Heart and Diamond Tree Birthday Card

I love this Quickutz download design, it's a nightmare to prick out, but I can think of lots of ways to use it.

All I’ve added to it are a few flat backed heart shaped gems and some really tiny clear nail art gems.

Bargains of the Week ….. from Primark

Look at the jewels on this little beauty and costing just £3.  The bracelet is made up of 15 sets of bars, each containing three jewels set in a gold metal mount.  My plan is to disassemble it, the bars work out at 20p each and there is no way you could buy embellishments at that price.  I have a few ideas for cards, which I will blog when I have made them up …… but I am also thinking there might be a Christmas idea somewhere here ….. if only I could think of it.......

What’s On My Desk Wednesday

A lovely lady at work has loaned me a big box of stamps to play with. It’s very, very spooky because out of all the millions of stamps in the world, we had at least 7 of the same design, mostly dandelion clocks.  She even had the stamp I saw at the NEC and had wanted but didn’t have enough money left to buy it ….. which she has now kindly given me.

I am going to sort out the ones that inspire me and have a good play. I like the corset one, very much, and a few wordie ones with lovely sayings, there are also lots of corner stamps which I would never have thought of using, all I can say is watch this space!

I've had these windmill picks for a couple of weeks now and had forgotten to blog them.  They are from the party/barbeque section in Sainsburys.  They cost £1.99 for 8. I am thinking about a tall card, with the windmill in a flowerpot and a couple of leaves on the ‘stem’ ……

Bargains of the Week …. from Home Bargains.

These are brooches/pins by Russ but only cost 49p each, they would be great attached to a card or tag.

These chocolate footballs were 59p – I was a bit dubious about the quality but they are yummy!  I bought them with the World Cup in mind.

This box of 50 tags and ribbons cost 99p. The tags are for putting on home made knitted or sewn items, on the backs there are little spaces to write the makers name, care instructions, dates etc. Quite lovely.

Two Toadstool Birthday Cards

 

I have been looking at ways to use up all my leftover stickers from Accessorize and Paperchase packets.I found that I had an awful lot of toadstools ….

…. they were cute but I wasn’t sure how to use them, so I resorted to my nine scalloped square template and I just love the effect!

SORRY

I hope you have a cup of coffee with you ..... there are two posts today and they are both rather long!!!!!

Wedding Favors for French Wedding in France …..

Aghhhhh, this weekend was a bit of a manic rush (BUT I still managed to fit some “crafty” shopping in!).
I thought I had plenty of time to do some wedding favors for a friend …. when really, she wanted to take them back to France this Wednesday! To be honest, other than set up the template and put the papers aside, I hadn’t given it much thought ……. DOH!

However, as I only had thirty  to make, it wasn’t too onerous a task. - I did the bulk of the fiddle farting while watching Britains Got Talent!

The template was a download design from Quickutz  Silhouette (Bag_0145), it was a bit fiddly to put together, but I think that may be down to my resizing it rather than the design.

I used this organza type fabric from IKEA to pad out the bottom of the box instead of using tissue paper to give them a classier feel.  I cut it into rough 6” x 6” squares and roughly arranged them in each box (details - Flyn Lill, about £2.99 – 60 x 300cm, IKEA).

I printed a sheet of small cards, using this poem that I found on the net, explaining the significance of using five sugared almonds in a wedding favor.  I cut the sheet up and put a card in each box. The font used is Papyrus.

I  put five sugared almonds, bought specially from France, into a pretzel cello bag (2ins x 9ins from e-bay), cutting it down to size and tied with a narrow ribbon.

 

The checked paper came from Paperbox at  the NEC  Hobbycrafts last year, I looked for it this year but they didn’t have anymore, which was a great pity as it is brilliant for this sort of project.

The large flower is made using Whale Of A Punch retro flower, the smaller one is by EK Success and the leaves are made using a Woodware punch.

Favors packaged and ready to go to France ……. Bon Voyage ..........

Only about twenty sugared almonds were eaten during this project, which is a miracle as I ADORE them.!

Google Tags: wedding, favors, sugared almonds, Whale Of A punch, retro flower, woodware punch, IKEA, Quickutz Silhouette, Paper Box

Bargains of the Week …. from Poundland

I like doing posts about what’s new in Poundland because I don’t have to keep remembering what everything cost …… but, just in case ….. everything here cost me £1.00 each.

Look at these brilliant jellies …. 8 in a pack, I will blog what I am going to make with them in the next little while, but aren’t they cute?

With the World Cup looming this pack of stickers is going to come in very useful.

There are four sets of lovely patterend shoelaces here  ….. but I thought they could also be used on cards, scrapbook pages or tied to ring binding on Bind It All books instead of ribbons.

The School Prom Season is about to begin and these boxes would make a great gift box to give to a young gentleman with an assortment of funny little things inside; a sample of aftershave, some mints or gum, money for a taxi home, a little black notebook and pen   ……….. that sort of thing.

And lastly, you know that I am potty about little lanterns, well – how lovely is this? ….I got five …. to hang in the trees in my garden, BRILLIANT!

Bargains of the Week …… from Penkridge Market.

I think my blog was a bit boring last week …. so instead of saving my shopping for just one day, I thought I would give you two posts for the price of one each day this week   ….. I am pretty chuffed as  I have spotted and bagged one or two gems

This bag cost me 20p from a charity stall on Penkridge Market yesterday. I think it was a free gift for a Boots No 7 promotion.

I just love the shape and the “glass” jewel clasp, I don’t have a clue what to do with it yet ….. I wonder what fancy black rub-ons would like it? …. I am hoping Nicky (Quiksave)  http://creativeflourishes.blogspot.com/ who has the most brilliant ideas on her blog will give me a bit of inspiration.

From the same stall I also bought this cutlery tray for £1.50.  I just love wood and this is all jointed and stuff, I am not going to fiddle about with it, it’s too beautiful ….. I’m  just going to keep some of my pens in it.

Owl Tree Birthday Card

I’ve used my favourite Quickutz download tree design and some leftover Accessorize stickers to make this card – I’m not a great owl fan, but they are very on trend at the moment and I have to admit these do look rather cute.

Smirk for Him Birthday Cards

I have been working my way through my Smirk for Him decoupage pad, which I have to say have flown out of my staffroom box.

This was a design I wasn’t too keen on, but I am quite pleased with the way it has turned out after I gave it a sort of sitting room background.

I added the puffy cup stickers (Paperchase - £1 per pack) as an afterthought,  I think they have added a sort of extra quaintness.

Bind It All - Postcard Diary/Scrapbook

I made this funny looking book using my Bind It All. I’ve used blank postcards for the pages, with the idea of using it as a sort of Travel Journal.

I’m going to write notes on the printed side – perhaps adding a small picture over the stamp part and doodling a sort of postmark over it.

On the reverse side, I will add a collage of smaller photographs of the trip/holiday (printed on my computer)

I LOVE my Bind it All, which I got it a while back at Hobbycrafts,  NEC. When I first tried to use it I thought, what have I bought and I am afraid that it stayed on the shelf, unused, for many months until I tried it again.  There is a knack to keeping the rings nice and round, a light touch is needed – I am notoriously heavy handed, hence squashed rings at the start.

It’s a brilliant piece of kit, I could have a full time job just making blank books – as you can alter the basic designs for so many different ideas, i.e size and shape, colour and texture of paper, number of pages etc. It’s DEAD GOOD!

Patchwork Elephant Birthday Card

 
I used the Poundland stickers I bought in Bristol  a while back on these cards.  There were two sheets of bubble type stickers in a pack, so that’s pretty good value.

The only trouble was, I didn’t like the amount of surplus edging there was on each sticker, so in the end I carefully trimmed it off.

This didn’t give me much surface on which to put any glue, but I used a very fine applicator and I am chuffed with the results.

The card is finished off with a bit of doodling and a handwritten sentiment.

A Quandary

I have these items on my desk, a laundry bag for putting washing powder tablets in and one of my husbands cigar tins. ….. I am sure there is something I could do with them, but at the moment I just can’t think what.

I bet Linda http://acraftingjourney.blogspot.com/ would make something wonderful with the tin (it comes in a double layer size too) all Tim Holtzy, that would make me sooooo green with envy.  It seems an awful waste to keep throwing them away, but I really am at a loss creatively……..

What’s On My Desk Wednesday

Hmmmm, I’ve been shopping and indulged myself, I ADORE Gisela Graham and when I saw these birds I JUST had to have them….

They were not cheap - £11.99 for 8, so that’s £1.50 each.

But, if I can bear to let any of them go, I plan to give them as little gifts instead of a cards with a note saying …. “A little bird told me …..”

This box of hearts is also by Gisela Graham – again not cheap at £9.99 for 9 – so that’s £1.11 each, but they are so lovely, how could I resist? The frame is made from wood and the heart from a shabby metal.  I am thinking “Christmas” – I may add a tiny red gem in the centre of each flower, again to give instead of cards, which are usually thrown away and forgotten, hopefully these will be a lasting reminder and perhaps will be hung on a tree year after year.

  

I found these bonnets in a pile of Easter sale items in a local garden centre, reduced from £1.99 to 99p.  They have a little clip on the bottom to attach them to things.  I saw an idea (goodness knows where) for little boxes embellished with a little hat just like these – I am thinking weddings,Ascot or other "lady occassions", I only wish I had bought a couple more packets.

Geisha Girls Birthday Card

These Geisha Girl stickers from Accessorize are so sweet.  I’ve tried to make them stand out by keeping these cards very simple and plain.

I’ve just placed them along the top of a square card adding a tiny clear flat gem on their dresses and at the end of the lines. less is more.