A CHRISTMAS ROBIN.

          Robins, wonderful little birds, we all love them in our family, as do most of Great Britain I think. Such a pretty little bird, we have two living around our garden. They love the little bird bath in the front garden and the food that my husband puts out in the back garden. He loves to watch them flitting around from plant to plant. 
        My grandad used to adore robins and would always say he was going to come back to this earth one day as this cute little bird. . He was a wonderful man full of lovely stories most of which I think he made up. I worshipped him. Anyway after he had passed on my dad would always reckon any robin in the garden was his dad come back to see him. They are so friendly hard not to believe him really. So a great fondness for this little bird was gradually built up amongst our family. Of course Christmas cards for Mum and Dad often featured a robin and I made them a cross stitch picture as well.  
       So the love of these birds has grown among my children. My daughters have a picture of one on their blog as a logo. Crafting Addicts. My son started a job at Royal Crown Derby this year and almost immediately bought us a beautiful miniature robin. He sits on my mantlepiece where he can be seen easily.

          Therefore the choice for my card for this month's Clarity challenge was easy. The theme is a Christmas story. In my case the card had to feature a robin.


                 

                         I started by stamping my robin into place and masking off. 

                  

   

           Place the star window stencil over the top and secure with masking tape. Then brush over lightly with Cloudy Blue ink. 

                 

                   

                    

          

               Using Pumice Stone Distress ink and a sponge I carefully added a slightly darker edge to the window. I wanted to make it look like the stone frame. 

          Next place the brickwork stencil over the top and very lightly brush the outside edges with Mushroom ink. Be careful not to go over the window area and don't make it too dark.            

                                       Remove the stencil and mask from bird. 

  

         

      Colour in bird, I used Spectrum Noir pencils and also stamped some holly leaves in the corners of the window. 

                        

               Brush some Sparkle Medium in the star. Have to do this carefully to keep in the stencil lines. Love the effect when it dries. 

     

    

                 Just needed to stamp Peace and Joy in the top corners, add some little red gems for holly berries and mount onto green card before adding to a card base.

        I think it looks very Christmassy now. I gave this one to my husband for his Christmas card this year. Hope you all like it. 

       I will just give you some links for the stamps and stencils I have used. Of course all are available from  Claritystamps

       Robin

       Window Stencil

       Brickwork stencil

       Holly leaves    These were from a bigger set with a window in as well.

       Peace and Joy  Again from a larger bauble set.

             I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, seems to be over so quickly, all that planning. I look forward to another year though filled with lots of creativity. Thank-you for visiting. Please leave a comment if you have time.  xxx

         

               

PARCHMENT CREATIONS

       Well I hope all your preparations for the big day are complete. I expect a few of you are still busy, I know Christmas Eve used to be a frantic time for me when I did all the entertaining for parents. Sadly they are no longer with us but do still remember them at this time of year as today would have been my father's Birthday. I do miss that extra mad rush of trying to fit in a special visit for him as well. 
        
       Anyway even though my kids are all grown up now we still all love Christmas. Wonder how many silly games we will play this year. Just hoping one of the grandchildren has not had that game called Pie Face. Looks funny when others are playing but not so sure I want to be on the receiving end. 

        So the last of my cards are completed for this year, will I be more organised next year, I always think so but rarely happens. These last ones were for my own kids , parchment so took a little longer. A very relaxing pastime though. 

                                   

I pierced and snipped out all the stars. Can you spot the mistake though, when I was adding this photo I realised I had not coloured in one of Santa's arms. Never mind let's hope my son does not notice. 

 
     
                        

I love this Christmas tree design. Very elegant.     

   

     

              It was a little difficult to get a decent picture of this last one as I mounted it on silver mirri board. Also the silver reflected the camera lens in the middle, I have a pink camera. 

     I used all Groovi plates for these cards from Claritystamps . All available on their website.

           Thank-you for visiting, hope you like these designs. 
           
            MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all. xx
                            

MADELEINE

      Just a quick visit to share a card I have made for my granddaughter. She will be 12 on Tuesday. Quite a young lady now and certainly knows her own mind. I sometimes wonder where the years are going when I look at my grandchildren they are all growing so fast.                 Anyway I thought she needed a card that was a little more grown up. I have made her a parchment one using the new Groovi system from Claritystamp. This is a wonderful way to break into parchment craft if you have not tried it before. It works by giving you the lines to emboss on and then you can carry it on to whatever level you like. On this card I have done a lot of piercing and cutting which is quite intricate. I find it very relaxing.  I did use a card made by the fantastic Emma Burns as inspiration. Do visit her blog Handmade in Scotland, she is a very clever lady and very happy to share her knowledge.



                                           

         I used the Madeleine Groovi plate for this design, hence the title of this post.  Madeleine Groovi Plate. This design is also available as a stencil and a stamp and is very useful and pretty. Do have a go if you have not tried parchment work, it is very relaxing. 
        Thank-you for dropping by and it seems appropriate to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.   xxx

2015 CHRISTMAS CARDS

      Well the big day of the year is nearly here. Hope you have all done your shopping and written your cards. Goodness what do we do to ourselves at this time of year. I have a large family so many presents to be bought, thank goodness for online shopping. Not sure my dodgy knee would get me round the shops for everything. I do like to shop personally for some things though and I love the shops with all the glitter and sparkle. My husband not so keen though so I do not get as much chance as I would like to browse.   
      We will be fairly quiet on Christmas day as just our youngest son visiting for lunch. He will leave late afternoon to go to his girlfriend's family. First time ever I think this year when I might watch TV in the evening. We have a big day on Boxing Day at our daughter's house, when all our family will be there. We are also celebrating the very recent engagement of our eldest son. Exciting times ahead, we all love a wedding. 
     Anyway thought I would just show you the cards I have made this year. 

    This is the design I did for both of my

grandsons cards. Lovely little snowman from the wee Christmas stamps from Claritystamps. Some polar white Flowersoft for the snow.  

      Wee Christmas Stamp

                                                                                                                                                                      So I needed a design then for Granddaughters.

I stayed with a similar design just  made it a little

more feminine. Again used the wee folk stamps and some Flowersoft. 

      Wee folk Christmas Stamp    

       I needed quite a few cards to post, so wanted to make these a little smaller for obvious postal reasons. Goodness what a cost for stamps. My husband still has a few aunts and uncles and I like to send them a card as they are elderly and I think it is nice to have one through the post. I opted for another stamp from Clarity, a very useful sentiment one. Some die cut snowflakes and some matting and layering made for an effective card. 

     

              More Than Words

           Lastly I did another design for our close family and friends. I could make these bigger as they could be hand delivered. I used bubble stencil and Santa's car and Santa and reindeers stamps, again all from Clarity. I used a design by Jo Rice for inspiration here. I loved the way she had drawn lines at bottom of card, she also designed the stencil. Do have a look at her blog she makes some beautiful cards. JR crafts .

            

                  

                      Bubbles stencil

                      Santa's Car

                      Santa and Sleigh

       Hope you like these designs. I just have to finish the ones now for my own children. I am doing parchment ones so a little more time consuming. I will post pictures when I have completed them. Enjoy your Christmas.   xxx