A Couple of Little Things

With all my DT crafting done and out of the way for the moment (well, until I think of something to make for the next DCM challenge) I could sit down and start on the cards I have on order, couldn't I?  But no, it's a "holiday" weekend and I'm  going to play.

I've rarely joined in with any other challenge blogs but on my travels around blogland I see lots of interesting sounding challenges and think "I'll have a look at that when I get a Round Tuit" Well, just for once I've actually done it.

On Something Completely Different this month they are making twinchies and this week's theme is crowns.  

I used some mountboard - from a 50p bag I bought about 5 years ago -there's probably enough in that bag to last a lifetime

I hand-cut the crown and I can't help thinking it looks more like a hand than a crown. ho hum....I'm sure it was "curvier" when I started.

For the base square I used: 

heavily patterned lace to give texture to the base square

gold, purple and watermelon acrylic paints 

2 layers of UTEE

a scrap of pink beaded trim

 fine gold thread wound randomly

For the crown:

  gold acrylic paint

Gold wire threaded with lots of tiny beads 

 Glamour Dust 

 red and purple jewels 

I still think it looks like a hand.....

Next on my list was a sketch from 2sketches4U - my card is made using Kazan's sketch 53 

As I was getting into working in miniature I decided not only to shrink the sketch elements but also to make a much smaller card than I usually do - the card blank is only 10x10 cms, I've put a "papercrafter's measure" beside it to show how small it all is.  The flowers were mighty fiddly to make, but I really had fun making this one

A great chance to use some tiny scraps of Fancy Pants papers from way back, 

some ruffled ribbon, 

a bit of paper lace, 

some wire, 

some brads and a few dots of Stickles to finish.

I think I'll add a little "Hi" message in the corner, but then again, I might not....

Now I think I'll head off into that happy land of crafter's blogs and see what else there is to inspire me.  Or maybe I should see how many other challenges I can link these ones too.....nooooooo...."hush ma mouth" ....such a bad girl!.....{winks} hehehehehe

 Thanks for visiting, please leave a message, I love to read them - you know, I worry sometimes that I'm just here talking to myself...

The Anniversary Waltz

It's Lythan's turn to set the challenge for all us Daring Cardmakers this week:

"My turn to choose the dare falls on my wedding anniversary. We've now been married so long we don't have a gift name associated as we are supposed to be saving up for Silver... Actually the first year we were married we forgot to buy cards for each other at all.

So this year I thought I would help myself remember by having
Happy Anniversary
as the theme. It doesn't have to be Wedding Anniversary, it could be Anniversary of Adoption, moving house - whatever comes to mind!"

Over on the blog we're also announcing the winners of the "Mikey" and "Boy oh Boy"digital image bundles kindly donated by Charmed Cards and Craft

Well,  my own wedding anniversary is at the end of July and I thought I'd get ahead and make my card with that in mind (gives me plenty of time to a. change my mind about the card, or b. lose it in the general disorder that is my craft space).

 I've used limited "frothy stuff" as Hubby's not keen on all that (well, that's  probably no  surprise if you saw his desk on my WOYWW post a couple of weeks ago).  I manage to restrain myself from adding some flowers.......but I just couldn't manage without a little bit of ribbon - though I've kept to a simple knot instead of going for a nice big flouncy bow hehehe

Oh, I've just remembered, I was going to add an elephant or two.  Never mind I can pop some on nearer the time {wink}

Scalloped square and main lettering are made using my Craft Robo

A couple of the papers are from a Colourbok pad I've had for ages - they are gorgeous and I don't want to use them all up too soon, you see.....

The spotty paper is from the Daily Grind set by Fancy Pants

I made the hanging charm using glass and silver beads threaded onto wire and one of the lovely heart charms from Creative Treasures tied on with narrow red ribbon.

I had three attempts at making this darned thing because I managed to ruin the first two grrrrr And yes, I was about ready to throw the thing in the bin!

The brad on the pc generated sentiment at the top is a fuzzy flocked one from Prima which I've been saving.

That's it for today.  Please don't forget to visit the DCM BLOG and see all the fab Anniversary cards the team have made, it's a real treat for the eyes.

Thanks for visiting, please leave a message before you go, and please come back soon!

Finished it!

I was determined not to add that concertina mini-book to the number of  Unfinished Items that lurk in dark corners of my craft space.  So yesterday I refused to allow myself the diversion/procrastination opportunity that is WOYWW and settled down to make the covers for the book.

The ribbon goes all the way round the book, so to keep it neat I made some "belt loops" from grunge-paper to thread it through.

The roses were made using the tutorial on Linda's blog - they are very small - I started with 2.5cm flowers cut on my Craft Robo from the same SEI "Juliette" papers I've used throughout the book. I was pleased at how well they worked even in this small size.

 The lace and ribbons behind the flowers are from the same collection.

The title is pc generated and then cut with a Nesties Labels 9 die.  The little photo corner (top left) is another Spellbinders die and the central band is made with a MS border punch

I've kept the back cover flat and just added a few mosaic tiles over the ribbon 

This little book can stand up for display as I've shown before (you can see the pages HERE ), but you can also tie the ribbons together with the book open (rather like a star book) so that it looks like this - sorry, about the rubbish photo but you get the idea.

So, that's one thing ticked off my to-do list.

With a bit of luck I'll even have time to check out some of the WOYWW desks even though I've not added mine this week.  It's always good to have a look around to see what other people are up to.  Okay so I'm nosy....

DCM day tomorrow, so I should see if there's an idea for a card that can be coerced out into the open.  Not looking great atm though!

Thanks for looking

Scorcher!

Back in February MIL gave Hubby a glider lesson voucher for his birthday.  He put it aside until the weather was more settled then a couple of weeks back booked up to fly yesterday.   You know how these things usually are - you book a date, then wake up to find it's raining - you ring up and it's confirmed that the weather is too bad to fly (remember the helicopter charter I organised for his actual birthday?).

Well, wasn't it just typical that yesterday was a scorching hot day and if anything a bit too hot and settled for gliding? Never mind, off we set for the Cambridge Gliding club out on an airfield in the middle of the countryside near Little Gransden.  We thought it would probably take an hour or so and didn't really expect to be sitting on the edge of an airfield (next to a field full of rapeseed - nice for my hayfever...not!) for pretty much the rest of the day, with only the wings of gliders and an old minibus to offer shade from what turned out to be a blistering hot day.  

I'm just a little bit red and sore today.....why didn't I think to grab some sun lotion on the way out of the house?

Anyway, I thought I'd pop a few photos onhere - you can click for a bigger version.

Getting ready to go

The winch taking up the slack

Up in the air (check out that sky you people who think it's always raining in the UK!)

Tow rope about to be released

From the glider

Looking down on the airfield - I've marked where I was huddling for shade!

Coming in for his first landing

Luckily for us there were a few more thermals to be found in the afternoon than they'd had in the morning so his flights were of pretty good length and he enjoyed the day.  Not sure he'll be wanting to take it up though - he has a problem with  "well, you don't really go anywhere, do you?".  hehehe

Hope you enjoyed the weather this weekend and that you were more organised and therefore less sunburnt than I was!

Back next time with some crafting - I've got some cards made using some of the DT set of Crafty Templates to share.

Thanks for dropping by today

In the BoyZone

My nephew Dan will be 10 in June - the last of the "boy birthdays" for a few months, phew!  I've really got ahead though and made his birthday card already - as this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge was perfect for getting it done

 Our new dare  is called BoyZone and it's all about making cards for "Little Boys and Teenage Boys" 

There are even prizes for two lucky draw winners this week because a couple of weeks ago up popped the lovely Karen at Charmed Cards and Craft with the offer of a couple of  bundles of Digi images for the Daring Cardmakers to give as prizes - as they are both "boy themed" bundles we thought a BoyZone challenge would be a great match for the prizes.

You can see a couple of pictures of the dig-image bundles on the DCM BLOG 
and all the info on how you can be in with a chance of winning one of the bundles is there too - plus of course all the DT's "Little Boys and Teenage Boys" themed cards.

Some insanity gene deep within me thought a Wii Mario Kart theme would be a good one to do.  Surely it wouldn't be too hard to make some Robo templates to make my card with....

 It's turned out pretty well in the end - but boy did it take some time.  Remind me not to do anything so complicated again, please!

Mario, his kart and the wii steering wheel are all cut with the Craft Robo, as is the wording

The Chequered flags are clipart.
Materials: Bazzill blue, red, black, brown and white card, scraps of silver card.  Stardream silver for the base card

While on the subject of boys, here's another Craft Robo offering, this time made for one of my BILs who recently qualified to referee for kids' football matches

And here's a gift card/cheque holder that I've not shown on here yet.  This one uses BG Colour Me Silly papers and with the big frog carefully positioned didn't need any further embellishment (result!!!).  Instructions for making these wallets, and the winding thread closure are a couple of posts down from this one.

That's all for today - I'll now need to go and finish or make some things so that I'll have something to post next time!

Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment - they are always appreciated.

WOW WOYWW

Time for that little bit of fun and nosiness that is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, brainchild of Julia and her Stamping Ground BLOG  - click the link to find out all about how it works and join in the Great Big Workdesk Hop!

My desk is a bit of a dumping ground atm.  I didn't do any crafting yesterday but over the few days before that I was busy with making stuff for a mini cyber crop on Bubbly Funk's forum.  A lot of the regular participants were away on a crafting retreat so those who were left got together and found lots of interesting links and "classes" to share.  On my desk you can see some of the things I made, plus of course the still unfinished concertina minibook which I really must make an effort and do some covers for.  You can check out the individual "makes" on the last few posts I've made.  The post below this one also has the tutorial for the cheque/gift card wallet I promised I'd share, so please have a look at that too.

Anyway, here's my Wednesday Mess for this week - I'll keep the pics small on here, but click on them for a closer look at the disarray!

Just for a laugh, I thought I'd also show you the desk on the other side of our study - this is my hubby's desk - as you can see, we don't share the same mind-set when it comes to desks - why on earth would you have a great big desk nearly the size of a single bed and not actually use the surface for your stuff?  Just look at the multi-coloured mini post it note pads lined up by the in-tray hehehe. 
My computer desk is to the left of his desk.  My Craft Robo sits on the corner of my pc desk and when I need to use it I usually have to shift a pile of papers from in front of it - so I tend to colonise the corner of his desk too

Our study is a lovely light room, as well as the window you can see on the photo there's a bigger window  to the right of my craft desk - it's never in the photos I do of my desk because I'd be taking them right into the light and my desk wouldn't show up.

Anyway, enough of the waffle.  Today I'm going to clear all those finished and half finished projects off the desk and get some cutting and sticking done.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you come by again soon.

It's a Gift!.....card wallet!

 As promised, here's how I made the Gift Card/cheque wallets.  I hope the instructions are ok and the pictures help (there are lots!).  I would love to know if you have a go at making one and of course photos would be fab.  If you use this tutorial, please be sure to let people know where you found it.

Materials
Card (Bazzill weight)
Selection of papers to match
String/embroidery floss/thin cord
Medium sized brad
Circle punches

1. Cut a piece of card 4 x 12”
2. Make folds at 4 and 8” on the long side.  Crease with a bone folder
3. Trim about 1-5cms off the right edge, then cut across the top of the same section at an angle, to give something like this:

 4. Cut a 4 x 12” piece of patterned paper.  Starting at the left edge (the one which hasn’t been trimmed) glue the paper around the card strip, section by section – make the folds as you go so that the paper moulds itself around the creases and you get a better finish.  You'll be left with a small margin of paper showing at the right side, this will form the tab and help make the pocket section more secure

5.  Whilst most of the paper protruding over the edges of the right flap is useful, but there’s a little piece you need to cut off – It’s easier to show than to describe in words, so use Picture 3 as a guide at this point. The white paper underneath is just there so that the shape  shows up more clearly

 6. Fold the triangular piece of patterned paper over to the inside and glue down.

7. Fold the small rectangular piece around (don’t glue it down though).  This forms the “hinge” of the pocket section.8. Fold the right side in and mark with a pencil where the edge comes to on the middle section.   Apply glue on this edge and also on front side of the paper of the little flap.

9. Burnish the glued edges with a bone folder and ensure they are sealed (you don't want the contents to fall out!)  The wallet is now ready to decorate.

 

 Obviously you can embellish however you like, and a simple ribbon tied round will do the job of sealing it all.
  However I thought I'd also add instructions on how to make an alternative closure as it's useful on all sorts of projects and, if you're making a gift card wallet for a male, ribbon might not be so appropriate!

1.  Cut a strip of paper about 2.5cms wide you can make it long enough to all the way around, or to stop part way across the back as I’ve done – I used a corner rounder on the end which will be at the back.  Ink the edges

 

 2. Cut a 4” length of paper to go down the side, use a border punch to decorate if desired.  Apply a narrow line of glue to the edge and stick in place, leaving the majority of this panel loose,

3. Decide on the position of the closure and tuck the end of the long paper strip under the edging panel – when you’re happy, glue the strip to the panel as shown in picture 1

4. When securely fixed, poke a hole through the two paper layers as in the picture – this hole is for the brad so make sure it’s big enough to take the prongs.

5. Punch and glue together 2 small card circles.  Punch and glue together two larger circles. Place the small one centrally on top of the large one and poke a hole through. 

6. Poke the brad through the hole in the small circle. Cut a length of thin string or thread long enough to wrap around the whole wallet about three times.  Put the two ends of the thread together and then put the prongs of the brad through the “loop” made at the central point, wind the thread around the brad a couple of times and then tie a knot to secure.  This makes a little shank between the two layers of card circles

7. Poke the ends of the brad through the large card circle, apply a spot of glue to the back of the large circle, then  poke the prongs through the hole you made in the wallet decorative pieces.  Adhere the circle to the panel, open the prongs and make sure that they are concealed by the paper strip/edging panel ensemble.  Now apply glue to stick the rest of the panel in place, and then adhere the paper strip around the wallet.

  8.  You should have the double length of thread hanging loose, so just tie a few knots at regular intervals to keep the pieces together.  To fasten the wallet, take the string across the front (right to left) then around the back and bring it back to the front at the right side (opening edge).  Wind the loose end of the string around the brad, under the small card circle.

That's it. all done, I hope you find this little project useful and I'll be looking forward to hearing how you get on with it.

Happy Crafting

Mixing It!

Here's more crafting resulting from the Bubbly Funk mini crop at the weekend.

Throughout the w/e we had a bit of fun with photo prompts set by Joanne.  There were 10 prompts altogether and it was fun trying to come up with ideas for the words she gave us.  I thought I'd share my set of photos here too

Word Prompt: STAMP

An exit stamp on leaving the Cook Islands

 Word Prompt: TEXTURE

Met this guy on the beach in Cayo Largo, Cuba last year - he's definitely got "texture"!

 Word Prompt:  APERTURE

A page from my current WIP mini book

Word Prompt:  YELLOW

Coldplay at Wembley last September doing the song "Yellow" complete with yellow lights and giant yellow balloons

 Word Prompt:  ENERGY

I went with the energy of the sun being blocked out in the 1999 total eclipse.  We went to France to make sure we saw it happen, this is one of hubby's photos

Word Prompt: DIVIDE

Here's a plan for dividing a sheet of 12 x 12 for making a maze book

 Word Prompt: HANDMADE

Thought I'd step away from the obvious paper-crafting for a minute and show one of four cot sets I've made for new arrivals to the family. Those teddies are all appliquéd onto the white panels and then the whole thing assembled like a patchwork

 Word Prompt:  OPEN

I'll let you peek into my open drawers!

Word Prompt:  MIX

I only got this one done this morning - I mixed up ingredients to make a home-made version of glimmer sprays (anyone know how to de-gunge a misting bottle please? hehe)

 Word Prompt: END

Got to be a sunset for the end of the day.  This one is one of many photos I had to choose from - we seem to have an awful lot of sunset photos/  This one is from "our" garden on the beach at Troux au Biches in Mauritius

Another of Joanne's offerings at the weekend was a link for making a very cute puffy box.  The instructions used a CD for the template but I wanted something smaller so used the lid of a tin which was conveniently sitting on my desk!

 I glued two of the flaps shut and punched circles in the other one to allow easier opening of the box

Cardstock weight paper from sei "Juliette". A composite flower made from Primas and a little wired pink cherry blossom flower

I'll be back tomorrow with the instructions for making the gift card/cheque wallet thingummy!

I'll also be trying to catch up on all the bloghopping I've missed over the weekend ooops!

Thanks for visiting