Friday, 29 October 2010

2010 Christmas Stickers from Accessorize

Accessorize Stickers Christmas Card
Everyone knows how much I love Accessorize stickers, but after the wonderful Halloween stickers this year their Christmas range is sadly lack lustre,  so I’ve only bought a couple of packets to play with. 
Accessorize Sticker Christmas Card
This is what I have come up with so far. There were not enough designs in the larger Christmas shapes to make a 9 square template card without repeating a shape and the smaller shapes were just too little to use effectively on the punched scalloped squares.
Accessorize Stickers 1
I’ve also had a go at covering some Cadbury Dairy Milk miniatures
Accessorize Stickers
Again, I’m a bit disappointed, with the colours, variety of designs and size, they just do not hit my “cute-ability” button …… hmmmmmmm. I think I’ll package them up nicely and use them on Christmas Eve as little a “pillow” present/favors for when my family come home..
Accessorize Christmas Stickers 1
At last, a sort of success, something I like …. I have put the little penguin from the sticker pack in a snow dome!  Its a very small card, about 3.5 x 3.5 ins.

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Tim Holtz Caged Bird Decoration

Tim Holtz Bird cage
I am so terrible about getting something “I must have” and then I leaving it unused for ages.  So with Christmas coming I wanted to see if I could use this Tim Holtz die to make a tree decoration for “special” people instead of giving them a Christmas card this year.
untitled Tim Holtz Bird Cage 2
Well I have and I love it, so much so that this is mine and it will stay in my craft room, it ain’t going nowhere!
Tim Holtz Bird Cage 3
But I will make more!  I cut out two of everything to make the decoration strong and substantial. using a white glitter card to cut the cage from; it cut like a dream.
Tim Holtz Bird Cage 4
I’ve used jump rings to attach the tiny clear glass hearts, which I hope I can find more of on e-bay for when I go into mass production.
Picture 009
It didn’t take that long to make and I am thrilled with the results …… now to find some more hearts …….
Tim Holtz Bird Cage 7
I gave this example to my mum and look what she has done with it
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She’s put it in a shadow box picture frame, with blue paper as a background.  I love it.  I am going to make a few more as presents, but perhaps use an A5 sized frame.

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Objects of Desire

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I don’t know what happened but these just fell into my online shopping basket! I put it down to me not understanding the Japanese website!! Ooooops

Wooden Heart Tags

 Snowman Wooden heart tag 3
From now on, whenever I do a “What’s in my Shopping Bag” post I am going to try and get something made with some/all of the items within a day or so, otherwise I am liable to put things away and forget them until I find them again months later.
Picture 727
I got these wooden from a gift shop on Poole Harbour for 99p a packet of 6.  The idea in my head, when I bought them, was to make gift tags for Christmas parcels, and this is what I have come up with.
snowman heart tag
I doodled on both sides of the tags with while gel pen.
Snowman Wooden heart tag
And then added Christmas buttons from a whole pile I got several years ago from the US. I cut off the shanks and used a glue gun to attach them.
Decorated wooden heart tag
A few tiny clear flat backed gems complete the effect.
Snowman Wooden Heart tag 1
I am thinking that I may sell a few of these, so I have put them on a simple backing card (as above) and then in a sealed cello bag to make them look a bit more professional.

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Halloween – Done to Death!!!

Well,  with just over a week to go before Halloween, no one can accuse me of not embracing the theme!  Last year I did a bit, but this year I have really gone overboard, but I blame all the inspiring stuff they have had in Poundworld and Poundland and Accessorize’s brilliant Halloween stickers (which put their Christmas ones to shame!).
Picture 698 Picture 699
These are my last two projects, so you can all breath a sigh of relief ……
Picture 703Picture 704
I’ve put everything together and now hope to make a few pennies to put towards some Christmas stash.
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  I love to see what goes first and what’s left over …….
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HobbyCraft Baubles – Shopping Alert!


Last year I made these baubles to give instead of cards to special people.
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I found these in HobbyCraft a couple of weeks,ago,  there are 12 in a box for £1.99 and are made by Darice.  They don’t have the iridescent shimmer that the Paperchase ones I originally used have and they are slightly smaller.
Picture 612
But I have several ideas in mind for them.

Monday, 25 October 2010

Objects of Desire ……..

An extra post today ...... No “What’s In My Shopping Bag” this week, with Christmas coming, I really am trying to rein in my spending, especially as I really do have enough Christmas bits and pieces for this years festive crafting …. so I have turned my thoughts to my “Objects of Desire” especially after my sister sent me a link to this site http://www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk/index.asp when my levels of desire sky rocketed!   Click on each picture for a link .
I want desire need everything …….
glass-display-dome-with-stand-3353-p glass-cloche-huge-4269-p[ekm]133x200[ekm]
I’ve always had a long felt want  for a beautiful  display dome! birds-on-branches-fridge-magnets-4107-p 
And the bird on a branch fridge magnets are just too lovely, I’d get a fridge for my craft room to justify me having them!
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……. and their jewellery is exquisite ….. the porcelain bird necklace just needs to be round my neck!
porcelain-bird-necklace-2891-p
A girl has to dream …………….. !

Spiders Web Sour Cream Carton

How creepy is this idea?  My apologies to all those of you with a “thing” about spiders.
Halloween Spiders Web Sour Cream Carton 2
I’m not sure why this type of container is called sour cream carton, but I guess the idea originates from the US.
Spiders Web - Sour Cream Carton
I drew the web myself as I didn’t have any suitable printed paper.
Halloween Spiders Web Sour Cream Carton 4
The spider comes from a mixed bag of Halloween creepy creatures from Poundworld, which I have sprinkled with translucent micro glitter for an extra  magical effect, if you can have such a thing as a magical spider!

Sunday, 24 October 2010

What’s In My Shopping Baskets

I am trying to be very careful with my money at the moment, with Christmas looming. I have most of the embellishments I need for this years cards etc.  but I am naturally holding back a little for when Poundland/Poundworld finally clear their Halloween shelves and replace them, hopefully, with a festive smorgasbord of crafty items that I can either alter or use as they are in projects.
But while I was in Poole and Bournemouth recently I found a couple of nice little items.
Picture 726
Like these Gisela Graham gingerbread man pegs, I think they were about £3.99 – but they are for me!!! I like the idea and may perhaps try and find a small gingerbread die for my BigShot.
Picture 727
These wooden hearts were reduced to 99p for a pack of 6.  I think I am going to embellish them just a little bit and use them as tags on Christmas presents.
e-bay bargains
These drawers were a sort of bargain off e-bay …. I bid £3.20 for the both of them and won – but the P & P was a bit expensive – but since I got the drawers for a silly price it was well worth it!  They are supposed to be vintage, but I reckon they were knocked up in someone’s garage, but I am still thrilled with them.

Saturday, 23 October 2010

Snowman Fridge Magnet

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I don’t like to throw anything away.  I’ve had these frames for ages as the remnant of these little boat embellishments.
Picture 575 Picture 537
I’d used the boats for another project and I was left with about six empty frames, then I had a festive Ulrika moment …… fridge magnets!
Picture 573
I’ve used snowmen buttons I’ve had for years and coloured bits of them in with a Sharpie Pen then put them on a background I’ve made using scraps of white glitter and turquoise Bazzill paper with a few falling snowflakes doodled with a white gel pen. I’ve also added a bit of doodling to the frame and some small silver stars.
Picture 572
I’ve added two pieces of HobbyCraft magnetic foam sheet on the back.  That’s it!

Sorry about the "random" cotton bud ..... it's intended to give you an idea of size!!!

Friday, 22 October 2010

Christmas Wreath Card

Christmas Wreath CardChristmas Wreath card 1
Above are the original pictures
I started writing up this post and looked at the pictures that went with it and realised that the card was PANTS!  The holly leaves on the right hand side were completely out of kilter to the other side, it looked a mess …… so I started again.
  Christmas Wreath card 3
I think the second version looks a lot better (but, if I do it again, I might not mat and layer the centre but just work directly on the card blank.
Christmas Wreath Card 2 
The wreath is made using a variety of  punches, mostly flowers and holly leaves, except for the white snowflakes in the middle of the red flowers, which accentuates the Christmas theme.
Christmas Wreath card 1
I’ve used flat back gems and sets of three little dots to complete the design.