Advent Houses

A couple of weeks ago during my craft retreat I had one project in mind and knew I wanted to create 24 Advent Houses after seeing a couple of friends make them over the last year or so.

As soon as I arrived on the Friday afternoon, I set to work and die cut the houses from mount board. I didn't have many Christmas papers in my stash so went with a brown theme and my favourite Tim Holtz style. I used die cuts, stamps, papers, ribbons, punches, gems and lots of other products too. As I wanted to go over the edges of the houses I decided not to join them together in a row on a couple of pieces of ribbon. I completed the houses on the Saturday but sadly couldn't finish the project whilst I was there.

In the end and after a few different ideas, I decided to go with standing each house individually in a cotton reel using memo pins. I had to order more reels and pins when I arrived home and have spent the last week decorating these when I had a few spare minutes. I finally finished the project this morning and I'm rather happy with the end result.

Unfortunately I don't have a fireplace in my modern house so they are lined up along a windowsill instead. It's difficult to take a picture of all of them in a row so here are four photos to give you an idea of how I decorated each house.

I really enjoyed this festive project and think that it is something that could be adapted for any occasion such as a new home or a person's name etc.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

Advent Calendar

So after my inky crafty weekend last week I am well and truly hooked again. So much so that during the week I made an order with Papermaze so that I could finally make the Kaisercraft advent calendar (which I purchased about 3 years ago)! Needless to say I've enjoyed some of my weekend working on this project. 

I found a great tutorial on the Merly Impressions blog when I first bought the calendar, I found it again and read it through for any hints and tips that I needed to know. I used Adirondack espresso and gold acrylic paint dabbers, brushed corduroy distress ink, gathered twigs distress stain, My Minds Eye Joyful papers and embellishments, plus twine, gems, pins, tissue paper and glossy accents.

Unfortunately I've finished the project after dark so the photos aren't as good as they could be.

I am so pleased with how it's turned out and I know we're going to enjoy using it for years to come. Now to fill it with a mixture of Lindor balls ready for the morning.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

Baby Shower card

On November 1st we held a baby shower for my Niece. As often is the case I was a bit last minute and have to admit I didn't really know where to start for this type of card and my original thought was to go with something along the lines of a rain 'shower'. Thankfully on the morning of the shower I remembered that I had these Jolee's pregnancy dimensional stickers in my stash...perfect. I combined them with inks, gems, stamps, punches, flowers etc. and came up with this simple and individual card.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

I'm back!

Yes that's right, I'm back...

Except for the occasional card here and there I haven't done any serious crafting since September 2013! I know...over a year...I can't believe it either but I'm happy to say that all changed this weekend as I spent a really enjoyable time at a crafty retreat with friends.

Before I could pack up the car and leave home on Friday I had to venture into and tidy up my craft room in order to find everything I wanted to take. Now that was a challenge in itself (as some of my friends will know as my boyfriend once posted a photo of my messy room on Facebook)! It was like Aladdin's cave and I found a whole box of Tim Holtz items I'd purchased and not even opened!

So onto one of the projects I completed during the retreat. A while back my Niece asked me if I could make her a name banner for the little girl she was expecting last Thursday. I'm pleased to announce that Maisie was born on Friday so it was full steam ahead to get this project completed. I didn't really want to do anything too cute and wanted it to reflect my crafting style. I started with a piece of plain mount board and obviously used lots of Tim Holtz products, got very inky and enjoyed every part of getting back into crafting.

I'm thrilled with the finished piece and visited my great Niece to meet her this morning, she is absolutely beautiful. Her Mum and Dad were also very pleased with the gift I'd made for them.

It's great to be back so watch this space for the posts showing the other 2 projects I've enjoyed working on over the weekend.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x