Oh My Life ....

Thank you for the lovely comments ...... but I can assure you .... the tidiness won't last beyond a week!

Little Doll Tags

I’ve been a little anal …. if you’ll pardon the expression.  I haven’t crafted (except for my Decopatched table) since The Duke went to look after the great fish tank in the sky …… but I did decide to tidy my craftroom …….. to see if it would help me get my mojo back ……

All my embellishment boxes are now labelled and the contents within duly sorted ….. I warned you …. how robustly anal is that???  Oh my life !!!!!!!

…. But during this mammoth sort out my mojo was inspired a touch by these little doll hair bobbles that I have had for more years than I care to remember …. and I thought gift tags ….

… So I cut out some tags measuring roughly 9cm x 5cm…..

…. covered them with pretty papers ….

….. added a bit of faux stitching to the front (and back), some lace and an eyelet …

….. and used up every last doll!

I have to admit it was an effort …. but I’m getting there!

Dream …

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

Not a lot to this card today … just a embellishment sent to me by my lovely follower Marc and a hand written sentiment. I can think of lots of times and people where sending this card would be perfect. 

Best Medicine - Creativity Direct

Yesterday I have an e-mail out of the blue from a company called  http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/ introducing me to their website …

Now, apart from my Decopatched kitchen table I have not done anything vaguely creative or to be honest been that way inclined, however although Alex didn’t know my circumstances when he contacted me, his e-mail has been the best medicine I could have ever had!

Once I started looking at the website I almost felt like the “old me”, getting excited about all the wondrous things they have and working out what I could do with them ….. so as a thank you to Alex I have put together a few of my most drooled over items and hope you are as inspired as I am…….

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/angels-8-asstd.aspx

How cute are these angels?  £2.40 (inc VAT) for a pack of 8 ….. I can see them on my wooden domino gift tags already!

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/reindeers-4-asstd.aspx

And these metal reindeer are mine!!!  £3.60 for 4 is a bit pricey, but for a special “man” card at Christmas they are gorgeous!

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/dove-of-peace-5x2-asstd.aspx
Among the Decoration Materials/Wooden products, these Doves of Peace are also a must - £3.90 for 10.

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/cup-box-8-cm-1-pc.aspx
And who could resist this papier mache cup??? I am thinking Snowman Soup here!! (£2.10)

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/cup-cake-6-asstd.aspx
….. or what about this tray of cupcakes (£7.50) ?

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/cards/?PageIndex=1&showAll=true

I am not a great one for card kits …. but I could see the potential in quite a few one the Creativity Direct site …. there were a couple of unusual ones which, when coupled with a few of my own embellishments and paper would be ideal for making a quick “batch” up.

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/christmas-trees-4-asstd.aspx

These are just a few of the things that caught my eye,   I have no personal experience of the company and just have put together this post because I liked what I saw and the prices seemed quite  reasonable, see what you think.

http://www.creativitydirect.co.uk/bag-1-pc.aspx

Birthday Candle Card

This card measures 11cms x 11cms and is made using white linen effect card.

 

I’ve used quite large puffy crystal stickers from HobbyCraft for this card, I think they cost about £1.99 a packet and a scattering of hologram stars, simples

Knitted Embellishements Below ....

When I bought the knitted embellishments ... they were just a T shaped piece of knitting on two cocktail sticks .... I added the beads to make them look more realistic and to stop the knitting falling off.  Have a look on e-bay for them if you don't knit ... I've seen them there.

New Baby Card With Knitting

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and is made with a hand cut blank using white linen effect card.

For me there is possibly too much going on here, but I think it will pass muster.

It’s just that I have had these knitted embellishments forever and it was about time that I tried to use just one of them, but alone, on a card, it looked a little too empty and so I started to pile on the bits of fiddle fart!!

A Smash Book For A Friend

I love my Smash Book and now have a place to put all my “special” bits in ….. mainly “objects of desire” or receipts from Costa or Starbucks to remind me of my cake of choice on any particular date!

I wanted to make another for a special friend and as she is not particulary girlie girlie chose a small Kraft ring binder measuring  9ins x 7.5ins from Paperchase as the base for the book. It only cost £3,  which I think is a bargain.

I have not put a title on the front as my friend may want to do that herself, but I have offered to add it with chipboard letters when she does.

I got a packet of matching Kraft file paper to continue the main theme colour but after that I just made pages from whatever took my fancy from my many, many papers, including black/cream  and orange/yellow gingham.

Then I added large plain tags for smaller pages, plus lots of secret pockets, and memo tags from little stacks from K & Co. and Papermania and a few stickers for good measure.

In the front pocket I’ve added a calendar tab that she can tear off and mark with special dates etc and add to pages.  The beauty of using loose leaf paper is that she can re-arrange the pages however she wants.  I really hope she likes it!

Believe …..

This card measures 5ins x 5ins

I’ve been collecting little sayings that I can hand write and  put onto cards, to make something very quick and simple,  but hopefully affective.  I’ve  used one of the American Crafts Central Park 12 x 12 papers I got from The QVC outlet shop in Shrewsbury to cover a card blank and then added the sentiment. Simples!

Congratulations - Driving Test Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and is made with a hand cut white linen effect card blank

The background paper is taken from a road atlas given free in one of the Sunday papers which I have cut up and then mat and layered on silver card. The L plates are table confetti  and the foam car and sign were from a mahoosive pack of assorted sized cars and signs from a local 99p Shop.

Jar of Dummies–Favour For New Parents?

I am always on the look out for sweets that I can use for/in favours …. and these jelly dummies are just perfect for giving to new parents ……. or for parents/grandparents to  announce a new arrival……

Small jars like this can be found in Ikea and Asda and cost around £2.00 give or take a penny or two for sets of four jars.  I recently found some with red/green/yellow/blue lids in a pound shop in Stourbridge that even came with a shelf …. so I bought copiously!!!!

I’ve put a length of self adhesive ribbon round the lid and added Paperchase baby stickers to the scalloped edged label, on which you could put lots of different phrases to suit.

Seaside Treasures

As you may have gathered I am a bit of a beachcomber …. and when I come home I like to have the things I’ve found around me as a reminder not only of the lovely places I’ve been …. and also that there will be many happy holidays to come.

These vases are on the glass shelves in my shower room, which is completely white except for a bit of chrome in the shower.

All the small stones are from my favourite beach in Devon to which I’ve added bits of driftwood, shells, holey stones and dried seaweedy stuff, plus a few other bits I love like delicate glass balls, that remind me of bubbles, and old I Ching coins and thimbles for lost treasures …… I’m such an old romantic …….

I’ve cheated with the star fish though, I’d never be so lucky as to find anything so beautiful and perfect on any beach I might comb, they were a present from my sister and I just love them.

Fluffy Bead Necklace

Please bear with me, this is just an experiment!

Whenever my friend Lisa and I go to the Hobby Crafts Show at the NEC Birmingham I always make one dodgy purchase,  and it’s taken me until now to admit what that purchase was …….. bags and bags of these fluffy beads that look like some sort of suckie sweet!  They were 50p a big bag and I bought them in every colour, what possessed me? …. Anyway I decided the other night that I would never use them and was putting them ready to give to a friend when I thought I would have a play, before saying goodbye to most of them ….

I cast my mind back to how they were presented on the stall, which was knotted on/and between  two lengths of thin coloured cord and this is what I came up with. 

I used a purple and a blue cord and threaded two or three on one colour, then the other and also on both at the same time, making a knot after each section  (if that makes sense).  To be honest it looks OK and I would wear it, but really the cords could have been a lot longer.  I knotted the two ends together, I didn’t think as this was my first attempt it was worth putting on a proper fastener.

I found this picture on Google and think that this was the sort of thing I was trying to do in my mind’s eye …. oh well back to the drawing board!

Newspaper Card For A Model Train Enthusiast.

This card is A5 in size and is made using white linen card.

I so hope you are not fed up of my Newspaper Cards, I make at least one/two a month and as they are all quite different it seems a pity not to use them.

 

I had the card design in my head and the fabric sticker train embellishments ready, the fiddly part was to get the spacing on the card just right to fit the trains. The train background was a clipart image I found on Google that I cropped and then stretched.

I’ve made a simple decoupage layer of the train sign and put Ranger Glossy Accents on the number 70.  Do and dusted!

Docrafts Boofle Birthday Card

The card measures 8ins x 4ins and is made using a white linen effect hand cut card blank.

Well, this card takes me right out of my comfort zone, I can’t remember the last time I made an large oblong type card! I’ve simply made up the decoupage from a two sheet A4 Docrafts pack, which contains six sets of images.  The background is just scraps leftover from my Boofle 6ins x 6ins paper pack,  with a bit of bunting to continue the celebratory theme.  Done and dusted!

Butterfly Wedding Card

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

I had my reservations about this card as I was making it, not being too sure about the black, but now (she says modestly) I love it!

I was asked by a friend to take elements a “save the date” card (above) to use in another card for her to give for the actual wedding day

The foliage and butterflies are both made using punches.  The butterflies, took a while,  as I coloured them as closely as I could to the ones on the “save the date” card  and then double layered them to give dimension. Finally I added a tiny amount of Stampin’Up dazzling Diamonds micro glitter to give it a fairy tale type feeling.

Placing the black foliage was tricky as it was so small and I wanted to keep it as symmetrical as possible.  I joined the leaves up with a little doodling and then added small very, very sparkly iridescent glass flat gems here and there to finish the whole thing off.

To be honest the picture doesn’t bring out all the sparkle and vibrant and contrasting colours …… I just hope my friend likes how I have interpreted the initial theme.

A Shoal of Angry Fish and an Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisp!

Following on the Angry Fish  birthday card from a few days ago,  I couldn’t resist playing some more and making a few more exotic Fish ……

Then I got to thinking ….. I could make a chocolate to go with the card ……

…… and here he is

I call him Bert The Angry Fish!