Birthday Box

Thought I'd share with you today the gift box that I made for a party my youngest is going to. It isn't for a close friend of hers so we really didn't know what to get for the birthday girl so the box holds a little birthday kit :- a disposable camera a small birthday photo album and a box of Maltesers.

I should have photographed the inside of the box,I'm really not sure why I didn't think of it.

The box lid and base were each made from a piece of A4 card,I then used another piece of A4 cut into strips around the inside of the box to give it more height and for the lid to sit onto.

Before assembling the lid I did something I will never ever do again, I abused my Martha Stewart punch by using it around the edges of the card. It does look pretty stunning but I could hear her grown with every cut! The flourishes were cut from the same paper as the edge strip using a large sizzix die,I then shaped it using the edge of a scoring bone. The flower was made in the same way as on this post.
I am using the box for the following challenges:-

One Stop Craft Challenge 82. Swirls and pearls, Swirly flourishes and pearl flower centre.

Paper Garden Projects, Fourth Friday,Fun Challenge, Something girlie.

I really enjoyed making this project,couldn't do it without my faithful old Fiskars cutter/scorer.

Hope everyone has had a good Bank Holiday,thanks for stopping by,

Julie.x

Vincent Van Gogh

I so love sunflowers,they make me feel happy! I don't know if you've ever watched the film "Calendar Girls" but I loved the idea of giving the mourners sunflower seeds so that they could plant them in their gardens to remember John.
This lovely image is, yes, you've guessed it, another in set Suzy 2 by Marij Rahder.


I'm not sure if this card is right, I loved it when I sat it on my windowsill but I somehow feel that it looks a bit off balance now that I can see it photographed. Maybe it's just because it is a bit minimalistic for me. I've been following a blog "Simplicity" the lady makes the most amazing one layer cards, I recommend you check this blog out. I suppose that this is the nearest that I can get to making one,apart from anything else the Copic Ciao's bleed through the paper so I needed to mat the image anyway.

I'm using this card for the following challenges:-

Crafty Calendar Challenge 8, Great Outdoors.

Cute card Thursday Challenge 114, No design papers.

Crafty Creations Challenge 69, Use your favourite stamp.

Thanks for stopping by,

enjoy the Bank Holiday tomorrow,

Julie.x

Forest Gump.

When she first started at Secondary School my eldest daughter became great friends with Genevieve,Geni for short. I can just see them sat on the sofa in their awful stripey blue school blouses,giggling,sharing jokes and watching films, my daughter quoting Forest from
Forest Gump,her favourite all time film,
"I named a boat after you Jenny"



Well little Geni turned 18 this week so I obviously needed to make a card for Gemma to give her and this is what I came up with.
I stamped two images,a girl from Suzy 2 set by Marij Rahder and the boat from the Suzy 5 set, both available from "Scrapbook Sisters" I masked off Antonio and the sailor on the image and once I'd coloured the images I slotted them together so that her arms are dangling over the edge of the boat. I used permanent markers to colour peel offs to add the name to the boat.
I'm using this card for
Mojo Monday Sketch challenge 140 and
The Shabby Tea Room week 11 ,Polka Dot Tea Party.
Thanks for stopping by on this rainy Saturday,
happy crafting,
Julie.x

Weekend Starts Here!

It's been a bit of a busy week for me,I would love to stay home and make cards all day but alas,I need to work to feed my card making addiction! Still next week is a different matter,it's half term so may just spend some of it doing what I love to do!

I made this little card for my eldest daughter's friend, it was one of those cards that just happened an easy peasy one too. The lovely butterfly is from Suzy 2 set of stamps by Marij Rahder,I really must get around to playing with some of the other images in this set,they are gorgeous,will make that my challenge for next week maybe. I'm going to use this card for several challenges:-
Y.N.S. Challenge17 to use a border punch,I used my Martha Stewart,
Stamp Something Challenge where you had to follow a birthday recipe.
The Crafty Pad Challenge 72, over the edge,
Flutter by Wednesday 111, to use a butterfly in the design,
A Spoon Full Of Sugar challenge 105, Celebration and
Allsorts Challenge week 53, To use a tag in the design.
My word,that's the most challenges that I have ever entered with one card but then I have to make up for going almost a week without entering one.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my little blog,
enjoy the weekend,
Julie.x

Sunny Sunday

Thought with all this sunshine I'd take an outside photo of my second entry for A Gem Of A Challenge 4 Apple Mimi looks a little overdressed for the sunshine though lol!

I added some clear Dew drop gems over her buttons to give dimension and used some 3d glaze to the apples to make them nice and shiny. I'm sorry that this is such a short post today,this is my second attempt at posting,lost the last in Cyber Space,lol!.
Enjoy the sunshine,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie.

I Must Be Getting Old!

Had my routine eye test this morning,only to be told,"Well you've not done too bad,most people need to wear glasses at your age!" lol blooming cheek,wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry so smiled politely and took a few gulps hoping not to let myself down with a few tears ( I'm sure the old hormones are also kicking in too) Told Mr B. who said,"that's good,maybe you wont take so long on the blogging once you can see the screen better then you might get time to do a bit of the ironing done too!" I think he was only joking,he does know better as he quickly added that he'd bring takeaway home tonight,that's good, I might make some cards tonight then!

Made this card especially for a challenge over at A Gem Of A Challenge 4 where the challenge is to make a card using Pink Burgundy and Green.They are also looking for a new design team member if anyone else fancies entering. Also entering this card for A Spoon Full of Sugar which specifies cute and girly,Allsorts Birthday Challenge,week 52 and Basic Grey week 20 Challenge which asks for punches to be used along with some Basic Grey products.I've used papers from their lovely Green at Heart range. Papertake Weekly Challenge is "Say it with flowers" I made my own flower,Check out this LINK to Die Cut Dreams Blog if you want to find out how it was done.So very easy but with beautiful results.
I'm not sure what I've done to change my text to this fancy italic writing but then I make cards,I don't claim to be a computer Wizz! Hope it doesn't look too bad as a post,will try to do better next time. (Maybe I'll be a computer Wizz when I pick up my Glasses!)
Thanks for stopping by,
catch you later,
Julie x

Nearly 1000!!!

Had to post tonight,I so wanted to get 1000 visitors before bedtime! My little Nephew will be 25 this week so I knocked up this little card for this occasion using another of my rather lovely stamps by Marij Rahder,I so love this chap,don't you think he looks Welsh!!! don't ask me why but I could hear his accent as I placed him on the card.! A little more practice is needed I think on the colouring of Motorbikes! As I have quite a few bike mad Nephews,I'm sure this will happen before long!
.

I'm going to use this card for A Spoon Full Of Sugar Challenge No 103 which is a recipe for a card to include 3 papers and 3 buttons.Also the Allsorts Challenge Week 52 which is for a card for a birthday. I think this short post will have to do me for tonight as my stash is rather spread out and I've a few other little jobs that need to be done before I can go to bed tonight,it's a hard life,lol!

Thanks for stopping by

Julie.x

Sunflower Nestie Card Tutorial

Well,here's the card that I showed you last weekend,and hopefully this post will show you how I made it.


I started of with a 14cm square card base. You then lay the die so that 3 scallops are above the fold.Draw around it using a pencil. I used the second biggest scalloped circle for this card.


Then move the die and draw around it again as shown below. Once you have tried this technique a few times you will probably get away with just marking the place where the circles overlap.

Then with a B cutting pad in place you need to put the card and die on the cutter ready to cut the top fold edge of the card.Place cutting pad A up to where the circles first meet,run this through the cuttlebug. When the die is removed the cut will only be made up to this point.

Roughly trim the edges around the drawn shape so that when the card is repositioned at an angle it feeds through the cutter without folding the edges.

repeat the process twice more remembering to only place the cutting mat up to the point where the circles meet.

You should now be able to remove the surplus card.If the cuts don't quite meet,use scissors or a scary blade (I obviously only use scissors lol) to snip to join the cuts.

I generally use the front of the cut as the back of the card as the slightly embossed edge looks more appealing to the eye. (The area that at the moment has the pencil marks on it).

Cut out three scalloped circles and snip into the card as shown.I slightly distress the edges with distress ink.

Cut three circles and shape slightly to raise the centre.

I haven't got a large ball embossing tool but I find that I get a good effect by using a double layer of foam and rubbing quickly and firmly around the edges of the circle using the back of my nail.

The petals look good if they are slightly shaped,(I find that shaping them backward gives a good result)

The card can then be assembled. I find a glue runner gives the best result though I did use wet glue today as I've lost my runner somewhere under the piles of paper etc that cover my desk.

Only put glue on the centre segment of the flowers so that you are able to place the leaves between the flower and the card base afterwards.

I used a big sizzix die to cut the 5 leaves that I used.

And there it is,the finished card,easy once you know how.

WARNING ! I know that this way of using the cutter is probably not recommended but then if I hadn't taken the risk I wouldn't have made this lovely card. My die did slightly bend when I used the cutting pad on only part of it but it did go back into shape again when I cut the Yellow circles. Let me know if you have a go at making one of these cards so that I can visit your blog to have a look,I've also used this technique to make a double heart card and the other bright flower card that I posted a few days ago. Please mention my little blog and link my tutorial if you like.

Can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with.

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie x

P.S
If you are calling by after 1st of September 2010,Please take a moment to check this out as there's a new card challenge that you might like to enter! thanks, Julie.x

Me Again!

Twice in one day! Well it is my day off, the housework has been put on hold,it'll still want doing again tomorrow anyway! I was pleased to find this little chappie, another freebie digi stamp from Bugaboo stamps,just what I needed for a card for my friend's son who passed his driving test this week. I followed the Sweet Stop Sketch SSS55,which was a nice one to follow.

I coloured him using my trusty Copic Ciao pens and added the "L" plates which is table confetti that I bought years ago from a card shop.

Thanks for dropping by,

Julie x

Challenges Galore!

I made a bit of a boo boo with the last challenge card I made,first one at Catch the bug I should have used a stamped image for it! lol, they gave me some humorous comments so here goes for another entry,this time using one of their own freebie Digi images,isn't he cute! the challenge was Flower Power. Now don't laugh, the other challenge that I thought I'd entered I actually forgot to go back to their web page to place it!!!!

Hey,ho that's me all over. So today I thought I'd go challenge mad with one card.
Another challenge that this card is for is the Copic Colour Challenge 64 I have included G 00,
BG 23 and BV 02,meeting the colour requirement. I followed the Sweet Sunday Sketch 68 I also used foil card and Stickles Meeting the requirements of the The Papertake Weekly Challenge Hope it can also be classed as special,it is for a special person!
That's it for challenges today! I haven't forgotten about the DEMO photo's for my last 2 postings but will do this over the next couple of days.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Nesties Revisited.

Will be a bit busy this week so might not get much time to blog so thought I'd post tonight the other card that I made using the Nestie trick. See what you think of this one.

A bit on the bright side I know but it was just a trial to see if it worked so I only used some off cuts from the drawer!

ties+002.JPG"> I love these Nestability Flowers,I plan to try them out again for a similar idea that I have brewing.

And here's the back view once again showing that it really is possible to combine several cuts neatly.

Hope to catch up with you soon,

thanks for stopping by,

Julie x

Playing with "Nesties"

I mentioned yesterday that I'd descovered a little trick with the nesties. Well I tried it again today and this is what I came up with. I started off with a card blank measuring 15cm x 15cm and with a bit of clever manoeuvring on my cuttlebug,this is what I came up with.

If you're brave enough to take a chance with your dies it makes a really quick and easy card.

I used a large sizzix die for the leaves,I think it's made a great card. The next photo shows that I really did only use the one piece of card to achieve the blank.
The good thing about it is that it fits into a standard large envelope.( the one that you use to fit an A4 piece of card folded in half)

I'm going to use this card for some challenges, Creative Card Crew challenge 49
The prompt for this is April showers bring May flowers.

com/2010/05/challenge-friends.html">Passion for Papertrey The prompt being make with a friend in mind.

My card is for a good friend who could really do with some cheering up at the mo.

If there's enough people that want to see how I achieved this card,I will try to do a step by step guide to this later in the week

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie x

I made a bit of a boob.

A colleague from work is taking part in the "Moon Walk" next weekend,for anyone that hasn't heard of this,it's a 26.2 mile walk around London that is done at night, wearing a bra to raise money for Breast Cancer. Good luck to her,she's been building up the amount of miles that she walks over the last few weeks and now feels prepared for it.(Rather her than me)

So I thought I'd make her a good luck card in the spirit of the the walk. I fashioned the card out of glittery spotty paper with the use of my Sizzix Revolution nesting circles along with my Nestability scalloped circles. The flowery background was made with the use of a flower punch. I'm going use this card for a couple of challenges, The Shabby Tea Rooms where the challenge is to Get your bling on and also Catch the Bug Challenge Blog
where the challenge is to use flowers.
I've had a great day today,catching up with crafty friends at the Scrapbook Sister's crop. didn't get much done except for chatting but it was a brilliant day out! Did discover a clever little trick with the aid of a Nestability Heart,It's probably been done somewhere before but it's not something I've seen anywhere, as I'm not lucky enough to own the hearts I will have a little play with some of my Nesties and hopefully share this with you.
Hope you have a good weekend,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

My Mind's Eye

There are some papers that make it easy to make a card with and My Mind's Eye tend to take the hard work away for me. It isn't very often that Mr B asks me to make a card for him but today was one of those rare occasions.I was given the brief that he's 70 and he likes bird watching,not much to go on so I started shuffling the papers around my rather disorganised storage drawers (are there any organised crafters lol) and then I saw them,practically shouting at me from under a pile of mixed papers. The remains of my Quite Contrary papers by My Minds Eye.

The numbers were some that I bought at the Ali Pally a few years ago I know that some people cover them to use but I'm a bit of a cheapskate and only ever use them as templates I used a brown chalk eye around the edges which disguises any imperfections and mounted them on the card using foam pads. My card fits in with CPS Sketch Challenge 165 and also the Allsorts Challenge 50 that wanted you to use animals in the design. The birds are another stamp from the stamp set by Marij Rahder, Suzie 6.I used my Copic Ciaos to colour them and used a craft knife to make a slit in the beaks to hang my stamped greeting from. I then used foam pads to raise the image . I'm dead chuffed with this card and am thinking that I really must by some more My Minds Eye papers when I have my scrapbooking class this Wednesday at Scrapbook Sisters.
I'm Very much hoping that we've seen the last of the rain for a few days,we've certainly had enough of it today and I really want to get some gardening done tomorrow if it's nice.Fingers crossed for sunshine everyone!
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Double Challenge

Another birthday party,another gift needing a box so here it is and as luck would have it it also fits in with a couple of challenges.

The first challenge that I'm using it for is "Crafty Creations Challenge 65" where the brief is to make your own background papers.For this I used my Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder. I had to fold the top and bottom sections of the box inwards before placing it within the folder I then repositioned it several times until the entire area was embossed.

The other challenge that I am entering it in is the "A Spoon Full Of Sugar" challenge 101 where you had to 3d something. Apart from the fact that I made the box,I also used 3d foam pads to raise several elements of the box.The images were stickers from my stash bought ages ago.

I made one of these cartons a few weeks ago but have improved on my original attempt. Last time I used a peg to seal the top of the box but this time I came across these binder clips in Wilkinsons,can't remember the price but think they were around £2. for the box of 15 assorted designed clips.

The name was cut using my Sizzix Alpha Bubbles.I used my Martha Stewart edging punch on the top section of card before attaching it to the box. The box didn't go exactly to plan but I'm really pleased with the finished result.

I hope that you all enjoy the Bank Holiday Weekend,

thanks for stopping by,

Julie x