BBQ and Christmas!

Today was our company BBQ and we were so lucky with the weather! Yesterday it hammered down with rain but today was lovely, warm & sunny.

Lots of yummy food and good company, and a rounders match that I cheered on mightily from the comfort of my garden chair lol!! 

So yesterday was yukky weather, it meant guilt free time in the craft room! I wanted to challenge myself to use up some of my oldest, gaudy sparkly snippets to make some Christmas cards. 

So I stamped lots of pressies, cut them out and mounted them on the snowy embossed card that the lovely Bonnie sent me. But I was mean and cut each embossed piece in half so I had more left! Then I mounted on offcuts of mirri card, some gold & some silver. 

I don't normally batch-make cards, but I ended up with 8, each a little different...

So this means that I can link to both pixies snippets playground, and Sarn's Rudolph challenge!

Then it occurred to me that the same design (minus snowy background) would work quite well for birthdays, so I see more stamping & snipping in the near future!! This colour way would work for birthdays, don't you think??

Anyway, off to soak up more sun! Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Lovely day out

Had a really fun day yesterday meeting up with some crafty friends from blog land. From L to R we have: Sam (Hettie), Di (Pixies Snippets), me, and Sarn (Stamping for Pleasure)

We all met up in my home town of Southampton so I did taxi service for Sam (Hettie) & Sarn who travelled from Wales (!) & West Sussex (that's dedication for you!) then we met up with Di for a very nice lunch. 

Lots of giggles, some lovely gifts exchanged, hints & tips flying across the table, a mini tutorial from Di on bows & charms, and lots of yummy food :-)

It was a lovely day, and there are plans afoot for a repeat performance, next time with a visit to a duck pond :-)

Debs x

Pop up flower boxes and Hobbycraft demo

I'm off to Southampton Hobbycraft this afternoon to demo pop up flower boxes....

Bad planning as it looks like its going to be a scorcher today! 

These boxes are deceptively easy to make and I will be showing how to decorate them for different occasions. 

Step by step:

Lay A4 card landscape position, 

mark horizontal line across centre of card at 10.5cm from lower edge. 

mark vertical lines at 7, 14, 21 & 28 cm. 

Score across horizontal centre line from left edge across to 21cm vertical line (across 3 panels but leave 4th unscored - this 4th panel will be stand up back panel)

Score all lower vertical lines up to centre line, cut upper vertical lines above centre line to top edge. 

At 28cm line, cut away small panel above centre horizontal line, and on lower small panel cut a diagonal line from centre horizontal line to outer right edge approx 1.5cm down from centre line to create flap. 

Fold along all creases & fix flap to inside of box with strong glue or tape. Fold flaps out

Cut 2 - 3 strips of card 2cn x 10cm. Mark on the long edge at 1.5cm & 8.5cm & score on these lines, folding the 2 end flaps in opposite directions to create a 'Z' shape. Fix these strips inside the top edge of the box, just below the upper edge, a few cm apart. 

Cut small strips of acetate, fix upright to the cross pieces at different heights & fix embellishment to acetate strips 

 

Decorative paper panels are 6.5 cm x 9cm

Enjoy!

 

Debs x

Simple stories scrapbook

Warning - photo heavy post!!

I recently saw the Simple Stories 8x8 scrapbooks on special offer on C&C. I've seen the Project Life version, which was MUCH more expensive. I've never been quite sure about the 'slot it in' scrapbook style - my scrapbook pages tend to have quite a few embellishments!

Anyhoo, the deciding factor for me was that they had a version for a cat album, so I bought it. I have been having a blast completing my album, so I though I'd show it off!

You buy the basic album with page protectors, you get a mix of different styles, plus some co-ordinating patterned pages. 

The great thing is that you can still play and add your own touches! The page above I took a leftover piece of orange spotty 12x12 and made a flip page. I've also used lots of snippets for embellishments & small pocket inserts. 

You get a lot of fun inserts and embellishments with the kit, and I haven't used them all as there were tons! They are great fun and really add to the finished effect. 

Also a great opportunity to use up lots of snippets as some of the pockets are so diddy! So I'm linking to Pixies playground and I'll try to get round to see more of the playmates later :-)

So, has anyone else ventured into the Simple Stories kits? I would love to see what others have done. 

Thank for stopping by

Debs x

Another baby card!

So excited! Am off to the O2 arena to see  The Eagles! One of my fave bands - think I'm a rock- chick at heart lol! Have seen them play live lots of times and they're always great - cant wait :-)

Another baby card from me. Must have been something in the water 9 months ago cos there are SO many people having babies right now!

I just love these stamps from Crafters Companion, they are so cute, and lovely to colour 

I was really pleased with the colour scheme, as I wanted less traditional colours and this one worked out really well. Papers are all LOTV Nitwit Collection 'Promises'. I used a whole sheet to cover the card and then loads of snippets for die cuts and flourishes etc. 

The die cuts are Spellbinders, Labels 4 & Elegant Labels4, with the backing layer being Curved Rectangles - I use this one a lot as its a really good size!!

A Martha Stewart punch for the border, and a LOTV sentiment & some flourishes flowers & card candi to finish. 

Hopping over to Pixies Snippets Playground to check out what other crafty playmates have been up to. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x 

Double zig zag card

I've been wanting to try this one for a while, and finally got around to teaching it at today's class!

There is quite a lot of measuring, but the card is fairly straightforward to make. The hardest thing is slotting it all together!!

I was really pleased with the finished card, and my lovely ladies really enjoyed making it, so hopefully tomorrow nights class will enjoy it just as much!!

I was able to use lots I snippets for these projects. I spent ages sorting thru my snippets box to put colour schemes together, and we used lots of different punches and dies to decorate, so I'm linking this to pixies snippets playground. 

Also linking to Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge, which I've only just found via Pixies blog!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Pop up squash card

This was the project for my last class, and it was great fun to make and surprisingly easy!

The outside looks like a regular gatefold card, but when you open it there's a pop up surprise ....

I saw this Demo'd on a CraftworkCards show on C&C. They were selling it in ready made kit form, so I went away & played until I created my own version :-)

This folds flat to go in an envelope, something I've paid more attention to for recent classes! And it uses less than half a sheet of 12x12 plus some toning snippets from my stash, and flowers punched from snippets, so I'm linking this to Pixies Snippets Playground

Thanks for stopping by

Debs