Long time no ATC!!

It's been ages since I made an ATC - I have made toppers for cards but ATC's have to be of a specific size - as you will find here at Our Creative Corner where they are having a Christmas ATC challenge! I had the idea of what I might do, but had to wait until after Christmas for one of the 'ingredients'! The picture on this ATC came from a set of chocolate bars that I bought for hubby as part of his Christmas present(Ok I admit it - I did buy them for the wrappers - all little vintage images!)
Now, I thought the challenge ended on the 30th, suddenly this morning I realised that the challenge closes tonight, so this morning I went into my craft room and made most of this before going out for a quick look at the M and S sale and a walk(it's been a lovely crisp day here with some lovely sunshine!)Of course, when we got back I had to take the photograph with the aid of a daylight lamp and put up with the reflections and shadows!

I used Tim's doyly stencil with Faded Jeans Distress ink for the background. The twigs and pearls at the bottom were from an M and S napkin ring - I painted the silver stems with gesso to stop the shine. The snowflake is from Tim's Christmas set and rubbed over with PA Snowflake Fresco paint to emphasise the pattern.

I am entering in Our Creative Corner challenge 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas! Our family party was yesterday at our youngest son's house - he is a fabulous cook and baker and I really had to be careful not to push my sugar levels too high as I have a blood test tomorrow morning! He had made so many goodies both savoury and sweet! His Chocolate Bundt cake was absolutely delicious! We're trying to talk him into entering the British Bake Off! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas to you!

Thank you for all the visits and the lovely comments you have made, your support and encouragement means a lot to me!

Thanks again for looking, Chris

Christmas wishes!

I have made a few cards for hand delivery…..
…..for most of them have used a star die - I wondered whether it would cut Corrugated card - of course it does!

I used distress ink and Pewter paint through stencils and painted the star with PA Fresco Snowflake and the pewter acrylic which I then sprinkled with Frantage chunky white embossing powder,  then added some Stickles for a bit of frosty sparkle. 

I would like to enter in The Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes and Thats Crafty Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking, and if you don't get back here before Christmas may I wish you a very happy Christmas, Chris

More Christmas cards

Just a few to show you - flat ones to post!

I love this stamp from House of Zandra stamped onto watercolour paper.

Thanks for looking, Chris

A Winter Birthday card

In all the rush for Christmas some of us have December birthdays. This includes two of my Sisters-in-Law.
I can show you this one because it's just been hand delivered.

We've had grey days here so this is this best photo I could get - I have used Stormy Sky Distress ink (my favourite icy blue) and the lace is actually grey, but in this photo it looks like a shade of brown!!

I would like to enter in the Artistic Stampers challenge - Anything Goes
and the Get Creative Challenge - Use Blue and White or Silver

Thanks for looking, Chris

ps Yes, she did like it!!

Christmas cards….

I'm still at it, why do I never make enough, I seem to start early enough!

These were made with the bargain stamps I got a Happy Stampers!
I actually used glitter on some and then got a bit of a taste for it as you will see in another post.

While I'm here I must tell you about the fabulous blog hop going on over at A Vintage Journey! Not only is there a fabulous giveaway on offer but some brilliant inspiration! You've got until the 21st December to take part!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Dragons Dream tag

This time the letter is 'M' combined with holly at Dragons Dream TIO challenge. I nearly missed this, although I had the idea last week, just haven't had time to play! I didn't want to miss though - I love the challenges set by a brilliant Design Team.

So, my letter M is for Mystery, well mystery parcel actually! Having a birthday close to Christmas usually meant a combined Birthday/Christmas present that would sit around until it could go under the tree! It was so tempting and would have been picked up to test the weight, shaken, and felt for clues several times before Christmas! I never opened them to peek as I quite liked the mystery and I think I only ever guessed once when it was a record player, although I never let on to Mum and Dad!

My tag is parcel shaped as I cut the corners bigger and scored the top part so that it could be bent over.

The holly was stamped twice, first with splodgy ink then re-stamped slightly offset with Archival ink. The 'ribbon' is from an Artemio Christmas set that comes out every year! I added a bit of sparkle with a Sakura pen and highlighted the berries with a Sakura Glaze pen. The background is a very bright Mustard Seed distress ink (anyone around in the 50's will remember how garish wrapping paper used to be!)

I am linking to Dragons Dream TIO 181 The letter 'M' and Holly 

Thanks for looking, Chrisx

We went…we saw...

Of course we did!! When we got up on Saturday the temperature gauge outside read -3C but it looked fantastic!

The birds were busy at the feeders…

…and along he came…early! When he came last winter we could almost set our clock by him - 9.45 most days…on Saturday he was there by 9.15!

We still get excited - silly old fools that we are!!!
Seeing the birds has also influenced my next batch of cards - I intended to make something more layered for hand deliveries but I'm happy with variations of this one!

That's all for now! Thanks for looking, Chris

To go or not….?

The weather forecasts - as usual - are not agreeing with each other so do we go…where we know it definitely won't be like this…

…or do we stay put because it could mean views like this but a bit chilly…?

We might see this little fella too!

Hubby is planning a birthday lunch for me on the way there….I think you know the answer!

Thanks for looking! Chris

WOYWW 288

Hello there WOYWWers! I have not been here for a few weeks, I began to feel so guilty about not getting back to comment to folk who had been kind enough to leave a comment on my blog that I decided to stay away! I know - silly aren't I? The trouble is that if we go away to our caravan the connection is now so bad that sometimes I don't even have a phone link(fortunately hubby has, but is only on pay as you go)and I STILL haven't got around to changing my phone!!
Okay, enough ranting or I'll be in trouble with Julia who really wants us to link up and show our desks - you can find her at the Stamping Ground and there are details there about how to join in if you are just popping in to see why the strange title!
My desk has the last of the cards for posting….

…(oops! a bit out of focus!)and then I must get on with some Birthday cards - we're a bit of a December bunch(including my own) and I have 4 to make before Christmas!!

No cinema today but I'm off for my Diabetic eye screening today(stinging stuff in my eyes - ugh!!!!)

Last week we went to see 'The Imitation Game' which we both really enjoyed - it is the story of Alan Turing who invented the Enigma decoding machine leading to the invention of the computer.

Edit - just come back to say that if there is verification number box to fill and you are on blogger please ignore it and go straight to publish - don't know about other blog providers - for some reason blogger seems to think we need it - huh!!!

Hope to get to visit soon, Chris

Wishing in my journall!

I needed a break from finishing my Christmas cards so started a page but didn't get around to finishing it! Today with most cards either written or waiting, I needed another break but had forgotten what I intended to do to finish the page! Ha! Then I remembered seeing that there was a challenge over at 'That's Crafty challenge blog' - 'About face'…..of course,

 this is who the hare was looking at….an ice maiden..come to grant him a Christmas wish! So here he is in his Winter wonderland and I would also like to link this to the 'Stamping Sensations December Challenge - Winter Wonderland'


Thanks for looking, Chris

Curiously flat!

In my attempts to make flatter cards to go through the post I used a  Tim technique - the details cannot be revealed but the direction to the page I used is here at Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities 3 - challenge 16 along with the rules.
The challenge is being sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique

The light is dreadful even though these were taken before three o'clock - a rain storm was on it's way - I had to resort to the daylight lamp overhead!
Although I used the tree stamp from Tim's Just Believe collection I decided not to fussy cut as I liked the conical shape.
As you can see I've been at the copper paint again to do some faux gilding! 

I am attempting to get around to returning some comments but having been away for a few days(who said 'Again!"?)I'm on  big catch up!

On 'baby' sitting duty tonight so I suspect some X box practice will be required!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Journey's end!

I have finally found time to post this last part of our holiday to Austria! As our flight was cheaper and direct from Budapest we ended up with part of an afternoon and evening(if you missed it it's here)
We also had most of a morning and were lucky enough to be only a short walk away from the Danube! It also turned out that an art/craft shop was on the corner of the first road we turned down(oh yeah!)
This was just around the corner - 

and this

It had rained over night but by the time we had eaten breakfast it had started to dry up and was still quite warm!

One man and his dog

We walked down to the Parliament building to see it in daylight,

 then down to the bridge and looked at the view we had seen illuminated the night before

The guards seemed very relaxed!

We saw a school group leaving the parliament building and heading for a river trip ( sorry, we were both teachers and it brings back memories - just standing observing we both agreed that children on school trips are the same the world over!)

Bibo Istvan - who was famous for being the last man to leave the parliament building in the 1955 revolution.
From here we could see Margaret Island through the bridge

and hubby's camera got a shot of this - St Matthias church over the river in Buda

Then we though we had better head back…...past this,

I have still to find out who these people were!
We also passed this florists booth

 Oh! How I would have loved to bring one of these home!

Fabulous cakes...

and of course the art shop - no photos - forgot in my rush to get through the doors!

We had a wonderful trip, of all the places we visited Innsbruck was my favourite, but I will also look forward to planning a return visit to Budapest - we only saw a small part of it(although the transfer taxi driver was kind enough to point out some of the sights as we went to the airport) and I definitely want to get across that bridge to Buda!! 

Thanks for looking, I may still have a few random photos to show you,but for now I hope you enjoyed sharing our trip! Chris

It's Chriiissstmassss!!!…...

…and it's not just creeping nearer - it's less than a month now and guess who hasn't made nearly enough cards!!!?
I have been determined that most of my cards will fit into an envelope to go through the post without extra cost.
This time I've used a stamp by Inkylicious that I bought at a show.
I stamped it three times and then coloured in the leaves, birds, flowers and buds using Sakura gel and sparkle pens plus a gold Pentel.

Lacy grass at the bottom and a hand cut stamped Woodware sentiment.

I must say I'm quite pleased with this as it's not my favourite way to make cards!

I would like to enter in -
Stamping Sensations Challenge -  "Simply Christmas"
and Try It on Tuesday - "Christmas is Coming"

Thanks for looking, Chris

Dreaming with an 'X'

Oh boy! When I saw the title of this challenge at Dragons Dream I had a panic moment until I read that Julie Ann wanted an 'x' somewhere in a word! The challenge is 'The letter x and the colour purple' - well you must know by now that I'm happy with purple in any of it's shades!
Once I knew the letter x could be anywhere I don't know what made me think of it but the word 'Elixir' came into my head - so now what??
Well, at that point my Mojo upped and left me in the lurch. I still had the word going around in my head but not a clue what to do! A few outings and I had only been in my craft room to poke at things - nothing came to mind - should I think of a different word?! Over Saturday and Sunday I decided to sit at my desk and prepare a few die-cuts….and that's when I thought of this(of course by now the place was covered in bits poked out of holes and lots of mess to clear out of the way!)

I started by rubbing a combination of purple shades of Distress inks over the tag and then used a water soaked sponge through my TH 'Rays' stencil. I wanted a bit of the 'Elixir' splashed over the corner of the tag - a little bit of runny black gesso, and then when it had been heat dried to make it bubble a bit I rubbed in a combination of magenta and aquamarine Inca Gold hoping it would make a shade of lilac(it did!) The bottle is an Artistic Stamper one that I've had for ages - doesn't get used nearly enough!I stamped it onto a piece of kitchen roll that I had been using as a shim - it had totally flattened it! The edges were torn and had just enough texture around the bits that hadn't been under a die!I coloured the bottom part of the bottle to give the impression of something being in it. A Crafty Individuals perfume label was stamped by picking out the edges with a distress marker and I hand wrote the label.
At this point I didn't feel it was finished so used a small text stamp around the edges.I also added some 'Brushed Pewter' Distress Stain to the lid and dried off the brush by painting over the bottom of the bottle.
I left it over night and then this morning gave the elixir something to run across the tag to 'cure'….some crackle paste tinted with Dusty Concord Distress!

So here I am on time again (it won't last!!) with my entry for Dragons Dream 180 "Letter X and the colour Purple" 

Thanks for looking, Chris

November….ahem!!!

I know November is nearly over but I clean forgot to post this despite it being ready on time - I blame my two GD spots - think they addled my brain!!!
Doh! I'm talking about my 365/12 calendar journal - Kate started all this a few years ago now and it's something I love doing.
Here is November - before I started to fill it in - as you know if you've seen my blog it's been a busy month!

There's more on this page now but you'll have to wait!

Octobers all filled in!

We're out tonight for our Scrabble challenge - we play with  small group of friends here at our retirement complex. We say it's for fun but we can get quite serious especially when you find yourself losing against 90pluses!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

On the move again!

Warning!!! I will ramble!!!
We decided to check out early so that we could see the station area and pick up a sandwich to eat on the train.
This turned out to be good idea as I was able to find some crafty little bits in a shop right next to our choice of sandwich maker!!
I was rather disappointed to find that we only had a view from one side as we were right by the luggage rack.
The views were interesting as we travelled away from mountains and into quite a lot of flat terrain.

We reached a border town…. by this time we had been joined by two Swedish girls who had been travelling through Europe for nearly a month - it was great to hear about their adventures - in perfect English - put us to shame!!!

Finally our destination - Budapest! This was to be an overnight stop  - Richard, from Cities Direct, who had booked everything for us had found that a flight to Manchester was cheaper from here so we had a bonus!!

Here was a chance for a very short experience to visit somewhere that had never been on any of the lists we had made of places we wanted to visit!

We came slightly unstuck when we came across road works and took a wrong turn but were soon put right by a cafe owner when we stopped for a coffee!

The hotel was quite modern and very close to some beautiful buildings so off we went to make the most of our 22 hours!

The entrance to the State Treasury

This shop drew me in for a better look (and a table runner!)

We went to St Stephen's Square and were able to go inside the cathedral.

One of the most beautiful cathedrals we have visited!

Time flew and we were getting hungry, there are lots of international eating choices in Budapest but we wanted to try typical Hungarian food!

A lot of people were eating outside - it was very warm - but no room for us!

I was so glad we went inside - the vintage touches around the room were fabulous!

The food was delicious - we both chose the same - 

I have found a recipe for this and made it at home too!

While we were eating a party of people came into an adjoining room and a while later I looked through and saw this….

We, and the group of Mexicans beside us, had a sneaky peek at a strudel making demonstration! (The strudel we ate there was delicious too)

The treats weren't over though, I had to visit the toilet, hadn't noticed on the way in but when I came to wash my hands this was the hand basin

Okay so I'm weird!! I don't know if you can see, but the whole room seemed to be devoted to film stars

We headed down to the river and the Parliament buildings, 

This over the other side of the river…
and this on our side

I bet this looked great from the other side!

Then it was time to walk back to the hotel

We had plans for the next morning…

If you've got to here Thank You so much for staying with me, I'll be back soon with last installment! Chris