Presents underneath the tree

SEASONS GREETINGS TO YOU ALL!

I hope that this post finds you all well and merry after the festive period. I have been delayed by a few things... you know how it is, Christmas just seems to take over. It's all about the fun, presents, food and of course family and because of that, it is one of my favourite times of year. We do not see our nieces and nephews as often as we would like, and Christmas has been all the more special because of the time we have spent with them.

Using my hand-crafted wrapping paper (and a bit from the shops), R went all out this year and wrapped the presents with homemade garlands too.  There is a family joke that R and I have shares in sellotape because we  wrap the parcels so tightly nobody can open them! To us it makes the experience last longer (watching them struggle that is, ha ha!).

That's not all. There was an extra addition to the table this year, yum yum!

Take care, enjoy the holiday season and I will be back soon with more photographs of this year's Christmas festivities. 

Andy

Decking the Halls

Good Morning Everybody

It is Christmas Eve and I would like to welcome you to my second Christmas posting. Yesterday, I showed you some of the smaller projects that R and I started with. Now we step up the pace.

Above is R's wreath. We used a shop bought wreath as the base and then R added a whole host of different stars made from different materials.

Whilst R wrestled with the wreath, I was busy making this year's cards. 

Our inspiration this year is the Northern lights. Using a squeegee, I created the colours I wanted then added in the detail once this was dry.

I found the best colours to use were Cyan, Magenta and a Bright Yellow (all the usual primary colours of Blue, Red and Yellow came out too dark) with a splash of white thrown in.

Once the cards were done it was time to 'dec the hall'. Above, is the landing window complete with our advent calendar and candles.

The whole house has been decorated this year. R has been the busiest making the banner, and paper trees among other things. She has used many different materials and techniques and the end results are really joyful.

Even the downstairs loo has not escaped being decorated!

But of course the epitome of and celebration in the house is the tree. Ours is full, with lots of our home-made decorations (including the bird house).

The snowman was created the same way as the Christmas Decoration Swap elf ball, and the star was shop bought to which we added chalkboard paint.

And, thank you Miriam for our bird. We love it!

I hope that you have a brilliant Christmas Eve and memorable Christmas Morning, and Santa remembers you all. Tomorrow, the post will be all about presents.

Merry, merry Christmas to you all.

Andy

Getting ready for Christmas

Good evening everybody

As the sun will soon be setting on 2013, it is a time of celebration and reflection for many. I have not been prolific on the blog front over the past few months for various reasons and I would like to say thank you to all of you who have kept checking in and sending me good wishes. Although I haven't blogged much, I have not been idle on the creative front. Here comes a Christmas blog blitz that will show you many of the projects that we have been creating ready for the holidays.

Over the next four days, I will give you a posting a day. This is unheard of for me but I intend to do it as a small Christmas gift.

Even though work has been time consuming, we have managed to construct a rather Crafty Christmas this year. Both R and I have worked hard on projects to give our Christmas a distinctly individual feel. We have taken inspiration from online and magazines and have turned these ideas into our own distinct style. Followers of the blog will know that I do follow Alisa Burke's blog. Alisa was the inspiration behind our wrapping paper this year.

Do you like the new curtains?... !! This was the drying system for my sheets of pattened wrapping papers; very high tech!

The painting did not stop there. You may have noticed our tree topper this year? This bird house originally started out to be just a decoration but I really loved doing it. Here is the process - if you would like more details, please let me know.

You need to start by decorating your mount card. First layer, white acrylic

The second layer was fluid acrylic Copper (the same colours as the wrapping paper).

I tried to work out the measurements before I started cutting. Originally I created a net to get the basic shape, then added the roof from there. I drew on the back to make sure I got it right (it took a couple of goes!).

I then used a Stanley blade and a metal ruler to cut out the pieces.

A hot glue gun was used to put the house together.

Once I had the basic shape, I started to add in details such as the wreath and the bows.

 

As mentioned before, I did not intend it to be a tree topper. The bird house just evolved...  A hole created in the bottom allowed the top branch and Christmas lights to be inserted.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not the only one who has been busy. R has been hard at work creating some fantastic projects that are beautifully intricate and, to be honest, if I tried to make them I would probably get very frustrated.

Here is one of her mini Christmas trees, using Pine cones, florestry supplies and a cork.

These little beauties are dotted around the house along with her gorgeous Snow Globe Jars.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed this first Christmassy blog. These were all created during the first two weeks of December. Tomorrow, I will show you how we stepped up a gear; making cards and the house gets totally decked out!

Hope you will pop back to take a look. 

See you then?

Andy

Festive Swap Show and Tell

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to do a quick blog post and say a big thank you to Miriam for the Festive Swap Show and Tell. I have really enjoyed joining in with this project. Today, I received my swap decoration from Marsha in Canada. I am so thrilled to receive two gorgeous folded origami fabric stars and can't wait to hang them on my tree.

Here they are...

I hope Wanda from Tidbits & Treasures receives my elf decoration (shown here) in the post soon.

In other news, I have finally finished the sunflower painting that I started earlier this year. I am very pleased with how it turned out. It's quite a large canvas and we have it positioned at the top of our stairs. Everyone comments that looking at it really brightens their day!

Hope you all are well and looking forward to getting out your Christmas decorations soon. Can't believe tomorrow is the first of December. How quickly it has all come about!

Andy

Christmas Decoration Swap

Hi Everyone

I am so sorry that I have not posted since Halloween. I have only just got over my illness. It has driven me crazy not being able to get out into the man cave and paint large canvasses, but it has not stopped me painting something small.

I decided to paint a Decoration for Miriam's Christmas Decoration swap. As I write this, my bauble is now on it's way to the the States and I hope that the recipient will like it. 

The actual bauble is ceramic and I have used a selection of acrylics and pens to create my little elves.

I am off to check Miriam's blog to see what other people have created and I am thinking of painting some more baubles for Christmas. I think it will be rather a crafty Christmas this Year!

Have a good week.

Andy

A Ghoulishly Good Pumpkin!

A Happy Halloween to you all!

Wishing you all a ghoulishly good time. 

I am sorry not to have blogged before now but hope I am forgiven as I have been very unwell. I haven't participated on the Bloom True course; didn't get some new projects started, but I have managed to create a few things for All Hallows Eve and hope you enjoy seeing them.

First, here are a couple of Halloween cards. I created them using water- colours and coloured pencils. 

I did create quite a few cards, each one with a different personality, so all members of the family have a unique card.

Carrying on the pumpkin theme, I managed to create a pumpkin for our front door (with a bit of help from my wife). I was inspired by Alisa Burke's painted pumpkins and also an urge to watch Harry Potter. I wanted to create spooky houses, but this has been done a lot so whilst watching the Philosophers Stone this clip gave me some ideas that I could not resist.

After the Pumpkin had been massacred and gesso-ed, I got out the acrylics and some Sharpie pens and got painting. This was the final result.

Hope you like it? The shops were first drawn on paper in order to keep a record of them. I love the character of each shop and am wondering if I could use them in another project. We shall see!

I hope you are having a spooktacular time.

Andy