Christmas Sweet Bags and Toppers

I've had a couple of hours to myself today, so have spent them happily crafting. I've been looking at the Christmas Crafting Ideas thread on MSE and have been inspired to create some more handmade gifts for people for christmas, so have made a start on making some reindeer poop sweet bags:


These are so easy to make now that I have received the QuicKutz reindeer die. There were made out of some of my scrap card; the cellophane bags are card bags that I have cut down and managed to get 2 bags of poop from one card bag. I created the topper on the craft robo, by altering one shape that I had slightly. I am really proud of myself that I have managed to do something on the robo other than to send things to cut!

The chocolate covered raisins are from Lidl, and are delicious and good value - about 69p for a large bag, which would do 4 sweet bags, but I am greedy and as I love them the bag in the middle of the photo is mine!

After making the sweet bags, I was able to create some more toppers to go on some Elizabeth Shaw mints a bit nearer Christmas, and managed to make 20 out of one sheet of Anita's snowman stickers. The idea for these was taken from Helen, whose blog I regularly follow as she has such great ideas:

These were again really easy to make and the dark blue and light blue card uses were also from my scrap card pile. I've just received some white glitter card, which is what I used for the snow at the bottom of the circle for the snowman to sit one. Really really happy with how these have turned out.

Kitchen Organisers

It has been one of those weeks where I am so glad that it is Friday. I have however managed to have a crafting day on my day off on Tuesday, by finishing off some Christmas cards, and making another 4 Kitchen Organisers to give family and friends as part of their handcrafted christmas presents this year:

I have really enjoyed making these, and have certainly got a bit quicker at them as they only took me about 45 minutes to do each from start to finish. I love working with so many of the papers I have and deciding which one to use, but have found that I am a bit limited on what colours I can use as the post it notes only come in blue, green, pink and yellow. I have yet to track down any cream or white ones.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes

Sketch Challenge

I love looking around blogland for a great sketch challenge and I found one last week at Digistamps4Joy, that I thought would be fab to do, and fitted nicely with a birthday card I needed to make for the kids to give to their Nana next week.


Here is my take on the sketch. I have used a square card blank , and cut on the diagonal some pretty Summer Paper from My Mind's Eye that was a freebie a while ago and added some embossed some plain green card, with a flower cuttlebug folder to the other side. A piece of pink ribbon is used to hide the join in the paper/card.

To the left I have used a MS doily punch on some gemstone pink card stock, with a strip of the Summer Papers on top of the gem card.

The image is from Digistamps4Joy and is called Kitty Girl, and I love her and can see me using this image a lot. Jack, my youngest, coloured the cat with a ivory promarker, and for a bit of sparkle I have added blue flatback gems for the eyes and a clear one for the collar tag.

To give the card a bit of dimension I have add a green scallop oval as a mat and put 3d foam pads on the back of the scallope to raise the image from the card. Three pink card candy spots and a cardworks sentiment finish the card off perfectly.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Digistamps4Joy - sketch
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge - 3 of anything (card candy; papers/card)
Anything Goes Challenge - Ribbons
Papertake Weekly - 3 of a kind
CRAFT Challenge - colour pallet - pink; green and blue (all in the card used or flower paper)
Tuesday Taggers - more than 2 legs

Another Newspaper Style Card

I am loving this style of card at the moment, and now that I have sussed out how to lay and design them in Publisher, they are easy to change to suit peoples birthdays.

I have made this card up for my childminder's daughter who will be 12 next month, and absolutely loves to shop.

The card has been made using white linen card, as a base and then had a silver mat added, and the actual newspaper style of the card, has been printed onto some white linen card.

The silver stars are table confetti, and the 3d embellishments are from a pack that I picked up in Wilkinsons a while ago, from their craft range. To make all the gems the same, I took of what came in the pack, and added the same clear flatbacked gems to the skirt; handbag; calendar and the bag the girl is holding, to bring them all together.

The colours that I have chosen to do the card in, were chosen from the colours of the 3d embellishments, pale pink and lemon - although mine have come out a bit brighter than I wanted them to.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Ooh La La Creations Challenge - nothing floral
Raise the Bar Challenge - to use pink and a female image (hope the 3d embellishment counts)

I've made my first Christmas present!

I love looking around 'blogland' seeing what other crafters have made, and seeing something, and thinking 'what a great idea that it', and adding it to my never ending list of things I want to try.

In between making my Christmas cards, I felt the need to make something completely different, and having been inspired by Karen's Blog, and seeing the wonderful things that she make as presents, I wanted to have a go at making one of her 'Kitchen Organisers'.

So very late on Saturday night I started to play with my stash, and this is what I have come up with:

The paper I have used is from a huge stack of pretty papers that I bought when it was on offer in WHSmith some time ago, and I thought I would try my first Kitchen Organiser with a bold patten, as I know I would probably never be this bold with any of the cards I make!

I was worried about how to attach the ribbon at the top so that it would not come away when hung. I had to work out how to attach the ribbon so it would be strong enough to hold the weight. In the end I went with attaching the ribbon to the A4 mountboard with DST, covering it with DP paper and then fixing an eyelet with my crop-a-dile to the middle of the ribbon, hoping that this would give it the strength that it needs.

My next dilema was how to attach a pen to the board, and again, I have used a piece of ribbon, that has been stuck to the card at the back of the shopping list pad with DST, and I have once again added an eyelet to hold the ribbon securely in place. The front page of the shopping list pad has been covered in the same DP paper.

I felt that the patten of the DP was too bold, so wanted to try and break it up a bit, so did this by backing the shopping pad; calendar tab; useful telephone numbers and stamps pocket with some matching green card. I have used a 'nestie' labels to cut out the useful telephone numbers list, and a smaller one to cut out the word 'shopping list' and stamps. I wanted to add the 'stamps' pocket because in my house, I can never find any when I want some, and it was a perfect way to use up a small space I had on this organiser.

This one will be for my Auntie, who loves spots and green, and now that I have sussed out how to make one of these up, I will definitely be making some more as Christmas presents this year.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Craftalicious Challenge - anything goes
The Crafty Pad - make something for a friend
One Stop Craft Challenge - alter it [i've altered a plain white piece of mountboard]

First Batch of Christmas Cards - DONE!

Since getting into card making a few years ago, I have made individual Christmas cards, for special people like my mum; sister and a couple of very good friends, but I have never been brave enough to attempt to make all the cards I need from scratch.

I totted up at the beginning of last week how many I actually need, it is over 70 - eek. So I have bitten the bullet and made a start on this daunting task.

Over the past few months I have seen some fab Christmas embossing folders, and fell in love with the sizzix set I have used on this card. I love the simplicity of the Christmas tree folder that I have used, and with a few added flat backed gems, I think it looks elegant and classy.

I did do 5 cards using different colours to see which one I liked the best, and the glittery blue just looked so right that I have made 20 of these that are all the same.

This card has simply been matted and stuck together with DST. The white embossed trees were matted onto silver card, and then 3d pads added to give the card a bit of dimension before being matted to the blue, and very glittery card, that I saw in Hobbycraft a while ago. Blue flat backed gems were then added to the trees in various places to give the card an extra bit of sparkle.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

A Spoon Full of Sugar - sparkle and shine
Glitterbabe's Challenge - anything goes
Alphabet Challenge - X is for Xmas
Ellephantastic Challenge - anything goes

A Blog Award

The lovely Karen, passed me this fab blog award:

so I would like to pass it onto the following lovely people:

Louisa

Trisha

Angie

Oona

Jan

Please take the award ladies add it to your blog, and pass it onto another 5 people.

Baby Cards

I've had such a fantastic week, making 9 name cards up for orders! I am so happy, that I finally plucked up the courage to make some cards, for a friend of mine to sell at the todder group she runs, and I have made over £50 in card sales. She sold 17 out of the 25 I gave her, and I also had 9 orders too.

She has told me that whenever I have enough cards to give her she will take them to the Toddler Group for me, as everyone who saw my cards loved them. People loved the individual name ones, I make, and the butterfly cards flew. My friend decided that £1.00 per card was not enough, so she said they were £2.00 each and everyone was happy to pay this. It is so fantastic to make a few pennies out of something I love doing.

I started last night to build up some more cards to sell, the first of which are a couple of baby girl ones. Now that I have worked out that I can cut the gold/silver mirror card on the craft robo I am hoping that these cards will be a bit quicker to make up.

I love the first card, made with an ivory square card, and matted with pink gingham paper and ivory card. The letters are cut on the craft robo, and I have put 3d foam pads on the back of each letter to give them a bit of height. The daisy flowers were cut with a woodware punch and pink flat backed gems added to the middle of each flower.

This second card is also a really pretty one, and I have used a ivory square card base again, and matted it with 'fushia' pink polka dot paper and linen card.

I've added a couple of daisies with flat backed gems, and I have added some fushia pink ribbon and some cream teddy bear ribbon on the top to create a border at the bottom.

I'd like to enter the first 'Baby Girl' card into the following challenges:

Craft Your Days Away - Babies
Incy Wincy Designs - Anything Goes
Sew Many Challenge - Anything Goes