Welcome to my creative online journal

Sunday 28 February 2010

Jingle Bells

For today's task I have been making another of my Christmas cards.  Some cards I make I will use layers and sketches found on the net but this one was designed to be flat:
First of all I stamped and cut out the santa onto a post it note to use as a mask then stamped him onto the white card.  I then embossed him with red glitter embossing powder.  I put the cut-out mask in place (directly over the embossed santa) and stamped the 'Ho Ho Ho' background. (This proved to be much trickier than I thought, because it was a wooden stamp, not clear.  Note to self, only try this again using CLEAR stamps!)

(Santa stamp from Inkadinkadoo collection)

I stuck it onto red card, which I then mounted onto the white background card.  I finished off with a working bell (he, he) attached to a ribbon.

Jingle, Jingle!

qwiksave x

February Review

Quick extra post, showing pics of all my makes in February:

Phew! Another busy, busy month!  Interesting for me to reflect on what I've done and wondering what type of things I will make next...

Prima Giveaway

So far I haven't ventured into the world of blog giveaways and challenges but looking around at some of the goodies on offer, I can't help but be tempted. 

This is one that caught my eye on the Prima blog:

Wow! What a lot of goodies!

Pop over to the Prima blog and follow the instructions on what you have to do to be in with a chance. There will be one american winner and one international winner.  Prize value $100!
They also said that something 'big' was coming our way!...

* * * * * THIS COMPETITION HAS EXPIRED* * * * * *



Saturday 27 February 2010

Shoes, Rain and Pancakes!

I haven't had a photography post for a while so today will make up for it!  I took my boys into town in glorious sunshine today - one of them insisted on only wearing his tshirt! :-O

First photo to show you were some creative shoes found in a charity shop that I photographed. They were like shoes covered in scrapbooking paper:
I have used a bit of 'artistic licence' on my photos again today, yes, Picnik!: 
Next up, we went to an italian cafe for lunch and I had this strawberry pancake with icecream (yum!):
and my younger son had a chocolate spread and banana one.  This is what they gave him:
On the way home, it poured with rain...
This lady, walking her dog was dressed from head to toe in red:
The sun was also shining, so it made great lighting effects - and a rainbow!:
We followed the rainbow home and were hoping that the pot of gold would be waiting at our house when we arrived back but no such luck!

(I did have some great post though, my Tim Holtz book & crafting goodies have arrived from QVC!) 

Friday 26 February 2010

Simple Stamp Card

Nice simple craft today - a card made by stamping and distressing, my favourite kind of card to make.


I started off in a nice genteel fashion, stamping the pink central decorative part and then added some pink flourishes around the corners and sides.  I then came in with the dark black Versamark ink.  I inked the corners, and then started on making a flourish 'forest'.  It reminds me of the story of 'Sleeping Beauty', the thorn forest growing up and taking over the pretty fairytale castle. 

I used a faded stamp pad to add the shading around the white area and I finished off by adding the butterfly.  I was wondering whether to colour the butterfly in some way, but then thought it would distract from the simple stamp appeal of the card.

Thursday 25 February 2010

Wonderful ATG 700! (Glue Gun)

I finally bought some rolls of tape for my ATG Glue Gun.  I bought the gun ages ago when Helen from 'It's  All Fiddle Fart' (this is getting to be a habit Helen, hope you don't mind!) spoke so highly of it.  This really is a crafter's wonder product!  The rolls (10 of them) came today and I watched the YouTube video on how to put one in. It's not that difficult its just that you need to know which bits go where.

This is what the 'gun' looks like:

It really surprised me how big it was when it was delivered!  But its not heavy, just BIG!

Its true that when you get it set up though you want to glue everything in sight.  Its like the way men are with their drills, its a FUN tool! :-)

I used mine today to matt & layer some snow photos that I had taken in January:


I love the colour combination of black, red & white and when there has been snow red items seem to be extra noticeable - even recycling boxes!  (I also added a bit more contrast using online photo service, Picnik)

If you google 'ATG 700' you will find a few places that sell it and no, I'm not on commission - unfortunately!

Extra Post - Shopping!

I've had a successful day shopping today and thought you might be as  nosey  interested as me in finding out what I got!:
What a lot I got!  First up we have..
ANOTHER charity shop crafting book 'Making Great Bags, Tags, Boxes & Cards' by Karen Delquadro (£1.50) which looks interesting and 'Papercraft Inspirations' magazine with some rather twee free cottage embelishments....
...some flat backed glass nuggets which are always useful and a handmade glass paperweight.  That weird shell like thing inside it on the pic looks in real life like fusable craft fibres.  Beautiful and shimmery.  Next up we have...
... a bird in  a tree jewellery stand (looks a bit like the one Helen on 'It's All Fiddle Fart' was showing us...?) This one costs me £3 from a charity shop and its really fashionable!  I also got....
...on the left, a funky travel filofax. (Half Price) Its got badges, stickers and funky things on each page. (Think its meant for kids but they're not having it!) and on the right, a squarish clear pencil case.  I love taking lots of pens around in my bag, so this is ideal. The notebook inside is square so it will be useful for designing scrapbook layouts.  Its a WHSmiths 'Donut Pen Set' @£2.99.  Finally (phew!) I got this..
Sorry, not a great picture but its a magnetic stand-up mini-photo-frame-come-noticeboard with some funky magnets, also down to half price. 

Off now to do today's craft, what will it be?... (Wish I knew! lol)

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Post Pals Cards

I love making things for and with children, basically I think it's because I'm still a big kid myself!

I got the idea for my craft today by reading the crafty forums on MSE (See link, top right). One of  the posts on there today was about Post Pals ( http://www.postpals.co.uk/)   This is a website which helps young UK children that are very seriously ill by requesting people send cards, letters and/or presents (if able) to cheer up the ill children and their siblings.

 I am sending these cards to a very sick little 2 year old girl and to her 4 year old sister.

The 2 year old likes Peppa Pig.  I made a big card (A4) with an envelope with a great big picture on  the back to match:
This was the card with nice brightly coloured pictures:
I've used decoupage glue to stick all the images down (images were from my children's old comic collection in the attic)  Decoupage glue gives a great finish but the envelope and card did bend a little in the morning. 

The big sister likes Snow White.  I found a nice big book with lots of colour illustrations, scanned them in, printed them and stuck them down. I also used a big picture on the envelope:
This was the card (A4 size):
I added hand drawn stitches, heart stickers and letter stickers to spell out her name.

Hopefully they will raise a smile.

Please visit the Post Pals website, and maybe you could send a homemade card or present to a very sick child. I'm sure it will be very much appreciated.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Flower Magnet and Sunspecs Case

If you're like me, the sun is probably a long way away from your mind at the moment - it is SO C-O-L-D outside these days, not to mention the flurries of snow we keep getting - roll on Spring, thats what I say!

With this cold weather, it has meant I have had to spend all day inside with only QVC Craft Day to keep me company!  Even my husband has gone back to the sunnier climes of China to leave me suffering (ahem!) home alone.

I didn't go too mad with QVC though, I only got the one Tim Holtz thing, the TSV, which was his fantastic book.  Can't wait to see it!

For my craft today, I did some practical makes
I made the button brooch from hand made heartfelted into a magnet:

and I made a sunspecs case using funky foam and beads here:


You could use the same simple design to hold an IPod or Mobile Phone. The idea for making this came from discussions we've had on the Christmas Craft thread on Money Saving Expert and the basic instructions came from 'Awesome Crafts' (its real title!), an american craft book. 

EDIT: Spot the difference!  If you saw this blog earlier you would have noticed  that I have modernised the glasses case by adding some hand drawn swirls.

Monday 22 February 2010

Covered Sketchbook and Distressed Envelope

I'm all excited tonight!  I've got my QVC membership and credit card poised ready to buy lots of crafting goodies from the QVC Crafting Day which starts in half an hour!  Tim Holtz and loads of other great sellers are going to be demonstrating some great new products.  Thank goodness I had some birthday money saved from last week!

I've been listening to follower's suggestions!  Quite a few of you suggested I put the vintage Ladybird book picture from yesterday's make onto my blogging notebook so that is what I've done:

I've modernised it by tying lots of coloured ribbons onto the spiral spine, something I've seen others do but never done myself and I love it!  It's so touchy feely now too and inspires me to write in my new ideas book!  
I also did another craft, distressing a personalised envelope:

This would be the type you would give someone by hand, not put it in the post but I enjoyed carrying out all  the distressing and stamping.

Best go, QVC is about to start and I'm on the wrong channel!

Sunday 21 February 2010

Children's Activity Box

This might be a bit late for Half Term but its a really useful thing to have.  I don't know about you, but when I take my little darlings(!) to cafes and visting other people's houses my boys tend not to have a very long attention span.  This can lead to them causing mischief - not ideal when all you want is a quiet coffee.

So today I made this retro pictured Activity Box:

I have seen one very similar to this in gift shops for a small fortune so I decided to made my own.  I scanned this old Ladybird book (which I remember having as a child) and stuck the image on the front of a plastic box:
Inside it contains: Usborne Activity Cards, Felt Tips, Wax Crayons, Sketch Book and Wiki Stix.

This box would be useful to keep in the car for holidays and all those 'fill in' moments.

I'm thinking I'd also like to use the image for the front of one of my notebooks - so I can write my ideas for my blog crafts in it.

Saturday 20 February 2010

Image Transfer and Colourful Bandstand

My craft today didn't go to plan.  I was working with image transfers and most of what I tried failed to give me the desired result.  Never mind, I just know I need to do some more (fun!) experimenting...

I was inspired to do the image transfers by this book I got today:
Collage Discovery Workhop by Claudine Hellmuth (£1.85 from a charity shop!)

Admitedly, I haven't had chance to read it yet but I remember years ago doing a successful transfer of  a picture from a magazine I had of Elvis Presley.  So I tried the same method - which was using Cellulose Thinners - and it didn't work that well.  Maybe it depends on what type of newsprint the picture is on, they vary so much:

My set up showing picture I was going to copy::
You put your picture, image side down onto the paper (today I used posh Cotton paper from Paperchase) and with cotton wool soak the back. with the Cellulose Thinners.  Then use a pencil to draw over the back of the image.  This was the best result I had:
(The picture in front was the original I was copying)

I also tried a picture that was on newspaper but that didn't work at all.   Think I need to study that book! :-)

Other news and while passing our town bandstand today I was surprised to see it was all wrapped up in lots of different coloured yarn!:



It looked lovely in the sunshine!  It was part of some children's art project, but on passing later I noticed that it was all gone and put back to normal.

Friday 19 February 2010

My Birthday, Snow, Chatter...

Well! What a couple of days! I was hoping to come back home yesterday but yesterday evening the snow came down so thick in this part of the Midlands that the car wouldn't have made it! 

Fortunately it was lovely and sunny this morning so we made it back this afternoon when the snow had melted a bit.  This was the scene we woke up to though:
(My mother-in-law is of the old traditional sort though, she actually put washing out on that washing line later to dry!....)

The boys and my husband also made a pretty big snowman in that garden:

It was of course my birthday today, and I've had quite an enjoyable day but unfortunately not much crafting!  I must show you the card Ryan made me though:
Looks as though he made quite an effort!  I also love what he put on the back of the card!:

Quite the enterpreneur!

I have decided to save up my birthday money to watch (and maybe buy!) some of Tim Holtz's stuff next week on QVC, I lurrve his style!   

My mother-in-law also found an old sewing machine lying around so has let me have it!  It needs a new bobbin case before I can be let loose on it but hopefully soon...  (Wonder how you use one..?)

She also gave me loads of icing cake colourings and edible glitters from her cake making & decorating days (out of date for eating), wonder what I will do with that?... 

EDIT: Oops! Forgot to add the bit of crafting I did do which was this bit of doodling:
and these embellishments for cards or scrapbooks:
When I see the cost of embellishments in the shops I often think I should make my own.  This was me making a start. 

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Quick painting

Only got time to pop in today with a quick make today as I am off to my inlaws for a couple of days.  Not sure they have internet access in the little village they live in. I've bought a dongle but even their mobile phone access is poor.

Just had a little play with my oil pastels and watercolours to make a background:

Mixed the flowers with some freehand flourishes.  I think I should have used a paler coloured wash, this blue neant it lost all the pinks.  I think I will work on it some more at a later date.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Birthday Card and Birmingham

Today I made another card, a birthday card for one of my friends. 

Here it is: 
Its a bit of a change for me, all pink, ribbony and flowery, which is not like me at all!

The flowers were from Poppicrafts a while ago, I have added buttons for the centres and the ribbons were from my stash.  The sentiments were a free gift from a card mag a while ago too.

Close up photos:


Today, our family went out on a day out to Birmingham.  The boys and their dad went to see Avatar 3d at the Imax while I did a little shopping.  It was very crowded because of Half Term.

I went to Selfridges, its a massive building . On the ouside it is coloured blue and covered with loads of silver coloured discs (each one about the size of a tyre):
It does have a few windows around the other side and here it has a cafe balcony:
They sell all sorts of weird and wonderful things you never knew you needed, and there's also a Food Hall with its own sweet department.  In there there was a Jelly Bean area with this enormous model of a bull made out of Jelly Beans:
and Close-up:
Clever huh?

But there's not enough craft shops in Brum!  I did, however, get some scrapbooking bits from WHSmiths.
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