Advent Village Dec 2013

When i opened the December issue of Craft Stamper Magazine i saw a beautiful project called the ‘Advent Village’ by Gail Milburn. I have tried to find this lady but can’t seem to find her on any of the social networks. If anyone knows of her Blog address please could you let me know in the comment box below, thank you.

Didn’t realise how much work there would be in making one of these and started out trying to get three completed. I was lucky to finish one! (The other two will be completed and delivered for Christmas 2014 hopefully).

A lady from Twitter kindly let me have the dimensions of the die being used so i could cut similar sized shapes to the originals. (She knows who she is, thank you again!).

Once again i used some very old papers, perhaps some you might recognise, to cover the shapes and then printed out some contrasting ones to cover the roof areas. 

Can give you a list of items i used to cover each shape, not necessarily the manufacturers, hope that is ok:

Used stamps from Anna Griffin, Dyan Reaveley and Stampotique.

Cut out numbers using different fonts from my Pazzle inspiration electronic die cutting machine as well as using chipboard numbers and some book page numbers.

Cut a few die shapes using my Sizzix Bigkick and some hand punches.

Sticky Back Blue Pearls

Pan Pastels including the metallics.

Lace and ribbon from old stash.

Washi tape from High Leigh Garden Centre.

Neat PVA glue to stick all the shapes together and attach the washi tape to make the village stand up and take shape.

If i have missed anything out from this list it is because there were so many layers and drying times it isn’t too easy to remember every little detail lol.

Here is the Village completed and outside on a very windy day.

 

Some more close up views.

 

By this time it was far too windy to get the Village to stand up so had to resort to photographing it laying across the lavender plant pot. This is the reverse side of the Village.

 

The Advent village in its entirety, front and back views.

 

Boxed and ready for delivery.

This project is worth the effort but does take time. I hope you have enjoyed my version of Gail Milburn’s amazing project.

Looking forward to your comments, thanks for dropping by 

Am I Too Late?

While everyone in Blogland has been posting their Christmas makes most days, i have instead been making and sending them out, taking pictures and resting. I find making lots of items very tiring these days, my hands don’t always cop-operate, nor do the other little quirks my body has to deal with everyday.

Yesterday and today i have spent over 3 hours uploading and preparing my pictures to be blogged. It is a tiring process but you always want your creations to look good. I am hopeful you will not get too bored by another long post lol.

Will not go into detail of how these were all made except to say there were many hours of play and doubts as they were assembled. Trying to keep a white card white is indeed very difficult when you are a messy crafter like me, but i did manage it on most of the cards. I did make a couple of decoupage cards as this years cards have been mostly about using a lot of my older stash as well as newer stash. Thought it was about time to use some of it up.

Here goes, i would appreciate your comments and feedback as always.

 

Made some tags.

Made a door hanger.

Made OH 25 cards for work, made these cards from old gift tags, removed the backs to make the tags above.

Made the envelopes from older card which aged and looked a tad vintage.

Included washi tape to use as a closure, all cards were being hand delivered.

Finally is OH’s Christmas Card, mine is very similar but slightly different colour so decided not to include.

 

Altogether this year the final amount of cards i made totalled 92.  The best post is yet to come as i share with you the Advent village i made.

Thanks for dropping by, looking forward to your comments

13th Anniversary - Fabric or Lace

It was our 13th Anniversary early December, the cards i had in mind were not easy to make as there were so many steps to complete.  There was playing, some bad results and a lot of learning during this little journey. Hope you enjoy this post and it isn’t too long.

I wanted the cards to be a little more personal so i used one of OH’s shirts for the fabric element,(one that doesn’t fit him anymore) to experiment on. For OH’s card i used Inktense Pencils(top image below)to colour the fabric, for my card i used Dylusions Sprays (lower image below). I wet the fabric before adding either medium as you can see.

To make the frames i used corrugated cardboard as it gives a little depth. Cut the frames out by hand and then added the coloured, dried fabric over the top. There was a little issue with my frame as i forgot to allow for the folding over of the fabric, doh!

Inktense Frame

Dylusions Frame

As you can see above i forgot to make allowances for the fabric to be folded over the frame and it looks awful.  Had trouble sticking it down and resorted to adding some washi tape with a lace design over the top which meant you couldn’t fully appreciate how lovely the colours are.

Frames done onto the other embellishments.

Used some wooden squares i picked up a while ago and painted over them with Fresco Paints from Paper Artsy, used the crackle technique as wanted them to look a tad grungy for when i added the Stampotique Characters Heartthrob and Mothfab.

Coloured them in using Promarkers and then added some of the Fresco Satin Glaze to add a little glimmer to the squares.

Next needed to make the fabric inserts for the frames, again coloured the fabric from the shirt using Inktense Pencils. Used stencils and Pebeo Metallic Paint and Brights Fabric Paint to achieve the two images of a circuit board and a dragon.

The cards are A5 sized, i wanted to create a band of colour to make the frames look like they had a little depth so used Pan Pastels, including the Rich Gold over the top, to make the band of colour look a little more blingy.

Here are the assembled cards.

I am still not too happy with the outcome of the card after seeing it in a picture, I love the card for my OH and so did he.

Thanks for dropping by, hope to read your comments