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You are welcome to copy any of my designs, as long as you do not take credit for them yourself. I am very happy for you to sell them. If I have used anyone else's design, I always try to give credit where it is due. If I have missed anything, please let me know and I will put things right.


This is intended to be mainly about my crafting stories, as a personal record of what I do. However, I interpret crafting quite widely, not just paper crafting but other things too. I have a butterfly mind and like to change from one thing to another depending on what I feel like on a given day - knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cards, baking and several others, including my favourite right now, parchment, both traditional skills and Groovi, very relaxing and calming to do.

I have decided to put some structure into my blog so that each day will have something of a theme.
Monday- for Mindfulness; Tuesday - Tidy Up Day; Wednesday - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday; Thursday - Technique and Tips; Friday - Finish Off Day; Saturday - Start Something New; Sunday - Anything Goes
These themes are not hard and fast and will be changed if I feel the need.

Wednesday 28 December 2011

WOYWW - 134

Never mind all the expensive gadgets that we are all told we cannot do without for Christmas.  This is what it is all about for me.  This gorgeous canvas was a very special present, created by our very clever daughter.  All four grandchildren together for once.  The original picture was heavily photoshopped to sort out the fact that the colours all screamed at each other, and to create a professional looking background.  It must have taken hours of work, but, I am sure you will agree, the result is stunning.  I will show you the other picture she did for us next week.

It was great to have all the grandchildren together on Christmas Day, although it was a shame that son's poor wife was on duty till about 5pm, so she missed this part of the festivities.

Looking at Shaz Silverwolf's blog today, she has been busy sorting out all her ribbons, and they look really good and easy to find.  I wish that was all I had to do.  My room looked a wreck when I closed the door on it on Christmas Eve, but I thought it would do until after the big day.  Oh boy, was I wrong?  When Steve arrived with the two girls, the youngest was distinctly cross and tired, having not even closed her eyes on the journey down.   So she urgently needed a sleep in a darkened room, so as my room has black out curtains, things were moved rapidly to make room for the travel cot, out of reach of anything dangerous.   I really need to start working my way back in to make it fit for working in again.

I also failed miserably in my mission to use up all the Christmas stuff and reduce the two boxes to one.  In fact, despite making over 70 cards with the stash, I think the stuff left over got busy breeding, and I am not sure it will all fit back in even two boxes.  So my next mission is to make Christmas cards throughout the year to clear the backlog before panic sets in next year.  I have quite a few stamps that were intended to be used for this years cards, but there was no room or time to play with them.

My final card to be finished this year nearly sent me to an early grave.  The topper was already done, one of my stained glass variety of a Nativity stained glass window, with the acetate married up with the paper version underneath.   I needed a frame to cover the glue holding the two halves together, but then I discovered that nothing was the right colour.  OK, strong sticky tape round ti and Martha Stewart fine glitter rubbed into it.  That looks good.  Now back it onto black card.  Fine.  Now I need gold card as the final matt - problem, nothing matched the gold glitter.  Here we go again.  this time, spray glue on the mount, stick the topper on that and rub glitter into the edges of the matt.  Then the whole thing was finally stuck on to the black pearlescent card.  That looks fine.  Now all I need is the gold holographic sentiment - problem - I used all the gold ones, only silver left.  Out came the spray glue again.  I cut the sentiment off the sheet, sprayed it with glue and rubbed in more glitter.  Then I peeled off my newly glittered sentiment and stuck that on back card and mounted it in the same way as the topper.  All that was left the the simple job of printing out the insert, which was already set up.  Did I say simple........  What a mistake that was.  It printed fine, but then it needed to be trimmed.  After three disasters when bits got chewed off, I looked at the guillotine and found that the channel the blade runs in was clogged with glue and general stuff.  After I cleaned that out, things worked better and the card was finally finished, and was very well received.  Sadly, I cannot show it to you this week, as I forgot to photograph it before I handed it over, but I will try to remedy that and post it here in a later post.

I hope you all had a great time at Christmas, with various ailments taking a back seat for the day, and lots of family all around.  It looks as though Julia did, with her family together.  Just click on her name to find out what she and many other friends got up to.  Meanwhile, Happy New Year to all of you.  I have really loved reading your posts and your comments this year.  Keep them coming and enjoy your crafting and your lives in 2012.

24 comments:

shazsilverwolf said...

Hi Marg, I can't believe how many blogs I have got round so far, lol. Your picture is stunning, isn't it? I shall post the one we had from them later today. I'm glad the dinner went well, Beck was stressing a little over whether she would get the meat cooked in time! We had a lovely dinner Christmas Eve- enjoy the rest of Christmas and have a very Happy New Year from us both. xxx

Tuire Flemming said...

The canvas is great! So funny faces!
Glad that you survived with the last card :)
Hugs
Tuire #36

Neet said...

Lovely to read you had a great Christmas with all those you love around you. Lovely photo of the children, yes, must have taken a while to get it like that.

I too decided I am going to Christmas Card Make throughout the year with leftover stamped images so we have both got a task ahead of us which i hope we can both keep.

Happy New Year to you and yours. Neet #4

Karen said...

I am glad you all had a good Christmas and your canvas picture of your DGC is just amazing :)

Have a great WOYWW and a very Happy New Year, I hope 2012 is a good one for you all :)
Luv Karen xx

jude said...

The photo of ypour grandchildren is absolutely stunning what more could you ask for!
Here's hoping you Have Happy Healthy,Creative New Year
Hugs Judex 57

May said...

Your gift of the canvas is fantastic, you are right it is what it's all about, the children look great the little one made me smile such bright eyes, Happy 2012, Hugs May x x x x x x

Twiglet said...

Fab canvas - lovely happy faces. Have a good New Year. x Jo

Lunch Lady Jan said...

What a wonderful picture of your grandchildren, how thoughtful a prezzy was that?? I love the baby's eyes, so gorgeous :)
Thank you for your great comments and support this year - I really do value and appreciate them all.
May 2012 be a truly splendid year for you and your family,
Hugs, LLJ #35 xx

Elizabeth said...

What a beautiful photograph for a canvas. :) Happy WOYWW and all the best for 2012! Tango, #37

Hettie said...

That is a super photograph there. As for your craft room - I feel your pain. Mine looks like a whirlwind has gone through it but hopefully by tomorrow evening it will be a little better!
Happy New Year.
xx

bohemiannie! art said...

I know...the more art supplies I use...the more I seem to have!!!

WOnderful picture! Merry, Merry, Happy, Happy!

Julia Dunnit said...

Oh the stress of one card, why do we do it to yourselves! still, I bet it was warmly received. Love the pic of your grandchildren, what a lovely labour of love.

Spyder said...

Crafty stuff does have this way of 'growing' doesn't it!?! I can never get it back into the box pr bags it came out of!
Lovely Pictures, (we had a few new ones of our only grandson, he is growing so fast, wish he wasn't soooo far away) and yes, I'm drinking loads of hot lemon and other lemon sniffle stoppers, AND chocolate! in hope they all will get rid of this awful cold. Thought I'd have five minutes on the computer...but I now think I may have given it my bug! Happy and very Happy New Year. Happy WOYWW
((Lyn)

SandeeNC said...

Beautiful canvas of all the grandkids! Happy New year from North Carolina!

sandra de said...

Such a beautiful photo of the children and I think it was worth all the effort. Something to keep and treasure forever. The craft room what can I say ...we all sympathise at least the dark curtains came in handy for the little one. Enjoy your new year and I look forward to lots of woyww posts in 2012.
Sandra

Debbie Rock said...

What a fabulous canvas of your grandchildren ... can easily see why you love it so much! Know just what you mean regarding the breeding of craft stuff ... I made all of last year's cards using only stuff I already had in the hope of making room for new stuff but it didn't seem to free up much space at all. Happy New Year and looking forward to crafting and blogging alongside you in 2012! xXx

Jingle said...

Your descriptions of your card and the process is so wonderfully written! I can totally see it! I'm glad you had a wonderful holiday and good luck on the tidying!

Michelle (aka Meechelle) said...

What an amazing gift to receive. Your grandchildren are lovely!

Reading your story about your difficult time with that card made me laugh! I had a very similar day in my craft room yesterday.

Hope you have a very happy new year! -Meechelle #86

Tara Cardwell said...

what a precious gift - the personal ones trump the gadgets everytime :-D

shazsilverwolf said...

Hi Marg- I laughed out loud at your comment about boxes of Christmas stuff!I suppose it does count as reduction of boxes though, technically at least.Especially if the box has the same, or smaller, footprint.Lol.

SueH said...

What a beautiful photo Maggie and one you will treasure always, I can tell.
One of my regrets is not having a family photo of my mum, dad, two brothers and myself all together.


Happy New Year to you and ……..
Happy Crafting!

Sue (#68)
x

ScrappnBee said...

That is such a beautiful present to get for Christmas! They are truely adorable! I think that all of our spaces need a little love after holiday neglect. LOL! Good luck with yours, and have a happy and crafty New Years! -Amanda #9

Elizabeth said...

Hi Maggie, fabulous photograph of your grandchildren and I have no difficulty imagining how difficult it was to create it. Sorry, I did chuckle at your story of how you created the card - been there, done similar :)) Thanks for all your lovely comments throughout the year and I wish you many crafting hours in 2012. Happy New Year!Elizabeth #65

Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards said...

Lovely photo there Maggie and can so relate to the "simple stages " of finishing a card - it dries me balmy how varying shades there are of one colour! thanks so much for sharing and being such a blessing in 2011. Happy WOYWW! Love, Shaz in Oz. x #24