Challenges & More

Hi you all! It's freezing cold here, but we had some SUN today, so in spite of a thick frost on the fields it was possible to go for a walk. And I have some good news today - I won the drawing over at Simon Says, which means a 50$ voucher - whoopee! Thanks to those who alerted me to my win, Terry and Maura. I was on the blog to look at the theme of the next challenge, but never looked to see who had won. It was a lovely surprise for the weekend!

At 'Artful Times' the current challenge is to use 2 embossing folders. I have made a wall hanging using cardboard, which I distressed with gold ink, and lots of ultra thick EP in gold, into which I also stamped with a LaBlanche background stamp to give some texture. I embossed some scraps of gold paper, using folders from TH and Spellbinders. I printed the image of the girl onto a transfer, and ironed it onto a piece of canvas, frayed the edges and distressed them with DI in Antique linen and vintage photo. I distressed all the 'matting' with the same inks, and layered them onto the cardboard. I tied the 'package' with string, and threaded two of my handmade textile  beads onto the ends. That was it! I am also entering this into the challenge at 'Simon Says Stamp and Show', where the theme this week is 'Embrace the old' - using up old stash, or other things already in the cupboard, or making something 'vintage'. 

The second piece is for the challenge at 'Out of a Hat' creations. This week we had to choose a row from a bingo card, and I chose the row with bling, hat, bow and stamp. All stamps used are from Catherine Moore. I have let Araminta - my bird-lady - star in this one again. She is wearing her best dress, which has been stamped, paper-pieced, coloured and varnished. I gave her a white bow, and she borrowed her Dad's best hat. The chair is also stamped, as is the little branch at the top, and the flourishes. The bling is on the flowers. Araminta thinks she deserves the title of 'Miss Cabinet Card 2013'.

And lastly I have managed to do the first three pages of my calendar for this year, and it's not even the middle of  January! I have decided to use things which I have already made, as there are always plenty of things flying around.

For January I used a piece of paper on which I did some fun stamping in layers, one over the other, some embossed, some layers hardly visible.  I love playing around with things like this. All stamps here are from LaBlanche.

For February I used my umbrella man postcard, as it is often a wet month....

For March I have used a scrap of marbled paper made some time back, matted on red and gold, and mounted onto a piece of dark red card with some gold background stamping to frame the picture.

Well done if you stayed with me to the bitter end, the post somehow got a little loooooooooooooooooooonger than planned!

Enjoy your weekend, take care, and thanks for visiting!