It's back...

Just when you thought it was safe to carry on with your crafting... you turn the page on the calender and realise... it's back... time to begin the countdown to my Christmas Craft Challenge.

Today is the 1st of October. That means here in New Zealand we are one month into Spring, it's 30 days until Halloween (not that we really celebrate it here), I've been back in the country two weeks and it's two months until the 1st of December which is officially the start of my Christmas Craft Challenge.

The 1st of October is the day I post my official reminder for the kick off of the Christmas Craft Challenge in exactly two months.

By now I have usually forgotten all about last year's stress and the self-imposed pressure I put myself through so I once again blindly commit myself to doing it all again. 

This year will be the 6th year in a row that I have been doing this. When I first started there were very few crafters doing this sort of thing... well at least few who were blogging about it. Last year they were everywhere. There were so many people blogging, photographing and posting their Christmas creations that it close to being overwhelming.

So why do I put myself through this? We all participate in crafting challenges, especially at Christmas, for many reasons... some more practical than others - boost sales, get your name our there to build demand for your crafting or design services or for design team exposure. Some may be hidden behind a guilt about having committed to doing "X" amount of crafting during the year and then discovering in October/November that you've fallen short on meeting your targets. For those in the Northern Hemisphere it may be related to heading into the cold, miserable Winter months, when indoor pursuits are all you can do unless you don't mind standing around freezing, knee deep in snow waiting for the next chair lift. And if like me you don't fit into any of the above... then just because.

Back to this year's Christmas Craft Challenge...

Well last year's went horribly wrong, I don't mind admitting it. I was working full-time from the start of November having been unemployed for some time, and I was sick as well (no time off when you are contracting)... so my Christmas Craft Challenge turned into a New Year's Craft Challenge for the most part.

I'd like to think I learnt something from last year, so this year I'm not going to commit myself to one craft project a day as Christmas is busy and stressful enough at times without adding pressure to myself for no particular reason. Instead I am happy to commit myself to a minimum of one blog post a week for the four week period. Anything over and above that is a bonus. Each blog post will cover a minimum of two craft projects.

This is doable, without killing me, killing Christmas for me or for me ending up wanting to kill my family for adding to my stress.

Play along at home as well or just pop by to look at what I have created. If you are playing a long at home and will be sharing your own projects on the net somewhere, be sure to leave me a comment to let me know where so I can check you out (well your crafting) and give you a plug on my blog.

Christmas Craft Challenge - Last one until Christmas 2014

At long last (I hear you breathe a sigh of relief)... the last of my Christmas Craft Challenge. 

These are the totally awesome crafting books that I received from my darling hubbie and son for Christmas... that I totally bought online for them to give me.

I'm a little disappointed in this book as it's not really what I thought it would be. There are still some things for me to learn from it, but it's more project based than technique based and at this point in my crafting I want to learn techniques and new uses for products and media. I have none-the-less seen some things I think are quite cool and I look forward to trying.

These two books (above and below) were more what I was looking for. More techniques and uses for both products and tools as well as explanations about the process of art journaling. The bottom book includes spaces for you to try the techniques actually in the book so you end up creating your own reference book of techniques. As much as I love the idea, I'm not sure I can bring myself to do this... I was brought up to respect the sanctity of the written word. A book was never to be destroyed like this by writing in it let alone painting, so this will take a mind set change for me to use as it is intended.

These last two books are definitely what I was looking for. I am definitely a technique girl. I love altering things and adding colour and texture and interest. I love that I will be able to learn new techniques and apply them to art journals, mixed media projects, cards and layouts. I think these two books will most definitely be getting a good work out for a long time to come.

Christmas Craft Challenge - Second to last....

Just before Christmas Bltzy had their sale and I did a little spending... kind of a Christmas present for me or the studio. I really love my Tim Holtz Distress Inks from Ranger and have been waiting for some good prices to extend my range. I've also been needing (not wanting) to get some Distress Ink Refills. Some of my favourites were starting to look a little dry, so I've been looking around for a while, so when I saw them on Blitzy I jumped at the change to stock up on the ones I needed as well as some for as many of my Distress Inks as possible... including the new ones I was buying.

New Distress Ink colours...

Awesome Distress Ink refills - YAY!!! 

Updated my Distress Ink swatches so I can see what all the colours look like. The original post when I set up my swatches is HERE. If you don't have something like this, then I suggest you take the time to create it. It's a huge time saver, not to mention saves you buying colours that you already have!!!

And then I found some stamps...

I've always wanted some Tim Holtz stamps but they are just so expensive here in New Zealand and really hard to get. I found these Wendy Vecchi stamp sets for Stampers Anonymous and had already ordered these and then a week later Blitzy had their big sale and they had some Tim Holtz stamps from Stampers Anonymous so I bought some of these as well.

These first four sets are from Wendy Vecchi for Stampers Anonymous.

And these next ones are from the Tim Holtz range from Stampers Anonymous. Some of the stamps in the Classics series are from other designers.

I can't wait to use all my new purchases. Definitely some projects in the mix for some up-coming major events in the planning for this year! Will let you know what I think of them after I've done some testing.

Christmas Craft Challenge 10 of ?

Here are the tags I included in Tai's Secret Santa Mini album... but first I wanted to show you the relative sizes of the tags.

The largest tags are just slightly smaller than the size of the album. The smallest tags are the standard size 8 tag. Here are all the tags included in Tai's mini album.
LARGEST TAGS:

 MEDIUM TAGS:

 SMALLEST TAGS:

Manila tag (home made). Tissue paper misted with Lindy's Stamp Gang Flat Fabio "Danny Zuko's Denim" mist, dried, then adhered onto tag. Edges of tissue torn. Tag edge colour with Faber Castell Gelatos blended with finger tip. Lindy's Stamp Gang Mist and liquid acrylic ink dripped down front of tag.

Manila tag (home made). Tissue paper misted with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst "Freaky Franken Lime" mist, dried, then adhered onto tag. Edges of tissue torn. Tag edge colour with Faber Castell Gelatos blended with finger tip. Lindy's Stamp Gang Mist and liquid acrylic ink  in white and chartreuse dripped down front of tag.

Coloured using Inktense Blocks by Derwent then blended with water before heat setting.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, dripped Liquid Acrylic Inks, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, dripped Liquid Acrylic Inks, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Faber Castell Gelatos blended with a finger tip, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, dripped Liquid Acrylic Inks, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, dripped Liquid Acrylic Inks, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Faber Castell Gelatos blended with a finger tip, liquid acrylic inks dripped from top of tag.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, Archival Ink to stamp image.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, dripped Liquid Acrylic Inks, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour tag, dripped Indian Ink, Archival Ink to stamp sentiment.

Faber Castell Gelatos blended with a finger tip, Lindy's Stamp Gang Moon Shadow Mist "Golden Doubloons" splattered over tag.

Christmas Craft Challenge 9 of ? (Nearly there)

I had Tai as my secret swap partner on Artistic Creationz. Along with some scrappy goodies I made her an altered box and coordinating paper bag mini album filled to the brim with tags of all sizes.

The box started out as a shoe box that I cut down in height by about half. I loved the finished height though I also would have liked it to be just a little bit taller as the mini album only just fitted inside it... so no room for anything else. 

The patterned paper used for both the box and the mini album was a Rosie's Studio set "My Favourite Recipe" from The Warehouse. I used coordinated dimensional stickers from the same set in the mini album as well. 

Does that just look so sweet... quite retro 50's style. And just a simple layered flower embellishment on top. 

 The little paper bag mini album that really isn't all that little... it's about 2 1/2" thick. The covers were recycled cardboard which were covered with patterned paper to coordinate with the altered box. With leftover scraps from the album pages I made some coordinated rosettes using my Sizzix Tim Holtz Rosette and Mini Rosette Dies. I also die cut some doileys using a Couture Die from some photocopy paper that I had distressed with tea and coffee. I then misted the die cut doily with Lindy's Stamp Gang "Don't Eat the Golden Snow" Mist.

I covered the spine of the album with masking tape... kind of retro looking. I coated it with Distress Inks which I heat set then covered all of the spine and onto the covers with Golden Matte Medium to stop the masking tape from lifting over time. 

 The album includes five pages with pockets and flaps on each page.

 Above and below you can see one of the full size flaps on each page. Not counting the front and back inside covers or tags... there are four pages for photos or journaling for each of the five paper bag pages... so a lot of retail space is built into the album.

You can also see the pockets on the pages here. To the left is the back of the page where I have tucked in the largest of the three sizes of tags. To the right is the front of a page which has pockets both on the binding side and along the bottom running the length of the paper bag.

Inside each paper bag there are also full size decorated cardstock tags... more space!! 

Above are all five pages with the pocket tags all partially pulled out.

The smaller tags and descriptions of the techniques used to decorate the tags can be found in the next blog post. 

Christmas Craft Challenge 8 of ?

For December we had a Secret Santa swap on the Artistic Creationz Website. Our partners were chosen at random and the receiver didn't know who the sender was... though most of us worked it out one way or another lol. My adorable swap partner sent me this awesome altered box with lots of goodies inside.
I love the way she has altered this box. I've always had trouble covering metal boxes, so tend to avoid them (put them in the too hard box) but my SS did an awesome job with altering this tin.

I love the colour combination. I'm definitely a warm Autumn colours girl. Love reds and oranges of every shade. But having said that I also love apple green and lime green, so my SS couldn't have picked a more perfect colour scheme if I had told her exactly what I liked.. and I didn't.

Inside were some amazing goodies. The most magical and heart warming was a little present of goodies for my granddaughter.

The box was was full to the brim with lots of goodies including these really cute handmade washi tapes.

Stickers... chipboard die cuts and and awesome mini album closure.

Beautiful flowers and some decorative wood embellishments from Prima.

A note book, address book and coordinated pencils...always useful!

 And a book for me to alter... probably after I have read it first.

Awesome Christmas goodies... thank you so much to my Secret Santa from the Artistic Creationz Group.