HAPPY NEW YEAR!

'Winter Blues' altered book page

Here's wishing you all health, wealth and happiness in the New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

Merry Christmas!

CONFIGURATION BOXES for CHRISTMAS

Here's myYouTube video, showing all five of my Christmas Configuration Boxes.




This is the first one I've done all by myself, so I hope you enjoy it (don't forget to turn the sound on).

Happy Christmas, everyone!

CHRISTMAS CARD FROM CHRIS

Just arrived this morning - I had to photograph this great stepper card straight away, and share with you all. I just love it - glitter, glitter and MORE glitter!

Thanks so much, Chris, this is lovely.

CHRISTMAS CARDS FROM FREYJA and SUE

Thought you'd like to see some wonderful handmade cards I got in the post! Fabulous or what?

Aren't they GREAT! Thanks so much, ladies!

CHRISTMAS TREES... O CHRISTMAS TREES...

Kaye (co-owner of BladeRubber Stamps) and I were chatting, as you do, when I took the wreath in for the window - and I happened to mention my Christmas decorations (3 trees this year). Kaye thought you might like to see them as she too couldn't believe I could get 3 Christmas trees in the one living room. Hah! Oh yes I could!

Panning around the room, starting from the far left, here's Tree No 1 (4ft) next to the television. One of my Configuration boxes to the right of the television.

Closeup of Tree No 1 (4ft): Santa at the top, and two sets of lights, glitter reindeer standing underneath

The TV bench is on the left of this door, lights strung right around up at the ceiling and Tree No 2 (6ft) with 3 sets of lights and another Santa. Another Configuration box is on top of the bookcase.

Closeup, showing Tree No 2's tree skirt. Fireplace on the right.

Tree No 2 (6ft tree) on left, Tree No 3 (3ft tree) next to the computer desk on the right. Fire in the middle, with Santa lights on the mantlepiece. Tree No 3 has only the one set of lights and now feels very underdressed.

That's it for now... you can tell I just adore Christmas!

How are your decorations coming along? Got your tree up yet?

MY CHRISTMAS WREATHS

Never one to do things by halves - I made two!

Red and gold wreath - now in BladeRubber's shop window

Closeup - you can't beat a bit of artificial snow (just don't overdo it...)

One for the shop (see the post below) and one for home.

Silver and white wreath with 50s vintage pinecone ornaments

Closeup of my snowballs - heavy gel medium slathered onto polystyrene balls and hit with 3 types of glitter

Another closeup - glittered and tinselled branches, white pearls in several sizes and a few sparkly black berries

We made wreaths in my Christmas decorations class and I finally finished the one I made in class (the silver one) on Sunday. Hurrah! It's now on my front door.

Glue guns are now my bestest pals!

BLADE RUBBER STAMPS AT CHRISTMAS

The shop - all dressed up for Christmas

The window to the right of the door

Closeup of the left-hand side of the window - my scrapbook page and card and two of my Configuration boxes on the left, black&white cards (Chris or Freyja??) on the top shelf. Chris's Explosion Box ornament bottom left.

Closeup of the right-hand corner. Top shelf: stepper card by me, tag by Chris (also shown on the displayed magazine page) then another of my Configuration boxes. On the bottom shelf, sweet pussycat angel card (Chris?)

Peeping through the window into the shop

The right-hand corner - closeup

And now for the window to the left of the door...

Peeping into the shop

Closeup - showing my wreath

Dierdre did all the decorating - a real magical, mystical Christmassy wonderland! All we need now is SNOW.

CALENDAR CARD

Project and photographs copyright Hetty at CraftChaos

Seen on another blog - a GREAT idea for a calendar card by Hetty at CraftChaos.

Closeup view. Copyright Hetty at CraftChaos

Hetty gives a brief tutorial, a downloadable calendar for you to cut up - and a template you can download and print out at any size you like! 

I'd suggest you use a spray glue like Stick & Spray on the back of the paper then mount to thin card and cut out, to make it more robust. And why not print onto patterned paper if you're in a hurry? Otherwise, get out all thos little Christmas stamps and go mad!

Hetty has used craft coloured card and stamped and embossed in white. I notice a discreet touch of black stamping with a script stamp in the background, and lots of crystal glitter for 'snow'.

I think this is just lovely, and not too difficult to do your own version! Go for it!

COOKING FOR CHRISTMAS

Mini gingerbread houses - recipe and photos copyright Megan at Not Martha

Here's the most adorable foodie thing I think I've ever seen! Invented by Megan at NotMartha, these are miniature gingerbread houses that sit on the edge of your mug!

Copryight NotMartha

Go here for the tutorial.

This one's definitely worth a try!

FUN ONLINE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Here's a Christmas jigsaw for you to play online (a freebie, naturally!)

Click on the picture and go to the site! They have loads of others too - a very nice way to pass a little time noodling about waiting for glue to dry, etc, lol.

My time was just over 7 minutes -  I'm so ashamed, lol! In the end, I found it easiest to start with the eyes...

Have fun!

JUST ONE STAMP: ANOTHER SANTA MATILDE

Copyright Susie Jefferson

Another of my cards using Stampington's Santa Matilde stamp.

This is one I made some time ago, but it still looks good. Very plain, with the Saint stamped onto a textured gold card in black Brilliance ink, mounted to red card stamped with gold, in turn layered to plain black then mounted to black stamped with gold again. Just a tiny bit of detail thrown in with eyelets and gold photo corners.

50s CHRISTMAS SCRAPBOOK PAGE AND CARD

I used a copyright-free 50s image as the main photo, as I wanted a retro feel

Thought you might like to see a Christmassy scrapbook page I did as samples for the Blade Rubber shop, plus a stepper card - both using the same design of background paper and chipboard embellishements.

View from the front - notice I did a little background stamping with snowflake stamps onto the base red card. I also trimmed round the edges with gold peeloffs. The Tree chipboard element was mounted onto separate gold card and rimmed around with gold glitter.

I also stamped on the centre red band of the tree (which was plain) and added baubles - some were the chipboard elements, and the rest were little metal hearts cut from an old necklace. All 'antiqued' with Rock Candy crackle paint.

View from the side, showing the steps and the dimensions. The darker snowdrops are stamped with Versamark ink, then embossed with holographic embossing powder.

I 'antiqued' the chipboard pieces using Tim Holtz's Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy (a couple of coats give a lovely spun sugar sparkle - very vintage).

A little on the cute side for me, maybe, but the 50s feel definitely saves them. Nice and colourful, no?

CHRISTMAS TREES - from folded pages

Christmas trees from folded magazine pages. Photo and project copyright Martha Stewart.

A fabulous way of creating little Christmas trees, recycling book or magazine pages by Martha Stewart!

HERE'S HOW:

Tools and Materials

Old magazines of any size
Gold, silver, or clear spray paint
Glitter in desired colors
Bone folder (optional)

Magazine Trees How-To

1. Open magazine and bend to break spine.
2. Fold individual page from top right corner to inside seam. Fold same page from bottom right edge to gutter.
3. Fold bottom triangle of each additional magazine page up, making the bottom of the tree flat. Then, fold top of all pages down to form tree shape.
4. Spray-paint folded tree desired color. Immediately sprinkle glitter over wet paint. Let dry.

Tip: Use a bone folder to smooth paper edges if desired.

Project instructions copyright Martha Stewart. Click on this link to see the video demonstration.

I think this couldn't be easier (although you do need to be precise in making crisp folds) and maybe a good one for getting the kids involved too. Wouldn't these look wonderful dotted around on your windowsills?