Thursday 11 November 2010

A Plain and Simple Christmas Card

Whilst blog hopping last week I saw a card, on Gemma's blog that I thought was really stunning. So being inspired by Gemma's card, and wanting to do something a bit different for my Mum, I have come up with this:


I have used a square white card, and then a mat of silver to which I have added a sheet of snowflakes that have been cut out on my craft robo. For a bit of sparkle I have used glittery organisa ribbon, and I have made the sentiment on the PC and printed it out in silver onto photo paper. The oval was cut with a nestie in the cuttlebug.

I think it is gorgeous and hope my mum will like it, and would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Creative Cottage Challenge - for someone special at Christmas
ABC Christmas Challenge - winter wonderland
A Spoonfull of Sugar Challenge - snow/snowflakes
Caardvark Challenge - holiday cards using die cuts
Paper Sundaes Challenge - let it snow
MSE Challenge set by Kelly - Christmas

Saturday 6 November 2010

Jack has been making a card for the....

Stitchybearskids Challenge.

Jack wasn't well on Thursday, so was off school. He saw me making some easel Christmas cards, and wanted to make one for his Nanna. Here is what he came up with, and we both love it for all the sparkle.

Jack cut all the card and paper out for this card using my guillotine; coloured the image; used the cuttlebug to make the matted layers; added the flatbacked gems to each of the snowflakes, and had a bit of fun using the glue and very fine glitter on the santa hat, and bottom of the jacket.

All I did to help him was stick the paper and mats to the easel card.

I think he did a fab job, and love the card. I am sure my mum will love it too.

Choccys' Challenge

I've been busy crafting these past few weeks, and have been making more of the Kitchen Organisers as gifts for people at Christmas. I made this one up last night and the colours of the paper meant that it fits perfectly into Choccys' Challenge over at Creative Craft World which was to make a card/project using brown, pink and cream.

This is the 8th one I have made, and I think they all look pretty, so am having trouble deciding who will get which one!

OK, I have various requests to explain how I make these Kitchen Organisers, so below is details of how I do it. At the moment I have just typed up how I put one together, and there are no photos, if I get a chance tomorrow to make another, I will try and pop so photos to explain things a bit with pictures.

You will need:

DST and tacky glue
x 1 piece of A4 mountboard (I just did a search on ebay, and bought 10 sheets for about £5.00 with free p&p)
x 1 piece of 12 x 12 patterned paperco-ordinating card stock – about ½ sheet of A4
x 1 shopping list to cover
x 1 Calendar tab
x ½ coloured pack of post-its (I buy a cube from £land, that have pink/blue/green and yellow in, so would use ½ a pack of the pink post-its on one kitchen organisers
x 1 useful telephone numbers list (I create this is word and cut the shape with a nestability on the cuttlebug)
x 1 shopping list; and x 1 stamps label (I create this in word, print one photo paper and cut the shape with a nestability on the cuttlebug

optional – x 1 pen; x 2 lengths of ribbon; eyelets; magnetic strip.

The really quick way to make a Kitchen Organiser would be to cover one side of the A4 mountboard with DST, and squeeze some tacky glue around all 4 edges, to make sure the paper sticks firmly.

Cut the 12x12 paper to just a bit bigger than A4, and stick it to the already prepared mount board. Trim the excess paper away from each side of the mountboard.

Using the leftover paper from your 12x12 sheet, cut some off that is slightly bigger than the shopping list cover, this will leave you with a small piece of paper that will be used as a mat for the stamp pouch. Again I just cover the shopping list cover in DST and tacky glue and trim away the excess. I do make sure though that I have the paper slightly longer than the shopping list and put a piece of DST on the back at the top and pull the paper over to make it look really neat.

Cut your Useful Telephone Number list out. I use nestabilities, but you could just have a rectangle, with a slightly bigger matt under it. Stick these together.

Mat the calendar tab with a co-ordinating piece of card about ½ a cm bigger all around than the calendar tab.

With another piece of co-ordinating card, cut a rectangle that is 8cm x 6.5cm. With the small piece of leftover 12x12 paper cut a rectangle out that is 7cm x 5.5cm. Stick the two together to create the stamp pouch.

You are now ready to assemble the organiser.

I work from the bottom up, so add 3 thin strips of DST to the back of the mat you have created for the stamps pouch. You need to put this on each side and at the bottom quite close to the edge of the card. I also put some tacky glue around the 3 edges to make it secure. Do not put the DST on the top edge, leave it open, so the stamp book, will go in.

Now I stick this 1cm in from the right had side, and 1 cm up from the very bottom edge.

Now add DST and tacky glue to all the edges of the mat for the calendar tab, and stick this to the organiser 1cm in from the left hand side and 1cm up from the bottom edge. You can now add the calendar tab to this mat. I add extra DST to the back of the calendar tab for extra strength before sticking it to the mat.

Next add the telephone list to the organiser using DST and tacky glue, I centre this using the stamp pouch as a guide, but make sure that a book of stamps would fit in neatly so you need to stick this higher than you think.

I then add the shopping list using DST and tacky glue to the left had side centering it using the calendar tab, and stick it about 1cm away from the top of the mat of the calendar tab.

I then add the post –it notes to the right hand side and line them up with the top of the shopping list and about 1cm in from the right hand side.

That is it really.

Optional

I wanted a way to hang the organiser up and add a pen, so using my cropadile I made some eyelet holes in the top of the mount board, and on the back of the shopping list to make a ribbon loop for a pen.

To do the hole at the top, make a dot 10.5cms along the top and about 1.5cm down from the top. Punch a hole using the largest on the cropadile, add a loop of ribbon, securing it to the mountboard, by putting DST over the hole you have punched. This needs to be done on the side of the mountboard that you will be covering with the 12x12 paper. Once the loop is secure, turn the mountboard over and punch another hole directly over the first so it goes through the ribbon.

Now cover the mountboard with your chosen paper (slightly bigger than A4, so it hides the ribbon loop. Secure with DST and tacky glue. However, you need to make sure that the paper fits snug to the top of the mountboard, as you will find it tricky to trim the paper away because there is now a piece of ribbon in the middle. You will be able to trim away the other 3 sides easily.

Now, push an eyelet through the front of the covered mountboard and secure with a cropadile.

Add a strip of magnetic tape/foam to the back of the mountboard.

To secure a pen against the shopping list, attach a piece of ribbon to the back of the shopping list pad about half way down and about 2cm in from the right hand side using DST, but make sure you have a loop hanging over the right hand side edge of the pad, to hold your pen. Do not guess, you need to add the pen to the loop and have a little more slack for it to be pushed in and out. Once you have done this punch a hole through the ribbon and stiff cardboard back of the pad, and set an eyelet into the hole to secure the ribbon.

Hopefully these are really simple instructions to understand, but if you have any questions just leave them in the comments box, and I’ll try my best to answer them.

Your Chance to Win a £30.00 gift voucher

Claire has a fabulous give away on her blog with a chance of winning £30.00 gift voucher from the amazing online store called CSN, which sells all sorts of fabulous items from wardrobes; cookware to lighting. Full details available through Claire's Blog. Closing date 13 November 2010.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

I received this Digi's with Attitude blog award from the lovely Claire and Margaret, thank you girls


So now I have to do is tell you 3 things that make me different from everyone else and nominate 5 blogs, so here goes:

  1. I hate frogs, if I see one I scream and run around like a made woman.
  2. When I had both my children, I had no pain relief, and didn't feel the contractions either.
    My first labour was 40 minutes and the second 1 1/2 hours.
  3. I have a mild form of cerebal palsy, but it absolutely doesn't stop me from living life to the full.

The 5 blogs I want to nominate for the award are:

  1. Jane - BunBun Crafts
  2. Melissa - Mel's Mess
  3. Sue - Skiergirl
  4. Dawn - DTB
  5. Susan - TomsMom

Please display this badge proudly and link it to the Digi's With Attitude! If you complete the questions, and pass the award onto another 5 people you can claim a $5.00 gift voucher. See the link on my side bar.