A Time To Remember - Daring Cardmakers

Here is my card for the Daring Cardmakers Time to Remember card challenge in honour of the service men and women who have given their lives for our freedom. May we always remember them and the sacrifices they made.

Christmas Gift Ideas - Part 1

I'm hoping to post a small series of ideas on quick and easy christmas gifts. My first idea is creating small 'Brag Books' easy enough for any proud parent, grandparent or auntie to carry around in their handbag.

Supplies needed:
Wood ware Blue 2" Craft Punch
Paperchase Clear 4x6 slip in Photo Album
Paper Scraps
Letter stickers
Ribbon

1. Punch 15 squares from co-ordinating paper, this is a great way to use up some of those scraps.
2. Mount the 15 squares on a sheet of card, use a small dab of pritt stick to attach so the glue does not gunk up the needle when sewing.
3. Sew a running stitch around the edge, pull the end of the thread through and tie underneath.
4. Using a zigzag stitch sew across the edges of the squares to create the patchwork effect, pull the end of the thread through the last hole and tie underneath.
4. Trim off the excess card and adhere to the front of the album.
5. Decorate the front with letter stickers, ribbon and any embellishments that you like

Finished! This little project takes about 30 mins, and is simple even for those challenged by a sewing machine (I count myself as one of those people!) I have taken the additional step of placing some paper on the inside cover and adding a MME Daily Dose journalling card;

so the proud receipient can have all the important details close to hand! Here is one I have made in blue.

Apart from the cost of the album (£1.50) you should have most of the products on hand, so this is a nice, cheap but reasonably expensive looking gift! If you make one I would love to see it!

Back soon x

Birthday Sprinkles!

After a little holiday break I am back again with November's Crafty Templates card kit 'Sprinkles', filled with sugar sweet papers and cardstock, tickets, tags and some scrumptious ribbon. I used the fun stacked cakes template for the first card

The cakes look so adorable at a jaunty angle, I think this is one of my favourite templates! The second card features the stack of gifts template and can be used for so many different occasions, change up the papers and you have got a great card for those difficult men's cards :)

I know I sound like a stuck record but I really cannot say enough good things about Leo's kits. The Quirky kits are perfect for scrapbooking and have such cute little touches, the Card Making kits are a joy to work with and the Crafty Bales kits sell like hotcakes, so much so that I missed out on getting one they sell so fast, they are filled with paper crafting goodies and can contain components for mini books, fabric and much more.
Take a look at fellow DT Kathy's blog to see what she has done with this month's kit!

Hope to be back later in the week with a little gift box tutorial (it's new to me but may be old to you but they will be great for xmas!)

Bits and Pieces

I'm busy beavering away making christmas gifts and various other bits and pieces. Using an idea I saw in an issue of CK I decided to create a chart for my distress inks so I can see at a glance what colours I have because looking at the ink pad itself isn't a good indicator!

It's pretty and functional!

I was fortunate enough that Mr Paper agreed to take me to the NEC last week. I was a little disappointed as it wasn't as large as I thought it would be and it was definately more crowded so I didn't come home with as many bits and pieces as I would like but I made up for it by ordering a few things on line. This is what I came away with..

I was pleased to add some more distress inks to my collection and grabbed some lovely little 4x4 cards for my christmas cards along with the reindeer flight die, but more on that later. These are the other goodies I bought on line..

I have been itching to get some of these for ages and was pleased to find them for £2.50 a pack from here.

Some bargain basic grey pads and embellishments from here.

Some cute fabric cones from Ikea and little christmas wood shapes from Tesco which are destined to be used as card toppers or on scrapbook pages.

And I finally succumbed and bought the Tattered Florals die!

At the NEC I declared to Mr Paper that I was going to make my own christmas cards. He reminded me that the last time I did this I said to him to tell me that I was not to do it again and I was crazy if I considered it. 'Ha' was my response, 'it will be better this time, this time I have a plan' to which he rolled his eyes and said 'just don't expect any sympathy when you get frustrated with it', I was confident that this time would be different.

Take some silver glitter paper, one reindeer die and....

Argh, WTH was I thinking, this is how many reindeers I managed before I wanted to sit rocking in a corner quietly weeping. Mr Paper was sympathetic and compromised that I would make snazzy christmas cards for the family and I would buy a box of generic cards to send to everyone else, thank goodness!

If I say next year that I will make my own cards, tie my hands together, lock my craft room and remind me to re-read this post. I am in awe of you if you make all your own christmas cards!

Just a quickie

I know I have been a little quite recently, scrapbooking seems to have sucked up a lot of my time! I have a new Crafty Templates kit to work with this week so I hope to be back to a more regular posting schedule shortly!