No idea which Dt member chose this theme but shrink plastic is such fun to play with - have you ever tried it? well my favourite use is making charms for projects which is what i have done here. I have taken a magnolia circle stamp with North Pole on it coloured the plastic and then shrunk it. This utterly gorgeous Father Christmas is by Tim Holtz and I have used some papermania snowflakes to do a red on red background The father Christmas has been stamped with cherry cobbler SU ink onto some glossy paper - I love this glossy look.
Here is a blurry close up of the charm hanging from the bow - and a wee snowflake just finishes it off.
I realised today I have not shared many of the Christmas gifts I have been making lately. Here is a little jar of bath salts - lavender and lemongrass - just jazzed up for Christmas.
and here a tealight card - gorgeous little stocking filler or token gift.
These tealights came from lidl - what a bargain 24 for £1.99! making this a very economical gift!
since Try it on Tuesday visited here however with the theme "taking to the skies" it was a perfect chance to show you what we did last month at my Christmas sessions. A mixture of Anitas stamps, Inkilicious and Tim Holtz with Stampin up inks I love the Santa shadow flying across the moon.
My children always thought they could see the lights from Santa's sleigh as we came home from the 4pm service on Christmas Eve - something magical about that time having sung carols, greeted everyone at Church, wrapped up warm in gloves hats and scarves for the walk home then spotting lights in the almost dark sky - convinced it was a sleigh and not a plane. I swear we even heard sleigh bells one year. With all my babies grown up we have less of that magical talk but no reason to forget those special times.
Cor best get cracking on this Christmas prep lark - 96 days will sure disappear quickly! This is going to be the Christmas get together at my house project for October -I do hope the ladies enjoy it!
Although activity has been slack in the blogging for Christmas department it has not in the real world. I bought 3 pressies today and my table centrepiece from the Ringtons man! Along with admiring his very chic Kipling bag his basket was bursting with ideas. Never heard of the Ringtons man? check them out here Ive been supping their tea since I was knee high to a grasshopper and my Mum, Grandma and great Grandma too - fab they are still making gorgeous gifts after all this time! Their door to door round is an excellent service especially for those less able to get out and about with very very affordable goodies that I succumb to every year find out more here. My Ringtons Man (Skipton) is particularly friendly and is never surprised I am still in my Jammies at 11-30am or that my hair hasn't seen the brush or that I never have the right change if I have cash at all! I bought 3 of these and this is my table centre piece complete with chocs Isn't it cool? I can fill it every year with surprise goodies!
Here are a couple of cards I made this week for examples of snowmen cards for the ladies at my card group. lush papers are by basic grey and making memories
I used my new spellbinders lacey edge die and looped ribbon in the holes.
This works out perfectly for the bah humbug challenge of something new as not only are the spell binders new I have never played with the ribbon in that way before.
well this is a first for me - seriously this was a huge challenge to a traditional red and green gal but actually I had lots of fun with it too.
Over on Winter Wonderland this week the challeneg is to make a Christmas card that is pretty in pink. Now I do love pink and brown together and as kraft card is my fav colour at the moment I decided to combine it. The pink paper has been stamped in brown with snowflakes from a butterfly kisses set and the gorgous pine tree is from the stampin up set lovely as a tree. The sentiment is also a stampin up one which I believe to be now retired - perfect with the SU oval punches. I like the tab punch too to add a little bit more interest and this is also from SU.
So dont take my word for it hop on over to Winter Wonderland and enjoy some pink and pretty cards this week the Dt have some lush cards to share x
Happy Friday x Janet
It was the first of my Christmas card sessions for June last night which is Tim Holtz themed. you all know how much I love these lush stamps which are perfect for simple or complex projects - really versatile.
To enter my candy you will need to leave me a comment and enter your blog link below. The letter you need to collect from me is N
I do love this set which is perfect for all your Christmas cards this year!
This month my Christmas card sessions have revolved around using leftovers. We all like to be thrifty so I tried to show a simple payout which will use up bits, is quick to do but still looks good.
As you can see some of the papers are very old papermania ones where I have just had the odd sheet left. The beauty of cards 1 and 2 is they will also post with a normal stamp - always a bonus! Next month we are playing with Tim Holtz and monochrome cards - cant wait!
My Winter Wonderland week again and a perfect excuse to show you some sneaky peeks at what I have been doing Christmas wise this month!
Here you can see no 11 is another Penny Black image this time ice skating which also fits the Winter Wonderland theme really well. I may share more pages as the year progresses or may save the rest for a big advent countdown in December - who knows LOL but it feels great to be crafting with the lush papers instead of stroking them all the time!
Still using up old stash! these are basic grey papers (holly) and the happy Christmas paper I got in a pad yonks ago - I mean at least 5 years - and its hardly been used so distressed it with crushed old olive. Gold Mirri card and a gorgeous carol singing Tilda my gorgeous friend Kerry gave me. The ribbon is lush and begged to be used. I'm entering this into Susies die cut dreams Christmas challenge which is to include a fairy on your card. Playing a bit of catch up with my Christmas crafting but hopefully will be nearly there in a week of two x Have a great day and go dig out your Christmas Fairies x
Last night was the first of my second month of Christmas card classes and we were looking at sitting figures on nesties - here I have used a pink gems image - I think she is still gorgeous even though I have had her a few years. I think the papers may be basic grey but they are so old I would not know the collection - still wading through my old papers and have been good and not started on the new ones yet! Four people came last night and it was fun watching their slant on the idea. Some gorgeous cards were made although mostly not finished so no pics. The classes seem to be going really well - seems I'm not the only one who likes playing with Christmas - My ideas will all translate to other cards too so hopefully it gives a different idea for things done every day as well. Im repeating session 2 on the 26th with a new set of folks so fingers crossed that goes as well as last night x Happy crafting today x Janet 
Time for me to play along with WW again and the theme this week is baubles - I do love my baubles so I loved playing along with this one.
The actual bauble is a die cut by cuttlebug inked with distress ink then overstamped with a Blonde Moments Christmas background holly stamp. A little stickles added for sparkle. Paper is by papermania, sentiment by sandylion, card candy craftwork cards and ribbon from stash. Stop by the Winter Wonderland blog and see what gorgeousness (is that a word?) my teamies have come up with - Go on what are you waiting for get your baubles out xx
Here is what greeted my lovely ladies last night to get them feeling Christmassy. Chocolate German biscuits, cinnamon candle, jingle seasoning and a Merry Christmas flag for the posh bin!
Thinking this was a little plain I then added a box I had decorated last year and my atcs rom the Running with scissors shop Christmas swap.
here is a closer peep. I also had a display of all the handmade cards I was sent last year - cannot bear to get rid of them so if you sent me one it was up!
This was our card - Inspired by Jills card here. In a tent card version. Have grown to love chipped sapphire ink especially at Christmas and of course Tims fabulous stamps and die cuts all add to the look.
My first day joining team Kate over at Winter Wonderland this week although I have been really busy and needed to scale down a little I really miss playing along with those fabulous girls on a weekly basis. Anyway my turn to choose a theme so I chose animals - lets see some animals on your Christmas creations. This was an image I was given at a card class back in October and I am still using up my basic grey papers - will they ever end LOL! I think the image could be Stampendous - if you know differently then please do correct me. I think the sheep look ever so cute in this picture.
Were you watching him on QVC too? Isnt the man just sooo inspiring I do wish he was allowed to do the show without all the interuptions though. He did inspire me to go to the Seasonal pad I bought recently in the sales and I have played with this. Keeping in mid the Bearly-mine challenge too.
Papers quite obviously then by Mr Holtz, Image Magnolia, ribbon, pearls from stash, sentiment stampin up and the plastic heart from Graphicus last year.
Unusual for me to link my Christmas blog to Try it on Tuesday but when our team mate chose alter a shoe box it just had to be something to house my Christmas cards so here it is.
Papers are by Dovecraft and the musical reindeer a Tim Holtz die. My dont they look organised now!
Crafty HazleNuts wants the white stuff on creations this week and as I am still in recycling mode I played about with this. Papers are by papermania, sentiment by pink gems all other bits from stash and of course the recycled Christmas card image of snowy trees.
Over at Winter Wonderland there has been a little Christmas hiatus where projects did not have to be Christmassy at all but from this week we begin to prepare in earnest for that lovely time of year when magic happens.
