And that was Christmas

I hope Santa brought you lots of goodies and that you had a lovely day.   Very quiet here,  and very damp - will this rain ever stop?

I got lots of vouchers, which as you can see I have put to good use and I still have money left over :-))   Todays haul included a new glass cutting mat,  in the sale,  string (reduced),  two new sets of stamps,  embossing folder and U mount - for stamps.  Oh and Creativity, Do Crafts Mag, cos it had some lovely stamps.

Here they are in close up,  just couldn't resist them.  Will come in handy for backgrounds.   The string is just well, string,  3 balls of it,  white, black and white, and some rafia, all for a £1.   The other stamps were from Crafty Individuals, and Creative Impressions,  the latter is a French set, but it had a nice postcard.  So very chuffed with that lot.  The new cutting mat is a dream,  smooth, flat, no lumps or bumps,  so stamping is now a breeze.  My other craft mat had seen better days,  it also had a few lumps in it caused by me using the heat gun on it - oops.   Was almost tempted by the two speed heat gun, but I'm slowly getting the hang of the frantage stuff so may just stick with my old gun till it packs up.   I've also got vouchers to spend on Amazon,  decided I'd get practical stuff from there, like craft mats. 

So with the new goodies, I began to make up the new cover for my new art journal.   I'd been working on the cover for a few days.   I got the journal from Dunhelm Mill, which does have a small craft section,  the sketch book was only £2.50! 

For the cover I used some white card,  that got well and truly daubed with Radiant Rain, the copper and gold.  I then used some ink on bubble wrap and plonked that on. Next was the crackle stamp,  then some random stamps.  Also added the new stamp from the Do Crafts mag.

So next was adding some interest!

Like this.   I used a stiff cardboard tag,  used two layers of UTEE,  then warmed the UTEE up and added some frantage, then slowly heated it from underneath till it 'took',  then finished off with a few blasts on top.  Then I daubed more versamark on and added some copper powder, then some black.  The flutterby is just two wings,  they were covered in black ink and left to dry for a day or so,  then using the crackle stamp I stamped on some versamark then added the copper powder,  smudged some versamark round the edges and added more powder. 

And here it is finished.  There is some music paper on there, plus some crinkly paper which also got a slosh of Radiant Rain gold and rusty hinge ink,   plus a strip of lace.  Used the last new stamp from Craft individual,  this time I stamped it on to a small tag,  then added a layer of UTEE.   Rosette was some left over paper I had,  just pleated and stuck together - plenty of tutorials on Youtube which show you how.  I chopped into it to add the jagged edge, in the middle are some old watch bits.   Add the sentiment, the chipboard frame, and the heart which has a music score on it - that was from another magazine I picked up last week. 

Very happy with my haul and my new journal.   It was also nice to get out today, been stuck in for last few days so I was starting to get cabin fever.   The original plan had been for me and mum to have lunch at the garden centre,   but mum decided she didn't want to go out in the rain,  by that she meant walk to the car!     I even went to the supermarket,  boy was it quiet!  Such a relief to be able to walk around in safety,  we just needed some milk and bread.   The turkey has all gone, used up the last of it in a stir fry yesterday,   I have to say it was delicious, the turkey, very moist,  I followed the instructions,   and let it rest for about twenty minutes.   Did watch Gordon's live cookery show... all that faffing, forget it!    We had a slimmed down dinner,  mum hasn't got much of an appetite these days, just a couple of roasties, one veg,    but even so she did actually finish all of her dinner and then polished off the pud.   It was nice not to feel bloated. 

There'll be more craftiness tomorrow, well I have all my new toys to play with!