Christmas Decorated Box of Cadbury Miniatures

A while back I posted an idea for decorating a box of Cadbury Miniatures, this is one of my Christmas designs

The paper I have used is called Swell Noel Green Holiday Stripes by K and Company. At the top of the box  I’ve added a strip of pink Paper Cellar shaped border tape with sage green ribbon on top of that, plus a few flat backed pearls.

The wooden Christmas tree is part of a pack of 6 from HobbyCraft, from the Crafts for Christmas range, and costs about £1.50

This makes a perfect “fairing gift”,  which has the extra bonus of not needing to be wrapped!

Altered HobbyCraft Christmas Bauble

My apologies, these baubles were a nightmare to photograph!

I’ve used these clear baubles from HobbyCraft from Darice, which cost just £1.99 for a box of 10 – that’s a bargain 20p each!

I’ve also used these furry snowflake stickers from Papercellar which I got in a sale ages ago and to be honest rather regretted because up until now, couldn’t find a use  for them, plus some tiny polystyrene balls, I’ve also had squirreled away for ages.

 

The stickers were a real fiddle fart to put on, as they were very delicate and hard to remove from the sheet they were attached to, in the end I resorted to using a pin to wheedle them off with.

As a finishing touch, I have added very sparkly flat backed gems that have a goldy tinge that marries up well with the top. …… sorry about the wet glue!

My only little criticism of the baubles is the gold top, I have a couple more ideas, but as the embellishments I want to use are silver, I am going to have to spray the tops to match, perhaps I am being fussy but I can’t match silver with gold!!

I’m going to give these to special people instead of cards this year.

2010 Christmas Stickers from Accessorize

Everyone knows how much I love Accessorize stickers, but after the wonderful Halloween stickers this year their Christmas range is sadly lack lustre,  so I’ve only bought a couple of packets to play with. 

This is what I have come up with so far. There were not enough designs in the larger Christmas shapes to make a 9 square template card without repeating a shape and the smaller shapes were just too little to use effectively on the punched scalloped squares.

I’ve also had a go at covering some Cadbury Dairy Milk miniatures

Again, I’m a bit disappointed, with the colours, variety of designs and size, they just do not hit my “cute-ability” button …… hmmmmmmm. I think I’ll package them up nicely and use them on Christmas Eve as little a “pillow” present/favors for when my family come home..

At last, a sort of success, something I like …. I have put the little penguin from the sticker pack in a snow dome!  Its a very small card, about 3.5 x 3.5 ins.

Tim Holtz Caged Bird Decoration

I am so terrible about getting something “I must have” and then I leaving it unused for ages.  So with Christmas coming I wanted to see if I could use this Tim Holtz die to make a tree decoration for “special” people instead of giving them a Christmas card this year.

Well I have and I love it, so much so that this is mine and it will stay in my craft room, it ain’t going nowhere!

But I will make more!  I cut out two of everything to make the decoration strong and substantial. using a white glitter card to cut the cage from; it cut like a dream.

I’ve used jump rings to attach the tiny clear glass hearts, which I hope I can find more of on e-bay for when I go into mass production.

It didn’t take that long to make and I am thrilled with the results …… now to find some more hearts …….

I gave this example to my mum and look what she has done with it

She’s put it in a shadow box picture frame, with blue paper as a background.  I love it.  I am going to make a few more as presents, but perhaps use an A5 sized frame.

Objects of Desire

I don’t know what happened but these just fell into my online shopping basket! I put it down to me not understanding the Japanese website!! Ooooops

Wooden Heart Tags

 

From now on, whenever I do a “What’s in my Shopping Bag” post I am going to try and get something made with some/all of the items within a day or so, otherwise I am liable to put things away and forget them until I find them again months later.

I got these wooden from a gift shop on Poole Harbour for 99p a packet of 6.  The idea in my head, when I bought them, was to make gift tags for Christmas parcels, and this is what I have come up with.

I doodled on both sides of the tags with while gel pen.

And then added Christmas buttons from a whole pile I got several years ago from the US. I cut off the shanks and used a glue gun to attach them.

A few tiny clear flat backed gems complete the effect.

I am thinking that I may sell a few of these, so I have put them on a simple backing card (as above) and then in a sealed cello bag to make them look a bit more professional.

Halloween – Done to Death!!!

Well,  with just over a week to go before Halloween, no one can accuse me of not embracing the theme!  Last year I did a bit, but this year I have really gone overboard, but I blame all the inspiring stuff they have had in Poundworld and Poundland and Accessorize’s brilliant Halloween stickers (which put their Christmas ones to shame!).

These are my last two projects, so you can all breath a sigh of relief ……

I’ve put everything together and now hope to make a few pennies to put towards some Christmas stash.

  I love to see what goes first and what’s left over …….

HobbyCraft Baubles – Shopping Alert!

Last year I made these baubles to give instead of cards to special people.

I found these in HobbyCraft a couple of weeks,ago,  there are 12 in a box for £1.99 and are made by Darice.  They don’t have the iridescent shimmer that the Paperchase ones I originally used have and they are slightly smaller.

But I have several ideas in mind for them.

Objects of Desire ……..

An extra post today ...... No “What’s In My Shopping Bag” this week, with Christmas coming, I really am trying to rein in my spending, especially as I really do have enough Christmas bits and pieces for this years festive crafting …. so I have turned my thoughts to my “Objects of Desire” especially after my sister sent me a link to this site http://www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk/index.asp when my levels of desire sky rocketed!   Click on each picture for a link .

I want desire need everything …….

I’ve always had a long felt want  for a beautiful  display dome!  

And the bird on a branch fridge magnets are just too lovely, I’d get a fridge for my craft room to justify me having them!

……. and their jewellery is exquisite ….. the porcelain bird necklace just needs to be round my neck!

A girl has to dream …………….. !

Spiders Web Sour Cream Carton

How creepy is this idea?  My apologies to all those of you with a “thing” about spiders.

I’m not sure why this type of container is called sour cream carton, but I guess the idea originates from the US.

I drew the web myself as I didn’t have any suitable printed paper.

The spider comes from a mixed bag of Halloween creepy creatures from Poundworld, which I have sprinkled with translucent micro glitter for an extra  magical effect, if you can have such a thing as a magical spider!

What’s In My Shopping Baskets

I am trying to be very careful with my money at the moment, with Christmas looming. I have most of the embellishments I need for this years cards etc.  but I am naturally holding back a little for when Poundland/Poundworld finally clear their Halloween shelves and replace them, hopefully, with a festive smorgasbord of crafty items that I can either alter or use as they are in projects.

But while I was in Poole and Bournemouth recently I found a couple of nice little items.

Like these Gisela Graham gingerbread man pegs, I think they were about £3.99 – but they are for me!!! I like the idea and may perhaps try and find a small gingerbread die for my BigShot.

These wooden hearts were reduced to 99p for a pack of 6.  I think I am going to embellish them just a little bit and use them as tags on Christmas presents.

These drawers were a sort of bargain off e-bay …. I bid £3.20 for the both of them and won – but the P & P was a bit expensive – but since I got the drawers for a silly price it was well worth it!  They are supposed to be vintage, but I reckon they were knocked up in someone’s garage, but I am still thrilled with them.