The Funkie Junkie Christmas challenge #6 Jane's Journal style

This is my half way creation today inspired by Linda's great Christmas tag. For those of you who are new to Linda's challenge you can read all the rules of it here. In a nutshell you use her weekly tag for inspiration and you can create anything crafty and as long as all 12 projects are completed by 22 Dec. You also have a chance to win one of her generous prizes. I was lucky enough to win $25 dollars last year  to spend in her wonderful on line boutique which sponsors the challenge. Do have a look here at her shop, her stock is enormous and her prices really keen.

I choose to use the challenge to create 12 special Christmas cards.

This is her #6 tag here

I was inspired by the tree stamp, the holly leaves and that cute wooden snowflake on her tag.  I wanted to use a more whimsical tree stamp, this one by Lavinia. I was also inspired to use some browns and green in my colour scheme too but mine are different shades to Linda's. I also love using corrugated packaging so that had to feature too on my card.

I swooshed the colours and water on my craft sheet and starting dipping. I dried between layers

until I was happy with my background

I added some gesso to my own wooden snowflake and also to some packaging

I decided to stencil my holly leaves so I did this with archival inks.

It gave a nice subtle holly background. 

So then I put on my creative hat and this card came together.

I added some Cheery Lynn die cut holly leaves and icicles. A piece of festive ribbon and lots of sparkle from my stickles.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas 2015 #6
Pixie's snippets playground 1/3 #203
Lavinia stamps Christmas
Mixed Media world anything goes
That Craft place kraft I used a Kraft card blank to mount my piece on and my packaging is Kraft too.
Stamping sensations festive florals
Sparkles Christmas decorations
Emerald Faeries Oh Christmas tree
Take it make it November  take a stamp
Creative Inspirations anything goes
Ribbon Girl 1/3 use any stamp
Craft Barn 1/3 Guinness book of records luckily Jane has allowed a loose link for something which "could" be a record. Mine is the snow images on my card....could it be a record for the earliest snow in Surrey. It is also the first up on the challenge today ...so 2 "records" ;0)
We love to create mixed media/anything creative #23
Simon Says stamp Monday N is for mine is for Night as these fairies appear to be flying around a night time Christmas tree, they also look pretty Nimble to me.
Crafty Hazelnut red and green must be seen

I nearly didn't post this today as I have just been so shocked by the atrocities in Paris.
But then I thought that we must show that we are not cowered by hatred. We must all stand up for a free world and one which is not ruled by those who want to create havoc and fear.

May those innocent people, enjoying a Friday night out, rest in peace.
May their loved ones find support and love at this horrific time for them.

I am still reeling at the shock of this. So many people, mostly young carefree adults, slaughtered in cold blood and many more critically wounded......just horrific. I am saddened to my core.

Clasp your loved ones close and tell them that you love them. Life can be so short.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The final Funkie Junkie tag for Christmas 2014, Jane's Journal style

Hello I am back again with another countdown to Christmas post.
I smiled wide yesterday when I got my milk in from the door step as.....the festive foils are back.

 I love that the milkman delivers these festive pints to me.

Today I want to share my final Funkie Junkie project.Where on earth did those 12 weeks go? Way back in September I started taking part in Linda of the Funkie Junkie's fun Christmas challenge. This is the second year I have taken part and I have loved it. I have really enjoyed exploring lots of new ideas and techniques. If you hurry you could still join in but you need to get your skates on. It closes on 21st December by which time you need to have submitted all 12 creations using Linda's tags for inspiration. You can make anything at all. The full rules are over on her blog here . Linda offers 3 very generous prizes of gift vouchers to spend in her terrific on line shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Do have a look at the link here .

So here is my final project for her 2014 challenge. I have made 11 cards so far but as I have sent all my cards I decided to made a money/gift card holder instead for my son. I used a super tutorial over at my friend Brenda of Bumblebees and Dragonflies (thanks Brenda x)

The inspiration I took from Linda's fabulous #12 tag was the wreath, the red stamped sentiment and the red and white ribbon. This is one of my favourites that Linda made, do have a look here 

I selected my distress ink colours and using Tim Holtz's wrinkle free technique inked up my cut pieces of card.

Next I cut the pieces into shape as shown by Brenda and started to decorate first with a music score stamp by partial stamping using black archival ink

Next I used my TH wreath stamp and brown ink

and then I stamped a red Merry Christmas sentiment in the centre of it.

I then added various other stamps until I was happy with the result. I also die cut a half circle out of the base of the holder.

I continued adding some festive stamping.

Then it was time to attach the ribbon and my little money holder was complete.
Here it is with the ribbon tied

This is the back

 untie the ribbon

 and inside is the little pocket for the money/gift card

I would like to enter my money holder into the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie's 12 tags of Christmas 2014 #12
A vintage journey Let's celebrate I have used lots of Tim inspiration here as I have shown in my post

Pile it on anything goes Christmas/holidays

Papertake Weekly last Christmas card of the year

The artistic stamper anything goes

Deep Ocean Christmas is all around
Dream Valley Christmas 
Simon says stamp Wednesday winter photo inspiration I was inspired by the pine cones in the middle right photograph,
Creative Inspirations Christmas/New Year
All Crafts Challenge anything but cards
Country View nostalgic Christmas. I adore the TH nostalgic stamps I used here, they really are just as I picture Christmas
Loves rubberstamps Holiday blitz anything goes
Inspiration Emporium  Sing, sing it loud
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge urgently needed Christmas cards
ABC Christmas Y for your family I made this for my son
Simon says stamp Monday anything goes
Cute 

So there we are ...all finished. Thanks Linda for inspiring me again this Christmas and for organising the challenge, it must take a lot of hard work. I really appreciate it. Dare I say it without someone shooting me....I can't wait until next Christmas.

There are now only 6 days to go........
Take care, keep calm and carry on with your Christmas preparations ;0)

Back tomorrow,

Jane x

The Funkie Junkie's 12 tags of Christmas 2014, Jane's Journal style week 10

I have just been able to keep my head above water and on course making my cards for Linda's fabulous Christmas challenge. We have reached #10. Her tag this week is one of my favourites and it features lots of holly. Do have a look at her tag here

Everyone is welcome to join in with The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas challenge. It closes on 21st December by which time you need to have submitted all 12 creations using Linda's tags for inspiration. You can make anything at all. The full rules are over on her blog here . Linda offers 3 very generous prizes of gift vouchers to spend in her terrific on line shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Do have a look at the link here . I am choosing to make 12 Christmas cards instead of tags.

I was inspired this week by the holly....I love holly, it really is the most festive of plants. I thought that the grungy/Gothic effect Linda created using extra embossing was great so I decided to add that to my card. I also love the little bit of red she used and decided to try to incorporate that too. She also used vellum again and that was my choice to mount my sentiment on.

I know you all enjoy seeing my process so here goes. First I blended some festive coloured Distress inks onto my backing card. I am still just managing to work in my garden studio so the photos are a little dark as they were taken on my work bench.

I also added a swoosh of antiqued bronze DP and sprayed with water.

Next I got out my Holly Bough stencil

 and added Pine needles DI through it

I used my Gothic stencil again to add some texture

 I mixed the bronze DP into the paste

 and was left with this cool effect

I also loved the lattice Linda used so I decided to gold emboss some using my spellbinders die and also some Cheery Lynn holly leaves which I die cut. These are my favourite holly leaves as you get so many different sizes and they give a lovely deep vein too.

I also added some bronze DP to the leaves and trellis

So then it was time to put on my creative hat...................and this is what I came up with.

You can see that I added some red Stickles to the leaves and trellis and just added a pop of red to the baubles on the sentiment.
The sentiment is Lili of the Valley and I mounted it on a piece of the vellum I made for my #9 Funkie Junkie card. I also edged the card with bronze DP...this is so much more sparkling in real life. Here is a close up of all those textures.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #10
Frilly and funkie A vintage holiday
Country View Crafts nostalgic Christmas to me holly is such a nostalgic part of my Christmas, I always have some in my house.
Noor! Design UK Merry Christmas
Whimsy Inspirations anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday  Holiday cards
Simon says stamp Wednesday Christmas/ holidays
We do doobadoo get festive
Penny Black and More Special occasions mine is of course...Christmas
Cheery Lynn red and green

I hope you all enjoying your weekend? The countdown to Christmas is ticking along now.........just
18 days to go. Our tree was delivered yesterday and we really hope to get the chance today to get it inside and decorated.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Funkie Junkie's 12 tags of Christmas 2014 week 9 Jane's Journal style

Here we are at number 9 of this great challenge. Everyone is welcome to join in with The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas challenge. It closes on 21st December by which time you need to have submitted all 12 creations using Linda's tags for inspiration. You can make anything at all. The full rules are over on her blog here . Linda offers 3 very generous prizes of gift vouchers to spend in her terrific on line shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Do have a look at the link here . I am choosing to make 12 Christmas cards instead of tags.

This weeks tag can be seen here. My first thoughts were how elegant black and gold look together. I decided to use this for my inspiration and also I love the way Linda had used gold embossing on torn vellum, a really cool look. I also was inspired by the stencilling she put underneath it.

So off I went to my garden studio, it is just about OK down there still with my little heater on, to start my card.

I used my Tim Holtz Christmas stencil, pounced some embossing ink through the words and gold embossed some on black card.

I also gold embossed the edge of my background card as it gives such an elegant look.
Next I made the vellum, instead of embossing paste I again just gold embossed using the Festive stencil this time, as Linda had.

I just love all this shimmery gold embossing.  I tore the edges of the vellum and inked them.

I also die cut a large snowflake in gold card and it was then time to put on my creative card.

Here is my creation for week 9. It is very hard to photograph, there is a lot of shiny bling here!

Here are a couple of close ups. I also dotted some little gold stars onto the background paper

The sentiment is a Cheery Lynn die and the gem is from my stash.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges'

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas 2014 #9
A creative romance something old my old is my vellum, gem and snowflake die, all bought years ago.
Crafty boots stars
Crafty sentiments use die cuts
Party time Tuesday anything goes
Simon Says stamp Wednesdays anything goes
Creative Inspirations season's greetings
The Artistic stamper Christmas is coming
Cheery Lynn Tis the Season
Fussy and Fancy happy holidays



Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Funkie Junkie's tags of Christmas week 5, Jane's Journal style

Welcome to November. The incredibly mild weather continues in the South of England and it does feel strange creating wintery snowy cards. Yesterday here in Surrey it reached 24c mid afternoon.This does mean though that I can keep working in my studio in the garden after work and also still see my pots in flower and the neighbours' trees in leaf. This false acacia is to the left of my studio and I just adore the colours of the leaves.

My acers are also looking beautiful

We have now reached week 5 of Linda of the Funkie Junkie's Christmas challenge. I am making 12 special Christmas cards.

Everyone is welcome to join in with The Funkie Junkie challenge which closes on 21st December by which time you need to have submitted all 12 creations using Linda's tags for inspiration. You can make anything at all. The full rules are over on her blog here . Linda offers 3 very generous prizes of gift vouchers to spend in her terrific on line shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Do have a look at the link here .

Her inspiration tag can be seen here. I was inspired by the great black die cut she used, the pewter and silver colours and also the twinkling stars.

 First I decided on my colours to make the backing card and blended these together.

For my twinkling stars I reached for my amazing Imagination Crafts Diamond sparkle medium. I used my Tim Holtz star stencil.

 The photo is very dark as it was taken in evening but those stars really do shine brightly.

I also made a sheet of card using the same ink colours but I daubed Pewter distress paint over it which gave a lovely subtle sheen. Adding some water made everything blend.

I used this sheet to cut out some festive shapes and also decided to try some black snowflakes too.
I wanted a large image in the centre of my card and found a deer which I had taken off a Christmas card last year. Us crafters are such thrifty souls aren't we. I decided to add some sparkle to it using silver embossing powder and a snowflake stamp.

It was then time to put on my creative hat...................................
and here is my finished card.

I had great fun cutting black icicles and holly leaves too. I continued the shine by adding diamond rhinestones to all the snowflakes.
A couple of close ups.

Perhaps I should call my reindeer Rudolph the diamond nosed reindeer? He would certainly shine out in a dark sky!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

The Funkie Junkie's 12 tags of Christmas #5
Bunny Zoe animals
 Crafty Card makers cut it out
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday anything goes
Party time Tuesdays anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut sparkle
We do doobadoo enhance your dies
Polkadoodles recycle it my deer is recycled from a Christmas card from last year.
Imagination crafts anything goes
Christmas cards all year round no patterned paper
The Artistic Stamper Christmas is coming
Bearly Mine Christmas cards
Emerald Faeries non traditional Christmas colours

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x