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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

More tidying....

I bought these 2 sets of reindeer a while ago to decorate for christmas, one set each for myself and my daughter. I had seen some one else decorate them and thought I would like some myself, so found the group on facebook..here is the link..they are also on ebay..MDF Workshop

I sealed the reindeer then lightly sanded them down, then I painted them in White Satin paint by Leyland. It took about 4 coats before I was finally happy with the finish. I lightly sanded and brushed them off between coats...


I added the ribbons and buttons...I love them, they look great even though they are simply decorated...and I know my daughter was thrilled with her set.....

Here are mine on my sideboard....


So..I am off now to make a nice cup of tea ( it's too early for Mulled Wine ) and get some Christmas gift tags made....



End of year tidy up....

Good morning from a much warmer Devon,UK....it's been bitterly cold the last few days, although here locally we haven't had the snow and disruption that other parts of the UK have suffered.
I was awake early and decided to clear my photo albums on my laptop and transfer my craft ones to my memory card...so I thought before I do I would share a couple of things I was busy on recently....
Not the best photos as the lighting was so bad..my walls are definitely not pink or gray,lol....

This is a Christmas Banner I made from scratch, the papers are lovely and thick and were from a 12"x 12" pad from the "Works"..cost £5...I cut the pennants from card and adhered the papers to them.



The banner is quite long ( 19 pennants) so I had to take 4 photos, the photos are not in order..for the first half of the banner the little pennants on the large pennants are leaning to the left..the second half they are leaning to the right.



Each pennant has die cut embellishments on them, including the rosettes.
I punched the holes and added eyelets and then threaded the string through....I am really pleased with the way it looks...
My grandson's partner said she would love to have a banner..and yes I made her one, almost identical, but a lot shorter,lol..she loves it and has it hanging on her lounge wall now.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Christmas Memories....

The theme for the last challenge of 2017 at Tag Tuesday was chosen by Joan, Christmas Memories.
Well I have many happy memories of Christmas, both as a child and an adult, but the one that stands out the most is Christmas of 1961 that we all spent in Germany with my mother's family. I was 11 years old and it was just magical. Lots of snow and on Christmas Eve we all went to stay at my auntie's house in Dassendorf, she actually had an outside toilet..lol.
My aunt lived on the edge of the forest and I remember after Christmas dinner we all went for a walk, it was the first time I ever saw Deer, quite a few of them. The trees were so tall yet the snow had fallen through and settled on the forest floor and we saw animals foot prints in it..we had great fun working out which animals had left them.


So I just had to have deer and trees on my Tag as a reminder of that special time....
If you enjoy making Tags, why not pop over and join in, you have plenty of time as this challenge will run for 3 weeks..it will be back again in Janaury 2018.
You can find the challenge here at 

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

White..over at More Mixed Media

Time for another challenge..this time it's Anything Goes, but with a twist..and that twist is "White"...and you can find the challenge here at More Mixed Media
My design team project this month is a christmas decoration for my bottle of twigs.

I die cut a few large snowflakes...then I went over them with some glitter snow texture paste. I layered them up and then added the die cut reindeer that I cut from glitter card..one being a very light lilac colour..and that was really to break up all the white.


In my stash I found a cracked clear plastic christmas ornament that fitted behind my decoration perfectly..so that was attached using hot glue.


Around the middle of the bottle I adhered some wide white satin ribbon, then over that I attached some white mesh..then over that some silver mesh.


I added my decoration and then added my twigs...love how this has all come together....
So now it's your turn to create a mixed media project...it is Anything Goes, the twist of  "white" is optional..well worth entering the challenge, because there are some fabulous digi papers up for grabs....the challenge is here at
                                      More Mixed Media

Friday, December 1, 2017

December's Challenge at Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Another year has just flown by..and christmas is almost upon us again.
So here we are, the last challenge for 2017 at Rhedd's Creative Spirit...but it will run right up until Janaury 31st at 9am. Everyone at Rhedd's Towers are taking a well deserved break.

My design team project is a wooden heart that I recycled as a christmas ornament..I bought a couple of these hearts in a sale quite some time ago, they had script on them that I sanded off..I love the shape, lopsided and chunky.


After sanding the heart down, I gave it 2 coats of gesso....I cut a piece of corrugated card to shape and gessoed that as well..
Once the gesso was dry on the corrugated card I added crackle paste and left it to dry over night.


I dry brushed brown paint around the sides of the heart to age it..then added the corrugated heart using hot glue.
I added some glitter snow over the dried crackle paste and added the word "HOPE"
I gessoed the twigs and cones etc and added them to the heart, adding the die cut reindeer that I cut from a scrap of glitter card.
To finish I added some die cut snowflakes...I am looking forward to having this piece on display over the christmas period.

Do pop over to the challenge blog..remember the challenge will run until the 31st January...you have plenty of time to enter..and you can enter more than once!
You can find it here at 

A stocking filler for my daughter....

Christmas is almost upon us and this is the last challenge at Altered Eclectics for 2017....our next challenge will be February 2018 as we are on a break.
My design team project this month is a very lacey album..with a pretty christmassy vintage image. I have actually made it as gift for my daughter, a stocking filler really so I am only showing the blank pages and not any of the personal stuff I added inside..


 The cover of the album is very thick gray board, the same as the album pages....


 I added 6 album pages..all decorated with vintage style backing papers..and then I added personal photos and sentiments..not shown as they are personal  gift.


Do pop over to our last challenge of the year..it will stay open until 31st January....
You can find it here at Altered Eclectics.