Deck the halls....

... with pennants and bunting... tra la la la laaaaaa la la la laaaaaaa

Usually when I'm  playing around with new products I create tags but at the moment I am creating pennants instead (as I've said before I love a bit of bunting!)...

The above pennant uses the border strip from plate05 with the words on same plate dotted about - love how this turned out - the border is really easy to repeat if you mark on the back the position of the end blocks.

The motifs stamped onto kraft card are from minis.

Speaking of minis: I used the candle on mini08 on this pennant and combined it with the border strip across the top edge:

The candle is coloured with Distress Markers- being from the same palette as Distress inks they tone in perfectly, I like them a lot...

The embellishment on the centre tag is one of the snowflakes created with the Tim Holtz Sizzix die, aged with distress inks.. they're fiddly but i love 'em!

I know I'm shouldn't choose but I think the star pennant is my favourite - stars from several plates: top banner is plate01, big stars plates07 & 08, the white star top centre is from the minis over stamped with snowflakes (also on background) plate01.

I had fun creating these and they work as inspiration for other projects...  These pennants are about 15cm long - don't you think little ones strung on a piece of ribbon around a christmas tree would look cute...

and talking of favourites - distress inks - Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough - my 'go to' colours this christmas - possibly using them a little too much! Jo, put the inks down, and move away from the worktable.. lol

...and just in case you were wondering - christmas is about 36 days away... just sayin'.....

Snow, snow, snow....

... snowflake rosettes!!!   I think I've mentioned on here before how much I love the paper rosettes that can be made from the Tim Holtz die - well look what those clever people from Sizzix have bought out... Lovely Snowflake rosettes!!!!!!!!! Ho ho ho!!  Very lovely! (these will probably find their way on to many projects this christmas!)

It looks so nice when only the edges are coloured - I'd quite happily add this to a project as a border instead of folding it into a rosette:

I used the same colour distress inks (evergreen boughs, tumbled glass) on this card. Stamped and embossed the main image from JOFY Plate6 in clear ink and added the colour over the top.  I bleached the big stars and when the bleach was dry I gently went over the stars with Tumbled Glass ink... Fine black lines were drawn to add detail to the design and ties it in with the base card colour and the black stamping of the top border and the sentiment.

PaperArtsy sells cute little papermache hearts (approx 5-7cm).. I painted this one with Fresco Finish paints: Mermaid, Crackle Glaze and a top coat of Nougat - the gorgeous turquoise/gold wax (aquamarine, Treasure Gold.. also from PaperArtsy) was wiped randomly over the surface - lovely festive shimmer.. I tied on a tag stamped with 'noel' from Plate3, and a couple of wooden snowflakes that have coloured with the same wax.  The wood absorbs some of the wax so that it leaves the 'dye' colour and then a lovely surface of gold: gorgeous.

**  On 4th November I'll be demonstrating my stamps at Birds in the Barn nr Colchester in Essex.. Please come along - I'll be there from 10am-3.30pm - I look forward to see you.  **