93 Clippie Holders

no I haven't lost my mind - well not completely - but here are the 93 Clippie Holders I made as an extra little pressie for my d-i-l (she makes and sells the clips).

these have the childs name added and glittered at the time of sale.

I hope she doesn't sell them too quickly as I really can't face making anymore for the time being.

Back to Nature

I've been playing with my PolkaDoodles cd Back to Nature.  The first card is for a friend's daughter who has had a nasty accident.

Maisy the sheep is on a piece of acetate so will come out from behind the fence and bounce around.

Then, of course, once I'd got started I printed off a few more sheets and made the following cards just for the pure enjoyment of making them.

First shoes...

...one of Grace's presents this year is money for her first pair of shoes.  Well you can't just put the money in an envelope can you??  So I made this instead......

which contains....

I am quite pleased how these worked out as I didn't have any suitable templates or diagrams and had to wing it.

Three posts in one day

I always make some cards for my s-i-l at this time of year and here's this year's set.  The completed set first..

and now the cards

Little Boxes for our Girls

This box is to go on Emmie's bedside table at her daddy's and is to hold all her little treasures.

this one is for Grace's bedroom and is to hold her secrets

and Mya starts nursery in January so thought she would need a pencil box

More Initials

A couple more initials - this first one is to go over our grandaughter Emmie's bed at her daddy's.

and this one is for Olivia, Talya's brother's little girl.  Her parents call her cupcake and she is about to have a cupcake theme bedroom.

Books for the littlies

I have been making Mya and Grace and here are the completed books.

Mya's is in the shape of a handbag....

and Grace's is in the shape of angel wings.....

I haven't taken photos of the insides but cut all the photos and decorations and embellishments

using my Bug and nesties.

ehm, not sure if I can answer all these....

my friend Wilma has passed this award on to me, but it requires me to answer a few questions before I pass it on,

ok here goes with the questions and answers...

Where is your mobile phone? is that that small black thing in the bottom of my bag collecting dust?

Your hair? shortish

Your mother? sadly gone nearly 10 years, but missed every day.

Your father? left me broken hearted 10 years ago and my heart will never mend.

Your favourite food? pasta

Your dream last night? not a clue

Your favourite drink? toss up between lemon tea and red wine - probably addicted to both.

Your dream / goal? for my family to be happy.

Which room are you in? craftroom

Your hobby? thats a tough one - oh yes  craft, closely followed by some more craft and finally a bit more craft.

Your fear? stairs

Where do you want to be in 6 years? where I am now and with all my family round me

Where were you last night? home

Something that you aren’t? confident

Muffins? Blueberry

Wish list item? nothing

Where did you grow up? East End of London - a true cockney lass

Last thing you did? played with my cuttlebug

What are you wearing? skirt and sweater

Your tv? Mentalist, Guardian

Your pets? my beloved westie

Friends? lots and love them all

Your life? hectic and stressful at the moment

Your mood? fine

Missing someone? yes

Vehicle? Nissan Almeira

Something you are not wearing? jewellery or perfume

Your favourite store? M&S

Your favourite colour? blues and greens

When did you last laugh? this morning

When did you last cry? last week

Your best friend? Arn is my bestest ever friend

One place you go over and over? Lakeside

Facebook? yes when I remember, which is rarely

Favourite place to eat? here

I now have to pass the favour on so here goes - Joana, Sheryl, Tal, Shaz and Eleanor

Halloween - be warned these are meant to scare you......

....but will make you laugh instead - cute or what??

oops, she's in there somewhere

think Grace is beginning to enjoy this

needless to say this wasn't the original hat to the outfit

then mummy and daddy went to a Halloween fancy dress party and Grace decided to try on daddy's hat complete with fake peot.

Now these were fun to make....

They are to go over the girls' beds and were great fun to make.

The reason why I really shouldn't buy...

....any more ribbons :o)

this is the newly arranged ribbon wall.  On the clips are narrow ribbons which are in colour groups - with the exception of the rings either end which are my newly aquired heart and bling ribbons.  In the scottie drawers are all my wider ribbons - and each drawer is rammed full.  I've wound the ribbons on to cards for ease use and minimal creasing.  The big boxes are part of my rubber stamp collection. The mini suitcase is crammed with 'special' ribbons - basically ones I didn't know where else to put them.

a closer view of my scottie drawers and yes the colours are in alphabetical order (I know thats a complete anorak trick) and the ribbons tied round the scotties' necks shows which colour is in which drawer - well I like them.

then of course there are the ribbon boxes that I decorated, they are full of narrow ribbons that I use for quick embellishments and again the colour of the box denotes the colour tone inside.  These sit on the shelf over my desk for easy use.

There are more, which I completely forgot about - there are several shoe boxes stuffed full of wools, cords, raffia etc, they live in the bottom of a wardrobe - hence they get forgotten and rarely see the light of day.

Do you think I need to join ribbons anonymous?  Is there any hope for me?  Am I diagnosed as a ribbon addict?

Bling is in the air...

...Ali from Crafty Ribbons sent me 20 metres of beautiful bling velvet ribbon and I have made the following 3 cards using some of them.  Bling is certainly in the air here at the moment......

I think this is a chrysanthemum....

 I saw a tutorial for making a rose, involving plain card and lots of water.  I didnt have the punches required and some of the steps were a little obscure so I decided to have a play with a punch I had and amend some of the steps.  I think my finished flower looks a bit like a chrysanthemum, not sure what you think.

This is the large punch I used and I punched out 7 flowers (only because that was how many I could get out of one A4 sheet - no technical reason for this number) using a cream heavy card that would absorb water.

I then coloured the edges of the petals - use a water based ink if you want the colours to run.  Dont bother being neat and tidy with your colouring.

Place the petals on top of each other and fix through the centre with a brad.  Now is the time to move the petals around a bit as you dont want them all lined up.

start pulling the petals (one layer at a time) into the middle of your flower and press them together firmly - again neatness doesnt matter here, it will all add to the character of your finished flower.

continue adding layers until...

your flower looks like this.  Squidge (dont you love my 'technical' terms) the flower hard together - be quite rough and firm here.

now comes the messy bit and you may prefer to do this over the sink.  You will need a water mister and probably an old cloth.  Open your flower out again and starting with the first layer squidged into the middle spray liberally with water (about 3 good squirts should do) continue to press the first layer of petals together moulding them quite tightly shut.

repeat the process as you add each layer of petals and then press the final 'bud' shape together quite hard, this is how your flower should look now.

carefully open your flower out again, getting some space between the petals.  You now decide if you are happy with the colouring or if you want to go further.  For the flower at the beginning of this thread I stopped here with the colouring but if you want then you can .......

spray liberally with Glimmer Mist, make sure you give it a good old spray.

again gather your petals into the centre and leave to start to dry - approx. 15 minutes at this stage.

now comes the fun bit - but be warned if you have sprayed with glimmer mists you will get very messy so may want to put on some rubber gloves.  Open out each layer of petals, bending and shaping the petals as you go - remember no 2 petals ever looks the same so no aiming for perfection here just go with the flow.

gradually open up the layers shaping your flower as you go - you can stop at any point here if you decide you want a half opened flower or a fully opened bloom.  Go back over petals already opened and adjust them to suit but be warned as they are still very wet you can pull a petal off so go carefully.

you should end up with a flower looking something like this.  Put the flower aside now to dry - I left mine on top of the radiator and it dried in about an hour but make sure it is fuly dried before you go on to the next step.

you can leave your finished flower as it is once dried or you can add a little sparkle and glitter to some of the petals if you like.

I now plan on playing with some cutting dies and stamped images and will if any of the work out, add them to the blog.

If you want to make your flower a little stronger once finished then give it a light spray with some clear spray varnish.  I hope you enjoy getting messy and inky and making these flowers.