Happy New Year my Friends

I wish you, my friends, a very  

Happy New Year

I hope that 2013 brings you health, wealth and happiness

hugs Gay xxx

Happy Christmas to you

Photo credit

  It's a very guilty mustavcoffee that writes this post today, I owe my blogging friends a huge apology. I am sorry :0) I have been off the radar for a while.  The truth is I've just been overwhelmed by events. BUT things are looking up and hopefully the new year will bring lots of happy days and wonderful experiences. So although I have no card to share today and I'm still under pressure with the imminent celebrations, (like many of you too), there is light ahead:0)

So here is my special wish for you my lovely crafty friends,

I HOPE YOU HAVE THE MOST WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS EVER 

AND THE NEW YEAR BRINGS YOU PEACE AND HAPPINESS.

Hugs Gay xxx

A little cutie!

Hi there folks,
I hope that you're all organised for the festive season, all tickety boo, wrapped and labelled, no? Well join the club my friends, LOL
I have made a card for the Craft Barn cute week, I don't often do cute but I was rather taken by this little lady

 I made a small triangular box and a key ring too..........................

Great detail with this stamp!
I used

Stamp by Stampavie, Marion

Copic pens

Clear Shrink plastic

Spellbinders Resplendant rectangles

Helz Cuppleditch washi tape, pastels (on the reverse of the box)

Thank you for stopping by , hugs Gay x

 FREE POSTAGE ON ALL UK ORDERS

from 6pm on 30th November until

Midnight on 24th December inclusive

A little KanBan card

Hi there crafty people, sorry I haven't been around, not feeling very crafty lately! I hope all is good with you my lovelies?
I have made a card

Just a very clean and simple offering for the Craft Barn this week, gorgeous KanBan clear Christmas stamps and a sentiment from Indigo Blu. Stamped and coloured with copics then a big gem in the centre, a little Sakura clear gel spread with a water brush around the middle! Could be good for mass production if you're running out of time!
Thank you for stopping by :0) Hugs Gay x

Over on the Craft Barn Blog gifts under £20 this week pop over and check them out if you have a minute:0)
Christmas is coming and any ideas are very welcome!

I used:
KanBan Stamps
Indigo Blu Stamp

This week again we have a prize draw feature across the blog, newsletter, Facebook and Twitter 

Three vouchers are up for grabs: £25, £20 and £15.   

It’s easy to enter, simply place an order on line with us.  Everyone who places an order between 16th and 23nd November will automatically be entered into the draw and at the close three lucky people will be drawn at random to win the vouchers

Christmaaaaaaas!

                                                                                                                                                                 

Welcome here and the theme today for my Craft Barn make is Christmas, I love it! Today is a pure and simple card. I used a Tim Holtz Texture Fade and a TH die.


The Vintage Noel was cut out using white felt and another layer in plain paper for a shadow, glittered and slightly offset. The festive garland I embossed onto the red card and then I embossed a piece of white card, coloured and cut out the holly and some pine cones. The holly is lifted with Pinflair Glue Gel and then covered in Diamond glaze. Around the garland I used Copics to deepen and give more dimension.

The team at the Craft Barn Blog have made some really great Advent creations this week, well worth a look if you can spare the time
 I hope you like my card:0) I really enjoyed making it, see you soon, hugs Gay x
p.s No news on the health front yet but Thank you all so much for the lovely get well messages:0) Gay x

I used

White felt

Tim holtz Texture fade Christmas Background and borders set

Tim holtz Bigz Die Vintage Noel

Ultra fine glitter

Pinflair glue gel

Our special offer this week

Order any advent calendar from our site,

and get a Tando mini advent calendar number set free

It will be added to your parcel.

And for WEEK 9 of our Countdown to Christmas, the week's offer is

10% off everything

when you spend £20 or more on line

valid from 2nd to 5th November

  simply use the code 10NOV12 at checkout

click here to go to The Craft Barn website

Hello there!

Hello my lovely bloggy buddies, yes I'm back from hols and we had a good time:0)
Thank you so much for all your great comments, whilst I've been away, I really appreciate your support. Unfortunately I'm a bit under the weather just now and having some tests to determine why. I will be back soon, I hope, to share some great photos of Arizona and visit all my lovely friends.
So stay crafty and see you soon, big hugs, Gay x

Design tape today

I know the title is dreadful but you know what it's like trying to come up with catchy titles LOL Please forgive me?
Hi and welcome, today I am sharing my design tape makes for the Craft Barn
A little different these tapes, larger and shiny mmm I enjoyed playing with these and got it stuck everywhere, quite a tangle but you won't have that problem LOL It was just fumble fingered me!!

I made a card and a bookmark


The card uses Lynne Perrella stamps from PaperArtsy that I painted with Dylusions ink, lovely bright colour. The shiny tape will work well for the bookmark as it will wipe clean after sticky fingers have played with it! Here it is in one of my art journals







This pic shows the bookmark open and the magnetic sheet inside. I could remember from school something about the polarity of magnets but not enough to be sure that if I cut the sheet up how to make it stick to itself. I remembered something about stroking it in one direction but couldn't remember which direction. Worry not, once cut up it was attracted to itself very nicely with no encouragment at all  from me LOL
Thanks for joining me today, I'm still on my journey so this is scheduled again but I will visit when I get back, hugs Gay x
I used
Design Tape   
Lynne Perrella Stamps 
Magnetic self adhesive sheet                                                                         

Very Crafty Individuals:0)

Hello my crafty friends, Today I have a calendar to share, my second for the Craft Barn this year

I used one of the new Crafty Individuals masks and rather a lot of Dylusions ink sprays. This time I made a hanging calendar and included a space for a pen and some post it notes. More examples of the new masks and dies at the CB Blog










Here is the pen holder, a small rectangle of card, sprayed with Dylusions and masked with the same mask as before but this time I embossed with Dreamweaver gold embossing paste. I love the shade it went on top of the inks when it was spread thinly.

This post is scheduled as I'm off galavanting again, thank you for visiting and I'll get back to you as soon as I return, hugs Gay x
I used
Crafty Individuals mask, Fine flower panel
Dylusions inks
Dreamweaver embossing paste, Gold.
Stamps by Impression Obsession,
Calendar tabs

OOOOOOhhhhhAAAhhhhhhhh It's Hallowe'en!!!!!

Hi and creepy greetings to you all, this is my Hallowe'en effort for the Craft Barn
Check out the CB DT's makes this week they've been very inventive again and put me to shame but here goes..........

I made a couple of cards and both use the new and very spooky stamps from PaperArtsy The first has a secret message ooohhh!!! I hear you say LOL
I love the sentiment it makes me smile everytime I read it

My next card uses the large skull and some drippy wax from a red candle, looks a little like blood?

Both cards have oil pastels for the backgrounds, they smuged beautifully in the first for the grass and in the second the black and brooding cave. I used a fine oil on a cotton bud to spread the pastel on the card.
I hope you like my offerings, I'm off travelling so I will catch up with you later, thank you for looking. Have a great week my friends, Gay x
p.s, I have removed comment moderation, I hope it all behaves and I'll get back to catch up with everyone as soon as I am able, Gay xx

I used

PaperArtsy Stamps: Halloween 1

Oil Pastels in Black, Violet, Grey and Olive Green

Crafty Individuals tree stamps CI-209

Metallic F/X Silver mica powder for the small card

Cosmic Shimmer: Silver embossing powder for the skull and crossbones

Black ribbon

Our special off this week

10% off the Faber-Castell set of 36 oil pastels

enter the code PASTEL10 at checkout

Calendar time

Hi Folks, I hope it's a good Saturday for you so far:0) Here is my Craft Barn calendar make for this week,

Dylusions inks are just so scrumptious!! All those fabulous colours, I really love 'em:0) For a calendar or something that's going to be out a long time(hopefully) you need to protect the colour from fading so I embossed mine with clear embossing powder, that should do the trick! My calendar is on a Spellbinders die, Marvellous Squares, I just love the edges of this one and of course Dyan Reaveley's Stamps need no introduction. All backed by a magnetic sheet and bingo this will stick to anything metal, Christmas stocking filler anyone??
Have a fabulous weekend my friends, lovely to see you, hugs Gay xx


I used

Dylusions Spray inks

Dylusions Around the Edge stamps

Spellbinders Marvelous Squares

Self Adhesive Magnet

Our special offer this week:

20% off the following stamps

Curious Corrin - Ruby rainbow - Doollally Dorris -

Love struck Lucy -Tallulah Tripp - Dependable Dotty - Traveling Travis - Pondering Petunia

Enter code DYLUSIONS20 at checkout

Rudolph day and I'm late again

Oh dear, Trust me!!! There is so much going on I'm running out of days ATM.
Hi there my crafty friends, Welcome to a super quick post for Sandra's Rudolph Day challenge
Some lovely stamps to win  too :0)
Here is my card

It's a Penny Black stamp, I've used it before but wasn't happy with the result. This time, I stamped it in white brilliance  and then again in Distress pine needles but spread micas in bronze and gold then added loads of bronze and gold Stickles. The background is a torn copy paper mask and direct to paper with brilliance ink again. Thanks for stopping by, Hugs Gay xx

Calendar Challenge starts today

Hi folks, Just a quick heads up:0) The Craft Barn Calendar Challenge starts today pop over and check out all the details HERE

Have a lovely day!! Gay x

Vellum!!!!

 Welcome crafty friends, I hope you're having a lovely weekend, the weatherman says it's all set fair for today at least:0)

This week over at the Craft Barn we have been using vellum, lovely stuff!! here is my effort. The Design Team have had fun this week and made some lovely samples for us all to ooh and ahh over :0)

 I made some candle votives, a sheet of vellum embossed and trimmed to size wrapped around my spritzer bottle, a glue dot and a battery candle :0)

And a card, flowers of vellum cicles and a Tim Holtz die for the stalk.

Thanks for your visit, see you soon, Gay x

For the votives I used

White Vellum

Dreamweaver stencil, Damask

Brilliance inks in Cosmic Copper and Moonlight White

Spellbinders dies, Ironwork motifs

Tim Holtz Stamps French Marketplace

Quickie Glue Pen 

And for my card I used

White vellum

Quickie Glue Pen 

Spellbinders Morocan Motifs and Nestabilities, Classic Circles Small.

Tim Holtz, Elegant flourishes

Sentiment by Crafty Secrets, Sweet Kids

Our Special offer this week. 

As you saw yesterday, Isa'sArt is using the metal tools on her vellum 

(Pergamano style), so we are offering 10% off a couple of tool kits so you can have a go at this technique.

Use the code VELLUM10 at checkout

LIM and a Twinchie too!

Good evening one and all, I have made a Twinchie and turned it into a card for LIM 86 a recipe this week to make a card choosing 3 from all the previous challenges:0)
My Twinchie, for the Show us your Twinchies Challenge, note the capital (T) letter please:0)

 And my card is

short and sweet today.
I chose to use weeks:

10. Sentiment only

5.   Pastel colours

12. Off centre

72. Something shiny

24. Circles

82. 3,2,1 =3 circles, 2 layers, 1 sentiment.

That makes 6 weeks inspiration LOL!! Thank you for visiting, see you soon, Gay x

Get your calendars out!!!

Tee hee, I let the cat out of the bag early yesterday, oops. Here is the post you should have seen this morning and not yesterday morning :{

  

 Anyway on to the brilliant news :0) YAY more Calendars at the Craft Barn, the challenge is back and it would be great if you could join in this year

All the details are on the blog and click HERE to wing your way over, see you soon, Gay x

ooops!!

Looks like if you visited here earlier today you got a little sneak peek at what is coming up, uh oh!!! Will keep you posted! Gay x
                                                

  p.s please scroll down for today's Craft Barn make :0)

All painty here then :0)

Hello my crafty friends,
I'm happy to see you today:0) This is the post for my Craft Barn makes and today I have a recycled tin or two with some rather special paint!
My tins were full of travel sweets ( and very yummy too) I hate throwing these tins away, they're big enough for embellishments and stuff. The Jars are the little jam/marmalade pots that you get in restaurants. Now with this paint I can disguise them and reuse them.

I used Pebeo Fantasy Moon paint. I found it facinating watching the paint develop it's characteristic surface of the moon like qualities :0) Over on the Craft Barn Blog there are a few more details about this project but the ingredients are here:

Pebeo Fantasy Moon Gold, 32 and Chocolate 34

Pearls

G45 paper 

Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Labels die 

Gold micro beads

 I hope you have a wonderful weekend, thank you for visiting, tomorrow details of more fun to be had, I know, I'm a bit of a tease LOL Hugs Gay x

our special offer this week

10 % off Pebeo paints

Enter the code PEBEO10 at checkout

LIM with Ovals :0)

Hi, hello how are you? Enjoying the Autumnal weather? Here it's been sunny and cool but in the north and the middle of the UK there has been rain again :{ Not so wonderful!
I have been making cards, that always makes me smile :0) Chrissy and Mandi, the lovely Divas over at LIM have asked us to make a card with a theme and that is all about ovals this week. So to my card.......................

 

 This is a masked panel that has been stamped and the coloured, I punched an oval, stamped the sentiment and then embossed around it. You can just make it out in this photo. One of my messed up cards ( yes after all these years I still make huge mistakes LOL) came in handy for the oval at the base and I was pleased when the pattern matched up to give a nice swirl. The stamp is from WOW and is designed so that the swirls are left out of the ink which was perfect to add distress colours to.
I first stamped in black.
I hope you like:0) Thanks for stopping by. I hope to be over to see you soon Gay xx

I used:
WOW  stamp Brocade
Hobby Art sentiment With love
I bought mine at the Craft Barn

AAArrrggghhh, no phone and no internet again!!!!!!

Hi there crafty friends:0) Sorry I've not been around, my services were definitely lacking this weekend:{ No phone from Thursday and no internet from Sunday morning. But now I'm back up and running again, good old Open Reach they sorted us out. I will be around to see you soon, in the meantime have you 'liked' the Craft Barn yet:0)
There is candy if you do .....................................................ta dah!!!

Click Here to go to the post on Facebook, Good luck :0) Gay x

Rudolph the red nose reindeer?? Soorreee I'm early :0)

Hi folks, Today I have been playing with a Sizzix die, a reindeer, it has to be Rudolph! I made three items, all different, got a bit carried away really :0)





My first is a small 15cm canvas with shrink plastic die cuts of the reindeer. The canvas has some Mod Rock for dimension and a string of beads with bells for sound, they tinkle LOL
More of the details are on the Craft Barn Blog

 My card is with Indigo Blu stamps and glue with silver holographic foil and gold leaf. The reindeer has again been die cut in shrink plastic, coloured with Alcohol inks and shrunk.

 A reindeer, full size, that's been die cut out of Copper sheet and then passed through an embossing folder, the design worked really well for his face and I thought for his muscles too, what d'you think?





Over at the Craft Barn the team have made some more die cut art work, they've been really inspired. Check it out HERE if you would like to see what they made.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, Gay x
 I used.........................

Canvas

Sizzix die, Reindeer

Clear shrink plastic

Pepeo paints, Fantasy moon, Gold and chocolate

Mod Roc

Fresco paints in Snowflake, Egggplant, Orchid and Sky

Claudine Hellmuth's Gesso

Beads 

Stretchy elastic

Tim Holtz Numbers and alcohol inks in Eggplant and Snowcap

Sizzix die Reindeer

Sheet of metal, copper.

Couture Creations EF Vintage Plumes

Hobby Art Sentiment stamp, New Year Bright

Mirri card, copper

Distress inks: Barn Door, Rusty Hinge

Reindeer Die

IndigoBlu stamps, Here comes Santa 

IndigoBlu gilding glue

Gilding flakes and silver foil

TH Alcohol inks and Distress inks.

Our special offer this week

Spend £30 on Sizzix products between Sept 10th and 17th and get a £5 voucher back

(you will find it in your parcel)

Right let's have another go LOL

Hi again folks I'm having another bash at LIM.  This week the challenge is to have foliage on your one layer card and over at Simplicity the challenge is to make a gratitude card, here goes
                                                                          

I had a couple of attempts with this Clarity Vine stamp.  The first is my favourite, it doesn't come much more simple, stamped in olive distress, a little bright yellow copic and a Hot off the Press sentiment in black.                                                                               

This has a PTI sentiment but I spent some time colouring and adding mica powders but I don't like it very much :{
Thanks for dropping by and I'll be around to see you soon, hugs Gay x

Just a quicky!

I removed my last post, my card was far to similar ( unintentionally of course!) to Chrissie's gorgeous card at LIM for my comfort :0) I'll have another play and another attempt LOL!
 Thankyou if you kindly commented I'll get back to you, have a great day my friends, Gay x

Image transfer anyone?

Hi there, Welcome, I have been discovering a new technique to me. I've always wanted to be able to do image transfer and this week I got the opportunity ! This is what I made

 

It's a little wooden vintage box. I transferred the image from an inkjet photocopy with TAP, Transfer Artist paper and an iron. I really enjoyed tinkering with this box, it has many layers of paint and gold leaf and embossing:0)
There are more examples of TAP paper transfers at the Craft Barn Blog All this week the team have been using it and they've made some really great projects

If you have a few moments check it out, on the CB blog I have done a step by step collage of how I made this little box.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend, thank you for stopping by, hugs Gay x

This is a list of the items that I used

TAP Paper

9cmx5cm Wooden box for altering

Dreamweaver Damask stencil and Black matt paste

Crafters Workshop Harlequin mask

Fresco Finish Paints: Little Black Dress, Claret

Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

Tim Holtz: Buttons

Stamps from the French Market place.

PaperArtsy Lynne Perrella Collection LPC011

Indigo Blu Starter Kit 

Sheets of gilding, Gold

Our special offer at the Craft Barn this week will be 15% off Distress Stains 

Enter the code DISTRESS15 at checkout

An Autumn Twinchie :0)

Hi there, I hope you're enjoying this late sunshine, it doesn't suit everyone but I love it:0) I'm just quickly posting a Twinchie, over at the Show us your Twinchies blog the theme is Autumn, I hope you like it :0)

 I'm struggling with lack of light again, taking photos is easy with bright daylight, this morning and this evening the sun is low, it heralds a change in the seasons, Autumn is definitely on it's way! I hope you have a wonderful evening, Gay x

I made this one with Pan pastels, Distress inks and a stamp from Crafty Individuals, one of my favourites, Music Background and Birds, I bought mine from The Craft Barn.