Happy Christmas

Schwarzenberg Market

Hope you all have had a great Christmas and are having a nice well deserved rest.  It is just a shame that the weather is so wet.

I have had a really busy Christmas period with the usual making cards for family and friends but also this year I have had quite a few requests to make cards for other people and that has taken time.  I had not planned on making cards for other people but took the opportunity that was given.




View from hotel room in Gera



I also got away for 8 days to Germany.  Both my husband and I enjoy the Christmas Markets over there and this year we decided to visit friends and drove over to the eastern part of Germany and ended up visiting the markets in Dortmund, Gera,  Schneeberg, Schwarzenberg, Jena, Leipzig, Erfurt, and Cologne.



We hit a lot of snow when travelling east and although made for some pretty Winter Wonderland scenes, did making driving difficult. It was amazing how quickly the snow ploughs cleared the roads and the only really difficult part was about 3 miles from our hotel.

Schneeberg Market

The markets are all very different although all have the usual Gluehwein stalls which never seem to be  empty.   Our friends took us into the Erzgebirge region (Ore Mountains) to a Christmas Market that was mainly woodcarving from the area. The work was really lovely and is considered the best in the area.  I must admit that we were pleased that they drove as they had a 4 wheel drive with winter tyres.  We both ended up buying better boots to keep our feet warm and dry.

Leipzig -  Advent Calendar



It really made a lovely break and if you have never been to the Christmas markets and get the change, then it really is an experience not to be missed.  The only thing I don't like is being at them on a Saturday evening as you really cannot move in them in the bigger cities.  The are full of both locals and tourists.  It is one place where locals and tourists do mix.

It was a nice break from the Christmas rush but did mean that it was then a last minute panic to get ready for Christmas but I did manage it eventually.



Cologne Cathedral Market











Xmas Card for 2012

Now all the cards have been sent out, it is time to show my Xmas card for this year. I must admit that I was glad to get it in the post - I start off with so much enthusiasm but after making so many the same - the enthusiasm does seem to dwindle somewhat.

 

This year I thought that I wanted to make some quick and uncomplicated cards but in the end they took just as long as last year. I just do not seem to be able to make really quick Xmas cards.

I wanted to make an easel card as this is not a card that you see for sale much in the stores and it is easy if someone wants to hang it up or it can just as easily be put on a mantelpiece or table.

The background paper is a perfumed card that has a cinnamon smell and I bought some of this from last year’s show at Ally Pally but could not remember what store I bought it from. When I came to make my cards this year I realised that I did not have enough of the background paper and after searching on the web, found that I could get it from Art of Craft Ltd.

I used Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Squares for the shape of the card and used the 6” size for my card with the 5” for my background. I used  the 3⅜ x 3⅜″ Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Squares LG for the verse insert. 

Onto my background I mounted a Holly Flourish by Cheery Lynn and then to that added a Christmas recipe card.  I had made the recipe cards from LOTV Christmas recipes set.  I had stamped the card, coloured the border with copics and then distressed the cards with Aged Paper distress ink to get them that used look.  I used a die from the Spellbinders Holly Accents at two corners of the card and added a greeting from either Cheery Lynn Happy Christmas set or Cheery Lynn Merry Christmas set.

For the stopper on the card I used the two smaller pointsettia leaves from Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia. 

Humourous Cards for the men

As it is my brother and my brother-in-law’s birthdays within a day of each other, I decided that they would get the same card this year. I had found a great verse for grumpy men that I got from Joanna Sheen’s newsletter and decided that I would make a humourous card and use that verse.

I used La Pasche’s A5 Stamps Set Flippin’ Men Peace as I thought that this would appeal to both of them and I liked the idea of having a back and front.

I coloured the front and back images using Copic Pens and then cut them out and mounted them on to acetate.

I then cut out an aperture with Spellbinders Labels 8 on an A4 card and then also cut out another one on an A5 piece of card so that I could mount on the back of the front leaf to hide where I had mounted the acetate, making sure that they matched up when put together.

I then stamped the border of toilet rolls, also from the stamp set, down the left and right hand side in Versafine Sepia and also stamped the greeting  in sepia and mounted this onto the card.

I attached the insert with the grumpy men verse to add to the humourous theme.

I am hoping that they both enjoy the humour in these cards and they are a little different to what they normally get.

Christmas Candles

I made this card some years ago as my christmas card for friends and family and I thought that I would make another couple this year as it is nice and quick to make.  It is a really nice simple card with very little work.  The candle has some cutwork on and the rest is just whitework. 

I have used mirri card as the insert as the relfection of the candle against it is a nice effect.  I attached the parchment to the insert with a thick metallic thread and trimmed the parchment with decorative scissors.

Christmas Lampshade

As it is that time of the year, I thought I would show something different that a card.  This lampshade can be put on your Christmas table to decorate it.  Although you can use a real tealight, it would be better to use one of the artificial lights that you can now buy.

If you do use a real tealight, ensure that there is enough clearance at the top and sides to enure that your lampshade does not catch fire.  This needs to be done on a heavyweight parchment and is very quick to make as there is no whitework or cutwork. 

The holly leaves and berries outline was first drawn in Tinta ink. I used the perforating semi circle tool the create the border and then cut between the perforations to get the finished shape.  I then went around the border with gold Tinta ink.

The berries and holly leaves were painted with Pintura paint and then embossed from behind to add depth.   I then drew some poinsettia flowers onto red parchment paper and cut them out.  I embossed from behind to take out some of the colour and also to shape the petals and glued these onto the shade and heavily embossed the centre. I then added a few gold beads to the centre of the flower leaving the heavily embossed part to form part of the centre.  I then used some double sided tape to attach both sides to form the shape.  As it is a heavier parchment, the tape does not show quite as much.

Mr and Mrs Snowman

This is a nice light card for Christmas. There is no whitework or cutwork which makes is quicker to make. It is a card that I really like making and has a real winter feel to it.

The snow people were traced onto the parchment in white tinta ink and the snowflakes with silver tinta ink. The pattern was then pierced.

The snow people were coloured in with tinta ink and Perga Liners and the white parts were then embossed and stippled. Then they were shaded using a blue Perga liner.

The snowflakes were coloured from behind using the Perga Liners and the lines of the pattern were embossed to make them stand out more.

I then drew a double border around the top, bottom and right side of the card and just a single border on the left side of the card with silver tinta ink. I then added a shiny pale blue insert and then cut the edges of the card with decorative scissors to finish.

Found: One Craft Room

After some clearing out



A few weeks ago, I decided that it was about time that I reclaimed back my craft room.  For the last few years, I have just used it to store all my craft stuff but then got fed up of having to buy new card and products as I could not find the original ones that I had bought.  Things seemed to come to a head when I couldn't find an embossing folder that I wanted that I knew that I owed and ended up buying a new one.  I had been putting everything in the craft room and things were just stacking up and I didn't know what was there anymore.  Also, I was finding that I was doing everything downstairs in the living room and there was not really a table high enough and that I was getting a sore back from bending over so much . It was especially so when making my Christmas cards this year and things were not easily at hand.



overflow of stash



The photo above was after I had cleared a lot out and put elsewhere (photo right) until the room had been cleared.  I had forgotten to take a photo before I started although I am not sure that it would have shown just how much was in the craft room - no photo is that big!  It got to the stage where under the stairs was completely full, the craft room was so full that I was not able to walk in there and my stash was starting to overflow elsewhere.

I was going to wait until I had a few days holiday this month but then decided that it could not wait and there was possibly more than I would be able to do in the few days that I was going to have. It was time to be ruthless and only keep what I really needed and could not do without. I had tried a few different crafts such as silk painting and Precious Metal Clay but had not done them for a while so it was out with them.

Craft Room after being cleared

I even realised that I had four sewing machines and that I was never going to use them so two of them ended up at the tip.  I ended up taking 3 full car loads of rubbish down to the tip - and that is without all the magazines.  I did keep all my stash of material for patchwork and quilting but did get rid of any small scraps.  It was amazing to see what material I actually had and don't think I need to be buying any more for quite some time.

I had magazines on Parchment Craft, Quilting and Card Making going back to 1994 and these are also going to end up in the recycling bin but first I am scanning in all the articles and patterns that I want and keeping them electronically which will take up a lot less room.  A small 2 inch flash drive is taking up a lot less room that 6 stacks of magazines each 3ft high and that is only what if left.  It is going to take some time to go through all of the magazines extracting what I want  so I still have a stack of magazines but am getting through them.

Now organised

Some of the books that I no longer wanted I gave to my local library as they were in immaculate condition and other people will then be able to get pleasure out of them.  I was surprised that they took them but they seemed really grateful and meant that I got rid of the straight away.  Even if they don't put them on the shelves but sell them, it will given them funds to buy other books.

I was hoping to finish it a lot sooner than I did but suddenly ended up with orders from 4 people to make some Christmas cards for them and as 1 person was sending her cards overseas it meant that things had to be  put on hold for a little while although the main thing was that I had cleared the desk and so was able to utilise that for my embossing and glittering. 

I still have a little more to do but everything from the craft room and under the stairs has been put it its place and I know where everything is and can even get to it.  I will now be able to do more crafting and as can be seen from the photos above - a lot better than before. 

Now to keep it like it!!