Christmas gifts

I'd had it in mind for a while to play with some plain Ikea mirrors that I'd had for ages and managed to get 3 altered in time for Christmas gifts for friends - I still have another to finish - well it's not really started yet! - but I need to get going in order for it to be a New Year's gift.  I enjoyed doing these and think I need another batch of these to play with - I get to use all sorts of  things, stamps, inks, patterned paper and a multitude of different embellishments.

Secret Advent box swap

Day 24 task was to make a gift for our partner. For a while I had been wanting to use my bind it all machine again - hardly used it since I got it really, apart from a few little notebooks - so was inspired when I saw Carol's calendar. I too had seen

Janaina' s bind-it-all tutorial on the Inspirational site and really liked Carol's interpretation of this. Thank you Carol for your generosity in allowing me to 'borrow' your idea of having the months printed onto acetate and overlaying patterned paper. I added a front and back cover on mine and a 'Notes' blank sheet beneath the patterned paper. I was quite pleased with the result, and happy that it seems so was the recipient!

Day 14 was to make a Christmas card.  I used my favourite swirly flourish stamp from Stampington and fortunately (as I have hardly any Christmas stamps now) I had received a freebie from Crafty Individuals in with a recent order.  It turns out that my partner had both of these stamps  - so hopefully the card was pretty much to her taste!

Another day's tasks was to include something in the box which was something to do with the moon.  I had recently bought a lovely little 'moon girl' stamp from Stampotique but not yet used this - must have uncannily known somehow?!  I decided to make an ATC using this.

Secret Advent box swap

It was great fun during November to put together a box of pressies of things we were sharing, making or buying for a partner who would remain in the dark about their 'secret sister/santa' until all was revealed in December.  At the daily instruction of our 'Master (Mistress) Santa' we were given tasks guiding us - of course everyone's interpretation on the instructions were very interestingly variable - as we would discover when the parcels were opened and the contents revealed !

My first 'make' was something to be included in my partner's favourite colours - I made a folded bookmark in blue, using alcohol inks for the background, and the co-ordinating card  incorporated other fave colours.

I've had quite a few birthdays to cater for recently and these 3 are the latest cards I've made. As I seem to do more thinking than inking - in other words I'm a pretty slow creator and there's usually more going on in my head than on paper/card - having many birthdays close together is quite a challenge for me!

And another jumbo puzzle piece

Puzzle piece hanging

ATC swap - 'Friends'

Just playing

I just started playing ~ spraying with walnut ink and ended up with this concertina tag with a Gallic theme - think I'll probably use this for a forum 'Diva of the month' gift. Now to think what to do for another ~ trying to get to be more timely rather than at the last push up each month!

Forum Diva of the month offerings

These are for our 2 DoTM in September - might just make it in time before the end of the month!

Asian puzzle piece

Jigsaw swap

Puzzle made for a mingle - the scan doesn't show up 2 additional layers of 'shimmer' which you can see IRL - one is text which I stamped in versamark and then brushed with interference blue, secondly the piece is sprayed with gold glimmer mist which gives quite a nice mottled effect.