Santa is here!

We have had a gentle weekend as most of us are nursing fluey like colds and feeling generally under the weather.  Alex is exhausted having finished his first term at school and so we have had a few little treats, including going to see Santa in the museum.  Alex loves seeing Santa and drew him a little picture and had a lovely natter with him before being given a present. He was particularly fascinated with Santas beard and stroked it, much to Santa's amusement!

Today I had a visit from one of my best friends, although sadly due to car troubles she couldn't bring the kids with her.  It was lovely to sit and have a good chat and catch up.  I do miss her since she moved away. This afternoon as the sun was shining brightly, Alex and I headed out to the park to play only to discover that the ground was covered in ice making for an interesting experience.  The ducks were happy to see us though, and the giggles from the swing and see-saw made the precariousness of the trip worth it.

Crafting wise it is time for another challenge at Quirky Crafts.  It was Cazzy's turn to set the challenge and she chose Steampunk Christmas. I love Steampunk, but hadn't thought of combining it with Christmas!  I decided to alter a CD into a Christmas decoration.  Our sponsor this week is Stitchy Bear stamps and they provided me with the Steampunk corner (I gold embossed parts and added gems for that extra Christmas sparkle) and the Robin, which I coloured in with promarkers, and added gold highlights (with a sparkly gold pen), a gold cog using embossing powder, a key and a top hat. I made the background using distress inks and stamped music and cogs on it.To finish the look off I heat embossed two cogs in green, hand drew some chain links and added gems to make them look like steampunk Christmas baubles and then gold embossed around the edge. I am also entering this into Ooh La La 'Anything but a card', MTTC 'Vintage Christmas', Paperplay 'Christmas' and Delicious Doodles 'X-travagent X-mas'.

I also had to make an emergency entry to this weeks Quirky crafts as one of the images we were given to use hadn't been used; the very cute 3 Christmas trees.  However, it was a challenge to make them 'steampunk' so I added clear embossed cogs in the background, the steampunk style writing for 'Christmas' adn then added lots of glitter and silver to finish off the look.  I am also entering this into TioT 'tags' and Crafty creations 'embossing and glitter'

This weeks Less is More challenge is 'music' and as one of my best friends is an Opera singer, it was the perfect challenge for me to make her birthday card.  The stamps used are from Crafty Individuals and the sentiment is a Penny Black one.  I stamped the woman first and then masked her before stamping the music.  I coloured her using Promarkers and then added a pearl to her hat. I am also entering this into SCSC 'celebration' (well you do celebrate birthdays!), Delightful challenges 'Anything goes' and Colour create 'blue silver and white' (the silver is used as highlights on the hat and bag...I don't think it shows up well in this photo).

Finally I altered a note book for Tim. He is always nicking my note pads so I thought I would make him one of his own.  He loves green hence the colour scheme.  I used Tim Holtz backing paper, a Stamps Away corner stamp, Tim Holtz label holder and crafty individuals 'notes' stamp. I kept it simple and masculine and was quite pleased with how it turned out. I am entering this into CCCB 'get booked', Tuesday Throwdown 'for someone special' (this is for my husband after all!) and Pixie Dust 'stitching'. That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone. Not long until Christmas now!
Love,
Caro
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