Tuesday 6 December 2016

And yet more baubles

Two posts for the price of one,  that is because I forgot to publish the other on the night I wrote it.

Much has happened since the other post, like 6 more baubles, and 7 cards,  plus two birthday cards.  Today I tidied up my craft table,  all the Christmas stuff is back in the box,   craft mat cleaned,  all tools cleaned and put away.  Wonder how long it will stay tidy...  !   In the meantime, hows about this for a weird looking polar bear?  He has now been modified, smaller nose and eye.



Snowflake was a lot better.  Both are from a Hobbycraft kit,  half price!  I added a few other bits,  like silver strips and glittery faux brads.  The only glue I had at this point was the collal 3D glue,  so had to make do. 








The second snowflake card,   a bit different from the above.  Sadly the kit only came with two glitter snowflakes, so had to improvise.  I had the disc, and after a dig round the Christmas box of stash,  I found a snowflake.   I covered both in embossing powder,  and glued into place.  A good save,  well I thought so.







Another bauble.  I wanted to use up a lot of the Christmas stash,  and avoid having to buy anything.  The only new thing on here was the all gold gilding flakes.  A good bargain from ebay, nice big pot too!    I used some clarity doubled sided sticky clear sheets.   Managed not to lose any flakes along the way. 












On the other side is: embossing powder, a double layer.  I masked off the middle bit, then did it in stages, gold first then the red.  Rest are just peel offs. 










Another bauble,  but with different gilding flakes, had these for ages, but then they do last for ages.    I put ribbon and glittery bits round the side.   I did think of putting the date, well they are for a mass Xmas swap, but,  it all seemed like too much work.   No, don't think that I couldn't be bothered, my anxiety was rising, so felt it best to just stick to the simple stuff.  Putting dates and names would have meant finding numbers, letters,   I knew I had them, but wasn't sure if I had enough of the right size. 

Anxiety is a funny, but horrible thing.  I have to remember not to put any pressure on myself.   So these days life has to be more relaxed,  I have to tell myself that a job can wait for another couple of days.    I know why it happens, but if I explained this would be a very, very long blog post.  


The same was happening on Sunday night,  me getting wound up for no reason.   My cousin messaged me to say she'd come over for a catch up.  And so what do I do, start worrying if I have enough time to get the place tidy, and do a few other things.  Well the other stuff could wait, but I found myself thinking I had to get it all done.  Daft,  once I'd calmed down,  stepped back a little I felt better,  and of course everything, pretty much, that needed to be done has been done. 

This year I have put up some decorations, not much, just a tree and a few other bits.  Last year I just couldn't be bothered, although I did get a teeny, tiny real tree from Tesco.   This year it is the half tree, but in a different place from where it used to go.    Got some presents to wrap and get in the post, plus all the cards and baubles,  just printed off the labels.  Hands are so sore at the moment,  really stiff,  my middle finger has been swollen for a while, I wear a signet ring on that finger, and usually it is loose, but right now it is a bit snug.  Plus the cold weather hasn't been helping matters,  the forecast is for some mild weather,   let's hope it lasts.   

Now off for to do a diary entry.   Take it easy.

Oh baubles!

Evening, yes, another long gap between posts.  Just the usual stuff happening,  and having to wrap up warm! 

Anyways, since the finish of the Travellers Rest,  I had other stuff to do.  First I had to sort out and make my November swap, which...   well I stuffed up first time round, cos of a slight misunderstanding.   And then had to figure out how to make 8 baubles,  so it was off to Hobbycraft.  I got lucky, these were half price,  I thought they would be perfect for the task.  I then had to locate thinking cap,  and come up with a few ideas.  Then I had to find the Xmas stash, in a box and stored somewhere safe...  I had a good old rummage around the rest of the stash, now stored in various places.  Found embossing powders, a good start, then my versamark, great, heat gun, yep,  ideas, still looking.


Finally I had a few ideas to play with, all with the help of a few Xmas peel offs.  So,  the idea was to decorate both sides, but slightly differently.  This first one got the red treatment,  I first masked off the top bit, and dabbed it with the versamark then sprinkled it with gold embossing powder.  Once that was cooled down,  I masked off the gold, and did the same thing, only this time I used the red tinsel embossing powder.  Lovely jubbly,  I went round the edge with some silver embossing powder.










Then I flipped over the bauble, I cut out a peel off,  it was a Christmas candle, but it was an oval shape, and was a bit too big, but cut down, perfick.  I stuck that onto some double sided clarity sheets,  then with the backing paper, I placed it onto the bauble, trimmed off the edge.





Then I added some rose gold gilding flakes.  Looking good, yes?   Well I think so.  I could have used perfect pearls, or even glitter, but just fancied the gilding flakes.

So, now I have back covered in embossing powder, and the front with a nice peel off and gilding flakes.  Let's go back to the back!










I can't leave it plain, so more peel offs,  some left over stars, and the Happy Christmas,  with a sprig of holly,  that will do nicely.  Will add date as well, but on the side.  Phew... 7 more to go!   Some will have the nativity scene, others will feature the usual Christmas suspects, snowmen etc.

I still had the swap card to make.  The challenge was to interpret a sketch,  except I just read 'sketch', and thought I could use one of my own sketches.  Eventually I realised my mistake,  and luckily before any real work was done.  So, how to interpret the sketch, it had four triangles down one side, a circle and a few lines...    Come on girl, you can do this.   Yes, but have I any cardstock?   Ooer, seem to remember giving a lot away, got to be some round here somewhere. 


And breathe.   Yes, she did it!  She made an actual card.  I did find a card kit that hadn't been used, so I had some decent card stock.  I have card, but what I didn't have was anything heavy enough to turn into the card base.  So got that far, what next, matting and layering, why not.  Nice bit of light purple, or mauve,  some white card... all a bit plain.  Hang about, there is some bubble wrap over there, now where are those sprays I had..  Gotcha,  purple, blue and vivid green,  then, plonk, onto white card, then off.  Some glossy black card, cut a strip, then using long scissors, randomly cut a few triangles, punch out cirlce from lovely blue glittery stuff, and a strip.  Zat, methinks, will do it.  Phew.  Also got a few birthday cards to make,  time to use up that kit!





Actually the cold weather has meant that my Raynauds has been really bad,  wasn't too bad last year, it only affected me when I went out.  Now it is affecting me in the house, not funny.  Now must go, skype call coming through.  Have a good week.

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