Ho, Ho, Ho - Merry Christmas........

.....and a wonderful, peaceful and healthy 2017!

Tasmanian Waratah, growing on the Zig Zag track, Mt Wellington

Photo: Greg Faull

Our own touch of Christmas for you to see.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day

I had a great day but the lead-up was a little hairy

John (husband) was put into hospital with an infection on his lower leg, from the knee down

We spent all day at the Emergency Department at Calvery on Christmas Eve

The turkey went into the oven (for the cold lunch on Christmas Day) at 9.00 pm

All good - it all worked and we fed nine people today and had a good time

Now for my last challenge inspiration for 2016!

Another recycled card used here.

I made a shaker card

the image on the old card

It was fairly simple

That's it!

See you in February!!

Oh - the challenge is Unstampabelles!

Recycling in the rush at Christmas

Time is certainly getting away from me but I made a Christmas card using a recycled image from a card I received last year (or the year before, or before that even....) for the midway inspiration for Unstampabelles December challenge!

Before that, another shot of my home state

Greg Faull - at Opossum Bay

I know there are a lot of you who like the photo's I have shared of Tasmania over this year, and so I here is a link to a short video  of a time-lapse show of Tasmania that Peter Topliss created for the ABC.

https://www.facebook.com/abcopen/videos/1085483091512455/

Back to the challenge at Unstampabelles

 Flickering Lights 

TWIST have a candle in the item made

I used a recycled image of a flickering candle - it was a bit creased but it was meant to be distresses so I left it.

I cut three holly leaves and dipped the edges in Versamark and then into gold EP and heat embossed them

Some bling and a die cut word, a bit of christmas paper from a freebie........

Done!

You still have two weeks to go to enter, so when the pressure lets up, why not go to your happy place and sooth the soul by creating something to add to the challenge?

Cheers, Susan

Flickering Candle Light for Unstampabelles Challenge

I do love a good candle arrangement at Christmas time but always forget to light them or light them and forget to watch and the wax gets everywhere

This is a pretty table arrangement if you were having your guests join you in the evening
but as we have a cold meat and salad and seafood lunch I probably won't try and emulate it!



I did emulate someone else's work though for my second Unstampabelles piece this month.

My luminary is courtesy of a tutorial by Di Barnes. I just went with the basic box and used supplies I had at hand to create this pretty box with a vellum window. Unfortunately I did not measure my window properly. Mostly I used SU supplies.

My flickering light is not a house fire but a battery tealight. 

It does give a good flicker though.

As there is no base it sits directly over the tealight

Unfortunately it does not fold flat for posting - but I am still going to make a few and give them as my 'cards' - I hopefully will improve on the window measurements!

Merry Christms!

You can go HERE to enter the challenge at 

UNSTAMPABELLES!

Last Crafting with Dragonfly post for 2016!

Merry Christmas to all!

At Crafting With Dragonflies this time we are asked to 

Get Our Christmas On 

and create a card to share for Christmas!

I decided to make a shaker card

I used a new Stampin' Up set Merriest Wishes

and some gold embossing powder

and the die set that goes with the stamps

My j and y were from a word die joy,and I trimmed out the o

I stamped the 'snow' and gold embossed it at the top of the card

It is clearer on the bottom card image

Add some sprinkles into the shaker part and away you go!

Just as long as you remember to put the ascetate window in before sprinkling in the sprinkles.....

Finish off with some gold twine

You could add an image of a Santa or snowman or similar and make the aperture a bit bigger if you wanted.......

Anyway, I am sure you all have beautiful Christmas cards you want to share so please do.

Go to Crafting with Dragonflies and enter there!

December at Unstampabelles

Merry Christmas to you and yours - we are allowed to say in now that the 1st of the month has passed. Have you done all your cards yet? Me neither - I think I only have about 80 or 90 to go.......What about your shopping? I have a list.....

Guess I will be a busy girl for the next few weeks. What's new!

Christmas!

Some fresh food for Christmas delights

Photo by Greg Faull

Pick your own at the farm at Sorell.

The theme at Unstampabelles this month is 

Flickering Lights 

TWIST have a candle in the item made

Prize is a $20 Aust (includes postage) Gift Voucher from shop of choice

Christmas of course, Hanaka and New Year.  A candle can be a sign of hope, a light in the wilderness, or through a window; it can be on a Christmas tree or just around it.........you can make a candle holder or similar or a Christmas candle decoration........... 

I made a candle holder - or a thing to slip over an artificial candle (tea light)

(got to be safety conscious)

I use SU Real Red card, and the vellum from Botanical Gardens and the Botanical Blooms die set.

I made it from my head but now of course I would make it differently. You learn a lot as you get your fingers all stuck together and try and manipulate things that are sticky and fragile.

It was very hard to photograph

The small flowers look like snow falling or small stars.......

Yes, it is a bit rough - its a prototype

So, that was it - what have you made for Christmas that has a candle and no stamps in it?

What can you make?

Off to Unstampbelles to see the lovely things the other DT members made and then off to your craft cave to create with a candle in mind. 

Late again for my post for Eclectic Ellapu ...

...which is to be all about Jingle Bells! The bells can be in your project either as a 2D image or in 3D as real bells. Or you could do both!

If you go over to Eclectic Ellapu you will see that both Pink and Purple Teams are offering a Christmas challenge but as I am currently in the Purple Team you need to scroll down to the link. As you do so you will see the beautiful work other DT members have created for this challenge (and the Pink one too) to inspire your creativity!

Can you hear the jingle of bells? 

In this part of the world, Santa is likely to arrive in board shorts and bare feet, and his reindeer are having a well earned rest in the shed out back, while the big white boomers (kangaroos) are dragging the sleigh around.  What was that noise? I'm certain I heard a bell tinkling........someone obviously saw which way he went apparently........

 from Peron Dunes at St Helens on Tassie's far north-east coast thanks to Tayla Jayne Images

My part in the DT inspiration is a recycled gift bag and tag to hold a Christmas present for someone under the tree. I used an old brown paper shopping bag, some Christmas paper and card, and an old Christmas card received 2 years ago, cut up now and reused. The tag has part of the inside and the bag has the outside of the card.

After some measuring, using double sided tape and careful placement, the bag was completed, and I added some gold ribbon in a bow. 

The card came from Japan, and the red bit has been die cut and glued over some cream card

(not by me)

The tag had the inside piece - which in the original card stood up as you opened the card - glued down over some paper strips on the green card tag. 

I added some gold sequins, some bells and some ribbon

You can write on the back of the tag

Here it is tipped sideways so you can see Santa flying away with the reindeer across the face of the moon, and little Japanese children being delighted to know he had visited them!

When you move the bag the bells jingle nicely. 

Our tree always stands in this window - it will not go up until closer to the day and I will not leave the present there either - too many curious eyes to look at it before hand and peek inside. But for now, it is there waiting..............

Hope Santa remembers to leave me something too......

Merry Christmas to all

and especially to my Eclectic Ellapu friends!

Final Week for Resistance at Unstampabelles

Gosh - people must be very busy! We have only two entries over at Unstampabelles,  and only a week to go for you to resist in some way without using a stamp! As long as you hold something back, or stop something from happening and then tell us how in your blog you meet the challenge!

We seem to be having summer resisting arrival and winter resisting leaving at the moment - it has been cold and windy lately, but interspersed with very warm windy days. We want summer to get here but the growth of grasses has been extraordinary and once the warmth arrives so does the fire season! However, it is nice seeing such a lush green landscape - here is one to look at before you see my card for Unstampabelles.

Bridport by Dan Fellow's

I started by smearing Versamark onto the recessed part of the embossing folder and embossing a piece of watercolour card. Carefully removing this, I added clear embossing powder onto the card and heat embossed it - it is the raised pieces which are not sealed by the clear EP.

Next I splodged TH Distress ink onto a sheet of ascetate and spritzed it with some water

I then lay this face side down over the embossed piece and pressed the spread ink into the paper with a roller - the clear embossing resists the ink but the unembossed section (raised section) does not so it absorbs the diluted ink.

A quick rub over with a sheet of paper towel to mop up the excess and another sheet of watercolour paper to clean up the rest (to be used later for something) and hey presto!

Mounted and a die cut added for another Christmas card!

It makes such a pretty background. 

You too can be resistant and add your object to our challenge!

You can go HERE to enter.

Whatever the Weather! A new challenge at CWD

Yes, that is right -the new challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies is "Whatever the Weather!"

With climate change front and centre, and with all the different weather conditions we have experienced over the last year, this challenge asks us to create something related to a weather condition.


I started with some lovely rubber stamps of raindrops and circles that reminded me of puddles. It has been raining a lot here lately, despite being Spring.  I then used my lovely Tim Holtz Crazy Cat stamps, and coloured them with my SU pens by rubbing them onto glass and then picking up the ink with my water pens, and painting them.

I used the Tim Holtz Accessories sheet to add hats to my cats!

Don't you just love the look on their faces.

I added a die cut and a stamped sentiment.

My bottom stamp was slightly off kilter but at that stage I was not going back!!!

Hope you like it - I got the idea from a group I belong to on FB!

All card is from SU

Off to Crafting with Dragonflies for a look at the rest of the DT work - it is impressive!

then start to create your own version of the theme

Whatever the Weather!

Midway through November - still Resisting at Unstampabelles

#63 Resistance at Unstampabelles!

Yes, another Christmas card

Before that - sometimes I see a photograph taken in my home state and don't even recognise the place. This has become one I must see for myself now - so beautiful

A stunning capture of Mt Paris Dam thanks to Craig J Doumouras who says:
“People do not take magical photos. A magical photo is a gift. In this photo, a cloud covered the sun, shading the area where I was, but was still shining brightly on the other side of the dam wall. It only lasted seconds, and I was fortunate to have been right there.”
www.instagram.com/juddbaileys

Now, remember when I was playing with the powder inks a few weeks ago? 

I ended up with several extra pieces of watercolour paper used to wipe up the overflow from the first distress card I made and I used one of them today for this card.

I laid a stencil over it and taped it into place, and began sponging carefully some black TH Distress ink through it - my stencil became the resistance. 

This is what the sheet then looked like - I did spray it with some gold mist after that as well

Another shot of the outcome

I added a die cut and this is what I got!

Very dramatic

You too can do a resist technique - just look it up at Pinterest and substitute stencils for hand drawing for stamps and your work will fit the current challenge at Unstampabelles.