The Tower of Treats

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while may remember that I gave my Granny a scrapbook for her birthday and was going to make some extra pages dfor her Christmas present.  Well here they are.........oops I didn't have time (again) so I went for a compromise and have done a shadow box as a gift instead. 

I think its called a shadow box because when you take a picture half the inside is in in shadow!  So here it is without the box.  Papers and embellishments by Cosmo Cricket -  Jitterbug with co-ordinating background from stash.  The picture is of my Granny and Grandad when they first met - she's the one on the left) at a holiday camp on the isle of wight.  The other 2 girls are her friends.

I wanted to give Granny something else too but she is so hard to buy for - she's 85 next year!  So I decided to make her up  hamper of all the things she liked.  I didn't have a basket though and didn't have time to buy one as Mum is taking the presents doewn to Ipswich tomorrow so I hit upon the idea of a "tower of treats"

Golly that ribbon tying was hard but we got through it and I'm very pleased with the result - let's hope she is too.  The boxes were bought from Home Bargains (where else) a few months ago and were £1.99 for 6 (I've got 2 small ones left over) and the ribbon was from my stash.

Easel birthday card for Rainmac

I'm not uquite sure that I've done this right because as usual I couldn't get youtube to work on the instruction dvd but it looks similar to everyone elses so I assume I got something right.

Papers are cosmo cricket jitterbug with a little bit of crate paper behind the stamped image.

Thanks Caroline

Lovely Caroline has given me a blog award.  Yay! and with it came a little one-word answer questionnaire to pass on


1. Where is your cell phone? erm......
2. Your hair? Brown

3. Your mother?  eccentric

4. Your father? asleep
5. Your favorite food? cheese

6. Your dream last night? don't remember

7. Your favorite drink? g&t

8. Your dream/goal? Marrying David Tenant

9. What room are you in? Lounge

10. Your hobby? Crafting

11. Your fear? Birds

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Settled

13. Where were you last night? Manchester

14. Something that you aren't? tidy

15. Muffins? Blueberry

16. Wish list item? early retirement

17. Where did you grow up? Sheffield

18. Last thing you did? Spoke to friend

19. What are you wearing? PJs

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your Pets? none

22. Friends? enough

23. Your life? chaotic

24. Your mood? tired

25. Missing Someone? yep
26. Vehicle? focus

27. Something you’re not wearing? makeup

28. Your favorite store? home bargins

29. Your favorite color? blue

30. When was the last time you laughed? Tonight

31. Last time you cried? Tonight

32. Your best friend? friends

33. One place that I go to over and over? parents

34. Facebook? Yes

35. Favorite place to eat? country pub

I'm most proud of making........

this beautiful boy!  Although to be fair I did have some help.

He'll kill me for sharing this photo when he's a bit older but I caught him with my hat on on the sofa on Sunday night.  Snuggled up ready for the x-factor result.

He's such a funny boy - I promised him a treat in home bargains today (I'm trying to distract him in there so he doesn't see the archaeology kit I've bought him for Christmas) and of all the things in there, he chose a little organiser box for 49p which he says he's going to use to keep all his 'crafty bits and bobs' in.  Or a "thinks" box (I promise this will become cleare in the next couple of days!)

Clearing the decks Part 3

And then I completed the Card I made for my tutorial last week - adding the star on a wire.  Here it is

It's advent today and I stopped up last night to wrap little boxes of smarties for "&sons" calendar.  His Great-Granny sent this lovely calendar in the post today which was a lovely surprise.  The little envelopes contain details of planned 'Christmas treats"

Clearing the decks part 2

This was lurking on my desk last Wednesday but I hadn't wuite finished it.  It's for a friend's stepdaughter who is 6 and likes pink and pink and PINK!

This took me very much out of mcomfort zone but I hope it will be ok

I have one more notepad order to do for her older sister and then I think I'll put them away for a while.  Ithink I may have had enough!

Clearing the decks part1

Aaarrrgghhh!!!!!
Who's been messing with the calendars? 
It CAN'T be December already! 
How did that happen? 
This was going to be theChristmas that I was really organised. 
Never mind, there's always next year.

After I'd civen myself up to panic for a while I thought I'd better clear the decks of a few things that have been hanging around my desk waiting to be finished so that I can get cracking on Christmas in earnest tomorrow (honest!)

So,  the fist thing I needed to do was get my sisters parcel out of the way - she's home for Christmas in a couple of weeks so this should be the last one I have to send out for a while.  In addition to the 'yellow submarine' scrapbook LO I've already blogged there's this page too.  All papers and embellishments from basic grey (cupcake) I opened my scalloped oval nesties that are for Christmas just to make sure they worked.

Was I right to confess in my letter that the boys' diet may have been up to 25% ice-cream some days on holiday?

 I like to send her something hand-made in her package too so I've made a little coaster calendar.  Thanks paddington for the calendar tabs! and also thanks to rainmac for the inspiration.

I've put a little magnet on the back just in case they don;t have nails in the wall (I'm assuming she has walls - her office is in a portacabin but she sleeps in a tent so I thought I'd give her more options. )

And finally I made a card to send with her package which also includes sherbert fountains, sherbert dip dabs, minstrels and some fake snow .  It's not her Christmas card but I thought I'd do something a bit Christmassy to get her in the mood

Tweet Tweet

I'm not a birdy person at all - as anyone who's seen me go pale at the sight of a feather will let you know but I really love these little stylised birds from CraftWork Cards..

I made this card to go in the latest parcel sent out to Afghanistan and was very pleased to find that you can colour in the lovely pearlised paper with my promarkers.  You can also colour in their card candy if you have the patience of a saint. I chose to colour in the background and leave the birdie plain.  the card blank is a patterned one from a DCWV stack.

Sis has now confirmed she's got it so I can post it on here.  Even better she says that the minstrels I sent out survived the journey and haven't melt.  In her own words "they are, alas, no more!"

Let's play a new game - "what card fold is this?"

I've been searching for a card using the fold I saw at harrogate but to no avail.  I'd really like to reference it in my tutorial post but have no idea what it is called.

So after much searching I've mocked one up to see if anyone knows what they are called.

To be fair, it's a tough challenge because this looks nothng like them - they had beautiful big letters in each fold spelling out "Xmas" and "Baby" and a beautiful background.  But this is the best I could do in an attempt to stop myself going insane looking for them.
Anyone???

WOYWW + Tutorial (of a fashion!) - Lollipop 3d card

I've had a couple of requests for instructions on how to make my "special Christmas Card".  I can't claim the idea is 100% mine - I saw some cards at the Papercraft show in harrogate that had loads of folds on the front to carry a message so it looks 3d and it kind of got me thinkig about making lollipop flowers to go in a fold.  Then, the idea progressed to Christmas.

The cards I've made so far have been with prefolded tri-fold cards from my trusty home bargains - where else! but when I came to try and do these instructions I realised I had no more left in white.  What a shame - I'll have to go back and have another look around ;-).  So I've tried it with a piece of white A4 card and it kind of works.  So here goes

First up - score your card into thirds ^^^

And fold

Then score and fold the front third in half so it looks like this  ^^^^^^^^

To make the snowy hillside I drew free-hand, and then cut a piece of white card - this was an A5 pece of white card and is the off-cut from the first Christmas card I made - see there's no wastage in this household!

I'll come back to this later but it's a good idea to offer it up to your card at this stage to make sure it fits.

Now, this is the bit I fear I'll struggle to explain - put a piece of DST on either side of the fold 2/3 of the way down the page.  Like this ^^^^^^

Make your Christmas trees by sticking a cut tree onto a lollipop stick.  I use DS and stirrers bottowed from CostaCoffee (well I pay enough for my daily hot choc!)

Oopsy - I forgot to stick the backing sheet snowy sky on! 
Now squeeze together the two pieces of DST to hold your lollipop sticks in place

And now for a bit of squeeze and tease - oo-er missus
Basically just bend the card until it stand up right

Then add on the front - I double embossed front with sowflaks and swiss dots on the cuttlebug and the die cut is embossed with Christmas stars.

I'm thinking with this one that I'll put a star on a wire at the top but I can't find my cutters so I'll have to do that tomorrow.

Please let me know if there is anything that I haven't made clear and I'll try and add it in.

If you like this idea please use it - I'd really like it if you could link back to this thread though

Ooh and before I forget, I remembered to do my first WOYWW - thanks for the reminder Carmen

Hmm - any chance of chance of a 'how to kepp your dek tidy' tutorial?  Anyone???

My "Special" Christmas Card

Ok ok I know all Christmas cards are special but I like to make an extra-special card for my Granny as I know how much she enjoys putting her cards out, counting them and showing them to her visitors.

You may remember that I recently made a thank you card using lollipop flowers and I said back then that I wanted to have a go at making a Christmas card the same way.  I've finally got around to it and was so pleased with the result that I had to take it into work just to show it off (I really don't know how they put up with me sometimes!)

So hear it is.  Base card is a trifold with the front double embossed with snowflakes and swiss dots.    I did both because it looked too stark with just one so the snowflakes are underneath with swiss dots on top as they are easier to match as I had to emboss in stages.  The die-cut "Christmas" was from Di's die-cuts and has been embossed with cuttlebug snowflakes.
The "snowballs" across the top of the hills are from a roll of wrapping ribbon tfrom Home Bargains (of course).  The lollipops were 'borrowed' from Costa Coffee because the top of the die-cut Christmas trees was too thin for a standard lollipop stick.  Background is black glitter paper (does anyone know where I can pick up some more without having to pay a fortune for p&p) with a glitter star.

I'm planning on making 2 or 3 more of these for close relatives and friends (just as long as I can find that glitter paper!)

In the town where I was born.......

Another scrapbook page to send out to Helmand to attempt to brighten my poor sister's days. 
The whole family (minus her) went to Gran Canaria at half term and this picture is of her hubby and boys (+ my boy) getting ready to go on the Yellow Submarine in Puerto De Mogan.

I had big plans for this - was going to attempt to recreate the beatles yellow submarine in collage but decided that might be a step too far.
Not sure what make the background paper is - I got it in a stash swap over on crafty place - but the pattern reminded me of waves.  The letters and fish are all cut out on my trusty cuttlebug - some in paper, some in foam to give a bit of texture.
Finally, I've aded a bit of glossy accents to pick out the waves.

School Christmas Fair

Packs of Magnetic Pegs.  I had these at £1.25 for 3

Dr Who Notepads £1.25 each.  I sold most of these and got the pictures from my desk calendar at work.  The notepads worked out at 5p each and the pens/pencils were around 8p each.  All paper from existing stash

All 3 of these ones sold before they even made it to the sale!

Both Sold

I tried to make a few masculine type notepads but they didn't sell so well.  Lesson learned!

All these girly ones sold though.

Again, the girly ones sold - the car one's didn't.  Lucky for me I have lots of boys in my family that I can give them to!  The pad with the largere flowere on the front was made using the front page of the my MME Bllom and Grow Packs - you know - the one with the barcode on. 

Sold a few Christmas cards too.

Some more notebooks that have found a new-home

Apologies for the messiness of this post.  _ I think blogger must be having a bad afternoon.  Either that or its a bit over-excited about the new Dr Who episode this evening (much as I am) it would only agree to me posting pics if it also posted the picture of the Dr Who notebooks on each occasion so I've had a lot of deleting to do!

Too busy living life to craft?

Gosh!  It's been quite a week.  I've been out on grown up night out 3 nights this week and to be honest, it's begnning to show.  I saw the excellent Rich Hall on Tuesday night.  Went to a murder mystery evening on Thursday (and no I wasn't the murdered but I was a very convincing contract killer.  Then a few drinks and a chat last night.  Phew.  I lay in bed until 10am this morning - just because I could!

But I realised about 10pm that I really ought to make a start on a card I need to give tomorrow morning!  I'd seen something similar to this at the Harrigate Pepaercraft Show but wasn't really sure how to do it.  I decided to just have a go which probably isn't a good plan at that late notice but, do you know what, I think it might have worked!

The papers are MME bloom and grow and I used a tri-fold card with the front folded in half then opened it 'tent style'.  You can't see it so well in the pics but the flowers are on lollipop sticks and stand prud of the back card to give a 3d effect.  AM going to have a try at a Christmas card with Christmas tress using the same principle.

Doh!

This is the card I referred to in my previous blog post - I'll add it in as an edit on there but thought I'd put it here too in case any of you were picking up updates from the blogger dashboard

More Card Reconstruction than card making I'm afraid

"&son" wanted to do some crafting today and the thing he wanted to use has been missing since last Christmas - I had a niggling feeling that I hadn't found all my Christmas stash yet so I thought I'd better have a look for it.  Found it.  OMG - how much stuff do I have so I've been galvanised into action on the Christmas card front.

To say I had made these cards would be pushing the truth a little.  I bought 10 boxes of cards for a pound on the last day of trading at my local woolworths.  Why??  Anyhow, I thought I'd send them to the school Christmas fair but when I looked at one box they were particularly awful - these were "hand finished luxury cards"

Now I know my finishing isn't perfect on some of my cards - things aren't sometimes straight and I'm by no means a perfectinist but really!  Look at the finish on this - the topper is not straight and the ribbon has been stuck down with white tape that has been out on so badly that it's clearly visible at the top of the card

So I've had a go at making them a bit nicer - I was thinking 50p each for these ones as a guide price for the school fair - what do you think?  I cut the front of the card, straightened up the toppers and added them to a window card embossed with snowflakes on my cuttlebug.

I've also been trying to make a Christmas card for a child - its a blog challenge somewhere but I've forgotten quite where and have probably missed the deadline but I need some help.  I started off with an embossed sheet of paper - I'm sorry, I don;t know the name as Saveapenny did  it for me a while ago on her bug.  I thought it was a bit too much all at once so cut out a couple of swuares for use on other cards but the remaining shape reminded me of a window so I thought I'd use that as the basis for the card.  The card blank reminds me of snowflakes and I've put a Christmas tree in the window.  But what should I put in the top of the window?  Any suggestions gratefully received.

Finally, I've added my card to my previous blog post - it was hiding in another folder on my PC.