Scandinavian Christmas Card 2017

Many years ago (in my early crafting days), I used to make individual Christmas cards for my colleagues. But it got to the stage where I could not remember which card I had made for which person. So now I make it easy for myself, I make a batch of the same card and keep one and label it up as a reminder of what I made that particular year. This year I have kept it very clean and simple. I die cut the Scandinavian Christmas tree from white card stock, matted it onto some fine red glitter card (which was actually an A6 card cut in two!) , this was then matted and layered again onto white card stock and then onto the gorgeous Scandinavian A3 cardstock. I finished off by adding a few adhesive gemstones to the tree and hey presto I have some super 6.75 inch by 8 inch Christmas cards for my colleagues.

The 4 Weeks of Advent - part 2

Continuing on from my last advent gift post, this is another  very quick, simple and inexpensive gift idea, that I will be giving to colleagues in week 3 (of the 4 weeks up to Christmas)

The material/tools used to make these gifts are as follows:
The Big Score Board
Die Cutting/Embossing Machine
A Paper/Card Trimmer
Strong wet glue
Christmas Eve  A3 Double Sided Centura Pearl card stock
Leaves Are Falling Die from the Autumn Morning collection by Sara Davies A pack of Moser Roth White Mousse au Chocolate (£1.69 from Aldi - there are 5 mini bars in each pack)
Cinnamon Sticks
Red Berries
Dark Green Card stock
Some glitter glue
Merry Christmas peel offs

Cut a piece of card 9.5 cm x 12 cm

Score at 4.5 cm, 5.5cm 10cm and 11 cm

burnish your score lines and wrap around your mini chocolate bar

using strong wet glue on the last section thin section of your wrap, glue into place

cut and emboss a leaf from dark green cardstock

adhere a cinnamon stick to the top of the wrap.

add the leaf, carefully bending it around the cinnamon stick

add 3 wired berries (poking the wire under the leaf)

add some glitter glue to the leaf to add a bit of frosting/sparkle

Christmas Boxes

I adore the with A3 Cardstock from Crafters Companion, it is simply perfect for creating all kinds crafty projects and gift boxes.

Yesterday I made a set of five boxes using a collection of their Festive cardstock. The largest box measures  6 inches x 6 inches x 3 inches and the smallest is 3 inches x 3 inches x 1.5 inches

I added a few of Sheena's new Christmas Word dies to the front and back of each box ( the word snow was made by trimming down the word Snowflake) and then I popped on a few adhesive pearls and gems. I finished off with some cream ribbon and a xmas floral embellishment from my stash

I'd love to get a stack of presents like this!

The 4 Weeks of Advent - part 1

I have a small crafting tradition, in that I like to make small inexpensive hand crafted gifts for my colleagues for the 4 weeks up to Christmas. Last year I was in an open office with 40 colleagues, so the gifts had to be VERY quick and simple. This year the company I work for has relocated us to another floor with a different office set up, so now I share an office with 12 colleagues. This means I can put a little more thought and effort into the 12 gifts I make.

The first gift I have made, which will be given as the main advent gift (in week 4) is a small handcrafted box containing four christmas scented Yankee Tea-light Candles. The boxes were made with Crafters Companion (CC) A3 double sided Traditional Christmas cardstock. I adore this cardstock, as it is the perfect quality for creating boxes and other projects with.

The boxes I made measure 3 inches x 3 inches x 3/4 of an inch when finished, which is the perfect size to  hold 4 Yankee tea light candles.  I used acetate, (which actually came from some CC  Die'sire packaging) to form the window in the centre of the box and added a Merry Christmas sentiment, die cut from CC's gold mirror card and a bow made from CC's  Traditional Christmas luxury ribbon pack.

Hope you like them xx

PS I know there are only 8 in the photo, I have made 12 but four were repeats!

Bonkers about Baubles

Attended another fabulous workshop at Crafters Companion Evesham yesterday, where I learnt how to make my own fabric covered xmas baubles. Absolutely loved learning how to do this ... huge thank you to Katherine, who put the workshop together and who patiently showed us what to do.

I loved it so much I bought 4 more polystyrene balls (4 inches in circumference) and made the ones you can see below last night/this morning. Can not wait to buy some more blanks on Thursday during the CC 12th Birthday Watch event.

Another three cards for my neigbours

...loved the card I made yesterday so much, I decided to make three more for my other neighbours. Hope you like them xx

6 cards from 1 A4 sheet of card

Crafters Companion in Evesham stock a fabulous selection of A4 card stock from PaperBox. You get to pick either a small or a large plastic wallet and fill it with as much cardstock as you can for a set price. When I spotted this Nordic patchwork card stock I just had to buy some.

I used one A4 sheet of card  and cut it into 6 pieces with each piece being made up of  9 patchwork squares . I added a few buttons and some twine from my stash and simply matted and layered them onto coordinating cardstock. In less than no time I had six 6 x 6 christmas cards made. I love how they turned out, hope you do too.

A card for my neighbours

My next door neighbours are always so good to me through out the year that I like to make them a special card at Christmas. This is the 8 x 8 card I have made them this year:

The Merry Christmas die is by Tonic, the woodland scene die is by First Edition, the gold mirror card is from Sara Davies Black and Gold Collection, the background cardstock is an odd piece I had from years ago, (it may have been Kanban?) and the mini adhesive gems came from the Range. The woodland scene die is very intricate, but it was no problem at all for the Gemini ... it cut perfectly in one pass. Yaay.

MIss Clementine

I had the pleasure of taking part in a fabulous Miss Clementine workshop today.

Basically we created a piece of art using small strips of fabric and very simple straight stitches. (Which was a good job as I am not a sewist ...lol)

I had a really lovely time, met some wonderful fellow crafters, ate a sumptuous afternoon tea and left totally inspired by Deborah (Miss Clementine herself)

Here are  few photos of what I and the rest of the group made:

Yet Another Fabulously Crafty Time

During my week off work I was lucky enough the be able to attend a few classes/workshops at the new Crafters Companion store in Evesham (which is only 5 minutes drive from my house!)

In one of the classes I attended we made a stunning card using the Centura Pear  Double sided A3 Decadence collection. I loved the card I made so much I had to bring a pack home with me.

I had a bit of a play this evening and made a few boxes this evening, the largest one measures 8 inches x 5 inches x 1.5 inches and the smallest one measures 5 inches x 1.5 inches x 1.5 inches. 

I have to say I absolutely love the double sided Centura Pearl "Decadence" card stock. Such a beautiful selection of designs that go perfectly with each other. The card stock is a dream to work with and scores/folds beautifully. Really think this collection would make a stunning selection of wedding favours!

A Fun Crafty Time

Just returned home from a fabulous class at the new Crafter's Companion store in Evesham. Today we used Tim Holtz Distress Oxides and Centura Pearl card stock with a hint of gold to create a background.I must say I was very impressed with how well the Oxides blended.

We then used a lovely Create A Card die to cut out the heart shape and flowers and then matted the background onto a white card blank using 36D adhesive foam tape and added small pearls to the centre of the flowers.

The original card had a lovely embossed background, but me wanting to be a little different added the "Warmest Wishes die cut sentiment when I got home. I really love this card and am tempted to buy a couple of these dies when I go back on Thursday.

More Xmas Cards for 2017

These  5 x5 cards were made with a Tonic die, (really sorry I cant remember the name of it!) and a few more buttons from my stash.

And so the Xmas 2017 preparations begin

I am back on a mission to use up as much of my stash as I can, and this time it was my buttons I turned to.

These 5 x5 cards were made using buttons from my stash, a very affordable stamp (£1) and 4 x 4 paper pad from the Range.

I also managed to use up a few of the HUGE stash of peel offs I have amassed over the years!