secondly look what I've got.....

I ran a Secret Santa/Chanukah Armadillo on the forum I run and look what the Chanukah Armadillo brought me....

I'm afraid I guessed who it was from as she has a style of her own and is always so generous with her time and sharing her talent.  It is stunning and each of the four 'milk cartons' contained a gift.  So a very big thank you to my dear friend *** - I will treasure it forever.  Now I need to work out how to make one and have a go myself - watch this space.

xx

Santa doesn't believe in Bah Humbug

a little pressie for a dear friend who does believe in Bah Humbug - perhaps I can change her mind.

a mish mash of things that

I have forgotten to post of late.....

top box for Arn and the other two for friends.

nothing for a month then...

....2 posts in one day.  I have also been working on these recently.  I wanted to make card boxes for 3 of my friends as their Chanukah pressies, of course each box has to be full of cards and there are around 25 cards inside each box so you can understand that I have been a little busy lately.

Box #1

Box #2

and a change of colour for

box #3

All boxed out....

...the final box in the cupboard waiting to be altered and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it....

it reminds me of a cake.  I used my beloved Tim HoltzIdea-ology Vintage Shabby Papers to cover the gesso'ed box, colouring the edges of the pieces with VersaMagic in gingerbread.

I made the roses from scraps of the TH paper using Marianne dies, added some pearls in various colours and diamante pins to finish the top.

A close up of the centre.

I added cream guipure lace trim around the side of the lid and diamante pins to each corner.  To 3 of the pins I added a TH Idea-ology token.  A couple of pearls to the base of each side and that was the sides finished.

The isde of the lid was covered with sections of the paper to match the outside of the lid.  The base was lined with a large piece of the paper and panels of the paper to the side.  I added a rose to each corner and four small flowers to the centre.

finally the box stands on 4 TH Idea-ology feet,  my box is complete and I have absolutely no idea what I am going to keep in it, I just want to look at it.

Two little boxes...

....it's playtime!!!!  I made the first of these boxes some time ago and the second blank box has been languishing in the drawer ever since.  I love altering boxes and adore keeping my things in them - it's so nice to go to a cupboard and see this array of pretty boxes, it just makes the day seem brighter.  So yesterday I altered the second box.

I'm not sure that the photo shows that I used crackle paint on the first one and the blue roses were made using a Marianne die.

I wanted to cover the second box in lace and the only suitable lace I had for the top was white - not a suitable colour - so I tinted it using a Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink pad.  I love this little box and now to find something to store in it.

While I am away....

.... due to surgery hopefully taking place today I can't be here - well not in body but I am in spirit, so I thought I'd make a few things in the week beforehand to be published during my absence.  I saw this gorgeous style of gift bag whilst blog hopping so of course I had to find the measurements and then this just sort of evolved.  I plan on adding a piece of jewellery to the centre as a pressie for someone special.   A couple of tips if you fancy having a go - firstly only use thin card for your 'base' - thick card doesn't crease nicely and paper is too flimsy.  I used the white card sheet that comes in the scrapbook clear folders.  Secondly make a trial bag up first as you can easily put things in the wrong place - my trial bag folded inside out and the tie was in the wrong place on one of the squares.  It is much easier to work out if you have a trial bag to look at.  Don't be put off, this really isn't difficult to make and there is very little measuring.

Ok here is the finished bag..

I used pearlised card in blue for the outside of the bag with blue ribbon to fasten.  The handle was cut from an oddment left over from the card I used for the panels and the flowers and butterflies were made from more oddments. Pink pearls finished things off.

A closer view of the bag front embellishment..

The bigger butterfly was cut using a Marianne die and the smaller butterflies were made using a Martha Stewart punch.

A side view showing the buuterflies on the handle and the side panel.

I used two sheets of Tim Holtz 12 x 12 double sided card in blue and pink to cover all the panels, blue on the outside panels and pink for the inside.  The bag only took one sheet of each.

A closer view of the side panels..

the little flower embellishments on the two side panels were cut from scraps of the Tim Holtz card again using 2 Marth Stewart punches and pearls.

The inside of the bag....

when the bag is opened up the panels lined with the Tim Holtz card are revealed.  I cut two doileys from thin white card using another Marianne die and coloured parts using pastel pink and warm grey 1 Promarkers, a small quote was stamped in the centre and two little butterflies made from a Kanban stamp were added.  The doileys were added to the two plain panels on the inside and 3 little flowers (made as the side panel flowers) were added to each side.  There is room in the centre for a small jewellery box but if you don't want to use the bag as a gift bag you could add some flowers to the centre panel.

A closer view of the 'doiley'

I have really enjoyed making this and it really is a lot easier than you would think so why not have a go.

been busy creating...

...and making projects for the craft forum I run.  So here are the first 3 months' projects for next year.

for January a 'wee sewing kit'

and inside the kit

for February a 'Mini Pizza Box'

and for March a 'Money Gift Holder'

and inside that...

I have had fun.

A Little bit of 'Me' Time

Decided to ignore my To Do List - it'll get done (eventually) and spend a little time crafting something for myself.  This bare tissue box holder has been sitting in the cupboard for a year waiting to be altered and at last it has been.

The four sides....

and the top

A Matchbox Box - Tutorial

This is rather long and detailed and doesn't have to be followed to the letter, but if you work in this order then you should be fine.  It really isn't as difficult as you think to make one of these boxes.

STEP 1

First thing you need are four matchboxes the carcasses of which you need to line up in this design.  Now measure the square.  This is to give you the size for your next item.

STEP 2

My square of boxes measured 3 3/4" so my card was cut to four inch squares.  You need 4 squares of textured card in a light colour and two squares on strong card.   Round the four corners of each card.

STEP 3

These pieces of card are going to make the top and Base of your finished box and need to be fairly strong, hence the sandwich I gave above.  Glue your cards together in this sequence.

Textured card, top facing down.

Strong card

Second piece of textured card, top facing up.

I glued mine with silicone gel so that I could move the pieces around making sure of a perfect fit.

Paint the drawer sections of your matchboxes using two thin coats to cover.

STEP 4

Select a set of nestabilities for embellishing the box (you can cut card by hand if you dont have a die cutting machine).  Paint the edges of the top and base cards on both sides, making sure none of the underneath colour shows through on the edges.  Don't you just love my cutting mat, and this is my best mat you should see the state of the other one.

STEP 5

Cut four pieces of cream card the same size as the side of one of your match boxes.  Stamp a word on each = I used Saddle Brown Staz On.  Ink the sides of these pieces but do not ink the top of them.

STEP 6

Fix your four match box cases together in the same layout as shown at the beginning then glue this to the base card.  Make sure you centre it perfectly.  Now glue one of the cream side pieces to each matchbox side, make sure they line up and you can then trim the tops down to make sure there isn't any excess on the top.  Now you can ink the tops.

STEP 7

When the base is dry glue the top to the boxes, make sure this lines up perfectly.

I turned the whole thing over and weighted it down to dry, but dont make the mistake I made in this picture - I put the drawers back in as I thought it would strengthen the whole thing while it dried - it was a tad difficult to get the drawers out again afterwards.

STEP 8

Okay, now we are ready to finish off the bottom of the box.  You will need two patterned papers, four large beads, four tiny bead and a small ink pad.  For my patterned papers I selected a background paper from the My Craft Studio Art Deco cd, shrunk it and then changed the colour and density for my second paper.  You then need to cut two shapes using your nestabilities, one slightly smaller than the other.

STEP 9

Ink the edges of your papers and mount them onto the base of the box unit.  Then glue the four larger beads at the corners and glue a tiny bead into the hole of each of the larger bead, these will then make your feet.  Because the bas of the unit will now be clear of the ground I punched 3 cream flowers using my Martha Stewart flower punch, inked the petal edges and glue a small stamen head into the centre of each flower.  These 3 flowers then made my embellishment for the base.  Leave to dry completely before turning over.

STEP 10

Now for the top of the unit.  I cut a two sided card from both of my background papers, plus a full shape from the lighter background paper and a smaller shape from the pink background paper, I also cut a small shape from cream plain card.

STEP 11

Ink the edges of all the pieces and then glue then pink double card inside the beige double card.  The single piece shape of beige background will eventually be glued to the top of the unit just to make sure their are no gaps showing.

Now mount the complete pink shape on to the folded card, centre it carefully, then the plain cream card into the centre of the pink shape.  Select a toning ribbon.

STEP 12

Add ribbon to the fold of the card and make 8 curls of green wire.  Punch out 10 small flowers using a selection of the card and papers you have used so far - for this I again used my Martha Stewart punch.

STEP 13

Colour the edges of the petals using an ink pad. I applied a single crystal stone to the centre of each flower and then 5 tiny pink crystal teardrops around the centre stones, arranged so the tear drops pointed down each of the 5 petals.  Shape the flowers carefully once the stones are dried.  Cut small pieces of one of your background cards and glue to the front of your drawers.  Colour the edges using your ink pad.  Arrange the flowers and green curled wires to make a pleasing design - use silicone glue for this so you can move things around to get the correct look.  I also added two pins with pearl head for effect.  Save one flower to use later.

Here is a close up of my flower - it measures just 3/4" across.

STEP 14

Next I had to finish off the inside of the top card.  Using slightly smaller nestabilities each time I cut a cream shape and a pink background card shape for both sides.  Again they were edged using the brown ink pad.

I placed blank shapes on the right hand side so that I could put a handwritten message on at a later time.

STEP 15

On the left hand side I had stamped a favourite quote about friends and I also added another of the little flowers but this time used tiny peel off gems to embellish it as I wanted the page to remain flat.  I was pleased with the addition of the little flower albeit I did it to cover a small ink smudge - sometimes our mistakes turn out just right.

STEP 16

Back to the front of the card and that spare flower I had kept several steps back.  Firstly I made a tiny hole in the bottom right hand corner of the card front.  I fitted a silver jump ring through the hole and then added 2 little charms using more silver rings.  The remaining flower was then glued just above the hole.  The whole card was then mounted on to the spare iece of card from Step 11.  I mounted it using transparent pads and care must be taken to line it up straight.

STEP 17

I screwed a Tim Holtz Hitch Fastener to the front of each of the drawers.

STEP 18

The final finishing touch before completing the assembly of the box was to glue a lace edging around the top of the box, this would soften the frame for my top card and then fix the top card to the top of the box using a double layer of clear pads to raise it up.  My matchbox box is completed and I can't wait to start another.

and here is number 2 which is actually working matchboxes

must be careful I dont ignite the feathers when I strike a match though :o)

and number 3, which I think is my favourite