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.

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 

Tag Tuesday

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

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 

Rhedd's Creative Spirit

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.

A Touch of Lime....

The theme this fortnight at Tag Tuesday has been chosen by my fellow teamie Wendy and she has chosen  "Anything Goes with a Touch of Lime" what a fab theme. I had a sift through my stash and found some card that I had used some intense colour blocks on and had swiped over with a wet brush....and just look at the greens..lime green is in there too.
I die cut the card to create a tag..

I pretty much had everything I needed for the background already, so using a few stamps I added the tree, birds,verse and the lady sitting in the sunshine....

Do pop over and join in the challenge because if you like making tags, you will love this blog...

You can find it here at 

Tag Tuesday

Luvverly Atcs.....

Just sharing  some Atcs I made for swap for a group I am in on facebook. I have always enjoyed creating small pieces and it's also a way of using scraps and stamps that don't get used enough...

The stamps are by Artistic Outpost.....but the telephone box stamp is by Darkroom Door

I love the telephone box and just had to make it red to make it pop...

If Music be the food.........

I have always enjoyed making small pieces of artwork,like Tags, Twinchies, Inchies and Atcs..I think I enjoy it so much because I kind of panic when I see a big blank space...lol.
So here we are with another challenge over at Tag Tuesday and the theme this fortnight was chosen by Michele..and she chose Music..she is also offering a prize for her winner..so do pop over for a look and maybe join in with the fun.

Here is my "Music" Tag...I used the paper from  an old music book to cover the base of the tag, then inked and stamped over to create a background. The image is a freebie, which I printed off. The heart was stamped, cut and then added to the tag..I also found some rose images in my stash so added them.

Finally I printed a sentiment then cut out the individual words and mounted them on some pink card before adding to  my Tag.

Do pop over and have a play in the challenge..as I said earlier there is a prize up for grabs from Michele...you can find the challenge here, just click on the link below.....

Tag Tuesday 

A few Atcs....

Well, there's not much I can do at the moment after having my knee operation yesterday.I am home,but have to take it easy for a few days then gradually get back in to the swing of things.
I'm showing you a few Atcs I made a couple of weeks ago for a swap...

 I coloured the background with distress inks and then added red ink through a stencil...
Using a collage stamp I stamped over the atc..added some random white dots with my posca paint pen.
The images were stamped on some white card ( I was lucky enough to get these stamps in a declutter group..how lucky was that ) and then cut and added to the atcs.
I am really pleased with the way they look...

Mono Row Houses....

Hello...it's the 5th of the month and time for another challenge over at More Mixed Media.
Anything goes, so long as it is Mixed Media, and just to spice things up a bit there is a colour twist should you want to give it a go.....and there is a prize of some fabulous papers of your choice should you be our Winner...badges too for the Top5..so do pop over and join in with the challenge.

                                              Standing up

The colour twist this month is "Black" so for my design project I chose to go with monchrome.

I cut several sets of houses from the Artful Dwelling die...I glued two houses of the same together to make them more rigid.

I decorated each piece with scraps of paper from my stash, some frames that were die cut ...The images were stamped on white card..the same for the sentiment. I added some die cut birds, a birdhouse and fencing....

Laid flat

Once each house was decorated I joined them together using washi tape, doubled the thickness by putting the sticky sides together..securing it in place with a little piece of sticky tape.
I then added the backs to each of the houses...by having 3 layers the houses stand up really well.
Do pop over and check out the blog...you can find it here at
More Mixed Media

Artist Trading Block

November already...Christmas is looming up pretty quickly now...lol.
The challenge for November has just started over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit and my project this month is an Artist Trading Block.

I covered it in tape measure designer paper and added some lace and buttons.

The thread card is one I printed off and the needles are actually antique that I bought in a bundle of haberdashery stuff from a charity shop!

I wound threads on to the mini cotton reels and added them to the Atc block. 

The dress form is made from board and I glued several together before painting it. The wings are from my stash, so they were highlighted with platinum gilding wax and attached to the dress form.

Hope you will  pop over the the challenge and maybe join in with this months challenge.
You can find the blog here at at Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

Nice little Boat.....

My goodness, where did October go??  We are so near the end of 2017.... I feel this year has gone by far too quickly...

Over at Altered Eclectics the challenge for November has just started..as always anything altered, recycled, Mixed Media goes....but no paper crafts.

My project this month for Altered Eclectics is this lovely Boat Display unit..I must admit it has been sitting in the cupboard in my craft room for around 2 yrs..probably longer to be honest.

I remember buying it at a craft show..I think its made by Tando. 

Very easy to put together ( I did use strong glue )...it is made from gray board.

I applied a base coat of gesso then painted it twice with pale blue acrylic paint..then when that was dry I dry brushed some white acrylic paint over the blue.

I had some fab backing paper the had a washed out, peeled paint design on so used that for the back panel.

In my stash I found some bottles that I filled with sand and shingle and some very tiny shells. The orange net had my clementines in...the shells from my local beach that I collected in the summer..along with the drift wood. The seagull is a button and my very last one,so now I am looking for more to replace the ones I have used.

I varnished the pebbles...and I found some black mesh in a box, so that was perfect for a fishing net. 

My friend had given me some little compass's a few months ago, they are the perfect size for this project.

I am so pleased with the way this piece turned out...

Please do pop over to Altered Eclectics and take a look at all the designs teams projects..and maybe you will be tempted to enter the challenge this month.

You can find the challenge here at Altered Eclectics

Tag Tuesday..Book Print

Good Morning Everyone...I am a little late posting today.I had a poorly great grandson over the weekend..unfortunately he was admitted to hospital yesterday..the good news is this morning after being on a drip all night, he is up and about and just about to eat some breakfast.He had picked up a nasty little virus and it knocked him for six, the poor little chap.

So..as you may, or may not know, I am the newbie on the design team over at Tag Tuesday and I got to choose the theme for this fortnights challenge..I chose Book Print....I especially like using the thin older type book pages, but if I need more texture I use the thicker type pages..they are each good in there own ways..the thicker type is almost like blotting paper and can soak up inks and paints

I have added book papers to the base of  both tags, the top tag is mainly distress inks whereas the bottom tag was swiped over with a white acrylic wash over glimmermist sprays.

I do hope you will pop over and play along in the challenge..you can find it here at
                                    Tag Tuesday

Just sharing...

This is a tag I made recently for a swap...just thought I would share it and also enter it in to a challenge ( see end of post )

I love the Teesha girl stamp..I have a few of them now that I bought from a Craft Declutter Group.
I hope my swap partner liked my Tag..I never did hear back from her...
The base of the tag was created using different inks and stamps...the girls was stamped separately, painted with watercolours then added to the tag..the same for the sentiment...
I am entering my tag in to the challenge over at ..
                              We Love 2 Create

Some Good News & a Tag

As the saying goes.." when one door closes, another one opens" and that certainly happened to me....

Sadly I had to close my beloved Tag Challenge blog, the entries got less and less so it was pretty pointless carrying on....but as soon as I closed it there was an invitation in my email box inviting me to join the fabulous design team over at Tag Tuesday....and of course I accepted immediately.

I love making Tags, its such a good way to use up so many scraps we all have lying around on our work desk..for me it's also a way that I can use my many, many stamps..being more altered art in style nowadays, I don't get to use my stamps that often now.

So the theme this fortnight at Tag Tuesday has been chosen by Valerie and is Autumn / Halloween...or you can combine both.

I shaded my tag using distress inks with some ink dusters. The images are stamped from a set of stamps by Artistic Outpost....then using a damp brush and distress inks I shaded the house and foreground. To add the leaves to the tree, I used some cotton buds and distress inks.

I hope to see you join in with the challenge..you can find it here at
                                       Tag Tuesday 

A little Bit of Halloween....

I created a pair of Arches for my design team project for More Mixed Media this month.
The challenges are always mixed media and there is the option to follow the colour choice..and the colour is Orange...so I decided to go with the Halloween theme.

It took me a while to get the template made from some cardboard as I had to draw it free hand and honestly I am totally rubbish at drawing a straight line, let alone a curved one!
I then used my template and using a craft knife I cut 2 arches from some really thick gray board that was on the back of a large water colour paper pad.
Using orange card I covered the arches then added the stamps images to create the background...the ghost, cobweb and cat are die cuts but the image of the little witch is stamped and coloured and then cut out, the same for the 2 cute pumpkins. I added some sparkle to the witches hat.
The clock is also from some scrap paper I had in my stash.

You can find this challenge over at.......
More Mixed Media

October Challenge....

For my design team project at Rhedd's Creative Spirit this month, I couldn't resist making something with a Halloween theme.

What was once a white mini cabinet with a clock that I picked up in a charity shop about a year ago, is now a cabinet storing bottles of poison,some eyeballs, ghost & ghoulie books..along with a rather large black spider that's spread his web everywhere inside the cabinet.

Lots of sanding as the top section had a flower transfer on it....

Gessoed twice then painted twice in orange acrylic paint.

I decided to paint the top and bottom of the cabinet in black paint,but it just didn't work, so I sanded it back..I rather liked the effect and left it as it was.

I added the witch and cats looking in the window..and a few embellishments to the top section....finally adding a bat and skeleton on a chain on the door....

You can find this challenge over at

  Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

...no theme, but your entry must be altered art..no papercrafts/cards.

I am linking my project to the challenge over at We Love to Create
After a short break they are back with a new challenge..do pop over and take a look...

Pretty Altered Perfume Bottle

I have made an extra project this month for Rhedds Creative Spirit....2 girlies from the team are on leave at the moment, but will be back as soon as they are able to.

My extra project is one of my old perfume bottles..it was by Celine Dion and I always loved the bottle so kept it for absolutely ages...

I decorated the bottle with hessian, lace and a torn strip of fabric....all glued in place then I tied around some string.

I also added a glass stopper and a cuff around the neck of the bottle and then made a tag from some brown kraft card and some sticky backed hessian..adding sisal fibres and a flower.

Do pop over and take a look at our challenges....they are altered art, recycled, up cycled..no papercrafts or cards...you can find the challenge here at
                                Rhedd's Creative Spirit

A little Altered Tin

My design team project for Altered Eclectics this month is a little altered tin.
I ask my family and friends to save them for me and they have and now I have a stash of them in all different shapes and sizes...time I started using them,lol...

I started by sanding down the tin and then giving it 2 coats of gesso and then a coat of cream acrylic paint.

I added washi tape around the edges and to the inside rim of the tin.

I have a box with lots of small scraps of backing papers and these are what I used to cover the outside of the tin.

I then added the pretty farme and the word Daydream that I stamped on some spare card.

Again, using scraps of backing paper, I lined the inside of the time, then add a card on one side and the image of  the little girl on the other side.
Then I added some muslin and embellishments and the butterfly to the girls hair.
Do pop over and join in the with challenge, you can find it here at......
                                             Altered Eclectics

Tag # 64 Earthtones

I'm feeling a bit sad....I have decided to close down my Tag Challenge Blog at Go Tag Thursday.
There just isn't enough interest to keep it going any longer.
So Tag # 64 is the last challenge and the theme is Earthtones.
Here is my tag..I love the colours of Autumn and I really enjoyed creating this tag..I even added a little bit of sparkle on the leaves...

Thank you for dropping by my blog...if you fancy entering the last challenge you can find it here at
                                    Go Tag Thursday

Why,this clock is exactly 2 days slow....

I am very honoured to have been invited to be a Guest Designer over at Try It on Tuesday.
The remit was Clock / Watch...and I had just the stamp to fit the bill.

I had a look in my stash to find something suitable that would show the stamp up and something I could hang..so I chose this plaque, it was the perfect size too.

I sanded it down a little then painted it to seal the wood in gesso...once dry I added 2 coats of white acrylic paint, then left it to dry over night.

I stamped the image of the Mad Hatter  and the sentiment (from the Alice stamp set by Indigoblu) on to the plaque and heat dried the ink..although the ink is waterproof  I wasn't going to risk smudges when I coloured the image in.
Once everything was completely dry I sprayed the plaque with Seal and Shine from Crafter's companion, then I added the clock and 2 red bows.
I hope you will pop over to the blog and join in with the challenge, you can find it here at
                                       Try It On Tuesday

Tag..Steampunk-ish

I'm trying to get myself up to date and a little ahead of myself for my own blog challenges... (Rhedd's Creative Spirit & Go Tag Thursday ) and some challenges I usually enter, because I will be away on a break from 2nd Oct for a week..
So yesterday I managed to get a few things done and one of them was my Steampunk themed Tag for the challenge at Tag Tuesday

I used a cream tag and stamped some ink blots all over it in Fosslised Amber distress ink
Using my gorgeous collage stamp by Le Blanche I stamped the main image, shading in the face and hair. Then using random stamps from my stash I added more images in brown ink and again used the distress ink I used for the ink blots.
From some scrap card that I had inked up I stamped the word and mounted that on some card, also stamped a hand which I coloured lightly.
I distressed the edges of the card in Spiced Marmalade distress ink and then added the embellishments and word......
If you fancy entering the challenge why not pop over and take a look...you can find it here at
                                     Tag Tuesday