Does Anyone Have???

Does anyone have this die?  If so I wonder if they could cut me out some gingerbread men in felt ….. perhaps we could work out a swop???  I have missed out so many times on e-bay to get my own!! Agghhhh

I Love ……

…… Dandelion clocks ……

…… and can’t actually believe I managed to take a half way descent picture of one …… !

Docrafts Boofle Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and is made using a white linen effect hand cut blank.

My love for using Docrafts A4 decoupage sheets continues ….. they have proved so popular at work …. I can’t keep up with demand!

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I think I may have done it .... I updated my AOL .... the blessed pop ups been pestering me for ages .... and it seems to have solved my Blogger posting at the same time! 

Marc’s Mini Accordion File

Marc sent me something that really fired up my creative juices, not sure what the proper name for them is is so I’m going to call them mini accordion files.  The first two in the picture are the “real thing” and the one on the right is a template that Marc also popped in so I could make my own.

The Japanese one was stunning ….with some of the envelopes containing lovely earrings and a necklace  ……

….. as was the green suede effect one, what is he like!!!!???

Now please bear with me as this was my first attempt …. and just hope the instructions are good enough for you to follow.

First I drew round Marc’s template, onto a firm/thick card, the notches indicate where the score lines should be. I then cut it out and scored and folded it, making the “joints” supple and bendy.

I chose to cover my file with a navy silk material/paper (from QVC outlet shop), but with hindsight, as this was my first effort perhaps it would have been easier to used a patterned paper.

I cut the silk paper giving me enough spare to fold over to give neat edges using double sided tape to stick it all down.

Then I cut out the notches, and proceeded to carefully and as neatly as possible fold over and stick the edges.

Voila …. I followed this by cutting another piece of silk paper to cover the inside of the file, again sticking it down with double sided tape.

Next came the envelopes, six in all, and all I can say is that Marc’s envelopes are much, much neater than mine ….. I was far too impatient  to see the finished article!

When the envelopes were all cut out and stuck together, I put a length of double sided tape down the middle and stuck the envelopes one on top of each other to form an accordion effect………

…… which I then stuck to both ends of the file.

I also added a far too large Velcro fixing to each end ….. again I was in far too much of a hurry!!

Phew …… finally done and dusted!

This is now going in my rucksack to keep all my little findings and treasure safe and sound.

THANK YOU MARC FOR SUCH A BRILLIANT IDEA

I have made a PDF of Marc’s templates, that I will gladly send to anyone who wants it. I am not too hot on this sort of thing, so I think in the process, the templates are now slightly smaller than the originals, so ignore the measurements I scribbled on them, but I am sure that from what I have done, you can use the measurements to make up your own set of templates if you want, or use the template as it is. – nellxxxx@aol.com

Accessorize Sweet Shop Stickers

These cards each measure 5ins x 5ins and are made using a hand cut white linen effect card blank.

How cute are these stickers from Accessorize (£2.00)?  I just could not resist them, but as I am still on my economy run I only bought two packs (instead of my usual six or seven),  from which I made seven cards with no stickers remaining.

The first card I made with them was pretty prim and proper …… so I had another go, this time using one of my Nestabliities dies.

I have to admit I prefer the plainer card, but that’s just me….. less is more!

Diamond Jubilee Crafts - Union Flag Tags

These tags measure 2.75ins x 3.5ins

As soon as I saw this Emma Bridgewater gift wrap I couldn’t resist it as I knew it would make brilliant Diamond Jubilee tags.

….. So I sat one “Coronation Street” cutting out  the flags ready to stick on strong pieces of Kraft card.  Then when that was done I made a tag template, plonked it on the stuck down  flags, drew round it and the cutting started all over again!

Once cut, I punched a hole through each tag, added a cream thread and a star charm and a bit of faux stitching on the back. Dead chuffed!

Inspiration……In Accessorize

I saw this huge mirror in the Exeter branch of Accessorize and just had to ask if I could take a couple of pictures of it ……….. it was so beautiful it almost took my breath away!

The girl said it was made up of unsold/broken pieces of Accessorizes jewellery

However, I studied it for ages and noticed that it wasn’t as random as it first appeared, the colours were very carefully matched and a great many of the same pieces were used over and over again, like the pearl bows, the blue floral hearts and gold butterflies etc. but it was still very clever. I am now on the lookout for a wide framed mirror …. because I want to have a go at making something similar for myself ……

A Weekend Away ….. Recharging The batteries

I’ve just got back from a weekend in Dawlish Warren, a chance to recharge my very depleted batteries, eat and drink all the wrong things and embrace the sound and smell of the sea ….. I took a few pictures trying to be all arty-farty ….. but I’m a bit disappointed by the results …. but I thought I would share them with you anyway …..

As I took this picture of some pebbles on the beach  I noticed a “heart shaped” one in the bottom right of the shot ….

Hmmmm thought I …..

…… and tried a couple of things with it.

I also couldn’t resist getting a shot of these beach huts…..

…… or these groins (if you’ll pardon the expression ……)

And this sign just made me laugh …..

Knitted Baby Booties

Remember the baby booties I fancied doing last week? Well I’ve done them!  They were so simple and look about half an hour each to knit and about ten minutes to sew up. 

Left plain they are quite cute, and originally I was going to put a button on the front to shush them up, but when I found the crocheted flowers amongst the bits in my button box, I just had to use them as they were perfect.

You can find the pattern here:- http://www.bernat.com/pattern.php?PID=4189&cps=21191

With my first pair successfully completed I am now thinking of variations on them, including a few pairs in various sizes in red for Christmas with suitably cute embellishments on the front. Hmmmmmm.

A Little Bird Told Me Cards

These cards all measure 17.5cms x 8.5cm and are made using white linen effect card.

A whole set of cards today, using a variety of pastel gingham and striped paper strips from Handy Hippo and bubble bird stickers from The Range.  I got nine cards from the packet of stickers which is pretty good going as I think they were about 99p a pack.

The flower borders were part of a present from Dianne in Florida, I love them so much, it was hard to start using them!

The sentiment is handwritten by me, which I thought it could cover all sorts of circumstances occasions.

30th Birthday Newspaper Card

This card is A5 in size and is made using white linen effect card.

This card was made for a colleague, who plays football for numerous teams and just doesn’t look or act her age.  Her image is made up of two simple decoupage layers and I’ve used Ranger Glossy Accents to go over the blue icing on the cake and her birthday badges.  Done and dusted!

Flower Patchwork Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and is made using a hand cut white linen effect card blank

I’m not sure about this card, perhaps there is too much going on with the patchwork panel at the back?  I’ve used papers from my 6ins x 6ins Boofle paper pack (£5.00) and a Martha Stewart doily.

I just love this paper pack so much, the proportion of the patterns are just perfect for the size of cards and embellishments I use, and there isn’t one design I don’t like, which has to be the biggest bonus ever!

Hoppy Birthday Tags

These tags each measure 7.5cm x 3.5cm and are made using children’s wooden dominoes.

I have had these metal frogs forever  and have finally used them all up on these tags.  They were a bit fiddly to glue so I used E6000 glue (as recommended by Marc) because it really does stick materials like metal down well, and a little goes a very long way.

Not a lot to them really!

Diamond Jubilee Crafts - Union Jack Sour Cream Boxes/Lucky Dip Favours

Marc gave me this idea for either a kids Diamond Jubilee Lucky Dip or party favours. 

I created my own A4 sheet in Publisher after  finding a shabby chic style Union Jack image, which I resized,  then copied and pasted to create a pattern in Publisher. Next I saved it as a jpeg (picture/image)  so that I could use it for other projects to keep the pattern in proportion. A little long winded and fiddle farty but it works for me.

To show you how to make the box I have copied the pictures and instructions I  put together for the humbug carton I made a couple of Christmas’s ago to save repeating myself.

First I cut a 8in x 5ins oblong from my patterned paper and applied double sided tap down as illustrated in the photo above.

With patterned side facing outwards I rolled the paper to form a cylinder.

And then flattened the bottom end, where the double sided tape had also been put -  (see below)

To complete the box I squeezed it together in the opposite direction to the bottom of the bag (I hope that makes sense) to form the boxes triangular shape.

With the box almost complete I put in a sealed bag of red, white and blue bonbons to go with the theme.Then I  sealed the end with glue, which I held in place with a couple of paperclips until the glue was dry.

The finishing touches were made by  trimming  the bottom and top edges with pinking shears.

I know my instructions are not perfect so have a look at youtube or : -http://www.ehow.com/how_8224188_make-sour-cream-favor-box.html#ixzz1rHXNqDrH