Winter Wood and Pine Panels

Hello all!  I'm back in the UK for three months for work, so once again I've had to pack more craft supplies than clothes in my suitcase so that I don't get withdrawal symptoms!  I'll share some pictures of my temporary craft stash if you're interested, but for now I thought I'd show you this pair of wintry panels I created just before leaving the Czech Republic last week.

I wanted the new Tim Holtz 3D embossing folders Tree Rings and Pine Branches the moment I saw them.  I knew they'd make perfect settings for my PaperArtsy botanical stamps, and I just had time to make one panel with each while I was doing my packing.

The first one was this weathered wood panel created with the Tree Rings folder.

I tinted the gorgeous wood texture with Distress Sprays and Crayons - sorry, I can't really remember what colours I used but Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Walnut Stain and Weathered Wood were definitely in the mix...

some pinecones gathered on walks, and real twigs interspersed with die-cut ones...

and of course my EAB Hawthorn Edition stamps.

I kept the colours very muted and wintry - it's all done with Distress Inks, including the new(ish) Lumberjack Plaid mixed with Festive Berries.  The leaves are a combination of Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Weathered Wood.

The quote is from the same set, embossed in Wow Primary Bark powder, and it's resting on some coils of rusty wire.

The second panel uses the Pine Branches folder.

Again, the colours are a bit hazy - there's certainly some Rustic Wilderness, Speckled Egg, Evergreen Bough and Walnut Stain around...

a lovely Idea-ology Quote Token, with Picket Fence Distress Crayon highlighting the words...

the berries from my EAB29 Mistletoe Edition with a touch of Glossy Accents crackled with a heat gun...

background stamping with the theatrical ephemera from the same set...

and some more pinecones.

Of course, the BigShot was one thing I couldn't put in the suitcase (too heavy, too big, too awkward!), but I did pre-press a few more of these panels to bring with me.  Keep an eye out for them in future makes... they're definitely going to become a regular part of my creations.

I hope you like them, and I hope you are enjoying a gentle and peaceful weekend full of good things.  See you soon.

I prefer winter and Fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape--the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

Andrew Wyeth

Advent Countdown (part 1)

Hello all!  I'm trying to create something daily during December so I'm here to share the first week's worth.  There are definitely some new wintry favourites among them for me...

I haven't always got as far as a finished tag - so some days are background-creating days, and some days have more than one tag.  Hopefully in the end it will all add up to 25!  Here's what we have so far...

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Those silvery blue crackled stencilled backgrounds appearing were actually made back in the summer during one of my first playtime sessions with the (then) new Uncharted Mariner colour.  It's taken until now for them to get their chance to shine!

There are some of my own PaperArtsy EAB28 Juniper Edition berries and text in a couple of the others.  And I think my favourite maybe the layered stamping backgrounds from Day 6.  I'm looking forward to finishing those off. 

I hope you are having a gentle run up to the festive season, and I hope to be back with some more Advent Countdown creativity soon.  Happy crafting, all!

I pray this winter be gentle and kind--

a season of rest from the wheel of the mind.

John Geddes

Christmas Countdown Tags Part II

Hello all!  Sorry, I'm behind again... I've got another eight tags for you today (and we're almost at the final eight already too!).  I know how busy everyone is at this time of year (I am too, hence the delay) so I'm not going to hang around here.  Here are days 9 - 16 of my Christmas Countdown tags...

So there you are... eight more tags to get you in a wintry mood, and possibly even a festive one.  I'm just about ready now.  Tree-decorating tomorrow (and vases of ivy etc to do), and we're pretty much there.  I hope you're feeling ready to either rest or play, but above all that you are staying safe and well.  Happy festive crafting all!

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.

Calvin Coolidge

Sellotape Snowman

Hello all!  It really is nearly here now... how's everyone doing?


I've got a bit of decorative recycling for you today.  If you use up all your sellotape as you're wrapping presents, whatever you do don't throw away the inner cardboard circle.  Look what you can do with it instead!


I'm really happy with this dangling decoration, full of snowy sparkle, pinecones and cinnamon sticks, berries, rusty wire, and of course that delightful "vintage" snowman figurine.
















I've always hung on to the leftover reels from my parcel tape, sure that they would come in handy craft-wise one day, but this is the first time I've found a use for one.












I started by giving it a good coat of white paint to give me a nice blank canvas, and then set to with the DecoArt chalk paints and crackle glaze.














As you all know, I love a bit of crackle, and this has plenty of it both inside...















... and out.  I think it's Relic (a soft grey) on the undercoat and then Everlasting (white!) over the top of the crackle glaze.  And that's not inking on the edges of the frame, that's rust from when I was wrapping it round - genuine distressing!













Painting the snowman himself was a little fiddly, but worth the effort...













... especially once I'd sanded back the Fresco paint in places to give it a chipped look, and added a coat of Distress Dry Glitter for that vintage sparkle.  















I used matte medium to glue it on, but rubbed some of it off for a worn look in places.













He gleams beautifully in the sunshine.  (It was honestly not summer when I took these pictures - just the one sunny day we've had in the midst of ceaseless rain lately and a non-deciduous bush in the background of some of the photos!)
















He's even sparkly round the back!














I cut some planks of scrap cardboard to create the platform for him to stand on, and then added DecoArt Snowtex all over them, except where he needed to be.












The Idea-ology trees have had a few spritzes of Pumice Stone Distress Spray (I wanted to stick to neutrals with just that pop of red, rather than go for the full on green) and then a dry-brushing of snow white on the tips of the branches.













I snipped off the wooden bases so that I could stick the wire trunks directly into the cardboard planks.  Thankfully I remembered to make the holes for them before the Snowtex set solid.














I think it would still have been possible to get them in, but it would have been much harder work!















I knew from very early on that I wanted to include some festive gatherings - pinecones and berries, and maybe a cinnamon stick for good measure.












I just had to figure out how to attach them whilst making it possible still to hang up my decoration.

Rusty wire to the rescue!















It took a couple of goes of twisting it around the sellotape circle to get it in place as I wanted it.  It goes round the outside and then around the top edge of the frame a couple of times before looping over the top of the pinecones for the hanger part.














It needed plenty of Liquitex Heavy Body Gel Medium to glue down the pinecones and berries in place as the surface was quite bumpy what with all the wire!












I'd picked up these lovely frosted berries just a couple of days earlier in The Range.  They come on brown stems which echo the rusty wire beautifully once they're all twisted and gnarly.














Here's that extra loop of rusty wire over the top so that you can hang the whole thing up.















I gave myself another tricky photography session with this project, of course - and it was a windy day too, despite the sunshine!  Trying to get the thing to stay still was quite the game.

















But if it does revolve all the way round, at least the view is pretty good from the back too.

For once there are no words on this project - but maybe once a year that's okay, don't you think?  (The last one I can remember that had no words at all was Walking in a Ginger Wonderland, three Christmases ago - but feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong!)

I hope you're all almost ready for the festive season.  I'll be decorating the tree this weekend and baking some Christmas biscuits too, so if I'm not in the mood by Monday, I guess I never will be! 

I'm sorry I'm not a very good visitor at the moment, but things will improve over the festive break.

For now, my friendly snowman and I are wishing the very best of good luck to you all for the final countdown!   Oh, and watch out on Saturday for more festivities over at Cestina's Dollshouses.  See you again soon.

It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.
From A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

I'm pretty sure I've used that quote before, but I love it!






I'd like to join in at Try It On Tuesday where they know that Christmas Is Coming
Anything Goes over at Moo Mania & More
At the Creative Artiste Challenge as usual Anything Mixed Media Goes