Secret Santa @ AVJ

Hi Everyone....It's lovely to catch up with you here at my little corner of Blog Land.

As you know I am one of the Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey Blog. I am so very proud to be part of this amazing team of uber talented crafters, many of whom I have met. We all have a love of Tim Holtz products and style in common and it's wonderful to see the diverse range of Mixed Media creations that are posted on AVJ for your inspiration/enjoyment.

This is our very first Christmas and we decided to have a Secret Santa, which meant that we received the name of another DT member, for whom we had to make a Christmas Gift/Card.

Below is my creation, which was posted to the most sweetest address I have ever heard of and is the home of  the very talented Sandy Diller, of My Crafty Life Blog :-)

First of all I created an 8 by 8 Tri-Fold Card, which I covered with Tim Holtz Seasonal Stash Papers.

These truly are the most gorgeous papers and very sturdy. The papers were edged with Distress Ink In Vintage Photo and Walnut Distress Stain.

I had some Burlap Ribbo in my stash, which I applied to the holes punched with my WRMK Cropodile.  Some Jingle Bells were added for effect xx

One of the papers in Tim's Paper Stash has the most lovely Santa verse, which decorates the sides of the interior. The papers were again distressed and then matted on black card.

You can also see some Ice Skates, which were gifted by my mum.............if anyone would like to know whose die this is I can find out for you so please email me............button on side bar :-)

The Right hand side, once again matted on black card, having been aged with Vintage Photo DI

The main photograph is a real favourite and reminds me of the 1960's when I was a child. Many of the photographs were still printed in black and white and I loved their appeal.

There is a lovely verse on the back for Sandy and her family, wishing them the most loveliest of Christmas's. 

Then, there was the  beautiful Secret Santa gift that I received from the lovely and very talented Jennie Atkinson of

 'Live The Dream' Blogspot. 

Jennie met with mum and I earlier this year and we had a lovely crafty day. She kindly shared how she makes her renowned flowers and we just laughed and chatted.....it was so nice x

Here are a couple of pictures of Jennie's make, which I am sure she will be sharing in more detail on her blog

A beautiful gift to treasure and you can never have enough candles x

If you would like to see some more of our Secret Santa Gifts then please hope over to the AVJ blog HERE

There is also a  Christmas Giveaway.................and depending on the amount of entries who comply with the rules there may be more than one !!!.............Please see details below or click HERE to go to the AVJ Blog

I would also like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2015

Thank You so much for all your wonderful comments and support throughout the year, it really does mean a lot to me.  xx

Huge Hugs

Green Inspiration at Craft Room Challenge Blog

Here we are again with a new challenge theme, hosted by the very talented Debi.  Our previous challenge host, Mervi, had many beautiful entries for our last challenge and I dont envy her the task of choosing a TOP 3. ( The winner of our fortnightly challenge is randomly chosen)

Debi has provided the following details regarding her challenge:

 "I've created this Inspiration Board for you to be inspired by one or more things off the board. In addition to our usual rules, it would be great to hear how the board has inspired your creation :-)
You might be inspired by purely the lovely shades of Green, or the exotic parasol, or the ladies in water lily ponds, whatever your inspiration please have some Fun!"

Our sponsor this fortnight is Crafty Individuals ..so go on.....join in with the fun theme....you may be the winner of a fabulous prize.


I was inspired by the wonderful  shades of green and the pink of the lilies, as well as the parasol, which reminded me of the Orient. It has been many, many years since I last used my Japanese stamps and you can see below what I created with them. Of course I used my Distress Inks and Archival Inks  too. The board was one I had made during a craft day with my lovely friend Astrid and has various layers of paints, stencils,book pages and texture paste.

 A close up where you can see some stencilling in the background

 I made a little fan instead of a parasol

Some filigree pieces that I cut in half decorate the corners and some pearls, beads and a tassel to finish off.

It's so kind of you to visit and I do hope you can play along with Debi's challenge...for more inspiration provided by my DT Roomies please visit the CRC blog HERE

See you soon xx

Roses and Romance at Craft Room Challenge

Hi everyone...hope you are having the best week  x  Debi is the host of the new challenge over at Craft Room Challenge this fortnight and she has chosen Roses and Romance. It's such a fun theme and I hope you get the chance to play along. 

Our sponsor for this fortnight is the wonderful Crafty Individuals. Their prizes are amazing so get those entries in!!

 Below is my DT submission, which is a canvas ( 7 by 5 )

As the canvas had been treated with Gesso I gave it a wash of Vintage photo Distress Paint and added some vintage papers, which were torn around the edge and aged with Vintage Photo Distress Inks.

The roses were handmade using Tim Holtz  Mini Tattered Florals Movers and Shapers Sizzix die as I wanted a slightly smaller Rose. You can also use the  Tattered Florals Bigz die.

The florals were die cut using Tim Holtz Co'Ordinations paper and you can see the various textures below. I chose to distress the textured side :-)

Here they are all sanded down.............isn't this an amazing effect !!

Then I took my Vintage Photo Distress Inks and aged them

You can see a close up of the finished roses below. :-)

Texture paste was then applied over Tim Holtz stencils...dot fade and harlequin..once dry I applied Treasure Gold wax in Blue Sapphire and Florentine.
I love Tim's Found Relatives and decided to use this beautiful photograph of the young girl, patiently waiting on the return of her fiance. The frame was die cut using SB die, painted with Salty Ocean Distress Paint and then sanded down. I wanted a gilt framed look so ran the frame through my Big Shot using an embossing folder.  The sanded areas were distressed in ......yes you guessed........Vintage Photo Distress Ink and yet more gilding wax.. The edges of the canvas were aged using Walnut Stain Distress Ink and some gilding wax was applied to the roses.
For added romance I took some American Seam Binding, smooshed through Victorian Velvet Distress Ink, which was applied to my heat mat and then spritzed with water and heat dried. The hat pins and cameo finished off the look I so wanted to achieve. :-)
Oops...almost forgot that I had added some vintage lace, which was stained with tea.

It's great to have you drop by and I do hope that you manage to join in with us at CRC. For further inspiration you can check out the wonderful makes by my DT sisters by clicking HERE

Have fun and I will catch up with you all soon xx