Last minute Christmas presents.

Well the big day is almost upon us and due to lack of funds this year all our christmas presents are handmade. You have seen the small candles with there matching boxes well I wanted to do something a bit more special for 2 important people so along the same lines as the smaller ones I decided to decorate large pillar candles and decorated papermache wine boxes for them to go in as they were so heavy. I started with a blank wine box from Crafters Companion and with some help from one of my cats, painted one with Teal Zircon Radiant Rain and the other with Apple blossom both from the luminart range from Crafters Companion.

Once dry I used a gold ink pad to go around all the edges to highlight them. The next stage was to stamp my chosen images onto each box. At the Craftaganza we had trouble stamping onto the box as they would give so I tried mounting the stamp on ezmount which gave it some extra strength and then using a Tim Holtz distress ink I stamped the images by hand without a block. I was pleased with the result. The next stage was to decorate the candles.

I stamped the images onto tissue paper and then attached them to the candle using stick and spray. Once I was happy with the positioning I wrapped them in baking parchment and heated the designs with my heat gun and again I was pleased with the results.

 




















The next stage was to decorate the boxes and the candles with flowers. For this I used the stunning Coordinations card and made up some flowers which at my 1st attempt was a nightmare but have now got the art perfected !!!

The start of a paper flower

Ready to be glued

The finished result !!

Once the flowers were dry I attached them using the Collall glue gel and put a border of co ordinating card around the candle and then added some ribbon. Once dry I wrapped them in cellophane and tissue paper and put them into the wine boxes. I am not sure if the recipients will be pleased or disappointed not to find a bottle inside!!!!!

I had a couple more gift boxes to make so along the same theme I painted them with the Luminart paint and distressed the sides with black/ gold ink pads and then decorated them and they have turned out well and Iam sure they will make lovely little keep sakes.

All of the products used including the boxes are from Crafters Companion.

All Crafted Out Craftaganza 2011

Sorry for not posting for a while but have been suffering from crafting overload after a fantastic few days in Darlington at Crafters Companion Craftaganza. Basically it involved 3 days of non stop crafting..sounds like fun but was actually exhausting especially as I was not feeling well to start with.

On day one we had a fabulous workshop with the wonderful Leanne Chivers making a stunning box using the Coordinations card and then we decorated a candle to match to go inside the box. She also showed us how to make wonderful paper flowers using the coordinations card and I cant believe how easy they were with stunning results. After a brief lunch break we then had the extremely talented Sara Davies, the creator of Crafters Companion. Her project was to make an advent calender made up of 24 little boxes then put together to form a cube which was then decorated. The results were stunning but sadly mine got rather squashed on the train journey home..lol. Our last class of the day was with a new recruit to Crafters Companion, Louisa Mc Lean who introduced us to the wonderful messy world of Luminarte, the latest in Sheena Douglass range. We decorated paper mache wine boxes wine boxes and ink and spray got everywhere but it was good fun and with some practice I am sure the art will be perfected.

Some of the decorated candles with matching boxes as shown by Leanne

Day 2 started with the wonderful bubbly Claire Hamer who showed us how to make a lovely little book with folded pocket . Each page was made out of 1 piece of 12 X 12 card I doubt if i can remember how to do it now but the results were great and we decorated them with the Flower fairies rub ons. Our next class was jewellery making with the talented Sarah Millsop from Beaders Companion, she introduced me to jewellery making at last years event. This class was trying something different and using a new technique of using cord and knots to hold the beads. The results were great and we were so lucky to be the 1st people to use these beads as they are the new range that Sarah and Sara recently purchased following a trip to India. All of the beads are handmade and are stunning!

The lovely necklace and bracelet with matching earrings

Our last class of the day was with the super talented and creative Sheen Douglass. We made a lovely wall hanging using the paint fusion tequnique and the results for most were great but I think i need more practice at that one..lol. The day was finished with a fabulous evening with everyone with  variety of challenges and quizzes and a great time was had by all.

Our final day was spent speed crafting....6 workshops in one day !! Our 1 st was with Leanne and she showed us how to colour and shade stamped images using the spectrum noir pens and the results were stunning. We were even lucky enough, as the 1st group of the day, to get some wonderful deals on the used pens....thanks Leanne!!!!! Next on the list was with Sara and we made a lovely box card, a slight adaptation of the tealight card that you have seen before on my blog. The result was great and we used a stunning embossing folder on some centura pearl card and the results were great, so much so the embossing folder just had to be purchased from the shop..lol. Sara had designed the card and box to hold the lovely jewellery set that we had made with Sarah.

Class number 3 was with Louisa, and this time wearing gloves after our previous messy day, we had a play with the range of Luminarte products and were shown a variety of techniques to use including stamping, colour blending and decorating white paper flowers..all with a wonderful sparkle of mica !!!
After a brief lunch, class 4 was with Claire and we made a 3 D christmas tree using the coordinations card and cutting out 5 circles and after numerous folds in each circle they were put onto stick and topped off with a bead. Again mine sadly got flattened on the journey home but will have another go as they really were impressive and who would have thought 5 circles could create a tree ?? Class 5 was with Sarah and we made some lovely christmas tree decorations which I must admit was great fun and Iam sure that next year numerous starts will be created. The final class of the day was with Sheena where we made a wonderful Poinsettia. Sheena had stamped out the images on coloured card and all we had to do was cut them out, distress the edges and then assemble and the results were great once they were shaped and some glitter added!!!

The Bead stars

The lovely Poinsettia

So that was the 3 day experience of Crafters companion craftaganza...will I be going again next year????Most defiantly, the deposit is already paid..lol. It was a fabulous few days meeting up with friends old and new and I must thank everyone in my group, The Outstanding Orange, they were all wonderful and we had such fun but most of all I would like to thank all at Crafters Companion for another wonderful few days. I just need a holiday now to recover.......

Bad times

Sorry I haven't blogged for what seems like weeks but have not been at all well and all inspiration to craft had vanished. I thought I would just let you know about the craft fair that I did at our local community centre in Tregynon.

 It was a very quite day and all the fellow crafters said how slow it was but I did OK with some wonderful help from to fab friends. The best seller was the lovely Tea light gift cards with matching gift bags with one wonderful lady buying 4 and then sending her daughter back for another 2.

I am off to Darlington later this week for the fabulous Crafters Companion Craftaganza. 3 days of crafting workshops and lots of laughs along the way so will hopefully have plenty to show you when I get back.

The wonderful Ellie Stratton rearranging the boxes for about the 20th time !!

Some of the cards

My wonderful assistant

Take care and happy crafting x

A very busy day

After having a dreadful day yesterday I felt that I had to get my skates on to make some more cards ready for a craft fair this Sunday. Over the past few nights I have been busy stamping and colouring, using Promarkers, the wonderful Humphrey stamps from Crafters Companion and today I managed to make up 20 cards with inserts and it only used 1 Crafters Companion tape pen !!!!! I hope you like the finished results. It is so surprising the different results that you can get with the same stamp but done in different colours my dilemma now is wether to sell the cards individually or in box sets.......any advice would be appreciated xxxxx

What you can do with an extra hour in the day.

Typical, an extra hour in the day so thought a nice lie in would be great but the cats had other ideas but at least it gave me a extra hour to try to be creative. I have just received the wonderful free Humphrey stamps from Crafters Companion so thought i would put them to good use. I already had the full set so dusted them off and got stamping. I used Pro markers to colour the images in but must admit that the grey's on Humphrey are using the spectrum Noir pens, as my grey pro markers have run out. All of these cards will be for sale at a craft fair in my local village hall next Sunday but if you see something you like I can make to order. Enjoy..

Jewellery day

Necklace, bracelet and earring set

Yesterday was so grey and cold that I ended up sat in front of the wood burner making a few items of jewellery using the stunning Design Elements and Inspiration beads from Beaders Companion. I was so happy with the results that i will be keeping these all to myself. The beads in the collection are absolutely stunning and you just want to look at them, but i needed to be creative so I made the following items. Hope you like them...

Necklace and earring set

Todays makes

Its been one of those funny old days today when I know I should be doing something but have no idea what. So as something a bit different I have made some gift sets which include  a calender, gift bag, matching gift box and a greeting card..The images were all printed of the Joanna Sheen CD The Pamela West Collection See what you think... .

Something different

A collection of glass bead  necklaces, earrings and matching bracelets

As well as card making I have started making Jewellery much to my hubbies distress. This was following last years Craftaganza with Crafters Companion where they introduced us to the wonderful Sarah Millsop and the launch of the Beaders Companion website. It is a great hobby especially to do in the evenings when sat in front of the TV as I find not so much concentration is needed......Here are a few of the last creations that I have made. There are plenty more to show but just haven't got round to taking photos yet..lol;

Necklace, earring and bracelet set

Glass bead charm bracelet

Shell bead charm bracelet

Charm bracelets