With the tulips now out in the shops, I can finally use/show off my Dutch style tulip vase!
I knew exactly what it was when I spotted it across the shop so pounced, as it’s something I’ve always wanted. Two ladies who saw it in my sweaty little hands cast an envious glance at it, but weren’t sure what it was, until I told them.
I think I paid £1.99 for it. It’s was made by Bakker (a Dutch company in the 1980’s and would cost me about £45 on etsy right now. Bargaintastic!
These cards measure 4ins x 4ins square and used white pre-scored, smooth card blanks from The Range. (Pack of 50 - £3.99)
The intention was to make a card for each of the children in the class I listen to read every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
The self adhesive rabbits came from Home Bargains, which I believe were 79p for a pack of 8. The wooden fences cost me an unbelievable 20p for a pack of ten a little while ago from a seller online.
There’s no real great shakes to the cards. I started with a 3.75cm square of blue paper to which I added a background of green, small patterned paper, adding faux stitching round the edges and a greeting using with a black fine liner pen.
The squares were then stuck to the card blank, followed by the fence, glued on with E-7000 for a really safe and secure fix and then the bunny.
To add a little springtime colour I put small, Fimo clay, nail art flowers on the fence and grass and three small, yellow, punched butterflies to complete the look along with a few clusters of three dots to subtly fill in the empty spaces.
I’ve made ten so far, another twenty to go! These will be put in a named envelope with a chocolate bunny attached, to celebrate the end of the spring term. The school terms really seems to be racing away with us this year!
Iris and I made this Stick Family box together as part of her “Cool Time” way back when she was in Year 1 (she’s in Year 4 now), my apologies as I forget the theme of project it was so long ago.
However, it was getting a little tired round the edges and in danger of getting “hurt”, as it is quite bulky and hadn’t really found a permanent home in the house ………. so, with a some trepidation I offered to reframe it.
I bought a 30 x 30cm shadow box frame from Hobbycraft (£12) and armed myself with my faithful glue gun, as I knew I would need a quick but strong fix for all the awkward, uneven angles of the twigs.
I was really anxious about disassembling the original box but it wasn’t too bad. I wanted to keep it’s integrity, so kept the background colours the same, taking a large sheet of Kraft card, trimming it down to size and then drawing a border round it (using the mount provided) to ensure the family etc. stayed within the mount area. Sadly, however, a few of the background twigs and silk leaves in the front didn’t survive the process.
I did manage to save a little of the moss, along with a few acorns, acorn cups, alder cones and silk leaves and arranged them as best I could along the bottom, again within the mount. At this stage I thought I was done ………..
…… but then, in amongst the “rubbish” I found the sign, the most important part of the whole scene, doh, with little Iris’s handwritten title, what am I like?
With said sign and felt holly leaves and berries finally in place , I was really was ready to put it all in the frame …………
It’s beautiful, I think I have managed to save its character and innocence, but to be honest, I’m a bit loathe to hand it back …… but hey ho ………. it belongs with it’s maker and her lovely, lovely family.
Remember the two bags of 80+ clay mud men and pagodas type building I found in my favourite Evesham Charity shop for just £4 a bag a while ago?
Well, it turns out that if I chose to, I could get more than my moneys worth back on eBay! However, when I sent Marc a picture of my swag, he said that Rick/Ian his partner would go nuts for them, soooooooo easy birthday present there then, although I kept a few back for me just in case I came over all inspired!
Needless to say Marc was right, Rick was thrilled with them, but instead of squirrelling them away in a drawer like I’ve done, he’s put them to good use.
They made their debut in miniature garden form at The January Furniture Show at the NEC Birmingham the other week as part of the dressing/accessories on one of the stands he’d been commissioned to design.
I don’t think they are permanent arrangements, but they will undoubtedly be carefully taken back to the cottage with a few, no doubt, being put in strategic positions around the garden and veranda, where I am sure they will age even more gracefully.
Now what will I find on my travels next of a useful type nature ………..?
This is a little something I’ve put together for Iris and Bertie to open this morning, Valentine’s Day, just to tell them how much I love them ………..
The little books came from Card Factory and at only 99p each, well, it would have been rude not to!
Every few pages there is one for you to write little things about the person your giving the book to. I filled in all these pages quickly and straight from the heart, I didn’t want anything to sound too thought out or contrived. I want/hope that they’ll hear Nanny’s Brummie voice whenever they read them.
Since I’ve been told “no more soft toys” (admittedly they do have rather a lot, but each has a name, a special memory behind them and are all well loved in turn) I had to be erm ……. subtle, so the “small” bears came from Tesco and cost £1.50 each and will hopefully have a memory attached to them after today.
I popped in three chocolate hearts into each parcel (nets of 14 for 99p from Home Bargains), along with another one on the gift tag. Happy Days xxxxx
A really simple card today, made at the very last minute, using a pre-creased 15cm x 15cm square card, bought at half price from The Works (pack of 50, reduced from £3.50 to £1.75), well, it would have been rude not to!
I hardly ever make cards these days and I am so rusty I was frightened that all my effort would end up in the bin, but this one turned out pretty ok.
It’s just lots of mat and layering, patterned green paper on silver, then on plain green and then on silver again, with black faux stitching using a fine liner pen around the edges.
…… along with a large puffy crocodile sticker with added googly eyes from goodness knows where, plus most of a pack of sentiment embellishments from Home Bargains (79p) of which I need to get some more as they are so versatile.
The cocktail glasses were part of a pack from Jolees. A scattering of star shaped confetti and clusters of three dots completes the design. One very quick card done and dusted!
This is a little something Iris, Bertie and I cobbled together to decorate a small tree along the school path for 1st February.
I was lucky to find the red hearts in MaxiSave just after Christmas when they had been reduced from 99p to 49p for two. The large pink hearts came from eBay and cost me £3.50 for 12.
However, if Iris and Bertie decide to do it again next year, I will be mindful to collect any heart shape decorations in the 10p charity boxes around Christmas if/when I see them.
You’ll have to excuse the monkey, they do have a habit of pop up now and again to spoil an otherwise lovely shot!
A couple more memories made ……. they are both now planning an Easter tree, bless them, so I guess I’ll be sent out to look for a few really cheap bits and pieces to hang on that tree too………..
When I saw this thing (below) on the charity shop shelf I admit I dismissed it at first, but then did a double take, was it what I thought it was?
It was only a flipping walnut shell mould, something I’d researched a few times in the past as a substitute for the real thing when crafting, so at 40p it was worth a bit of a punt.
I think it’s a chocolate mould for making solid walnut shaped sweets? The moulds are a little smaller than the real walnut shells I have used during the year, I think there would only be room for a single snowman in one.
It’s made of hard plastic, so I wasn’t sure how much give there would be when trying to remove Fimo from it, so the best thing to do was to give it a try. I think I could have gone a bit thinner on the Fimo, but it did release pretty well and the baked resultant shapes turned out OK too, but, to be honest, they don’t really have any of the charm of the real thing, so I think it will probably get re-donated in the next month or so unless I have a unbelievable brainwave or anyone reading this would like it?
In another shop I saw these two characters that took me aback a bit as they looked awfully familiar ……..
They are the snowmen I distributed singly for my Festive RAK last year and have started to leave around town again this year, so how two got together I just can’t guess. However, I decided to leave them where they were, but still had a good rootle in the basket to see what else was in there.
….. and found these two beautiful vintage angels that I absolutely love, plus a ceramic Santa candle holder that I’m not so sure about, but for just 75p the lot, it would have been rude not to, happy days!
This is just a very quick and simple idea I put together for all the children in Bertie’s class who I listen to read on a Wednesday and Thursday. As there are so many little ones with grandparents far away in different countries, I thought I could be a sort of makeshift Granny to them for just one day.
I started off by creating the cards using my ancient copy of Publisher 2003, OMG, I am so rusty at it now! The text boxes measure 9cm long by 7cm across with a 2pt dash border. The font used is Ink Free in 24pt. It was so frustrating trying to get the spacing centred after so long without practice, so I’ve kept file safe for other projects, perhaps Easter?
Once enough sheets were printed off, they needed to be cut, no my favourite choice of activity.
The chocolate hearts were 99p for a net of 14 from Home Bargains.
I stuck these down in the middle of each card with a trimmed down, double sided, adhesive, foam pad …..
……. and that’s it, simples.
I put each card in a small cello bag to protect the foil on the chocolate and keep the cards clean when put in book bags etc. Happy Days!
