PRECIOUS JEWEL

Just a quickie post to show a card I made tonight for a friend of a friend.  Her grandson is being christened on Sunday and she wanted a special card with his name on it.  Having made a boxed card the other day I based it on that and came up with this...

Christening card inside the box

Inside of card

Box Lid

Must have too much time on my hands today - this is my third post!  That's it, for today at least!

Thanks for taking the time to look me up.

Zoe x

NEW PUPPY!

I just had to share a pic of our new whippet puppy Dylan!  He is just soooo ADORABLE and surprisingly for a dog that will chase anything that moves, has not eaten any of our four cats... so far!  He's growing fast and if left off the lead in the garden, will run like the wind.  He is chewing everything and I no longer have a single pair of wearable flipflops (my all time favorite summer shoe) nor any coasters left without a chew on the corner!  That being said, I would not be without him now. Isn't he lush!

TOP NOTE is TOPS!

I just love my new Top Note Die!  SU don't currently sell this in the UK but I managed to get hold of one from Ebay via the U.S.  Cost a fortune with the p&p and everything but now I have it I've been busy trying it out.

I started out making some treat boxes for Christmas for my nieces and nephews. I need to adjust the face of the snowman though because I think he looks at little sad! I also made some for Halloween which are shown in an earlier post.

I just need to add the wire handles and fill with sweet treats and they'll be ready to give out in a few weeks time (can you believe its only 6 weeks until Christmas!)

I then tried making some little note pads and spiral bound them along one edge.  I used lined paper for the inside and covered chipboard with some patterned paper to pretty them up for the front and back cover, added a ribbon and they were finished.

I've made a load of these as little gifts for friends and they are a nice 'handbag' size so perfect for all those little lists (I am a fanatic list maker).  And speaking of handbags, I saw a similar bag to the one below on a blog a long time ago (sorry I can't remember who's it was now).  As you can see I got a little carried away when I started to make these! 

These will be used to package small gifts for my girly friends this year.  I'll fill them with pretty co-ordinating tissue paper and add a little gift in each such as a one of the note pads above and a pen, some  chocolates, smellies, mini notelet cards and envelopes, a scarf, jewellery; there are loads of possibilities.  I think its a lot nicer than a square box wrapped in paper and once they've used the contents, they get to keep the package it came in!

That's about it for now.  Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look.  I was unsure whether I was reaching anybody out there but after getting a few comments on recent posts I can see that I am!  This blogging lark is starting to get very additive!  Thanks to those that took the time to leave a comment!

Have a great day.

Hugs

Zoe x

WEDDED BLISS

The rain seems to have gone away (at least for today anyway) and I'm thankfully starting to feel a bit better so got to work on a wedding card I've been meaning to make for the last week.  I just bought a load of new papers from Anna Griffin and wanted to use them.  I had some clear peel offs from DCWV which I used for the phrasing on the front.  I wanted to break up the patterend paper a bit so used some solid silver textured cardstock and punched the lower edge.  I added some jewels along the bottom, some ribbon and a heart shaped charm and pins.  I had to stop myself from adding more bits!

I then set about making a card box to put it in.  I measured the card and added 3/4" around this for the sides of the box.  Scored, cut and stuck it together.  I then made the lid by using the same measurements I used for the base but adding a 1/16 more to the measurement all the way around, scored and stuck together.  I then cut a piece of matching patterned paper and wrapped a piece of ribbon around the middle, attached it to the top of the lid and to finish it off, used another DCWV phrase mounted on blue cardstock and attached to the top with some foam pads and some silver brads.  I lined the inside of the box with white thick quality tissue paper and made it wide enough so that is would overlap the card when it was placed inside.  Finished!

I was really pleased with how this turned out and I love the colours.  The box just finished it all off perfectly.   Off out now to take our new puppy for walk, he's adorable and VERY lively!

Have a great day.

Zoe

x

SWEET BABY

I make so many birthday or anniversary cards for people that it made a nice change when a friend asked me to make a new baby card for someone.  A pram immediately sprang to mind so I set about drawing up a template in the shape of a pram.

All I did was draw a circle to fit a pre-scored square card (my card blank was 6x6").  I then cut out and folded the circle template in half, then in half again, opened it out and cut away one  1/4 section.  I then placed the remaining 3/4 section onto my folded card with the cut out section on the top right.  You need to ensure that you slightly overhang the left side of the template on the fold in the card to ensure that you keep a join.  I drew around the template and then cut it out. All you need to do then is decorate it.  I just covered the top portion with patterend paper.  I then used my Fiskars paper punch with textured white cardstock to make the pretty 'frill' round the edge.  I punched out four 1 3/4"  circles in matching patterend paper and fixed two in position on the front of the card (if the paper is flimsy, stick paper onto cardstock, allow to dry, then punch out.  It needs to be fairy thick cardstock in order to take the weight of the card and stand the card up).  I fixed the remaining two circles  to the back side of the card, carefully lining them up with the front ones.  I then added a couple of buttons to the front two 'wheels' and finished off by stamping a little sentiment from my new PTI stamp set (I just love these!), cutting out and attaching some ribbon with a stapler.  I fixed this to the front of the card with dimensional pads to make it pop off the card. Done! 

The only thing I didn't figure on was that by adding the wheels, the card was then too tall for my envelope - stupid me!  I had to make a new envelope by cutting down a bigger one to fit which was pretty easy but I've now adjusted the pram template I made to take into account the wheels so I don't have that little problem again!

I wanted to use bright and fresh colours instead of the traditional baby motifs so I went for a vibrant stripe which I think worked really well.  My friend was certainly pleased when I gave it to her.

I loved it when its was finished and I made a few more in blue tones and more neutral ones to add to my stash.

Have a good weekend all - the weather is truly awful here (in a very unsunny Pembrokeshire) and I have a dreadful cold. However, I am dosing myself up with all manner of cold remedies (none of which do a great deal!) and hoping to squeeze in a few crafty makes this afternoon - I try never to miss out on an opportunity to mess with paper!

Thanks so much for popping by.
Zoe x

MY FIRST CRAFT FAIR

I've just finished my first craft fair!  I can't believe I actually did it but I finally did.  I spent weeks making things to sell, trying to restrict myself on the number of items I made as I had no clue what would be likely to sell well. I laid everything out on my kitchen table to see what I had and how everything would look once I got to the fair.  Here is a piccie of my layout...

I was quite pleased with it and I did sell really well.  As it's getting close to Christmas, I made quite a few christmas bits. 

Heres the front and inside of my Snowman Soup box!  I just loved these.  I saw them on someone's blog ages ago and had been dying to try them out.  I made 20 of them and I sold them all within the first few hours!  It had a hot choloate sachet, some marshmellows and a couple of Matchstick chocolates inside.

I made a whole bunch of christmas cards (3.5x3.5) and then I made a box to put them in and stamped a design all over them.  I put 8 cards and envelopes in each, cut a square hole in the front and inserted a clear acetate protector sheet.  They sold well too.

As the craft fair was held on 31st October, I thought I'd try my hand at a few Halloween treat boxes filled with chocolates and other sweet treats and hoped that I could sell them otherwise I'd just have to bring them all home again and eat the contents!  Luckily for my waistline I did sell them all.  Here's a look at what I made...

Some coffins filled with chocolate skeletons!

Dracula, Mummy and Frank - treat boxes with wire handles.

I've signed up for one more craft fair before Christmas and then that will be it for me until Easter.  I think my husband is begining to forget what I look like I've been so wrapped up in getting this made for both these events! Not to mention my bank balance buying all the card stock and stamp sets I used to create these things!

WOW - HOW LONG SINCE I POSTED?!

I can't believe how long its been since I posted anything. Been so busy preparing for a load of craft fairs I'm attending locally and spending a fortune on goodies to use in the process (my bank manager, not to mention my hubby will be tearing their hair out at my spending spree) but hey, whats the point otherwise!

Will be posting some of the stuff I've been working on shortly and hope you pop back and take a gander. If anyone is around Narberth in Pembrokeshire on 31st October or 21st November, come along to Queens Hall and see what I've been spending all my time working on. There are a lot of other stalls selling all manner of handmade goodies, there's sure to be something to take your fancy!

Thats its for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Zoe

VERY EXCITED - MY FIRST POST!

Been working on setting up this blog all afternoon (when I should have been working - oh dear!). Now that I've got going I thought I'd share one of the recent projects I've been working on.

I've really got the bug for explosion boxes and had seen them on various sites from some very talented ladies and thought I'd give them a go. I could not really justify the cost of the actual die for the cake so I made by own template (long winded but worth it - once I got it down, I just print it off and cut it out by hand - saved a fortune!). This is the first one I made and I'm really pleased with the result. This will be going to a good home - my best budd for her birthday.

Thanks for stopping by.

ALL NEW TO ME!

If you've stumbled upon this blog then I'm sure you're wondering why there is nothing to see! This is my first attempt at setting up a blog so nothing posted AS YET - but I hope to figure all this stuff out fairly quickly so pop back soon to see how I'm getting on!

Thanks
Zoe