♪ ♫ On the 4th Day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to meeee...♫ ♪

Hello!

Today is Challenge Day over at My Artistic Adventures, and this fortnight's theme (being as it's the middle of the month) is the Fourth Day of Christmas.  That means Four Calling Birds.  Or any kind of birds in any number.  Or four of anything at all.  I goofed last month and kind of fudged the Third Day of Christmas challenge so I've made quite sure I'm right on target this time with my four (that's 4) NOEL blocks.  

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know I'm on a big wooden block kick, both using big single 4x4" blocks or multiples of the little 2-inch kind.  These are the little ones.  As usual, they look lots and lots of sanding to give the edges and corners the well-loved look, then I sponged distress ink on all the sides and corners.  Guess what?  When you adhere things with water base glue (Mod Podge in this case), most of that water based distress ink comes off.  However, some does still remain, though it's quite faint in these pictures.  Well, except for the Noel side - I used archival ink on that side so that the top coat of Mod Podge wouldn't' wipe it away.  But more on that later.

I've used several of Heather's collage sheets, reducing them in size then cutting them out with my Silhouette Cameo.  (All collage sheets will be displayed below.)  And before adhering the images, I painted the blocks a cream color and stamped them with brown archival ink using a music note stamp after first stamping off 2 or 3 times.  I wanted just a faint hint of music in the background.

Aren't the little bingo cards cute? 

Here's a closeup of the Christmas Greeting image.  

More images.  And yes, there are several birds on these blocks too.  Four Calling Birds, remember?  On four blocks.  No underachievers this month.

There are FIVE sheets to this set.

More Christmas cuteness.  See those crossed candy canes?  Heather already had candy cane collage sheets, but none of the candy canes were crossed, so I asked and she delivered.  She's pretty cool that way.   (And they're available in her Etsy shop.)

You can see the distressed edges a bit.  Yep, archival inks next time.

The letters were stenciled with black acrylic ink but looked a little bland all by their lonesomes, so I sponged brown archival ink around the edges to give each letter a bit of a bright halo, then I sponged gold metallic paint on top of that before giving the final two coats of Mod Podge.

And that, lovely readers, is my project for this challenge.

NOTE:  

Heather has decided to take a break for the summer and  will be starting the Challenges back up in September, plus she will be posting a Design Team Call the End of July.  The challenges will be every two weeks.

Happy crafting!

On The Second Day of Christmas...

Hello!

It's time for another challenge (using any of her images) over at Heather Hudson's new challenge blog at My Artistic Adventures!  As it is the mid-month challenge, we are continuing the Christmas theme "12 Days of Christmas," and this time it's "Two Turtledoves."  What that means is that she would like to see two of anything, doesn't have to be bird-related.  So two bows, two kinds of glitter, two candy canes, two of whatever you like.  Easy peasy! 

For my side step card (which I cut on my Silhouette Cameo) I chose to use her Vintage Bluebirds collage sheet which includes various sizes of the blue bird image as well as various sizes of the music paper tag.  I then proceeded to layer this card with all kinds of goodies.

The grungeboard Tim Holtz Holiday Lamppost was painted black and then decorated with a bit of silver paint to add a bit of detail, then topped with a layer of clear crackle glaze for texture.  The holly leaves and berries were embellished with a bit of glitter glue, and the "glass" is vellum, the back of which I colored with Copics.  It is layered onto a piece of rustic netting with gold threads shot through.

The little Merry Christmas sign is from Heather's Vintage Candy Cane collage sheet and actually dangles from a gold jump ring and has been embellished with a wee bit of red glitter glue.  The grungeboard holly leaves and berries are glitter glued, too.  It adds so much to the final look!

This is a chipboard (cookie box) poinsettia that I've painted and embellished with more glitter and glitter glue.  I've put die cut leaves behind it and added a few teensy pine cones.

The banner is from the Victorian Vintage Banners sheet and the words are from the Vintage Angels Peace On Earth  sheet.  These are so incredibly useful.

Another look at the lovely blue bird image that I've embellished with a bit of green and red glitter glue.  I made the nest from bits of the same netting that I put behind the lamp, having first taken all the threads apart.  Colored it with a bit of distress ink then added three tiny jingle bells as "eggs."  A few more leaves and another pine cone finish the look.

Here's a candy cane from the aforementioned Vintage Candy Cane sheet.  Of course it, too, has glitter glue added, plus a red rhinestone for the center holly berry.  The snippet of blue lace is a scrap that I had hand dyed some time ago.  I added Perfect Pearls along the top.

I've added a small strip of white seam binding to help the card stay upright as it tends to want to slide and flatten because of all the embellishments. There's still plenty of room to write a short greeting inside.  Sort of.  This kind of card doesn't lend itself to long, wordy messages.

Thank you so much for joining me today, and do head over to Heather's blog to check out what she and the other very talented design team members have created for you.  And then feel free to play along!

Happy crafting!

 

Challenges:

 Craft Hoarder's Anonymous #1 - What's Your Style? (Vintage with lots of embellishments and STUFF!  I used the netting ribbon from my stash - it's so old I have no idea where it came from. <smile>)