Desert Island Crafts – Part 2

I would be lost without my ATG – as you can see I have one and a spare. It may look big and cumbersome but it is brilliant as it dispenses double sided tape in a jiffy.  I admit there is a bit of a knack, but when you get it there’s no stopping you.  When I am doing a production line of cards I just whizz through them.  I have one loaded with 6mm tape (you need to buy an adaptor to use this) and the other is loaded with 12mm, which I use the most. The tape costs about £1.84 for 44m which is so economical

Click on the link for more information, I have used this company many times and have always been happy with their service.

Desert Island Crafts – Part 1

Before Christmas I put together a few posts to publish over the holiday because it just wouldn’t feel right having nothing popping up here at 00.01 each morning!

So for the next few days I have selected the tools in my craftroom that I would have to have on my desert island …..

I apologise for the state of some of the stuff , you can see from the photos how used it is!

My Fine Tip PVA applicators – these give you a very fine application of glue, it is so fine you don’t get a ripple effect when you are gluing paper and the metal tip is perfect for gluing the smallest embellishment, even the tiniest gem.

The bottles come empty, I fill mine with PVA glue because it is strong and dries clear.

The pins that come with the bottles (spares are available) prevent the metal tip clogging up and don’t rust.

This has got to be the best glue applicator ever!

Click on the link for more details.

And … the stockings were hung!

Well I did it!  I have managed to keep up a Christmassy themed blog all through December – right up to today!

And I couldn’t post today without showing you my sister Janet’s snowman card – I think we have a theme going on. I already have a plan for making snowmen if/when we have more snow!!!

I make no apology for these grubby, moth eaten specimens I made years before I became “crafty”, they are all between 25 to 28 years old and part of our family history.

 

They come out every Christmas, and every year I say I’ll make one for me, but never seem to get round to it!

Can I wish everyone a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS and THANK YOU for all your lovely comments since I started blogging in August.  

It’s Christmas ……. bring it on …………. !

What’s On My Desk Wednesday and Two Trees Card

`What’s on my desk today?  Absolutely nothing!  I have had a festive tidy up!  Doesn’t look right does it?

These Christmas trees are from a pack I found in a garden centre craft shop.  They have a wooden background with an embossed green felt front, but I don’t know who made them. I have added a few flat backed gems to them for extra bling.  As I  have run out of white glitter card, I’ve used a liberal sprinkling of micro glitter on white card for the snow.  I have finished the card by doodling snowflakes with a white gel pen on the pale blue sky.

I don’t think this is a card I will go into production with as it needs some more twiddling, the proportion of the trees and their positioning isn’t quite right.

Julia’s Christmas Chocolate Bars

This is not one of my own ideas I found it on Julia’s inspiring and sooooo funny blog Stamping Ground and thought it would make a brilliant small present/stocking filla.

I have taken the paper wrapper off an own brand bar of chocolate and recovered it with a holly design scrapbook paper (sorry I don’t know the name or maker). I have added a red band round the middle and added a few doodled faux stitches.  The message is copied directly from Julia’s chocolate bars, typed and backed on silver.  The holly leaves are made using a holly punch with red Paperchase flat backed gems as berries.

Thank you again Julia.  In the New Year I am going to look for some more chocolate sayings, in fact I am sure there is a website dedicated to them ….. This is an idea that could be adapted to many different occasions.

Chocolate Christmas Spoons

This is a very simple last minute idea ….  and not a piece of card or flat backed gem to be seen ……!

The teaspoons are from a Poundland pack, where else?  I have then drawn very rough holly leaves and berries on the handles using Sharpie pens

 

I added melted chocolate to the spoon bowl with a few white chocolate stars….
 

And then packaged them up when set; the single spoons in a cut down pretzel bag (from E-bay)  and the pack of three in a cut down narrow cello bag with a green ribbon finishing them all off.

Snow Alert - Get Out There With Your Cameras

Believe me, you will thank me for this Top Tip next Christmas!!

If this card looks familiar – I posted my first version back on 9th October (see archive)

Since then I have fiddle farted with it a bit more and this is the version I have finally sent out to family and friends. The above is a reject, as the top snowflake has a bit missing!

The reason for my repeating the post is simple – IT’S BEEN SNOWING……. wooooo hoooooo, and there is bound to be more on the way…….

So when it gets to you, get in the garden with your camera and start making snowmen ……..

I took the picture for this card when it snowed way back in February, when  I had an inkling of an idea.  The snowmen are tiny, about 10 inches tall and stood on my garden table.  Then in September I had 50 copies printed off and this is what I came up with.

My sister has made her Christmas cards using her snowman picture too – I will add it to this post when I take a photo.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant next year  if I featured all our snowmen cards on this blog????!!!!!!!

Christmas Poop Favor/Treat Bags

I have jumped onto the festive poop bandwagon. I had resisted such a long time ..... but market forces and all that ............ once it was in the staffroom I just could not produce enough! I am now totally pooped out!

This is what I have come up with using Poundland jumbo chocolate coated raisins and Accessorize christmas stickers

 

 

The vacumn sealer below has been a brilliant buy for making sweetie bags, I really prefer to use wrapped sweets but sometimes this isn’t possible.  I bought it off E-bay for about £14.99 a couple of months ago.  I only tend to use the sealer option. What I like best is the fact that if I put a few sweets at the bottom of a tall cello bag, when it seals and cuts off at the top, the remains of the bag are sealed at the bottom too, effectively giving me two bags from one (I hope that makes sense!)

The contents of the sweetie cupboard in my craftroom, – all ready to make sweetie bags, snowman soup and fill jingle beans jars (see October archive)

Deck The Halls

Not sure if this card is worth a post.  I think my writing is a bit dodgy and could have been better.

It took a matter of minutes to make, the holly leaves are from a packet of table confetti, they came with berries too, but I swopped them for small red flat backed gems.

Nothing to it, an easy project  for anyone just starting card making, and cheap too!

Blue Nosed Reindeer Favor/Treat Bags

This is just for fun, I saw these blue bon bons and just had to buy a few ….. because they made me think of cold noses in winter!

The wooden reindeer heads are from Hobbycraft own range and I have just added a blue flat backed gem to add to the joke.

Naughty or Nice Christmas Card

This couldn’t be simpler – and look, no mat and layering !The stockings are from a pack of 9 from Papermania and the Naughty or Nice sticker is  from a set of embossed stickers from The Paper Loft called Flip Flops, but I haven’t got a clue where I got them from -  E-bay probably.

I am not sure if this is a “top tip”,  but, if I am not sure about the design of a card I put it on the window sill in my craft room and occasionally take a quick glance at it, if after a day or two it “looks right”, it’s a keeper, if it still looks dodgy, it goes in the bin!

When I “bin” a card I always tear it up, this guarantees I can’t go back to it and niggle over how to put it right.

I have enough festive ideas to blog up until Christmas Eve, after that I would like to keep things going over the holiday, so I have put together a few posts about the tools I use, like my scoring boards and punches as well as a few Top Tips. Once we have celebrated New Year I will back to normal ....... a bit like Cadbury's I'll be starting Easter!!!!! -  Only joking!

Christmas Kisses and Santa Favor Bags

Two more ideas for using sweets that are in the shops this Christmas

This packet is made using jelly lips (available in WH Smith and Thorntons Pick and Mix)

I have made 27 of these Santa bags for one of the teachers at work to give to her class as an end of term present.
The chocolates are from M & S (99p for net of 10, I got them when they were on offer, buy 4 pay for 3 – something like that).  I have added a few festive sprinkles for extra bling.
The bag toppers for both these ideas are  made using a Nestabilities label die and punches from Stampin Up (see archive).

Spotty Birthday Card

I call this my Minnie Mouse card.  There’s not a lot too it.  The red spotty background is a good quality wrapping paper that I have stuck with spray adhesive for a smooth finish, the black and white spotty paper is a bit of scrap and the buckle, I am sure is from Purple Elephant, bought at NEC Hobbycrafts Show last year.
It could be very easily altered for Christmas to look like Santas jacket, using a red card blank and a plain black paper for the belt.

Initial Christmas Tree Decorations

I was sorting out my little “fairing “ gifts, as my Mother In Law used to call them this morning for my friends at work.  I wanted to give them all a “Wish Bauble” (see 8th December) but I didn’t have quite enough ….. aghh…

  

But, I also had these ceramic letters from Hobbycraft (about £1.79) that  I bought a while ago, but they looked plain and boring … and not at all festive.

 

At first I was going to try sticking stars on them, then I remembered  a packet of “Say It In Studs” ( Prima) I got from the NEC in November – wooooo hooooo, everything started to fall into place!

I stuck the studs on first, and then fiddle farted a little more by adding a few tiny flat backed pearls and black dots using a sharpie pen and finally an ivory ribbon.

Job done, a little gift to hang on their tree for years to come for less that £2.00, result!

Reindeer Noses - Christmas Sweetie/Favor Bags

These first noses are whoppers!  I got them from one of those big Pick and Mix stalls they have in shopping centres that cost a fortune. The times I have seen people go pale when they are told how much their suck comes to and then ask if they can put some back. But when I saw this huge marshmallows I just had to have them.

The reindeer heads on the tags  are Accessorize Christmas stickers.

This second packet contains smaller foamy strawberries but are equally as cute!

Snowball Sweetie/Favor Bag

I used Cadbury’s Snow Bites for these little bags, it’s a wonder I’d  got anything left to put in them as they are scrummy!

The snowmen are from an Accessorize Christmas sticker pack and I have doodled the snow and snowflakes with a white gel pen.

New Years Resolutions

This is an idea I saw a while back that I thought was a bit different from the usual small crafty desk/magnetic calendar.

I’m not entirely happy with it, I don’t think the proportions of the bulldog clip are quite right compared to the size of the board, but I have plenty of time to jiggle around with it before New year.

The papers under the clip are loose, but could be replaced with post-it notes or a small note pad.

The flowers have been stuck in such as way as to allow the calendar pages and resolutions sheet to be removed without spoiling the effect

Snowman Christmas Card

This is the only card I have done to order this Christmas, I have made it for a colleague for her granddaughter’s first Christmas.

I have used a digital download set from Sweet Shoppe Designs called Little Joys by Zoe Pearn.  It is sooooo cute.

I enlarged the snowmen to the size I needed, then printed and cut out a few spare so that I had enough make a simple decoupage with the scarves for extra dimension.

The snowman are standing on a layer of cream glitter card over a background paper from the set.

I have used small black Glitterati sticker dots to go over the eyes and mouth and a little Anita’s 3D clear gloss finish on the nose.

The letters are a mixture of alphabet stickers from American Crafts.

To match the printed zig zag pattern on the snowmen, I have doodled round the edge of the card in a light brown fine tipped pen.

As a first Christmas card is extra special I have added a strip of another backing paper from the set down the side of the envelope

And again on the inside, adding a snowman’s head peeping out.

Phew! I think this took me about an hour and a half to put together.

Christmas Wish Bauble

To get a decent picture of this wish bauble was nigh on impossible, but I hope you can get the gist of what I have done.

The iridescent baubles from Paperchase  come in a box of 9 and measure 6cm.  They cost £5 per box which works out at 55p each.

I printed the word “wish” in blue and then ripped the paper around the word giving a rough edge.  I then added Hero Arts hologram micro glitter, using a sukura glue pen around the edges and lightly over the word.

I then carefully placed the paper and some small very pale blue stars into the bauble.  Done!
I am giving these baubles  instead of Christmas cards this year, a card is soon forgotten, but hopefully these baubles will be hung on friends trees for many years to come.

Jazzy Christmas Tree Card

This is an experiment ……. as I have made all my cards for this year, I now have time to experiment with some of the embellishments I have not used yet.

The tree is from Hobbycrafts own range of wooden embellishments that I have just added a few flat backed gems to.  The scalloped square is made using a nestabilities die.