Christmas Treats

Here's yet another special way to do gift boxes.  I'm sure you all know by now I LOVE making little gift boxes.  I've used this idea to quickly make lots of little boxes to give to all my friends at work.

I found this idea on Pinterest and followed the links to this awesome tutorial here.  I've made these for 6 men and 8 ladies, so wanted a fairly neutral paper collection to cater for both.  Here I've used 5 pages of Kaisercraft Silver Bells papers, which actually made 15 'slices' of cake. 

For the ladies I've used assorted rosette roses, pearls, rhinestones and the men got snowflakes.  Each box will be filled with about half a cup of homemade caramel corn.  Ribbon & string hold these boxes shut.

The caramel corn recipe I've used is very simple.  I use this same recipe to make ricebubble cakes:

100gm butter, 4tbs brown sugar, 1tbs honey. 
Put all in small saucepan and boil for 4 minutes.
Pour over 6 cups of popped corn
Mix thoroughly until all popcorn is coated.
Spread out on baking tray lined with baking paper and cook at 100 deg.C for 1 hour, turning every 15 minutes. 
Once cool toss well to separate all the corn.
Keeps for up to one week in a airtight container.

YUMMY

Now I just have to wait for next week before I can surprise everyone.  I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas.

Recycled Denim Jeans

I've been 'missing in action' lately because I've been trying out different things.  As I've said in my profile I LOVE all crafting, so have recently gone back to my roots a bit and have been doing some more sewing.  I really hate waste so I love to reuse or recycle whenever I can.  I get a daily update from Whoot where they have fantastic crafts, recipes etc with LOTS of recycling ideas.

I LOVE these recycled demin jeans, which I purchased ridiculously cheaply at our local Hospice shop.  Firstly I tried these out on a pair of my old jeans after seeing the idea here. 

Making the full apron uses the front, back pocket & the bottom of 1 leg, while the smaller 'gardening apron' uses the backside & belt of another pair.  Sadly both styles cannot be made from one pair unless you don't have the waistband on the full apron (which would spoil the whole effect).

 

This one is my favourite, which I'll probably have to keep for myself, very closely followed by this next one.

 

 

 I tried several different styles, as we all like different things, with the following being much plainer.

 

 These half 'gardening aprons' are proving very popular, providing handy pockets for all your bits and pieces when in the garden.  I love using the 'grungier' jeans for these and have also tried to use jeans with labels still attached.

 

 

 

Again some of these ones have purposely been left plainer to hopefully cater for all tastes. 

These are all available for sale for my New Zealand friends as I am making these to be sold at upcoming pre xmas markets.  If you are interested in making a purchase please just leave me a comment (which if you choose will not be published). Wish me luck.

Starting to think Xmas

My crafting time has been extremely limited this month now I've started back at work, so I've had to let a lot of my regular challenges go for the time being, sorry if you are one that I have been regularly supporting.  Also I'm trying to get into my garden (between showers) and I've even been doing a bit of sewing . . .  but that's another story.

One lovely lady I follow on facebook runs Krafters Cart NZ where she sells all sorts of supplies at great prices.  Anyhow she is running a Xmas card challenge this month where I have entered this card.

I saw this amazing card while looking thru pinterest, and following the link given found a great tutorial here.  It is in a foreign language but the drawing she has given is very easy to follow.  Here is the pattern I used from the site, of which I tweeked a bit to create a 6" x 4" card.

The paperline I've used is the Teresa Collins 'Christmas Home' collection, gorgeous papers, and I love the quality of her papers.  I hope this inspires you to start thinking xmas also.

Welcome Little One - mini album

What a mammoth effort I have put into this mini album I have to share with you all today.  Here is my DT creation for the latest challenge at Southern Girls Challenge where this time the theme is my all time favourite - FLOWERS - yay! !  I am also entering this into the I am Roses monthly challenge as I have used their gorgeous flowers throughout.

 This gorgeous little album measures 6" x 6" and is FULL of tags, cards, flaps, pockets, booklets and quotes.  Throughout I've used papers from the Kaisercraft  'Pitter Patter - Girl' paper collection and collectables.  Every edge has been inked using TH Spun Sugar distress ink.

I got the idea for this from one of the lovely Maja DT's -  Cathy McGrath who showed off her version of this album here.   I followed her link to the You Tube tutorial where she learnt this from Ginger at My Sisters Scrapper here.  Its a 6 part tutorial, but well worth every minute.

Still photos really don't show this off to its full potential, but I hope you can see it well enough to enjoy and be enthused to make your own.  It really is quite easy.I

 

 

There are LOTS of places for photos and journaling.  Inside every page a large 6" x 6" photo mat is tucked (you will see them with the tabs to help pull them out.  I made a couple of small envelopes which store more cards, for journaling and the waterfall on the inside back cover adds even more photo mats.

 

I tried to use as much of the extras on the sticker sheet and collectables as possible.  And of course it wouldn't be a girlie album without heaps of drop dead gorgeous flowers.  I've used some rosette roses, but mostly I am Roses blooms.  Here I've used Daisies, small daisies, cherry blossoms, S10 blooms, rosebuds, leaves.  And of course pearls, rhinestones, satin ribbon & seam binding.

 

Now this is finished I am packing it up very safely and posting it off to my best mates daughter in England who just this week had her baby girl.  I'm hope Ally will love this and put all her photos and memorabilia of Lani's first days in here.

 

Kom Ombo - Egypt

I've had a chance to look back through some of my 'piles' of holiday photos and have pulled out a couple from Egypt.  I have a real block scrapping these as most of the photos are all very much the same colours throughout - sand or bright blue cloudless skies, with not a flower to be seen.   Scrapping my usual styles I NEED flowers.

The colours of these gorgeous BoBunny 'Somewhere in Time' papers are just perfect to use with these photos, I had real fun using them and including some of the elements along with the corrugated cardboard and gauze.

I chose these colours and the theme of my page with the help of the Scrap Around the World moodboard

 

I love the grunginess of this paper collection which I've enhanced with lots of ripping, distressing and the cardboard.  The gorgeous metal embellishments come from Faith Pocock, which was a great way to add 'pretties' without the use of flowers.  Enjoy some closeups:

 

Hopefully now I can keep on a roll and scrap a few more of these awesome memories instead of leaving them hiding away in the drawer.

Two for the Price of One

I think I've been very clever this week, I've used one LO sketch and created 2 totally different layouts.  I followed this sketch from Artfull crafts

 

Here is my 1st layout which I will be entering in the Artfull crafts monthly challenge.

 



This was fun to make, using lots of plain, bright coloured paper & scraps, matching the colours in the photo.  Using the TH filmstrip allows lots more photos to be added also.

All the time I was making 'Legoland' I had ideas churning around in my head for a totally different looking layout using this same sketch and this is how it has turned out, looking nothing like above.

Lots of different elements have been used here.  I started by spraying some Dylusions Ink Spray - Lemon Zest in the areas where the photos were going, then used Dylusions Crushed Grape to colour the burlap, Elegant Frame DA869, Heart Arrow #2 DA1026.  Dylusions Slate Grey was used on the Page Pebble #10 DA11154. All sprays were dripped over the page.  Prima bling and random flowers finish the page.

 

 

 I am entering this one into the Dusty Attic challenge and have used their Inspiration Board for the colours.

 

It really helps when you've got great photos to work with, both layouts were make with photos I 'borrowed' from facebook.

Bali Canvas

Today I'm sharing a canvas that has been a long time happening.  Lots of new techniques were attempted (and mastered I hope).  Many a time I put this aside and infact on more than one occasion it was nearly gesso'd over to begin again.  So please leave me some feedback (good or bad) so I can attempt another such creation.

 

 This is a 9 x 12" canvas, featuring a photo of my son and his partner during their holiday in Bali.  After a coat of gesso I followed a tutorial to create the textured background, full of crackle, dry wall tape, stamping, embossing, spray mists and magical powders. 

 

Sharon at Lindy's Stamp Gang showed her tutorial here.  LSG sprays I've used are Ramblin' Rose Pink and Sea Mint Green.  I've also used  Peony Scarlet Red and Bells of Ireland Green from the Prairie Wildflowers Magicals.

 

 

I did a lot of random embossing using a couple of stamps, the extra texture is fabulous.  Under the photo I've placed this awesome Dusty Attic Number Panel DA1050, which was coloured with a Dylusions Ink spray - Dry Martini.  I've also used the stamp randomly on this panel.

 

Lots of Finnabair ingredients were added along with metal embellishments from Faith Pocock .  I love the 'pop' of colour provided in the peacock feathers.

 

I hope you like this very 'busy' description.  I am entering this canvas in 2 different challenges:

 

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge