My final Tim card for 2016

The year really is racing away now and I have finished my final Tim Card for 2016. This year Tim's tags have all been remix tags of 2 techniques he has shared from the past tags series. I have managed to join in every month and made 12 cards instead of the 12 tags he made.

Here is a collage with snippets of all my entries this year. I always enjoy seeing them all together as I don't keep these cards.They are given as special cards to my friends and family during the year.

You can see Tim's December tag and methods over on his blog here and this is his tag

As often happens I don't own most  some of the products he used. I used a diecut sentiment instead of a shadow press one. As Tim reminds us we need to make our projects our own
 and just use his take as inspiration 😃

I sprayed distress ink through my star stencil onto my hessian to make my background.

I made little tiles/stamps from epehemera, stamps and die cuts. The postage stamp in an old Whimsy stamp and die.

I used his holiday greens dies to make some holly and fir trimmings. Below is my December entry in close up, the eagle eyed of you will have already spotted it in my collage.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tim for all his hard work, inspiration and endless creativity. His is one of my favourite challenges and I really hope that he continues it in 2017.

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

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2016 December.
Pixie's Snippets Playground #260 and #261 Most of my card is made of snippets of paper and card. A great way to use them up!

Cheery Lynn red and green the sentiment is Cheery Lynn

Mixed Media World Winter Wonderland

A Vintage Journey Winter Magic

Simon Says stamp Monday Let there be snow

Stamplorations 1/3 flash stencil party

Creative Artiste anything goes

                                     Happy Little Stampers untld anything goes with dies

      Christmas at sweet stampin inspired by a song mine is Frosty the Snowman.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you leave at this very busy time of the year. We are now in the final few days until Christmas Day...have you been good 😁

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Jane's Journal's Crackers for Christmas 2016

Hello we have just finished the wrappathon and I am pleased to say that the presents are all wrapped. It really is getting very exciting seeing everything so festive everywhere you look now. I did a little squeal on Thursday morning when I brought my milk in from the doorstep....you may think these look like 2 ordinary bottles of semi skimmed milk

 look again...............

 yes the festive foils are back 😋

 Every year I hope that they will return. In these days of cutbacks I am just thrilled to see them back. Yes it's the small things which bring me such joy at this festive time of the year.

Pure nostalgia of Christmas past.

I have also managed to get my annual crackers made. I have shared these every year since I started blogging so this is my 6th set. These these are the serviettes I wanted to coordinate with this year.

I searched the internet and found some cool vintage snowmen images which I die cut using a stitched frame die.

I dug out all my  kitchen rolls and cut them to size.

The contents are secret until the big day. 

I added jokes, bangers and hats and started to roll them in crepe paper

and then a final wrap of tree paper.

So here are a few of them

I would like to enter my handmade crackers into the following challenges;

A Vintage Journey Winter Magic

Simon Says stamp Monday Let there be snow

Simon Says Wednesday gift it

Studio 75 Christmas decorations

Pile it on any holiday/celebration

C.R.A.F.T 1/3 Christmas

Fussy and Fancy 1/3 Angels/faires or Winter

Winter Wonderland For someone special/happy new year 1/3 These crackers are for the most precious people in the world to me; my family. 

I will leave you with a couple of the corny jokes inside

What do you call Santa when he's lying on the beach?

Sandy Claus

What do you get if Santa gets stuck in the chimney?

Crisp Kringle 

Did Rudolf go to school?

No he was "elf" taught

Ho Ho Ho!  I hope that made you smile. Just 8 more sleeps until he pops down the chimney for real. 

Are you ready? It's the final of Strictly tonight and as an avid fan I have booked my seat in front of the TV, with a G+T to boot! Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Thanks for stopping by. 

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Christmas makes

I attended an enamelling course recently and made some pendants. I really enjoyed playing for 4 Monday evenings. I love the way crafts cross over and I was intrigued to find out that rubber stamps could even be used for creating enamel pieces! I took a couple of photos which I thought you would find interesting. First I sieved a white layer of powdered enamel over the copper circular pendant. This was then put into a kiln to fire.

Once it had cooled I used the smallest snowflake from the Snowman Jack Visible Image set  and stamped with archival ink. I then added some blue enamel powder which sticks to the ink. The pendant was then fired a second time

and below is my pendant after firing.

I also made some other pendants which I will make into jewellery at some point. They are sooo hard to photograph!

 The one below has lots of layers and was fired in several stages. I added a glass bead layer and gold micra powder. I can just about give you an idea of the depth with this photo but IRL it is magical. It is like looking into a pool.

I have also made some Christmas decorations for my children's homes. I decorated a 2nd VI Monolith which I gave to my son and his girlfriend.  The first one I shared here last month and is with my daughter and family.
I started with some gesso and Joanna Sheen ivy die cuts on the front

and on the back a lamp post and Cheery Lynn icicle die cut

I added lots of washes of Decoart media paints.

Then I stamped, embossed, paper pieced and cut out Snowman Jack. I added gems for eyes and buttons and coloured his nose and arms.

 This is the front.

I added lots of Decoart snow and glamour dust to the base for lots of sparkle just as I did for my snowflake monolith which you can see here in detail.
Below is the back, complete with glittered mittens and the fun sentiment.
These are my last guest design pieces for Visible Image. They have just made some new business decisions for 2017 which means they no longer need the extra 3 new design team and 2 guest designers they took on in September. It's been short but very sweet to guest design for them and I have lots of lovely new VI stamps still to play with. I wish them every success with their new crafty adventures ahead. I will of course still love creating with their gorgeous stamps.

I would like to enter my Christmas Monolith into the following challenges.

Mixed Media World Winter Wonderland

A Vintage Journey Winter Magic

Simon Says stamp Monday Let there be snow

Simon Says Wednesday gift it

Craft Stamper take it make it snow and ice

        Mod Squad Use chipboard my monolith is chipboard/MDF

Rhedd's Creative spirit December

WOW embossing powders December, winter

Emerald Dare Winter Wishes

Creative Artiste anything goes

Studio 75 Christmas decorations

                                     Happy Little Stampers untld anything goes with dies

                                            Christmas at sweet stampin inspired by a song mine is pretty obviously as the words are on the back! ....Baby it's cold outside by Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews. The funny thing is that it has turned ridiculously mild here again..it was 16c in garden yesterday!

We had a mammoth wrapping session yesterday and the presents are mostly done. I also managed to make my crackers and will share them with you very soon. Today I am taking a day off to have lunch with my best friend Karen and share some festive chat, our last for 2016!

I hope you are getting your lists ticked now?

Thanks so much for visiting and for all your kind comments. I appreciate just how busy everyone is at the moment. I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my newest follower. Thanks for joining me on my creative journey here at Jane's Journal.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x