Ho Ho Ho !!!!!!!!

Well I don't think I will get a chance to post again before Christmas. Paul has now finished for 12 days, yipee!!!! and we have so much family stuff going on. Tomorrow morning will be spent doing a bit of organising and last minute shopping. I just LOVE mooching around town on Christmas Eve. Then we are off to the Cricketers, our local for a cheap and cheerful pub meal, so looking forward to that too. A night spent by the coal fire will follow, then it's the BIG day, and this year will be BIG with the little man seen above. He's almost five months now, weighing in at 17lb 4ozs a week ago. He's started on his solids, giggles his head off, is as strong as an Ox on his feet, and believe me, he is the light of my life. He has made Christmas more magical than ever.......

Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, ENJOY!!!!!

Sue x

Tiss the Season to be.............................'CUTE' ??

Yeah, you read it right! Tiss the season to be 'cute' even for me, and you all know I don't (sorry, didn't) do cute. Here's the culprit, 'Noel Peace' a Sarah Kay stamp. I've had it in my stash , ready stamped and coloured for months, and an idea finally came to me. I wanted her to seem to be peeping out of a window.

I just LOVE Crafty Individual stamps, as you may know, so stamped one of the 5 trees from plate CI-257 as the background, and there you go!

My watercolour technique is a bit to be desired, but who knows? I might be doing more of these cutie cards in the New Year lol.

Bye for now,

Sue x

Let's get Shabby challenge 6, 'Christmas'

At long last here's my entry for the challenge on 'Let's get Shabby' blog. The theme was simply anything Christmas, so was wide open for a variety of ideas. In a previous post I showed a photo of this box I found for just 45p in a charity shop on a recent 'girly day' to Lincoln. It was cream, 'Edwardian Lady' design, a bit dated to say the least, but ripe for altering. Here's the finished item............

I wanted it to compliment one of the Advent calendars I had recently altered for Gina and Faye, (seen again here), so had to base it around black and gold.

Here's the top view of the box. I had lots of elements to add but in the end left it with lots of 'white space' as no matter what else I added it looked over crowded.

I loved this vintage type braid I found in a shop in Louth yesterday.

Anyway, here's the process. I gessoed the box, twice, then added Jo Sonja cream acrylic and black acrylic randomly on the top and the inside to give a grubby look.

I then covered the side of the box with black Jo sonja texture paste, allowed it to dry then buffed it with copper and gold wax rubs.

Distressed some cream lace with distress ink then glued it around the edge of the box lid.

Made a template of the lid out of corrugated card, painted it black, allowed it to dry then added wax rubs. I then glued it to the original lid using tacky glue and began to decorate the lid as follows. I distressed a torn strip of sheet music, printed a vintage angels image and made on acetate overlay which I stamped with Staz on to add some swirls as seen here. I made it into a tag, made and added a reinforcement ring, and tied it with string.

I made some holly leaves out of a left over piece of collage, scrunched them up a bit, distressed them and added stickles. When dry I added them to the left of the tag in a cluster with a couple of 'berries' recyled from last years Christmas crackers.

I finished it off by making a clay heart, stamping into it and allowing it to air dry. I coloured it using distress ink and wax rubs. This was topped with a chipboard snowflake, flat backed pearl and stickles.

What with Josh's book, Tim's tags and the other 'everyday' things in life at the moment I didn't think I'd get it done in time, have had fun again though!!!!!

Sue xxx

What do you think?

I was asked by a couple of friends my opinion on this question.............

What do you think of random generators picking winners on challenge blogs, rather than the winners being chosen for the quality of their entry?

Personally, I would never enter a challenge on a site that choses the winner randomly, but then again I have only ever enterd two challenges. I think if people take time to create and submit an entry, the site owners should take time to look at the entries and make their choice on the entry that meets the criteria of the challenge. Choosing a winner randomly is a bit of a cop-out, but that's just my opinion.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? (just out of interest)

Feelin 'Tagged Out'

Lot's of pictures but not a lot of writing tonight as I'm 'tagged out'. It has been great following Tim's tags and I've done fairly well. I still have 2 to make and will hopefully do them tomoorrow. I am way behind with Josh's book due to running ou t of ink for doing the photo's on my printer but HO HO, woop's I mean Hey Ho!!!!!!!!



Firstly my gorgeous little man, Josh.

And again here with a card and birthday pressie for me yesterday morning.

And this is my pressie from Paul. I will certainly be booking on to a class now as I haven't a clue what to do with it. Luckily my sister has put my name down as the class is already full!

The image above is of a hand made stamp I made ages ago and never thought I'd use. Then came one of Tim's tags with a reindeer on, so it came in handy.

Here's the tree from the metal tag. It looks so different to the full tag here. but then it has been dark again. Below is the full tag.

The close up below shows the 'world' under the reindeer. The colours on all of this post are poor due to insufficint light, sorry.

And here's the full tag. I wanted the music sheet at the back to look like a map outline and it worked reasonably well.

Finally my tag inspired by the one using vellum and a reindeer. It is much darker than on here.

Gotta go before I fall asleep.......

Sue xxx

Tags, tags, yes more tags, and a bit of Josh......

Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas are flooding the net. Everyone is 'doing it' or at least 'following it', me included! I'm one behind, but considering I've been in school again yesterday and today, I'm not doing bad, but am I???? The thing is, I just can't help going off and doing my own thing. It's just the way it works, but the inspiration is there and that's the main thing eh?



Anyway, here's the tag using fragments, very 'suttle' as I used to say! The Angel images, beautiful flourish and text background are Crafy Individuals, and the rub on is Basic Grey.


The tag above is using the masking technique, again muted colours, but a bit more my style of the minute, a bit vintage......... Santa is by Stampington, lovely flourish by Judikins, believe by Inkadinkado.

A couple of close-ups of the detail.

You can just see the stickles on the Santa image above.

Believe it or not the tag above was inspired by Tim's car and tree tag. I actually made a tree from grunge paper, embossed and with fluffy stuff, but it didn't turn out 'useable', in fact it was terrible, lol, so it ended up in the bin!!!!!

A couple of close-ups again.

And finally, little JJ!

He just wants to get around!

Little terror!!!!!!!!

But I love him!

Sue x

Tag update

I've been really enjoying Tim Holtz '12 tags of Christmas' on his blog. Each day I have a look and am trying my best to create a tag a day, do a page of Josh's First Christmas DDA and hope to get an entry done for the 'Let's get Shabby' challenge. (I can always use my advent calendars if time's too tight). And with 5 family birthdays to celebrate between 11th and 17th December, believe me, it's busy. I have also been volunteering in a local school, flower arranging classes, babysitting, Christmas shopping, whew, shattered just talking about it. Anyway back to the tags. They are not at all like Tim's, but then do they have to be? I think the main thing is that people are inspired to make them, and I have certainly been that!


Well, this is one of them, inspiration came from yesterday's tag. Tim used memory glass and a frame. Well I didn't have them so I thought I would make a shaker frame out of a slide mount.

Here's the close up. It's hard to see but it has glass chips inside the frame. I used distress inks for all techniques. I co-ordinated the lace by colouring it with distress inks too.

The tag below was inspired by tag number 3, where Tim used alcohol inks to create lovely bright plaid backgrounds. They were a bit bright for me so I did my own thing by making a very subtle plaid background with distress inks. You can see it if you squint!!! I coloured the holly using watercoulour technique, and the snowflakes are Basic Grey rub-ons.

Now finally, a JJ update. I popped round on Thursday to get a photo of him in front of the Christmas tree to use in his book. We got him 'sitting comfortably' in his little seat in front of the tree then I aimed to get him smiling by throwing my hands in the air and singing 'So Big'. Faye was armed with the camera, and after a couple of attempts, he mimmicked my actions, threw his arms in the air, leant back and ended up in the branches of the tree. It was hilarious and he did it four times in a row!!!! Faye managed to snap this just before he ended up in the branches lol. You just had to be there! It will certainly be written in his book.

Must close now as we are babysitting round at Faye and Ash's tonight. X Factor too, bliss.

Sue xxx

Lincoln and Ti'ms tags

Had a brilliant girly day in Lincoln on Saturday. Lots of laughs combined with a bit of shopping. I managed to get a few Christmas pressies, along with the one below for ME!!!!!!! I found it in a charity shop for just 45p. It might end up as my entry for 'Let's get Shabby' as the Advent Calendars were not shabby enough due to the girls not wanting me to add anything else as they loved them as they were.

I've given the box a couple of base coats, but am lost as to what to do with it yet. I have until 20th December, so no rush yet.

Here we are in the pub waiting for lunch. Left to right, my sister Angela, little old me, my niece Abi, Ruth and Amy.

Sam, my daughter Gina, Tracey and Rachel. Unfortunately Caroline and Rita are not on the photo's, so apologies to you both.

These are the finished Advents, as my late Dad would have said, 'the same but different'. Gina wanted black with Silver highlights and Faye Gold, so that's what I did.

Like most of the 'crafting world' I have started following the twelve tags of Christmas and up to now have kept up and finished the first two.

OK, they are not replica's, and I wouldn't want them to be, but I am having loads of fun doing them.

I've also kept up with my DDA entries, so will share soon. Off to grab some lovely beef stew and dumplings for my tea, then going to see Josh and the family at Fayes for an hour. Gina loves trimming up for Christmas so is helping Faye and Ash with theirs. Must take my camera!!!

Sue x