Christmas Greetings

Hello everyone welcome to the weekend, I lurve weekends as for me its family time...makes my heart melt.

Ok so today I'm here with my DT card for Swedish House Crafts & I have a Christmas card to show you. I absolutely love making Christmas cards, gifts etc and nothing makes it easier when you have fabulous Swedish products to make them with. Suha has in the new Maja Design "Joyous Winterdays"....so, so pretty. I ordered two lots so I didn't run out, as these are proving to be very popular......you can see why though.

I have used a few Gummiapan dies on this card.....yes I really do think I have an addiction....no need for a cure though, unless it's to buy more Gummiapan products lol.

Ok so dies used are Christmas Tree (which also has a matching stamp), Reindeer Head (love this) and the little Birds.....these are awesome for using little tiny scraps that would usually go in the bin...I mean under 1 inch lol.

The sentiment is from a Pion collection and you can find many beautiful Pion Collections at Swedish House Crafts. The Cabochon I made myself by using a circle sentiment that comes with most Pion collections. I used a circle punch to cut it out and then attached it to a Epoxy Resin self adhesive cabochon which I got from Ebay a long time ago. I also sometimes put them inside bottle caps for an extra touch which also look fab, especially on male cards.

The flowers I made myself using Gumiapan Flower 3 Dies, I've used all three dies. They were bent into shape slightly using Maja Paper to co-ordinate with the card. Then they were sprayed with glue and Tim Holtz glitter poured all over them, except the very bottom layer. I've also added dashings of white paint here and there. I then added a pearl to each centre. The leaves are Magnolia Sprawling Ferns die, one of my favourite leaf dies. For the leaves I also used paper from the same Maja Design Collection but from the 6x6 pad.

All papers were machine stitched as always and inside the card was also decorated to co-ordinate with the front. Behind the flowers you can just see another Gummiapan die sticking out, this is the Doodled Frame, I love these as they are perfect for adding that bit of interest.

The image is of course Magnolia "Poinsettia Tilda" from the Aspen Holiday Collection. I coloured her with distress ink refills and then coated the image with Tim Holtz Distress Glaze to protect the image.

Don't forget there is still 20% discount on the store to celebrate Swedish House Crafts being 1 Year Old..........yayyyyyyy.

Enjoy your weekend

Hugs Vicky xxx

Products used....

Maja Design Joyous Winterdays 'Beautiful Pine' 12x12 sheet

Maja Design Joyous Winterdays 'Make Decorations' 12x12 sheet

Maja Design Joyous Winterdays 6x6 pad

Gummiapan Christmas Tree die

Gummiapan Reindeer Head die

Gummianpan Birdie die

Gummiapan Doodled Frame die

Magnolia Poinsettia Tilda rubber stamp

Magnolia Sprawling Ferns die

Celebrating 1 Year Blog Hop

Hello everyone & welcome to Swedish House Crafts 1st Year Anniversary & what better way to celebrate a whole year is with a blog hop.

We are doing a blog hop with a difference but we guarantee there will be lots of prizes to be won along the way.

So you should have arrived here from the lovely Laurigami's Blog, if not start at the beginning here.

Now Swedish House Crafts is a Different Crafting Table as Suha the lovely owner calls it, so all the DT girlies are showing you bits of their craft room.

Now as a lot of you know I used to have a big summer house at the bottom of the garden that was turned into a craft room when I began this hobby. I like being around my family but dont want the mess of craft things in the living room etc. However we had an extension built for Natalie for a large bathroom for her, this meant we had 3 bathrooms....we did not need this many. So 1 was turned into a craft room for me......I must warn you this has not been finished yet & still all my craft stuff is not in here. 

So this is my craft room & although its at least half the size I used to have I love being with the family & Natalie's bedroom is right next door to me.

Excuse my dog she lies in the craft room whenever I'm in there, usually in the doorway lol.

Its a HUGE downsize but I'm making it work.........I think lol.

This is my main work area, where I plan my cards, lay out papers, plan layout that sort of thing. I also have my Sewing machine right next to me as I love to sew all papers on my card.

In the corner there is my Cameo with the grey cover on. The white square tub is my water/brush pot for when I'm colouring with distress inks.......just behind my cup is a pot with my most used paint brushes in. I'm always changing which brush I use lol

Just to the right of me is my colouring drawer for distress ink colouring only....copic colouring is kept seperate. I have more spare brushes in there, mini pads, distress ink refill palette & plastic bags that my images go into when I have coloured them.

Underneath all that is lots of watercolour paper & pads, a few different brands.

On the right side is Spectrum Aqua pens which I've still not used lol, mini ink pads & other bits.

My watermarker pens are kept in another drawer under the bench next to my re-purposed wine rack lol. The wine rack I store all my jars of buttons & sequins etc.

A lot of my dies are kept on the inside of the doors, they are in sight so I dont neglect them too much lol but also hidden so they dont look a mess. This was the best option for storing my dies as they can take up a lot of room but if I have them in a box I know a lot wont get used. This way I can see them all at sight & it makes use of wasted door space that you cannot use for anything else.

Hubby make me an MDF A4 card holder to hold all my A4 cardstock, although I still dont have it all in there & in there you will also see I have packets of dies that are still yet to be opened........yeah I'm a bad woman :-/

Underneath are inks, glitter, small die-cutting area, score board (which has my latest order form Swedish House Crafts on) & my paper cutter.

I do have 2 cutting area's....1 for small dies for quickness & the other side is where my A4 die-cutter is.

This is my larger die-cutting area & where I keep my glue gun & heat gun. I do all my gluing on the glass work top.

Down this bottom corner I have a box where I keep all my Magnolia Doohickey collections, which I will show you properly another time once its all finished lol.

Down-sizing was really hard, still is to be honest but I know I am extremely lucky to have a craft room as I know a lot dont. I try to use every little bit of space, on top of units & so I can reach I keep a little folding step in here.....the red thing folded up under my sewing machine.

I have had to be ruthless sorting my craft room out & once I am finished I will sell lots that I no longer use or need. I had the luxury of hoarding before as my old craft room was huge.

To fit my craft room out we purchased a used kitchen that a lady was selling & this fitted it out nicely & gave me lots of storage to house all my stuff.

I also have a rack on the back of my door that I keep paints, embossing powders, sprays etc in 7 it makes use of a wasted space we have on our doors lol.

I have also made a card using products from Swedish House Crafts. I have used Maja Design 'I Wish' 6x6 pad which I love. Although I have just received the new Maja Design collection & its sooooo gorgeous, I ordered 2 sets of 12x12 & a 6x6 pad lol.....yeah I know I'm greedy lol.

I've also used Roxstamps Cross Stitched Nesting Dies......another huge love of mine & a Gummiapan Doodle Circle die.

Now by commenting on my blog you can win this fabulous prize, I have these & they are fabulous. I will show you a project using them in a day or 2 time ;-) Anyone can enter & items will be shipped worldwide. There are prizes all over & bigger ones on the SHC Blog.

Gummiapan Flower dies

Dont forget to hop around all the blogs collecting your letters along the way & return to follow the instructions on the SHC Blog here for a chance to win bigger prizes.

Your next stop along the way is the super talented Anna.

All winners will be announced on 12th November, good luck everyone. 

Thank you for hopping here & being a part of celebrating with us at Swedish House Crafts for our 1 year Anniversary.

Thanks for staying to the end. Dont forget to collect your letter & follow instructions on the SHC blog.........remember to leave a comment on this blog post for a chance to win the Flower dies.

Lots of luck & many hugs

Vicky xxx