Bertie’s First Birthday Card – Old MacDonald’s Farm Card

I think this must count as the most cheatiest card ever!

The birthday card I had originally planned for Bertie’s first birthday turned out to be totally pants, time was running perilously close, so what’s a girl to do but raid her sticker box ……. and this pack of farm stickers answered my prayers!  I just took them out of the packet, left them on the card backing exactly as they were and just did a bit of emergency mat and layering on patterned and silver card!  Bertie, bless him, will never know, that all the animals etc. were not the result of many hours strategic and very careful placing by his Nanny, who was really hoofing it.

The card base was hand cut from an A4 sheet of white linen effect card and measures 21cms x 13cms.

Halloween Door Wreath

Oh my life, Halloween in April?  Have I finally totally lost the plot, in more ways than one? 

Well, there is method in my madness.  I can’t say my Easter Wreath was the easiest of projects, but I had the other half of the ring left, and if I didn’t use it quickly, it would have just languished in the box under the bed and more likely as not got all damaged and grubby until I chucked it out ……. but I had an inkling of an idea ………

……. as I had a huge bag of plastic spiders and snakes after making a spider and snake hunt for Iris last Halloween and I swear they have been breeding since then!

First I wrapped the ring with wide, purple ribbon, followed by a narrower orange one, and then finally with some spiders web ribbon that I got from Micheals in Las Vegas four years ago, sometimes it just takes a while to finally use those craft bits and pieces that you swooned over years ago!

It was then in the lap of the gods as to how the rest would come together, especially after my experience with the flowers on my Easter wreath, but this simply  made itself.  I started with the spiders, gluing them with a glue gun, followed by the snakes .

I then used green flat backed gems to add some extra colour, as it looked a bit too orange and purple, plus few gold stars. Seeing that it was turning out pretty well, it gave me the confidence to fiddle fart even more by adding googly eyes to the spiders, giving them more character and tiny flat back gems for the snakes eyes.

In my haste to get this post done, yes, there are blobs of glue all over the shop, and when its all dry, a few of the glue stick strand can be removed.

I think it could also take a few larger silver stars to fill some of the large gaps,  but at the moment I can’t remember where on earth I have put them.

…… and then at Halloween (in …. owwwww 6 months time!), I reckon I will be able to wrap a set of small battery operated lights around the wreath, concealing the battery box at the back, to give it an extra spooky look.

Can’t believe I am saying this now …… but I am looking for some more wreath bases as the ideas just keep on coming! 

My Easter Door Wreath

Oh my life, I finally finished my Easter Door Wreath, aghhhhhh ……….

…… I’ll make no apologises for all the wet glue that’s still visible in the pictures, I’ll have you know that I was up at 8 o’clock on Thursday morning getting it done, I was so sick of it!

And am I pleased?  Well. yes I am, I am pretty chuffed with myself, I am so glad Marc wasn’t with me while I was doing it though, as he would have been tutting as only Marc can tut, and remarking on how impatient I am, he, Marc the Prince of Patience!

I used a glue gun to attach all the flowers and leaves, as it dries almost instantly, I wouldn’t have been able to cope with flowers and leaves sliding everywhere! There are a few stands of glue here and there, but these are easy to pick off, and anyway, I can always say it’s strands of spiders web.

I used a tacky PVA glue to stick the gem centres, I can’t remember what they are actually called, but they look like little jelly sweets and came in tubes …… I got them from HobbyCrafts Show many moons ago, they were quite the thing at the time, but it has taken me until now to use them.  I did try using flat back gems but they looked too shiny and sort of tacky.

I am frustrated at my lack of crafting this past two weeks, something seems to have been happening every single day, however I have reserved Sunday, no matter what, to get back on track. Laura goes back to work on this Wednesday and I will have Iris and Bertie on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  I am hoping that Fridays will be my housework day, leaving me the rest of the week to do at least some crafting ………… 

An Easter Wreath Experiment

Oh my goodness, how did I ever find time to work, or am I just showing my age and slowing down.  When I think of everything I had to to do when I worked …… and what I actually “have” to do now …… oh well!

This is where I left off crafting last week and I haven’t progressed any further, however, I thought I would show you what I had done so far on the wreath I want to put on my Easter door.

The wreath, has been a huge learning curve as I have never made one before, I thought it would be sooooooooo easy, but at every turn I have met with something that has hindered my progress.

The polystyrene ring came from Hobbycraft, and was my first stumbling block as it was rounded on both sides.  I tried to cover it “bare” with punched flowers, but it just didn’t look right, the flowers didn’t lie like I wanted them to.  In the end, in sheer frustration I sliced the ring in half using my best carving knife, and then covered it in purple ribbon left over from Tom and Laura’s wedding unbelievably some four years ago.  I now realise that I what really should have done was buy the set of two cardboard rings that I ummmed and ahhhed about at the much maligned HobbyCraft Show at the NEC! Flat circles, are, for me, definitely the way to go when making any future wreaths.The flowers still didn’t lie exactly as I wanted, but I decided I was in too far to start fiddle farting again, but I still couldn’t help doing a bit of this and that, with punched leaf sprays and flower centres before really fully committing.

I decided to keep things really simple and only add one punched centre to each large flower, at the start I went overboard with fancy centres, but it was too much.

So, this is as far as I have got after a week ……….

Perhaps I am over critical when working on something that is totally new to me ……. but ….. I wish ….. I had gone for more spring and pastel type colours, to me the wreath is too strong and hot, where for Easter, I think it should have been light, cool and dainty, if that makes sense?

I now need to add more leaf sprays and gem centres to the flowers and then, hopefully, it will be completed by my next post.

Not Enough Time ……..A Charity Shop Treasure ……. And A Bathroom Quandary!

Before I went off to the NEC and spent few days in Wolverhampton I made sure I had enough posts scheduled to cover my time away, plus an extra day or two to cover me while I got back into routine, however on my return said routine went askew as Laura hasn’t been well, and when you get a call for an extra pair of hands, your craft table just has to be abandoned mid flow…….

So, for a while, while I try to catch up with everything, I think I will only be able to post every other day for a while, I’ve done it in the past and it’s worked well. It’s lovely when I can post every day, but it’s a huge commitment, so if I am not here every day, don’t panic, I just need to do some housework!

However, to fill today  …… last Monday I had to go to the doctors and dentist in quick succession, but still had time to nip into one charity shop and found 50p bargain!  It’s a beautifully put together, old fashioned hoe which I needed desperately …….

 

I don’t have a garden of my own, but the communal strip at the back of the flat has a fence and below that a bank running down to the river, in the nine months I’ve been here it hasn’t been touched, until my next door neighbour and I blitzed the nettles that had grown so tall they blocked our view considerably.  Well, the nettles and weeds are growing back again, and I want to keep on top of them, which is why I had been looking for a hoe.

It’s a bit like something out of Harry Potter, the handle is made from a branch, but it appears to have been used so much over the years that it’s worn smooth and the top has become rounded, for just 50p it’s a treasure.

And finally……. my recent trip to Ikea has reignited my “fantasy” of having a Moroccan style en-suite shower and/or main bathroom.  These tiles were in an Ikea kitchen display ……. it was love at first sight ……..

……. the shower cubicle in my shower room would look so beautiful done like this …….. I don’t suppose it would hurt to just get a teensy weensy quote would it ???????

Happy Mother’s Day …….. With Guest Crafter Iris Roo

Yesterday I spent the morning helping Iris put her Mother’s Day present together.

Tom had bought a children’s DIY decorative plaque from Morrisons ……

…… and had fully expected to having plenty of time to help Iris colour and embellish it ……

….. ………. but sadly over the past couple of days Laura has been struck down by a rather nasty tummy bug and so on Friday we all went off to the Cotswold Wildlife Park to help give mum some much needed peace, quiet and rest which was then followed by an impromptu sleepover with Nanny for Iris.

 

And, it was easier to pop it in Iris’s overnight bag, along with pyjamas, spare clothes, Elmo and Binky The Rabbit, to do with Nanny, freeing up Daddy to concentrate on Master Bertie and a poorly mummy.

I think the girl done good ……. especially as Nanny got out a few extra bits and pieces like micro glitter, which was duly executed like young Dawn Bibby!xxxx Wishing everyone a wonderful Mother’s Day, hoping you all get spoilt, just a little bit xxxx

A Domino Tag For Iris

This project uses a 7cm x 3.5cms children's picture domino as it’s base.

I covered the coloured side of the domino with scraps of a handwriting print paper and torn layers of a spotty green paper plus a scrap for Iris’s name.  The Iris flower is a button leftover from the days of Alan and Barry on Create and Craft. Iris’s name and the edging down the side was done with a black fine liner pen, knowing that the ink would run slightly when the Aleene's Pendant Gel (no longer, I don't think, available in the UK) was applied to the completed design, because I wanted, what I hoped would be, an aged look(?).  The yellow/gold flat backed gems also applied before the gel went on. By flooding the area with quite a thick layer of gel I hoped that the flower would look part embedded in the gloss, like an old tile.Once the gel had hardened I covered the sides with gold Inkssentials Memory Foil (possibly no longer available in UK)  and smoothed down with a crease mouse.

I screwed a tiny gold eye hook in the top of the “domino”, using a black jewellery wire and  pearl, silver and pink facetted bead to make the hanger.  The back of the tag was simply covered with an account book print paper.

The tag is going to be put away for Iris, probably for her Birthday or perhaps Christmas to go into her memory box of tree decorations I have made her over the past two years. I will write a little message and date it when I give it her.  I wonder where it will be in 50 years time?

Easter Button Brooches on Tag

Rather than give Iris’s lovely, lovely, lovely nursery staff something chocolaty for Easter, I decided to turn some of the button flower brooches from the other day into some little Easter gifts that will hopefully last a little longer.I fiddled and diddled for most of a morning until I was completely happy with the end result.

Firstly I needed to finish off the brooch bases I had made, using self adhesive fabric to cover the card base that I had glued the buttons on to and then added a small brooch pin using E6000 glue, so I could be sure of a secure bond.

I then cut out the tags and decorated them with assorted of tapes, the dotty tape came from The Works (£2 for a pack 10 colours) and the Easter tape from Lldl.

Next I tied the ribbons on, thinking that I would be able to attach the finished brooches to the tags with an adhesive foam pad, but when I tried it, it didn’t look right, so in the end I cut out some small rough rectangles to push the brooch pins through and then held them in place with strips of matching spotty tape.

Not as “professional” looking as I had hoped, but if I do them again I am sure I can fine tune the cutting.  With the brooches now securely in place, I still thought that there was something missing ……….

…….but found that by adding some punched leaf sprigs and a few dots here and there, all of a sudden everything came together  ……. I was so chuffed.

Out of curiosity I decided to work out the total cost of one tag complete with three brooches, not bad for just 70p ….. I don’t think you could even buy a cream egg for that!