Let It Grow

A gnome isn't just for christmas. As you can see they can be put to other good  uses too. I have had this 'Kadoodle' stamp for ages and never used but it occured to me that he is perfect for the current butterfly challenge which runs until next Tuesday 2nd Jan. so still time to come along and play.

#91 The Fairies, Elves, Pixies, Gnomes come out to play.

The stamp is called Let It Grow and is by Sandra Dry. You can still purchase Kadoodle stamps from The Craft Barn but sadly not this particular one.  I have not added a sentiment, though several spring to mind as I don't have a home for him to go to at present so I will add one at a later date.  Coloured using my promarkers,gold gel pen and pearlescent chalks.


I said I would post details on how I made my table decoration for this year so here are some photos I took as I was making it.

The kit is by  Papermania -Create christmas - craft your own light up letters - Noel. They come with lights already inserted and also with the batteries.  I forgot to take a photo of the letters in their box before I started but they were just plain brown MDF.  I have had these servivettes for ages in the odd box and just had four of them left. they were 3 ply which I  separated.

The back layer was just palin white so I have kept for a further project. The middle layer however had the imprint of the front design so I tore this into small pieces and used it to paper piece the letters with copious amounts of PVA glue

 At this point I was in half a mind to just paint over using either red or green poster paint but in the end I decided to keep  going. The design on the napkin meant I had quite large pieces of the napkin with Santa's head on so I fussy these into squares and then covered each  letter  again using loads of PVA glue.

 I have to say it is more luck than design that when I put all the letters together in a row the Santas all lined up!!

I'm popping over to Pixies Play ground with them and seeing what else everyone is up to.  I hear there is some  Eggnog behind the bike sheds. Better hurry before it's all gone.

Keeper of Dreams

The Butterfly Challenge has the theme of

#91 The Fairies, Elves, Pixies, Gnomes come out to play.

and is running till the 2nd January so here is my next inspiration card to show you.

I have used a Poppy Seed Graphics image called 'Keeper of Dreams and Wishes' which I have coloured using my promarkers and then fussy cut.  The oval aperture has been die cut using Xcut ovals middle die.  The flowers are more from the lovely supply of items that I won on her blog recently.  Yellow card stock and gold stickers from my stash. If you have the time do please come along and join in . Your card can be for any occasion.

I hope you all had a nice christmas break and that 2018 will be a healthy and crafty one for you all. 

Up and Away.

I'm sure L'th has got up to a lot more mischief than I have found out about but an email from Santa arrived this morning addressed to L'th to tell him to report straight to Santa as soon as he gets home!!

So that may well have been the deciding factor in L'th deciding to take the Scenic Route home!!!!!

Which just leaves me to wish you a very Merry 

I was determined to get this made as out table decoration  this year and finally finished it last night. I will show you the process in a separate post.

Accolade

The discerning amongst you may well have noticed that this year  L'th is sporting two tassels/braids in his hat. Apparently, according to the letter (from Santa himself) that came in the box with L'th from the North Pole says that these represent 2yrs of intensive training in Elf School and that he now knows all the rules and regulations that he must abide by to be a good and helpful Elf!

He seems to be mightily proud of these braids/ropes and it is completely lost on him that he is the only  Elf  ever in the history of the North Pole (and we all now how long Santa and his team of trustworthy elves have been in existence don't we)  to have had to go back to finishing school for another year.

You also may have noticed that 'Elf Boss' is not here this year. He decided he was too old for gallivanting  around the world and elected instead to stay at the North Pole and man the switch board.

One of his daily tasks is to Skype 'L'th' on a daily basis and receive a progress report to pass back to Santa.

Having listened into today's  message me thinks L'th is being a tad resourceful in relating what he has  actually been up to!!!




                                           

Fairies and Elves

Finally finished sending all my cards out with The Doc hand delivering the last six to the neighbours yesterday so I now have a little me time to catch up on my blog. These two cards are my inspiration for you for the Butterfly Challenge which is a month long challenge  for December.  The butterflies are safely cocooned till the new yr and the Fairies, gnomes,elves,pixies and hobgoblins  have taken control.

First card is a digi by Poppyseed Graphics called 'Fairy of Air'.  I normally colour her in blues and mauves so this time I have gone with the pinks.  I have used my Promarkers and  silver gel pen to highlight with.Red stickles to finish on her dress. The gorgeous pink flowers are from my win on Mia's Birthday candy  that I showed you last week.  I tried several different sentiments but couldn't settle on one I liked so have left blank for the time being. The glitter card is that special one that is completely smooth so no having to worry about glitter falling everywhere . I cut the aperture using my Crafts-Too Rectangle dies stitch hole. Base card is make from some really old pink 300gsm card stock I have had for yrs in my stash.

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:
Scrapping For Fun #105 Anything goes.
Crafting With Friends #57 Anything goes.
Hiding In My Craft Room #331 Use a digi.
AAA Cards #105 Sparkle.
Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends #72 Anything goes.
Tuesdays Throwdown #372 Anything goes.
Through The Craft Room Door #Anything goes.
Shopping Our Stash #334 Gah Pink.


Second Card uses a pixie diecut from Tonic called Santa's Helper. More of the glitter card and using the same die cuts for the sperture. The sentiment is a die by Xcut and the the little bells are part of it.
Base card used a dark green card stock. I probably did this completely the wrong way but still not feeling 100% from my bout of ongoing Flu. I Die cut in white card stock and then used up pieces of snippets to die cut again  just the pieces I wanted in a different colour. Then spent forever slotting and gluing into the right holes. I glued the white die onto a piece of tartan paper to start me off.  A little bit of stckles glue for his hands and tassle bobble which stay just embossed on the die and don't cut out seperately.  Lastly used a black fine nib pen to colour in his eyes and nose.

Entering this card into the following challenges:

Fussy and Fancy #202 Christmas

A Gem Of A Challenge #209 Antything goes Christmas

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #311 and 312 Use your snippers. (Sure did).

International Art and Soul #23 Make it sparkle.

Come And Get It Challenges # Christmas challenge.

Crafty Cardmakers #202 Christmas 

Dream Valley #169 Christmas.

Deep Ocean Challenge #170 Jingle Bells .

Put Out

It suddenly dawned on me this afternoon that I hadn't seen ' The Cat' all day so I asked The Doc if he had.

The Doc  " Erm, no not since I asked L'th to put her out this morning"

!!!!!!!!

Me  "L'th just you let 'The Cat' back inside this minute.

L'th  "Dun know what all the fuss is about I only got bread and milk to eat yesterday too!!

House Party

I couldn't find that wretched Elf this morning so I asked The Doc if he had seen him.
"Yes" came the reply. "His in the lounge playing with the House calendar."


Hmm seems innocent enough.

 Spoke too soon!

L'th.

Just you come out of there this minute and bring all those sweeties with you.

Mia's Birthday Candy

I was one of the lucky winners of Mia's Birthday Candy and when the parcel arrived I just could not believe the amount of sumptuous goodies that Mia had managed to cram into the parcel. The two following photos really do not do them justice but you will get some idea of the lovely items that I received.

 There were sewing items , ribbons, serviettes , stamps, papers  galore.Mia had even included a duffel bag to store it all in.  You can just see it in the back ground.

 There was also a lot of christmas type items too. Certainly enough to keep me occupied for a good while. Thankyou Mia for my lovely parcel and brightening my day for me. (I even forgot I had the flu whilst unpacking it all) Lol.  Please pop over to Mia's blog where she is always making and showing her unique style of crafting..

Grapes!

So the conversation yesterday went along the lines of:

The Doc      To me.  "I see your  eating  plenty of the grapes I bought for you then?"

Me             Looking puzzled. "No just a few yesterday but none  today."

The Doc     "Well the bowls nearly empty now"!!

!!!!!!

Me        " L'th"?  Just you come out from under the dinning room table this minute and bring that bowl of grapes with you"

To be continued.

Breakfast.

So  let me recap. Having given up and  gone to bed early only to spend the time  having hallucinations and nightmares I woke up and turned, expecting to have The Doc reassure me that I had indeed dreamt that awful Elf arrived the night before but instead..................................................

This is what I saw.

I guess it really is true then.

If you missed how he managed to get past my security cordon you can read the post  Foiled Again. Here 

Christmas Gift Bags.

It's the last challenge of the year for the Christmas Card club to show our latest makes. Rita chose the theme of Christmas gifts and I came up with the following idea.

Gift bags for containing small items  such as chocolates.sweets, jewellry etc.

I made 7  in total in 3 different colourways but showing only 3 here today.

 I followed a tutorial by Tonic (as it is their dies I have used to make the box) but I did make one modification on the handles which I reinforced on the insides  so using 4 handle shapes and not just the two in the tutorial. You can find the link on the Tonic Studio site/You tube..  The Flowers were made using a Poinsettia die by Ultimate Crafts. First cutting out in green and then several in red and fussy cutting to get the different layers. I used stickles glue and beads for the centres.
I will be around all your lovely blogs as soon as I can.

Foiled Again!!

Sorry for my absence. Still not feeling too tickety boo and definitely not firing on all four cylinders yet but needs must so time to crack on.
Speaking of time I'm not sure where last week went too or what that awful Elf got up to (whilst I was indisposed ) but lets recap to the happy hour  of 11.30pm last Thursday  30th November when The Doc and I were sitting congratulating ourselves that
A.   The elves had all been packed off to finishing school up at the North Pole.

B. Side garden gate bolted and padlocked. Key in The Docs pocket. ✔
     Front door locked and dead bolt on  and also the letterbox sealed with strong adhesive..✔
     Back door locked. Key on peg away from window. ✔
     Cat flap securely shut and locked.✔
     Cat indoors.✔
     Windows securely bolted.✔
     Wire cage firmly attached to chimneystack.✔

So I was just saying to The Doc that my changing the password every five minutes had really worked as nothing/no one unauthorised had entered the building.

There was a ghastly silence until the The Doc said

"Well if you don't include the postman banging on the front door (The door bell having been tapped up)  earlier this afternoon and delivering a box"

The ensuing conversation went roughly like this.

Me.  "What box and who was it for?"

The Doc.   "Well it just said for Whom it may concern!"

Me.   "Where is it now then?"

The Doc. " I don't know. Norm took it upstairs, as though he wasn't expecting anything he thought it might be just be an early christmas present from his beloved 'Sammy'.

Me.      NORM?

            Wherever you are DO NOT OPEN THAT BOX!!!!!

Too late

At which point I gave up and went to bed for the entire weekend!!

Just to say

Having struggled all week I'm now sick in bed with this cold/flu bug going the rounds at the moment and to cap it all that awful Elf is back too. It's enough to drive you to drink. Well the mulled wine anyways!  Normal services will resume asap.

Meet The Gang

As promised here is a picture of the little perishers  'The Elves'  before they  all got parcelled off to the North Pole.

I have had an email from Santa to say they arrived safely and  are being put through their duties at the Elf Finishing Academy .

These two are already in their new homes as they got sent off first.

This is Bashful. So callled because I had a slight  mishap when  sewing his head on. When I sat him up he was facing the wrong way so he had to have minor surgery to correct the fault. He also has 'Googly ' eyes as he is in a home with adults only.

Here is  'Pushie' rather aptly named by his new owner as pushy indeed he was. Always first in the queue to choose his hair colour and leggings.

So I am now  safe in the knowledge that there are no Elves  left in the building. Boy does it feel good to know that this Christmas is going to be a nice quiet one.

No Elves are crossing this threshold.

Nope!

Nada!

Never!

The house has been on lock down for the past week. Even the Cat is confined  and The Doc is on litter tray duties. No one enters or leaves with out stating the pass code which I am changing every  5mins.

Oh Bliss!!

Roll on Christmas

Rudolph.

Christmas Card Club time again and it is Mary's turn to set the theme which is Mixed Media. I'm a bit short on time at the moment so I'm just showing the last of the little shaker ornaments I made. I figure they work for mixed media so here goes.

I used a variety of stamps to create my stag wreath. The stag is a freebie magazine one along with the little sprig of holly that I created the circle with but from different magazines. The shaker element is made using small red glass beads. I painted the holly and berries using distress inks.  Glitter glue on the front for the added sparkle.

I used the stags head again for this one. The snowflakes were a magazine freebie and I created the outer edge circle using a peg stamp by Heyda which I kept on turning this way and that as I stamped using a red distress ink pad. Small micro beads used for the shaker element and more glitter glue on the front.

Last one is a small snow scene. the house is a magazine freebie. Flying geese are by Card-io along with the silhouette tree.  I created the background using distress inks picked up on an acrylic block and painted with a small paint brush. The acetate I used for the front of the shaker element is printed with falling snow which I thought suited my little scene. Small micro beads used again  and more glitter glue but silver this time. 

Entering into the following challenge:
Scraps of Life by scrappy Mo # November Rudolph day.