30 tags of December #2

Here's my 2nd tag for you, using a Gecko Galz image from the design sheet "Christmas Cuties' and bits n bobs from my stash, though the Poinsettias are a new purchase as I needed something small and Christmassy to fill the space on the tag and I didn't have anything suitable.

To see these designs and much more, drop by the Gecko Galz on Etsy

Frosty the Snowman

Retro style Christmas card today, using a cute Snowman image from Gecko Galz 'Frosty' design sheet. The blue backing paper is a HunkyDory one - one of the crafting magazines digital freebies I came across, I printed it out onto an A4 sheet of card and it just about matches the blue  in the image.

In one of the swaps I took part in over at CardExchangeUK was some gorgeous patterned holographic card - the red one was just perfect to bring out the red hat & gloves Mr Snowman is wearing.

Totally in love with my stringed snowflake die at the moment, so I cut another one out and snipped the individual flakes out, to embellish this card, then stuck silver gems in the middle, and used a silver peel off sentiment to finish off.

Pop over to the Gecko Galz on Etsy to find many more retro/vintage images.

30 tags of December #1

Join in with the Gecko Galz and celebrate all things Christmas this month, with our 30 tags of December.
All the lovely DT's got to make 2 tags each, so check in at the Gecko Galz blog every day this December to see what we all got up to!

A cute retro Christmas tag this afternoon, using Gecko Galz 'Baby It's Cold Out Here' design sheet, backing paper from stash, silver peel offs, silver stick on gems, snowflake embellishment, round sentiment stamp and a length of ribbon I recycled from a gift.

Using Craft Artist, I brought in the design sheet, then cropped it down so the image I wanted was the only one remaining. Then, using one of the edit programmes I removed the rest of the scene, leaving Mini Santa & friend. Resized the end image to fit the tag then printed, and fussy cut round them.


Shop Gecko Galz on Etsy

Dashing thro' the Snow

My very first post as a member of the Gecko Galz design team for 2018! Never mind a drum roll, I'll make do with  a very strong coffee or maybe a glass of wine.

Two Christmas cards and an altered item up this morning.

6x6 cardstock

'Baby, its cold out here' design sheet

Spellbinders sentiment die

M Company square die

festive twine

silver glitter

The image was so pretty and gorgeous, I kept it plain and simple for this card, only adding a touch of silver glitter over the stars and the blue/white twine to pull the colours together.

*****

I can't skate, I did try when I was a teenager - never let go of the wall encircling the rink which meant I only skated round half of it for about two hours....... but to skate like the couple in the picture at Christmas would be a dream and so romantic, possibly with a lovely hot chocolate afterwards, with not a trip to A & E in sight!

6x6 cardstock

'Baby, its cold out here' design sheet

Free stamp

Red ink

Xcut snowflake punch

M Company snowflake border die

white pearlescent card stock

chritmas card stock from Joy!

blue gems

clear embossing powder

The image is quite pale so I jazzed it up a bit with the bright background paper just peeking out from under it. I used the snowflake punch and stuck them onto the card and popped blue gems in the middle, but I thought it didn't look quite right, so I quickly pulled the gems off and decided to use the snowflake border die and snip the flakes off and use individually, then I popped the blue gems back on. 

*****

I recently watched a YouTube video of a lady doing an Altered Mail Art Envelope, using an envelope destined to go in her recycling bin. It looked easy, so I thought I'd give it a go.

bog standard white envelope (had a bill in it!)

'Dashing Thro' the Snow' paper kit

glittery peel offs

white pearls

xmas ribbon strip

red glitter in glue form

red glitter

hole punch 

red ribbon

First thing I did was to tidy the envelope up by straightening the torn edge using my guillotine:

then I cut the other length and one end open, so it opens up:

I cut three pieces of the patterned papers to the same length of the envelope, but kept one A4 sized so I could stick it on the front of the envelope and overlap both side edges by about two inch so it continued round the back, making it a pocket.

The second piece I glued down to the front centre for my 'topper' and the last piece glued on the back of the envelope covering the remaining whiteness and the edges of the first paper. Remember to keep the open end at the top at all times - which I nearly didn't!!

Once everything was firmly stuck down I glittered and embellished.

The envelope flap was made from a piece of card measuring about two inches high and a width to fit snugly into the envelope mouth. I folded about half an inch over, longways, and put double sided sticky tape onto it, this is the bit that slides into the mouth and sticks to the inside..... slightly tricky and I had to trim the width to get it to fit straight. That was the only fiddley bit!

I used a hole punch, two in the flap and two through the back of the envelope and threaded a lovely red ribbon  through. 

Makes a lovely envelope for hand delivery, or a gift envelope instead of wrapping paper.

For these and many more designs, check out the GeckoGalz on Etsy

H is for handwritten and/or lemon

Fluttering in to show you a 30th birthday card done for a friend at work, who is the most awkward lady in the whole world to make a card & buy a present for!! I decided to make something which fitted the challenge over on  Butterfly Challenge blog, which I haven't entered for weeks and weeks due to overtime at work, less days off and the dreaded flu, and sadly the loss of three pets....

                 

White doily

Craft Box flowers x3

Tattered Lace mini dies

pearls

Went with just the colour this time - Lemon - as my hand writing is awful and I didn't want to spoil the card. The 30th is small as the lady in question isn't really...... feeling the birthday vibe, shall we say. 

entering in: H is for handwritten and/or lemon

Bump in the Night

Cutting it fine to enter this month's Gecko Galz challenge but I managed it! Hurrah!! Sadly other things have got in the way today, more on that later on in the week.

Anyhoo, managed to pull together a 6x6 card for 'Bump in the night' I loved this image as soon as I saw it last year, just waiting for the right make to happen.

image from Gecko Galz email freebie

lace & charms from Craft Box

It looks sepia, but its actaully black/white with a bit of grey. Though I do like the colour of the photo better to the actual card! It is a card but I made it look like a cover of a book, or a journal of some kind, maybe the 'gentleman' on the front?? The tales of his far away travels on this planet, but like a creature of habit, he always returns to where he was.......... buried.

entering in: Gecko Galz October challenge -- bump in the night

Crafty news

Really excited to announce today that I'm going to be part of the Design Team for Gecko Galz 2018.

Along with a written application, you had to send in 4 of your makes, so I ended up, after lots of deliberation choosing these:

pretty box (made from A4 card) using a Fripperie & Butterflies design sheet

Christmas card in non-traditional colours using Gecko Galz imagery

Easter card using a Fripperie & Butterflies image with Gecko Galz backing paper

heart shaped easel using a Lunagirl image and Gecko Galz backing paper

After being accepted, you then had to make a 4x4 item which summed up your crafting style, so I think is me - Butterflies, lace, doily and pearls!

card using a Gecko Galz image, backing paper & lace Butterfly from The Craft Box, everything else from stash.

So looking forward to starting as a member of the Design Team in December.

Gecko Galz blog hop 2017

clickety click for the blog hop rules and grab some freebies!

Something beginning with W

Over on the Gecko Galz facebook page, one of the challenges is 'W', as its October and getting close to Halloween I thought I'd go with...... wings. But then I came across the 'Wizard of Oz' domino sheet and spotted the witch images and thought they would be perfect to do as a set of 3 atcs, for a swap I'm doing, killing two birds with one stone as they say.

As I will be posting them, I decided to do them digitally and then add something flat to keep the postage down. All I did to the images was write something silly on them.

I then printed them off and stuck each one to an atc base - I cut up used cereal packets for mine. Out came red glitter, washi tape, promarkers and a silver pen.

I particularly like how red glitter works on Wicked.

On the Farm

Tag today, thought I would do a tag instead of a card for a change.

Rather a colourfull, twee tag, but never mind it looks like fun!

Gecko Galz 'For Fall' Jewel It sheet

SnipArt tree

gems

leaves 

brown tag

bits of card/paper

entering in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group

September partner card swap

Its In the Pink for my chosen design for my partner in CardExchange UK. Image from 'Bloomin Doodles' book I got in a goody bag when I went to Tattered Lace warehouse/shop over in Clay Cross, Derbyshire. The sentiment is a Tattered LAce die 'Cherished Centres'. I wanted random colour on the card so picked four which I then decoupaged and just one from the flat topper.

Birds/Bugs

Anyhoo, on with the card making -

Gecko Galz 'Blue Birds of Happiness' sheet

SnipArt wooden frame from The Craft Box

blue & white pearls

Shiny blue coubochon The Craft Box

entering in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group on Facebook.

Something beginning with A

Had a crafty day Friday, my mojo has gone walk about but with bribes of chocolate and scrumptious coffee, think I may just have convinced it to stay awhile.

One of the cards it this one, it turned out to better than I expected. 

The blue squares were a 'find' in my snippet drawers whilst looking for the right colour blue card. See, hoarding random bits of off cuts does pay in the end! 

Used Gecko Galz 'Nautical' design sheet 1 for the square toppers, used full size images and resized to want I wanted.
The backing paper is from GG 'Seaside Splendour' Kit with the transparency taken down so it fades away.

Luckily I had just enough to die cut the sentiment out.

entering in Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group over on Facebook.

Earlier on in the year, I used a decoupage image on its own, with no layers. I loved how it turned out so I did it again, this time in blue. love using it just with a doily and a few embellishments, a simple card but effective. Instead of a white card, I used one with a 'frosting' pattern, which looked slightly blue.

Quick card done for a friends birthday, using a Gecko Galz image and a butterfly embellishment. Very simple but looks rather elegant. One day I will get a square nesting die so I can downsize correctly!

Finally got round to doing THIS as a decor project, I bought a pink 6 x 6  box frame from The Range and printed off the digi page, slightly altering it so I could embellish it, using some 3D butterflies I bought eons ago and have never used..... things come in handy eventually!

Though its still sitting on the mantlepiece in the front room.... it will be hung somewhere eventually!!!

Belton House

A few weeks ago we visited Belton House in Lincolnshire, a National Trust property, we had a lovely day - we originally went so we could visit the old stables which they are renovating - the 'hard hat' tour, but that was off that day as they didn't have enough volunteers to do it, so instead we booked on the 'below stairs' tour which lasted about 1hr and took you through all the Servants quarters/kitchens/pantry etc. Very interesting, in fact I think I enjoyed this more than going round the house - the rooms were beautiful and the Gardens were lovely, especially the Glass house.

This is a picture I took in the Italian garden of the lions head water spout, had a little play with a whimsical digi kit 'Chocolate Lime'

The grounds were HUGE with plenty of sheep (we saw) and Deer (we didn't). Dogs are allowed in the grounds/estate so we will go back and find a longish walk to do..... PLUS its got a second hand book shop!!!

Christmas in summer link up

With the weather at the moment, we feel like we're in winter, so its apt that I felt in a christmassy mood this week. Over at Merry Monday christmas challenge blog, we're on a months 'catch up on challenges you may have missed' to cover the summer hols.

Image from Gecko Galz 'Blue Christmas' kit

white doily

blue ribbon

sentiment die

blue gems

This is similar to one I did earlier in the year but this time on a 5 x 7 card and I used my new sentiment die from Creative Expressions, I bought it to use on 6 x 6 cards but I think its a big too big unless I use it as a topper.

entering in - Merry Monday = Christmas in July Summer link up using the 'monochromatic blue' challenge.

By the Shore

Sat and did this page last week, playing with a new kit (freebie) I got off DaisyTrail, which sadly closes on the 11th of this month. Also purchased a few digi kits in the sale.
Only just found the time to upload it.

used 'vintage vacation' digi kit by Rosie H
image from Gecko Galz 'Splish Splash' sheet 1

entering in: gecko galz blog = August - by the shore

In a mermaid garden and a mythical creature

Day off number 3, alas back to work tomorrow :(  that'll mean no crafting for a few days.

But two for the price of one this morning, digi page done for two challenges.

6 x6 digi page

kit 'Natural Beauty' by Rosie H

image Gecko Galz

quote from web

Removed the image from its background, used the same splatter embellishment three times, re coloured to match the image & resized each time. Grouped together to make one big splat. Added text. 

entering in: gecko galz blog = in a mermaids garden

                    Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group  (facebook)

J is for jagged and/or the colour kiwi

Got my crafting head on today - to fit the challenge over on the Butterfly blog, love how it turned out, I did use something else as the middle of the flower but it didn't look right when the card was finished so quickly pulled it off and looked in my flower drawer again.

flowers from stash

mulberry papers

gems from The Hobby House

metal butterfly from The Craft Box

lace from stash

entering in: butterfly challenge = j is fro jagged edge/colour of kiwi

                   

and also in a new challenge blog which is Always Anything Goes  day dreamer challenges = #1

Did another 7 day stint at work, honestly they are trying to kill me off, I'm sure of it! Good news and slightly ironic due to the topic of hours on the other posts - my contract has been increased (officially) to 25 hrs from 13 hrs, very pleased with that outcome. 

Couple of days off now, went to Chesterfield to have lunch and a wander round, and of course peruse a few charity shops, ended up with 2 second hand books and then Andrew treated me to Nigel by Monty Don and a Richard and Judy pick , The Muse by Jessie Burton, not read any of her books but the gorgeous cover caught my eye. 

 Today, I ended up getting up at 6.30am..... so much for a lie in!!! Tomorrow is as yet unplanned.

Digi page I did this morning, using 'Fading India' digital kit by Vintaj, picture from yahoo search and a quote from Ramana Maharusi.

Orange peel and M for matching pair

Well, it was a waste of time writing about work in the last post but one, the whole 'doing contract hrs from now on' didn't pan out *lol* back to 24/30 hrs after just 1 week. And ended up working 7 days non stop due to *cough* higher management mucking up the rota. Two days off together were BLISS and I've recharged my batteries..... for now *g*

Actually made a card as well, and got mucky in the process (the best bit).

Over at  Mrs A's buttefly blog, the new challenge is 'M for matching pair and/or the colour orange peel'. As I read it, bright orange splats popped into my mind. I know plain weird eh?

So out came the Vermillion acrylic paint tube and everything did indeed go splat!

I used the vermillion and teamed it with lamp post black paint, and for the 'matching pair' two plain wooden butterfly embellies painted in the Vermillion many times to get the bright orange colour.

The sentiment stamp is from Visible image and stamped in black stazon, finally used a bright orange promarker to edge all the papers.

entering in Butterfly Challenge = Matching pairs and Orange peel

Calke Abbey

Thursday saw us visiting Calke Abbey, one of my favourite places. Not visited in over a year so it was time to go back! Left the pooches at home so we could wander round the house and gardens - you can take dogs in the estate grounds.

Had a lovely time, this year its all about Hidden Calke, so from 11 - 1215 each morning, they open the 'rooms' in which the last occupants lived in after abandoning the rest of the House, mainly 4 rooms - dining room, study, kitchen and a lounge. These are on the ground floor, the bedrooms and the bathrooms being at the top of the house so they still had a way too walk to go to bed! It was lovely to see how it 'was' lived in before turning it over to National Trust is n 1985 (I think).

After the 'apartments' we had a lovely walk round the estate to Staunton Herald Resevoir and back, took lunch then walked round the rest of the House and the gardens. Wonderful day out even if it rained for most of it.

Some people say its sad to see that state of it and why don't the NT do it up, but I think its hauntingly beautiful in all its decay, a life once lived allowed to rest for evermore.

wine glass tool

20 days since I posted...... 20 days since I actually crafted. What with the heat, work and general stuff I never got round to doing much, so sorry to all the ladies whose challenges I normally take part in.

Well, the heat has gone - to be replaced with rain and dull skies although today looks like it could be nice and bright.

XXX work ramble, please skip if easily bored XX

Work has taken a turn for the worse , but only in the fact that I have gone back down to my contracted hours of 13, for the last couple of months I have been doing 30ish every week. (originally the job was 16hrs as this was the last vacancy when the new shop opened and I didn't want to be on the dole, so i took it, plus with my illness I didn't want full time hours back then)
A colleague has had to transfer onto the Deli counter from her own dept for health reasons so her hours have wiped out overtime hours, not that its her fault. I'm just worried that my little grey cells won't be able to cope with the sudden lack of work stimulation and I slide back into a depression - so trying to avoid this way of thinking I am looking at it as if I am having a rest, extra time out, play time, me time, whatever!

XX work ramble over XX

Last weekend I rejoined a Craft Artist users group and this weeks tutorial/challenge was to use the 'wineglass' tool which alters the transparency of something, in various ways.

Never used this before - didn't even know what it did, so have had a play.

original image gecko galz free collage images

digi kit used - Folk Florals by DaisyTrail

wineglass tool - Radial at 0% opacity (basically formed a circle round her head)

also entering in a Gecko Galz challenge 'orange and yellow'

monochromatic blue

Quick card this morning, before we went to Hardwick Hall to watch the Ladies Cycling Tour whizz by.

The image is from the Gecko Galz 'Blue Christmas' kit, reminds me of the old Willow Pattern grandma had when I was little. The die cut sentiment is a Tonic one, silly me die cut it out then stamped on it, my aim was good though *lol* As a finishing touch I added the blue gems to the Mistletoe's around the frame. (just about see them in the photo)

entering in: merry monday = monochromatic blue


We parked at Hardwick, then walked across the fields to Ault Hucknall and waited at the church, normally open Saturday afternoons for coffee and a look round, but not this afternoon which was a pity, beautiful old graves most people aged 70+ in the late 1800's. Must have been the farming life - plenty of fresh air and hard work!

The ladies whizzed past at about 1.30pm, if I have a decent photo I will pop one up. Not as many as you would get in a Mans race, again a female sport that isn't as high profile as its male counterpart, but its getting there.

Quote

Digitally Made Challenges have their new challenge up for this month and its "Quote - include a quote on the project or tell us the quote that inspired your project and how"

Doing things a little differently as usual,  I decided to use a quote from Supernatural. Oh boy, was it tedious looking through all the eye candy different characters quotes to pick one which I could use!

It actually took me just over 2 hours to do this page, as I kept trying different backgrounds but me being me, went with the first background I'd played around with...

There are quite a few layers/components to this page;

background 

Devils trap symbol

the Impala

material 

frame

writing

Had great fun putting it all together, especially love that the Devils Trap looks like its engraved into the picture, totally by accident when I was using the transparency tool to fade it.

The Impala image came from Pinterest, and the digi kit I used was "Grunge it" by Seaside Crafter over on DaisyTrail

entering in: Digitally Made Challenges = quote

It also looks freakin' awesome as a wallpaper on the computer:

okay, I'll stop channeling Dean Winchester now..... 

slight spolier alert for Twin Peaks

So I finally let Schrodinger's Cat out of its box and watched the new Twin Peaks pt 1 & 2..... yep, still Twin Peakerie, all was still highly confusing  fine until they arrested Shaggy.

Yep, that kinda killed the moment.

onwards and upwards to pt 3......

Remember when........

A comment on my post 'Ladies in Hats' by Di, saying the image looked familiar made me think straight away of the old Christmas Quality Street tins, circa late 70/early 80's. This was back when having chocolates at Christmas was like having another present - the tins were gorgeous, a bog standard box or normal design just isn't the same.

the letter M

So today is the first day of my June holiday, one weeks glorious sunshine at Costa d' Hilcote. or not, as the weather today is cold and wet,did I mention its very cold!!

Decided to do some crafting today and drink lots of coffee to keep warm. 

New challenges are up on the Gecko Galz facebook page, so I chose to do  ' letter M' 

I thought of mermaid straight away, just had to find a suitable GG image, then googled "mermaid poems" and the one I used was one of the first I saw, usually I end up trawling through loads of stuff and end up really fed up.

GG image from July 2015 email freebie

Coquette kit paper no 6

Ladies wearing hats

At the moment if you order from the Gecko Galz Etsy shop you will receive a free Design sheet, the lady used for this card came from Beautiful Belles.

The challenge was 'Ladies wearing hats' over on their Facebook page. Bit of an odd card design but I liked how it ended up. The frame is a Sizzix thinlite I won from Mrs A's Butterfly blog, the blue card was a scrap piece which I used for a practice die cut of the frame as I wanted to see how it looked, so used the middle bit of that... happy accident!

entering: Gecko Galz Facebook challenge group
             Pixies Snippets playground = week 283 & 284

L is for layers & cream / pink & green

Its ironic that when I usually enter Mrs A's Butterfly challenge I usually do so either the day or a few hours before the challenge ends.... now that the latest challenge is on for a whole month, I end up making a card one day after the challenge started. It wasn't planned, I was doing a card for the Pink & Green colours challenge over on the Gecko Galz facebook page and decided that a nice snippet of cream card would look nice under the doily, then I came across the lime green glitter card (sounds horrible but it is lovely) and stick, cut, glue - a card with layers and cream! Added two little pink butterflies and die cut a sentiment to match.

Gecko Galz image from 'Colourful Cuties' sheet one

Spellbinder sentiment die

Tattered Lace mini butterflies die

DoCraftd doily

entering in: Butterfly Challenge = Layers and/or colour cream

                   Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge facebook group = pink & green

colour challenge

Hey I did a Christmas card!

Yep, that's my shout out for today, that and I took the dog for a walk to fetch my prescription and ended up doing 5.28 mile.......some detour!

but, hey I did a Christmas card!

I have had some Christmas papers in my stash for years, which were free with a magazine. I had a quick look through the snippet sleeve (one sleeve for loose untouched papers and one for the offcuts)  and came up with the challenge colours, just so happened they all had a snowflake pattern, which in turn got me to use my snowflake punch and the snowflake stamp.

You'd have thought this was all planned.....

It wasn't!!

Cut the paper into little strips and glued on to the card, punched snowflakes out of  the same paper then stuck on the end of the strips, finally popped a gem, matching the strip of paper, in the middle of the flake.

paper off cuts

The Hobby House gems - Lilac, Sea Blue & Aqua

Nitwit sentiment stamp & Vibrant Violet stazon ink

snowflake punch

With hindsight I should have made the middle strip slightly smaller so the strips went up as a proper diagonal but *shrugs* gonna go with it.

entering in: merry monday christmas = colour challenge
                   -snippets playground = challenge 281/282