It's got to be Christmas ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New Challenge.

Hi everybody! It's time for our final challenge over on the Stamps and Stencils blog. Not only is this the last challenge of the year, sadly, it will also be the last challenge for our fabulous Stamps and Stencils blog. It has been going for a fantastic 3 years and we have had a blast, setting some great challenges and delivering  brilliant inspirational posts. I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thankyou to Sue for having the vision, leading a great design team and running the blog alongside her very busy life. She has done a great job! I'd also like to thank my fellow teamies for all their support and fantastic inspiration. Finally, I'd like to say thank you to all the talented people that have joined in with our challenges and left us uplifting comments. We've seen some incredible work and it's always been difficult to choose our winners!

The challenge for December has been set by Sue and is, of course, it's a seasonal one. We'd like to see what you've been stamping and stenciling for Christmas. this is what Sue has to say about the challenge...….

It's got to be Christmas! Possibly predictive but as everyone gets busy for the festive season time seems to disappear at a fast pace, so we're keeping it simple . For this challenge we want to keep it festive and see your Christmas themed creations, just remember it must be mixed media and include stamping and/or stencilling.

My project is a  Christmas decoration based on an MDF 3 part bauble shape from Tando Creative. I was lucky enough to attend the Ministry of Mixology event a couple of weeks ago and as well as doing some fabulous workshops with Andy Skinner and Birgit Koopsen, I also was able to participate in some fabulous 'make and takes' during the evening. My project is inspired by one of these which was run by the lovely  Fiona Randall. This is how I put together my interpretation, using of some of her ideas and techniques...…..

Instead of using a tag, I used this layered frame kit, which of course I just had to buy from Di Oliver's pop up shop at the workshop venue...…

I painted the pieces with black gesso and then applied a coat of Deco Art Americana Crackle medium. once this was dry I applied a top coat of Snow White, mixed with a little Buff coloured Fresco Finish paint this is how the two layers looked once the crackles appeared...……

 I then stamped with a script stamp around the top frame, and added a little shading to the edges with Archival ink, and painted the sides with gold paint, allowing it to cover a little of the edges of the frame.....

I then mixed a little texture paint with fine glitter, and stencilled the back of the frame using a 'splatter' stencil. Here's a close up...….

I then glued the two pieces together and turned my attention to the centre piece.....

After painting a chipboard snowflake with black gesso, I dried it with a heat tool and then brushed a little Vaselineto some of the edges. I then applied  Texture Sand Paste, using my finger to dab the surface and create a 'fluffy' texture. I then painted it with Snow White paint and I dried it with a heat tool. I then wiped the edges with a soft cloth, removing some of the paint and paste.....

I then repeated the Texture Paint and glitter stencilling on the surface. I painted a few smaller die cut snowflakes, one gold , one white and one pale blue. Once they were all dry, I stacked them on top of the large snowflake and adhered them together with dimensional tape...…

A piece of dyed seam binding, threaded through the top finished of my bauble, which is now ready to hang up. 

I hope you'll join us for this final  challenge, just hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog, where you'll find all of the details as well as being able to feast your eyes on some beautiful and inspiring projects by the rest of the amazing design team! Have a happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year. I shall be continuing with my Artistic Craft Dabbler blog and look forward to sharing my projects and tutorials with you! xx