Festive Tool Box Shaped Bon Bon Favor

I’ve used my Sizzix Bigz XL Carry All box die (SZ656279) for this idea

The die has quite a few parts, but is a doddle to put together

I decided it would be a lot  easier to embellish the box while it was flat, so I added a snow scene, using white glitter paper and doodling a few snowflakes using a white gel pen for the sky.

The penguin embellishments are from this years Accessorize Christmas range (£1.75 per pack) to which I have added tiny googly eyes.

They are so cute!

Once all the twiddling and fiddling was done, I put the box together.

Adding just a few small, clear flat backed gems to the sky for a bit of bling.

I’m going to fill these boxes with either Cadbury Snow Bites or white bon bons to go with the snowy theme.

Tim Holtz Tattered Florals and Leaves.

I am so guilty of desperately wanting Tim Holtz’s Tattered Florals and Leaves dies only to leave them unopened for several weeks in a corner of my craftroom  ….. if only I didn’t have to go to work!

But, I have finally been able to have a play, and I love them.  I have started out with a very simple idea, making some gift tags as I hate these horrid bow things!

I’ve used a variety of papers to see how patterns, thickness and textures work. This gold one is made from quite expensive embroidered gift wrapping  paper that I bought, only to find that it’s almost impossible to wrap with!  The centre is a snowflake brad with a clear flat back gem super glued in the middle.

My favourite is this red one.  I just love the paper. It came in my lovely parcel from Poundland in a sort of collage pack of bits and pieces.   It’s really thick spongy paper with the most fantastic texture. Unfortunately there wasn’t much of each colour, so I only made eight flowers like this. I am really hoping I can find some more similar paper on my travels, as I would love to make a Christmas wreath along the same lines.

Once the flowers/tags were made up, I put a piece of double sided  foam tape on the back so that they can be stuck on a parcel.

I’ve made up a box in various colours and papers and am curious to see if they take off when I put them in the staffroom.

Snowflake Charm Card

This is very much a case of a less is more.

The snowflake charm is from a card of Christmas earrings I got for 50p from our local market in Penkridge.

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 …….