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Sunday, 16 December 2018

12 days to Christmas - Jacquie Lawson advent calendar

Jacquie Lawson advent calendar...

Each year for the past few I've bought myself a Jacquie Lawson online advent calendar. It's a little cutesy but it's a bit like having my sister around as she used to send me JL e-cards throughout each year in celebration of holidays and birthdays and sometimes just to say hello. There were always inspiring and loving words attached to them. I was going through old emails and I did a search and found every e-card she sent me. I'm thinking it would be nice to download them onto a memory stick.

The advent calender this year is based in Edinburgh and has scenes (with added teddy bears) from the city and online games to play including the chance to decorate a Christmas tree and to design a tartan. If there were a clan called McWabbit then this might be suitable, a nice grassy green. So far there's also a tree to decorate, a coat-of-arms to design and snowflakes to create - your chosen designs will appear in the living room, which is also interactive.

There's glimpses into Edinburgh's historic buildings including artworks from the National galleries of Scotland with a good mix of art styles. And occasionally there's a teddy animation just for fun. If you're looking for a paper-free advent calendar then this one's a sweet choice...

12 days to Christmas - decorating my planner

12 days to Christmas - Trollbeads Share-a-Christmas-Card

12 days to Christmas - making bunting

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All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.

Saturday, 15 December 2018

12 days to Christmas - making bunting

making some Christmas bunting...

What's a celebration without a little bunting? Give me an excuse and I'll make some. Last year's included phrases like 'Ho Ho Ho' and 'Jolly' but this year I left off using alphabet letters and went for colour and pattern instead.

Sometimes I buy Christmas cards in the cheap shops to use, picking those that have plenty of sparkle and embellishments as they'll go further. Larger sized cards are worth getting too, especially if they're less than a quid each. But as I had prepared for a crafty Christmas by buying packs of holiday themed card I used 'Traditional Christmas' paperstack by Make & Create instead.

I have a method - use my triangular master to cut pennants from a variety of similar coloured sheets, the add contrasting card to a corner. Use 2 different washi tapes to break up the shape. Then a sticker, a die cut and a 3D embellishment. Finally a pre-made word embellishment and some sparkly gemmies. And I back each pennant with some plain coloured card - I think it creates a good finish.

Some baker's twine threaded through punched holes at the top 2 corners and bob's your auntie. This is the perfect idea for using up last year's cards if you don't have a stock of scrapbooking materials.

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12 days to Christmas - decorating my planner

12 days to Christmas - Trollbeads Share-a-Christmas-Card

Friday, 14 December 2018

12 days to Christmas - Trollbeads Share-a-Christmas-Card

Trollbeads Christmas event...

It's December! Which means Trollbeads are giving away silver, gold and murano glass charm beads. They were the first bead charm makers, based in Denmark, and have been designing and making beads since the 70s. The draw prepared in mid November with entrants being sent names and addresses of other entrants from across the world. I've sent cards to Europe, USA, Canada and Mauritius.

And I've received cards from Lithuania, Australia, Italy and Singapore. Raffle tickets are also earned by registering cards received. Two years ago I won a silver woven heart bead (in picture at top).

I have a nice little collection of beads, started almost a decade ago when my sister bought me a silver bracelet with two beads and each following Christmas and birthday she'd buy me another bead. Some she chose, some I chose. And each time I'd sell artwork at a solo exhibition I'd buy a sterling silver bead, its design related to the work I'd sold - Spiral, Ball of Yarn and Venus (based on Venus of Willendorf).

My favourite is a OOAK carved amber bead I won, with another bracelet, after my design was a finalist in the Trollbead annual People's Bead competition. The overall winner is sent a copy of their bead design made up in gold and the design is included within the Trollbead range.

Do I need more beads? Probably not...Would I like more beads? Of course.

Fingers and toes crossed.

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12 days to Christmas - decorating my planner

Thursday, 13 December 2018

12 days to Christmas - decorating my planner

decorating my planner...

I use a Webster's Pages personal planner and inserts from SimplyPlanDesigns at Etsy. I've stopped using decorative planner stickers and instead use washi tape to decorate the tops and bottoms of the pages...it's a simpler way to decorate and I like turning to a new week and seeing different colours and themes.

It's all about making the to-dos and the apts a bit more jolly. Yes, my planner looks like it belongs in Santa's workshop but it's fun decorating and each time I open it I smile! 3D stickers, fancy paperclips and embellished dividers provide a blast of seasonal colour.

I include a gratitude page - room for a note about something good or positive that's happened or that I've experienced. When it's too easy for me to get bogged down by what I don't have or aren't able to do then writing something, no matter how small, is often enough to lift me.

And this year, instead of making a separate Christmas planner I again simplified things, buying an insert from the same Etsy shop, to keep track of spending, shopping lists, gift ideas to make, events and a Christmas card record. It suits me as this year I've cut right back on expenditure and on stress. But I still enjoy detail in decorating my home, crafting and making the day ahead one of comfort.

...and that llama think he's a reindeer...

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Thursday, 15 November 2018

a little poetry...

Reading in a tree 2015

Pear Tree

This was the tree of all trees

Huge

I learned the way to climb it

Foot after foot, hand after hand

Until I was almost as high as the sky

A place to sit

With my back against the hard wood

Legs dangling

Bark against my bare skin

The trunk stretching further

Beyond reach

My hands plucked ripe rough-skinned pears

From between the leaves

Pears that I chewed and munched

Their juices dribbling over my chin

And then my arm hurled

The wet cores through the branches

Out into the air

Until they fell in arcs to the floor

Sweetness

July 2018

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Saturday, 27 October 2018

papercrafts in October...

October Daily

Started an arty journal called a 'daily' - challenge was set by Serena Bee Creative. Made a TN (Traveler's Notebook) and used scrapbook paper 'Jack's Revenge' by Reminisce, 'Dark Hollow' by Ella & Viv, 'Haunted House' by Carta Bella and 'Treat Bag' by Hocus Pocus. Papermaze is a good UK site to buy US papers. This page in my October Daily was about the Harry Potter postage stamp set that was released on the 16th.

Thingummyjigs

Found stripey straws at Poundland and decorated circular gift tags edged with metal to make some decorative picks. I could have done with a small label maker instead of writing the words.

Hallowe'en bunting

For the last couple of Christmases I've made bunting using cards and scrapbook paper so I translated that into Hallowe'en bunting saying BOO!. A gemmie makes the skull's eye pop.

Haunted House

Had bought a set of toy suitcases and reckoned they'd make a good Haunted House stacked on top of one another - this was a BIG project. I removed the hardware (handles, locks) and cut away the lids to leave the 3-storied house open on one side. Making the furniture was fun. I used small stickers and bottles on the scrapbook papers to decorate.

Pocket Letter Swap

As a member of PopFizzPaper's Crafty Club I did a pocket letter swap. with a US crafter called Kestrel whos jam-packed letter blew me away with little folders and stashes including stickers, bead mixes, embellishments and washi tape samples. Oh, and there was a bag of apple and pumpkin flavoured candy corn too. I stocked my pocket letter to her with a tiny painting, frames, stickers and die cuts. And blackcurrant lollipops and a bag of Swizzel's sweets dressed up as a mummy. Great fun.

Monster Paperclips

Had glued some paperclips onto felt balls bought at Sostrene Grene. To turn them into tiny monsters I added goggly eyes. Easy peasy.

Wand

Amongst the scrapbook paper was some photographic wooden prints. Folding this upon itself made a wand shape. Only effective from one side as the other revealed the folds. 'Illusionardium Woodenwandus'

FatBat Rosette Shaker

I wanted to make a shaker rosette and decorate it as a bat but I made the shaker so big that it resulted in a huge bat. Added a stripey straw, and behold, Fatbat.

Memorydex Challenge

A challenge set by Sabrina Ann. Memorydex is a type of journaling system using a filing card type of setup. Even without a Memorydex die cutter or punch it's still feasible to make them. We had to base our cards on either monsters or villains and I chose Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus on a bad day - 'when a spell runs amok'. The black cat Thackery Binx also runs fowl of the exploding spell.

PFP Crafty Club Shenanigans

Dani from PopFizzPaper ran a Hallowe'en fb page for the month of October full of mini challenges, treasure hunts and opportunities to post pictures of papercrafts. I won a mini Happy Mail (goodies decorated and packed imaginatively, put in a box and posted - there's always sweets included) currently winging its way to me.

I'm really hoping to do a video flip-through of the October Daily book I made and decorated AND I'd love to make a video on the Haunted House too. Although I'd started the Inktober challenge this year I only got as far as the fourth day - I instead focussed on papercrafting which is something I love working with. And that online course I signed up to (free on Kadenze) fell by the wayside - I'll pick that up again in November... hopefully...

there's a procrastination challenge that's starting on the 1st...

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Thursday, 11 October 2018

my creative planner...

I can hardly believe it was June, 4 months ago, since I last posted an entry in this blog. I have been in the throes of a dark phase but have and am still crawling out from under that particular stone. I have a couple of other blogposts that I might now be able to finish. For this one I've taken a few pictures of my creative planner without which I wouldn't be able to function as an artist/crafter.

I use a green Leuchtturm (how is that pronounced?) which I picked up at TK Maxx for half price. I stood there at the stationery shelves with both the green one and a grey one in my hands, trying to decide which to buy. I should have bought both.

The Leuchtturm is favoured by many bullet planners as the 249 pages are each numbered plus it has an index section at the front. This keeps me from losing track of what I'm doing when. The pages are nice quality though some pens are too heavy ink-wise. I like using a Papermate Replay as it's easy to erase mistakes, misspellings etc. My book has blank pages so I can sketch ideas in them.

I draw out a new month's calendar when I need it and prefer drawing boxes to write within. I do use a code to indicate whether a task has been achieved, decided against or pushed ahead to another time. However my writing changes depending upon my mood or emotion. It can be anything between neat and downright chaotic. I doubt if I will ever achieve the perfection of Kara Benz's careful yet artistic consistency, and yet I yearn to be able to do so.

Unlike my personal journal, where I revisit pages I've written again and again and add dated notes in the margins, my Leuchtturm is a working tool. It serves to organise the inspiration and excitement I feel whenever I have an idea and helps me translate that maelstrom into achievable working tasks.

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