A golden start to December

This is my second post of the day....If you are looking for my Country View challenge post from this morning you can find it here

My vintage advent calendar is hung and I shall be opening my number 1 window very soon...

There is number 1....ready to reveal it's little scene.

It is also the first Friday of the month so it is time for the new STAMPlorations theme and sketch challenge.
The theme is to use your stamps and gold. You don't have to use STAMPlorations stamps but we do love to see them!

 and below is the lovely sketch you can use if you would like to.

The details can all be found here

I chose to work with the theme and the sketch and got out my sewing machine to stitch the sketch onto gold card.

I then used the fab coffee for all seasons stamp set

and created the card below

It would be lovely to see lots of you joining in with the last challenge of the year and remember you can use my discount code STAMPGIRLJANE at the checkout to get a whopping 20% off your order.


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

Cupcake inspirations 1/3 #433

Simon says Wednesday 4/5 anything goes

Card Mania 1/5 Christmas

Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes #395

Emerald Creek Dares anything goes

A bit more time to craft 1/3 #57

Noor UK anything goes

It has been so cold the last few days but it is perfect for this festive time of the year! I also have a new visitor this year

Meet my Elf on the shelf.... or rather the window sill. He has already been up to mischief...

Yes I caught him red handed die cutting...hmmm....this could be an interesting countdown to Christmas....I will report back soon if I catch him doing anything else!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Elf on the Shelf mischief

I understand that my cheeky cat Billy took over my blog on Sunday. He says thank you for all the fun comments you left and that he is enjoying his time with Old Choc and Terence. We had a great weekend with Daisy and Co. Stick Man was such a fun show and London, despite heaving with people, looked beautiful. The lights on Regent Street and Oxford Street are worth seeing. I didn't have my camera with me but snapped a few photos using my phone.

In the evening we met up with our son and his GF and enjoyed a delicious meal all together. It really was special family time.

Daisy's Elves on the Shelf managed to "fly" to Nanna's house and I had great fun making mischief with them on Saturday and Sunday morning.
On Saturday they got into the fridge and put eyes on lots of the contents. The ever observant 3 year old Daisy thought she recognised the wobbly eyes from Nanna's stash...lol. I told her that Father Christmas had sent them back from the North Pole for Nanna to use.

On Sunday they made a little bed in Billy's food cupboard and even had their own fairy lights.
Elf on the Shelf really is such a fun concept.

For my challenge piece today I wanted to make an Art Journal  Moment of our wonderful family weekend and incorporate some challenges including the finale of my Funkie Junkie challenge, my penultimate dictionary challenge at the Craft Barn and the Mail art challenge over at PaperArtsy.

. I have chosen the word M for Mail for my alphabet challenge and at PaperArtsy I was inspired by the decorated  envelopes and the use of real stamps in the introduction of the Mail art topic by Darcy on Sunday.

I wanted to preserve the ephemera of our theatre visit; the flyer and the tickets from Stick Man and also a couple of photos from our day together.To do this rather that use a pocket, as Linda did,I decided to make my own envelopes using Christmas papers from my stash. This would be my mail art for PaperArtsy.

 I used a sheet of paper for my base of my art journal page and added festive stamping using stamps by the Artistic Stamper.

Next I add some music stencilling

 I added a touch of bling by adding gold embossing paste through my snowflake stencil.
The amusing thing was that all this got covered by my envelopes!









These are the envelopes I made.

2 small ones and a larger one.

 I stamped onto little die cut cards inside the small envelopes and recorded the details of our day.

I added stamping on the envelope and a real stamp. I also added some remnant rubs. I addressed it to Father Christmas, using a gold pen, to remind me of writing to Father Christmas with my darling Daisy a few weeks back and yes she received a letter back!















Here is my finished page.

And some close ups of the details.. I stuck the flap of the large envelope down so that I can get out my ephemera and photos from the day. Below you can see my decorated page when the green envelope is lifted up.

 The insides of the small envelopes recorded our day. I added Treasure gold around their rims.

here is my dictionary definition.

and a final close up of the envelopes. I added a First Class Royal Mail Christmas stamp as this will be fun to look back to.

I would like to enter my art journal Moment page into the following challenges.

The Funkie Junkie's 12 tags for Christmas #12 I would like to thank Linda for hosting this again. It's such a great Christmas challenge. You still have time to enter.  If you would like to play along with this fun Christmas challenge please check out Linda's post here which gives all the details of the challenge requirements. The challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique and you could even win one of the prize vouchers if you complete all 12 weeks. This week I was inspired by her little pocket (I used an envelope instead) the Tim Holtz holiday greens die cuts, the use of ephemera and the snowflakes.

The Craft Barn Dictionary challenge M ....mine is M for Mail

PaperArtsy Mail Art challenge

Pixie's Snippets Playground #259 I used snippets of paper for my small envelope and snippets of card for my die cuts.

Mixed Media World Winter Wonderland

Frilly and Funkie home for the holidays

A Vintage Journey Winter Magic

Simon Says stamp Monday Let there be snow

Simon Says Wednesday ice inspiration

Craft Stamper take it make it snow and ice

Thanks so much for visiting me today and for taking the time to leave your kind comments at such a busy time of the year. There are just 12 days to go.....I still have my crackers to make but I have just about finished the shopping and my cards are posted. We need a mammoth wrapping session soon.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The elf not on the shelf

If you have young children or you are American you will have heard of the Elf on the Shelf. If this is new to you this is a very sweet countdown to Christmas for little ones.  Elf and sometimes Lady Elf are sent down from Santa on 1st December to keep an eye on children to make sure they are being good before Christmas. They fly back to the North Pole every night to give Santa a briefing. They are magic and must not be touched but each night they get up to a bit of mischief and can be spotted in the morning in different parts of the house.

The Elf on the Shelf  design is based on the 1960s Christmas tree ones and I am lucky enough to own my own Nan's one, which hangs proudly on Old Choc each year. It's in brilliant condition considering it is over 50 years old.

I used to love seeing this hang on her tinsel 1960s tree...yes very "of its time"..😂 For me real trees have always ruled to roost. My Nan lived in a tiny flat so I think that's why she chose to have an artificial tree and anyway in the 60s kitsch was everything.

My daughter bought Daisy a boy and girl elf and I found some fun chipboard elf furniture on the internet which I decided to paint as a pressie. I bought a bed and a chair and they arrived flat packed and unpainted.

Out came my DecoArt media paints and I painted them to make them look wooden using lots of layers and brush strokes.

Here is the rocking chair 

and this is the bed. I added a painted wooden stocking with ribbon.

I bought some festive material and my darling Mum ran up a little bedspread and pillow and here it is completed.

All ready for the elves.

On 1st December this is what Daisy found on the kitchen side when she woke up

with a sweet note from Santa

 and this is the mischief they got up to on day 2 ....such fun and Daisy is loving them.

She is coming to stay on Friday and Nanna has a few elf ideas for here ....;0)

I would like to enter my elf furniture into the following challenges;

A vintage journey winter magic

Rhedd's Creative spirit December

Simon says stamp Monday Christmas gifts

Emerald Creek Dares 1/3  winter wishes

My card today has to have some whimsical magic so it is a fairy one for me. This fairy has got caught in the snow but has her stocking all ready hung ;0)

My stamp is Lavinina. The die cut tree is a first outing for my Tim Holtz tree edge die. I used Frantage to create the snow.
I would like to enter my fairy card into the following challenges

The Butterfly Challenge December ( but fairies etc until the New Year)
Sparkles Christmas Christmas is coming
Simon Says Wednesday anything goes
Simon Says Work it Wednesday 1/3 use dies
Mod Squad 2/3 dimension
The Artistic Stamper 2/3 Christmas
Moving along with the times 1/3 anything goes with Christmas
Winter Wonderland 1/3 frame it or night scene mine is a night scene
Crafty Boots unltd Christmas
Let's craft and create 1/3 Christmas

The days are racing by and I have lots to get done still including making the crackers. Thanks for visiting and taking the time, at this very busy time of the year, to leave your kind comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x