Calico Craft Parts 2019 Review

Hi, servus and how's it going with preparations for Christmas?

Today I am wrapping the candy that goes on the Xmas tree tomorrow and I am also preparing our "French Salad" for tomorrow evening. It's an old recipe and family tradition and takes quite some time to cut all the vegetables into little dice and cook them so they are all firm to the bite but I love doing it because it is quite a meditative thing to do and the result is definitely worth the effort ;)

IF you are actually really reading this on the 23rd...thanks so much for taking the time to stop by! This post is my usual every other Monday invitation over to the Calico Craft Parts Blog. Today I am doing the annual "Favourite Makes of the Year" post over there and picking just three projects always is a hard task to be challanged with - but I managed (and as is often the case I was a bit surprised myself by some of my picks ;).

To find out about my three favourite Calico Craft Parts projects I did this year, simply click HERE.

And of course I would like to thank you all for your lovely visits and comments on my blog, on facebook and Instagram and the design team blogs I am creating and writing for! Your comments really mean a lot to me and it always makes my heart sing to see when one of my projects was able to inspire you or encourage you to try something new or carry on with what you are doing. So thanks for letting me know! Mwah! XXX

Merry Christmas 

and 

a happy new year!

Claudia

xxx

Gift it or Grid it - Customised Pillow Boxes for StencilGirl Products

Hi, servus and welcome to my short invitation over to the StencilGirl Talk Blog. I am sharing a new tutorial and project over there and if you are in need for a quickly done wrapping for a small present this might be the right tuto for you ;)

I have done a full tutorial video this time and you can find that alongside a lot of images and further info on paints and stencils used in today's blog post over HERE.

Here's an image of the finished pillow boxes.

The video shows how I've layered paints and stencils to create the strips and how I have applied these in a grid-like manner to the die cut and folded pillowboxes. (I have used the Tim Holtz Pillow Box with Labels die - an oldie but definitely still a goodie - to die cut my boxes but you could as well alter bought boxes of course). If you don't want to do the pillowboxes but create the mixed media strips for other projects like maybe using them on a journal page or a book cover the video is still worth a look as you can watch me building up layers and picking stencils and colours during the process.

I hope you'll like it! Thanks for stopping by and as always

hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

An Almost Ready for Christmas - Card

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by my little creative corner close to the beautiful Austrian Alps!

I just wanted to share another Christmas card I've finished today, done with a lot of Tim Holtz goodness this time.

I haven't taken any steps images this time, 'cos this card meant joyful me-time, but I will of course love to share with you what I've used and how.

The room shown on this card reflects the actual state of Christmas preparations over here at the moment...well, actually the actual state I hope to be in after next weekend to be honest ;)
With the tree already bought and put into its stand (but we keep it on our balcony and only get it in on the 23rd as over here in Austria we do not put up the Christmas tree before that (instead we love to keep it for as long as possible afterwards...lol...I remember my mom having ours one time so long it dried out and one day just fell off to the side while we were away shopping), the presents all wrapped up and piled up in some corner of our flat - as these will also only be put in place on the 24th right before we celebrate Christmas - which over here is on the 24th in the evening.

I have put up a list for you of dies and Distress products used. I inked all the die cut pieces using Distress Ink and Distress Oxide Ink Pads and my blending tool. Most parts were die cut from white cardstock, only the inner of the fireplace was done using black paper instead (with traces of fired brick Oxide Ink on top).

So here's what I've used:

Thinlits dies:

Fireside
Santa's Helper (the books sitting on top of the fireplace and the Christmas crackers)
Handwritten Holidays
Frightful Things (the little candle in front of the books)
Festive Things (the cup with hot chocolate, the tree, the wreath and the present)

Background "wall" paper:
Dapper paper stash

For the floor I've used a strip that I blended with Distress Ink vintage photo and ran through my Big Shot Plus using Tim's
Lumber 3-D Texture Fades embossing folder and Distress Ink gathered twigs on top.

Distress Inks used:
vintage photo
pumice stone (for the fireside)
black soot
chipped sapphire (on top of peeled paint Distress Oxide Ink to mix a different green for the tree and the quote)
gathered twigs

Distress Oxide Inks used:
peeled paint
broken china
fossilized amber
fired brick
ripe persimmon

Distress Stain brushed pewter was used on the fireguard and on the garland the tree is decorated with.
I also used my little Tim Holtz Sidekick for die cutting the smaller parts while creating the scene and coming up with more ideas on what to add to it. I love that you can put the Sidekick directly on the media glass mat and quickly die cut whatever small pieces you need.

I enjoyed creating this card a lot and I hope you like it too!

Hugs and happy Xmas crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Quick Christmas Card for Calico Craft Parts

Servus and thanks for stopping by today!

This is the usual every-other-Monday-invite to check out my latest Calico Craft Parts project over at their blog and this time I have a Christmas card for you that is really quickly done and creates a lovely, magical winter-y Christmas forest scene...

A lot of new tree and deer woodshapes as well as gorgeous Christmas themed ones have arrived in the Calico Craft Parts online shop lately and I have used some of these to create my little winter forest scene on a kraft card.

To see the whole card and check out the really short and easy how-to simply click HERE to get taken the the post at the Calico Craft Parts Blog. Hope to see you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx