I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Thursday 29 December 2022

Counting the Twelve Days...

Apologies all... the days before Christmas got away from me, with all the running around and preparations. I'm sure you know what I mean!  These quiet days after all the hustle and bustle are my favourites - curled up by the Christmas tree, with candlelight, music and good books - time for hibernation and reflection. 

But I did keep up my tag-making over the days of Advent, so I'm here to share those creations in a couple more batches.  Even though we're done counting down to Christmas, instead we're counting the twelve days of Christmas.  Today is the fifth day so, instead of five gold rings, here are some more tags!

The amazing Tim Holtz Layered Snowflake die, and some of my own PaperArtsy text stamps creating detail in the icy backgrounds:



Celebrating some classic Christmas films and film songs - hence the film strip ribbon.  The word stickers tell you what you need to know:



Another of my PaperArtsy EAB28 Juniper berry backgrounds, with some more festive collaging:


Lots of texture in that background, which includes Uncharted Mariner, and some of my favourite Holiday Greens dies in action:


I made several of these starry snowy backgrounds in some mixed media playtime.  Again, it's Uncharted Mariner for the most part (which was fast becoming my colour of the season by this point!)... that beautiful turquoise blue has a gorgeous wintry look when paired with white:


Fussy-cutting is not my strong point, but it's much easier when you leave a white frame - and that works so well for winter.  It was definitely worth the effort to get these sprigs of my PaperArtsy EAB29 Mistletoe layered in with the Tim Holtz greenery (over some more starry snowy backgrounds):



I had no idea where these two were going when I started, and at one point I thought I'd completely overdone it with the layered backgrounds, but it all started to work again as soon as I positioned the two Paper Dolls.  In fact they became some of my favourites of the whole countdown:


That's enough for one go... I'll be back with the rest of the collection before the 12 Days are up (6th January), I promise!

Hope you are all enjoying a peaceful, happy time - and that those of you affected by the winter storms are staying safe and warm.

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.
Winston Churchill

Wednesday 7 December 2022

Advent Countdown (part 1)

Hello all!  I'm trying to create something daily during December so I'm here to share the first week's worth.  There are definitely some new wintry favourites among them for me...

I haven't always got as far as a finished tag - so some days are background-creating days, and some days have more than one tag.  Hopefully in the end it will all add up to 25!  Here's what we have so far...

Day 1



Day 2



Day 3


Day 4





Day 5



Day 6



Day 7



Those silvery blue crackled stencilled backgrounds appearing were actually made back in the summer during one of my first playtime sessions with the (then) new Uncharted Mariner colour.  It's taken until now for them to get their chance to shine!

There are some of my own PaperArtsy EAB28 Juniper Edition berries and text in a couple of the others.  And I think my favourite maybe the layered stamping backgrounds from Day 6.  I'm looking forward to finishing those off. 

I hope you are having a gentle run up to the festive season, and I hope to be back with some more Advent Countdown creativity soon.  Happy crafting, all!

I pray this winter be gentle and kind--
a season of rest from the wheel of the mind.
John Geddes