oooops has it realy been 3 weeks!!!

Baby album commission

How time flies when your crafting. Its been 3 weeks since I posted here but that's because I had 2 scrapbook albums to make for commissions. I also had a dozen cards and gifts for various teachers at my daughters school some of who were leaving and some just thank you cards.
So I will give you a little peek of what I have been up to.
Firstly the cards and gifts that I made for the teachers leaving my daughters school.
These cards were all very personal as they were made with their various hobbies in mind.

Rugby themed card

This was made using an 8" x 8" white card blank on which I matted a royal blue piece of card 7.75" square and then a piece of cream 7.5" square and finally a piece of green measuring 7" square.
For this card I used Anna Marie Designs template Cd rom number 4 to print a template for the main rugby ball shapes, goal and word rugby. I coloured the word using a Promarker and then highlighted both the ball and word with faux stitching using Sakura gelly roll pens. I then mounted them all onto the card as shown. Finally I added a sentiment written onto a piece of white card using Weathered Wood and Bundled Sage distress markers. I cut this to 2" x 3" and matted onto a piece of royal blue.

Theatre themed card number one

 This one was made using an 8" x 8" white card blank which I matted firstly with a piece of red pearlescent card cut to 7.75" square. Using the same red card I created theatre curtain shapes. I then took pieces of textured paper to create the stage area and placed onto the card front before attaching the curtains. Next I embellished the card using images from My Craft Studio as well as taking images of theatre posters into the programme to shrink them. I finished the design with a bunch of roses, sentiment which I mounted on a Spellbinders die cut and curtain ties.

Theatre themed card number 2

 First I printed a topper and mini venetian mask from the Debbi Moore Venetian Collection. I mounted the topper on a scalloped circle cut using spellbinders largest scalloped circle die. I then added glitter highlights to the mask. Next I mounted the circle topper onto a small square of Kraft card measuring 4.5" x 4.5" to which I had attached a red border. I then matted this onto a cream square cut to 5" x 5". I then took a cream card blank 8" x 8" and matted on to it a piece of silver mirror card 7.75" square a piece of red texture card 7.5" square and then a piece of textured paper cut to 7" square. Next I added my smaller layered square complete with topper. I further embellished the card by adding the mask, paper roses, crystal cabochons, crochet lace, ribbon and tickets.

Cocktail themed card 

 For this next card I took an 8" square white card blank and matted with two different shades of pink cardstock cut to 7.75" square and 7.5" square. Next I added a piece of patterned paper 7" x 7". I then created my main topper by layering up small piece of cream card 4.5" x 4.5" and textured pink card 4" x 4" before adding the cocktail image. (The background paper, cocktail topper and sentiment were all from an old issue of Making Cards Magazine. I knew my hording was for a good reason!!) Next I punched a border strip using a Martha Stewart punch and stuck this to the bottom half of the card along with a length of orange polka dot ribbon. I cut 3 smaller pieces of the same ribbon which I looped in half and attached to the top left of my main topper before I stuck it to the card front. I stuck it in the top right corner. I completed the card with the sentiment which I backed with a piece of card to strengthen before adding to the card as shown.

Cinema/movie buff themed card

 This card was made for a film buff who both loved watching movies but especially going to the cinema to see them. Firstly I used My Craft Studio Cd rom Men-y Happy Returns to print the ticket background and various movie themed items. Some I printed as digi stamps and some as coloured images. I coloured the popcorn image using promarkers and wrote mini messages on the film strip. I then took a 8" square cream card blank to which I added a black mat measuring 7.75" square and then a red mat cut to 7.5" square. Next I cut the ticket background to 7" x 7" and stuck this to the other layers. I finished the card by embellishing with the movie themed items.

Floral good luck card

 This final card was for someone who loved flowers. I took an 8" square white card blank which I matted with a piece of gold mirror card cut to 7.75" square and then added to this some Hunkydory card measuring 7.5" square. In the top left corner I created a flower feature using Spellbinders leafy corner and various flowers I made myself by layering up Martha Stewart punched flowers, Cosmic Shimmer decorative PVA glues and gem stones. I completed the card with a Hunkydory border strip placed across the centre of the card and Good Luck Topper.

Boxed altered Stationary set for Retirement gift

For this gift I purchased a reasonably priced notebook and some pens and pencil and decided to embellish the notebook with some items in my stash then make a box to compliment it.
The outside of the notebook as you can see was very pretty but the inside was very plain other than a plain bookmark ribbon. I had some mini postcards, tags and metal decorations from A My Craft Studios Embellishment Attic kit as well as Craftwork Cards Postcards from Paris papers that I knew would compliment this perfectly.

Firstly I added a length of crochet ribbon down the length of the left hand side and using Silicone glue attached the metal gold leaf embellishment. Next I attached some mini postcards to the cover of the book and placed 2 mini tags back to back at the base of the bookmark ribbon

 I chose 3 sheets of paper from this pad, 1 each of the roses with the Eiffel Tower, the mini postcards and the mirror. Two of them I used for the inside covers of the notebook and one would be used later.

I covered the inside cover with the mirror paper and attached a larger Embellishment attic postcard to the right hand side. I used this to personalise the book.

 

 

I added the Eiffel Tower backing paper to the back inside cover.

Next I used my Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro boxer board to create a box with sections to hold the various items. Firstly I cut two pieces of card to 10" x 11" and using the first one I made a  box base that was  8" x 9" with a 1" depth. For the long dividing strip I cut a piece of card 1" x 11" long and then made a score line 1" from each end. To create the holders for the pens and pencil I cut two pieces of card to 1" x  4" long and then scored every 1/2"

I then glued them in place using Cosmic Shimmer PVA firstly checking each area was spaced right.

I then made the box base using the remaining piece of cardstock. I decorated the front of the box lid with the mini postcards paper and a left over strip of the Eiffel tower paper. To complete the box I added some paper roses, pink crochet ribbon bow, tag and Hunkydory  die cut Sentiment.

Decorative candle Retirement gift

For this I used a tall white pillar candle, red crochet ribbon, two tone blue wide striped gros grain ribbon, red ribbon bows, pearl stems, cabochons, clear gemstones, red berry stems, silk leaves, paper flowers in shades of blue and red, ultra fine crystal glitter and foiled die cut sentiments.

 Although you can't see them in this picture (because they are covered by the flowers) the first thing I did was to stick a length of the blue ribbon and crochet ribbon around the centre of the candle. Making sure that the joins were at the front of the candle then they would be hidden under the floral embellishments. I then stuck a congratulations foiled sentiment to the top of the candle. Next I created my floral centre piece using the large blooms and tucking leaves, berries, pearls and rose buds in between. I then highlighted some of the flowers using a quickie glue pen and crystal glitter.

 With the candle sideways you can see the red crochet ribbon and 2 tone blue gros grain ribbon.

To make the back as pretty as the front I embellished with pale blue cabochons and red ribbon bows.

 

 I used the Crafters Companion Sweet Treats milk carton board  to create a large milk carton.

Once completed I decorated with patterned papers in shades of red and pale blue, paper flowers, silk leaves, decorative pegs, ribbon bows, red crochet ribbon and spellbinders tag and sentiment.

 

Birthday Present for a friend part 2

As a teaching assistant my friend is always writing down notes so I decided a personalised notebook would be perfect for her second gift.
I purchased a notebook that already had a pretty floral design in shades of pale green, baby pink, brown and turquoise.
First I cut 16 various coloured and patterned pieces of ribbon to 2" long and tied 1 of each to the ring bound spine of the notebook as shown.

 

Next I stamped a butterfly using Versamark onto a piece of Centura pearl card.  I had created an inked background on to this first using the Big and Juicy waterfall inkpad. I then heat embossed the image with silver pearl embossing powder, before cutting out. I attached this as shown using Pinflair glue gel. I then cut a small piece of co-ordinating rose paper and spelt out notebook using silver peel off letters. I stuck this to the front as shown using extra strong double sided tape. Next I took a selection of ready made paper roses and cut the wires off all but 2 of them. Using a pokey tool I curled the wires of these before sticking them all to the front with Pinflair.

Next using 2 different sizes of bunting die I cut 4 patterned and 4 co-ordinating plain bunting pieces. I matted these together using Cosmic Shimmer glue and then added the letters to spell Lynn. I attached them to a narrow strip of ribbon and then glued to the front as shown with a small amount of Pinflair glue gel so that they were quite flat to the notebook. I completed the look with some more paper roses, again stuck with Pinflair.

 The finished personalised notebook. Whats great about this is because it is ring bound the embellishments do not stop the book open properly or laying correctly whilst in use.

 

 

 

OMG its been over a year and a half!!

Well its been over a year and a half but finally I am back doing my blog. Why so long away you ask??? Well over the course of 6 months I took all of the photos needed to update my blog and uploaded them to the computer and kept telling myself tomorrows the day. But tomorrow never came and then the worse thing happened I lost all the photographs when my computer corrupted. So without the photographs I faced a mammoth task of re taking all the pictures and an even bigger one of remembering all the products I had used to make the cards etc. So I decided I will start again from now with some new projects and remember to back up my pictures!!

So what have I been up to in the last 18 months??

Well my 2 rats Davina and Sandy sadly passed away and I rescued 2 gorgeous little degus who I named Ruby and Garnet

 

 

Well the lived happily for 14 months together but sadely Garnet was unwell and passed away too. But I still have Ruby and she loves nothing more than falling asleep in my pocket or jumping out of the cage in to my daughter Aisha's dressing gown hood when she opens the cage.

 

This is Ruby snuggled up warm in her fleecy tunnel

 

Something else I did last year for the 1st time ever was go on holiday with my daughter Aisha. She was almost 12 at the time but we had never been on a holiday.

We may not have flown off to sunny Spain or gone to Disneyland but we could not have had a better time.

A truly amazing present to us from an amazing person 3>

We went for a week to Weymouth and yes sometimes it was wet and windy but we had a fabulous time and it has given us some memories and photos to treasure for ever!!

 The morning we set off for Weymouth, it was lovely and sunny and we were both just a little bit excited!!!

 The breakfasts in the guest house were just scrummy, everything you could think of from yogurt and fruit, full fry up to pancakes and maple syrup and everything in between. After 3 courses at breakfast you could go until dinnertime without eating!! Although there was always room for ice cream!!!

 Sunny day trip to Lyme Regis-the journey on the bus along the coast was beautiful too.

 We took a trip on a pedal boat on one afternoon, it did seem quite scary at times when we looked back and realised how far out we had paddled. But then when you look down and realise how shallow the water really is at Weymouth even when you are far far out!! 

 A day trip to The Sealife Centre-pretty sure Aisha would happily have bought the entire shop if she could have afforded it!!

 

Going for a paddle on our last morning as we could not swim due to carrying all our luggage!!

 

After the excitement of our holiday you would think the rest of the year would be very quiet. But October and December would prove to be just as exciting especially for my daughter Aisha who could not possibly have dreamt what would happen to her!!

 

In October it was her birthday she went out with some friends, had a sleepover, got some amazing presents and I made her a cake.

 

 

 

 I made her a very special cake in honour of our four favourite men!! The awesome JLS.

I also made matching cupcakes for her to take to school for her friends.

But her year was to get better as JLS were to have their final concert ever at the O2 on 22nd December and Aisha had no idea her Christmas present was tickets to the concert. To say she went crazy would be slightly understating it!!!

 In our seats at the O2 waiting for the boys to come on stage-Aisha is still in shock!!

 

Well after all that fun and excitement the rest of the year was filled with making cards for friends and family as well as baby albums and scrapbooks being made to order.

 

Memory Album

This  album was requested by a friend Hayley for her elderly nan to help her remember all the family members and for her to tell the other members of their family the stories behind the pictures while she still could!!

This was a first for me as I usually did anniversary albums or baby books. Also I was asked to put the pictures in it too. This was a challenge but a really nice one. Because I felt I was learning about the family too and creating a story.

 

 

I started out as I meant to go on by using paper flowers and ribbon on the front of the album!!

 

 The haircuts and the outfits in these Christmas photos was just hilarious, especially the dungarees!!

 I cut into the background papers then tucked the pictures under the flower blooms.

 For the next few pages I used some Martha Stewart punches and lots of chipboard letters

 Again here on the boat trip photos I played with cutting into the background paper and tucking the photos in. It worked really well making it look like they were tucked behind ribbon on a pin board.

 Lots of girlie embellishments for those cute baby pictures of great granddaughter Ellie!!

 I had the most fun with this last page layering up all the flowers and leaves around the whole page

 

When I had finished this album even though I was pleased with how it had turned I was still nervous that Hayley may not like it or even worse her nan would not.

I needn't have been because Hayley was over the moon and when she presented it to her Nan she cried (with happiness of course)

 A few weeks later it was a friend of my daughters Birthday and Aisha asked if I could make her a present. Aisha told me Molly liked to collect little bits and bobs and really liked little boxes.

The Little chest of drawers

I used my much loved ultimate pro to create 4 little drawers which I decorated and lined with papers from craftwork cards. I attached them to a base and added a top both 1" larger than the drawers. I decorated the top with flowers I had made as well as butterflies, gems and ribbon. I finished it by adding Molly's name to the top

Making this little chest of drawers started me on a new found love of creating little gifts not just cards and scrapbooks.

Which brings me nicely to why I have decided to start my blog again!!
The lovely Leanne Chivers of Crafters Companion recently put out a call for design team members for the main Crafters Companion design team and the Die'sire design team. Well to say this would be a dream come true would be a very big understatement. So I decided I would give it a go, and not doing things by halves decided I would try my luck for both. I guess I hoped this would give me better odds.
But this has along the way given me its fare share of challenges as it meant creating 6 projects or cards all in one go, and giving detailed descriptions on how I created them and what I used in a very short space of time. (Good practice for that design post )
Well I thought to myself this is where that blog of yours will come in handy!!!

Well projects created I logged into my blog to upload everything before sending off my application to Leanne and that's where I have been ever since (writing and re writing, then editing and trying to upload photos whilst everyone in the neighbourhood has got home and eaten in to my broadband speed.

The design team challenge

I started out with a visit to Hobbycraft (always dangerous!!) where I purchased some paper mache boxes including a tissue box and also some notebooks and journals that were plain ready to decorate as my plan was to make at least 3 of my pieces altered art projects rather than just cards.

I then started on the mammoth (but never boring) task of rummaging through hundreds of papers, ribbons, flowers, buttons, dies and rubber stamps to name a few to gather together all my treasures that I would use.

The Tissue box

I started out with a plain paper mache tissue box which I had purchased from Hobbycrafts
Using Crawford and Black white acrylic paint I painted the entire box inside and out with a good covering then set aside to dry.
Whilst the box was drying I selected some pieces of paper from the Docrafts Forever Friends Kraft Notes 12" x 12" paper pad.
Then using the box as a template I cut the pieces to size and covered all sections of the box and lid with the exception of the inside!

Using the Creative Expressions 6 petal flower button/floral stamp and the paper flower dots stamp I created my own paper roses in shades of pink and blue by stamping onto Neenah cardstock and then inking all over.
I used Tim Holtz distress ink pads in Broken China and Fired Brick to colour the roses.
I also created more flowers by using my Spellbinders Rose Creations dies to cut flowers from Crafters Companion turquoise centura pearl.
Other dies used included butterflies and the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Foliage. These were cut from small scraps of green and pink card I had in my bit box.

The top of the box was further embellished with gem stones, Anna Marie designs pearl bead stems, Hat pins and vintage style lace.

 

Then it was onto further embellishing the sides of the box which I had already covered in decorative papers. For this I used some already die cut pink flowers from a Kanban kit that was feeling unloved in my craft room. I then die cut in shades of turquoise lots of fleur de lis corners and embellishments from the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis motifs set. I also cut two large Chantilly Bows using my tattered lace die and found a get well soon message as a finishing touch.

The 2 tattered lace Chantilly bows were layered one on top of the other to create a very 3d bow

It now has pride of place in my living room because now I love it so much I can't see myself giving it away!! Oh well good excuse to have to make another one!!

Note Book

For this I started out with a 2 blank Chipboard note book covers and some fabrips (fabric you can tear into strips and use to bind books) and also a re fill notebook blank for the inside. These pieces all came from a Studio Calico kit purchased from Create and Craft.

After assembling the base covers with the blank notebook inner and binding with some fabrip I set about creating the design I would put on my notebook. From the very beginning I had in my head that I wanted it to be very pastel toned. So I chose lots of pinks and blues as well as some greens.

First of all I covered the front and back covers of the book with pieces of beige striped paper I had chosen from the Forever Friends Kraft Notes pad. I then took a second piece of paper in a pink and green check from the same pad and cut leaving a 1/4" border all around then layered onto the front of the book. I took a further strip of the same paper and matted onto the back cover so that it all matched perfectly.
Next using Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 1 and Grand Labels 1 sets of dies I cut 3 various sized pieces that nested onto each other. Firstly the largest from Crafters Companion centura  pearl card, the next from Anna-Marie's dottie card in olive and lastly from a backing paper in the Kraft Notes set.

I cut various sizes and colours of flowers using the spellbinders Rose Creations die as well as butterflies and also Fleur de lis corners from the motifs collection by Spellbinders.

I finished off my design by further embellishing with 2 Spellbinders borders layered up cut from Crafters Companion centura pearl and Anna-Marie dottie card (olive), flat back pearls, pink and cream raffia and Cosmic Shimmer coloured PVA in Teal Sky and Vintage Pink.

I known that I will never write in it or give it away because I think its far to pretty!! Will just have to sit and look at it every now and again!!

 

Its a shame because the pictures really do not do the colours justice and really do not show the real dimension to this project

It seemed I had a new addiction!!

The altered art A4 notebook

For this project I used a Hobbycraft A4 plain ringbound chipboard notebook

I decided I was going to go with a tealy blue and chocolate brown colour scheme with some beiges thrown in for good measure!!

 

I used the following items to create my notebook

Dies 

 

Spellbinders Rose Creations Dies, card creator Branching out, Fleur de lis motifs, die d-lites tweets, die d-lites corner sprigs and Nestabilities labels 20

Papers and cardstock

Do crafts Forever Friends Kraft Notes 12" x 12" paper pad, Anna-Marie designs dottie card in chocolate and café latte, Kanban floral swirl printed card, Create and crafted pearlescent cardstock in teal and Create and Craft Topsy Turvy cardstock in teal/blue, core'dinations card in brown.

Embellishments

Kanban sheet of die cut flowers and birdcages, Material brads, assorted ribbon pieces in beiges, turquoises and browns, Cosmic Shimmer coloured pearlescent glues in Teal Sky and Chocolate Brown and finally Anna-Marie pearl sprays in blue.

 

other items used were Tim Holtz distress ink in Brushed Courdray, Collall all purpose glue and Collall glue gel

 

 

 First I took an A4 sheet of chocolate dottie card and trimmed off 1/2" from one long side and one short side so that it would mat nicely onto the base without interfering with the ringbinding.
I created various layers from the Kraft notes papers and café latte dottie card 2 of which I die cut using the Branching out and Labels 20 dies. I attached these to the notebook using all purpose glue.
Before I matted the labels 20 piece I inked it with the distress ink pad.

I embellished my project with butterflies, flowers, birds and bird cages the majority of which were from a kanban kit. Extra floral, leaf, corner and bird embellishments were created using the various spellbinders dies. The leaves and corners were cut from the teal and pearlescent teal card and the bird was cut from the core'dinations brown card. These embellishments were attached to the notebook using 3d glue gel in order to give a secure bond but also lots of dimension!!

The project was finished with pearl stems and cosmic shimmer glues and lots and lots of pieces of ribbon tied around each ring of the binding.

 The finished notebook in all its glory- definitely going to be one of those sit and stroke items!!

 Close up of Fleur de lis corner, sprigs and foliage as well as little tweets bird. This corner also features layered Kanban flowers and butterfly trails created Coloured PVA from Cosmic Shimmer.

 These pictures show close ups of the gorgeous Kanban butterflies and bird cage embellishments

 The butterflies antenna have been created from the  Anna-Marie blue pearl stems

 The lovely fabric brads have been used to create the centres of the Kanban flowers

The gorgeous array of ribbon pieces that have been put to good use along the spine of this ring binding that otherwise would have been too small for anything else and been thrown away!!