Something from Yesteryear

Hi there Ladies,
a quick post to show you what I made for Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.We had to make something from yesteryear, something that looks vintage. I had this birdcage ,so I decorated it to put on my balcony for Christmas eve. I used Prima Flowers plus some others from my stash, I  cut the little bird with a Sizzix die, using some Christmas paper with glitter on it, added the feathers and bling for its eye, I have cut 2 birds so it looks pretty from both sides. I then coloured the white pearls with some mushroom alcohol ink,to make them look old. I have wedged a charm under the lid of the cage and tied it with the white ribbon,that keeps the top from closing.
This was a very quick project ,it must have takem me half an hour, I made it just before my guests arrived.
Keep well, I am off to Cyprus at 6am tomorrow morning!
Love Zeffy.

Time to Give!

Hi there and a very Merry Christmas! I hope that have all had a magical day,with family ,good friends and food,hopefully you don't all feel as stuffed as I do!
This year for the first time I roasted a full suckling pig!! Poor Babe...I felt like a murderer...maybe I will post a picture of him on facebook....a before and after type of thing.

Anyway for the matter on hand...I made 3 broaches for my friend Chrystel she asked me for  a flower broach ages ago....I eventually made her 3, then I decided to decorate her card with the 2 of the broaches and her envelope with the 3rd...

I needed a big envelope and was about to make one when....my friend Irini on Get Creative got creative agin....thanks Irini  for being such an inspiration!
This is what I made. Oh yes and the Poinsettia was inspired by my hero Tim Holtz!

Anyway Ladies I wish you all a fantastic festive season full of joy, health and happiness......

Filakia Zeffy.

Flowers

This is what my table looks like, the left-overs  from my fabric flowers,maybe I will make one or two more, my Countdown-to Christmas Jouranl, getting filled up day by day, no place for it on my desk as that is strewn with a new project, my sewing machine is out as there is some sewing to do. Christmas shopping to do, grocery shopping to shop,cakes to bake, food to freeze....and most important of all, to help my son get organised and help him with his move to Cyprus for his first job....

As I had said in my previous post, the elves did come and help and my flowers are almost finished, I will add the finishing touches on the 23rd when I lay my table, and make an arrangement with my paper tree ( see previous post)and candles in silver candle-sticks and silver stars....will post pics.

These flowers were inspired by none other than the amazing Tim Holtz...he made the Poinsettia  on day 7 with the  Alternations Tattered Florals die.  I had some off-cut from one of my husbands Chino pants, I cut the shape ,then dipped them into plaster of paris,with some gold mica and shaped them...once they were dry I never liked the colour so mich so I painted them a little with gesso....
Once dry they were glued onto cereal box circles with the glue gun and glitter circles were added.....
The round flowers are a thin muslin, also dipped into Plaster of Paris and all scrunched up.with a tulle backing.

Tree Time Video

A quick video made on the spur of the moment whilst assembling my tree...I was not even sure that it would stand!! View Video More detailed instructions are in the previous post...
Now for the flowers!!!

TREE TIME

Hi gals this week-end a few of my scrap-buddies and I got together...this is what I started making amongst all the chaos and fun...a paper tree for my centre-piece on my Christmas table.

 I cut about 24 of these tree shapes from cheap drawing paper, I then diveded them into 4 stacks and sewed down the center of each.

I then took the inner tube of wrapping paper...we have ample of those these days!!And cut two strips that I folded and sandwiched between the two sections of tree....once the two pieces were stuck to each other  I also added a piece of steel cut of a coat-hanger for extra support then I stacked the 2 glued sections together...I had a pile of 4!.once that was done I just opened that up...and voila....you can see from the photo above that the paper tends to curt a bit.....so I added strips of cardstock at the bottom for some extra standing 'Feet"...see video which I will post in the course of today!!!

As you can see in the photo above I have pieces of fabric all around my tree.....I am hoping that the elves will appear this evening and turn those into beautiful flowers.....they will then add extra interest to my table...we will see..

Bye for now...must fly busy, busy ,busy!!

A Quick Mini Album

Hi there Ladies
Join me this afternoon Wednesday 8th at 4pm on USTREAM to make a quick mini album for a friend.This album is embellished with Tim Holtz Idea-ology and Alterations embellishments. Linda Elbourne demonstrated this mini at one of her lessons at PACS and I loved it so much, that i decided to make another for a good friend for Christmas.
See you there....the show is in usually in Greek,but if we have any non Greek speaking guests I will broadcast in English..
Love
Zeffy

I AM Zeffy and I LOVE to Scrap!!

Hi ladies,
yes after a week-end in Paris at PACS I have decided that I love to scrap !! 3 days of cutting ,tearing painting and glueing...and I loved every minute! I chose a very full programm, I decided seeing that I am there I may as well learn as much as I can, so I chose lessons in mixed media and some painting ,two things that I would like to continue implementing into my work, two mediums that I am not familiar with.
My first teacher was Nathalie Kalbach, imagine we used paper that she designed!!You can see her name at the bottom of my canvas. Nathalie was super friendly and funny too ,a lovely humour that immediately set the tone of her class, she encouraged us to explore and express ourselves...so this is who I am and the things I love...I love to express myself, travel, romance,laugh,and I love trees and Iwish I could put them into a cage and protect them...especially here in Greece where burning trees seems to be a national passtime!Please note the pre-menopausel, thin I wannabe me...ha ha!
Nathalie is also a Tattered Angel demonstrator so we did a lot of glimmer-misting too...

The next canvas I have posted for the lovely Sophia whom I met in  Julie Fei Fan Balzer clas, amazing how you get to meet such lovely people...check out Julie's blog lots of pictures of Pacs there...So anyway this is a self potrait of me the first I have painted since junior school...a good 40 years ago..Julies class was also very interseting we first collaged our canvas with gel medium and paper scraps, a great way to use all those left-overs and then we learned the basics of potrait painting Da Vincis' golden rule of thirds or should I say PHI , ok I am rambling now, Julie did not go into such detail she just showed us how to divide our oval and position all our facial features,and then also how to highlight and shade our image....a far way I have to go to discover the real Zeffy!

I think that this is enough for now...I have much more to share...so join me on Zeffy Scraps on USTREAM on Monday 6 December at 21H00 and get ready so that we can make a mini for you ladies to give away as a Christmas gift.
have a lovely week-end and remember to have fun!
Filia
Zeffy