16 December 2021

Get Cracking on Christmas - December 2021

Peeps! It's December - can you believe it?! 

It has been a crazy year and personally, I am delighted that it's coming to an end! The next few weeks will hopefully finally be somewhat nice, although very very hard emotionally - there will be lots of people missing this year on my Christmas list :0( Thankfully, the Christmas joy that having children brings will somewhat balance it out! 

If you are new to Get Cracking on Christmas, please check out Jenn's blog here - she is the master-mind behind this initiative, and is the best one to explain it! :o)

I have to tell you - the idea of making a few (or even one!) Christmas card each month has worked wonders for me, and whilst it might be somewhat awkward at times to create christmassy or wintery scenes in the middle of spring or summer - there's nothing awkward or stressful about having a pile of cards ready to go, come late November/early December! Therefore, I will most definitely be joining in next year again. Do you want to join our Christmas crew, too? Get in touch with Jenn! 

Today's card is something that I started working on weeks ago, and never fully finished... I am still not 100% sure if it's finished to my liking or not, but the longer I faff with it, the less ideas I seem to have, so I'll just leave it as is at this point. 

What do you think?




It is quite masculine, and not girly & cutesy, and I think this is why I am so unsure about this design, LOL! Either way, I am delighted with how the reindeer's nose turned out! 

If you want to see all my makes from 2021, please check out the blog post here.

I am not sure if I will be posting here before the end of the year, apologies for my lack of activity in 2021, I truly hope that 2022 will be truly craftylicious! 

In the meantime - I hope you have a lovely Christmas (even if it's a bit of a sad one, like mine, but let's find some hope and comfort in this celebratory time!), and a fabulous New Year 2022! Here's to a really really healthy and safe one!

Stay safe and crafty,

Mirella


SUPPLY LIST (please see affiliate disclaimer & essential supplies info here):

Stamp & Dies - MFT, Festive Friends (appears to be discontinued, sorry! However, some stores like Seven Hills Crafts still have the stamp set for sale! )

Papers & embellishments - scraps from my stash



Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB REAM Smooth Solar White Paper Pack 250 Sheets Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# FOG Gray FG27 My Favorite Things EXTREME BLACK Hybrid Ink Pad MFT 2986 Copic OPAQUE WHITE WITH BRUSH APPLICATOR 053720  Prima Marketing METALLIC ACCENTS Semi Watercolor Cake 589974 Crafter's Companion CLEAR OVERLAY Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens SPECNSPACLE3 Ranger .5 Oz. MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Glue INK41511 Quilled Creations PRECISION TIP Empty Applicator Bottle 317 Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit MISTI MOUSE PAD INSERT 000144 Tim Holtz Tonic MAXI GUILLOTINE COMFORT PAPER TRIMMER 1980e Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White 660425

18 November 2021

Get Cracking on Christmas 2021 - November

Hi Everyone,

Can you believe that Christmas is in just over a month?! It's honestly blowing my mind! 

I have been very inactive here, and in general on social media, as well as in my craft-room recently... I apologise if any of you feel left out with lack of comments and interactions from me - I hope that 2022 might be better from my side in relation to that aspect. I lost two very close family members over the last few months (one as recently as a week ago), and with the pandemic and restrictions it has taken a huge toll on me... So please bear with me, as I am trying to get over a huge emotional whirlwind! I miss my therapeutic crafty time, but at the same time I just don't feel ready for it at the moment...

If you are new to Get Cracking on Christmas, please check out Jenn's blog here - she is the master-mind behind this initiative, and is the best one to explain it! :o)

I don't have any new makes for you this month, so I thought that I would share with you the cards I made throughout this year, for the Get Cracking posts. In case you missed any of the previous months - you might find these projects & photos inspirational; or perhaps you already forgot about some products/ideas that you have seen here on my blog before, and it might just give you that nudge to try them out!?

January (more info on these cards here):



February (more info here):



I took a break in March, so here is April (more info here):


I skipped May again, but June is one of my favourites of this year (more info here), it's so cute, and I love the colours:

Okay, okay, I love the July ones also, haha! (click!): 



August was truly magical, and these are so easy to make, too! (more info here): 

And September was the last time when I properly crafted :( (click if you want to read more): 




I feel very honoured to have been part of the Get Cracking inspiration group, and I hope we'll continue with this next year. It's great to work on our Christmas stashes throughout the year, and have some cards all nice and ready for when the final stretch creeps up on you, LOL! 

As it turns out, my Daughter's card design that she made at school will be our Christmas card for 2021, but I am still delighted to have these all ready to go, for when I need them. You can never have too many Christmas cards, am I right?

Have you been working on your Christmas stash throughout the year with us? If so, share your links in the comments below, so I can have a peek! :o)

Stay safe and crafty,

Mirella

16 September 2021

Get Cracking On Christmas 2021 - September

Hi Everyone,

And so it is September already! My 6 year old recently asked me, how many days until Christmas, and I realised that it's just around the 100 day mark now, wow! Time really does fly...

If you are new to Get Cracking on Christmas, please check out Jenn's blog here - she is the master-mind behind this initiative, and is the best one to explain it! :o)

Today's cards were inspired by a piece of patterned paper that a friend of mine gave me. They are three very easy designs, mostly made out of die cuts, and some small bit of stamping/heat embossing/splattering or simply doodling. Funnily enough, the third card was made out of scraps I was considering throwing away, and I think it's actually my favourite of them all now!

For the first card, I was planning to use only die cuts, but in the end I opted to lightly stamp the deer image - I think it looks better that way. I added some "scenery" detail with a white coloured pencil, snowflakes stamped with VersaMark Ink, and there is some golden detailing on the deer itself (see close-ups). A delicate gold heat embossed sentiment, and voila - ready! Apologies for the not so great photos - the weather has not been kind here recently, plus somehow my camera got confused with the limited colour palette on the card!




The second card is probably the closest one to the patterned paper that inspired me in the first place - I couldn't believe it when I saw these little tree clusters amongst my stamp sets (by the way, I tried to link to all the sets used at the bottom of the post... I am sorry, I used a random mix of stamp & die sets, to match the ideas I had in my head...you definitely don't need them all to create a similar look - challenge yourself to see what you have in your stash & use that! You might have to, since some of the sets are retired already, LOL)!



And finally, the card made of "scraps" and leftovers... I was doodling on these trees purely for fun, as I was then going to throw them away... In the end, they helped me create my favourite card for today. One woman's trash can be the same woman's treasure, as it turns out, LOL!




Here is the patterned paper that I used for inspiration. Now I challenge you - create something inspired by this patterned paper, and let me know in the comments where I can see your makes! 



Stay safe and crafty,

Mirella


SUPPLY LIST (please see affiliate disclaimer & essential supplies info here):


"Peace on Earth" sentiment - is from Quiet Christmas by Hello Bluebird 

Most of the sentiments & some of the trees - "Trio of trees" by MFT (retired)

Deer die cuts - "Delightful Deer" by MFT (I believe also retired?)


FROM TRINITY STAMPS SHOP:



FROM SIMON SAYS STAMP:

Trinity Stamps JOYEUX NOEL Clear Stamp Set 1541146691 Waffle Flower A2 LAYERS Dies 310282 Mama Elephant BASIC SET Creative Cuts Steel Die Set Pinkfresh Studio - Essentials Collection - Dies - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles Neenah Environment 100 LB SMOOTH DESERT STORM  Paper Pack 25 Sheets Neenah Classic Crest 110 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets Tsukineko VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink Pad VF-82 Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Watermark VM-001 Altenew COFFEE BREAK Mini Cube Crisp Dye Ink Pad Pack ALT1249 Simon Says Stamp Pigment Ink Pad WHITE INK039 Sakura METALLIC GELLY ROLL 3 Pack Medium Point Pens 57387 Prismacolor Colored Pencil WHITE PC938 Altenew GOLD FOIL .2 INCH Washi Tape ALT3876 Studio Katia GOLD FOIL Confetti SK2704 Studio Katia EMBELLISHMENT WAND sk014 Brutus Monroe ALABASTER Ultra Fine Embossing Powder BRU2470 Brutus Monroe GILDED Ultra Fine Embossing Powder BRU2487 WOW DUAL SPEED HEAT TOOL WZHT-USA Ranger .5 Oz. MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Glue INK41511 Quilled Creations PRECISION TIP Empty Applicator Bottle 317 Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two Applicators 62191 Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit MISTI MOUSE PAD INSERT 000144 Simon Says Stamp GRID TRANSPARENCY gridtran Tim Holtz Tonic MAXI GUILLOTINE COMFORT PAPER TRIMMER 1980e Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White 660425