Sorry for the lack of posts, again!!

The days seem to be flying by, I can't believe it's Christmas a week on Saturday!  Although I've been busy making cards, I have, uselessly, managed to photograph none of them!!  I must have made well over 50 cards in the last month between orders for local people, to fill my 'box' in a nearby restaurant and to give to the local Xmas fair for selling, and I am pretty much carded out!  I can't wait for all the orders to be completed and Christmas holidays to be here, so that I can just play when I want to...not to mention getting my craft room back to some sort of order...again!!  We put the tree up on the weekend and there are now empty boxes that the decorations came out of, strewn around the house - I don't know where to put them all because it won't be long and I'll need them to put the decorations away again!  It seems a lot of hassle for a day, but it's worth it when you see the excited faces on Christmas morning!

Hope everyone is recovering from the snow, mind you, they're threating us with it again by the end of the week - it was beautifully pretty, but a total inconvenience.... we didn't have the snow too deep, just minus 13 degree temperatures!!  I went through a month's coal in a fortnight trying to keep the house warm!  I'm trying to fit in making by brother and sister-in-law's Christmas presents, I have warned them that it is what they asked for and not to expect too much, but it's much more personal...I promise to take a photograph and post it after Christmas Day (in case they happened to hop by!)  Last year, I made them a patchwork owl doorstop...

... he was rather lovely and I would've been quite happy to keep it myself if they hadn't like it!  Plus I did a pair of encaustic art landscapes, something else I would like to have a play with over the holidays.

I hope to post something for you all soon, once I have my Mojo back and can face what, at the moment is, the dreaded cardboard!  Until then, happy crafting!

Get crafty for Christmas!

Hi there everyone!  Another week has passed by and it gets closer to Christmas by the day!  With that in mind, I decided to make something that could be given as a gift and created this gift set...

 

The contents are a bottle of Shower Gel and face cloth, which I bought for a total of 35p!!  I created the desk caddy using this template, which is available to download here...I then decorated with brown card panels on the front and back, and embossed 2 strips of card using the woodgrain folder from Craft Concepts, inked with Rusty Hinge and Walnut Distress Inks and wrapped around the box and face cloth.  I cut a piece of light card to cover the label of the shower gel, embossed and inked, then attached using glue - I decorated with the anchor and skull medallion, from the pirate range on the Boys2Men disc.  After wrapping the whole thing with cellophane, it looked more than 35p worth of product - what do you think?

It would be ideal if you know someone who likes different brands of products, so you could coordinate them into a gift set.

 I've made 2 templates, one for this smaller desk caddy/gift box and one for a larger version...you could always add dividers and use them as desk caddies, or whatever you like, I just thought it was a good way to make your money go further, by making it look like a gift set rather than separate products.

(NOTE: set the page scaling to 'None' in Adobe Reader before sending to print)

Next, I saw a fantastic halloween door hanger over at Lily's Art Creations and was inspired, but wanted to incorporate one of the Boys2Men images and came up with this...

To get the robot so big, I opened the robot topper sheet, then using my snapshot tool, highlighted all the pieces labelled 'A' then clciked print - I made sure my paper size was set to A4, that the Auto rotate and centre box was checked and that the page scaling was set to 'Fit to Printable area', this gives you the robot and all the decoupage layers scaled to fit the page.  I made the sign using a piece of card embossed with woodgrain and inked with Walnut, then cut out the name using a Sissix alphabet die set and the word room was silver peel off letters.  I attached to the robot by puching holes in the last decoupage layer of the robot's feet and along the top of the sign, then connected using jump rings.

I think it would make a nice personalised gift if put in a box and decorated with the robot image - might do that later!

With Christmas getting ever more expensive and purse strings getting tighter, I think we should be making more gifts for people, to try and make it more personal - my brother and sister-in-law made our presents last year, and they were fantastic, they made homemade jam, sloe gin and cookies and I got a handmade apron, which was made from bright orange flame material and orange netting trim, it was amazing!

A love affair with Distress Inks!

It's official, I'm hooked!!  I can't even look at a piece of card at the moment, without getting my Distress Inks out and having a play!  I bought a couple of embossing folders up at Crafts4U and they were just crying out to be inked and used in conjunction with some of the Boys2Men images...

The first I made using a Cuttlebug folder called Distress Stripes and the pirate treasure map decoupage - I inked the background with Rusty Hinge and Walnut...

Next, I made a golf card using the golf decoupage and the Cuttlebug Argyle folder inked with Peeled Paint and Weathered Wood...

 The third card was using one of the robot toppers and the large Cuttlebug folder Clockworks, which I inked using Weathered Wood and Walnut, I cut the aperture in the panel before embossing and used the oval that was left to emboss the clock and cut around it...

 Then to finish off, this holly folder has been in my embossing folders box for years (literally) and I've just never known what to do with it, as it seemed a bit boring just in white...so out came the Distress Inks again, and just look at the result...

I used Peeled Paint over the embossed panel first, then went around the edges with Rusty Hinge, the lace I coloured with Rusty Hinge and all edges were distressed with either Peeled Paint or Rusty Hinge...I'm at the stage where, if it stays still, it's likely to get inked!!  Wonder what my next obsession will be?!  I thought that the finished result was more subtle than your traditional red and green and as always, the picture does not do it justice...maybe one day I'll get to be a half decent photgrapher (though I doubt it!?!)

Toolbox card

 Hi everyone!  This week has been spent trying to catch up with everything that had been put off before last Saturday's launch at Crafts4U2Do (my house had never seen so much neglect, well since the launch of Plush Pals anyway, and the children were complaining about drawers being empty!) - a big hello to everyone who came along and thank you all for your support!  Di was taking photos during the day, so I thought I'd post them for you all to see (even though I hate having my picture taken!)

One of the samples that went down a storm was a pop out toolbox card that I made using elements from the disc...

 

As promised, here is the toolbox template and  toolbox instructions available to download from 4shared.com

It's always difficult to create written instructions on how to make a card, so I hope that it is easy enough to comprehend - I've added photos to try and make it easier to figure out my instructions and if you could give feedback, I can alter it accordingly!

Cards, cards, cards!

Hi everyone!  I've been such a busy bee!  I've had a lot of card orders to do recently, so thought I would post you all a pic, to see what I've been up to.  These are just a few of the ones that I've made this last week (I never remember to take photos of them all!)

There's an 18th and 21st birthday, a 16th birthday and a Welsh wedding card.  I've also made a card for someone who's been accepted into Police training and one for a new job in a haulage company...

I've been having a play with my Boys2Men images and making some 'different' samples for Saturday (can't believe the launch is this weekend!)  My Distress Inks have been used at every opportunity and as you can see from the card above, I'm getting braver!  I've even made a pop up card, which took me hours to design, but is really effective!  I know I'm a tease, but I'll be posting lots of pics after Saturday, for you all to see and take inspiration!  Hope to see some of you for the launch on Saturday, at Crafts4u2Do, St Helens (the post code's WA10 6SH, if you need to put it in your Sat Nav!)  should be a fantastic day, with lots of ideas and inspiration, so come along if you can!

Ella card

Hi guys!  I'm back in sample making mode, getting ready for the launch of Boys2Men on Saturday 23rd October, not to mention the orders I've had to complete this week, so unfortunately, cards for posting are thin on the ground!  I have managed to create a card using the Ella freebie...

It turned out very girly and pink, but I couldn't help it!  I used the pink spotty backing paper from the Plush Pals disc, my new oval nesties (that I got at Leigh show -think I need to extend my collection a bit more yet!), some dusky pink ribbon and cream lace.  I inked around the edge of the backing paper and ovals using Old Paper distress inks, which are my new favourite product...I'm sure I'm not using them to their full potential yet, but you have to start somewhere!  I decoupaged the top of Ella, to give a bit of dimension (I chopped her legs off, basically!) then added a touch of Glamourdust.  I have to say, the picture doesn't show the colours to their best, but that's because of the gloriously blinding sunshine and clear blue sky outside, so I'm not complaining!  I may try making this again and use my walnut ink to give it more of an antique look, I haven't got the jist of dirtying things up yet, I keep chickening out and opting for the lighter inks!

Hope to be back soon with some more creations, until then, enjoy the late sunshine, if you've got it!

Everyone loves a freebie!

Now I've learnt how to add links to downloads, I thought I'd post a freebie...because we all love a freebie!

I've changed over to 4shared for my download links, as I'd been told that Docstoc was a bit of a nightmare, so if you tried to download the tree ornament templates and found it a hassle, they're now available through 4shared which you should find easier - just click the original link in Monday 4th October post to download.

So, here's my first freebie - this is Ella and you can download her as a coloured image or digital stamp, to colour using your pens, etc.  She's rather sweet and looks lovely sat on a length of ribbon or nestie shape, with her legs dangling over...I'll post a card idea when I've made one!

Enjoy!