Giftbags with a Twist

Hello Everybody,

thanks so much for your lovely entries and comments.

It’s Wednesday again and time for another challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More. It is challenge #61 and Anything Goes!!!

We also have a new sponsor for the month of September … The Paper Nest Dolls … and the winner’s prize will be a $25 gift voucher.

I had a little sneak peak in their shop and it is full packed with lots of cute images and goodies. Watch this space!

I like to try and make something different for the Anything Goes Challenge … so here we are … The Gift Bag with a Twist:

… what’s the twist, you might ask. Well this gift bag is made from a simple white envelope. Someone once gave me a present in one of these … and this is my version of it.

To make the bag you seal the envelope and then cut open one side. Score and fold the same distance from the three remaining sides. Open your bag up and fold into shape along your score lines. Fold over the triangular tabs and adhere to the bottom. To decorate mine, I used some pretty Pink Petticoat papers and Stampin’Up!’s Chalk Talk Stamp set & Sizzix framelits. For a full tutorial on how to make this bag click here.

For my other bag, I decided to have the opening along one of the longer sides of the envelope. I also want to enter this one in the ‘A Pennant or Bunting’ Challenge at Out of a Hat Creations:

For this bag I used some pretty papers which came already with some matching die cuts. I think I got them a couple of months back with a magazine. It made for a really quick bag.

Over to you now. I love to see your creations.

If you need more inspiration check out the fabulous projects by the very talented DT Ladies at ATSM.

That’s it from me for today.

Enjoy and Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

TARDIS the next Generation

Hi Everybody,

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my Butterfly Meadow Post. So glad you like the card.

… and no I am not going all TREKKI and SCIFI on you … but it is a card I have wanted to do for a while, and given that this weeks theme at Out of a Hat Creations is ‘Transport’, I thought now or never.

This one is for my nephew over in Bavaria, who recently discovered the joys of watching DR Who, unfortunately he is not allowed to watch it on BBC iplayer as I so innocently suggested, he hasn’t got a British IP address!!! So I hope this will do the trick.

Nick and I had a real giggle last night when I got about passing an old fashioned phone box off as an even older police phone box, hence ‘series 2’ … which in itself is modelled on BMW’s typing of cars. (BMW roughly translates as Bavarian Motor Industries). I am not so sure it works that well as a joke, but I am sure he’ll see it as one.

Here is what I used: X-cut triboss embossing folder and cogs cutting dies; Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Swirl; LOTV grunge corners stamps; SU feeling sentimental stamp set, night of navy card, night of navy, pool party and island indigo inks; Crafter’s Companion core-dination card; white card and nail heads from my own stash and the sentiment is one I made up on my computer.

Hope you like it. Enjoy!!!

Have a great weekend and

Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

 

 

Queen for the Day

Hello Everybody,

how time flies. A couple of days have already passed since coming back from an extended Bank Holiday Weekend at the caravan … and what a weekend it has been … sunshine, BBQ’s, rain and earthquake!

Well, you did ready correctly. Wales was hit by an Earthquake in the early hours of Wednesday. Some reports put the epicentre just off the coast of Tudweiliog on the Lleyn Peninsula … and that’s where our caravan is, not in the sea of course, but just a field width away from the coast!!! Well it was only a minor one, about 3.8 or so, but it did wake us. It simply felt as if a strong gust of wind was shaking our van … but there wasn’t any wind. Never mind as hardened campers we turned round and went back to sleep. Can you imagine our surprise the following morning when we were told the news???

Now I know why the sheep were bleating all night.

Back to something crafting. The challenge this week at Out of a Hat Creations is ‘Jewel in the Crown’ which I turned into ‘Queen for the Day’

As you can se I’ve gone for all out bright and pinky girly. Normally I tend to shy away from such bright colours, but sometimes it does you good to try something different. It is also the first time that my doily die (by Cheery Lynne) cut properly … hooray!!!

In short, I stamped the images and coloured them in using Spectrum Noir Pens. I also coloured the doily with the bright pink pen to get a matching colour and attached it to my base card. I then mounted the crowns on a piece of turquoise card, attached them to my card before adhering the sentiment to a separate piece of turquoise card and attaching it using 3-D foam pads. To finish off, I rounded two of the corners and added some gems.

Enjoy!!! Back soon, have a great weekend!

Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

CAS Postcard from France

Hi Everybody,

a super quick one as I am off to the Stamp Fair …

I want to enter the challenges at Out of a Hat Creations, ‘Postcard from France’, and Addicted to Stamps and More, ‘CAS’

Have a great weekend.

Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

ohhh all the stamps and inks are from Stampin’UP!

Swirly Heart Home Decor

Hi Everybody,
Thanks for your lovely comments. Sorry I haven’t been visiting your blogs, I’ve been away at the caravan for a few days. Back now and trying to post using my mobile. Well, what can I say, the app is quite good for short posts that one doesn’t want to link back to … plus the pictures need to be taken the ‘right’ way round as editing is very fiddely … actually I must admit that I haven’t as yet found a way to edit the pictures taken by and uploaded from my mobile. hmmm maybe I am just a dinosaur …
For this post I tried my hand at making a piece of home decor from some die-cut and embossed hearts … suppose I could still enter it in the Out of a Hat Creations.

Hope you like it.
Back tomorrow catching up with your blogs.
Happy Crafting!!! 😀

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Quick Challenge

Hello Everybody,

Just a quick post today.

I wanted to enter 2 challenges

the first one is at Addicted to Stamps and More and requires you to use markers

the second one is at Out of a Hat Creations and is all about Hearts & Swirls.

I got loads of ideas about both, some more time consuming than others, so I decided to combine both and use one of my old favourites … the stamp I mean. It is one of my first ones and still going strong, Motif Blocks by FUNSTAMPS it is.

For the background I stamped the image several times in London Fog Memento ink onto the base card, roughly masked some white borders off at the top and bottom before spraying over the stamped images with Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue and So Saffron Stamp’n’Write Markers (by Stampin’Up!) using my colour spritzer tool (also SU).

I then stamped the image again this time in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured some of it in using Promarkers. I then cut the coloured in image out and mounted it on my base card using 3-D foam pads. Adding some gems, glitter glue, ribbon and peel off finished the card off.

That’s it from me for today.

See you soon … Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

Simple Circus and using Stash

Hello Everybody,

thanks for all your lovely comments.

As the title is already giving away, the card I want to share with you in this post is one I made for the ‘Circus’ challenge at Out of a Hat Creations.

Despite the Circus theme being quite popular in the stamping world, I must confess that I don’t possess any circus themed stamps. The challenge I set myself was to come up with a card/project that would fit the circus theme using bits I already had in my stash.

Well, what do you think?

The lion is from the Fox & Friends set by Stampin’Up! (SU). The other bits like the bunting have been stamped and either masked off or chopped off using the Pennant Parade set again by SU. I took a picture to make it a bit clearer what I did:

As you can see the cling stamps are a lot larger than it would appear from looking at the card.

I decided against putting on a sentiment at this stage, because it could be a Birthday, Get Well or Congratulations card, and I am not sure yet what I’ll be using it for.

Hope you like it.

Back later with more … off to cook dinner now …

Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

Port Hole Window to the Open Sea

Hello Everybody,

first of all thanks for all your lovely comments and sorry for not being able to join in to last week’s challenges.

Anyway I am back from holiday now, and I got some real beauties for you today. They are two more shadow box cards with a nautical theme:

These cards were inspired by friends of mine who have a connection to water. Dianne owns a narrow boat, Sue’s partner is a river pilot and Tracey’s son wants to join the Navy … plus I do like the look of Tall Ships. They make me think of old times and explorers travelling the seas to discover what was out there … hence the old antique looking coins paper for the card on the right.

More recently, a sort of 28 years ago, I had a bit of a seafaring life working on a cruise liner .. didn’t last long tough … even more recently, we went on a couple of Narrow Boat holidays.

As you can see, there is definitely a connection to boating and travelling as far as I am concerned … and that’s why I enter both cards in the ‘Suitcase/Travel’ Challenge at Out of a Hat Creations.

Stamps I used for the cards were The Open Sea set by Stampin’Up!, Timeless Tags by Stampendous and the one with the World Map from the DoCrafts Travel Range (used for the back ground).

Enjoy!!!

Back soon … until then …

Happy Crafting!!! 🙂

Shadow Box Frame

Hi Everybody,

take II for today …

I made a Shadow Box Card for the Out of a Hat Creations challenge, which for me meant this week that I had to make something fitting the code word frame.

Initially I wanted to use one of the stamps I got at Saturday’s demo … that’s until I realised that my biggest acrylic block was too small!!! Interestingly now as I am writing this blog lots of ideas are flooding in, but I felt seriously stuck.

Luckily the new copy of ‘Quick Cards Made Easy’ arrived through my door yesterday … and inside I found a tutorial on how to make shadow box cards … and that sparked my imagination …

Hope you like it!

Angel stamp and words by Stamp Camp (bought them last year at the stamp fair in Hulme Hall organised by Happy Stampers North West)

frame die is a Nellies Multi Frame one; the piano and notes cam free with a magazine; feather stamp and swirls by sizzix are from Stampin’UP!

Enjoy!!!

🙂

Partying Hedgehogs

Hi Everybody!

Apart from being in a ‘cute’ phase I am also going through a ‘going through my stamp collection and use one I haven’t used before or haven’t used in a long time’ phase. Somewhere hidden amongst my stamps, I found these trampolining hedgehogs. I got them a long time ago when Little Claire Stamps first started up, I liked it but never used it … until now, when it turned into a piece of not so obvious ‘Street Art’.

This card came about, when my friend Sue mentioned that a friend of hers looked after abandoned baby hedgehogs and that she liked giving her cards with a hedgehog theme … hence, we made it in class yesterday.

Hmmm, I wonder if I could enter this one in the ‘friends’ challenge at Out of a Hat Creations … I think I will do just that. Chrissie, Janet and Sandra, you can always let me know if it is a bit too far-fetched and I shall post another entry …

I used my trusted Hougie Board to score the brick effect background from core-dination card stock. The hedgehogs are coloured in using Promarkers, and the stamp I used to frame the image with tiny leaves is from the Hopeful Thoughts set by Stampin’Up!

Back soon with more

Have fun and Happy Crafting!!! 🙂