Christmas Blessings!

I seem to keep apologizing all over the place. This Christmas I was late with just about everything and anything possible. Things I wanted to do, gifts I wanted to make and most importantly, friends I want to thank! This year just got so away from me and one thing after another just piled up and on the 23rd, our Molly just out of no where has had her back legs go paralyzed. Off to the vet and we are still hoping for a miracle, but I think the fact she was with us for Christmas may just be that miracle. Anyway, I am not going to keep driving this pity train and I know that 2015 will be a better year for ALL of us who have had enough with 2014! Now I have some really sweet and dear friends I want to thank for their kindness and generosity and for thinking of me during this busy time of year.

Starting in the order in which these wonderful Christmas Cards were received and aren't they all simply amazing? Thank you Sandra,  Lynne, Diane, Anne, Beth and Lynn! I love each and every card.

Then there was the Christmas package from the UK, sent to me by my dear friend, Brenda! I have already shared the beautiful canvas she made just for me, but if you missed it, HERE IT IS. And along with that stunning canvas, she included that fabulous Bumblebee tag, A lovely Christmas card and some fun gifts. Thank you Brenda for making my Christmas extra special and for all my lovely treasures.

And certainly not least  the second package to arrive from the UK, was sent to me by another dear friend, Chris, who also happens to be Brenda's sister! I was overwhelmed with the beautiful Christmas card and all the details from the layered Holly leaves and gorgeous frame, which you can find HERE and then the most gorgeous handmade Christmas notebook, which I just love the texture and painted details and for a treat you can see Chris in action HERE! Thank you my dear friend for thinking of me and all my beautiful gifts and new toys!

Please take the time to visit and meet some of these lovely friends and if you already know them, you know what treasures they are! I cannot thank all of you enough for the cards, gifts and comments over this past year. I wish you all Health, Happiness and the Best of 2015 and I thank you for being a part of my life! Love and Hugs to all!

Wish!

My "Wish" is for all of you to have a fabulous finish to 2014 and a most wonderful 2015! Wow, how time flies and next year, I am going to be ready early for Christmas! Since it is still Christmas here in the US, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Now on to the current challenge at A Vintage Journey is "Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New" as chosen my the talented and most lovely Brenda! Be sure to visit AVJ and treat your eyes to some real gorgeous work from the team! There is always a prize from Country View Crafts, so come on and join in the last challenge of 2014!

I decided I would combine this challenge to "Ring Out" the old craft year by finishing Tim's December Tag with a few improvisations! The tag background was done as directed and for the embossing I used his snowflakes and ice edge little folders. I sanded these slightly and then applied white paint with my finger. After all I am wanting a little snow effect.

Next I stamped the the MidWinter sentiment from Artistic Outpost in blue and clear embossed and then cut apart and shaded the edges. Again I was keeping in step with the Snow!

Not having the thinlits, I used the "Wish" movers and shapers and cut this from using ODBD Vintage Label Dies and sanded and then edged in white paint. Cut an oval in white and then did the glue n seal thing and added Rock Candy Glitter. Can't have enough snow and sparkle when you live in the desert!

Now I do not have that gorgeous Prancing Deer (but it is on the list) and I do have Tim's other deer, but I decided I really want to use the little movers and shapers and having them looking up at the "Wish". These were done using the guidelines and I just added a little more white paint and of course they have to have a nose to breathe! Finished off with the wintery greenery that also got a little snow treatment and added a few jingle bells and what a nice sounding tag. That is that!

Thank you so much for stopping by and will see you all in 2015! Well maybe before, but I am thinking I might take a week off and seriously organize my craft room. It is hard to venture out and try new things with such chaos!

Merry Christmas!

It certainly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I still am not ready! Are you? I did package up gift boxes to send out to family, which will go to the Post Office tomorrow along with Christmas cards and I did manage to wrap my hubby's gifts, but still so much to do. I do hope you are further along than I am and if not, don't stress it! Now before I give you the details on my collaged Christmas tag,  Artist Outpost, ODBD, and NCC are running a "Gift Certicate Special" through December 20th. With every $50 gift certificate purchased, the consumer will be given a $5.00 gift certificate, so it is like the gift that keeps giving! For more details just click the links above. The December "Show Us You AO Art" is now a that middle point, but you still have time to join in! Will enter this at Simon Says Stamp Monday for their "Anything Goes" and Inspiration Journal's "Sing, Sing it Loud."

I don't do very many collages and not sure why, but I am not in my comfort zone putting those together. Yesterday I started working on Tim's December tag and just was not enjoying it, so off in another direction totally. I love the sweet little AO sisters from "Birds of a Feather" and have used them a couple of times for Christmas. So using up some of the spray that was left on the craft mat from the start of Tim's tag, I applied color with the water brush. The remaining colors were applied directing from the ink pads (Festive Berry, Brushed Corduroy, Tattered Rose). Then the little darlings were fussy cut just waiting for their placement. The kraft tag background was inked in Archival Red Geranium from "Ephemera Backgrounds" and this reminded me of Santa's list. The little torn sheet of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" is from ODBD Christmas Paper 2013. This was shaded with leftover ink on my foam applicators. Merry Christmas and the package were stamped and cut from "Christmas Chalk." Next I added some little bits or Rick Rac trim, snowflakes cut and misted with gold and a couple more Tim type goodies. And there you have it!

Hope you are having a wonderful week and thank you so much for stopping by today!

Secret Santa A Vintage Journey Style!

The most lovely and talented artists at A Vintage Journey are revealing their Secret Santa gifts, received and sent and it is a blog hop to not miss. Sadly, I was unable to join in all the festive fun and yet, that did not stop my Secret Santa from making sure I was a part of all the fun!

Can you believe this gorgeous canvas created by Brenda for me?? It truly brought tears to my eyes in many ways.

The sheer beauty of it and that Brenda would think of me with how incredibly busy this lady is! I love it with all my heart, but more so, I love the friendship that Brenda and I share. Thank you my dear friend!

Now Brenda, that most amazingly talented, great friend and my Secret Santa has this to say in brief, "This is a CHRISTMAS GIVE-AWAY and CREATIVE GUIDE HOP" and for all the details and to join in, just click the link above.

You won't want to miss this blog hop and join in all the festive fun and Christmas give-away. Thank you for visiting and I hope you have a lovely day!

Let's Celebrate at AVJ!

Our lovely Nikki has chosen "Let's Celebrate" for the current challenge at A Vintage Journey and remember there is always a prize from Country View Crafts and more ways to win, so come on over and check out all the beautiful artwork from my DT Sisters and join in our Tim inspired celebration!

My ornament is also my Compendium of Curiosities III, challenge #17, Tim's Woodlands and Tinsel Twine as Linda and the CC have instructed us to open our books to page 60. Inspiration Emporium is the generous sponsor for this challenge and as always someone is chosen for a nice prize package from Tim and Mario.

Now I can't share what I did with the technique, but I can tell you everything else. The frame was cut from Tim's Arch and the movers and shapers using four layers of chipboard. These I glued together and painted all exposed edges with Fired Brick paint.

Next I cut two more frames from Tim's seasonal paper and applied to the front and back. This ornament is reversible. Using Tim's stencil, I selected various Christmas words and applied paste through the stencil and once removed and still wet, I sprinkled on Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

The above is our newest addition to the outside Christmas decorations. We both just really liked those gift packages all decked out! Thank you for taking the time to visit today during this very busy time of year!

Let It Snow!

Hope you all are doing fabulously today. This is a quick post today, because these are pretty quick cards and just what the doctor (Santa) orders during the busy time of the year! These are Christmas cash/cards that double for "thank you" cards for those special people who provide us service during the year.

The stamps I used are from Artistic Outpost's Christmas Chalk and where stamped and embossed using white or black, cut and then mounted. I used the Christmas Paper from ODBD and that helped save a little time.

The little tags were punched and edged with white paint and Tim's clear glitter was sprinkled on while wet. If you have AO stamps, come on and join in the December's "Show Us You AO Art" challenge for a chance to win.

Thank you for stopping by today and I am working really hard on catching up. My daughter stayed a little longer and that was nice, but I spent time with her and not in the craft room as I am sure you can all appreciate. Now I must get cracking!

Yuletide Greetings!

Happy December to you all and are you ready for Christmas?? No I am not and I am embarrassed to say I am really only starting on Christmas cards and the such, but this year I am not going to stress out, because I had enough of the "S" word worrying about that hubby of mine. BTW, he is doing quite well and is mostly recovered.

Friday's are my day to share at Artistic Outpost, so this Christmas card and all the details with more photos can be found right HERE if you would like to hop on over there and of course that would be nice.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and thank you for stopping by today. My Holly is going to be over for the weekend, so I am looking forward to that visit!

CC#3C - Layering Stencil

Hope everyone in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends and hope the rest of you had a fantastic weekend. I was able to catch some time today for the Compendium of Curiosities III challenge #16. Linda and the CC have us turning Tim's book to page 50 for Layering Stencil - Embossing! Tim and Mario have a lovely gift via the CC's choice and a random winner will go shopping at the wonderful Funkie Junkie Boutique as well.

The deal is that you have to work from your own copy of Tim's book and we cannot tell you of the technique, so here is what I can tell you.

After I did the technique as described in the book, I decided I would add a little stenciling on separate paper using paint and then layered this up on Christmas colored paper.

I strung a few lights and with the assistance of Crazy Glue added little dots on the string along the way. The calendar was stamped on some of Tim's paper using red paint and layered up as above.

My hubby had cut off part of the tree base to give it a straight edge and the Christmas trees were glued down next to the fun word band. The base was also painted white. It was fairly cloudy here today, so please excuse the picture quality.

I sure do appreciate the time you took today to visit and comment and hope you have a fabulous day!

Birds of A Feather

The current challenge at A Vintage Journey is "Birds of A Feather," chosen by the lovely Chris. The challenge will run two weeks and for more Tim inspiration my fabulous DT sisters have so much to share. There is also a store voucher for some lucky winner from Country View Crafts, so come on and join in.

Tim inspiration and style does not mean you cannot use other stamps or products and my stamps of choice were I Brake For Stamps from a few collections. Obviously I went with the birds! I inked by backgrounds first using, Shabby Shutters, Old Paper, Vintage Photo and Fired Brick and then the images were stamped using Archival Sepia. It took a little time to fussy cut the bird postage!!! The leaf matter was water colored using Shabby Shutters. I wanted just a touch of color.

The card background panel is from Tim's lovely Wallflower paper and I trimmed and shaded around the edges and inked a little Fired Brick through the Latticework stencil. A few little rubs and some metal wings treated with Treasure Gold Indigo and White Fire and we are off!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful week. For those in the USA, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the USA and Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and Happy Day to everyone else! There is always so much to be thankful for and one thing I am thankful for is all of you! Truly I wish you all an abundance of health, happiness and love in your lives!

I decided to combine Artistic Outpost stamps from Home and Route 66 for my Thanksgiving card. And so you know, Artistic Outpost is having a really nice sale of 20% off and free shipping for all US orders over $25.00. Check it out HERE.

So many people are traveling over Thanksgiving to visit family or friends and that was the inspiration behind my card, which fits into a size 10 envelope.

The background is the map from Route 66, which was stamped randomly using Watering Can Archival on paper that was inked with Old Paper, Antique Linen and then shaded with Vintage Photo, Black Walnut and a little Black Soot.

Other inks used for the remaining images were Stazon Olive and Archival Sepia. The background were inked and shaded as above. There are only a few days left to join in the November "Show us you AO Art," so hurry up.

Love that old truck bringing it home!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and enjoy!

Tim's November Tag

Hope you all are doing well. I have not been blogging as often or in my craft room with my hubby having time off, but did get in a little time for Tim's November tag.

For the most part, I followed the technique guidelines with a few changes. Not having the new die or embossing folder, I cut three mover and shaper leaves in the corrugated cardboard and shaded a little around the leaves in black for definition.

I did use one of Tim's stamps for veining and thought that worked pretty well. The key was inked over slightly with Black Stazon, stained my tie and mounted all on black.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I will be catching up really soon. My hubby is doing much better and will be back to work next week for a few days and then Thanksgiving here, so a long weekend will be so great! WooHoo!

CC#3C - Cabinet Card Pocket

Happy Veteran's Day to all of you who serve or have family members who do or have! We owe so much to those that keep us safe and enjoying our many freedoms! On the subject, I had more free time to play around in the dungeon and worked those gorgeous Artist Outpost stamps into the current Compendium of Curiosities III, found on page 38, "Cabinet Card Pocket." Linda and the CC sure have some amazing artwork up for inspiration and this go around Inspiration Emporium is the sponsor of a $50 store gift voucher and again you can win something sweet from Tim and Mario! Here we go and this time we can share the details as this is more about the product and not a technique.

For my cabinet card pocket, I applied clear embossing ink over the crocodile stencil and used Distress vintage photo EP and matted this on red and distressed the edges. All was mounted on a piece of Tim's paper. My sweet young lady from Generation Redux was stamped in Coffee Archival over some Blooming Garden paper from ODBD, which I had did a white paint wash over the area where the image would be stamped. The November "Show us you AO Art" challenge has started, so hope you will join in!

I colored the rose with Watermelon and Lettuce alcohol inks and added a word band tied with a dyed silk ribbon. 

Now working the cabinet card, gave me the idea to also enclose a secret little inspirational tag for my Granddaughter's 21st birthday, which easily pulls out and has a little secret hiding spot!

The sentiment is from Chalkboard Wisdom and a favorite of mine and I think just the right words for a 21 year-old! For a little extra background interest, I sued stamps from Ephemera Backgrounds and Whimsical Melange.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Enjoy The Beauty

Hope you all are doing well today! I am sharing this as part of my DT time over at Artistic Outpost, so for all the details, please hop over there for a visit. This is also the start of a new month and that means a new "Show us your AO Art" challenge as well.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend!

CC#3C - Colored Crackle

I was not sure if I would be able to play along with this round of the Compendium of Curiosities III challenge, but my hubby's surgery went pretty well and I spent some time yesterday and today playing in my dungeon! Actually I think he was kind of happy to have me not watch over him every second! Linda and the CC have us opening Tim's book to page 53 and we are coloring crackle for challenge #14! The Funkie Junkie Boutique is the lovely sponsor this time around and there is always the CC choice to win a fabulous package from Tim and Mario, so that is pretty nice!

I can't tell you about the "Colored Crackle," but I can tell you that I used lots of movers and shapers and the Carved Ornaments and the Tattered Poinsettia die for the larger green leaf and my colors of choice were Antique Linen, Antiqued Bronze, Vintage Photo, Fired Brick and Chipped Sapphire.

The first tag background was cut from Tim's Seasonal paper and then I masked and inked over the stencil using Fired Brick and Peeled Paint. Added the painted "25" and finished off with a word band.

The second larger tag was inked with Chipped Sapphire, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain, flicked with water and then when dry flicked with white paint.

Using a stencil I applied the white paste and let the colors that bled through remain. I really liked the look. Added some Stickle ornaments.

As you can see I had a little fun making these "Colored Crackle" ornaments and the remaining two will be tag or card bound as well when I have a little more time, but before Christmas!

Thank you for stopping by and I will be finding the time to visit all of you and catching up.