Funky Hand Challenge - Thank You

The challenge this month at Funky Hand is a project to say 'Thank You' - quite appropriate for this time of year when we have people we need to thank.  The only rule is that you must use a Funky Hand product and if you have nothing from them there is a brilliant freebie which you can find on their sidebar to download.  I've used various papers from Craft The Year Away in the Marching On range with the background printed full size and some other patterns reduced in size for the layers.  The stamp used is from Papermania and has been stamped onto card printed from the same collection cut out with a Nestability label die. The flowers were punched with X-cut punches and leaves with a Stampin Up bird punch.

Make My Monday Week 30

The theme for January on Make My Monday is NATURE and this particular week it is BIRDS - do take a look at the lovely cards made by the Design Team for inspiration. For this card I used some  Tim Holtz Shabby background paper, sponged with Distress ink.  The bird image is by Papermania from one of their Urban stamp sets and the bird nest is from stampin Up nature set, both cut out using Nestability dies.

Forgotten Friday 43

Well I have managed a minimal tidy up in the craft room - at least now I've put away all the things which were cluttering my working space but in reality the whole stash needs a serious sort out but that can be done gradually and hopefully during the process I'll find lots of items to use for the Forgotten Friday challenges this year.  Who am I kidding?? Of course I'll come across tons of 'stuff' which hasn't seen the light of day for ages!!

Another crafty area which needs re-organising is my computer as, like many of you I imagine, I download things all the time as and when they take my fancy but quite often I don't actually use them.  It is one such image which I've used this week for Judith's challenge - it is one of the Pretty Birds digital downloads from Chocolate Baroque which I have used as a background.  The text is from one of their bird stamp sets and the feather is a Stampin Up stamp from a nature set.  The digital image has been sitting on my hard drive for ages, the bird stamps have been resting in their storage box for even longer and I used a Spellbinder die (never been used before) to make a buckle for the ribbon.  Do take a look at Judith's blog to see what others have been using from their 'forgotten' stash.

Happy New Year

Just a quick message to say Happy New Year to everyone.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of making cards but really I should put away all the christmassy bits and pieces which are littering my work space - maybe tomorrow ...  The background paper on this card is from Chocolate Baroque Essence of Nature CD and the image used their teeny tiny tree stamps.  The embossed panel using a Cuttlebug folder was sponged with matching ink to show up the texture.  I added a flower made using matching papers,  the word and brackets were  cut out using a Slice machine.

Season's Greetings

Very best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful, Prosperous and Healthy New Year to my followers and everyone who has been kind enough to take time to leave comments on my blog during the year.  I really enjoy taking part in the various challenges so thanks to the people who organise these as well - it must take up quite a time I imagine.  It is also great to follow other blogs and to keep in touch with what is happening in the crafting world - here's hoping Santa brings you all you wished for.

Make My Monday Week 29

The last challenge of the year at Make My Monday is to make a seasonal tag - I've gone along with another of the techniques from Tim Holtz.  This time it is a kind of image transfer using clear packing tape,  a clear acrylic accent piece and some self adhesive foil tape.  The background was stamped with some music and little scraps of text, sponged with distress inks and overstamped using some holly stamps from Christmas Reflections by Chocolate Baroque - fairly quick to make once I'd mastered the image transfer technique.  Hopefully this really is the last seasonal thing I make for quite a while and it will be good to get back to something different.

Jolly Snowmen

A friend sent me a photograph of some snowman ear rings she had seen and asked if I could work out how they were made.  It was such a dark and dismal day yesterday and pouring with rain so I thought I needed to rise to the challenge and make something bright and jolly.  Hers had arms and a long scarf but I only had a very small quantity of the red beads so this one is a variation; also I've not added the ear wires yet.  I worked out they must have been made using brick stitch and I used Delica beads.