When a Wreath is not a Wreath.....

it's a mobile....

I saw a photo of a wreath made with these paper hearts and have to say I was not impressed but I could see potential.  So I set to work and made 12 hearts (dead simple) and set them out on my desk in the shape of the wreath.

No!!!!!!!!!!!  it quite simply didn't work, too big and not terribly substantial.  So I took 4 hearts away - ah that's better but what do I do with the spare hearts - ping light bulb moment - make a second tier.  But then it's not a wreath - it's a...........

............

............

mobile!!!!!

Well that sounded simple enough but the mechanics of joining the two tiers so that they hung straight was a bit thought provoking.  But after looking at it from all angles I worked it out and worked out how to hang it.  Now how to make it pretty and to get movement in it.  Firstly I printed off 4 of my Tilda stamp images and then I flipped the images and printed 4 to go on the backs.  Coloured and glittered them and fitted them to the centre of the mobile.  It still needed something else so I cut and glittered 8 little butterflies and fixed them to the mobile using thin strips of acetate so that they looked as if they were flying and voila.......one mobile.

New Year - New Beginnings

I think I'll actually get round to entering some challenges this year so the Crafty Ribbons Blog Challenge of 'New Beginnings' sounded like a good place to start.  The metal bar has been sitting in my stash for a while and obviously was meant for this card.  I've made a cross over card of a sort, instead of completely crossing over each other I laced the fronts together and then slipped two tags inside the pocket.  It was a fun card to make.

and I used something new that I received over the holidays - angel glitter. 

I also entered in the Krafty Kool Kats challenge at
 http://kraftykoolkat.blogspot.com/

LadyBugs Challenge at
http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com/

the Digi Doodle Shop at
http://digidoodleshopsbest.blogspot.com/

Fab'n'Funky at
http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.com/

Emmie Louise, Mya Jaye & Grace Ava

When I saw this photo frame in Dunelm Mills last week I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, so a few hours later and I have the frame I'd envisioned.

I started by working on the frame's insert mount and cut flowers and flourishes from paper in my stash and added photos of my 3 granddaughters and then popped a photo of the kids in the fourth space. The letter L doesn't really have lots of white daisies in it, it has a photo of my granddaughter Emmie Louise in it but you will just have to imagine that for now as you never know when big brother is watching. Although why anyone would want to spend hours tracking down my blogs (and yes I have 3) is beyond me - I have better things to do with my time.

Now to work on the frame. I started by lightly dabbing the boring white frame with my Tim Holtz dabbers using Copper, Silver, Raspberry, Citrus and Pool and then toning it down with Pearl - the colours then matched the tones of the flowers on the mount.

I cut the letters, flowers and flourishes for the frame from copper metal using my Cuttlebug - my latest toy is still my favourite, love my Bugsy - and then ran the flowers and letters through the Bug using the swiss dot embossing folder. I lightly sanded the letters and flowers to 'age them' and add tiny highlights using the TH dabbers again (at last I have got the hang of using them). When the paint was dry I gently molded the flowers to give them a more 3d effect. The letters, flowers and flourishes were glued in place on the frames and crystal stones and flat backed pearls added to highlight.

This is the right hand corner, a tad blurred but thats because I am not a photographer.

Similarly the central embellishment of flowers.

and the left hand corner.

Finally the title for the frame.

It took the complete day but I am really pleased with

it. OH suggests I dont let d-i-ls see it as one will want

to have a go and the other will want me to make

her one - well thats the fun of having such

lovely d-i-ls.

Baby Blessing Invites

Invites for Grace's baby blessing were a real delight to make. Starting with plain white cards I added a mat of pink pearlescent paper (Craft Creations) which I had edged (Fiskars punch) and I have used embossing paste in Shiney White (Dreamweavers) to emboss a teddy and rabbit on the bottom. I then added a 2nd card the front of which I had embossed (cuttlebug) and embellished using the words 'tiny blessings' (Cuttlebug) cut from pale green pearlescent paper (Craft Creations). The dots over the 'i' in both words is a tiny pale green crystal (Papi on ebay) and a pink crystal flower added to each end. A few pink metallic peel off dots (Craft Creations) broke up the plain dot pattern. A ribbon and bow was added to the side (Crafty Ribbons) just to complete the front.

Inside the 2nd card I have decoupaged pictures of angel babies with the words 'Heaven Sent'. For this I used a picture I already had but which was blue and yellow and altered the colours using My Craft Studio. A little Glamour Dust (DecoArt) on the wings and halo completed this part of the invite.
Finally for the insert I again used my main image and made a tiled background paper with My Craft Studio. The wording was printed onto the paper and I matted it onto the pale green pearlescent paper, the sides of which I had again punched.

As a finishing touch I added a tiny baby coat on a coat hanger to the front of the envelope using the embossing paste as before. My invitations are complete.

Twins looking for a home......

twins of the doll kind that is. Mya's baby brother or sister will arrive bearing gifts for big sister. As we don't know if it will be a brother or sister I decided to get her twin Berenguer dolls and here they are ready to go to their new mummy.

We have named them with the runner up names for the new baby and here they are all swaddled up and tagged ready for their new mummy. Why do I get the feeling Lilli is going to be a good girl for her mummy and Max is going to be a little terror.

For a Friend

Friends have just become first time grandparents and here are the cards I made for their little treasure's arrival.