CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA - #122 - ANYTHING GOES BUT WITH A TWIST OF A CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

Welcome back to our final challenge of this year at Creative Artiste Mixed Media- we hope you have had fun exploring Mixed Media and you have tried out some  projects and products that are new to you. We have the extra twist this month of creating something Christmassy for our final challenge. 

 I have a little Christmas book to share with you - jam packed full of mixed media goodies - mainly all by Tim Holtz. 

The outer cover has been made with some material to which I added some Tim Holtz collage paper called Holly.  I edged the material with Tim Holtz washi ribbon and added the large 25 to the front. I used Tim Holtz velvet ribbon as a binder. 

Here are all the pages in the little book which actually comes away from its front covering.

The Creative Artiste Design Team will be taking their annual winter break during January. 

We will be back on February 6th 2026 with the December winners and Challenge #123. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Creative Fingers - AG 

Lets craft and create - vintage feel 

12 months of Christmas 

Art journal journey 

Merry Little Christmas 

We love 2 Create 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #507 - CHRISTMAS

Welcome back to another Christmas challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More - hopefully if you've been playing with us through the year you have already got a good stack of Christmas cards ready for the season.  

I used a few different stamps on my card - the sentiment was a gift from a friend so I'm not sure where it came from but I thought it deserved an inking.  I used Tim Holtz Iced Spruce Distress Oxide for my pale background - just adding a few drops of water to soften it.  

The layered foliage stamps are Tim Holtz clear stamps called Watercolour and I used the water colour spritz technique which gives a soft image.  The poinsettias are by Tracy Evans and I stamped and cut them out and added them with some dimensionals to give some height. A few drops of Festive Berries splatter finished off the card with a touch of sparkle on the poinsettias from Spectrum Noir sparkle pen.

MOVING ALONG WITH THE TIMES - #184 SANTA

Welcome back to another challenge at Moving Along with the Times - I hope you can find the time to play along with us at this busy time of the year.  Our theme is a nice simple one at this time of year - Santa!

I created a canvas for my piece - I used some Tim Holtz paper strips as the background for my collage - so many wonderful vintage images it's hard to choose a favourite if you love vintage like I do.  I stamped and coloured the Santa image another one of Tim's and added him with an Ideaology label.  I also added some die cut greenery and some extra wooden embellishments from my stash - the star, the bells and the Christmas tree.   I added some extra greenery die cuts under Stanta's feet. 

I'm adding this into the following:

We Love to Create - Mixed Media 

Polkadoodle - AG 

CRAFT challenge - AG 

SSS Wednesday - AG 

THE MALE ROOM - #205 - CHRISTMAS COLOURS (RED AND GREEN)

Welcome back to another challenge at the Male Room - we hope you will find time in this busy month to be able to play along with us.  Our challenge this month is quite simple - Christmas Colours - Red and Green. 

I've kept my card really simple which is so unlike me lol!  I recently won this gorgeous stencil from Polkadoodles Challenge blog and it's just perfect for making quick fabulous looking cards.  Made by Polkadoodles it's called Winter Wishes Stencil.

I inked it first in Iced Spruce - one of my favourite greens especially at this time of year - although it doesn't show up very green in the picture.  I added an extra colour of Festive Berries for the mug.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Ideaology and the added pearls are also Tim's.  I do like a Tim Holtz Christmas!  I added some Spectrum Noir sparkle pen on the cocoa mug.  A simple quick card which can easily be put together if you need extra cards.  Now where did I put that long envelope? 

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Peaceful Christmas however you may or may not celebrate it and thank you for playing along with us during the past year.  See you next year.

I'm adding this to the following:

Christmas Kickstart - anything Christmas 

Everybody Art - top line - green, red, christmas 

Colourful options - mugs, colours, 

PEARLY SPARKLES - #114 SILVER BELLS

And so here we are at December 1st and Christmas not far behind us.  I always think once December kicks in the 25th rushes up at us at breakneck speed.  Our challenge this month at Pearly Sparkles is Silver Bells or include something silver.

My card uses two old stamps by Tim Holtz.  The silver bells are from a very old set and I've silver embossed them at the top of the card.  The background was made with some ink smooshing of Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap with a touch of Chipped Sapphire around the edges.  The gorgeous Christmas tree stamps was also embossed - I stamped it in Versafine Twilight and clear embossed it.   I added some extra musical stamping from another old Tim stamp.  Do you get the idea that I quite like Tim Holtz's products for Christmas!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Peaceful Christmas however you may or may not celebrate it and thank you for playing along with us during the past year.  See you next year.

INSPIRATION STATION - #80

And so here we are at December 1st and Christmas not far behind us.  I always think once December kicks in the 25th rushes up at us at breakneck speed.  I hope our gorgeous inspirational photo at Inspiration Station can get your creativity flowing and you can find time in this busy period to play along with us.

I loved the stockings against the fireplace and our own are hung up around ours - even though my kids are now 31 and 34 I still hang up their stockings with their names on and my daughter still wants them full every year.  I think I stopped getting them as a child when I was about 16 but I wont' get away with that from my daughter lol!

I created a canvas for my project and it is proudly  hanging up near the fireplace.  I created the background with a brick stencil and some texture paste which I'd mixed with Tim Holtz Walnut stain re-inker.  All my pieces are Tim Holtz Ideaology pieces from 2024.  I do love his little hangers too and always try to buy some if I see them anywhere. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Peaceful Christmas however you may or may not celebrate it and thank you for playing along with us during the past year.  See you next year.

I'm adding this into the following:

Christmas Kickstart - AG Christmas 

Farmquest Home - home decor 

Colourful Options 

Make My Monday - Christmas Trees 

A Place to start - Winter Things 

Aud Sentiments - Traditional Christmas 

Crafts Galore Encore - AG

Christmas Cards All year round - Hanging up the stockings for Santa Claus is Coming 

Inspired by - Trees 

GUEST DESIGNER - RUDOLPH DAYS CHALLENGE

I'm delighted to be a Guest Designer over at Rudolph Days Challenge Blog.  I do enjoy making Christmas cards and always seem to start too early and make far too many!  

This one came about just as a sort of play about with a new stamp I'd bought by Alison Bomber for Paper Artsy.  I love her little mini Christmas stamps and decided I needed the holly one.  I stamped it in a few places on some water colour card stock and then filled in the gaps with a very old holly stamp I have from Tim Holtz which is my favourite.  I stamped that one in the water colour technique to give a softer image.  The sentiment is from one of Tim's Christmas Ideaology books.  I used some of the holly from Tim's Evergreen Mini die cuts behind the sentiment.  I added some Glossy Accents to make the holly leaves shine more.  I coloured in the berries with Festive Berries Watercolour Pencils. 

I added some washi tape from my stash to both sides of the card - mainly because the piece of cardstock I had been playing with was quite a narrow piece but I think it does the job perfectly.

I'm adding this into the following 

We Love Stamping - berries 

Peace on Earth - AG 

Mix it up - AG 

Outlawz Festive - AG 

THE SNOWMAN AND THE OWL

I'm having another play with Tim Holtz' Mr Frostie but this time he has a chum to talk to!

I layered three colours of Distress Ink on the background - Blueprint Sketch - Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass.  I then stamped Mr Frostie and the owl from Lavinia stamps with some extra branches.  I used a white China Marker pencil to add extra texture of snow to the snowman.  The sentiment is also by Lavinia stamps and I white embossed part of it.  I added Cosmic Shimmer to the bottom of the snow.

I'm adding this into the following:

Cardz 4 Galz - Build me a snowman 

Creative Inspirations - Winter 

Ellibelles Wednesday - AG 

ABC Christmas - W for wings on owl 

Crafty Gals - Tis the Season check back in January 

I Spy - something for Christmas 

Unicorn - Christmas/Winter 

52 Christmas Card - stamps 

Creative Knockouts - snow fun 

Craft Rockets - Christmas/Winter 

Paper Funday - Merry and Bright 

ITS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME ......

I really can't stop making Christmas cards.  They are my favourite things to make no matter the time of year and I think the majority of my stamps are Christmas ones.  I wanted to play along with Allsorts and their challenge of Focal Sentiment and this set Doodle Greetings by Tim Holtz is a perfect one  and one I haven't used much so far.

I white embossed the sentiment on to black card stock and used a Creative Expressions die to cut a shape round it and then added more embossing powder around the edges.  I layered this onto some green cardstock and stamped around the edge.  I edged a white piece of card stock with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink - stamped some stars in Aged Mahogany and added this as an extra layer.

The die cuts are from Tim Holtz Holiday Greens mini set.  I added some extra Ideaology pieces with the sentiment and some bells. 

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Focal Sentiment 

52Card - stash challenge - rubber stamps 

Polkadoodle - AG 

Creative Fingers - AG 

Just Add Ink - Dies 

Outlawz - Festive Friday 

CRAFT - Christmas 

Craft Rocket - Christmas 

Creative Inspiration - AG 

Word Power 

Inspired By - a wonderful image - I loved the floral wreaths 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE - #506 - MAKE YOUR MARK

We are back with our Make your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  A chance to get out your colouring utensils of choice and have a play.

I'm back in autumnal mode giving the Christmas themes a rest for a bit!  This was a new purchase for me this year when I realised I didn't actually have any pumpkin stamps in my stash.  This is a great set called Autumn Bounty from Altenew.  It does have a lot of stamps which are more suitable for the US market and Thanksgiving so for my sentiment I turned to another set from Waffle Flower called Fall Greetings which had this cute sentiment and the little extra tiny leaf and pumpkin stamps.

I used some  Prismacolour pencils to colour in the pumpkin and the flowers.  I used Tim Holtz Distress  ink in Dried Marigold and Rusty Hinge for the background.

I'm adding this into the following:

Alphabet Challenge P is for pumpkins 

The outlawz Festive - thankful 

TGIF - Moodboard 

Ellibelles Garden - 

Craft-alnica - autumn 

Double D - colours of autumn 

Colour Throwdown 

Christmas Tag

I was having a quick play with a Christmas stencil I won from a challenge over at Polkadoodles.  It's a lovely Christmas tree stencil and something I didn't have in my stash.  

I started out with using some Tim Holtz Paint in Rustic Wilderness and once dry I used some Texture Paste from Daler Rowney to create the Christmas trees.  I then added a collage of ribbon, burlap, old music paper and some Tim Holtz Ideaology to finish off the tag. I also added some Stickles to soem of the trees.  I love the vintage feel to this little image with them getting their Christmas Tree and thought it fitted the tag perfectly.

I'm adding this into the following:

Allsorts - Christmas Tag 

Tag Along - Textured Tag

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA

Something a little different from me this month for Creative Artiste Mixed Media.  A dear friend's birthday is today and she is a very talented seamstress and embroiderer.  What she can do with a sewing machine and some needles is just amazing and for someone like me cannot sew for the life of me I'm always in awe of what she does.  She has a fabulous craft room where she runs workshops and I thought for her birthday I would make her a door hanger.  I have made a few of these in the past and we are even running a door hanger swap on my Facebook Group.

To start I used some strong cardboard - actually the back of an old paper pad which is sturdy enough to sit on a door handle. As she is a sewer I created my theme on that idea.  I have a very old book which I use for junk journaling which is all about embroidery and sewing from the 1950's.  I was never going to use it for advice so it is great for my background papers and is just perfect for this challenge.  I daren't tell her as she may well have loved the old book!! 

I added some stamping of some old Cherry Pie Art Stamps for the two ladies on both sides.  I added extra stamping, some Tim Holtz Ideaology and some sewing themed washi tape I found in my stash - who knew I had that?! She is also an avid tea drinker hence the tea cups. The creativity sentiment is from Visible Image stamps.  I added some little buttons,a sprig of dried flowers .. just because ..and edged it all in gold gilding wax as she loves creating gold work - beads etc I think! I trimmed it with some black lace and ribbons at the top and a few charms just to finish it off.  I hope she likes it! 

I'm adding this into the following - 

The Outlawz - Card free 

Creative Fingers - AG 

Outlawz Festive - Friendship 

Hearts Quest - Shaped Card/tag

Triple B - Butterflies 

Craft and Create - AG 

Krafty Chicks - Birthday 

Craft-alnica - oldest stamp - my Cherry  Pie are the oldest stamps I own dating back to 2002

THE MALE ROOM #204 - FLORAL

Our challenge for you this month at the Male Room is Floral.  Tricky don't you think sometimes for male cards.  Well hubby was sitting next to me in our craft room and I asked him what sort of floral he would like as a male.  Straight away he said thistle and I was delighted when I remembered I have a thistle stamp that hasn't been inked in a while!  I love it when a plan comes together!

My thistle stamp is from Studio Light and is simply called Thistle.  I used some watercolour paper for this card. I stencilled an old Tim Holtz stencil first which is the German text one in Versafine Portobello ink.  I then stamped over this with Versafine Nocturne and added a colour wash of Fossilized Amber and Iced Spruce around the image.  I used Tim Holtz Villainous Potion Distress Ink for the thistle heads and Forest Moss for the leaves.  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz Ideaology book. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Hearts Quest Celebration 

Girlz Make Guy Cards - Birthday 

Just us Girls - AG 

Krafty Chicks - Birthday 

SSS Wednesday - thinking of you 

Ellibelle Wednesday - AG