Happy Easter And A Huge Thank You To A Special New Friend

OMG I have a real life Michaels bag of my very own!

In my two years or so blogging I have made some truly lovely friends, and recently I have got to know Dianne who lives in Florida  through the comments she leaves on my other blog “Mums Monkey” – one day I just had a spooky feeling that I should send her a monkey of her own (Christopher)….. that spooky feeling was “right” …. and since then we have e-mailed on a regular basis …. but this Easter she has totally overwhelmed me with her kindness.

As we have been getting to know each other I have told Dianne how I dream of one day going to the USA, taking with me the most  mahooosive empty suitcase I can get through,  so I can shop till I drop, and then some in Michaels ……. !!!

And this week Dianne has overwhelmed me again with the most wonderful parcel of embellishments from Michaels, I was so overcome, that when I opened up her box I just looked at them, in silence, stroking each and every packet in turn.

What do you say to such kindness and thought?

I can’t believe the Urban Chic and Bead Landing charms and will be wearing them very very soon.  And as for the glittered blossom branches, I don’t think I will ever be able to use them, they are so lovely, BUT I know I MUST!

These Martha Stewart labels and tags are something different for me …. I have a few ideas already as to what to do with them and see a slight change in style ahead.

And as for these monkeys …… what can I say, gorgeous!!

But best of all I LOVE my bag, I will use it carefully and then after a while put it away ready for the day when I actually walk into a Michaels, bag akimbo  telling anyone who will listen how I got it. Thank you Dianne you are a VERY SPECIAL lady and it’s people like you and Marc, Jan The Fan, Di and Mr D who keep my brain whirring, thinking up more mischief and mayhem for “The Boys” to incur - xxx THANK YOU xxx

http://www.michaels.com/

Oh .... and I almost forgot …….

I used some of the papers, ribbons, stickers etc. from Dianne’s  Easter parcel for “The Boys” to make this page in my Smashbook – unwrapping each and every small parcel this morning was such a magical experience for  them (and me)!!!!!

Dragonfly Card

Given the choice on a card I much prefer dragonflies to butterflies, I don’t know why. … All the scallop punched squares are made using papers from My Mind’s Eye Stella and Rose 6” x 6” stacks, my very favourite papers of all time!

 
The small brass dragonflies came from e-bay.

Winnie The Pooh Card

This card measures 4.25 ins x 6.5ins and is made using white linen effect paper.

My apologies, this is a card that I made ages ago, but I have moved it around in the blog scheduling every time I have made, what I thought was something more interesting! There are no real card making skills here whatsoever, it was just a matter of a bit of mat and layering on some cloud effect paper and then plonking the stickers on top, very less is more.

With money being tight,  a  crafty bargain is only a bargain when I can use the items almost straight away, making a set of cards quickly and getting them in my box at work as soon as I can, done and dusted, as was the case with these stickers........

..... they are by Jolees Boutique and cost £1 for 3 packs, which wasn't too bad , as I think they usually sell for over £2 a pack and almost everyone loves Winnie the Pooh.

Hedgehog Birthday Card

This card measures 4ins x 4ins and is made using white linen effect card.

I used stickers that were free in an Docrafts Creativity magazine last year with scraps of gingham paper, faux stitching and a handwritten sentiment.

Simples!

Daisy Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and is made using ivory linen effecrt card.

I’ve used part of Stampin’Up Fresh Cuts stamp set to make the background for this card and then have coloured it with Plaid blending chalks, a little ink round the edges and a touch of Hero Arts micro hologram glitter

I’ve then added a paper daisy,(I can’t remember where I got them from, but wish I could get some more as they are quite realistic),  a tiny brass insect charm and some flat backed pearls. Done!

Ladyboy Card

This card is A5 in size using a blank made from white linen effect card.

This has got to be one of the strangest cards I have ever made, but perfect for the gentleman it was for!  The brief was for a card for my sister-in-laws neighbour who travels to Thailand on business frequently and as a result is the butt of many jokes and if I could come up with a  ladyboy theme that would be brilliant,  no pressure then!

I wracked my brains and then, all of a sudden, remembered the paper dolls that used to be on the back of Bunty when I was a girl! So I did a bit of Googling and found this paper doll set,  bulls-eye!! The background picture is a street at night in Bangkok, perfect!

I’ve made simple decoupage layers for the lady and her dresses, adding micro glitter, small gems and a layered flower in her hair.  The old fashioned style Dymo tape just finishes the whole effect. I just love it when my mind goes off at a weird tangent!!

Magnet Expert/First4Magnets

I have a thing about magnets (along with a great many other things) so when Jonathan from Magnet Expert Ltd e-mailed asking if I would be interested in him sending me a sample pack of his wares, there was no way I was going to say "no"!

And what a little parcel of goodies it turned out to be …. These circular 20mm dia. self-adhesive magnets are capable of holding up  a sheet of A4 paper and as soon as I saw them I thought fridge magnets! They cost £4.22 (inc VAT) for an A4 sheet of 88 magnetic dots – which works out at just under 5p each. 

http://www.first4magnets.com/flexible-magnetic-dots-43-c.asp

Then there are these 8mm dia. magnets which are really powerful considering their size and I just love that they are self adhesive, as I am never sure what glue to use on a magnet.  They are  made from a material called “Neodymium” and are, it says in the blurb, the strongest commercial magnet you can buy. They are a little more expensive at £6 for 20, not cheap, but they work out cheaper if bought in bulk.

http://www.first4magnets.com/8mm-dia-x-1mm-disc---02kg-pull-with-3m-self-adhesive-233-c.asp

Finally the pull on these babies is absolutely unbelievable, believe me, you really have to pull to get them to budge.

They work out at £10.20 for 10, a little expensive but for holding up a heavy calendar fridge magnet, these would be perfect, as there would be no worries about piling on heavy embellishments etc. because believe me these wouldn’t move even if a hurricane swept through your kitchen!

To test them out I put one on the back of this birdhouse that I am planning to decorate over the Easter holiday and stuck it on my fridge  ….. it didn’t budge

http://www.first4magnets.com/f301n---10mm-dia-x-5mm-thick-x-32mm-csink--neodymium-magnet---2kg-pull-north-x10-b17y-25-p.asp

Jonathan also included some tiny weeny weeny magnets which I couldn’t think of a use for but he explained that Printers often use and conceal them in restaurant menus and stationary folders to create a firm gentle clasp when closed……. so now I am thinking special cards (for adults, as I wouldn't put them on a childs card for health and safety reasons) and clasps on handbag favours …….

But, with all reviews, the proof of the product is in the crafting, so I decided to test some out on  a set of fridge magnets, using a few of the Jenga blocks I found in a charity shop the other week.

My magnet of choice would undoubtedly be the flexible dots as I am familiar with them already, but I decided to use the 8mm self adhesive ones for this project as I had never used anything like them before and see how they coped with a small but bulky block.

For the lettering I used my Brother P-Touch 1005 label maker, a Christmas present from Marc, which I adore ….. it can produce so many wonderful different styles of label, it’s a cardmakers dream!

Et voila …. dead chuffed!  I’ll admit to being a little dubious of the stickability factor of the adhesive on the back of the magnets, but once stuck they did not budge.

It’s really worth having a look at the first4magnets website, it’s fascinating especially the Applications Page ….. where there are some brilliant ideas, especially……..

http://www.first4magnets.com/ceramic-fridge-magnets-222-c.asp

http://www.first4magnets.com/craft-fridge-magnets--make-your-own-249-c.asp

http://www.first4magnets.com/is-it-time-to-use-some-magnets-220-c.asp

http://www.first4magnets.com/photo-fridge-magnets-228-c.asp

Magnets should always be used and stored sensibly away from children. These magnets can be extremely small and powerful. If swallowed, some magnets can be very harmful to someone’s health

The opinions on this review are my own.

Easter Egg/Lunch Bag

As I am being very careful with money this year I begrudge paying more than a pound for a bag just to put an Easter Egg or small present in, no matter how lovely.

So these are two I have made using paper sandwich/lunch bags from Home Bargains. They only cost £1 for a pack of 10, bargaintastic! I’ve just added die cut flowers with a flat backed pearl centre and a bit of doodling. Each bag has probably cost me no more than 35p, which means I have more money to spend on Easter goodies.

It would also be a cute bag for a child to take their last packed lunch in before they break up for the Easter holidays. The Poundshops have some lovely large puffy Easter sticker at the moment which could easily be used instead of the flowers.

E Type Jag 70th Birthday Newspaper Card

This card is A5 in size using a hand cut card blank in white linen card.

Linda asked me if I could run through how I make one of my newspaper cards again, as she was under the impression that I printed the whole thing out on an A5 card…. so here goes ……

I create the newspaper image on an A4 Portrait page in Publisher …. and then when I am happy with it, I save it as a jpeg so that I can print it to any size I want while keeping the proportions right.

I then create a new page in Publisher in A4 Landscape, inserting the card front jpeg and sizing it slightly short of A5.  Extra decoupage layers are made by copying and pasting  and then cropping the resized card image, until I am left with just the parts I need.

I cut the card front out , leaving a slight edge all the way round.

And then mat and layer it on silver or another matching card, before sticking it on the card blank with double sided tape.

The decoupage layers are then cut out and stuck down with adhesive foam pads.

Finishing touches can then be added like Ranger Glossy Accents to give dimension and accentuate, in this case the speech bubbles.

That’s all there is to it, perhaps a little long winded and fiddle farty but it works for me.

The brief for this card was that it was for a gentleman called Bill, who always told his wife Anne, when questioned, that all the parts and work on his E-type Jag that he went hill climbing in only ever cost 50 quid! Pull the other one!!

Doodled New Home Card

This card measures 12.5 cm x 12.5cm.

I’m not a very good drawer, but I needed a “New Home” card in a hurry and this is what I came up with! 

At least you can say it’s an absolute original!

Quick Thank You Card For A Sewer

This was a quick card to say Thank You to the PE Lady’s Mum who had mended a lot of netball bibs for us.

The t-shirts are buttons bought for no more than a pound a packet years ago from somewhere like Home Bargains. I’ve then stuck a letter on each using my old fashioned Dymo label maker. I found the plastic needle in my old pin box, long forgotten, but perfect for this idea. A bit of faux stitching and a button in each corner …. and it’s another card done and dusted!

Diamond Jubilee Crafts - Union Jack Cup Cake Flags/Picks

I have been pricing up Union Jack flag picks for the Diamond Jubilee, either to use at a tea party or as small decorations or embellishments, but it  turned me into a bit of a Scrooge! Then, I remembered the paper chains I bought last year for the Royal Wedding, and wondered if I could I do something with them?

I cut the chains down to just two flags, using a toning Promarker pen to colour the white part of them down the middle.

I then gave the flags a quick flick of double sided tape across them with my tape gun  and placed a cocktail stick in the middle. All that was left to do then was to fold the flag over and trim the end with a pair of wavy line scissors. Done and dusted!!

Food Police - Naturally, if I were making these for a real tea party I would make them in much more suitable and hygienic surroundings than my craft room and would wear latex gloves while handling the cocktail stick during the making and when putting into a cupcake or sandwich etc.

Easter Ladybird Favour Box

My obsession with ladybirds continues …..

I’ve made a matchbox using my Stampin’Up/Sizzix Die my son ordered me from the USA a couple of years ago, using black and red card.

I then filled it with ten of the Tesco chocolate love bugs that I stockpiled during their Valentines Day promotion, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to find them in the shops after for other projects.

Ladybird Tags

I was clearing out some cupboards and I found this box of small branch cut offs left over from when Mr FiddleFart, aka the Duke, made us all pocket sundials a year or so ago.

It seemed such a waste to just throw them away and then it dawned on me that they would make brilliant tags ….

So I kept it simple and just added a handwritten sentiment and a wooden ladybird to each circle.  The final part was drilling the hole for the string, this proved a little tougher than I anticipated with my little drill  but I got there in the end.  I am dead chuffed with the result and think these would look great on a present for a gardener or attached to a plant pot.

But now my dilemma… because I am really trying to use as much stuff as I can this year, collected over years, do I replace what I have used, like the ladybirds … I had to scrabble about for these last few, hence the mix of colours …. do I stop having ideas of a ladybird type nature …. or do I just buy a couple more packets for when another idea springs to mind?????? Aghhh  I just can’t win!!