A Horde of Penguins

Thanks for popping in - I think I am winning on the Christmas Baking front as they say.  I made a batch of sausage rolls and mince pies, some of which were gluten free.  However, what I wanted to share with you today were the Christmas cakes I have just finished.

All three family cakes

and here they are individually:

8" Royal Iced Cake

8" Sugarpaste Cake

7" sugarpaste cake

Originally I was going to top the cakes with Nordic Gnomes, but having been feeling under the weather, I opted for something simple instead; and for once I decorated all the cakes the same.  I had a production line going when I made them! 

If I had been able to get out I probably would have bought some ribbon to go around them, but I am sure the family won't mind - let's face it you can't eat ribbon.   I also cheated slightly this year, and instead of using cake drums, which would also have required ribbon, I used double thick thin boards at my daughter's suggestion.

A Couple of Little Dishes

Today is an experiment , I have been meaning to get around to for a while.     (I should have been icing Christmas cakes, but wasn't feeling well enough to I played instead).

These were two little glass dishes I bought from DaliArt a while ago.   I wanted to try a crackle finish along with rice paper images.     They didn't "crackle" as much as I wanted - I obviously need to apply the crackle medium a bit thicker, but practise makes perfect.  You can see the crackle slightly better on the pink one.

I have a bigger dish - which I will get to sometime, and try to get a better finish to it.

Printed Mug

You may remember that I shared sore photos of some mugs I printed with heat transfer paints.  Well the family went one further and a bought printer that used the special paints.   My eldest granddaughter is in charge of it and I commissione her to decorate a mug for my hairdresser.  I love it so I hope she does too.

Delving into the world of printing on mugs, T-shirts etc, was the best idea I ever came up with.   My granddaughter is quite poorly, and because of this she is unable to get a weekend job like most of her college pals, so she now has a new hobby, and has set up an etsy shop, which will give her a bit of pocket money.  At the moment is mainly selling a couple of children's items, gifts for teachers and students, (all personalised) but hopes to diversify to other things in the new year.  So if you are after something in particular contact her via her Etsy shop:   Ikklewol.   She would be happy to design something for you.

As promised

I said on my last post, that I would share the journal covers that the other two grandchildren had made, and having been under the weather I forgot, so am rectifying that tonight:

Journal Covers

Firstly apologies for not posting for a while, but I have been busy and also had this perishing bug that has being doing the rounds.  I seemed to have eased off the coughing today, so hopefully I will soon  be on the mend and back to normal (whatever that is).   I have never been so behind with my christmas "To Do" list.   I hope to feel well enough to get the Christmas cakes iced in the next couple of days!

I have bought art journals for a lot of the family for Christmas, and as my two youngest granddaughters asked a few weeks ago if they could create something, and I gave them two of my journals to play with.   I decided that I would give them to them as part of their Christmas presents which at their request is mainly craft stuff, particularly as I don't get to see them quite so often now as they live further away, and the journals would be better with them, than sitting here with me.

I thought I had better get some more and give them to the rest of the family, again,  as I don't get to see them that often I thought I had better decorate at least one cover of them, leaving them to do wht they wanted with the other.

As my son's partner is also into art, I decided to make her one as well as her girls, and also one for the elder sister of the two that had already done theirs.   (I realise I haven't posted pictures of the original ones - so will take photos of those tomorrow, as I am typing this rather late at night!).

Anyway here is what I have managed to do this week:

MDF Christmas Ornaments

I am really pleased with how these Bizarre-ology kits turned out.  I knew exactly how I wanted them to look.

Having built all the pieces, I gave them all a coat of white gesso, and then some white acrylic paint.  I then took a blue Artistry Ink pad and daubed them with a sponge.

The base of the hanging pear shape was covered with Imagination Crafts Icy Snow paste, so that the scene elements would stick and not fall about if knocked.   I also added some Amsterdam Pearl Medium over the top to make the snow "glisten", and this was also added randomly to the scene elements, and to the base of the hanging unit.

The river effect was created using Golden High Solid Gel Gloss, to which some transparent blue acrylic had been added, and then sprinkled with Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Frost.

The following pictures were taken before I finished off the base unit and applied varnish, but hopefully show the sparkle better.

Silver and Pearl Bracelet

So having attempted the macramé bracelet, I wondered how the eyes would cope making the loops on the eye pins.    You never forget the techniques.   Yes I did struggle a tad, but I was working with very short pins, which didn't give me much margin for error

However, I had this idea for the bracelet and was determined to make it work.  I just hope the loops hold and are closed properly!

I do love the design I created.   I used snowflake beads and pearl beads, and a heart shaped magnetic clasp.

another view

Macrame Bracelet

 I fancied doing some jewellery making for a change, and although my eyes probably wouldn't agree with me as I do struggle a tad these days. I decided to try some macramé, as I thought that would be fairly easy to see  (even if I was working with black cord!)

Pleased that I managed it, as it as been a while - but some things you don't forget, and I do have a lot of beading stash!    So a little Christmas gift sorted.    The beads are black haematite, which I actually adore and are supposed to have good healing properties.

A few Christmas Cards 4

And finally, the last few ..... I shared some that I had done with these two images in aperture cards (and I made a lot of those), but I also did a few using the image on DL cards, and adding some glitter, as well as altering the shape of the image in Craft Artist, and putting the image on square 6" cards.  (yes did a few of those too! and yes - they are all signed!)

I will persevere with stamping and colouring if the dodgy eyes will allow ..... It is just so frustrating - I can paint a watercolour, but can't watercolour an image.   I shall just have to learn to do more watercolour painting, and import them into Craft Artist.   At least there will be an excuse for digital crafting if I use an original painting by me!  

A few Christmas Cards 3

Today's selection is a mix of stamping, die-cutting and using up a stash of toppers, but all on DL shaped cards.

A few Christmas Cards 2

More Christmas cards - a selection of the  stamped and embossed and painted ones.   Now you can see why I had to abandon doing these, as my eyesight really wasn't good enough.  Very sad at about this!

Also once again apologies for quality of the photos - shadows again - that's the problem with taking them indoors in the evening!

A Few Christmas Cards 1

Keeping it simple, and using up some craft stash, having discovered that my eyes weren't that good for stamping and colouring these days (see tomorrow's post).   Just adding the toppers, and some Let It Snow! effect paste, or double sided tape and glitter or embossing powders.

Not brilliant, but needs must sometimes, and the photos weren't that good either - as I got some shadows!  hey ho!

(I did regret using the dark cards from my stash as I discovered they had to be posted large letter rate!  But we live and learn as they say!)

Simple Birthday Card

Sometimes less is more.   A very simple card created in Craft Artist