Brights Christmas Tree Card

This card measures 5.75ins x 5.75ins using a white linen effect card blank.  The paper is from the Dovecraft Merry Magic 12” x 12” paper pack.

I would say 99% of my Christmas cards are in muted or traditional colours and designs, but when I saw this pack of bright, modern papers I just had to have it and it being reduced to just £2 for a pack of 36 papers, well, it a no brainer.

The card is very basic, no frills, using a bit of mat and layering, assorted plain and scalloped edge circle punches and a Craftwork Cards Christmas Sentiment Circle plus three green, flat back gems.

I think that the card would also work well without the band and sentiment, it would be a fiddle fart but all those snowflakes on the trees could be embellished with assorted, tiny flat back gems and the  stripes on the other trees could be accentuated by the odd line of translucent micro glitter running across the tree ……. so watch this space …… 

Easter Bunny Takeaway Box Favours

A very quick Easter idea for today ……

I have only made six of these boxes so far just to test the waters to see how they go.

The takeaway boxes were a very fortuitous find in The Works, reduced to 50p for 3 from £1 ……… and in perfect Easter colours.

I have put 2 small Haribo Easter gum packets, 3 foil wrapped eggs, 3 foil wrapped bunnies and a wrapped chocolate ladybird in each of them, not going over the top and keeping costs low.

No fancy fiddle farting on these either, I just put a rabbit on all four sides with  two punched leaf flourishes, I was going to add a few flowers too, but it just looked bitty and too much.

I also kept the tags simple, with a plain, handwritten “Happy Easter” and a bit of faux stitching using a black, fine liner pen.

I think it’s the ribbon that makes the boxes come together ……

……. found in Lidl, 99p for 5 metres. Voila, done and dusted!

Christmas Tree Microscope Slide Decoration.

More experimenting today  …………  I prefer using silver to gold on most crafty things, but because the Christmas tree had gold elements and I don’t like to mix gold and silver together on a project, I have used self adhesive metallic gold tape and gold spring bails on this slide for a change.

I started by sandwiching some white glitter paper and tiny gold stars to the inside of the slide to create a background.

I found that the metal tape seemed to have lost some of it’s stickability, so the adhesion wasn’t as firm/solid as I would have hoped.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that this sort of tape is best kept in an air tight container, but there again, I may have dreamt it.  I know I have had it for at least five years and I am not sure how readily available it is now, as I said in a previous post, finding a new source of silver tape was hard enough…….. do I start looking for 6mm gold now?

Once the microscope slide was sealed I used E6000 to attach the tree to the glass, adding a few flat backed gems and a spring bail using G-S Hypo Cement to the top and then left it well alone for 24 hours to set properly.

When I was sure the bail was firmly in place I added a bead and a length of gold jewellery wire to make a hanger.

My next experiment is to see how the 6mm silver aluminium tape I have just bought colours using Sharpie Permanent Pens, it could be fiddly, but if it works I can then hopefully match the tape to any embellishments/enamel charms I might want to use on later ideas.

Pyramid Christmas Tree Christmas Card.

This card measures 4ins x 4ins and is made using a hand cut, white linen effect card base.

The inspiration for this card came from the triangle charms taken off this charity shop find bracelet. It was the triangles that caught my eye, but the bracelet has been languishing in my jewellery boxes of bits for a couple of years now, until the other day when I wondered if the textured, metal pyramids could possibly be turned into Christmas trees.And I can’t believe how brilliant they look on a very less is more card, set on a gold mat and layered panel …….

…… with the trees topped with a tiny, bronze coloured star.

I was going to leave it at that, leaving the holes as they were, but when I went back and looked again, I decided a tiny flat back pearl would just be the perfect finishing touch.

I am so chuffed with how this card has turn out, I think it has to be one of my all time favourites!!

Little Wooden Bird Pendant Decoration – A Bit Of An Experiment

I am not sure if this idea works as a hanging decoration, so as I write this post I am still mulling over a couple of ideas ………..

…… it could all change, before I reach the end ……  The wooden frame part measures approximately 4cms x 2cms.

I used two bookplate type wooden frames from a pack from The Works.  There were three of each design (aghhh) in the pack, so I am glad I bought two packs so that I have an even number of frames to work with on other ideas.

I decided to make the pendant double sided, stamping on a handwriting design paper with a birds on a branch clear stamp (sorry, I can’t remember where it came from).  I trimmed the paper to fit the frame and glued it down.

I then stuck the two sides together ….. and as  I wasn’t sure about the paleness of the frame, coloured it with a Promarker.

But with hindsight I did things a bit arse over tit, as I then added all the beading and wiring because I was impatient to see if the idea would come together ……. what I SHOULD have done is not glue the frames together until I had flooded each separate side with Glossy Accents and left them to dry completely for at least 24 hours before adding all the twiddly bits.  I think adding an extra layer of card behind the printed design would also have stopped the paper wrinkling evero slightly, but that’s me over thinking things, as it doesn’t really show.

On reaching the end of this post I have decided to leave the pendant as it is,  but I am going to repeat the exercise to see if the ideas will translate into being made into a brooch, so watch this space ………

Stamped Copper Christmas Tags

These tags measure approximately 11cms x 2cms.

I think these copper tags were a charity shop find when Marc and I went “on honeymoon” to Shrewsbury about 3 years ago.  If I were to hazard a guess, I think they may be something to do with gardening, but I will stand corrected if anyone knows any better……

Anyway, Marc and I split what they had between us, paying no more than £1 each …… but it has taken until now for me to do anything with mine ……

….. and that being “just” stamping them, but having said that, I am so chuffed with how they have turned out.  I stamped them using letters from a retro vintage alphabet and number set I found on e-bay, for, I think, about £7.

I decided it would be a lot easier to print the letters, using jet black Stazon Ink, in a higgledy piggledy way, rather than try and get them perfectly spaced out and level, but even doing that, I still had to wipe quite a few mistakes away before I was happy.

The finishing touch was to add a wooden bead to the copper wire that came with the tags.

Snowflake Microscope Slide Tree Decoration.

Close Up photography is totally unforgiving, the tiniest amount of residual glue or smallest join just looks horrendous …….. but from a distance, this slide looks pretty OK!!!  The finished slide measures 3ins x 1ins.

I had a few self adhesive, glittered snowflake stickers from Lldl leftover from last Christmas and I thought I would try to see if they would work on a microscope slide decoration, as the snowflakes are slightly raised I wanted to see if they could be sandwiched and sealed between two slides neatly ……. they could!

Although the glitter was only on one side of the stickers, the adhesive side looked just of effective on the reverse of the slide.  There was also a transparent edging round the stickers, but I think I got away with that too, it seemed to add a icy melty look, and from a distance it can’t be seen anyway.  Sometimes working so close to something you are making makes you paranoid about the detail, or is that just me?

I am so pleased with the 6mm self adhesive, aluminium foil tape I found on e-bay, without it my microscope and domino tag making days would have been over.  I did “A Marc” and bought copiously, two 40m rolls should last me for absolute ages …….. and when they do run out ……  I reckon I will be in my 70’s and past crafting or at least blogging by then.

I am still practising applying the tape to the slides, I have done it in separate sections, sides then top and bottom, but that gives you four joins, and looks messy up close, in the end I think the best way, if a little fiddly, is to do it all in one go, with a single join at the bottom which can be hidden with a bail.

 

I used the last of my G-S Hypo Cement Glue (more now on order) to glue a few pearls on both sides of the sealed slide and then apply two spring bails to the top and bottom. E6000 is my glue of choice, but the pin head precision of the G-S is much better for such tiny work. And with this done I had to leave the glue to set/cure for 24 hours, without touching, aghhhhhhh the temptation!

Once dry I was ready to add an acrylic snowflake charm and a hanging wire.  It was fixing the snowflake that the staying power of the G-S glue was well and truly tested, because the acrylic snowflake had a solid loop, so couldn’t be opened to attach to the bail ….. but I managed to open the spring bail, despite my heavy handiness, without a wobble so that the snowflake could lie flat to the slide.

This project was another steep learning curve in my microscope slide quest, but I am getting there, by Christmas I am determined to have it fine tuned to almost perfection.  When I pack up a few bits and pieces and ideas to play with when I stay with Marc, sometimes we appear to achieve nothing or are  not that happy with what we have produced but while we are continuously bouncing ideas of each other and Marc telling me how impatient I am, something clicks, to be resurrected somewhere along the line later on.

Marc has just bought a soldering tool and  some solder that we are both desperate to try, as a lot of microscope slides on Pinterest etc. that first caught our eye are soldered …… we’ve also been watching tutorials on You Tube on how to do it …… so who knows what we’ll come up with in the next month or so.

Patchwork Christmas Card

This card measures 5.5ins x 5.5ins and uses a hand cut, white linen effect card blank.

The card uses a patchwork of Christmas patterned strips cut from various Christmas paper pads and a white Craftwork Cards silver foiled die cut Christmas sentiment.

When making a card like this I like to put the patchwork together on a piece of scrap card and then trim the edges, I am always wary of gluing directly on to a card blank as with my pudgy fingers it’s likely to go askew.Once trimmed, the patchwork panel was centred and stuck onto the card blank. The patchwork stripes were then faux stitched with a black fine liner pen.

I made a band of matching papers to go across the card and then added the sentiment which was also mat and layered. The final touches came from a strip of silver peel off in the middle of the band and five equally spaced red flat back pearls.

Christmas Microscope Slide With Wooden Stars.

This idea really didn’t work!  Admittedly it was an experiment, hence only a couple of pictures, my new self adhesive aluminium foil tape had just arrived and I wanted to try it out right away to reassure myself that I hadn’t wasted my money!

Let’s just say the tape is brilliant, but the slide, in my opinion, is wanting! I like the text background, sandwiched between the two slides, but the wooden stars,(Paperchase)  are just far too chunky and look clumsy and completely out of place   I think a microscope slide decoration/ornament should be light and delicate, and this certainly is not!  The wooden stars are, I think, better suited to a domino decoration instead, so there’s another “experiment” in the making

If/when I make another using the same paper, I would also put the stars on the inside of the glass and then find a suitable silver/green/burgundy embellishment to stick on the glass, if just a filigree corner (on order from China), and then add a charm, i.e a Christmas Tree to a bail on the bottom.

Patchwork Birthday Card

This card measures 4.5ins x 4.5ins and uses a hand cut, white linen effect card blank.

The card uses papers from my Craftwork Cards Country Charms mini pad and a white Craftwork cards silver foiled birthday sentiment.

When making a card like this I like to put the patchwork together on a piece of scrap card and then trim the edges, I am always wary of gluing directly on to a card blank just in case it goes a bit squiffy.

Once trimmed, the square was mat and layered on a white and then silver foil card and then centred on a card blank.

Once in place I faux stitched the patchwork squares using a black fine liner pen and added the sentiment.  The final touches came from the small wooden butterfly embellishments, but I think the card works equally well with or without them.