Faith, Hope & Crafts

Hello my lovely friends I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it.  I am still making Christmas presents. Here is another one I completed today. I absolutely LOVE The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. If you have not seen this Christmas animation you really must. I grew up with it in Scotland and it is a family tradition. We always watch it on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or sometimes both. My American husband had never seen it before we met.  He watched it when we were home for Christmas one year and he loved it.  Here is a wee clip of it from YouTube. Anyway I have had these stamps for a while so I dug them out and made some cards and candles with them. They no longer sell the exact set I have but they have very similar ones Here . Anyway I hope you like my wee gift set. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today Mandi xox

Hello Friends I wanted to squeeze in another quick card for the Take It Make it Challenge over at the Craft Stamper Blog. The challenge is to use a non Christmas stamp. I used a tree/branch stamp and heat embossed it with white embossing powder to make it snowy. Then I created a background with my distress inks.  Once it was dry I Versamarked the entire card and sprinkled clear glitter embossing powder over the top. I love that it created  snowy/starry effect without much effort. I love the colours in this card they blended together beautifully. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. Mandi xox Supplies - Unity Stamp Company Create Today & Sending Christmas Blessings Distress Inks, Concord Grape, Peacock Feathers & Midnight Sky. VersaMark Ink.  White & Clear Glitter Embossing Powder. Challenges Simon Says Stamp - Wed   Artistic Inspirations   Challenge 119 Eureka Stamps   Crafty Calender Challenge - Christmas   Card & Scrap Christmas Cards

  Hello Friends I wanted to make a card for this month's Craft Stamper  Take It Make It  Challenge. I love this challenge it always pushes me in to making something I would never normally make. This month  you have to use a non Christmas stamp to make a Christmas themed image.  I had to really go through my stamps and have a good think about this one. I finally came across this flower stamp. I thought it would make a good tree. I started off with some watercolour paper. Then I cut out a triangle stencil and  stamped over the triangle with the flowers using Versamark ink. I then heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  Next I  got out my distress inks and went to work.  I LOVE purple and I don't use it nearly enough so I went with that and and turquoise. I mashed about 4 different distress inks together to create these colours. Once the ink was dry I sprayed it with water and let the water marks dry in naturally to create that snowy effect behind the tree.

Hello Friends I hope your are all having a good week :) The days are running away from me I have been so busy this week!! I just had some time to make a quick card with this new stamp set I got from Unity it is called Silent Night . I love these Christmas words I plan on making my Christmas cards with them. I was at Michaels last week I discovered this glittered burlap. I had NO idea you could even get glittered burlap.  I totally fell in love with it and I wanted to buy it in every colour but I resisted ha! I only got red and gold so I thought the red would be perfect for my card today. It is much more glittery in real life it is hard to  catch it in the picture. It is a really easy card to make. I hope you like it I love the jingle bells :) Thanks so much for stopping by  to visit my blog :) Mandi xox Challenges Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Unity Friends With Flair Crafty Calender Challenge Christmas

Hello Friends I am getting into the Christmas mood and have been making some presents this week. This is one of them! How cute is this?? I have wanted to try  stamping on to candles for a while.  I thought this wee girl stamp would be perfect for my candle. This stamp is called No Greater Gift   from Unity she is so cute. It is pretty easy all you need is a candle, some tissue paper and wax paper. All you need to do is stamp and colour your image on to the tissue paper. Then cut around it. Place the image on to your candle and get some wax paper and put it over the top of the image.Then very gently heat the wax paper with your heat tool you will see it melt the tissue paper into the wax. I absolutely love the way it turned out. I think it will make a really nice Christmas gift :)  Thanks so much for stopping by Mandi xox Challenges Unity Friends With Flair Unity Be Inspired Challenge Crafty Catz - Christmas Challege 255 Simon Says Stamp Monday   - Ornament Artist

Hello Friends I was just playing around with my stamps and made this tag with one of the newest releases from Phyllis Harris. This one is called Faith Of A Child .  I love this wee girl. I am not entirely happy with the outcome of the tag but I am going with it anyway :)  I used gesso to create the snow at the bottom and top of the tag and the rest was water colored with paints.  I added some glitter accents over the snow and the rays. The sentiment was heat embossed  with red glitter embossing powder. Finally I added some stars and tartan ribbon to finish it off. Thanks for visiting Mandi xox Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge   - Stars Unity Stamp Co  - Friends With Flair Word Art Wednesday Challenge 158

Remembering those who fought and continue to fight for our freedom today. I made this cross card with poppies on it. I was inspired by the poem Flanders Fields.  Flanders Fields In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. John McCrae

Hello Friends I hope you are all having a great day.   I know it's Halloween but I skipped it and went straight to Christmas ha! My absolute favourite holiday ever is Christmas.  Yes I am one of those annoying types that wishes it was Christmas all year round ha! I love everything about it.  I have had this thing in my head for months about making a Christmas room using my stamps. I had no real idea how that was going to happen. But when I saw this little Phyllis Harris girl stamp a few weeks ago I knew she had to be in my Christmas scene.  Everything apart from the tree ( a dollar store find) and the rug ( fabric scrap) is made using Unity Stamps. The brick from the fireplace is an embossing folder but the actual fire I made with my stamps.  If you have been following my blog you know I am totally in love with turquoise and pink right now. So I wanted to follow that theme for my Christmas scene. This totally took me back to my childhood playing in my doll house when I