Tuesday Taggers Festival of Lights

Hi All

time again to reveal the TT challenge for this week and show you what I've been up to.  At this time of year, all over the world, Light festivals are taking place, usually linked to a religious festival.  Having taught primary school children, this is one of the themes that caught my imagination many moons ago and has facinated me since.

The Christian religion has many different light festivals from St Lucia's day in Sweden to St. Martins Day in Holland and here there will me many candlemas services throughout Advent.

Light festivals are not exclusive to the Christian religion though, Jewish people celebrate Hanukka, Hindu's have Diwali, Loi Krathong is celebbrated in Thailand, Chaharhanbe Suri in Persia, Fete de Lumieres in France, Kobe Luminarie in Japan and the list goes on and on.

How wonderful that despite such culteral differences, the same things delight us.

Well enough of the lecture .......... getting carried away with myself there : )

This weeks TT Design is

Box was made from Bazill cardstock and stamped with the Papermania chrismas snowflake then embossed with Stamp n Stuff winterwonderland from The Craft Barn. You cant see so well on the photo but it gives a lovely iridescent sparkly finish.

A little ribbon and a charm and the outside is done

When you open it out the same stamping and embossing is on the inside along with a little Christmas tree.  I got the tree from Yorkshire trading and it cost about £1.60 and was the cheapest tat you can imagine

It doesn't look too bad now though does it? I decorated the tree with little seed beads stuck on with diamon glaze. Sorry about the photo's, short of getting the SLR camera out and setting up for a night time shot, this is the best I could do.

I hope you can join us at TT this week, it's a great theme to the challenge. Hope it brings a little light into your lives.

The challenge is sponsored by the Craft Barn this week who are offering a £15 E Voucher to spend in their store. Pop over andhave a look, they have some wonderful Christmas Stock and you could be the lucky bod who wins this week if you give it a go.

Looking forward to visiting you blogs

Haved Fun

x Michelle

Making me Smile

I havn't seen anyone to talk to today and I must share this little treasure!  Liam took Fizz out to an itialian restaurant for a meal yesterday to celebrate the anniversary of their engagement, where they went on their own after booking it and getting dressed up in their gladrags.  Fizz's mum went to collect them as it was late on a weekend and the pubs were full, to find them replete after having a meal and ordering dessert and coffee ............. and polishing off a £17 bottle of Pino Grigio.

We thought that they had perhaps ordered this by mistake but Liam said no, they ordered it because they wanted a wine they would enjoy!!!

I know I always intended Liam having a full life but as my very special friend Anne said in her comment on the last post. Who'd have thought it 17 years ago when he signed friend to her because he couldn't speak.

I'm so happy for him I could cry.
x Michelle

Happy Everything!

Yesterday was Fizz's (Liam's fiance) birthday and she wanted to have a meal with all her family around her and I was thrilled that she now considers me her family and invited me to the most enormous chinese takeaway dinner I've ever seen. I wanted to make her something nice so had a look on line to find some exploding boxes and came across Elaines blog where she has some of the most beautiful work do have a look, you'll be so impressed. I didn't have time to do anything like hers but did manage to get this done in an hour or so before I had to set off for the dinner.

Click on to have a closer look.

 

My lovely friends Emma and Georgina showed me how to do the roses and I then designed them on the robot crop cos i havn't got a punch so cut a load in different sizes and coloured them.  The leaves I designed on robot crop too but the butterfies were stamped onto a couple of layers of fantasy film and ironed whilst still on the stamp I think the stamps are elusive images.  They look a bit yellow in the photo but in real life shine all sorts of colours.  The swirl border is a Kelli Panicci Borders 2 stamp.

A year on from their engagement and a year to go till they marry, plans are well in hand. The material is purchased for me to make the wedding dress, the church is booked, Betty's in Harrogate is booked for the reception, bridesmaids are chosen  and the plans are almost finalised for the studio mews to be built next to Fizz's mum's house in Harrogate and Liam is living the life of Riley, so for the Anniversary of their engagement wich is today, I made them this canvas.

I've used the photo before to make a scrapbook page but Fizz and Liam wanted a copy so I printed it onto canvas, stamped the flourish (Sketchy Flourishes) and Highlighted it with Sakura clear star and stretched it on a frame.  Made the butterfly and stuck it on with diamond glaze and decided that was enough.

I love the tenderness in their little hands!

I'm going to lay down in a darkened room now - too much food and wine does a body no good at all!

Happy Everything

x Michelle

Template for glittery card

A few folk have asked for template for theglittery card below so knocked this together to post. Thanks to Emma who showed me how to to this. x

DU2DS Glitters!!!!

We certainly do sparkle and shine this week, with the challenge being to use glitter on our cards. Some challenge that will be! Needing no encouragement at all to grab the glitter I set to and did my DT card LAST WEEK!!!

Keen don't you think....... Who needs encouraging to use glitter?

The image is a lovely candle designed by my friend Teri who has more of her designs on sale here. I painted it with pva and coloured with the glitter the watercoloured the leaves. The paper is K&Co Christmas Cheer and the

snowflakes were cut on the Robo Crop and embossed with sparkly powder.

Another lovely pal Emma showed me how to do these card shapes so thanks Em love them!

So you beautiful bloggers, are you up for a bit of fairy dust this week? Come join in the fun at DU2DS.

Thinking of glitter reminded me of something I read a while back about a woman who had an appointment for a smear test who thought she'd take 2 minutes out from crafting with her daughter to have a quick freshen up before she went to the docs.

When she got there the doc commented on her having made a 'special effort' for him today.

Puzzled she went home and started cleaning up after her daughter who had washed her hands after glittering the cards they were making.  Then it dawned on her, she had washed herself with the cloth which was covered in glitter.

Her tinkle had developed a twinkle!!

No wonder the doc was impressed!

LOL x Michelle

Just when I thought I was getting my act together!!!

I go blow it Again!!

I forgot to post my DT card for Tuesday Taggers. Had it ready in good time but having to have my lovely cat put to sleep threw a spanner in the works.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a realist and don't usually get too attached to animals but my son bought her for me on my 30th Birthday so that's maybe why I've sobbed for two days!!

Anyway I'm back to blogging again now and this is, finally, my DT card for this weeks TT, which requires us to use green, gold and red in whatever project we would like to do.  I've gone for a Christmas theme cos I'm in the groove but you don't have to if your fed up with seeing Christmas stuff already!

The baubles and the snow background were made using the Papermania Christmas stamps and the drippy icicle bits are another stamp I got off ebay so dont know what it is but I do like it. The background was stamped and embossed with a fine holographic powder . With a bit of cord and some glittery ivy n such, the look is complete

Sos it's late folks, but it's not too late to enter the challenge which will run till next Monday.

x Michelle

More Pressies

It's well into November and getting to the point where I'm producing Christmas presents in earnest. Having spent so much on crafting this year I have to ustify the expenditure by using my stash to make presents for everyone instead of spending more money on shop bought items. In truth it's something we have done since we were children and I love making special presents for the special people in my life.

This pressy is a Diary for my son Richard. He has a lot of pretty life threatening illness which he battles with every day so although this is a diary to help him remember his appointments (He has short term memery loss) it is also to help him record special moments in time every day.  I have been reading up on cognitive behavioral psychology and was struck by the idea that it is possible to change one's attitude towards a difficult life by changing the focus of your thoughts, instead of being focused on the negative things in your life, every day find one beautiful moment to be thankful for and record that moment so that on reading back through the diary in difficult times, one has a bank of positive memories to gain pleasure from.  Hope it helps him, might make one for me too!!

So here it is

It's a Poundland special again covered with copy paper and PVA left to dry then painted with gesso and acrylic paint put on with a baby wipe, stamped with some inspirational text n such and then given a good coat of spray varnish.

The tags I made earlier in the year using the same paints and thought they just finished it off.

Also made this little beauty which Janet showed us at the last craft class, I think it's a project she found on Splitcoast Stampers but it's a lovely little stocking filler

 

It's picture mountboard covered with paper and punched with the bind-it-all then decorated a touch and tied with ribbon.

Inside I've stamped a flower from Woodware Art Deco Set and coloured with SU inks and the calender was produced using a PrintCal program which is a freebie with a link on the Splitcoast blog

I've enjoyed the messy play, now I'm off to do some more. Hope you're all having fun and finding special moments in time.

x Michelle

Dragon's Dream Tag Challenge - The Fruits of my Labour

The challenge from Tag it On is right up my street this week as I have been making Lavender Gifts for Christmas Presents so this tag is to label the fruits of my labour to be sure.

The Lavender Jelly I made with the apples and lavender out of my garden and were the result of a lot of hard work this year, building trellises for the apple to grow up against the house. It is delicious on toast, crumpets, scones or warm on ice cream. The labels were coloured with TH Inks and the stamps are the lavender and butterfly from the Crafters Companion Flower Fairies set. I think I'll use the fairy on the lavender sugar to go with the jelly.  Will also be making a lavender pillow, and some lavender shortbread to go with this, will make a lovely pressy!

Thanks to the Dragon's Dream for the inspiration and the kick up the behind to get this finished.

x Michelle

First Christmas present made and wrapped for Tuesday Taggers

This girls is a first!! First time I've had pressies made well in advance of Christmas and first time

I've had a present wrapped before Christmas Eve.

This weeks challenge at Tuesday Taggers is to creat whatever you would like to make BUT...Without using any patterned papers. This week we'd like you to make your own backgrounds using inks, glimmer mists, embossing, stamping, in fact using any technique you fancy.

The DT have come up with some amazing techniques with our Lyn taking the biscuit by using washing up liquid. Never heard of that one! Pop over and have a look, quite a variety to be seen. Some while ago I made some Wise Man Sure Shave and some Three King splash on one of the lotions and potions workshops I ran, so thought I would make the boxes and
decorate them for presents.

These are the finished boxes.

All inked with TH distress inks and coloured with SU inks, with a bit of glitz to brighted them up.

Was hesitent to give the shaving oil away as it gives a beautiful finish to my legs when I use it.

Still it is Christmas - Nearly!

Hope you'll join us at Tuesday Taggers this week, it's great seeing all your ideas.

Hugs

Michelle x

DU2DS Sketch

Only a day late with this one - got a real spaghetti head!! I do hope that 'better late than never' holds true in blogland :)

DU2DS have a great sketch this week, designed by Larissa specially for us to play with.

You might think this is an easy one but it isn't easy finding the digistamp to fit this sketch but eventually hit on this image from Christine at Sketching Stamper and thought I'd add a bit of glitz.

It's such a simple image but quite lovely.

 

I just placed the image on a sheet of digi paper and printed it out a few times, then glitter coloured the middle of the feather and used the spare images to create the squares, The just for you was the result of another play with the foil wizard thingy.

Got to get to bed now - falling asleep over the keyboard.

x Michelle