Happy Christmas

Wouldn' t it have been lovely to have this on Christmas Day? So long as you didn't have to travel, of course. But this was the week before, and just had to take a picture.
No cards today, sorry,but there are some on the way.

Using birds and my technique of the moment.......

I came across these stamps in my stash the other day and thought that they would work well with my favourite technique at the moment. I just love sponging! And I've found that the finger daubers from Stampin' Up work so well. So I've tried a few different colour combos.

And the fact that SU have all the matching cardstock and ink colours makes life so easy. Even with this one - I'd run out of Pumpkin Pie cardstock so I just used my ink pad to edge a square of Whisper White and can you tell the difference?

Here's Old Olive, Always Articoke and a touch of Apricot Appeal.

I used whatever I felt like here! Looks a little like a rainbow background here! But the ink daubers allow you to smoothly blend from one colour to another.

I'll be back with more tomorrow.

Please leave a comment if you have time to do so. I love reading what you have to say!

Thanks for looking.

Tricia -x-

Simples!!

This card was inspired by a card I saw on show at Convention, made by the lovely Zoe Tant, with whom I had the pleasure of spending many happy hours, a few weeks ago. I've used a couple of stamps from Simply Said , in my version. So thanks Zoe for your inspiration!

This card uses a combination of stamps from Hello Again (only £9.95) and the level 2 hostess set Itty Bitty Buds. My inspiration came from seeing a card (somewhere) with buttons in the centre of flowers.

Just have a play with different colour combinations and see what you can do! That's all I did!

Thanks for looking.

Tricia -x-

A glittering Christmas!

Would you believe that these treese were made using the Scallop circle punch? And the sky used a scallop circle to act as a mask whilst sponging with Bashful Blue? How versatile is that!
Also an excuse to use drops of Crystal Effects and Fine Galaxy glitter from Stampin' Up. Don't do what I did though! Use ONE glitter and allow to dry before using a second colour! See the mess? But it all adds to the effect!

Glitter again, but this time I used the Champagne colour and it is so classy! Tree Trimmings stamp set was used for the baubles and in the Good Friend set there is an open flower that I use upside down, and glittered the ends of the image using the 2-way Glue pen. A must-have for your basic tool kit!

Thanks for looking.

See you soon.

Tricia -x-

Stamping on Candles

Now here's something I have been meaning to try for some time now. The first hurdle was to find reasonably priced candle so that failure would not be too costly!! So having found some small, vanilla scented candle in a pack of 3, I thought I'd give it a go. If all went wrong, I could burn the candle myself and enjoy the aroma. But my very first attempt, the Snowflake in the middle, was perfect. I couldn't believe how quick and simple it could be!

So how is it done?

If you thought that I have a very steady hand whilst rolling the rubber stamp on the surface of the candle, you'd be wrong!
The secret is by stamping your image onto tissue paper. And I just had a whole unopened ream of A2 size, white tissue paper which I had bought a while ago , to do....... I can't remember what, but I'm so glad I have it!
Having stamped your image, cut around the image leaving about 5mm around the edges. Then with a strip of waxed paper or greaseproof paper that is slightly wider than the height of the candle, and about twice as long as the circumference of the candle, place the stamped image in position and wrap the greseproof paper around the candle to hold it in place. The excess greaseproof serves as a handle to hold the image and candle together whilst setting the design.
Allow your heatgun to heat up for about 10 seconds before directing the heat towards the stamped image through the greaseproof paper. Watch the edges of the tissue paper around the image as they will gradually disappear, showing that the image is joining with the candle. Don't focus in one spot for too long! I tend to blow the heat over the whole area to start and then follow the disappearing tissue edges around the image, then finish with an allover blast.
Then carefully peel back the greaseproof paper to reveal a perfectly stamped candle. Very satisfying!

I'm hooked on this technique so I had to play some more but this time an all occasion candle, using Close as a Memory stamp set. I used the Stampin Write markers to give different colours on areas of the stamp - with a bit of 'huffing' to remoisten the inks. Finished off with ribbon around the bottom of the candle - purely for decoration and should be removed before burning the candle!

If you would like to try stamping on candles, I shall be running workshops in the New Year. Watch this space for more details.

Thanks for looking.

Tricia-x-

Treat bags

With the great ideas that are shared on the ILWS forum, these were an ideal quick make for a recent Christmas Bazaar that I attended. I took the opportunity to try out the Craft White ink pad, new to this year's SU catalogue along with my long awaited Kraft cardstock. The two go together like 'strawberries and cream' !

I cut a 12" x 12" piece of Kraft cardstock into 3, each piece measuring 4" wide. Depending on the contents you could work with a 12" strip but I decided to make the strips 9" long so scored at 4" and 5", giving a 1" gussett and folded along the score lines. I sponged the white ink with a finger dauber around the edges and then stamped randomly with the snowflake from the Winter Post stamp set. With the 1 3/4" circle punch, I punched a hole and sponged more ink around the aperture. Contract 3/8" grosgrain ribbon was passed through the hole and round the side and joined by a knotted bow.
I filled a cello bag with sweets, sealed it and placed inside the stamped and folded cardstock, and sealed the top with a stamped closure, being a Tab, punched in contrasting card and folded in half.

The children loved these, and they were so quick and easy to make. The idea could be used for other occasions throuhout the year.

Thanks for looking.

Be back soon.

Tricia -x-

Masking for Christmas

My bow has slipped! I didn't notice that until now, but hey! you get the idea!
Punch a 1 3/8" circle in the centre of a post-it-note and place in the centre of a piece of Whisper White cardstock. Using Pretty in Pink, sponge inside the circle, then use the floursh stamp from Season of Joy stamp set, randomly with same ink. Pretty in Pink cardstock base was stamp with Versamark using the same flourish stamp. Merry Christmas is from the same stamp set.

There have been a few versions of this technique but I decided to use the Fir Cones stamp from Autumn Days stamp set. I punched a 1 3/4" circle from a post-it-note and placed the circle in the centre of the square card. Using Stampin Write markers in Old Olive and Creamy Caramel, I stamped around the edge of the circle in a fairly uniform fashion, thinking of clock times = 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. Then filled in the gaps! The red sprigs were made using only the end part of the Autumn Days berries stamp.

Finished off using the Scallop Oval and Large Oval punches with the Merry Christmas greeting from Season of Joy.

Thanks for looking.

Tricia -x-

After Convention.......

I've just about come down from my cloud after going to the first European Convention in Frankfurt. It's been over a month since I returned, after a fab weekend with like minded SU demonstrators from the UK, France and Germany . What lovely, friendly people who were ready to share their ideas by creating card swaps which certainly inspired me to spread the word. And here's the stage which says it all - and I even walked the stage as I was no. 20 in Demonstrator of the Year category, in the UK. So a big THANK YOU to all my customers and regular workshop attendees who helped me to get there.

I really didn't take enough photos while I was there but this is the result of one of the demonstrations, bravely done on stage by one of the top achievers in France or Germany - sorry but I can't remember who!

And no pictures of cards - I mean , get your priorities right! This was the most delicious chocolate muffin with a chocolate truffle centre, that I have ever eaten! It was part of the lunch we were given on the second day - two cheese bagels, and apple, a banana. a 'Corny' bar, THE MUFFIN, and yet another bottle of that disgusting fizzy water! Now bubbles in champagne are fine, but water? No!! IMHO

Sorry I haven't got more to say but if you are thinking that perhaps you should have been there too, why not get in touch and see how you could be at the next Convention to be held in London next year. You won't regret it!

I'll be back soon with a few little makes that I have been creating over the last few weeks - so many ideas and not enough time to try them out - you know the feeling?

Thanks for looking.

Tricia -x-