12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

We're almost finished with the 12 days of Christmas. I was so sad that I made another video for you! Here is today's project:

A jar of tags to give as a little gift!!

 Here's a (rubbish) photo of the tag on the front. The stamp is from Word Play and stamped in Midnight Muse.

 Here are the tags inside the jar. Scentsational Season is such a lovely stamp set for making quick tags.

Check back tomorrow for the final installment of my 12 Days of Christmas series.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9

Hello and here is my second video this week!!!

I couldn't resist making this sweet pouch. You can use it for anything really, but they are so quick to put together as the tag is ready-made!

The card is Cherry Cobbler to match the tuile ribbon and printed colours on the tag.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 5

Having made some cards and gifts, we mustn't forget to decorate! Here is a beautiful snowflake ornament that was made for me by my good friend, Jackie.

It looks a bit like the one on the front of the Autumn/Winter catalogue, but I like it even more becaue it has SNOWFLAKES on it.

 

It's been stamped in Night of Navy ink using the Ornament Keepsake stamps (pg3) and cut out on the Big Shot using the co-ordinating Holiday Ornaments framelits.

The snowflakes were cut out using the Bigz die called Snow Flurry (pg14)in Night of Navy and Whisper White cardstock. Beautiful!!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

Welcome to my 12 Days of Christmas series - Day 3! Easy and quick festive projects to give your home that handmade cosy feeling, plus gifts for neighbours, friends and family.

 

For today's project you'll need clean jam jars (no lids required) and some newsprint DSP.

 This first jar had a Christmas tree cut out on the Big Shot using a die from the Holiday Collection framelits and was stuck to the jar using red tape. A little linen thread finish it off nicely.

The next had a number of stars cut out using the same framelit set and has a strip of Cherry Cobbler spotty ribbon around the top of the jar.

 The last card has a bit of wavy Cherry Cobbler tuile ribbon. It's so easy to make a number of these in no time and would look great on the coffee table, by the front door or on a festive dinner table.

Whip up a favour

Here are some little gift packaging I made up the other day. They would be perfect to contain a cello bag with sweets, biscuits or even buttons as a small gift when going out for drinks or to go with a birthday card.

This is the first one made with Pennant Parade and the co-ordinating punch.

 

The next is using Owl Occasions and cute little Vintage Trinkets.

 

 The last one uses Papaya Collage and a paper daisy.

I could not wait to use the little bird image. It's so sweet!

Sorry about the absence this week. Munchkin has been unwell while DH is away on business so it's been exhausting nights followed by dragging days... Still, I'm back on form now!!! Keep your eyes peeled as my 12 Days of Christmas series starts on Saturday 1st December with quick cards, gifts and decorations!!!

Emboss resist technique

It's Saturday again so here is my weekly video! This week I am showing you how to do a technique called Emboss Resist. This means embossing an image and then adding ink on top. A bit like those drawings we all did as children using white crayons and then washing over them with paint to reveal the picture we'd drawn underneath.

 

Here is a visual of the stamp set featured, Summer Silhouettes:

 And here is a picture of the finished card:

Have a great Saturday!!!

Birthday card trial

As DH's birthday approaches I've been trying out different cards. This was a quick card using Gumball Green as the feature colour. For some reason I'm not happy with it, but can't decide what's wrong with it. Any ideas?

Inspired

My recent visit to Convention has been quite inspiring. I really feel like I can achieve my goals, which reminded me of the set Just Believe. Such a beautiful set and I LOVE the sentiment from the set that I used in this card:

It's been teamed with French Foliage for the leaves and a piece of Cajun Craze CS that has been run through the Woodgrain embossing folder on the Big Shot. Simple, but a lovely card to send to someone who needs a little perking up.

Knitting!

When I was about 6 years old my Nanny taught me how to knit. It's been a loooong time since then but I decided I wanted to give knitting another try. The question was, what to knit? Being a Generation Y girl, I need instant gratification, so despite the requests for a cardigan from Munchkin, I gave a cup cosy a go:

Nice chunky wool and to finish? Stampin' Up! buttons of course! Sewn on with linen thread, naturally.

 Here's a close-up, although I know it's pretty blurry!! The top buttons are in the Autumn/Winter Seasonal catalogue, called Brushed Bronze.

This was my first attempt and has light wood buttons, which are from the main catalogue.

Cheat's fabric pennants

It's always good to be versatile, and I realise that not everyone can/wants to sew. Here is an easy way to make fabric pennants!

This pennant pack is just £1 at the Range. A bargain and a really great starting point.

The next cheat is this pack of self-adhesive 12x12" sticky sheets. Imagine a full sheet of Snail glue and you're quite close to imaging what these are like. Plus they stick permanently so can be used for all sorts of craft projects.

 So firstly, stick the pennants to the sticky sheets. Then peel off and stick to the fabric. For this project I chose the Orchard Harvest fabrics in the Autumn/Winter 2012 catalogue.

 The brilliant thing is that the fabric can be smoothed out with your hands or a bone folder so it doesn't matter how creased it is!

Next, the scraps of leftover fabric were stick directly to the self adhesive sheets. This made a sticker type of thing which was fed through the Big Shot with the Pennant die. This made the perfect sized triangle to decorate the centres.

To finish, the triangles were fed onto a narrow (retired) ribbon in Early Espresso. In between each piece of the bunting a small piece of Cherry Cobbler wavy tuile was tied to add further texture.

I hope this gives you some inspiration if you like bunting/pennants but are scared of fabric/sewing.

Fly away with me

Happy weekend! Here is a card I whipped up really quickly using my new favourite stamp set Affection Collection and the delicious International Bazaar DSP.

 

The card is heavily influenced by one I saw on the inspiration board at Convention. Here is the original design I CASE'd:

Hope you have a great Sunday!!!!

Covention Make & Take 2

This collage effect card was really quick and fun to make using Affection Collection. I was able to use nearly every stamp in the set layered up with different colours. It's best to do this technique by starting with the lightest colour first.

 

Up in the corner there is a little pennant and the heart is raised up with a Dimensional.

Convention Make & Take 1

We were lucky enough to get some make & takes to do. To be honest I didn't get time to make them whilst in Germany as I was too busy socialising! I made this one the night I got back as I was desperate to stamp!!

 

This cute pouch has would suit a small packet of something, like cocoa mix or something.

The flag was stuck to a kebab stick and features Affection Collection. I ADORE this stamp set and was so pleased to receive it as part of my Convention bag. The colours used are Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse and Daffodil Delight.

This is a flower made with a strip of fabric and then it has a large scalloped circle stuck around it and the kebab stick. So sweet and could be used after the gift is received to stick in a flower pot with a nice green plant.

When I unpacked I found this photo! We arrived in the early evening and went straight down to find out what was going on. There was a cool photo booth where you could get a free print. We both look a bit tired and poor Lauren was feverish but it's great to have the memory - will definately have to scrapbook this one!!

Starting Owlets

When Munchkin started preschool in September I took lots of photos. The uniform is so darned cute that I was powerless to resist. We snapped pictures in the garden, driveway and at school.

 

The Orchard Harvest papers came into play, like yesterday, and explain the season. These papers are perfect for start of school type pages as they're quite bright and the leaves are very detailed.

Father & Son

Here is a photo I snapped of my FIL and DH one sunny day when we were on a miniture train at Frimley Lodge Park. I love the picture so it made sense to scrapbook it.

The papers are from the Autumn/Winter seasonal catalogue and are called Orchard Harvest. There's no real journalling but it would be easy enough to add if required. I always think the photo says everything, personally.

Another one for the family album!

Snow Festival cards (part 5)

Today is my final installment of Snow Festival cards:

This little owl is just so cute, I couldn't leave him out. The mittens were cut from a sheet with lots of rows of patterns, which makes it a but like a page of paper ribbons.

My final card is pretty similar but features mittens!

I hope you've enjoyed my festive mini-series. Feel free to email me if you'd like to purchase the products used or any others from the catalogues.

Check back soon!

Snow Festival Cards (part 4)

Here are some more jazzy cards that I came up with using the Snow Festival DSP:

The main image on this is printed. I didn't even have to punch out the birds! Love how simple and quick these cards are to make en masse. One set of papers would easily make 24 festive cards, so it's a bargain at just £9.95!

Tomorrow will feature the last set of Snow Festival Cards.

If you'd like to buy the Snow Festival papers, drop me an email and I'll add them to my next order. They are such a great set of papers and you can use lots of sentiment stamps you already own to make the cards.

Snow Festival cards (part 2)

Today's pair of cards feature Snow Festival DSP (pg10, Seasonal Catalogue) as well as Snow Festival Designer Printed Tags and Homemade Holidays Stitched Felt (both pg 12, Seasonal catalogue)

The sentiment is from Polar Party. The best thing about these cards is that the felt topper can be removed and used as a tree decoration!

October Scrapbook Club

Tonight is my monthly scrapbooking class. This is the page we're making!

It features the stamp set Betsy's Blooms (pg72) in the Floral District Suite. It has matching paper, also called Floral District and a wheel which all co-ordinate together to make this page really easy to put together. The wheel is shown just under the photograph on the wide white strip. It was wheeled in Lucky Limeade and then Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry markers added detail.

We are going to have fun with the jumbo sticky rounds from the Seasonal catalogue (pg 31) making our own floral embellishments with some Orchard Harvest fabric. The colours used are Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry and Lucky Limeade.

I hope everyone enjoys making this page. It's not too late to come along tonight at 7.30!
Check back tomorrow for more from Betsy's Blooms!

Party Invitations

Today I've got invitations to share with you made for Munchkin's birthday party, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I used the set Owl Occasions, which is super cute and has images for parties, Christmas and other occasions too! I used some of the new In Colors: Primrose Petals, Gumball Green and some older colours too: Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso.

I added some googlie eyes to the owl which I had left over from my Halloween kit - even though I used the eyes on the projects there was over half a pack leftover! The base was Crumb Cake and stamped in Woodgrain. Bakers Twine in Island Indigo finished off the design. Munchkin was thrilled with them and wanted to send them straightaway but I pointed out that really she needed to help me write inside them first so they have more meaning for the recipient!!!