Wednesday 31 December 2014

Xmas shortbread

Sorry I've been away from here for a wee while, having a bit of a break from crafting to concentrate on my garden for a change.  Everything has slowed down in the crafting world for a week or three, so its now catch up time. 
Today I'm sharing with you the small xmas gifts I made for everyone at work.


 
The ladies were all given a small bag of homemade shortbread, while the men received 'Snowman Poop'.  All were gratiously received.  Below is the template to create the 'wrapper' around the shortbread, while many tutorials can be found on Pinterest for the Snowman Poop and others.
 
 
Fold at the dotted lines, then cut a 'window' in the front.  Here I've used a Fiskars Oval template sized 2.0" x 2.5", then using a circle punch make a small slot for the plastic bag to slip thru the top.  Attach the shortbread (or similar) then create the packaging around it.  Decorate as desired.
 
Simple but very much appreciated, with minimal cost.

Sunday 14 December 2014

Twelve Days of Christmas

Wow who would have thought, here we are with the last Imagine if . .  blog hop for the year, and of course its our last chance to show off all the awesome Xmas goodies Jo has designed for us all.  This time we are showing off either a chipboard book or a MDF box, all beautifully xmas themed.  Not only are we sharing our creations with you we are running a wee competition for you all to WIN xmas goodies for yourself . . . but more about that later.

Time has been very much against me this week, so luckily the paper collection I've used in this book has made my life A LOT easier.


 
The G45 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' collection has been used throughout.  I adore this collection which I bought last xmas with the idea of making xmas decorations for this year . . . no time for that option sadly.  To accommodate the 3 double page spreads I actually removed one of the chipboard pages from the book, then created a pocket for the tags to slip into.



 
G45 has cleverly captured the spirit of this 'story line' well here with the design work on these pages, they have been ideal to create my tags with.

 
On the reverse side of the tags are the lyrics of some of my favourite 'non-traditional' xmas carols.  Sadly my printer 'ate' one of the songs, and is still presently jammed with paper, I think due to this damp humid weather we are experiencing at the moment.

 
Lots of Imagine if . .  chipboard and felt have been used to embellish this book.  Apart from being a very rushed job, this has been a fun project to complete.
 
The competition I mentioned above is infact similar to the theme of this book.  We are asking you to visit all the Design Team posts (as per usual) following our links provided and gather a clue from each site. . . . my clue is "2 running deer".  When you have visited all the sites and have gathered all the clues, simply follow this link to the Imagine if . .  facebook page and simply write "I WANT IT ALL".  Leaving a comment at every visit I'm sure will increase your chances to win .  If selected Jo will then ask you for all the clues, and you will WIN IT ALL.
 
Easy peasy, now for the necessary directions.  Before me you would have visited Katrina and next follow this link to see what Ngaere has instore for us all this week.
 
Imagine If . . product used here are:  stockings
                                                            flourish frame
                                                            candy canes & santas hat
                                                            mini xmas tree
                                                            chipboard book
                                                            felt xmas tree decorations
                                                            lettering
 
Thanks for visiting today and over the last year.  Good luck with the competition.
 I hope you all have a happy and safe Xmas and New Year. 
 

Sunday 7 December 2014

Stocking for Santa to fill

Jo threw us a real curve ball for this weeks blog hop, as in our box of goodies she sent was a burlap stocking in all its naked glory just waiting to be decorated.  Oh dear, what to do ? ? ?  After thinking long and hard I had several ideas going on in my head but when I actually sat down to attempt something nothing was working . . . duh! !  So off to my local Spotlight store with the idea to buy some red & white gingham for my next idea . . . came home with a bag full of other goodies and no gingham.  This is what I ended up with after the rather shaky start.


 
 
After stripes of fabric & trims coloured the background, I then added lots of Imagine if . .  xmas chipboard pieces, along with ribbon, handmade poinsettia & gorgeous holly leaves.

 
This is the 'raw' product, which upon first sight was quite daunting.

 
Here is the stocking with the background stripes attached, now ready for the decorations.  Everything was hot glued in place - I have a burnt finger to prove it.
 
Enjoy these close ups of the decorations.





 

 The poinsettia was relatively each to make, follow the tutorial here and I found a easy to follow tutorial for the double bow on You Tube here.

This has been quite a tricky project to complete within the time frame I now have available at this busy time of year.  I can't wait to see what the other girls on the Design Team have come up with  on their stockings.  If you are following the blog hop correctly you would have started with the newsletter from Jo, worked thru the girls to Carol before me, then follow this link to go back to the Lilian who is at the top of the list.

Imagine If products used: stockings    
                                          candles
                                          frame
                                          bows
                                          gingerbread men, candy canes & santas hat
                                          mini xmas tree
                                          jandals
                                          reindeer

We hope this has really put you in the xmas mood, as there's not too many sleeps to go now.




Wednesday 3 December 2014

More Xmas cards

Believe it or not I've actually managed to find time to make a few more different xmas cards.  Again I am entering them in another Artfull Crafts challenge, this time the challenge is for 'Fancy Cards', so this was a great chance to try something a bit different.  As I'm sure you're aware I am not a card maker, so I really chuffed with how they have turned out (luckily I had the help of awesome tutorials to follow).

 
I followed a simple tutorial here. This awesome plaited card was actually very easy to make, using BoBunny card stock, burlap & G45 paper.  Topped off with Imagine if candles and I am Roses flowers.


 
When I saw this awesome idea I just had to give it a go.  Very easy instructions can be found here again using BoBunny cardstock and papers, Imagine if . .  chipboard & Prima flower.
 
Come along to the Artfull crafts site and join in the fun, they are having a new challenge each week before xmas and there are lots of entries already.

Sunday 30 November 2014

Xmas tree . . Oh Xmas tree

Yes I've really got into the xmas spirit now, making xmas cards, tree decorations, last weeks sleigh full of tiny parcels that needed creating and now finally here is my Xmas Tree.  This awesome MDF tree stands just 8" (20cm) high and is part of this weeks blog hop at Imagine if . .  . The second half of the design team are revealing these trees and the remainder are coming up with something else (its a surprise, so follow the links and see what they've come up with).
Here's what I have come up with:


 
Once the tree was assembled as below it was decorated with lots of Imagine if . .  
chipboard pieces (also listed below).  These were mostly painted, then finished with various coats of stickles, glossy accents, sharpie pen, glitter or ribbon.
 
This is what I started with:
 
 
Then I hot glued jisaw pieces all over


 
Once dried it got a good coat of gesso then several coats of green paint, finally the top coat is a Lumiere Metallic Acrylic paint - Metallic Olive Green, this is soooo luxurious and so much nicer in person.
 

 
It was fun putting all the decorations on, practice time for the real thing.  Follow my links here to continue on the blog hop.  Please leave comments at all sites, we love to hear what you think of our work.  You would have visited Carol's tree before coming here, next person on the list is the lovely Tash who has come up with a real gem for you today.
 
Imagine if . .   products used here are:  MDF tree
                                                               stockings
                                                               candles
                                                               stars
                                                               bows
                                                               gingerbread men & candy canes
                                                               jandals
                                                               santas hat
 
All products are proudly NZ made, and are available online or at the shop in Morrinsville.  Please support our homegrown products.


Sunday 23 November 2014

Life's a Beach

For this week's blog hop with Imagine if . .  Jo has asked half the team to show the fab new MDF xmas trees, and the 2nd half to show off more of the oversized tags.  I got to do the tags, which allows me to get a sneak look at the xmas trees before I have to do mine for next week.

I am trying hard to make all these projects useable, so decided to attach a spine between 2 tags and create a functional notebook.


 
First I had to attach the spin with some adhesive backed canvas, then all surfaces were covered with this gorgeous paper from Prima 'Seashore' collection, all edges were then inked with TH Distress Ink 'Frayed Burlap'.  A burlap trim was attached to the outside of the spine to cover the rough edges.
 


 
Then the fun began in earnest.  These gorgeous vintage beach prints are on a 'Paper Arts' paper available at Imagine if . .  , bling, sea creatures and a few flowers finish the fun vintage look.

 
 


 Inside the photos have been place under a chipboard film strip.  The jotter pad was cut to fit then slipped into a slit on the back page for easy replacement.

Products available at  Imagine if . . are:           Tags
                                                                Seahorse family
                                                                Sea shells
                                                                Film Strip
                                                                Paper Arts papers
                                                                mini roses
                                                                TH Distress Inks

 Follow the links to check out all the other tags and xmas trees that the girls have created this week.  Before me you would seen Carol's tag and as I'm last on the list go back to the beginning and check out Katrina's xmas tree.
                                                    

Thursday 13 November 2014

CAS Xmas cards

Everyone's starting to think about xmas, with many competitions and challenges to be entered.  Here I've made some 'clean and simple' xmas cards to enter into a challenge with Artfull Crafts where they allow 3 entries.



 
 
I've made several different colour variations of the same card.  All 3 cards have been made using the same scraps from Kaisercraft Santa's List & G45 Twelve Days of Christmas collections.   I love the origami xmas tree which was folded following simple instructions I found here .
 
Thank you for visiting, I hope this sends a little Christmas spirit your way.

Sunday 9 November 2014

Watch out here comes Santa

The blog hop this week for Imagine if . .   is more xmas fun, with the 2nd half of the DT (including me) showing you our sleighs, while the other girls have had fun making xmas cards.

I assembled the MDF pieces firstly, then painted everything black.  Once that was dry I gave it a good coat of my new favourite product Crackle Medium, then followed with the red paint.
 
I just love the effect of this crackle medium.  

 
The reindeer are xmas tree decorations, who are doing a stellar job 'pulling' the sleigh.
 Presents galore, again some are just xmas tree decorations, while others are Imagine if . .  chipboard pieces, painted and coloured.

 
Thanks for visiting, if you are following the blog correctly you would have come here after visiting Carol's sleigh and to keep on track keep going to visit Tash with her amazing sleigh.
 
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment, we've all had fun making these, why don't you try.  These and lots of other xmas goodies (MDF, chipboard & felt) are all available from Imagine if . .  and all are proudly NZ made.

Sunday 2 November 2014

Meeting Santa

Oh dear everyone is now starting to talk about Christmas . . . . I am not even in that mind set yet.  So when I received my latest pack of goodies from Jo at Imagine if .    I had to quickly put my denial aside, grab the bit between my teeth and embrace the fact that there's only 2 months left till the end of yet another year.  Jo has sent us all lots of xmas goodies to show you all, so get ready to be 'wowwed'.

I've started off with a xmas layout using a lovely photo from last xmas, showcasing the awesome chipboard 'Santa's sleigh and reindeer' pieces.

 
I started with a Kaisercraft Christmas Basecoat paper, then layered on lots of gorgeous G45 Twelve Days of Christmas papers, following this sketch which was the October LO sketch challenge at Artfull Crafts  (which I entered AND won)
 
 
As I am no artist I simply gave the chipboard a weathered, aged look using a fab new product I've come across 'Ceramcoat' Crackle medium - I LOVE IT, and its so easy to use.  Watch out you will be seeing a lot more of it in the future.



 
This flower stalk is a gorgeous Prima product which I beheaded, then painted to suit.  The little cones I found on the roadside, have been painted, then finished with a bit of gold stickles which sadly is not showing well in this photo.  The large flower is from BoBunny.  All the different layers were hand stitched as well.

If you are following this blog hop correctly you should have come to me from Carols awesome xmassy layout and next follow this link to visit Tash with her gorgeous creation

Monday 27 October 2014

Let's Upcycle

Time for another blog hop with Imagine if . .  and for this week Jo has left it open and has allowed us to do anything we please.  If you are following the hop correctly, you should  have come to me from Katrina's  awesome creation,

 This has been a great chance to do a bit more with my storage boxes, as I have planned to ultimately have all boxes looking pretty - yeah right ! !  I store my individual and random papers by colour and decided to paint several pizza boxes for the job, to be decorated as time permitted.  So here is my first decorated box.

 
This box obviously is for all my green paper, so I wanted everything to be differing shades of green.  I started by covering the box with scraps of green papers, then added some texture by using texture paste through several different templates, added random scraps of laces, dry wall tape, & random flowers.  These were all gesso'd, then all was coloured with various layers of green paints, Dylusions ink sprays & Lindys stamp gang sprays.  The grey Prima flowers were painted, then sprayed; the old black flourish with black felt flowers were painted, the quote was distressed then inked to match as well.  The peacock feathers add a bit more dimension and interest as well. 
 
When it was all assembled and glued down I thought it would look great with a face in the middle, so if you look carefully you will see I've inked thru one of the Imagine if . .   face stencils.  Sadly with all the texture and with the flowers already attached its hard to see, but I wasn't brave enough to use a stronger colour incase it didn't look good.
 
Here is how it now looks back on the shelf with the other plain boxes, you can see why I've decided to 'pretty' things up a bit.

 
Next stop on your journey through the hop is Carol where she is also touching on the subject of storage.  I hope our ideas give you inspiration to sort out your own collections.
 
 

Sunday 26 October 2014

Treats for Halloween

Halloween is upon us again, so I've been busy preparing some wee bags of treats for the visiting kids.  Also this months challenge at I am Roses is for an altered bag, using orange & black, so doing these bags was a no brainer. 

 
The three I am Roses products I've used are Daisies, cherry blossoms, carnations and buds.  As my supplies are very limited I've coloured some of these blooms with Dylusions Ink sprays, which is super effective, and very easy to do.  I've also used feathers, cheese cloth & wool to give some texture.
 
Now I'd better get busy and make some less feminine bags for the boys.