For Angie

Is this the stamp?  Its Hero Arts G4817 Dandelion.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

The text for this card is a Quickutz download cut on my Silhouette. 

And the various bottles and make up stuff are tiny stickers from Mei Flower – they usually have an impossibly busy stand at Hobby Crafts at the NEC but it is well worth …. erm ….fighting through, as they has some brilliant embellishments for about  £1 a pack!

Butterfly Silhouette Card

I’ve used another Quickutz download for this card.  It’s quite fiddly poking out the little bits, I really should buy a pokey tool.

I have used a black card blank, added a cream panel which I have layered on gold and then added the butterfly die cut in the centre.  All I have then added is a few very small sparkly flat backed gems.

A Bunch of Flowers Card

I had these paper flowers from the Hobby Crafts Show at the NEC in November and have never used them, the same goes for the Craftwork cards sentiment circle die cut!  What am I like?

But today they all came together for this card.

I have used various iridescent coloured brads for the flower middles and the leaves are made using a punch I found in a small craft shop in Chester market recently.

What’s On My Desk Wednesday

My desk is pretty bare and tidy on Wednesdays because by mid week I am usually too cream crackered to craft much, so all I have to offer you this week is my shopping – and nothing really exciting there either ………

I got 2 for £1 Easter carrier/gift bags from Poundland – which is a bit of a bargain.

A lovely large pencil case, also from Poundland, but I thought it would make a pretty washbag for my holidays .

And finally a net of chocolate hearts available for £1 (12 in a net) from The Co-op and Somerfield.  A bit late for Valentines Day, but the sell by date is March 2011 – so I have plenty of time to think how to use them.

Simple 17th Birthday Card Using Badges for Embellishments

This is a card I made for my niece, she is very unfussy, so this really suits her style.

I used my Bandai badge maker (see archive- 23rd August 2009) to make the embellishments, but left the pin attachment off and stuck them down with foam pad instead.

I have mat and layered on ribbed black and silver mirror card and added one small but very sparkly flat back pink gem from Craftwork Cards on each square, the gems are expensive but worth it for the extra sparkle.

Easter Bunny Mints

I can’t claim this is my idea, but it’s my version of something I saw while “hopping” !

It’s made using an Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisp, a 1.5 Woodware circle punch, 2 black flat back gems and a puffy heart sticker.

Attach one punched circle to the back of the mint with double sided tape.

Cut out a pair of ears and attach them to the back of  another circle, this will be the bunny’s head, turn over and add eyes, nose, whiskers and a bit of pink to the ears.  Attach to the mint.

That’s it!  You could even add a very small white pom pom to the bunny’s back if you wanted!

JLS Birthday Card

This is one of several cards I made for my niece Emily’s 17th birthday, now, this one just isn’t my taste at all, but she was thrilled with it!

The picture has been printed and then I have added another simple decoupage layer to it.

The base of the card is a template I designed ages ago which it comes in very useful especially for personalised cards.

Please forgive me ……. but YUK, boys showing off their pants, I just want to tell them to pull their trousers up properly!

Daisy Nonsense

This is a very simple and small decorative wreath using paper daisies stuck onto a flat bracelet.

I got the bracelets from a poundshop ages ago. they were in a pack of ten and I just thought that they would come in useful one day.

I got the daisies from a company called Purple Elephant from NEC Hobbycrafts a couple of years ago.  They are the nicest paper flowers I have seen.
 
This could be a lovely easy present for little ones to make for their Mums, Grans or Aunties etc.

A Voyage of Discovery Or My Stamping Is Pants!

I have been experimenting with one of  my “free” Stampin’ Up stamp sets I had from their Sale-a-Bration 2010 promotion earlier this year.

This is my first try with a very small elephant stamp. I used Whisper pens straight onto the stamp and to be honest the resulting colour and finish  wasn’t very successful.  I should have used my “proper” ink pads – but I was only really playing.

I stamped the ear in black, cut it out and glued it on to the elephant  – but I am not sure about that either.

It’s all very “not right” – colours, mat and layering, size, the only thing that is right is the lovely elephant stamp.I really need to go back to the drawing board …….

I also played with the cup cake from the same set, another lovely stamp – but again I have failed to get it to look right – I think it’s the pink – a colour I always seem to have a great deal of difficulty in matching!

There is a Stampin’ Up link to my friend Lisa in the sidebar – for more information on Stampin’ Up products.

Calendar Card

I made this card for my brother in law who is doing an Art Degree.

The base is made from a lovely grey corrugated card, for a masculine, textured feel and appearance  

The calendar is from a digi scrapbook set from Sweete Shop Designs. 

I have circled his actual birthday with red and then used Anita’s 3D clear gloss dimensional finish for added texture. The card is completed with stickers, from an artist set of 3D embellishments.

Easter Bunny Poop

This is a variation of the Snowman Poop I made for Christmas.

I hope you aren’t sick of my Easter Bunny embellishment, but since I made it using my Silhouette, I have saved so much time and money.

If you haven’t got a cutting machine I found these 3D embellishments by Paper Bliss which cost about £1.45 a packet.

I am going to use them on Easter cards and put them in my Staffroom Box, if they don’t go – I will take them apart and use them on New Baby cards instead.
 
The scalloped circle is made using a very large Woodware punch.

What’s On My Desk Wednesday

Not so much, what’s on my desk, more what’s on my whatnot!

I finally got it up.  I need to rearrange my treasures now. I would really like to collect miniature birdcages, but I have an idea that they are few and far between and expensive!  So I think I am going to compromise and collect little tea light lanterns instead – so it’s a sort of work in progress.

I have a little fairy door on my picture rail, as I think that “my” fairies like to live somewhere high!

Easter Bunny Hot Chocolate

After Snowman Soup at Christmas I decided to do the same sort of thing for Easter – using a sachet of hot chocolate, an Easter chocolate lolly (Somerfield – 4 for £1) as a stirrer and some rather lovely coloured marshmallows, my sister found me.

The poem is a joint effort between my sister and I, not Shakespeare I know – but it suits the purpose.  However if anyone comes up with anything else, could they add it to the comments box, then I will put them all together in another post before Easter for everyone to share.

The handwriting is mine.

Anniversary Card

Today my husband and I celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary which is Pearl.  Now, I don’t think pearls are very manly – so how could I incorporate them into a card for my big burly man ………?

Well, I turned them into little fish …… because one of  Andy’s many hobbies is keeping them!

The eyes are the nail decorations I got from Poundland last week, they are just the right size, the silver bubbles are also nail heads from Rhinestones Online, the translucent micro glitter is Dazzling Diamonds from Stampin’ Up and the doodling is all mine!

As for gifts – I gave him four hermit crabs for his fish tank and he gave me a new camera.  The macro setting for close up photos is so good, I couldn’t use them, as the fish close up were disgusting, covered in stray bits of glitter, dried glue and fingerprints!

Simple Butterfly Card

This is a very simple understated card/notelet, suitable for any occasion. The paper and butterfly are both from K & Co.  All I have added are a few extra yellow gems on the background paper.  I have mat and layered with gold and white card.

Easter Treat Bag

There’s a bit of a story about the template for this box, which I downloaded from a scrapbooking forum;  when I cut it on my Silhouette, it fell to bits, as it cut along the fold lines instead of perforating them.  I was gutted as it was just what I was looking for.

I am very much a novice with the Silhouette, but after several attempts, I worked out how to do the perforations – I am dead chuffed with myself!

I have also saved myself a bit of money, as I was planning on buying a Sizzix Bigz die that makes a very similar bag/box.

I’ve kept it pretty plain, just adding a textured paper strip, stickers from Poundland (from last year, I’m not sure if they have any this year) and a bit of faux stitching, all I need to do now is pop some eggs inside.

Two More Very Quick Flower Cards

 
I got these ribbon flowers from Hobby Crafts Show a couple of years ago, but have never used them. 

I just glued them onto a card blank and doodled the stems, leaves and grass, first in green pen, then outlined with a black fine liner pen, adding Happy Birthday.

These foam flowers were from HobbyCrafts, they have self adhesive backing.

Nothing fancy or complicated – just plain, simple and quick.

Bunny Tails Easter Treat Bag

This is a lovely idea from my mate Lisa that I have adapted – check out her blog for a brilliant tutorial on how to create wording using a Craft Robo/Silhouette.

http://craftfairy.blogspot.com/2010/02/easter-gift-idea-bunny-tails.html

I have used my Silhouette to make the bunnies.  Their heart noses are leftovers from Accessorize sticker packs.

(The template is called Flexible Bunny Rabbits)

I have used toffee bon bons for the tails!