Christmas Candles & Memo Block or Post It Note Holders

Today, I've been experimenting with a post it note box or memo block holder that I saw on Betty's Blog. She has lots of fantastic tutorials for boxes and gifts etc. Do take a look if you get a moment. I've tried to follow her instructions, but have adjusted the measurements according to the size of my memo pads, which I bought from Wilko's for 36p each! I've tried flipping the papers and cardstock on this version to give it a slightly different look.

As my first attempts they are a little big rough around the edges and could do with a little bit more refinement! However, they were really quite easy to make.

I seem to be having some sticky issues just lately!!! Firstly my bauble money holders wouldnt stay stuck down when money was placed inside them, so after a few attempts, I decided to raise the spotty pocket by using foam pads, so I'm hoping that its fixed that problem! I don't know why I didnt do it that way to start with! Pregnancy brain has well and truly set in and everything seems to be hard work at the moment! The second sticky issue was with my candle gift boxes. After about a day the acetate window fell off as the ds tape wasnt strong enough to hold it on. Then I had a thought! Why not use the glue gun that I've had sat in my draw for 3 years that I've never even take out of the box! And hey presto! it worked! I've even gone on to make a couple more boxes which are much stronger now! I also decided to add a punched snowflake to the top of each candle just to give it an extra touch! I have put a disclaimer in the box though, to remind people to remove them before lighting the candles!!!I had a go at doing a flowery version too!
After fiddling with the wire handles on my candle jars, I got really fed up and went off to hobbycraft where I bought this much thicker and coloured wire, which made making the handles 100 times easier. I've stuck on the snowflake and ribbon using my glue gun, as I'm guessing the heat of the candle will probably just make it all fall off if I use my ds tape! Again here, I've added a snowflake to the candle.

Thats all for now, I'm not making any more cards or gifts, I've packed my craft knife away! well until after the weekend anyway, when I have my sons pre-school christmas craft fair. I have a few orders for Christmas cards from friends but I'm going to wait and see what I've got left over before I make any more!

Christmas Snowflakes

Well I don't have any new Christmas cards to show today! I've spent the past few days "bulk making" some of the cards I've already done, ready for a couple of craft fairs I've got coming up soon. So I thought I'd take a break from that and have a go at something different! I had some of this tall slim notepads left over from last year and decided to do something with them. I spent most of the day working on this first one, but now its finally done I like it! So I decided to use the same layout for the others but just changing the colour scheme.

It opens up like a book and inside there is a small wallett flap for you to tuck things into! I've also decorated the top strip to finish it off.And the Red & White version! I'm not sure which one I like best, but I think this red/white one is quite striking. I think I may do a few cards like this too. Today I had a sudden flash of inspiration! It doesnt happen very often, so I thought I'd better get on and make these before I completely forgot I'd even had the idea! They are simply tea light holders, using re-cycled baby food jars. I saw one on the Elzybells blog back in the summer which had little flowers stuck all over it so initially I wanted to stamp some holly or christmassy images and stick them all over the jar too, but it turned out to be way too fiddly so I decided to use the same snowflakes as the notepads above! I've created a little handle using some craft wire and finished it off with some ribbon and adhesive stones. I have to collect some more jars now as I think they'd look nice in pairs or a set of 3 maybe.

And finally! a little birdhouse tree decoration. I've had this made for some time now, but kept forgetting to photograph it. It was inspired by the Papertrey website, who have a free template, for personal use. You can find it here! Its such a sweet little touch. I might have to make a few more for my tree.

A few of my favourites...

Good evening everybody! What beautiful weather we've had here in Northampton over the past couple of days! lets hope it continues as I'm going away for a few days next week! Here are a few pictures of some of the gifts I made for my stall at the fayre a couple of weeks ago! I wanted to fill out the stall with other bits and pieces instead of just cards.I really love this colour combination. I stumbled across it by accident. Its kind of mint choclatey! First up is a matching notepad and pen set. These are so easy to make, and make such a lovely gift.And to co-ordinate (use up the papers) I've made this little handbag card too. I've made a few more stationery boxes, this time however, I have re-sized and made my own template for the cards & envelopes, so absolutely everything here is hand crafted! The A6 cards and envelopes are just ever so slightly too big as the box is designed for the US card measurements. These gorgeous papers are Pink Petticoat. I downloaded them a long time ago and I really love them. The colours are easily changed to suit.
And a co-ordinating Notepad & Pen Gift set!
For the craft stall I made up about 10 candles, each displayed in an organza gift bag with a matching card. These seem to go down really well. They do make such a nice gift. I'd be thrilled if somebody gave one to me! not that thats ever likely though.

And yet another co-ordinating handbag. I love these papers. They are from the Basic Grey Sugared Collection.

Woohoo! I made some more Cards! and Blog Candy Alert!

First of all, Tara is celebrating passing 10,000 hits on her blog and is offering some great blog candy. All you have to do is "follow" her blog and tell her your all time favourite song and she will add it to her playlist. You have until 31st January to do so. Please go and check out her blog, as she has some stunning cards and is a great inspiration to me.

I've been in my craft room over the past couple of days and have a made some more cards! They are an order that i've received from my Aunt. The first card is very similar to one i made for her before and she liked it so much that she asked me to re-create it for her.

I've used quite a lot of silver mirror card on this one and it doesnt photograph very well! But in real life its really beautiful. Now I have to say that i'm not really a fan of peel offs anymore but seeing as they are what I used on the first card I made for her, that i'd do the same again. Also, I have a draw full of the things and I must use some up before I buy any more stamps! I've used a embossed pearlescent ivory card which is absolutely beautiful, I think it came from InspireMe Papers! I was asked to make this one for an older lady so went with a slightly more traditional look. The papers are from part of the Forever Friends Kit I got earlier in the year and the cardstock is Bazzill/Doodlebug. Again I've used another one of my peel offs in a bit of an effort to use some of the up and clear a bit of space in my drawers!

Well this is a card that I've tried and tested before and seems to prove quite popular! Its such a simple card to make but this time I think I've made it better than ever before which is why I've chosen to share it with you. I made the sign in paint shop pro and printed them out with an extra set of numbers so that I could decoupage them. I've then gone over it with my glue pen and added some glamour dust. The grey lines at the bottom are some thread that i've stitched onto the card. This time I've also layered it onto some red doodlebug card which just finishes it off nicely.

And finally, this is the set I was asked to make for the lady from the pre-school christmas fayre. I've used the forever friends bear on the card and candle and have used matching blue gingham ribbon on both too. I've printed the name date and weight of the baby on the candle too. I really hope she likes it.

Well thats all for today. I'm going to spend some time colouring some stamped images and seeing if I can get inspired to make some cards with them!

So many cards...so little time!

I've been asked to have a little stall at my little boys pre-school christmas fair in a couple of weeks time. Its the first time I've ever been asked to do anything like this and I'm a little nervous to be honest. I've been working really hard trying to get as many cards made as possible. Tonight I've got nothing left in me! I'm exhausted! so thought I would take a bit of a break and come and update my blog instead. I've got lots of cards to show you.

First of all I thought I’d start with a couple of candle and card sets. This first one is made using a Sugar Nellie stamp that I bought a couple of months ago from Funky Kits. I think I only paid £2.50 in the sale for it! What a bargain! I’ve used Doodlebug Winter Asterisks paper together with Doodlebug cardstock. The white background is embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder and the raised scalloped circle, which is all cut by hand, is embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. I’ve added a few adhesive stones and a sentiment I made on the PC. I really love this set. I think it’s my favourite out of all the ones I’ve made.
Secondly, I decided to make a candle to match my Forever Friends card. I have added small adhesive stones to the centre of the flowers and tied a pink bow around the bottom of the candle. And finally, another Christmassy card and candle. I made this one using Pink Petticoat’s Lola Rose with Christmas Tree. I used the printing direct onto tissue paper technique for this one! I’ve added glamour dust to the trees for an added bit of sparkle! The Christmas tree on the card is stuck on with foam pads to give it a bit more dimension but this is about as far into decoupage as I like to go! I’ve then embossed the top and bottom of the card with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder. The cardstock and paper are both Doodlebug and the ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis.

Not a good week....

Hello everybody, well as the title says, its not been a good week here. On Wednesday morning we received a phone call from our best friends to tell us that one of their 15 month old twins had died in his sleep. He was actually our godson. This has come as a massive shock to us all and we are all deeply upset especially as it happened only days after the 2nd anniversary of us losing our own precious little girl, Rebecca.

Sleep tight William, have fun playing with Rebecca xxx

So i've done what I do at times like this, and thrown myself into my card making. I have lots of family birthdays coming up in the next couple of months and I've had lots of orders too. I've made another cande, card and box for a lady's 60th Birthday and I'm really pleased with it. I'm sure she'll love it. I have used Kerry's tip of printing directly onto the tissue paper and decided to use a pink petticoat image instead of a stamped image. For the same lady, I was asked to make a card from her best friend. She loves Wimbledon and Cliff Richard for some reason! Personally I cant stand him but each to their own. Anyway I found an image of him on the internet and decided to greyscale the image so I could put some more feminie colours with it.
And finally, this one was a bit of a challenge. The breif was, "its for my son's 40th birthday and he likes Indian curry's and drinking beer". I couldnt find anything embellishments for a curry funnily enough! and whilst doing an google image search I found a temple image which I thought might be somewhere to start. I dont like this card, its certainly not one of my best, but it is what she asked for!
It was my 5th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday 6th, and this is the card I made for my husband. I've used a pink petticoat image and have embossed it with a gold tinsel embossing powder, the only time i've ever used it! but was really pleased with how it sparkles!

A Scrapbook Page and a Candle!

**Edited to include some better photos of my scrapbook page**

Following on from my post of 6th August, I've finished making my mums birthday presents! I'm really fed up with buying presents for the sake of getting something, so this year I decided to make her presents instead. I had a go at candle stamping a while back but it didnt go well! I heated the candle a lilttle too long and it started to melt! I had another go after seeing Kerry's gorgeous set on her blog recently, and thanks to Kerry's helpful advise I was able to make a matching box too. I wanted it to match the papers I'd used on the card so I just scanned them into the computer and recloloured them slightly and printed them directly onto the card I made the box from. For the sentiment on the candle, I used Kerry's tip of printing from the pc directly onto the tissue paper.

For a first attempt, I'm really happy with this. I think my mum will love it! Ive already been out and stocked up on some more candles and will definately be making more of these.

This next set is for my little boy to give to my mum, his Nanny! This was a bit more challenging for me though as I've never done a scrapbook page before. I made the page in the frame first and then came up with the matching card.
My mum always calls Adam, "Nanny's Little Man" and that was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of making the page for her. I've used a making memories paper pack that I bought a long time ago, the spotty one is my favorite! The photo's were taken recently when we went out walking in Salcey Forest, which is in walking distance of our house! its great to have somewhere like that right on your doorstep!

I bought the frame for £6 from Wilkinsons! Its a 12x12 frame and hobbycraft sell the same box frames for £14.99! I know where I'll be getting mine from! The chipboard letters came with a magazine I bought a while ago and I've used my sharpie permanent markers to colour them in. I wanted it to be quite a simple page, and have gone for 3 matching photos which I've mounted and given a scalloped edge. All of the edges have been inked to give them a bit more definition.
They are stuck down with foam pads so they stand out a bit more. The 3 sayings are all things Adam says when he's puddle jumping, "splashy water" "muddy puddles"and "yuk". "yuk" is what he says after he's put his finger in the dirty water and then has a taste of it! I have no idea who taught him to do this!

I have to say I'm really pleased with both of my creations. I'm not sure that I'm ready to become a scrapbooker just yet, but I'd be happy to do the odd one as a gift or if I get inspired by a nice photo. It did take me a couple of attempts with different papers before I decided on this version. I hope my mum likes it!