Ricks Framed Plastered Wall Birthday Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and uses a white linen effect hand cut card blank

This card is just a bit of fun made for Marc’s partner Rick’s birthday.  Marc and Rick are in the middle of refurbishing their cottage in deepest Worcestershire and while waiting for the damp course to be done they did a quick wallpaper strip and paint over job in the hall just to fresh it all up. 

Rick had to do a bit of temporary plastering, but rather than cover it up, decided to accentuate it by painting it grey, to go with the rest of the paintwork and then frame it, using old picture frames, again painted grey, leftover from his various exhibitions/shows.  How brilliant is that?

So, in homage,  I too painted a wooden embellishment frame grey, placing it over a patch of grey card that I’d added a swirl or two of PA glue to give the plaster some texture to create the card.

…….. simples!

Tiny Christmas Bottles – Christmas Tree Ornaments

In the middle of November I got a call out of the blue from a friend asking if I was making any Christmas bottles tree decorations, well, to be honest, at the time, the answer was no.  In the summer Marc and I did work on some bottles with snowmen inside, but I had used air drying paper clay and had coloured their hats in with felt pen and over time the colour had bleed into the clay and ever the perfectionist, I wasn’t happy with them, so they were put on the back burner having decided to re-make said snowmen again in Fimo but making the hats separately, but that’s for 2021 now.

Anyway, I got to thinking, I had the time and more than enough flipping bottles, so why not, it’s been a good few years since I’d made them and soon my mind was racing and my craft drawers plundered.

Looking back at the original bottles (above) they were perhaps a little crude.  So this time round I have made two different versions, putting white, iridescent snow flake stuff and tiny weeny silver stars inside and on the cork a silver bead spacer, pearl bead and a tiny, silver eye screw for the hanging thread.

I had to order some silver metal snow flake and hollow star charms to tie round the neck of the bottles the ones I had already had were a little too big and clunky.  I hated all the fiddly tying business, my sausage fingers just get in the way!

Using Publisher on my computer I then made slight changes to the tiny labels, which thank goodness I had kept the original template for, which meant that I didn’t have to fiddle fart around trying to get the text box and font size right.  The labels said Let It Snow and Wish Upon A Star and were duly cut out and stuck on the bottles.

And, that’s about it,  but with my interest in tiny Christmas bottles newly awoken ……. 

I have a couple more ideas, whether I can get them done before Christmas waits to be seen, but watch this space!

Guest Crafter – Bertie

What is that Bertie like? He certainly hides his light under a bushel.  He has never been a prolific artist unlike Iris, all I have ever got from him until now has been pipes, wires and boilers, so when he started school I worried that his pictures might seem a little immature ……

……. but he’s a little monster ……

…… asking to make some badges (my second hand Bandai Badge Maker owes me nothing after all these years) he only went and drew a perfect little house ……..

…… believe me, my jaw dropped, a house, just like that and in miniature to boot!

I wanted that badge sooooooooo much, but that, he said was for his mum.

I know I am a proud Gran, but he fascinates me, his interests, his methodical way of thinking, his observational skills, not to mention those hidden depths.

There are so many things about him that make me think that although Grandy Andy died four years before he was even born, someone is guiding the little fella from afar and there is definitely something in his genes ……. which would explain his fascination for bathroom showrooms, plumbers merchants, drainpipes and any type of fan among other things!!!  Bless his little cotton socks.

More Elizabeth Shaw Mint Fripperies

What am I like? I thought I had done with making Elizabeth Shaw Mint fripperies for this year, and then I go and find another box tucked in amongst my other Christmas bits and pieces, so I apologise for posting the idea again, but you never know who might pop by my blog, who has never seen them before.

This time I decided to try and finally use up all the foam on card and plastic embellishment stickers I’ve been working my way through for the past couple of years bought from Flying Tiger and Lidl. 

They are quite a bit bigger and thicker than the stickers I have tended to use in the past, but I think they still work, and the colours are so bright and cheerful along side the red and green punched plain and scalloped circles …..

…… and, I never fail to be amazed just how a little bit of faux stitching and a few dots using white gel pen can make an idea pop!

With twenty three mints in a box, I worked my way through forty six sides in just over an hour. 

This set is destined to grace Marc and Rick’s festive table, it’s become quite a tradition now for me to send over a little parcel of these.  Marc had managed to save most of the front and backs from all the sets I have made him over the years, but last year there was an unfortunate accident with the dogs …….. so he needs to erm ….. start all over again!

Snowman Tree Decoration

As I have said before all my Christmas stuff for this year has been done and dusted for quite a while now, mainly thanks to lockdown. I just need to sort out who is getting what, but it’s a nice position to be in, so whatever I do in the next month or so will be more or less prototypes for next year.  I suppose I could start thinking of Valentines Day and Easter, but that’s going too far!

I know I had vowed not to buy any more stuff due to very limited space, but when I saw these little fences in The Works (pack of four £1) you could hear my mind whirling.  I justified myself by only buying one pack, but as soon as I got home instantly regretted it. I fully intended on going back for a few more the next day (the day before we went into meltdown for the second time) but instead wasted the whole day waiting in for a delivery from Yodel which didn’t arrive until past 8 o’clock in the evening, don’t get me started, I was livid, as I also had other things to do in town too!  I can’t find any more online, so I guess I will just have to wait until December to see if they still have any in the shop, hey ho!

The resin snowman also came from The Works (£1), I hated his yellow scarf, so I coloured it with a green Sharpie pen with a little white detail to help show it up more.  Red might have been a more obvious colour but as the fence was red too, it might have looked too much.

I glued a small, wooden domino piece, that I had painted white to the fence for the snowman to stand on and create a scene.

When the glue was dry I applied a generous layer of Aleene’s Glitter Snow to the domino and along the top of the fence and that’s when the scene came to life.

The small sign came from Hobbycraft several years ago, I have never liked the printing on it so I painted over it in white and then added my own writing, but, in the end I didn’t think it worked, so instead added a small, bristle brush tree and a wooden holly leaf, with three red flat back pearls to help fill the empty space instead.

On the back I added two silver findings on either side of the fence for the thread. The snowman had some weight to him and by doing this I hoped that the finished decoration would hang evenly, rather than lopsided on a Christmas tree branch.

This first effort is a little clunky and far from crisp, due mainly to the changes I made and all the manhandling it received, however, with all problems now sorted, I reckon my next effort, should I wish to repeat the exercise, would be finished to a much “professional” standard, but I kind of like it!

Jane Asher Edible Ink Markers

Oh my goodness, I wasn’t not sure what I was expecting, but I just cannot praise Jane Asher’s edible ink markers enough, they are brilliant!!!

I had noticed them a couple times in Home Bargains and thought nah …… they won’t be any good, then with a Saturday visit from Iris and Bertie looming I was temporarily caught off guard thinking of something crafty to do and at £1.59 a pack I thought …… go on give ‘em a try!  I have tried those little piping sets in plastic tubes before and they’ve been rubbish …….. what did I have to lose?

The colours are really vivid and don’t fade and in the form of a “proper” easily manageable pen, what more could we all want?

They were a resounding success, with Iris and Bertie being able to control what they were doing, with recognisable results, unlike a pile of identifiable squiggle, without an almighty  struggle to get anything out of the tubes in the first place.

Yes, I was rash and also bought the Jane Asher Chocolate Frosting, delicious, but far too much for our needs, but I might try it on ice cream.

And the pot of four different sprinkles …….. well, apart from on the biscuits and straight into little mouths, they also went everywhere …….. and I mean everywhere!

The edible glitter was OK at 59p per pot, but a little disappointing in their sparkle according to a discerning Bertie, but a lovely afternoon with memories made and two extra biscuits very carefully parcelled up for Mum and Dad.

I am so pleased that I invested in two packs of the pens, more than enough hopefully to last for quite a while.  I take a few biscuits with me on the school run to keep us going ……….. I am already planning my designs to the days leading up to Christmas and the end of term and more memories.

Sizzix – Tim Holtz Curio Box – It’s A Big Fat No From Me!

As you know I love a shadow box/diorama so when I saw the Sizzix Tim Holtz Curio Box die  I was very excited. I shopped round for the best deal and a considered purchase was made,  I rarely buy dies these days, so you can work out just how excited I was.  All I had to do was wait for it to arrive while planning the wonderful things I could make.

However, it’s hard to say, but after giving this die what I consider to be a really good go, I think it’s destined for eBay, I just can’t get on with it.  Perhaps I am picky, but as soon as I  put my first box together, I immediately found that the top and bottom didn’t fit as snuggly together as I had hoped, in fact the fit, in my eyes, was downright baggy, so I tried again, using a thicker card only to get the same result and if I glued the sides of the base to the inside of the lid it simply created a misshapen box. Aghhhhh, what to do?

I looked on YouTube to find other crafters tutorials in order to try and find out what I was doing wrong. I found a couple who had also had the same results as me, which they had overcome with some degree of fiddlefart, like filling the gaps with other small pieces of card (????).  I suspected it might be a case of using two different thicknesses of card, which a  blog tutorial I found later appeared to confirm, so not wishing to give up without a fight, I duly purchased a pack Sizzix Matboard and a pack of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock as recommended, if not a little begrudgingly.

I also wrote to Sizzix to find answers, their representative pointed me to their own YouTube demo, however they used and recommended the same weight of card for the top and bottom, which, as I went on to tell them, doesn’t give the precise and professional fit I would expect.  In the demo they didn’t even show the back of the finished project, in fact they used what appeared to be a different unglued bottom from the glued one they showed at the beginning …….. I am still waiting for their reply.

When the two packs of card arrived, I girded my loins for another attempt. I think I followed the blog tutorial pretty well, covering the card on both sides with decorative papers before cutting out the base and lid.  Yes, the two fit more snuggly, but the gaps still got to me ……..  was it me?  In the end I simply covered the back with a separate  piece of paper …… but I was not a happy bunny.

I had expected to make up the box, bish, bash, bosh, so that I could get on with the really good stuff of filling and decorating it, I never anticipated messing about with different weights of card or having to cover said card with other papers, only to then find it’s not the sort of finish I had hoped for, perhaps I am too impatient, too exacting  or perhaps simply not a mixed media sort of a gal …… but this die just aint for me, it’s just toooooooooo much fiddlefart!!!

Any suggestions, as always very gratefully received.

Christmas Joke Christmas Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and uses a pre scored, white card blank from a bulk Hobbycraft pack.

 The idea for this card came to me as I removed the Christmas jokes from crackers I refilled and used for Halloween. I am not sure if the idea worked, something isn’t quite right with the symmetry or perhaps it’s the sentiment, perhaps the letting is too black and heavy against the red text of the jokes?

Anyway, I covered the front of the card blank with a black, red, green and white print paper (Poundland Christmas paper pad last year).

Then I mat and layered the cracker jokes on red and then silver card.  Arranging the four toppers on the card proved difficult, trying to get them to look balanced was made all the harder when I then added the sentiment, using black peel off letters (£1 per sheet Hobbycraft)  ………

…… and then the holly confetti ……….. aghhhhhh!

For me it’s just not gelling, maybe a smaller card, just one topper and a Dymo label sentiment instead …… and no holly …… perhaps I just need to go back to the drawing board.