Floral Notepads

I'm into Christmas gift making mode at the moment...and today have a few quick & easy notepads to share today. I got the blank kraft notepads from Paperchase (they're A7 in size, with elastic to keep them closed), and simply stamped using the watercolour technique with various colours of Distress Inks.

Stamps used (L-R): 'Agapanthus Clusters (Stampendous); 'Blooming Meadows' (Hero Arts); and 'Irises' (Penny Black).

Challenges for these items:

• Corrosive - Anything, except Christmas
• Digi Doodles - Nature
• Just Some Lines - Homemade Gift
• Totally Papercrafts - Anything, but Christmas

Recipe Book

This is one of the presents I made for a friend of mine for her birthday last week...it's an altered notebook - I bought the blank notebook from The Craft Barn. She likes to cook...like me...and I thought that this would be good for jotting down recipes...so I used 'Busy Baking' by Lili of the Valley (coloured using watercolour pencils). The spotty paper is from the 'Wild Asparagus' collection by My Mind's Eye, and I used my Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet to cut the lettering. I distressed all of the edges with ink, and once I'd attached it to the front of the notebook, and covered the back in some of the same paper, sealed it all with a few layers of matte finish Mod Podge.

Challenges for this project:

• Crafter's Companion - Aqua & Brown 
• Spoon Full of Sugar - All Creatures Great & Small
• Totally Gorjuss - Fluffy
• Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes

I'm so excited...I'm off to The Glitter Pot today...it's been one of my favourite online shops since I first started crafting, but I've never actually been to the shop before..and if that wasn't enough...I'm meeting up with two lovely crafting buddies...Samantha & Kaz...can't wait to see you both!!!

ABC Christmas Challenge - Z is for...

Wow...I can't believe it's been a whole year since my lovely friend Samantha came up with the mad idea of the ABC Christmas Challenge...but you know what they say...and it's true...time really does fly when you're having fun...and we've certainly had lots of that over the course of the last 25 challenges! But...we've been saving the best 'til last...not only do we have a fabulous challenge for you as your get all your final preparations done for the big day...with two fabulous sponsors...but we're having a blog hop with some special guests and candy hidden along the way!

So...you should have reached my blog from the lovely Dorte's blog...if not...you might want to go back to the ABC Christmas Challenge and follow the hop to make sure you don't miss out on any of the letters or hidden candies.

Who, but Samantha could host this very special challenge? She's feeling very generous this week, and the theme she has chosen is:

'Z is for Zero Time Left'

We know that time is tight, and even the best organised amongst us still have masses to do before Christmas, so we're giving you free reign to use any of the themes from our previous challenges this year...you can use one...or two...or combine as many as you can...it's up to you! You can find a full list of this year's challenge themes is the sidebar on the ABC Christmas Challenge blog.

We are sponsored for this challenge by:

 
Their prize is a $15 shopping spree in their fabby store.

and

They have very generously donated prizes for 3 lucky winners:
1st - 3 images
2nd - 2 images
3rd - 1 image

Ok...on to my projects...I've revisited a few of our challenges, and made several items. The first two are gifts...a snowglobe and a photo frame:

The snowglobe is from Hobbycraft...but instead of putting photos inside, I added a stamped Penny Black image (from the 'Christmas Critters' set) and a sentiment (from a set by Paper Makeup):

Challenges for the snowglobe: D for Decoration, O for Ornaments & U for Under the Tree.

I also bought the photo frame in Hobbycraft (sorry...I forgot to take a photo of it 'naked')...and I painted it with bronze paint, then added pieces of bronze metal, embossed with various Cuttlebug folders ('Floral Fatasy', 'Victoria' & 'Kassie's Brocade'):

Challenges for the Photo Frame: U for Under the Tree.

For my final project...I've used a cute little snowman digi image from our lovely sponsor the Stamp Fairy to make a couple of little gift tags for when I wrap these presents. I coloured the wee chap with watercolour pencils, and added some 'Crystal' Stickles to the snow. The blank tags are from WHSmiths, and the sentiment is a Lili of the Valley stamp:

Challenges for the tags: F for Frosty & X for Xmas.

I'm also going to enter some of these items into some other challenges:

• Allsorts - Last minute Christmas
• Charisma Cardz - Christmas Gifts
• Cupcake Craft - Non-traditional Christmas Colours (the tags)
• Everybody Art - Handmade Gifts
• Incy Wincy - Non-traditional Christmas Colours (the tags)
• Paperplay - Holiday Tag
• Paper Sundaes - Anything but square or rectangular (the tags & snowglobe)
• Penny Black Saturday - The Holly & the Ivy (the snowglobe)
• Scrapbook Sisters - Non-traditional Christmas Colours (the tags)
• Stamp Fairy - Use glitter or Stickles (on the tags)
• Stamp Something - December Digi Day (the tags)
• Stamp with Fun - Christmas
• Top Tip Tuesday - Christmas Inspired
• Totally Stampalicious - Clean & Simple (the tags)

Ok...the letter you need to collect from my blog is M...so now it's time for you to 'hop' on over to the next blog...which is one of our lovely sponsors...The Stamp Fairy...but don't forget to leave me a comment before you go...I may have some hidden candy!

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Hand-made Christmas Gifts

It's Jane's turn to choose the theme this week at the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, and she has chosen:

'Hand-made Christmas Gifts'

I've decorated a photo frame using metal embossed using various Cuttlebug folders.

My frame started out like this:

First, I painted it using acrylic paint to match the colour of the metal sheet I was going to use:

Then I cut squares of the metal to fit around the frame, and embossed them usinng my 'Victoria', 'Kassie's Brocade', 'D'Vine Swirls', 'Textile' and 'Floral Fantasy' Cuttlebug folders (available here at the Secret Crafter), sanding the raised areas to reveal the silver:

Then I glued the metal squares to the frame and added a photo:

For more fab gift ideas, please visit the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge.

Shopping List Pad & Gift Holder

Here are a couple of 'non-card' creations I've made for birthdays coming up this month.
The first is an altered shopping list pad:


I bought the pack of pads from one of those shops that sell everything...then removed the flimsy cover, and replaced it with some thicker card. I decorated the front with some My Mind's Eye '29th Street Market' papers, and flowers made using stamps from a set called 'Doodle Flowers' by Inkadinkado. I added a strip of adhesive magnetic paper to the back, so that it can be kept on the fridge door...perfect for writing shopping lists!
It's not very exciting...but here's a view of the back:


I'm going to enter this into Stampavie & More's challenge to 'Use some green', the Cupcake Crafts challenge which this week is to 'Make your own flowers' (I hope that my 'stamped' flowers are allowed), and the Quixotic 'Joys of Spring' challenge (I think the greens are quite 'springy'! lol).

My other project is a gift carrier:

I wanted a pretty way to package a couple of aromatherapy bath oils for my friend's birthday...to make up for the fact that I didn't make her present this year! After a bit of blog hopping, I decided to make the kind of carrier which you usually see carrying paper milk cartons. I had to fiddle around to get the dimensions right, as I needed the 'pockets' to be quite deep in order to support the bottles. I decorated the outside using some paper by Crate Paper (from the 'Mia' collection), and added a matching gift tag made using my Nesties.

Altered Tin

I altered an old tin a while ago, and turned it into a place to store my (ever increasing) stash of buttons (you can see it here if you like)...and when my Mum saw it, she decided that she had to have one too! So, this is the one I made for her:


It started life as this:


I covered the body of the tin with some My Mind's Eye paper (from the 'Adore' range)...then added some strips around the centre with some die cut lettering (cut using the Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet) in co-ordinating coloured card, then sealed the whole lot with a couple of coats of Mod Podge.

I decorated the lid with a couple of Poppicrafts flowers on some Nestie shapes held in place with a Papermania pearl brad.


I'm going to enter this into a couple of challenges: the One Stop Craft Challenge where the theme is 'Recycling'; and the Get Sketchy 'Trash to Treasure' challenge.

Don't forget to enter the ABC Christmas Challenge blog hop...it ends at mid-night tonight...the first stop is here.

Buttons, buttons everywhere!

I decided to have a little tidy up of my embellishments this morning, as everything had become a bit of a jumble, taking up more space than was necessary. So I've made a container for all of my buttons...they were all in little packets, making it difficult to see what I'd got. I rescued a container that I'd put in the recycling bin after a spot of baking on Friday, and set about altering it...the first time I've ever done anything like this.

I covered the body of the container with some My Mind's Eye papers (from the 'Adore' range...then I cut the lettering using the Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet from some BasicGrey paper. I've kept it quite plain, as I didn't want anything raised on the outside of the container, in case it get bashed about in my embellishment box. Here are a couple of photos (couldn't get the whole word 'buttons' in one picture! lol):

I also decorated the lid, and as it's recessed, I added a Prima flower, attached with a button tied on with organza ribbon:


So now I have somewhere lovely to store all of my buttons...now I can find them all I'm sure I'll be using them more often! lol


And this is what happened to the chocolate chunks that were originally in the container...yum!


I'm going to enter this into a couple of challenges: the Charisma Cardz 'Alter it' challenge; and the Next Level's 'Buttons & Bows'...there is only one bow, but I hope that all of buttons will make up for that! lol