A Tic-Tac challenge issued

 Back in May we had another one of our crafting get togethers and Helen J asked us if we needed a challenge to prompt some inspiration.  Could we dress up some boxes of Tic-Tacs suitable for use as favours at a wedding.  Well I always need a starting point for crafting so jumped at the chance.  Here is what our little group came up with:

 From the left, here is Ann's creation:

It is in an exploding box format so that when the lid is removed the four sides fall out flat.  The decoration is made by using a die that cuts slits in the box and another that cuts the little petal tabs that are then pushed into the slits.  The whole box sits on a decorative mat in the same design.

The next one up belongs to Helen:

The box was covered in an embossed green card and decorated with a white flower embossed with the same folder.

Here is Ellie's fabulous idea (which has more pictures because she was the teen camera operator):

Ellie had the idea from a small die that Helen had with her, but actually used a template that she got with me at Make-it for a stuffed felt owl.

Another Helen made this leafy box:

And the final box is the one that I made:

Mine was made with some bubble paper, lightly inked with pink.  The top strip is glitter card from a pad from Hobbycraft.  The flower is made from the same pink, inked bubble paper and my Cart-us die.

 I hope that you like our creations, we had a really fun day crafting together, both for this challenge and for our individual projects that we made.  I hope that we will meet up again in the near future.

See you soon

LouP

Hi all,

Just a quick extra post.  Yesterday I spend a really enjoyable day at Oakfield Crafts Christmas Stamp a Stack workshop.  I made 15 cards, (three each of five different designs) and a decorated box.   Such good value for money (check our Fiona's website for details).

I have brought home my beautiful cards and lots of inspiration.  I also have some papers and card stock leftover to make use of at home.

Everyone was really friendly and helpful and I can't wait to go to another class soon.

If you get a chance to go it is well worth it.

Bye for now

LouP

Pretty girls card from a freebie

 Hello

A very girly card today.

I used a decoupage pack that came free with a Do-crafts magazine a year ago for the topper and the sentiment.  The blue paper is from the pack and actually has a very faint pattern to it which the pictures don't really show.  I layered these onto plain pink card.

For the sentiment I used my new toy, a paper trimmer with interchangeable blades from Woodware to make a more interesting edge.

I wrapped an organza ribbon around the whole lot before fixing to the base white card.  As usual it took me a few goes to get the bow to behave I as wanted it to!

A teenage girls birthday card

Hello again.

I made this birthday card for my niece a couple of months ago and am only just getting around to blogging about it now.

I bought a selection of pearlescent cards in a bargain deal when I went to Make-it at FIVE in Farnborough back in March this year and decided that I wanted to use one of the purple ones as my starting point.  With the colour scheme of lilacs and purples set I did some rummaging in my stash to find some other cards and papers.

The striped paper is also from a bargain pack that I got at Make-it, about 100 A5 cards and papers for £1.  The sparkle strip is again from the pack that I bought at The Range.  The stamps have been coloured using a technique that I picked up at a free Do-Craft demo where you ink onto an acrylic block and then pick the colour up with a damp paint brush..

And because the card is for a girl I was able to indulge my inner bling with some gems.

Thanks for looking,  please do feel free to comment if you want to.

Birthday boy

So, I haven't posted anything in a while.  But here is a card that I am really happy with.  I made it for number two child's birthday back in April.

I used the Portabello Road stamps, in a blue ink onto white card stock, then layered onto two shades of blue card and some silver mirri card to keep the colour scheme consistent.

As I didn't have to worry about posting the card I was able to use several layers of 3D pads to make some parts more of a focal point that others.

Proud of this one.

Happy birthday to a Lego obsessed 6 year old

Here is the latest card to have gone out from my crafting table:

Having looked on line for something to print off to put on the front of the card and been disappointed with what was available I took some inspiration from other cards that people have posted on line.  I borrowed a Lego piece from one of my sons models and did some measuring.  The smallest plain circle die that I have is 1.5cm (from a flower set) so with much scribbling on the backs of old envelopes I scaled up the Lego brick dimensions to fit an A5 card.

As you can see here:

I stamped the die cut circles with a tiny sentiment from the "London" stamps (which reminds me I can now blog the card I made for someone else with those stamps) to echo the logo that is on the Lego bricks, and added the name with alphabet peel offs..  I ink smudged the edges of each circle and brick to match the card to give a bit more depth, and raised the circles on sticky pads.  

I am quite impressed with myself at having managed to create this from scratch. 

Cheers for now.

Heartfelt birthday wishes to my friend

Today I'm blogging about the card that I made for my friends birthday.

The front of the card is my interpretation of a bunch of balloons.  The glitter heart is raised on sticky pads to add dimension.  But inside.....

 I saw the die for this in the sale on the Sizzix website for a hugely reduced price, and I just couldn't resist it.  It does take a while to put together with much referring to instructions, which thankfully came with pictures!

As you can see this produces a 3D "sculpture" inside the card which did leave me a small corner for a sentiment.

I was really pleased with the way that this one turned out, especially the colours.  The floral paper was actually a small piece of leftover wrapping paper which I had been saving because I liked it so much.  All the dark purple came from one A4 piece of card.  So actually quite a thrifty card.

A few Thank you cards

Well I've finally got the Thank you cards finished for my son's birthday presents.  And now that he has written them I can post them on here.

This first one I started at the last craft session.
I die cut two scalloped triangles from craft card and fixed together down one edge.  The triangular mat I embossed with the Chronology clocks folder and chalked the image in a light fawn colour.  The pocket watch is from the free stamps from the Do Crafts mag a while back, which has been layered on a dark green scalloped circle and then onto black card die cut with a frame borrowed from Ann at http://binifant.blogspot.co.uk/.   I raised this on sticky pads.
The sentiment is an old wooden backed stamp, stamped on the off cut of card from the pocket watch.  I inked the edge with a co-ordinating green ink, then layered onto the remaining piece of green card and raised it on sticky pads.

The second card I have to show you is very simple indeed.  I have used the stamp and die from a Do Crafts goody bag again, stamped in green and layered onto green card.  The mat is a sage green paper, cut with a deckle edge and inked in same green as the stamped image.  And, as ever, I couldn't resist putting some gems at the corners.

I have continued the theme, this time stamping in brown.  The mat is stamped with a Chronology stamp in the same brown ink.

The third card continues with the theme again in green.

I hope that these cards give you some idea of my style.  I like things simple, but with a little bit of bling.  I have some more cards which I have made, but can't post them yet, as I feel it would take away the surprise for the intended recipient if they stumbled across my blog before they receive the card.

All the best

LouP

Well hello and welcome to my new blog.  

I was prompted to start one so that I can share the things I make with my friends.  So here goes.

First up are the cards that I made yesterday at a crafting session with some like minded ladies.

I took inspiration for this birthday card from an old Do crafts magazine.  I realised that I had a very similar paper to what they were promoting, but from a pack that I bought in the £1 shop.

The flowers are made from white bubble effect paper which I lightly inked with red Papermania brush markers and a felt pad that I made.  Then cut with a die that is from Cart-us.

Now for the first of many Thank You cards that I need to produce for my son to send off.

The stamp and die came together in a Do crafts good bag that my teenage daughter received as a present and she kindly let me use them.

The base background is embossed with Chronology cogs folder and then chalked to highlight the detail.  The gold glitter card was up cycled from saved Christmas crackers, and the thin glitter strip from a very useful pack that I picked up in The Range.

Sticking with the Chronology theme I changed colour pallet to green.  The base background and Thank you  are both stamped in Whispers Green green (imaginative naming there).  I then just layered scalloped triangles in various papers and cards over the top.  The thank you stamp is raised on sticky pads to add some depth.  And of course no card is complete without some bling in the form of some small gems.

The final card that I made yesterday is even more simple.  Just a small stamp, mat and layered in browns and golds, with faux stitching around each square.  The edge of the white base card has been  inked in brown.

Well I hope you like my first effort.  Maybe see you back here another day.