Faux Metal Trinket Box

This was one of the presents I made for my friend, Pauline. I will blog the other item tomorrow probably. It is a sort of sampler in that I used a range of different embossing folders for each of the panels, inside and out. I also used a range of different StazOn colours but the pink seems to predominate. I finished it off with black sequin trim.

Accordion Christmas Card

I thought that now everyone has received their cards and homemade items from me for Christmas, I would blog a few things, starting with this accordion card. I did this type of accordion card for Crafts Beautiful a couple of issues back and it can be adapted for all sorts of occasions when you want the Wow factor on the mantelpiece. My students liked it so when we start classes again in January I thought we could do some different designs and colourschemes for Valentine and Mother's Day and special birthdays. It's a good design to have up your sleeve for special people.

I was making it for someone who is not overly fond of Christmas so I chose the bird stamps from Crafty Individuals  rather than more traditional imagery. They do a set with four small ones, and also a single larger bird, and I had intended to use the bigger one on the front, but in the end I used a small one on the front and left the last section free for a pocket with a tag in it for the greeting.

I used Papermania papers to go with my blue theme, and a white embossed flourish (Crafty Individuals) on the front to match the scrolls on some of the bird images.

I used the StazOn technique for the bird images, with faux metal frames, and finished it off with teal organza ribbon and teal adhesive gems.

Tim Tags Blog Candy

Just a note to say that it is the last day for Jennie's Tim Tags Blog Candy entries on her Artistic Stamper blog here http://www.theartisticstamper.blogspot.com/

Happy Christmas!

I hope everyone is ok and happy and coping in the difficult conditions caused by the snow. I just wanted to say, I know Christmas can sometimes be a bitter-sweet time, missing lost loved ones, and reflecting on the past year, with both good and bad memories. I would like to send my blessings to anyone out there going through a difficult time, and to wish you a safe, healthy, and peaceful Christmas, surrounded by family and friends.

2009 has been a year when I have made some wonderful new friends, who along with my dear 'old' friends have enriched my life. I hope you know how precious you are, and how much I value you.

Happy Christmas!

And the Final One!

This is my final Tim Tag, and was a shameless vehicle for Grungepaper roses, which I love. They were stamped with the large plain flower from the Artistic Stamper Flower Power set, which is such a useful plate, and the blue one was then stamped with the Dots Background, and finally I added some leaves. The roses dictated the colourscheme, which was Worn Lipstick, Broken China and Faded Jeans, and I liked the pink and blue with the bright white of the metal garland. I used Artistic Stamper Holly and Snowflakes and a bit of water flicking as before. The music script in both corners was stamped on greaseproof paper, which came about as Alison turned up at my house and said, 'do you have any plain vellum', and I said 'no, only greaseproof paper', which was meant as a joke but actually it works ok.

I then added the Fragment Bauble and Wish sentiment used on previous tags, quite simply because they were left overs and were sat on my workdesk, and I would only otherwise have put them in the Christmas box in the attic until next year, so they needed to be stuck down on something! I think as a result I have overdone things a bit but I'm not going to be too hard on myself because I learnt such a lot by having a go at these tags. Tim packed such a lot of techniques and design features into each one, and it took me out of the confines of my normal style to try them, and I found it so rewarding to feel more comfortable with the projects than I thought I would. As a result, it has given me some ideas for the coming year.

And another one!

This little boy is wishing for a shiny green car from Santa this year, hence the Thought Bubble. It's the Mabel Lucie Attwell 'Jolly Day Out' stamp from the Artistic Stamper, on shrink plastic, and I was surprised how well it combined with their traditional Christmas stamps. I used grungeboard and an oval fragment for the bubble, again from the Artistic Stamper, along with the Christmas definition stamp, snowflakes, and holly, from their Christmas Greetings 2 set. I used slightly different distress colours this time, more bluey greens to go with the car, and just a blush of Fired Brick to give a suggestion of a red Santa's cloak. The Santa is again from Christmas Plate 3. I don't have the Tim Holtz flourish and I felt this Crafty Individuals one was quite similar, so I used it with Brilliance Moonlight White as I like a touch of bright white against Distress Ink backgrounds.

I used a smear of neutral glitter glue over the holly, which seems to really bring out the colour, and another piece of DIY 'German Gold Scrap' at the top. The whole tag is much paler than the previous ones I have made. I am so frustrated with myself that I started on the tags so late, as I am enjoying them so much now, but maybe next year .......

Various Tim-Style Christmas Tags on a Snowy Day

It is still a very snowy world out there, but a perfect backdrop for Christmas tags. These are no longer replicas of Tim's Tags but most definitely 'inspired by' as I got to the party so late, as usual. It always takes me a while to latch onto a trend - I am still wondering if mobile 'phones are going to catch on! So I went through all the tags he made and jotted down the components and techniques I fancied and made a few more, to upload over the next few days. Jennie at the Artistic Stamper is still kindly giving away blog candy for Taggers.

These two are quite similar and I couldn't decide which to upload, so I went for both, as one has the Ticket on a Clip idea of his, and the other one his Faux Negative Strip. The '25' is in Grungeboard, inked with Fired Brick and smeared with Distress Stickles. The Santa is from the Artistic Stamper Christmas Plate 3, and the Holly and Snowflakes from Christmas Greetings 2, which is a really useful set. The inks are Distress Inks so just about everything is from the Artistic Stamper. I didn't have any Tim Holtz Christmas stamps and I found these ones just as great, for this purpose. I used the water flicking technique again as Alison and I had fun doing that so I think I will be doing that a lot.

Sharpie's Blog Candy with Craft Stamper's Website

Just a quickie to say that over on the Craft Stamper magazine website, Sharpie's are offering a fabulous blog candy giveaway! I love my Sharpies - I use the black to patch up dodgy stamping, and the coloured ones on shrink plastic and dominoes, etc. It is well worth having a look at the Craft Stamper website anyway, as they have lots of extras to go with each month's issue.

Would be great if someone who watches my blog wins! Here's the link.

Tim's Tag Day 5 (!)

Yes, I know, I didn't do days 1-4, or days 6-12! I envy people who are that organized! Alison (Craftytrog) kicked me into touch as we spent the day together yesterday making Tags - and I managed to complete ONE! Alison is such a tonic to spend the day with - she is so kind and fun, but she is also great with new techniques and challenges, and putting her own style on them, so this spurs me on.

This tag is for someone special  - who hasn't had their card from me yet as I was pondering what would be nice for this very talented person. As it is a gift, I did both sides. I used Artistic Stamper tags but I didn't have any white ones left which made it more difficult as I did them on white card first, then stuck it on.

The colours are actually quite vibrant but the camera hasn't picked that up so I may do more photos later and switch them. I used the flourish (a Crafty Individuals one) in White Acrylic Dabber on the reverse, and the greeting and definition stamp from Artistic Stamper Christmas Greetings No 2, and the definition again, the The Twelve Days of Christmas (on Greaseproof Paper)  from the same set on the front. The baubles are Tim's Acrylic Charms also from the Artistic Stamper, with images from Baubles and Victorian Christmas sets, and gold Memory Foil Tape at the top. The 'German Scrap' at the bottom is actually Lakeland adhesive lace, with Gold Leaf. The baubles were adhered with foam pads. I added a smear of glitter glue over the fir tree bits at the corners and let it pick up the specks of gold leaf left on my craft sheet. The backgrounds are Distress Inks with water flicking. Although Jennie at the Artistic Stamper sells the Tim Holtz stamps he used, I was amazed how perfect Jennie's own Christmas ranges were for this project.

This was a little different to what I normally make. Do you ever find, though, that you start to do something in a different style and halfway through you realize it feels quite natural and the thing flows? I really enjoyed doing this and I hope the recipient likes it. Will she know who she is? There might be some clues ......


I hadn't realized when I blogged this that Jennie is giving away Blog Candy to people who participate in the 12 Tags of Christmas, so have a look at her wonderful blog and see what she is giving away!

I love my Class!

 

I feel bereft today, as yesterday was my last session with my wonderful class. These are the beautiful handmade cards and exquisite bunch of purple flowers they presented to me yesterday. The cabbage roses are stunning! I feel very honoured to have taught them. My manager popped into the lesson to get some enrolment and evaluation forms filled out and I am not sure she got much sense out of us! I am looking forward to teaching again in the New Year (I hope with the same students).

Santa and his Sleigh in the Sky Card

A while ago I said I thought I would use this new stamp from Crafty Individuals a lot this Christmas, and I certainly have! I used Kaleidacolor inks in Pastel, and used some of the scraps to stamp out Ho, Ho, Ho!. I then cut them out with a tiny circle punch and stuck them behind flower arranging nuggets to make page pebbles. The glass had the effect of magnifying the words, which was cool. In keeping with the cool colours I wanted to achieve, I added a piece of white metal Christmas garland. This will be a card for someone special this year.

Christmas Tree Decorations Box

 

This week will be the last class with my lovely students until New Year, when I hope they will re-enrol. I have asked them to bring empty cheese boxes or similar this week, so we can make gift boxes, which could also be used to house the Christmas tree ornaments we were making last time. I asked Colin to bring this one back with him from France but unfortunately it got very damaged en route, so I had to do a bit of remedial work and it is far from perfect. To mend it I used silver parcel tape from Poundland, and then covered the  top and inside base and lid with faux metal. I had a trying time getting the beaded trim to stick around the lid, but I felt it was worth it. We are also going to make coasters for the Christmas Dinner table, and decorate some notebooks to make little gifts, especially with men in mind. I hope they will enjoy what I have planned .....

Crafty Individuals Folded Christmas Card

Oh heck, haven't blogged in days! What can I blog? Oh, I know, that folded Christmas card that is sat on my craft desk, that'll fit the bill!

This card was made with Crafty Individuals papers and stamps, and the stamped images are on an alcohol inked background. Santa's beard inside the card was covered with White Opal Simply Pearls, and the image on the front is on stampbord.

At the moment I am feeling quite stressed about finishing things off before Christmas - who isn't? My main problem is starting things and not finishing them, so I will make the effort in the next few days, so that I can blog anything that isn't Secret Squirrel!

Painting the Town with Pixie Dust!

A couple of months ago, Jennie at the Artistic Stamper, launched the first of the Mabel Lucie Attwell line of stamps, and I am pleased to see there are another three designs, one of which is a Christmas stamp. I was asked to make some samples and chose this cute Pixie, who is using her pot of paint to make a magic flower! All the samples were stamped on glossy cardstock and sponged with Kaleidacolor inks. The first item is a coaster and I have added a 3d glitter paint to the flower, and Rock Candy Crackle to her wings. I wanted to choose a coaster as I am planning on making some for the Christmas dinner table with my class next week and I want to experiment to see how best to put a protective coating on them. The second item is a frame, and no, it is not faux metal! It is actually friendly plastic, and I arranged four strips on my craft sheet in the shape of a frame, melted them to fuse them together, then stamped a little flower stamp into the warm plastic. I layered the flower, which I had smeared with glitter glue, added glossy accents for the drops of paint, coloured the pixie outfit and leaves with a gel pen, and filled in the wings with an embossing pen and embossed with silver pearl embossing powder. I then finished it off with a Stitchels felt flower, from the Artistic Stamper Stitchels range, which I felt suited the style of the stamps. The final item, a card, was highlighted with white opaque pen, and finished off with shrink plastic flowers.

Christmas Tree Ornaments and Gifts - Samples for my Class

Did I mention how much I am enjoying teaching my great students? Well, ok, but I will say it again! We have now come to the end of the 6 week Introduction to Card Making class and they have come on in leaps and bounds. I am being allowed an extra two weeks with them to do some pre-Christmas rubber stamping and papercrafting. I have made these samples for the first of the two classes. There is a selection of wooden children's domino tree decorations, and each one is backed with faux metal, which you can see on the one on the left. There is also a mini frame, the pieces for which have been cut in the Cuttlebug, and then the Mirri card has been embossed with the Christmas bauble folder. I want to show my group some little tricks such as dipping the edges of the domino in embossing powder, and colouring ribbon with permanent markers to match your colourscheme. I have also made a little mirrored handbag compact similar to the ones I made a couple of weeks back, which I hope the students will enjoy making as gifts. I have used some of the glossy images from Crafty Individuals.

I am sure, knowing my group, they will come up with plenty of ideas of their own!

My Class - Chris' Card - Artistic Stamper Sewing Plate

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I have a terrific bunch of students doing an Introduction to Card Making with me, and over the half term break, they got together and made some cards which they brought to show me this week. Wow! I was so impressed with the quality of their work, and it is definitely not all down to me! I didn't have my camera with me otherwise I would have photographed each one, but I asked Chris if I could show you all the card she has made. I picked this one out as I thought Chris had used this stamp set from the Artistic Stamper to such good effect. Jennie will be wondering why she suddenly has so many customers living near me!

Craft Stamper December 09

I have just received my copy of December Craft Stamper today. Haven't had a chance to read it yet but I was so pleased that there is a tiny thumbnail of the jewellery box I made, to the right of the free stamp image! It was made with some gorgeous Crafty Individuals stamps, and Bo Bunny papers. I always look forward to the mag coming out, and I am looking forward to some Christmas inspiration this month!

Caught in Crystal - Artistic Stamper Treasure Chest and Mini Frame

....... otherwise known as Stepford Wives Mark 2 - more floor polish! I am finding with this technique that it is one of those things where you can make a batch in one go, and then use the pieces as and when required. These pieces were made in the same way as before, although I used a bit of glitter as well. The wooden treasure chest was painted in silver acrylic paint and then dabbed with alcohol inks. The papier mache frame was painted with Viva Precious Metal Gold, and then splodged with Viva Croco in Gold, and then shredded pieces of gold leaf dropped onto it whilst it was wet. I had trouble photographing these items because of the glossyness so I must say they look better ITF. They weren't intended to be a pair, I just put them together so I could rest the treasure chest against the easel to get the right angle to avoid the glare. I used the glorious Garden Plate from the Artistic Stamper. I love this set! You can see from the side view I have used another element from the plate. I was tempted to carry on and decorate the box with ribbon, fancy clasps, etc, but I do tend to overdo things, so I tried to be restrained this time. Both the heart and the fleur de lys brads were coloured with alcohol inks. Those of you who are eagle-eyed will realize that it is four ladies in the garden plate tableau, not three. Only three fitted onto the lid of the little box, so I did some fiddly jigsaw work with an extra piece of caught in crystal acetate and a black pen to make it look as if it was meant to be three in the image, and one image with a border around it in the frame. I probably would do things differently next time, but I was pleased that that aspect worked.

My Class

I would just like to make a little mention of my wonderful new students! A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be able to start teaching an introduction to card making class for my local technical college. I am really enjoying it as I have such a great group of enthusiastic and supportive students. In our first lesson together we learnt how to make a 3d flower, which is a fun skill to have up your sleeve. In our last lesson we discovered the delights of shrink plastic and heat embossing. Apparently I am in a lot of trouble with all the husbands as my students build up their craft stash but it is so great to watch their growing addiction. So if any of them are reading this, thanks for being a great group to teach!

Caught in Crystal Card

The other week, Alison and her friend Hazel H (my friend now as well, I hope!) came for a playday. They had both wanted to do the Caught in Crystal technique and I was a bit dubious as I thought it would be messy and take a long time to dry. Well, Alison is a dab-hand at new techniques and had the brilliant idea of putting the Klear floor polish into a spray bottle. Result! I have now made one of the pieces into this card, using a gorgeous Crafty Individuals stamp, some alcohol inks, and little pieces of gold leaf. I layered it onto a white background to bring out the colours, and then onto Crafty Individuals background paper. I then added a little strip of the coloured acetate bottom left, and a 3d flower made with co-ordinating paper, using the same method as the grungepaper flowers. Watch out for some more pieces coming up, using this technique, as my friend Jack and I went on a search for another bottle of Klear each - Tesco - No, Sainsburys - New formula, no good, Asda - success! Not since the 1950s have two women got so excited about buying floor polish!

Crafts Beautiful December Issue - Accordion Card and Box

This is a little peek of my projects in this month's Crafts Beautiful magazine. It is an accordion card with a matching box, and as you can see, the card has a Stampbord piece on the front. If you want to see the card opened out, the box, and how they were made, you will need to look out for the magazine!

Embroidery Hoop - Artistic Stamper Dressmaking Plate

I bought these little frames a couple of years ago at a sewing and stamping show, and I think they are meant for displaying finished embroidery, but I had this thought that they would be fun used like an embroidery hoop, stretching your fabric whilst you are working on it. I cut a circle with a Nestie and coloured it with pink and blue alcohol inks. I stamped the lady sewing, and the buttons, from the Artistic Stamper Dressmaking plate on tissue paper, roughly torn at the edges. I added a touch of colour to her dress and the buttons with Inktense pencils. Then I placed it in the frame and added a touch of vintage photo to the edges of the tissue paper, the lace, and the tape measure twill from the Artistic Stamper, and sewed on a shrink plastic button and added a pearl tipped pin. Hope you can see where I was going with this!

Faux Metal Mini Frame

Just a simple little frame, but I thought it showed up how well the faux metal works. I used the Cuttlebug Textile Texture Embossing Folder and then the Nestabilities Squares to make the frame. I coloured it with StazOn, and stamped the little girl, from Crafty Individuals onto an alcohol inked background. I used a string of tiny pearls around the edge of the picture to highlight it, and I thought it looked a bit like fairy lights!

Meet Minxy, the Altered Reindeer!

Warning! Reindeer breaks free from Reins and gives Santa and his Sleigh the Slip!

This is Minxy. I have shown you a picture of her before she was stamped. This came about as I had been fancying the altered birds some of my clever crafting friends had been making, Wendy Vecchi style. I was trying to think of a cheaper way to make one (and I may still do) when I spotted this in Poundland - sorry, I mean Lapland! I was with my best non-crafting friend, Elaine, who was buying some Christmas decorations to make a display for a candle party. When I said I was buying the reindeer to alter, she didn't bat an eyelid!

Minxy has run off because she is trying to get back home to see her fella, Magnus, whose photo she wears on the locket round her neck. She is away for a long time every year, delivering presents, so she likes to take a big suitcase with her. This was an excuse to do 'altered luggage', which seems to be fashionable right now. She always buys Antler luggage, of course!

On one side she has the wording 'Santa ..... define Naughty!', taken from a Dolly Mama stamp. I have given her a bell for an aural element, and warm booties for the snow. She is wearing odd socks as I had a stamp that said, 'Ho', so she had to have at least one Ho, Ho, Ho sock. The remaining stamps are snowflakes and pieces of fir tree. I made the forest floor to sit her on using green corrugated card, and some pine cone mix from an old pack of pot pourri. I have given her some googly eyes but I couldn't find where I had put my pack, so I'm afraid I ripped these off a teddy.

The suitcase has been made with felt, a matchbox, and some little strips of copper, embossed, then rubbed with black acrylic paint, then alcohol inks. The handle is a small strip of grungeboard cut from the edge of a die cut sheet as I didn't have any plain, and then covered with the copper, and copper eyelets added with the Crop-o-dile. The starting point for the copper was that I found this little fastening which I think was a button as it had a shank on the back, which I snipped off. As you can see, Minxy has her own monogrammed luggage tag, with her initials, MR, embossed on it (well, you wondered where I was going with the name choice, didn't you!).

Minxy has been coloured with Distress Inks and her antlers are Distress Crackle Paint and Crackle Accents.

I do hope you like her as she is a bit different to my normal style.

We Three Kings of Orient Are

I realize now that I labelled the JPEG, The Three Kings, which sounds more as though I'd been off to pick up beer mats from the pub, than the biblical reference it was meant to be! Sorry that this canvas is rather like the Three Wise Men from the other day, but I wanted to upload it, having made the very fiddly crowns. I stamped them on shrink plastic but they were a little large for the scale, so I re-did them, carefully trimming a little bit away from the bottom border and cutting as much of the white away as possible. I coloured them with dry Inktense pencils and a gold pen, and added some little red gems. I haven't shown the sides but I have stamped Peace and Joy and the Crowns around the sides. The embellishment at the top of the canvas is another of the die cut pieces, painted gold, from the Craft Obsessions pack, which is going such a long way!

The other canvas was much smaller, and I quite fancy re-doing this one in the same size, and then a third one (I like working in threes) with just the text on, so that they match and can be arranged together on a wall.

My next blog posting will definitely be something a bit different - especially for me!

Ethereal Lady Canvas

I am very late to the Grungepaper flowers party, which seem to be so popular at the moment with some excellent tutorials on-line. This canvas was made as a shameless vehicle for my first grungepaper rose, and I followed the tutorial on Hels blog. I used stamps from the Artistic Stamper - the words, the background stamp from the Collage Woman (Byron poem, 'She walks in beauty like the night'), the scroll, and this wonderful new Clock Lady stamp which Alison kindly lent me when she was here the other day. The lower half of the lady is floral, so I used Flowersoft. I used the scroll again around the sides of the canvas to finish it off.

Three Wise Men Canvas

Alison came over for a play day yesterday, and as always, we had a great time. Alison was making some stunning metal work pieces, and some Christmas cards, and I was managing to dabble and not finish anything. The only thing I did finish was this little canvas using a set of Elusive Images stamps kindly lent to me by Alison.

'L' Is For Learner!

The amazing thing about these new Mabel Lucie Attwell stamps from the Artistic Stamper, is that I find myself thinking up stories and little characters everytime I work with them! I guess that was her magic when she drew these images! Whilst this little boy's sister was out splashing in the puddles, he was in his bedroom learning to drive his shiny green car! He likes everyone to know which is his room, so I made him this Learner Driver door hanger.

The 'L' was cut from mountboard and coloured with Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy, straight from the pad. I stamped the image in a similar way to the little girl, on plain card, and then again on a piece of green brayered glossy photo paper, cutting out the car and mounting it onto the other image, and then finishing off with some coloured pencils. The wheels are just a couple of bright shiny buttons!

Sunshine After the Rain

This gorgeous little girl is one of the new images which form part of the Mabel Lucie Attwell range of licensed products, launched today by the Artistic Stamper. It is a truly nostalgic range as, when I mentioned this children's book illustrator to my husband, he said, 'My Mum had one of her books when I was a kid'. I hope others will have the same sense of nostalgia.

My 'story' for this little girl is that she begged to be allowed out in the rain, so that she could wear her bright yellow raincoat and her floral Wellington boots, to stamp in the puddles. Just as she has gone outside, the sun comes out and there is a beautiful rainbow!

The rainbow was brayered onto glossy photo paper, and the puddle was made in the same way, but in shades of green, with rain drops represented by tiny crystals. I stamped the little girl once on plain white card, then a second time on brayered yellow glossy photo paper, cutting the raincoat out of the second image and adhering it to the first. I coloured in the remainder of her image with a touch of coloured pencil. In the actual stamp she is wearing little Mary Jane shoes, so I have turned these into floral Wellington boots, by cutting out this section in floral paper. This has given the impression that she is turning her feet inwards, in a gawky, little girl sort of way! I then glazed the umbrella and boots with clear nail varnish (I was away from home and didn't have my Glossy Accents to hand .....). I painted one of the chipboard flowers from the Artistic Stamper with yellow and orange acrylic paint to represent the sun, and added a gold button to the centre. I had intended to put this under the frame on the corner, and then decorate the frame, but I felt this detracted from the impression of a sun I wanted to create, so I have left it quite plain.

Gracious Lady Card

I made this card ages ago, maybe as long as two years ago, but had kept it for someone special. I have now sent it to Lynne along with a little gift of the Little Book with the Fabric Pages I made and blogged a couple of weeks ago. The Hero Arts Gracious Lady is one of my favourite stamps ever, and I know Lynne loves Flappers. I coloured the main image with coloured pencils and matted it onto a piece of French book text, and stamped another image onto a Stampbord domino and glazed it. The background paper is from K and Co and was stamped repeatedly with Hero Arts narrow Script stamp in Vintage Photo. I dyed the lace with the same ink, and then added an Art Mould key, made with friendly plastic. The whole lot was layered onto a 7 x 7 inch card blank.

A Little Bird House in my Soul!

I can't get that song out of my head! I bought this bird house to decorate ages ago, then last week when we were making faux metal pieces, I thought it would be perfect for the roof and sides, combined with Stitchels on glossy cardstock. I used the Allegro Cuttlebug Embossing Folder this time as I like to use music script with bird imagery. The bird feeder was made from a piece of mesh from a punnet of nectarines, filled with small brown beads to represent nuts. Unfortunately the mesh had wide holes - oh how I laughed as the beads fell out of the bottom for the third time! The solution was to add another layer of the mesh - Simples!

Metal Work Collage Man Notebook

This notebook was made with a piece of foil embossed in the Cuttlebug with Diamonds in the Rough embossing folder, dabbed with StazOn, which was also dabbed onto the glossy cardstock on which the Collage Man (from the Artistic Stamper http://www.theartisticstamper.com/) was stamped. I highlighted his white shirt collar with an Inkssentials White Pen from the Artistic Stamper, and finished it off with a piece of their tape-measure twill, then a friendly plastic art mould key, and mounted the whole piece onto a hard-backed notebook. It was difficult to photograph it because of the glare coming off the metal, and as a result I chose a photo where it looks less metallic than it actually does in the flesh.

Metal Work Trinket Box

I had a great day with Alison on Monday, and she kindly showed me how to emboss with kitchen foil. It's really rewarding and fun! Thanks Alison! I made loads of pieces of 'metal' but so far this is the only thing I have made it into, a little trinket box for jewellery. I used the paisley cuttlebug folder for the metal lid and sides, and also to emboss the velvet paper in the base (kindly given to me by my friend, Pauline). The elephant is from the Elusive Images Paisley Elephant set on glossy cardstock, and I added a fabric brad closure, some purple heart gems, and a mirror under the lid. The paisley paper is K and Co.

The First Noel!

This is my first Christmas offering for 2009, as I had to get into the mood for a magazine article. The stamp is a gorgeous new one from Crafty Individuals, with Santa on his Sleigh flying across a starry sky with the buildings below. It's actually their special offer stamp at the mo. I will be using this for loads of other projects over the next few weeks, as it has really conjured up so many ideas. This is a small canvas, used in reverse, with a distressy frame of image transferred Crafty Individuals Christmas papers. I decided not to disguise the staples, to add to the grungy look.