Dec 4th.................crop.

Today was the annual Artcards Christmas crop and it was exciting as there hadn't been a crop since September. This crop is run with challenges rather thana class and it was a gr8 one this year. I only took part in one but there three in total:

1. a Tim Holtz tag,
2. a scrapbook page within very strict criteria,
3. a Christmas card using specific items.

I chose to do the tag as I had mainly brought my JYC stuff to get going properly on that so hadnt got photos or lots of card choices etc. I love Tim's 12 tags of Christmas which have been beautiful again so far this year. Anyway, the tables all had lil boxes of Quality Street on them, my idea of Xmas I must say. There was loads of food as we brought a buffet type lunch to shae and the shop had loads of beautiful new stuff.
We were all given a tag and a lil bag of goodies from Karen the owner of Artcards which will go under my tree and we also had a Secret santa.
For my tag I decided to do a starry theme and thought about the nativity. I inked up the tag with two blue colours of Distress inks, Faded Jeans and Broken china and then splashed water on it to give it some depth. Then I took some sheet music which I smooshed into a ball to make it old and inked it with Antique linen, then I painted on Glossy accents to make it look shiny, when it was dry I rubbed in some darker ink. I painted some grungeboard stars white and inked over with a blue shade and then added some stickles. To the music I added a small tag with some words from the Bible and the number 25 which I coloured red and applied red stickles to. I then added some ribbon and lace to finish.

My tag is the blue one with 354 underneath, the winner was the tag next to it. Laura had used loads of beading and wirework on it and it was truly inspired.

 Here are all the wonderful tags that were made today.

I also completed my Journal covers and began adding paper and card to some of the pages and completed page 2 of the journal, as I had left page 1 at home, duhhh. Here are some pictures of the cover and the front I made. The ribbon is East of India and would you believe the cover is recycled from this?

The decoration to the front is two types of cardstock and a frame cut from a Sizzix die with glossy accents added to protect it. I then added the basic title and the year. The stars are cut from a sheet of collaged and stitched paper and card I had left from last Xmas and inked with red.

Below are the fab cupcakes my friend's daughter made us and they were yummy.

These are my two very talented scrapbooking friends Tanya with long hair and Alex. Alex is blooming literally as she is expecting a baby,awwwww cute. So that's it for another year of crops but next years are already listed. So tomorrow is the next week of Sian's Christmas stories and mine involves reindeer and Santa.

A cropping we will go..............

....................today I am off to Brent Knoll for the monthly crop run by the lovely Karen from Art Cards. It is a beautiful day and a lovely drive across the Peat Moors. Usually there is loads of birdlife to see so I'll be twitching on my journey. Got my new hair accessory yesterday from Rachel and will get a pic up ASAP. I hope it is strong enough to deal with my curly mane. Have a g8 day.