01 | April | 2014 | Butlers Abroad

Hello All – It’s another Wednesday again and another trip round the desks of the world courtesy of our Julia! I have a newsflash for you! We are finally (mostly) snow free! Yay! There is a bit of it still hanging around in the wooded areas and in the corners of North facing fields, but we’re had a number of days over 10C (50F) in the last week and actually ate our lunch and afternoon tea sitting on the deck last Sunday.

But, you’re here for a desk… not much going on as I’ve been keeping it tidy. You might be excused for thinking that you saw that same pile of Ebayed knitting magazines last week, but you didn’t! That’s a new lot, lol!! Lot’s of British and Australian ones in that pile, but I’ve got more than enough now so I’m not looking for any others!

Sitting on top of them is a new sock, just started yesterday. It’s a Gansey inspired pattern which is based on traditional fisherman’s jumpers (sweaters). They were often very regional specific patterns and motifs used in them and were knit by the wives to keep their husbands warm and safe whilst at sea. Some of the designs were so specific that in the case of a large maritime disaster the bodies of the sailors could be identified from their jumpers. It could even tie them to a single village in some instances.

Last week Margaret of Glitter and Glue asked to see inside my Christmas paper scraps box! It’s not very exciting but here it is!

And finally, I also finished those green socks that were on my desk last week too:

Right, that’s your lot! Thanks for stopping by!!

Morning All and welcome to another fun challenge at Sparkles Christmas Challenges. It’s April 1st, the year is flying by and that’s no joke, lol! Our winner and Top 3 for March have already been posted, hopefully you were lucky, if not, you have another opportunity at a great prize this month. Plus, you’ll have another Christmas card made for the box too and the way this year has been moving along you’ll be needing them next week, lol!

We have another fantastic prize again from Marianne Designs, a die and a lovely Christmas stamp.

And on to my card. I used a new to me, super cute LOTV stamp called Angel Gabriel, and boy was I ever transported back to my childhood and the school Christmas play! Only we didn’t suspend our Angel Gabriel from the rafters with a rope, which is a good thing as my sister was usually the Angel!

As usual I coloured up my image with Prisma pencils, and as usual I really struggled with the colouring of hair! Never get it right, lol. I also dabbed around the Stickles, Waterfall and Yellow for Angel Gabriel and the blue stars, Frosted Lace for the lamb and the floor, Fruit Punch for the Shepherd and Crystal for the edging of the die cut. The Angel’s wings were glittered with loose Martha Stewart glitter. The image was die cut with a Spellbinders Labels Two and matted on to red card and popped up with foam dots.

The papers are all digital, the large pretty snowflake piece is from The Shabby Princess and the music score (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, which I thought appropriate!) is from Mad About Cards, they were both spritzed with Perfect Pearls Mists and edged with Distress inks. I also added a Memory Box Frostyville die cut but embossed it with TH Holographic EP first, to balance that on the bottom I put a strip of lace. The snowflakes are also from Memory Box, from the Precious Snowflakes die but I cut the bows off, and added gold gems to the centers. The tinsel ribbon trim is from Papermania and I found it at the back of the ribbon off cut box! I thought it was perfect and reflected the sweet little tots with the tinsel on their heads! Oh how I remember how itchy that tinsel was!!

My sentiment is by StudioG and was in the $1 bin at Michael’s years ago. I was going to generate “While Shepherd’s Watched” on the computer but I came across this one and thought it was very pertinent. It’s stamped in Memento Rhubarb Stalk and edged with Distress Ink. My final touch was a few red Pearls in the corners.

Please make sure you stop by the main Sparkles Christmas blog for the superb inspiration from my teamies.

Card Recipe:

Card: Blank from pale blue card from the UK ~ The Paper Company
DP: Shabby Princess Digital ~ Mad About Card digital
Stamps: LOTV Angel Gabriel ~ StudioG Sentiment
Ink: ColorBox Wicked Black ~ Versamark ~ Distress Ink Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick & Broken China ~ Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Embellies: Tim Holtz Holographic EP ~ Papermania Tinsel Ribbon Trim ~ Lace from the UK ~ Perfect Pearls Mists in Opal ~ Stickles Crystal, Frosted Lace, Fruit Punch, Waterfall & Yellow ~ Red and Gold Pearls from Michaels ~ Prisma Pencils
Tools: Cuttlebug ~ Heat Gun ~ Spellbinders Labels Two ~ Memory Box Precious Snowflakes & Frostyville Border dies

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Challenges:

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Patterned Paper Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Completely Christmas Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Fab & Funky Challenge ~ Christmas

Pixies Snippets Playground ~ Use Up Your Scraps (Stamping card, red card and bits used for the snowflakes)

Crimbo Crackers ~ Anything Goes Christmas

Alphabet Challenge ~ D For Diecuts

Christmas Stampin All Year Long ~ Ribbon & Diecuts

Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ Anything Goes