Note Book

Here is a quick and easy idea for a note book.

I bought a cheap note book from the supermarket that I then covered with a piece of card that I had stamped on.

 

I used stampin up's six sided sampler stamps. To make sure the stamped images lined up I also used stampin up's stamp-ama-jig.

I must admit not all the images stamped as well as I wanted them to but I covered up the mistakes by punching out a new image and covering the ones I did not like.

The word 'Notes' is from a rub-on but it could be just as easily added by printing onto the stamped card using the computer.

You Always Inspire Me L.O

I have had this photo six years, it is of my father and eldest son walking in the Lake District, it is one of my favourite photo's, I was not sure what I wanted to do with it then I saw a recent copy of Scrapbook Magazine with lots of male L.O and this is what I made.

I picked out the background paper to match the colour of the path in the photo.

The main photo is matted onto hessian and piece of cardboard, I did not attach the photo all round as I wanted a pocket for the tags

I added flashes of red, blue and green to tie in both the photos and to make them seem brighter.

The title 'you always inspire me boy' is on wooden banners and arrows that a lovely lady called Ann let me have, I inked them first the attached the words.

The flowers are a border from Walk in my garden cricut cartridge and I think they finish the L.O off just right.

Wine Holder

Here is a nifty idea for the mini size bottles of wine. It is based on a milk carton holder but of course it is bigger.

They make perfect gifts for those who like a drink every now and then. As you can see from the photo I also made days of the week tags for each bottle.

 The flower is hidden once all the bottles are in place, but I felt the holder needed it!!

I wrapped the boxes in cellephane and tied them up with ribbon before handing out.

 

Butterfly Card

 I made this card for my Mum's birthday.

I stamped the image twice so I could cut out the butterflies and 3D them onto the card after I had coloured them, which I did using distress inks, I also used the DI's to add colour to the background. I'm not sure who made the stamp, it's one I bought second hand from a crop. I then layered the image onto green card and gold mirri board.

 

This was then attached to the post card matt, which is a stamp from stampin up, with twine wrapped around the card front.

To finish the card I added the punched coloured card and made a flower from lace.

Criss Cross Card Box

I made a set of four cards with some paper I found at the bottom of all my papers.

I matched coloured card to the paper, used stampin up's small butterfly die to cut three butterflies, stamped the celebrate word in a soft brown then added the lace trim.

Once I had made the cards I decided that I needed a holder for them to go in!!

So I made a criss cross box holder or a wrap over holder, different people call it different names. To finish the box off I made a slide on wrap decorated with butterflies.

I thought it turned out okay!!

Tithe Barn Class

This month I thought we would make a lip balm holder card, as the cold weather is now here we could all do with a little bit of pampering. This is the ideal way of giving someone lip balm to protect them from the cold elements, perfect as stocking fillers too!!

If you would like to book a place just let Karen know at craftbuddies.

Ferrero Rocher Flower

Here is a quick way to make thank yous or place settings using individual Ferrero Rocher's.

I die cut large flowers, distressed and curled them to give a better shape. Next I layered  the flowers together to form one large flower and attached the chocolate with a glue dot to form the flower centre.

 These would be lovely as place settings with each persons name on a leaf or given as thank yous instead of cards.

Bird House

 I have had this bird house for so long, I knew what I wanted to do with it but just never got round to doing it!!! Then a good friend told me she was moving and bingo, this house was decorated just like that!! She will love it as a new home gift.

 The house started off as bare wood, I inked every edge with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, then started to add the paper

I used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to the roof top.

 I inked round the paper edges too before I glued them to the house.

 The roof is made of scrap card and paper I had which I put through my scallop edge punch, then layered up to like roof tiles.

The bird on the front is punched out in white card, using a stampin up punch that I managed to borrow, then I inked the bird in  colours to match his house.

The finishing touched were glitter glue and glossy accents.



TMNT Card (no. 2)

This is a picture of the second card I made for Adam, again the Turtle is made by piecing paper/card together.

Raphael is Adam's favourite Turtle but he told me off because Raphael does not say 'cowabunga' my answer to that was but he just grunts and you cannot have 'grunnnnnt' on a birthday card!!!

I know Adam was pleased with his cards, he took photo's on his phone and sent them to his work colleagues, the average age of them is 25 years old, they thought Adam's card was 'sick'!!!

TMNT Card

My son Adam is still mad about TMNT, he's 17 years old!! but they must be the Turtles he used to watch when he was little.

This is one of the cards I made for his birthday, I made two because I could, but also I wasn't sure which one I liked best.

The card is made by piecing card together to make the picture.

  The happy birthday background is a large stamp I have had forever.

 As the card I made was of the Turtles on a pizza I then decided to make a pizza box to put one of his gifts in. The image on the box is one I printed out from google, what would we do without it?

Wedding Card

My oldest (don't tell her I said oldest) and dearest friend recently remarried, this is the card I made for her and her new husband.

The card is made from Basic Grey papers that I had in a kit, so for me to use my precious Basic Grey papers she must be a very special friend.

 My friend was really pleased with her card, she has framed it and put it on her bedroom wall

 Below is the folding box card I made to put in the wedding gift which was vouchers, they fitted a treat and it looked so much better than just putting the vouchers in an envelope!!

Malteaser Cheesecake

My favourite chocolates are malteasers, I can eat packets of them and they are lush in hot chocolate.

So when I found a boxful in the cupboard I decided to make something different, I googled malteasers and so many yummy things came up it was hard to know what to do, but as my family love cheesecake that's what I went with.

This time I made mini cheesecakes, usually I make one big cheesecake, but these were easier for my lot to put in their lunch boxes.

The Malteaser Cheesecake was a great success, so much so, my boy's friends came round for some, and then some more!!!

Tithe Barn Class

This is the card we will be making at Tithe Barn on Saturday, I designed this one so that the tree die we all loved last year can be used again.

If you would like to book a place in the class please contact Karen at craftbuddies.

Halloween Goody Bags

When Lucy and I visited our local old fashioned sweet shop I spotted these Orange and Cola Millions.

I knew they would look fab in the long thin cello bags I have.

 For the toppers I used stamps from a Stampin Up hostess gift, I just love the spiders web, unfortunately I still cannot find my other spider web stamp... oh well it will probably turn up in time for valentines!!!

 Here is a recap of all things Halloweeny for this year.

Bags of Eyeballs

I found these chocolate eyeballs in my local supermarket.

I used mini cello bags to put them in, die cut a top note square which I then folded in half and added a hand drawn spiders web, I couldn't find my stamp!!!

Again I have added two toppers made from Stampin Up's owl punch.

I think they look really good altogether.



Witches Broomsticks

How cool are these doody witches broomsticks?

To make them all you need is a lollipop and brown card.

Cover the lolly stick with darker brown card. cut a fringe in Kraft card, leaving about 1/2" uncut, this is where it is attached to the broom handle, for my mini lollies the kraft card was 1 1/2" x 4".

Full instructions can be found at www.splitcaoststampers

I already had the owl and bat toppers, they are made from Stampin Up's owl punch, when I first got it a long long while ago I went a bit mad and made lots of different things from it, check out google images for inspiration.

 Sorry about the dire photo, something is up with my camera, but I can't work out what, sometimes it works fine sometimes it doesn't!!!

 On this photo you can see the lollipop better.

I can't wait to hand these out for Halloween...

 



Gift Box and Wallet

I love making boxes and bags.

I made this gift box to put money in for a birthday present, it is similar to the one we made at the Tithe Barn class.

I first saw a picture of the box on inkingidaho blog, I couldn't follow the link for the instructions so I fiddled about until I was happy with the design and look of the box.

We also had a male birthday so I made one of the wallets that I like, luckily I had kept a note of the measurements that I had taken from my sons real wallet!! He still wants me to fill his wallet!!!

How Many Shoes? LO

 In 2008 we were lucky enough to travel to L.A. for 10 days. We visited friends of the boys and had a great time.

As you can see from the layout we managed to buy eight pairs of shoes in 10 days, well it was more like nine days as the last day was when we headed for the airport!!

 For this layout I matted spotty vellum onto blue card, leaving a fine border all the way round. I made two pairs of flip flops from card, I choose to do these because as you can see three pairs of the shoes were flip flops.

I choose to use mainly blue as the blue spotted flip flops were Lucy's absolute favourites until they broke through to much wearing!!! Even in the winter. 

I know this is a very simple layout but it tells the story of how we ended up with so many shoes in our luggage.

Advent Calendar

As promised from several weeks ago, here is the finished blue Advent Calendar that I made for Jake's girlfriend Alex.

Again I have used Basic Grey papers but this time I used rub on snowmen for the decoration.

I made the holder in the same way but this time it was quicker to put together as I knew how to do it. I painted the blocks first then added the matts and the numbers.

 

 Here are the two calendars together, Alex now wants one for 100 days till Christmas!!!

I worked out for her that she could start using the blocks at 32 days till Christmas!!!

Mouse Cards

 Here are two cards made with a free stamp I got a long time ago, he is so cute!!

As you can see I added glossy accents to the balloons

 I just love how shy he looks, wouldn't he make a great Valentines with a big red heart hiding behind him?

The top image is stamped in black and the bottom in a brown ink, I think I prefere it stamped in brown.

The punch I used for the matt is the Martha Stewart Cherish punch.

Tithe Barn Class

Here is the class for Saturday 14th Sept at Tithe Barn.

We will be making both the card and the mini box.

If you wish to join me please let Karen know at www.craftbuddiespapercrafts.co.uk

Advent Calendar

During the school summer holidays I have been thinking of Christmas, I have worked out a class for Tithe Barn on the 14th Sept which is a Christmas card and a mini box. But this is what I made for myself, a Christmas Countdown also known as a perpetual calendar when used throughout the year.

I found out which numbers go on which block from the internet.

I made the holder to fit the blocks, to find the size I measured both blocks then added 1/8 inch



 

I already had the blocks so I painted them cream, used distress inks on the edges then added the matts and numbers. I sprayed the numbers with spray and sparkle so they had a glittery effect.

I made the holder out of chipboard which I covered in my favourite Basic Grey paper and inked the edges. in fact the whole thing is made with Basic Grey papers, I am now feeling a bit lost as I have used them and cannot keep taking them out of the box to look at, I'm so sad!!

 The top is die cut using a Tim Holtz edger die. The words are rub ons I found stashed away and the baubles are from a Martha Stewart stamp and punch set with glitter added.

When I had finished this project I showed my son's girlfriend who love Christmas, she wants one made in blues so when I have finished it I will post the pics.  

And Another One

I originally made this card for a Wedding Card, purple was the bridesmaids colour, but I think it looks really cute as a small square card.

I like the way the card can stand either way, it would make a great thank you card.

Yet Another Triple Flower Card

I googled the triple flower stamp and found a whole lot of lovely images of cards people had made.

I liked this one so much that I just had to make it.

I love the summery feel the card has even though it has a brown background.

Hope you like it as much as I do!!

Another Triple Flower Card

I have found some more pictures of cards I made using the triple flower stamp, it is now retired from Stampin Up but can be found on Ebay sometimes!!

I made this triple flower card by using kraft card, Basic Grey paper, thin brown ribbon, scallop edge punch and the triple flower stamp from Stampin Up.

 The hardest part was keeping the beads on the string and waiting for the glue to dry to hold them in place.

I inked the eddge of the card and added brown and cream pearls to the flowers.

Triple Flower Card

I love stampin up products, and like to revisit what can be done with them.

When I first got this stamp I did not buy the two punches that went with it but I soon saw the error of my ways and bought them , I'm so glad I did as one is not made anymore!!

 I have added mini pearls to the petals but you cannot see them in this picture, I think the paper I used is from stampin up

Name Plaque

I made this name plaque for my niece, can you guess her name?

She loves Mini Mouse, I much prefer Donald Duck!!!

The end result looks very vintagey, is that a word? Poppy loved it and is putting it on her wall when her bedroom has been decorated.

I used my cricut to cut out Mini Mouse and the letters, punches for the flowers, recycled tissue paper, stickles, distress ink, gilding flakes, glossy accents and varnish.

 I started off with a blank bit of MDF, my fantastic hubby found these at work, they were going to be thrown out so thinking of me he brought them home, aren't I lucky? I sanded it down and covered it with cream acrylic paint.

I added gilding flakes around the four edges, not sure what colour they are but they had different gold tones in them.

I then attached torn spotted tissue paper to the front. On the back I put cream card stock.

I added Mini Mouse, Poppy's name and the flowers I had made, Mini Mouse has black stickles on her nose, tail and outlining her ears. I filled the bow in with glossy accents then added stardust stickles to the flower centres.

To finish off I added a brown distress ink to certain parts of the plaque front, then thinly varnished the whole thing.

I am so pleased with the end result, but I did run out of time to make Poppy a birthday card, so I wrote on the back of this lol!!!