New New New!

If I hadn't been laid up over Christmas I could have had a crafting frenzy with my prizes

.......as it is.....I have only yesterday started to actually have a play.

I have a lot to look forward to in the New Year with all these goodies waiting to be used so I started with trying out the Copics that were provided by the Craft Barn........In a million years I would personally never have bought any Copics.....it seems like a money pit waiting to happen!! LOL

I tried colouring in a Whiff of Joy image that I had stamped previously onto some rough watercolour paper but perhaps it is not the best surface, I'll have to keep experimenting as you can see from the scan! That's all the trial test dots along the bottom too.

......I found it a bit confusing with the colours seeming to be so similar and then I decided to make a trial colour swatch and a light bulb moment occurred when I could see that

............as the fab Copic creator who is Rachel demonstrates

..........there are distinct sets of colours in light, medium and dark tones that you can put together

.....I fear there are an extra couple of less vibrant colours I could really make use of as well!!!

Hope your New Years Eve celebrations go well....we are sharing the moment with friends...ten years ago was Millennium and some of those friends we shared the moment with are no longer with us.....life is short......party like it is 1999!!! LOL

Thanks for looking and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ein Glückliches Neues Jahr!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo

UNE BONNE ANNÉE !

xoxo Sioux.

Winter Wishes Freebie!

If you liked the papers I used on my Christmas Day digital layout please feel free to download them!

They are sized at 20cm by 20cm (approx. 8"x8") @ 300dpi.

You may use them in you personal art but not for monetary gain......click on photo for download link.

xoxo Sioux
P.S. If you do make something with the images please let me know I'd love to come and take a look see!

I Don't Believe It!

How has this happened?

What have I done to deserve it?

I just don't believe it!

I have managed to catch another cold from hell at exactly the same time as last year :(

I spent yesterday comatose on the settee...and it is looking like I might just do the same today.

Luckily there are plenty of supplies in the house....although wouldn't you know it there is only one shot of night nurse left for tonight!! Help!!!

DH is too ill to venture out as well so lets hope it begins to subside during today.

Thank heavens for small mercies though as it is Craft Day on QVC

.....at least I'll have something to watch......pity the second part of Doctor Who isn't on till New Years Day! And then boo hoo......David is gone :(

Off to have a lemsip!!!

xoxo Sioux

Merry Christmas To You!

It's Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Wonderful Christmas....wherever you are.

"Let your heart be light"

xoxo Sioux

WOYWW - Or not!

So.......as promised for WOYWW last week....this is a little look at my "craft room" work desk space!! LOL

Not that big is it?!

Not much bigger than the size of the A3 cutting mat!! You can see why I spilled over onto the dining room table for the 12 tags of Christmas can't you?

The other half has my Fiskars paper trimmer permanently living on it.

Have managed to tidy last weeks mess away and made an effort here because you would not have been able to see anything for a pile of paper.....my bit box gets bigger by the day!

.....somehow have to make some space and organise so my Craft Stamper prizes have somewhere to live!!! LOL

It is in a cupboard in the bedroom so at least I can slide the doors shut on the mess!

......that is unless there is too much junk....sorry!

........art work in progress........hanging off the edge. LOL

xoxo Sioux

Big round of applause please!

Please give a big round of applause to the maker of my Christmas cards this year!

No I'm not asking this for myself but for my DH!

Yep folks my DH made the Christmas cards this year.....he cut all the card to size, did all the stamping and put it all together........fab job or what?!

I felt guilty about not using my Paperartsy stamps as the main focal this year as they have been on my cards in the last 3 years...........but you see I saw the Papermania stamps and just had to use the gorgeous reindeer image and wording from the set.....I did manage to put a Papersartsy sentiment stamp on the bottom edge of the design but it's barely visible as it was stamped in Versamark.

So I'll explain what DH did to make them.

He cut the red silver speckled card from PDA Card & Craft (SSBFL) in two longways to make 2 A6 tent fold cards from each sheet..........stamped a T!m script stamp across the top in Archival black and the sentiment "Peace and Goodwill to all Men" along the bottom in Versamark ink for the watermark effect.

Stamped the reindeer in Adirondack cranberry on the squares of kraft and stamped again onto the white insert card as a secondary image for a faded effect............Stamped the wording "Joyeux Noel" in Archival black directly on top of the reindeer and "Merry Christmas" above the reindeer on the insert..........Finished by using a corner punch on the kraft card focal image and attached with silicone to raise it up from the surface a little.

So........................I'd like you to give him all the support you can.......he did make 65 after all!!!

Thanks for looking and happy stamping.

xoxo Sioux

P.S. Message from DH.........Whilst I admit I made the card from start to finish it was my DW who designed the card and explained what I had to do at each step......I could not have done it otherwise!! I can safely say that I will not be entering myself for stamper of the year 2010!!! TTFN Pip :)

12 Tags of Christmas Display

Thought you might like to see how I am displaying my 12 Tags of Christmas.

I've e-mailed a photo of them to T!m......all the details for entering are on his blog post here.

I will make sure to pack these well after Christmas and then every year they can go back on display to remind me of the fantastic time I had making them and the people I've connected with in the process.........priceless :)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. Yep! I do have a thing about jugs!!! There are a couple of smaller ones hidden behind the tags as well.

Just the one then!

I decided that opening just one of my prizes wouldn't hurt! ;)

Picked the one with the books in to open...........as a belated birthday treat.......'cos browsing through them till Christmas will keep me occupied.

xoxo Sioux

Brown paper packages

My "Stamper of the Year" prizes arrived from Craft Stamper!

I've put them under the tree........going to save them up for Christmas;) LOL

.....Well I might just open one!

I know it's daft as it's not as if I don't know what prizes there are...however only a couple are marked on the outside so it will still be a surprise!

I've never been anxious to open a gift until the given time since I was about 7 yrs old........you know how it is when you are that age you just can't wait and that year I was determined to find the hidden stash of birthday presents.....I was not allowed in my parents bedroom unless my mother said.......so it was with much trepidation and beating of heart that I took my life in my hands and went to look in their wardrobe

.....one of those big old ones made of dark wood that could have been the entrance to Narnia!

...believe me I kept hoping! LOL

Anyway I did find my presents and although it was exciting I couldn't let on obviously and it was even more excruciating when my birthday arrived and I had to pretend new found joy at said presents!!

Never again.

xoxo Sioux

Journal Girl - Party Girl!

Had a look through my stamps and nothing was shouting......Hey! I'm a party girl at me! LOL

I really wanted to join in with the SCD theme of Party Girl this week

....So had a go at a journal girl again a la Teesha Moore and coloured with pencils...couldn't blend it with oil though to smooth out the unevenness as I'd only doodled it on copy paper and not on watercolour paper! Der!

Cut it out and attached to a piece of yellow card...threaded a bit of string for the balloon and edged with DI FB.

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

What's on my Table? or WOYWW!

So for WOYWW from Julia.....I thought I would show the carnage from doing the 12 tags of Christmas that has to be tidied away!!!

I had a tidy up half way through as well believe it or not! LOL

As a rule I do not craft on my dining room table but needs must!....I would never have managed to create what I did using the space I usually have........perhaps I'll show my "craft room!" desk next week? Best get on with clearing this away or else we will be eating off trays over Christmas too!!!

xoxo Sioux

The big clear up begins!

This is the pile of stamps that have to be cleaned now I've finished playing along with T!ms 12 tags of Christmas...........good job I'd done one lot half way through!! LOL

xoxo Sioux

Stamper of the Year! OMG it's me!!!

I've been bursting to share with you...

but my lips were sealed till publication day.

Craft Stamper Magazine

have voted me

Stamper of the Year!

Can you see me doing a happy dance?

I am flabbergasted! I am in disbelief!............I'm the one in the middle! HOL

What’s more, silly me forgot to renew my subscription and I have only just been able to buy a copy from my local W.H Smith LOL

(not so local as it's 5 miles away!)

Some of you may have had your magazine ages now and not have realised it was me as I have never posted my full name here.....I have always been a bit wary of posting too much personal information....you never know what fruitcakes there are out there! LOL

I was thrilled enough when Katy, the editor, asked for my pieces to be sent for judging on the short list from the photo’s I sent, as I had been in two minds whether they were good enough and left it very late to send the e-mail!
People say things like “I’m over the moon” when faced with such wonderful news

…..but that does not really convey how I feel.

How about......

“I feel like running to the edges of the universe and back in 30 seconds”!!!

Do you get my drift? Do ya?

I want to thank those that judged my pieces special enough to be chosen as

“STAMPER OF THE YEAR!”

what an honour and I still can't believe my "Dance to the Music of Time" canvas is on the front cover....I mean just look at all the talent on the front cover with little old me!!

It is surreal..........ooh er!.........I feel a wobble coming on.....

that means I have to live up to this!

Can I do it?............I will certainly try :)

xoxo Sioux

P.S. If you are looking for my T!m 12 days of Christmas tags and any newer posts please scroll down as I am leaving this as a sticky for a little while.....

just so I can get used to it ya know! HOL

P.P.S. Detail of how the canvas was done are on the Craft Stamper website here.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 12

T!ms day 12 tag is here.

And mine?

Bet ya didn't think I was going to make it in time!

Wasn't sure myself!!! LOL

Here is my day 12 tag.

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous, Paperartsy, Craft Stamper freebie ticket and Royal & Langnickel.

I don't have any grunge paper so made these roses out of ordinary 160gm card stamped a dotty background and a Paperartsy Christmas wording background and coloured with DI SS edged with PN and Adirondack cranberry....can't sploosh all that water and shimmer on this card so added a bit of PSX Diamond glitter glue to add sparkle......If anything....I have more of a hatred of ripping up music paper than pages from a book!!! LOL

....so the free digital download from Craft Stamper

of an antique music sheet has come in handy for me a few times already...thanks for that.

Well that is the end of 12 Tags of Christmas :(

...it has certainly been entertaining...it has been fun finding some new faces in blog land playing along too :) Big Wave

.....I have had a fab one to one session with T!m Holtz ;).........what?!

....you mean he didn't do it just for me? HOL

Thanks for looking

.......and my goodness there seems to have been an awful lot of you

....sending a big hug to you all for taking the time to leave such wonderful comments.

Happy stamping

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I'm off to have a lie down!.....I may be some time!!! LOL

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 11

T!ms day 11 tag is here.

Amazingly I've made tag 11 too! LOL

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous, Paperartsy, Papermania and Royal & Langnickel.

I love reindeer images but sadly do not posses the gorgeous T!m one :(

I did draw this up....well trace actually as it is based on some Xmas lights I have in the window..........and embossed with disco black on grunge board....the swirls are stamped in Adirondack cranberry (I must put some of that aged mahogany on my wish list!)......don't have white rub ons so embossed the wording with winter wonderland again.....the fab flowers and ribbon were in my candy from Minxy and no........I do not posses that latest must have gizmo.........I had some buttons in my stash that were already fabric covered so had a go at stamping the Paperartsy images on them.....rather pleased with how they came out.

Tomorrow is the last day and I hope I can play along.......unfortunately DH is not too well

........we had to cancel a planned trip to a candlelit Dartmouth

........otherwise know as a marketing ploy for late night shopping!!! LOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. My computer man did arrive but has not completely sorted my problem out yet.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 10

Today is a special day!

Not only is it T!ms' day 10 tag.

Not only have I managed to join in for 10 days in a row....no mean feat!!!

...but

Today

is

my

BIRTHDAY!

I'm celebrating with T!m (in my dreams) LOL

But seriously how else would I be able to have a one to one session with Tim Holtz?

And for free to boot!!!........I'm embracing the experience.

Here is my day 10 tag.

Quite honestly......although it don't look too bad on the photo!....this was a disaaaaaaaaaarster as Craig would say on SCD.

My lucky streak continued as I had some chipboard letters and some metal tape my DH had that I thought would suffice as a substitute for the Ten Seconds Studio metal stuff! How wrong can you be? The chipboard stuff was in the main way too big for the tag......I ended up using some peel offs......yep........the "dreaded"....and stuck them on chipboard to cut out the smaller letters.....however :) I discovered that you can get a fabby effect with the embossing as they provide extra patterns!! Take a look see at the bauble.......additionally I don't know if the paint dabbers react differently but the black acrylic I had simply wiped most of the alcohol inks off!!!!!!!! I had to go back and dab more alcohol inks on and hope for the best!!! LOL......The metal tape is not very thick and does not stand up to the rubbing down so the elements are not as shiny either!!! Hey HO!

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I'm trying to leave comments but my computer is on a go slow....a very nice man is supposed to be coming tomorrow to take a look.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 9

T!ms day 9 tag is here.

I can't believe I am still keeping up.....mine is here!!

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous and Cherry Pie.....love that advert stamp T!m used today but don't have it nor anything like it!! :( inked with DI FJ and ML

......isn't it great that T!m shared his photo's with us today?

It helped me out no end!! None of that film strip :( so dug out a strip of film negative with nothing important on it and punched out the openings with a square punch (just moved a bit along to get the oblong)....the letter dome sticker was a freebie from a magazine an eon ago and I discovered it fitted nicely on the same washers I used on day 3 tag...numbers are We Are Memory Keepers..........because my negative strip is not the same size I left out the metal flower part as it was looking a bit crowded

.........that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!! LOL

I used two of T!ms' photo's and three of my own......I don't seem to have much in the way of childhood Christmas photo's but I did have one of me in a group photo of a school nativity play from when I lived on the Isle of Wight (top) one of me in a group photo from my secondary school yearly panto when I lived in Lancashire (middle) and one of my DH when he was two standing beside one of those old fashioned trees that did not have much in the way of branches!!! (bottom)

........and yes the large photo is me about 8 years old and can you guess what song people insisted on singing to me?

......again..........and again...........and again!!!!!!!

"All I want for Christmas is?..............my two front teeth" HOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 8

T!ms' day 8 tag is here

Mine.....at last is here!

Well......I don't have that fabby lamppost and did not see the point in trying to re-create something similar.......you can't improve on the best lamppost in the world!! So I drew the church onto grunge board and went over with an emboss pen and heat embossed with disco black.....filled in the walls with a white pen.......distress glitter antique linen on the windows and gel pens on the roof and door........holly is just bits of paper cut out and inked and art glitter glue with the red glitter over....used a pricking tool to get the scratch effect on the background.

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous, and Prima.........I had the most gorgeous naturally aged and distressed key and hoped to use it but it is too heavy for the tag to stand so I'll have to save it for something else.

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

Day 7 and had to change around T!ms tag today

So here is my day 7 tag.

I could have used the same Santa as on day 3 but as I have a feeling there might be another Santa on T!ms tags before we reach the end I decided to try something else and used this wonderful stamp that Laura generously sent me.........I have to thank her so much because I had got in the doldrums and I don't think I would have even attempted to enter the Craft Stamper competition if her amazing goodies had not kick started my creativity off again.....you must go and visit.....she's a star!!

Stamps used were Stampers Anonymous, Inkadinkadoo and Paperartsy.......I masked the focal portion of the very large stamp and basically the rest is like T!ms except I tried some distress emboss (not paint dabber) for the swirls in scattered straw and reverted to the colourway that my day 5 tag should have been i.e. shades of brown and red.........before I could stop myself I had daubed some green on and it was too late then to go back!! LOL......believe it or not I did stamp a music stamp on the top portion but it seems to have faded into the other inks and I had already rescued this a couple of times so did not want to ruin it entirely by trying again!! Stamped the Paperartsy word stamp on the ribbon.......added a bit of raffia as I did not like the harsh line where the main stamp ended.......and the metal star is AMM.....finally a touch of diamond glitter glue on the rays and around the head of baby Jesus and a tad of distress glitter glue antique linen on the halo.

I'm not a religious person....but I do class myself as spiritual.........and whilst I love Christmas it is easy to forget why we are celebrating sometimes.........I think this will fill that gap in my 12 tags perfectly and the more of the tags I do the more I feel there is some sort of Kismet behind it all!!

Thanks for looking and happy stamping

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 6

A BIG thank you to everyone for your warm wishes on my Stamper of the Year post....I promise I'll get back to you all individually just as soon as :)

Anyways it is day 6 and when I saw T!ms' tag this morning I thought hells bells! There was no way I could complete something just like that so......apart from the background!.....I've run with trying to get the feeling he was conveying instead.

Here is my day 6 tag.

Stamps used are Stampers Anonymous, We Are Memory Keepers, Papermania and Royal & Langnickel.........stamped and embossed the trees with verdigris and added Liquid Pearls white opal for the snow with a sprinkle of silver glitter on top before it dried.......stamped and embossed the houses in disco black firstly onto chipboard and secondly onto a bit of reject card from practising the tartan technique on day 3, then coloured parts with some gel pens...........didn't have any bingo numbers so embossed a chipboard 4 in disco black.......didn't have any stamps that said HOME so cut them out of grunge board and glittered with red...................stamped a flourish, the word Christmas and post card............

so as you can see it is absolutely nothing like T!ms but I like it and that is what counts! LOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I have a big problem with tearing up old books! So I scanned a page that included the definition of home and printed it out on paper!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 5

Day 5 Tag - Yer 'tis!!

I was sooooooooo lucky to win some of those fragments on last years 12 tags of Christmas so......although it still took me forever..........it did make it slightly easier than yesterday! LOL

Stamps used are a mixture of Stampers Anonymous, Paperartsy, Papermania and Royal & Langnickel.

No red or green distress powders for me so tried hand painting a conifer bough with Adirondack Acrylics.......did not look quite right when the tag was nearly done so added a bit of the twigs I had left from day 1 tag.........had to rescue it somehow! LOL........no red or green stickles so used art glitter glue and sprinkled on normal glitter and used the PSX diamond sparkles again.....no gold dabber so heat embossed the flourishes in gold......no white rub-ons so heat embossed the Merry Christmas in winter wonderland (Stamp & Stuff)......Did have some German scrap :) used some of the same on yesterdays tag spookily.............and did have a T!m script stamp and flourish :)

I've now added people I find playing along on the side bar...think it might be easier.

xoxo Sioux.

P.S. Might not see you tomorrow as we really must decorate the tree! :)

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

T!m does it again!

Unfortunately I nearly didn't!!! However here is tag number 4.

The stamp collage is a mixture of Paperartsy, Royal & Langnickel and Papermania....that bit took a while to get a pleasing arrangement!!! Then the challenge today for me was T!ms' dangly bit....whoops pardon the expression!! No idea-ology but it must be my lucky month 'cos only a couple of days ago a threw away a bit of plastic bubble packaging just 1" square so I dived into the waste paper basket to retrieve it......see you should never throw anything away!!! HOL. The post card background and Madonna & Child image are both from the Graphics Fairy thanks Karen SSBFL..........added a bit of chunky glitter flakes and German scrap from Paperartsy to finish.......don't look too closely at the beading it is not my best subject!

Want to join the splinter group?!

What's that?

Laura coined the phrase because a lot of us don't have many or even any T!m Christmas stamps but still want to play along so

........why not leave me a comment and tell me you are playing along also and then I can take a look see at yours then I'll add to the links every day as I get them? It will then make it so much easier for us all to visit often :)

Cheryl

Hels

Jennie

Karen

Joanne

Laura

Helen

Anita

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I've always wanted to do something daring like belonging to a splinter group! LOL

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 3

Here we are again! Well I use the term we loosely as I haven't found many people playing along just yet...I know how they feel....work and life get in the way......I couldn't play last year :( So this year I am trying to make up for it :) I realise everyone isn't as dotty as me.........getting up at the crack of dawn like on day 2! LOL

Here is tag number 3.

I knew it would happen.........T!ms' day 3 tag obviously has his stamps bold and large all over them!! I've used the only large Father Christmas stamp I posses from Paperartsy.....sorry T!m!!

(Bang goes me winning a prize then!).

I had my husband searching for some washers all morning while I was at work and when I got home for lunch had him punching the brads.....who needs a T!m hammer when you have a DH!! LOL. I had a bash at the tartan effect but I don't have any of that glossy card so used some paper that seemed glossy but the colours are not nearly as bright as they should be I think....hey ho you can only work with what you've got....then stuck the paper onto some card so I could distress the edges.

I also do not have any gorgeous idea-ology metal bits :(........but I did have the heart slider embellishment :)........AMM bargain in a sale £1.50 for 4 marked down from £3.50........so used that threaded on the string......

The snowy bits were another challenge and in the end I used some Liquid Pearls white opal to stamp a dotty bit with........don't have black soot DI so had to substitute greens.....scrummy fibres again from Minxies candy!

Apart from all that.........it is just the way T!m did his!!!!! ;) Ha, ha, ha.

P.S. Here are some links to people I have found playing along........why not leave me a comment and tell me you are playing along also and then I can take a look see at yours then I'll add to the links every day as I get them? It will then make it so much easier for us all to visit often :)

Cheryl

Hels

Jennie

Karen

Joanne

Laura

xoxo Sioux

P.P.S. Thanks for the nice comments on the tomato paste tube rose...I got the idea from Laura who sent the metal to me and obviously was also influenced by Leandra at Paperartsy. Thanks Laura and Leandra SSBFL.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

So far so good with not having T!m Christmas stamps!!

Can you believe I got up at 6:30 today?

........just to see what the tag of the day involved! :)

Here is tag number 2.....glad it was not too tricky today I would not want to miss Spooks!

The challenge today for me was the metal rose and leaves........decided to use a bit of the tomato paste tube Laura gave me and make a flower out of that! Alcohol inked the edges a bit with espresso and did the leaves with a pesto and espresso mix. Espresso inked the metal corners which are from Making Memories....had 'em ages got to start putting them to use!! LOL

The sentiments are Royal & Langnickel.......luckily I had the very same frame and, although the flourish is one of T!ms', it is not the same one you can see on his day 2 tag here. I had to substitute the Antique Linen distress emboss colour with Scattered Straw and used Worn Lipstick instead of Aged Mahogany DI. I managed the splatter bit by mixing a bit of PVA glue with water to get the consistency and adding a bit of Cosmic Shimmer dark bronze.....

it seemed to work and I could get to like that effect!

Finished off with a bit of gorgeous ribbon in the candy stash I won from Minxy....thanks Minxy!

Thanks for your kind comments on my day 1 tag.

....only 10 more tags to go!!

Happy stamping!

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I might not be posting every day...........

T!m is allowing us mere mortals an extra 7 days to finish! LOL

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 1

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me - ?"

Well not going to waffle on....barely got time to dream the piece let alone make it! LOL

As I mentioned before I could come unstuck here as I don't have any T!m Christmas stamps but I'll give it a go :) Here is the first tag.

Had to use some chipboard circles for the snowman and heat emboss some snowflakes and drag black acrylic over....couldn't be doing with cutting fiddly arms so found some twiggy bits in the back garden for those! Cut a Santa hat similar to one I made last year (free download available here) and embossed with Disco Black powder, also did this on the nose. Cut the swirl from dotty grunge board (it is the only sort I have) and painted gesso on (no white acrylic!).

Here is a close up to show I really did put some rock candy on the tag....just not as thick as T!m did... it is a big tag and takes a lot to cover it and I'll run out if I need some again in the next 12 days.

Rest is pretty much as T!m showed us so take a look at his 1st tag.

Thanks for looking and Happy Stamping

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I might not be posting every day as T!m is allowing us mere mortals an extra 7 days to finish. I think I just might need the breathing space! LOL

I'm off to bed.....nightie night! :)