Jules' Blog Candy

What is better than Trick or Treat candy? Crafty Blog Candy, that's what!! The lovely and talented Jules is offering blog candy. What a sweetie (sweetie, get it? Ha, ha I'm just so funny - not!!).

Do stop by Jules' blog and have a look at her gorgeous crafty projects. She has some really great ideas that I'm sure you'll love.

Just for fun, I thought I'd add a pic of two of my halloween monsters a couple of years ago. Now, is that a big pumpkin, or did my children shrink?

Oh, and by the way, who forgot to feed the pole dancer?

Don't forget, in my previous post I have a freebie for you to download!

Happy Halloween

Mwa, ha, ha, haaaaaa

Freebie No. 1

I have a little freebie for you. Some sentiments in the style of tickets. I am still stuck on this trend for using tickets, real or 'faux'. One of the things I compulsively hoard is tickets (plane, boat, theatre... you get the picture), so quite appropriate that I use them a lot on my craft projects.

This file is saved at 150 dpi, so is fine for home printing at upto A4. I've put 24 on a sheet to make it easier to print loads in one go, saving cardstock and effort!They are mostly in black and white, a few coloured. Mostly straightforward birthday, with a 'happy anniversary', 'just for you', 'with love' and 'good friend' thrown in for good measure. I'll make some others for different occasions when I get a chance - it is nearly midnight and I might turn into a (Halloween) pumpkin if I don't think about going to bed soon.

The tickets look cool printed onto biscuit or kraft coloured card stock (even the coloured ones). You can resize them, crop them to print just a few, recolour them etc. Use them as you wish! Oh, if you can't be bothered to curve the corners by hand and don't have a ticket punch, a cropodile will nibble the corners nicely if printed at 100%.

I'd be grateful if you would leave me a comment and become a follower (way down at the bottom of the page). That way, I'll know you've stopped by and you'll know when I make up the next freebie. Please feel feel to post a link to this page on your blog, rather than sharing the JPEG. Thank you.

Paper Bag Recycling

I recently placed another order with one of my favourite companies, Riky and Nina, who sell the most gorgeous little gifts, craft supplies (their paper tapes are sooo pretty), stationery, accessories and so much more! As usual, my order came beautifully wrapped in a paper bag, this time it was a lovely vintage newspaper print paper bag. Last time, it was a bag printed with muted dusky pink and red roses.

As I love paper and hate to throw it straight into the recycling sack, I always try to find another use for it. These paper bags were crying out to be made into something crafty, so I set to work. I had a couple of blog challenges in mind (what a surprise I hear you gasp!). The current challenge at Crafty Ribbons is 'Bingo'. I love this challenge! You choose a line of three items from the bingo board and have to use those three elements in your project. I chose the line featuring flowers, punches/dies and ribbon. I also had the 'To the Letter' challenge at the Craft Den's Anything Goes challenge blog. For my letters (the sentiment doesn't count), I have the newsprint and also the wire tag tie, which says 'Tied Together With Love'.

The card has 5 main papers layered up, with punched borders of Bazzill and some lovely threaded ribbon across the middle. I die cut layers using good old trusty nestabilities, added a sentiment based on SJ's freebie template and finished the tag with a wire bag closing tie. As usual, I did a bit of doodling with a white gel pen, sanded the Bazzill and used Tim Holtz distress ink on the edges of the layers. The whole thing is mounted on some biscuit card stock to make a card measuring up at a rather large 19x24cm.

Finally, back to where this post started. The paper bags! I made the flower from a few layers of printed vellum and paper bags, die cut with my spiral blossoms Spellbinder die. I then liberally doused it with glossy accents and tipped glass floristry beads in the centre whilst the glossy accents was wet. It is hard to see in the photo, but the combo of glossy accents and vellum on top of the printed paper bag make the flower look like glass. I love it! I'll certainly be making more - just as soon as I stock up on more glossy accents. I think I emptied it all onto this flower (oops!). Oh, and just as soon as my next order comes from Riky and Nina to restock my pretty paper bag stash of course!

About Face

Another blog challenge, another excuse to blog about a recently made card. I love doodling and having a go at manga-style drawings. I'm not great at it, but it's fun and keeps me out of trouble! I like to use them on my cards, and this is one of the finished projects.

I would like to enter my card into this week's OCCC 'Fabulous Faces' challenge. I think it fits the bill! The talented team at Our Creative Corner's challenge blog have set the bar to a very high level, so there is sure to be plenty to inspire you on the site.

Anything Goes - part 3

My third and final project for this week's Charisma Cardz 'Anything Goes' blog challenge is an unusual one for me. It is a scrapbook page that I made for an album for some friends celebrating their first anniversary. The page features a little pencil drawing I did of the pair of them in the garden of their wedding venue (cooling Castle Barn near Rochester in Kent). I wasn't at the wedding, so the sketch is from a photograph taken by their niece. I used the actual photo in a layout on the facing page, but kept this page simple so that the drawing was centre stage. I don't know why I did it really, I am not very good at drawing, the whim just took over me and I decided that I would give it a go. I have added a close-up of the sketch, so those of you who are gifted artists can moan to yourselves about the terrible drawing odd perspective.

Anyhow, those of my three diverse projects, from three different crafts to enter into the challenge. I hope you like them! I know I have enjoyed browsing through the fab projects at Charisma Cardz. Pay them a visit. I am sure you will love them too.

Anything Goes - part 2

My second project for this week's Charisma Cardz 'Anything Goes' blog challenge is my most recent bunch of hand sewn hair clips, made from felt scraps left over from the batch of whimsy dolls I made last Christmas. I really love these and have to actually put my little basket of scraps away otherwise I would continue making them until our house is overrun with hair clips! Atleast my daughter and I have long hair, so can make use of them! Sewing them by hand is really theraputic and I enjoy the fact that they are made with such tiny scraps that would otherwise be thrown away.

Anything Goes

As you will know by now, I am hooked on Blog Challenges. I am still relatively new to them, but love them all the same. Some challenges have prizes, others do not. Sometimes entries are judged on skill, artistic/crafty talent etc. and some blogs use random selection to choose winners. I just love the fun of entering whatever the outcome.

This week's challenge over at Charisma Cardz is 'Anything Goes' and they really do mean anything! Not just papercraft projects, but anything crafty! I love lots of different crafts and always have several projects on the go. This week's challenge gives me an excuse to post piccies of 3 of my finished projects, one knitted, one sewn and, for good measure, a scrap layout including a sketch (that is, a pencil drawing as opposed to the meaning of 'sketch' as a diagram for a design layout). In order to enter them all into the challenge, each project must be posted separately, so I will give each it's own little bit of bloggy space.

The knitted project, as you can see, is a sweet little pair of baby shoes knitted in bamboo yarn from Rowan, modelled by my son at 2 days old! I love making them and have made many, many pairs for all of my children and for friends too. I love this pair, because of their simplicity. I have made far fancier pairs, with cabling and so on, but I actually love the garter stitch side out, with the smooth stocking stitch inwards for the baby's comfort.