MrsBeez

Under the mistletoe

Posted on December 4, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =0, craft packages received =0

As you know, today we are off to Vienna. I am scheduling this post as I have been told, in no uncertain terms, that I must not be messing about on my blog when we need to make a prompt and early start. As if?! My project to share with you today is a tag that I have made for this week’s Sunday Stampers challenge where the theme is numbers.

This uses a beautiful mistletoe stamp by Lavinia. I love how sharp it is but in particular, I love it that the designer has made it so the leaves are solid and the berries are an outline.

First off, I coloured the tag with distress inks – Antique Linen, Shabby Shutters, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and a touch of Vintage Photo. Next, I stamped some script in Vintage Photo. The mistletoe was stamped over the top and then the berries coloured in with a white gel pen.

Next I used the tiny hanging heart stamp, from Stampotique, and used black Memento ink so I could colour the hearts in red with Promarkers.

Then came the tricky part. Which number to use?! I mean, there are so many and I’m not very good at making choices. In the end, I found an Ideology sticker and used that.

After I had added the bow and baker’s twine I went over the hearts with some Crackle Accents.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Silent snow

Posted on December 3, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =0, craft packages received =1

Now, if you paid a visit to my blog earlier today, or you are just buzzing over now because you received an email alert you may be a little puzzled. A slight scheduling error on my part! All we become apparent next week! It is still Tuesday and I am still going to Vienna tomorrow, so all is well with the world.

There is a new challenge over at City Crafter Challenge Blog and this week it is to use wood pieces or frames in your project. Freckled Fawn are sponsoring the challenge and there is a fantastic prize on offer for one lucky winner. Here’s my card:

I happened to have a box of tiny little wooden house embellishments that I’ve been to scared to use and decided this was the time to try one out. I’ve kept my card clean and simple.

I painted the house with red acrylic paint and added a little Snowtex. I placed some yellow card on the reverse side to give the windows a welcoming glow and then filled up the little heart with glitter glue. The background is a scrap of fabric – I kept the edges quite rough. I used another scrap to cut a little tree shape.

To finish the card I used two stamps from my new Darkroom Door set.

So, I’m off to pack and this is not my forte. I like to cover every eventuality and occasion so always take far more than I need. Mr Beez will question whether I need so much to which the answer obviously “yes.”

Thanks for buzzing by.

Jackets

Posted on December 2, 2013 by MrsBeez

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A new week begins and the new word over at Every Inchie Monday is “jacket”.

Well, did you seriously think I wouldn’t weave Christmas in there?! For once I am actual able to post my inchies on a Monday which is a nice change.

I’ve used glitter card for Santa’s jacket and a torn piece of paper across the bottom for the fur. The belt is black cardstock and the buckle is made by placing a tiny square of black card on top of a slightly larger one of gold glitter card. The buttons were done with Promarkers.

The elf jacket is green card. I used the reverse side of some Dresden trim, coloured with red Promarker, and a little gold glitter.

For the dinner jacket I used a white cardstock base and then black on the top, cutting out lapels, bow tie and a pocket. The buttons are silver glitter glue.

So a little wardrobe of jackets for the festive season. Be sure to buzz over to Every Inchie Monday to see the fabulous creativity that the other players will have brought to the challenge.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Santa Claus is coming to town…

Posted on December 1, 2013 by MrsBeez

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Happy Advent everyone – it’s finally here! At this point in time I am MILES behind with my list of things to do today. I shall get there but it’s slow progress. However, I have had some lovely Advent surprises – eldest son appeared with a chocolate Advent calendar each for myself and Mr Beez, I got a gorgeous pair of festive washing up gloves and a festive washing up brush from another friend plus a lovely Christmas countdown from another.

Today I am sharing a Christmas decoration that is a bit of a spin-off from yesterday’s illuminated bottle.

This started as a wooden heart that I covered with some white muslin, I deliberately left the edges rough and ready. I’ve added white crochet lace and some organza rose trim.

The image, from The Graphics Fairy, is the same one I used yesterday.

I’ve added a little silver glitter and topped it off with a sparkly punched snowflake.

To finish it off, I tucked in a small piece of music manuscript and some words.

As well as sharing this over at The Graphics Fairy Brag Monday party I am also linking it up for the new challenge, #85, at Really Reasonable Ribbon which is a bingo selection plus ribbon - I’ve gone on the diagonal for white, image and glitter.

Now next on my list of jobs is dusting and hovering! Alternatively, I could have a freshly baked mince pie and a glass of mulled wine. Decisions, decisions!

Thanks for buzzing by.

Mistletoe and wine – without the mistletoe

Posted on November 30, 2013 by MrsBeez

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Each month over at Anything But A Card Challenges one of the Design Team takes a turn in the spotlight and hosts a mini-challenge that lasts a week. You may remember that last month it was my turn and the theme was small is beautiful. This month it is the turn of Susan, who heads up the Anything But A Card blog and is also a super talented mixed media artist and graphic designer. You can find her blog here. The theme of her spotlight challenge is “recycle it.”

I’m recycling and old wine bottle as well as using up bits and bobs of scraps from my stash and a fabulous image from The Graphics Fairy.

First I coated the bottle with PVA and then with chunky glitter and faux snow. I’ve seen people use salt crystals but they also report that eventually these turn yellow. I’m hoping that the glitter may stay icy white. Once it was dry I gave it a quick spritz of hairspray to try and prevent it from brushing off.

I love this beautiful Father Christmas image from The Graphics Fairy. I ‘ve given it a coating of crystal clear glitter and then edged it with gold Dresden trim. To adhere it to the bottle I’ve used glue gel as this can cope with the rough glittery surface.

At the top I’ve recycled some ribbons that originally came from packaging. In fact one of the pieces still had the gift tag attached. Tucked in amongst the bows is a cluster of gold berries and some red berries that came off a Christmas cracker from a few years ago.

The finishing touch were one or two glittery die-cut snowflakes which, coincidently, were left over from my Anything But A Card Design Team piece for the next challenge which starts tomorrow (you can see what I did next Sunday!)

Once the bottle was complete, all I had to do was pop in some little fairy lights. These are tiny little battery operated ones. Tomorrow is the great outdoor light switch-on in the Beez household but I think these can be allowed to light up the rest of today!

Thanks for buzzing by.

Christmas angel

Posted on November 29, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =1, craft packages received =2

Back safe and sound, but exhausted, after my trip to Hull. Having mentioned about Hull to Sheffield being a long train journey it turned out to be even longer as we got held up outside Selby. At least on arrival in Sheffield there was the sight of the Christmas tree to raise my spirits.

I have fond memories of Sheffield train station at Christmas. My grandparents would arrive their when they stayed with us. We would go and meet them and I can remember being so excited, standing beside the tree on the concourse, waiting for them to appear. After what seemed a lifetime my Grandad’s face would appear over the wall at the top of the stairs they had to walk down to reach us. The wall has gone now, and the station has been modernised, but the layout and the stairs remain the same and I often think of those times as I make my way to wherever I’m going and when I return.

Today I am sharing a little Christmas bauble that I made using a lovely angel image from The Gecko Galz.

I’ve learned from previous attempts, that trying to “float” an image inside a bauble is not as easy as it looks and so on this occasion have played safe! I’ve used a strip of vintage music manuscript, also from The Gecko Galz, and some ivory crochet lace around the centre of the bauble and topped it with the glittered image.

I’ve added some more lace and some wired, gold starry trim around the top of the bauble.

I thought these might be quite nice if they were personalised with someone’s name.

Despite the long and tedious journey, yesterday’s event in Hull was good fun. We had a bit of a smoothie making competition and some of our delegates came up with a great jingle which they were brave enough to perform to camera. You can check it out here and it would be great if you left a comment.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Christmas canvas

Posted on November 28, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =1, craft packages received =0

Today I shall be wending my weary way back from Hull. It is always a long and tedious journey and there are no refreshments on the train. However, I must not grumble as the alternative, i.e. no trains at all, is infinitely worse! Therefore, today’s post is scheduled as I have a new mobile internet dongle and I have no idea as yet if it works and didn’t want to take any risks. I will confess it was a bit of a scramble to complete my project before I left home and when you see it, you will wonder what an earth could have taken so long. Don’t worry, I will tell you!

I love these mini canvases that Calico Crafts are currently selling. They do a whole range of sizes and this is one of the slightly larger ones but is still only about 6cm x 8cm. I am sharing this over at Sunday Stampers for the current challenge – gold. I apologise for rolling out my little rooftop trees once again, but I love them. Had I been able to find my stash of golden pears, you would be seeing an entirely different project but that will have to wait for another day.

I painted the canvas gold, changed my mind and covered it with red. I then used some PVA glue to create the raised part and left it to dry overnight. I have to thank Stamping Mathilda for this idea, although she doesn’t use PVA. Once dry, I added more red paint and then a little Vintage Photo distress ink. This was followed by a generous smudge of gilding wax.

I also stamped some script on to the central panel and heat embossed this in gold, you can just about make it out if you look really carefully. Then came the dilemma – what to fill the central panel with, you see I hadn’t really thought this bit through and this is where I wasted A LOT of time. I played with butterflies and gilding flakes and glitter and gold card and …. well the list was endless and the final result was zilch, except for very gluey, gold fingers. Then I spied two the two little leftover trees, remnants from last week’s Sunday Stampers project and they looked perfect!

Just in case you haven’t seen these little trees before they are the rooftop from a Dylusions little house stamp. I added in the words and some snow, just for good measure.

If you are allowed to love your own project then this is the one for me and as luck would have it, this blends in perfectly with my living room colour scheme. Disappointingly, the dim light when I photographed this doesn’t show it off at it’s best.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Feeling ropey

Posted on November 27, 2013 by MrsBeez

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By the time you are reading this I will, once again, be off on my work travels. I am, again, heading to Hull, a place I seem to have been to far too many times. However, this time may be a little different as it has just been announced that Hull will be the UKs City of Culture for 2014. I will be very honest and say that I find it hard to say that sentence with a straight face. A fact you may not know about Hull is that all its telephone boxes are white, rather than red.

So to today’s project and it’s time for the new challenge over at Every Inchie Monday where the theme is “rope.” My first thought was soap on a rope which, when I was younger, was one of the best things to get in your stocking. Back then, it usually came from Avon and was in the shape of a peach. I was reminded of that as the only rope I could find looked very much like the sort that had soap attached! Here are the inchies I came up with:

As you can see, I can squeeze Christmas out of anything! I separated the rope strands and then twisted a tiny bit of wire around one end to keep it altogether.

For the tree, I spritzed the rope with Dylusions, added a star and then some blobs of red stickles.

It was whilst I was making the tree that the idea of the beard came to me. I added an extra little strand for a moustache. The nose is a tiny red gem and the eyes are some black faux pearls. I used some Snow Writer for the hair.

Now I’m sure my fellow inchie makers will come up with some amazing artwork and inspirational interpretations of the theme, so be sure to buzz over and check them out.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Snow White

Posted on November 26, 2013 by MrsBeez

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Today I am sharing my second project for my guest designer spot over at City Crafter Challenge Blog. This week, for Challenge #187, the theme is “Snow White. Here’s the beautiful inspiration photo’:

I decided to make a snowy card:

I have some new dies and a snowflake embossing folder. I used the embossed snowflakes for the background then embossed some more card with dots, tore it into strips, added glitter and then used this in the foreground.

The die cut trees were also glittered. I find the easiest way to do this is to use spray adhesive and then apply the crystal clear glitter.

I tucked the deer family into the snowdrifts.

Now, if you’ve been particularly observant, you will have noticed that in some of the photo’s there is a hint of a sentiment. However, once I’d photographed the card I decided I didn’t like the look of the sentiment, although it was white, it was too yellow toned for this card so I took it off again!!

I hope you’ll buzz over to City Crafter and take a look at what the Design Team have been up to.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Little Red Riding Hood

Posted on November 25, 2013 by MrsBeez

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The start of a new week also sees the launch of a new challenge over at Crafty Boots Challenges. Chosen by the lovely Sandra, the theme for this fortnight is storybook characters. True to form, I dithered for ages over which character to go with before coming across some lovely vintage images over at The Graphics Fairy, including Little Red Riding Hood:

I used some designer paper from my stash, together with red cardstock and an old book page, inked the edges and layered them up.

I decoupaged the butterfly to add a little dimension.

One of my favourite things at the moment is Stickles glitter glue and I couldn’t resist adding a touch to the cloak and also to the flowers.

I’ve used a double strip of ribbon and a double bow across the bottom of the card.

The finishing touch was to add three little red sweetheart blossoms.

Be sure to buzz around to all the other Crafty Boots design team blogs and check out their wonderful creations. I hope you’ll be able to join us with your own project.

Thanks for buzzing by.