Tim Holtz Limited Edition Winter Distress Inks - available at Oyster Stamps and several other stores (but I've not ordered from those stores before).

Snowflake charm from Bunny Zoes

The bling is something I picked up at the Farnborough craft show earlier this year and the papers are freebies with Card Making and Papercraft magazine. It's been AGES since I used papers that I haven't made myself!



I fancied adding a small stick of cinnamon to my card and boy, does it smell Christmassy!

I'd like to enter my cards into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp! - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl's - Winter
Craft Your Passion - 'Tis the Season
Crafty Cardmakers - Heat Embossing
Addicted to stamps - Christmas Card



The Colour Create Challenge is sponsored by:


And the wonderful prize is these stamps!


High Hopes are also offering a 25% discount on their dragon stamps in the first week of December. Read about the offer and get the discount code from the Colour Create Challenge blog, and then hop over to High Hopes Stamps to put your order in.

While you're at the challenge blog, don't forget to have a look at the fabulous creations that the rest of the design team have made.

Thanks for looking,
Sharon xx