T for Trees

Hello again,

Well, back for the second day in a row - can't promise to keep this up! Lol.

We have a brand new theme over at the Alphabet Challenge today and Caz has chosen TREES for the letter 'T'. Here's what I made for a little inspiration ...

I saw a similar design while browsing Pinterest and loved the combination of purple and gold, so here is my version using some paper scraps from my stash. 

I used my Stampin' Up tree punch which matches the 'Festival of Trees' stamp set and cut out a few trees (although I had a giggle when I thought they looked like purple pyramids!) The one in the foreground is punched from some gold mat mirri card, then passed through an embossing folder.

I die-cut the 'Christmas' part of the 'Seasonal Sentiment' from Sara's Contemporary Christmas Signature Collection (love this one) to match and added a punched star and a couple of purple adhesive gems to finish off. Simples!

Right, off to tidy up and try and make some space in my craftroom now - wish me luck, I might be a while!!

Hugz, Jan xx

Midweek Motivation at MMM

Hello again,

I'm back today to show you a little bit more inspiration for our current challenge over at Make My Monday. I hope you are all enjoying our theme this week - if you have entered already, then good luck - but if you haven't there is still plenty of time to join us.

So, here's a different take on my Contemporary Christmas theme ...

I have kept this one nice and simple - it only took about 15 minutes to make. Exactly what we need when we have a huge pile of christmas cards to make.

I hope you can come along and join us and don't forget to pop back to the main blog on Sunday for our next set of winners.

Hugz, Jan xx

Contemporary Christmas

Happy Monday everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend - mine has been a case of 'out with the old' and 'in with the new'! My poor old pc has finally given up the ghost and has been laid to rest in the pooter graveyard. I now have a snazzy new laptop all up and running which my gorgeous hubby had bought be for Christmas - and yes, he let me have it early. I feel suitably spoiled!

So, as it's Monday it's time for our next challenge over at Make My Monday and this week was my turn to choose a theme. As Christmas is approaching fast, we are staying on a 'christmassy' theme and this week we would love to see your projects showcasing

'A CONTEMPORARY CHRISTMAS'

So, out with the traditional red, gold and green and in with something different. Here's what I made for my DT inspiration ...

I decided to go for lilac and silver for my contemporary colours and I used a stamped image by LOTV called 'Teddy and Penguin', which I coloured with my Promarkers.  I also added a Christmas sentiment, together with some ribbon and a few die-cut snowflakes.

Please pop over to the main blog if you have a minute and check out the work of my teamies. I shall look forward to visiting your blogs throughout the week to see what you do with the new theme.

Hugz, Jan xx

Contemporary Christmas

Hi there everyone,

It's my turn to post on the Studio 12 blog and I have christmas project for you today.

I have been reading a lot about the cutting files that Nikky included on the Studio 12 Picknix CDs and Lou's snowflake card yesterday was lush, but sadly I do not have a cutting machine (hope Santa's listening!) Lol.

Anyhow, I have avoided choosing them from the pantry menu on the CD up until now, but thought I would take a little look at the files and what did I find!  Some gorgeous black silouhette .png images that can still be exported into your chosen publishing software to play with.  Maybe I'm a bit dim, but I didn't know you could use them like this - thought they were just for cutting, doh!

So after playing around with them in Microsoft Word, here's what I came up with ...

I made a Christmas card and matching gift tag, using just two of the many gorgeous images from the cutting file choices.  

I cut my background paper to the chosen sizes for the project, then went to work with my distress inks for a change, instead of using a backing paper.  I layered up four colours using a blending tool, starting with Mustard Seed, then added Dried Marigold, then Spiced Marmalade and finished with Rusty Hinge (I just love the names on these inks!)  I then stamped around the edges with a little snowflake stamp in some of the same colours to build up the background.  

Once I had manipulated my chosen images to the right size for the project, I printed them onto the inked backgrounds.  The easiest way I have found to do this is to print the images onto a piece of plain copier paper, then position your background pieces into the right place using a little repositional glue (I use my tape runner) then pass the paper back through your printer.  This allows perfect alignment of the images, ready to use in your project.  

Mine are backed onto black glossy card to accent the black images and I drew a funky pot under the tree to fill the gap. Some black adhesive gems and a bit of sparkle and hey presto - a bit of contemporary christmas!

Enjoy the weekend,

Hugz, Jan xx