Party Time by Sam Read

Following Ruth's fab vino I thought I would stay in the party mood!

It's party time for these Stampotique characters! I'm a huge fan of these little people, I like to think they're happy but sometimes I'm not so sure. For those of you who follow my blog you will know I am a massive fan of 'Head' though I have named him Joe, he enjoys lots of adventures and even has some accessories.

For this Happy New Year card Joe is off to a party with Marci and Smile.

I made the glitter ball with silver sequins and silver glitter. I coloured the card with Barn Door and Black Soot Distress Inks.

Whether you are partying tomorrow evening or having a quiet night in I wish you all a very Happy New Year and a crafty 2012!

Lots of love, Sam xxx

Happy (or should that be Merry) New Year by Ruth

"Tis the season to be Jolly...far la la la...."

For a quick New Years Eve gift all you will need is a bottle of vino, or your hosts favourite tipple, brown parcel paper, border punches, stamps, versamark ink, string, shrink plastic and embellishments.

1. Stamp the Catslife Press Happy Holidays stamp onto red card stock.

2. On shrink plastic, stamp with My Minds Eye Christmas stamp or a Catslife Press circle stamp, ensuring you use a Stazon Ink Pad to prevent smudging. Punch a hole in the top and shrink with heat gun, watch the magic begin!!

3. Tie both onto bottle neck with string or Junque Twine.

4. Stamp onto brown parcel paper a suitable Christmas or New Year greeting. Catslife Press and Artistic Outpost are perfect for this.

                             5. Add some simple embellishments.

Your host will be impressed and so will your wallet. (I made 6 bottles for less than the price of one wine carrier bag from a pound shop.)

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2012

Ruth x

Shabby Calendar By Paula Tidman

Hoping you all had a great Christmas. Ours wasn't very peaceful as the dog decided to scoff a Thornton's chocolate Santa when we weren't looking (chocolate is poisonous in large quantities for dogs, our dog is small and he consumed a very large amount!) so we had to take him to the Vets on Christmas Day, I won't go into details for the treatment as it wasn't pleasant and I'm sure you can imagine LOL but we returned £130 lighter.

Anyway onto my project as its nearly the end of the year I decided to make a calendar. I recycled some cardboard which I covered in Tim Holtz Vintage shabby paper I die cut the edges, distressed and stamped. For the main image I used the pretty Artistic Outpost Bluebird stamps which I coloured in using new flexmarkers from my stash. The roses were made using some more of the Tim Holtz Vintage shabby paper. I printed the calendar on the computer then used my bind it all to attach it. Some string was added to finish.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your holidays and here's looking forward to a very crafty New Year.

Merry Christmas Everybody

All of us here at Happy Daze, Moira and the Design Team would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a gloroius New Year.

Christmas Scrapping By Carol Fox

I don't scrap but I do love some of the papers available. As soon as I saw this set in the shop I just thought how well they would fit onto the little wooden blocks that I am in love with at the moment. I have a pile of these on a wooden chest of draws in my hallway. I add a set each year as it's lovely when I get the decorations out each year to see the older sets and it brings back memories of that year. I have been doing this for about five years now and I am getting quite a pile of them.

For this years set I have used the Pink Paislee sheet , its very good value for these as on the sheet you get 25 images and you only need 24 for a set of four bricks so you have a spare incase you cut of sants's head whilst cutting out.(blushes)
These are a set of 4 bricks which I painted with claudine hellmuth Paints using the crackle technique between the layers. Once dry I roughed up the edges of the cut circles using a paper distresser and then stuck one of each face of each brick using multi medium.

Once dry I aged them up a bit using Old Paper distress ink on an applicator. with out the drying time these took about half an hour to make, so they are a quick and easy project and not too messy if like me you have had a good tidy up of the craft room for Christmas.
I may add a some stickles to them I have not decided yet. But you can jazz these up as much or a little as you wish, they are fun to make and look really effective.

I used
Pink Paislee paper
multi medium
paints
stickles
Blocks
distress ink
paper distresser

Childs Play by Netty Goatley

Hi, this is an Altered Childs Brick which will be used as a Paperweight.

Had recently bought from Happy Daze some Viva Crackling Bronze and Viva Inka Copper and have totally fallen in love with these products.

Thought you might like to see the sides in close up.

 Other products used:Glossy Accents, Black Gesso, The Ultimate Glue and the rest of the items have been recycled.........a 2 pence piece, 4 bottle tops, and the top of a pill box.

Am sure you are all very busy but it would be great to see some of your Christmas pieces here at Happy Daze.  Take care, hugs Annette x

Another Configurations Box by Moira Sutton

This is the other box, made from the lid and half the inner boxes left from the other project. The lid has a clear centre which, if you wanted to use it as a back you could cover with paper or as in this case integrate into the box. I coloured it with alcohol inks as I wanted light to come through from behind where there were gaps between the inner boxes. I was really impressed with how well the box stood up to being painted with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints in yellow and green, Cosmic Shimmer mists in and purple violet and a heat gun - no buckling or softening, the board was a rigid as when dry, which is just as well as I did give it a bit of a hammering with the colour!

The theme of the box is Fortune Telling, so the little bits and pieces relate in some way to things used historically in fortune telling or divination. I like that it looks like the shelves of a collector where things are left over time. And there is even space to add more bits and pieces, I'm after white or cream dice and a cup to go with the teapot.

The bottle was a holiday memento from Menorca, you know one of those "local liquors" you buy because you think it will be fun even though it is bright green and has twigs in it. Then one night, years later, your husband says "I fancy a drink what have we got?" and that's all there is so he opens it in hope and after one sip its down the sink! Still it meant I got a nice bottle to play with.

A Tweet Christmas By Sam Read

In the run up to Christmas I often think of the birds outside, in the cold winds and rain or even snow. So here's a cute little chap in the fluttering snowflakes. This originally started life as an ATC, but my latest 'thing' is to turn ATC's into little cards.

The background is Broken China Distress ink, the snowflakes stamped with white acrylic paint with some Stickles for sparkle. I stamped the Bow Heart directly on the card and then again on some white card, coloured the heart and then adhered to the card on top of the original image.

The holly decoration was made using shrink plastic, sanded and then coloured using pencil crayons. The bird and heart flowers are simply stamped, coloured or painted and glued on.

I hope you like this little card, to say I was quite nervous about this, my first post on the Happy Daze Design Team blog, would be very much an under statement!

Wishing you a lovely Christmas, Sam xxx

A Cute Couple Card by Ruth

I had been asked to make a first christmas card for a young couple, so some cute stamps were definately in order. The Websters Pages 6x6 die cut paper inspired the design and I simply folded some card stock to fit the inside with enough left for a message flap.

Tip: If your card slides open when standing upright, then glue a small button onto the flap to keep it in place. 

I stamped the tree directly onto the die cut with Distress Ink and stickled it, hand painted the stamped bears using distress ink and a water colour brush. It's a brush that holds water in the handle and slowly releases it, enabling me to have streak free (sometimes) images. Simply pick up a touch of colour from a distress ink pad or re-inker and apply using a slight squeeze to get the water flowing.

"Love is the real thing the rest is just tinsel"

was a quote I found on the net and printed off, and the round Happy Holidays stamp is made by Catslife Press found in the Happy Daze shop Here

Products to use:

My Minds Eye have a similar tree stamp here

Artistic Outpost have some gorgeous christmas stamps here

Distress Ink Pads are here

Candy Cane Stickles is here

Websters Pages Waiting for Santa 12x12 pad is here

I used Puff Paint on the hats but you could use perfect pearls here

I hope the happy couple they like their keepsake!

Have a fabulous Christmas and I will see you soon

Ruth xxx

Winter Card By Helen Chilton

Helen has made this gorgeous frosty card to share today using Artistic Outpost Rubber Stamps

Helen Used

Main Image: Think and Wonder

Greetings Text: Home

Script Background: Ephemeral Backgrounds

Shaker Tree Ornament & a card

I think tree decorations can make lovely gifts; each year when decorating the tree you are reminded of the person who gave it to you.
I made a shaker style ornament from recycled cardboard and acetate. The die cuts shapes were painted with cream acrylic paint and then stamped with the snowflakes from Artistic Outpost Sleigh Ride with coffee archival ink. The main image is Lost Coast Designs Praying Angel. I added a snowflake charm and some confetti stars and some gold glitter beads and a gold tassel to finish.

Another quick project from me, this time a card using this lovely vintage old St Nick mounted stamp. I stamped onto Kraft card with archival ink. I used versamagic aspen mist to tint round the edges of the  stamped image and the sentiment ticket. Then I used paper from my stash to create this easel card.

The current Happy Daze challenge is Gifts, Cards & Tags. There is still plenty of time to enter. One lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher and free P&P to spend in the Happy Daze shop. Maximum of 3 entries per person & you must use at least one product which can be purchased in the Happy Daze shop.

• You can enter by blogging you address to the linky widget here, 
• emailing your picture to info@happy-daze.net
• uploading your photo to their facebook page

Last minute gift by Joanne Wardle

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To fit in with this month's challenge of gifts, cards and tags, I decided to share my last minute gift ideas. I often give Amazon vouchers as gifts, but any voucher that prints out onto an A4 sheet of paper will work.

I simply fold the voucher into thirds both ways to create a "z-fold" and then add covers (8cm x11cm) (be aware that the cover is attached to the top left corner of the voucher so make sure that there isn't any important information there.

The covers can then be decorated anyway you like. I have used Stamps from Stampotique.

Santa stop here...... by Julie Dandy

This week I was inspired by T!ms 12 days of Christmas day 4 tag but made it in to a Santa stop here door hanger.

I started by covering my wooden door hanger with Pink Paislee Santas list patterned paper.
I inked it with and then splattered and spritzed on water to give a nice mottled grungey look.

I used Viva decor Inka Gold on the wooden edges which I found easiest to apply with a semi dry baby wipe.

Th ruffle on the bottom is made with pleated tissue tape - I put a piece of double sided tape on to the base first then pleated the tape along it.

My lace was coloured by putting distress stain on to my nonstick craft sheet, adding a little water to soften the colour and squishing the lace in to it until I was happy with the coverage.
I glued it down with Claudine's matte medium.

I ran a piece of acetate through my big shot with the TH snowflake border embossing folder and cut around the snowflakes.
I attached this with a little DST along the edge that would be hidden by my embellishments.

My snowman and snowflakes were cut from grunge board then painted with pearl acrylic paint dabber.
I coated the snowman with Rock Candy crackle glaze and left it to dry thoroughly , when dry I highlighted the cracks with distress inks.
I added the snowflakes with glossy accents and added buttons to the centres.
I tied some scraps of ribbon and fabric round his neck for a scarf and dangled some buttons strung together with jump rings from it, then attached him to the hanger with foam tape to add some dimension.

My little sign was hand written on to the back of an journalling ticket and pinned on with a memo pin

The last thing I did was smear on lashings of Rock Candy distress stickles to give it a lovely sparkly frosty feel.

Have fun,
hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Creative Cardmaking

If you're out and about and see the latest issue of Creative Cardmaking, pick it up and have a look, it has an article by some of the DT Members in it. It's out today and it's issue No 36.

Still obsessed

These boxes from the shop are the thing I just want to decorate all the time as they are so quick and fun to do.

This one has been painted a rusty brown colour, a bit of rubber stamped text for the background before given a quick rub over with some Inka Gold. The charm and Tim Holtz sprocket gears and spinner were rusted before being glued on. I also added a few bits of old watch pieces from my personal stash.

The faux knob is a button from my ever growing stash of vintage buttons.

These little boxes are the perfect size for cufflinks and earrings so if you are stuck for a christmas present go make one and get the warm glow of giving a present that you have made yourself.

I USED

Box

Paint

Text stamp

Inka Gold

Charm

Tim Holtz Gears and Spinners

Multi Medium for glueing

A Shabby Gift

A wee while ago in preparation for Christmas I made this  Configuration box for a gift, not saying who for yet!  This is half of a 5.75 x 10.75 box. I seperated the base and lid and split the inner boxes into two sets, one set to go with the base for this project and the other and the lid for another project.

I painted the back of the main box and the insides of the inner boxes in a sort of shabby style, then starting covering it with Pink Paislee "Sweetness" papers and a pot of Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium. When filling the compartments I wanted to build o nthe floral and shabby feel of the papers so went for a selection of winged things and flowers including a Prima Butterfly perched on a wooden cotton spool; a cupid made from Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals in a sugar paste mould; a Dragonfly charm coloured with Inka Gold paints and Glitz stickles; a Prima Can Can flower and pearl bling Scrabble Tiles and more pearl bling

A Teesha Moore Christmas

Hi,  have created a small canvas and a large tag, these are both going to the same person as gifts for Christmas.

The small Canvas had been painted and inked, stamp by Teesha Moore and the moon was created with Gesso and Texture Paste as I wanted it to look like a round of Camembert........

The large Tag has piano backing paper which was masked with the Clock Mask of Tim Holtz and sponged with Distress Inks.  Stamp and Cut outs by Teesha Moore.  All available at Happy Daze.

Looking forward to seeing your creations this month for this great versatile challenge.
Hugs Annette x

November Challenge Winner

There were thirteen entries this month including one via the facebook page. When they all went into the Random number generator it choose Number 13, unlucky for some but not for Lucy Edmondson who is the winner of the £15.00 voucher plus free Postage from the Happy Daze shop this month.  This is Lucy's second win, she mus have luck on her side.  Lucy your voucher will be on its way to you soon.

December Challenge - Gifts, cards and Tags

The challenge this month is all to do with Christmas. Anything you have made to give as a gift, to wrap your gift in or label your gift.

This will also tie in very nicely with Tim's 12 days of christmas tags, so if you are planning to follow Tim and do the tags this year do check out the shop for many of the must have items you will need. If you do take part in his tag challenge please share them will us by uploading via the linky at the bottom of the post.

The DT have some lovely examples to share this month.

By Sam Read.

Sam say's, I haven't purchased wrapping paper since I started stamping, I love brown paper packages tied up with string. The stamp I used is the Do Not Disturb Seal, by Catslife Press 749F.

By Moira.
This started life as a purple wooden word, but has now become a present for my student nephew. I drew round the back of the words onto Appeltini Ten Second Studio Metal and embossed it in sections. I used the Ultimate glue to stick the metal down as it handled the odd shapes of the letters very well. To add grunge I painted some section and odd spots with a thick layer of viva crackle paint which when dry I went over with viva inka gold paints in Lava Green,Old Silver and Old Gold.

By Paula Tidman

Paula has altered one of the wooden boxes available from the shop using an Artistic Outpost stamp as a border.

By Carol

For this I used an upcycled Handbag mirror that I brought from a charity shop. I have embossed some Ten second Studio metal for the background, over this I have added sprocket gears and game spinner. Finished of with one of the large brass fairy charms that are in the shop. I also added a sprinkling of tiger eye chippings for fairy gold. Finally it was all filled with Lisa Pavelka resin, popped in the UV box for 10 minutes and voila its finished.

By Julie

A lovely Santa Pin made using Lisa Pavelka Resin Pink Paislee Father Christmas around the world Paper a gold bail like this one corked Vials Christmas muse tokens platinum stickles
I covered the domino in the Around the world paper, add stickles to the edges then covered it in the Lisa Pavelka resin, set for 10 minutes in your UV lamp box, add the bail to the back and there it is a lovely altered domino ready for hanging. Add various beads to a length of chain using jump rings and attach the muse token to the bottom. In the little corked vial add your naughty and nice list and hang this from a length of beaded chain. Hang them along the pin in the order shown, or mix them around it's up to you. A fab pin to brighten up your christmas.

By RuthRuth has altered an old frame with a 6 x 6 websters pages die cut. Inside is a 6 x6 vellun sheet and a christmas tree from a cake shop. The tiny robin and angel are stamped with black stazon, coloured in with water coloured pencils and made from shrink plastic. The broken bambi is wearing a bow to cover the cracks. Ruth has an animal loving friend who will be receiving this as a gift for christmas.

To enter our challenge create a piece of work on the theme of "Gifts, Cards and tags" Share something lovely you have made for giving this christmas.

You can enter the challenge three ways.

Blog your entry and use the Linky widget below to link to your blog entry
Load to the Happy Daze Facebook Page
Sent a pic by email to Waynemonster@gmail.com

Please Welcome Annette Goatley

Our second new Design Team member is Annette Goatley better know to most of you as Netty. You can see her work here on her blog. She has previously done a guest spot for the blog and we are now very happy to welcome her as a permanent member.

Cameo style Jewellery Set

This jewellery uses shrink plastic to create both the pendant and earrings. Firstly I lightly sanded a sheet of shrink plastic and then painted a thin coat of gesso (this makes it easier to stamp on.) I stamped Lost Coast Designs winged girl with archival ink and gently heated to dry the ink. Then I diecut into the pendant shapes. I coloured the images using photo markers and then used my heat tool to shrink. I used a Krylon silver pen around the edges. Then glossy accents to finish, but this needs to be left overnight to dry, a quicker alternative would be Lisa Pavelka Magic Gloss Resin. Earwires and amethyst drops are from my stash.

Welcome to a new team member

We are very please to announce that Sam Read has agreed to join the DT.

You can view her blog here to see her work.

Welcome to the team Sam and we look forward to seeing what you create for the blog.

We Three Kings by Joanne Wardle

As Christmas rapidly approaches, I find the need for quick and easy cards gets more urgent.

Here's an easy one made with one simple stamp from stampotique.

I have coloured the card with pencils, highlighted with glossy accents. I have also used some gilding flakes to accent the bands around the crowns. I finally finished with some gold cord.

Santas Christmas treat chest.... by Julie Dandy

Well I really need to kick start my Christmas mojo in to gear as I am so disorganised with only being back from my hols less than two weeks!!
I thought I would share this cute idea for an alternative advent calendar which could be decorated to suit all ages.

I have made mine in to a vintage shabby chic style and plan on filling it with little chocolate treats, candy canes and promise tickets - eg. make mince pies, watch a Christmas movie etc...

I used a papier mache chest and covered it with two sheets of Pink Paislee Santas list 12x12 paper.

I started by painting all the edges inside and out with green acrylic paint so that any expose areas wouldn't be left brown.
When dry I painted the edge that is trimmed with red acrylic paint and left to dry again.

I cut the papers roughly to size and then used my nail to give score the paper in to the edges of the box to give me a cutting guide. The boxes aren't exact measurement wise, so make sure your paper is cut to fit the widest points so that you can cut them back to size.I distressed my edges with an emery board and then inked with Broken China distress ink pad then glued them in to place with Glossy Accents - I like to swirl it on then spread it out with my finger so that it reaches all the edges. I like GA for sticking paper on to objects as it grabs and dries quickly.

On the inside of the lid I added a distressed hole in the paper before adhering to the box and stuck a small piece of contrasting patterned paper on to the back to add to the shabby look.

I covered it inside and out and when finished strengthened the hinged section with tissue tape which I also inked with the broken china.

I glued on a piece of vintage lace using Claudine's matte medium - now I have a little tip when using this - make sure you clean the edge of the jar before you put the lid back on. If you don't (like I hadn't) and then don't use it for a while you will have BIG problems getting the lid off!

I also used the medium to stick the charms and prima flower on, as already mentioned its a really good strong glue LOL :D

I embossed some of the pieces with TH alterations embossing folders which I distressed and inked.

My splash of colour on the project is my lovely broken china distress stickles and the distress stain I used on the Adage ticket.

I used some letter stickers I have had for ages on the front of the box and gave them a little bit of dimension with the Glossy Accents. The promise tickets would be a great idea to keep the kids occupied over the Christmas period with ideas like make paper chains, make gingerbread, write a letter to Santa etc...

If you were making it for a crafter you could make little parcels or envelopes and fill them with little embellies - ideaology trinkets would be fabby for anybody taking part in T!ms 12 tags of Christmas. Moira sells fabby taster packs of these too so it needn't cost a fortune.

Or how about filling it with chocolate coins?

If you get cracking you will just have time to make it before the 1st of December :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx