Counting down to Christmas!

Just finished this cool Advent Calendar following the brilliant tutorial from Maymaymadeit.com.  Isn’t it cute?!  I love that the 24 little ‘pizza boxes’ will hold a more substantial surprise and that it can be reused each year (although I am planning on filling it up with treats for College Boy so will probably never see it again 😂). 

I used some Christmas papers from my stash to cover the chipboard for the book which I have had FOREVER and then some gorgeous winter watercolor images that I discovered recently on The Hungry JPEG  (currently just $1!) which I downloaded and then printed out on watercolour paper. 

These soft images are truly gorgeous!

 I decorated the front using some of the new Nature’s Garden Gnome stamps and dies from Crafter’s Companion.  All of these images are super cute!  

Although this was quite a lengthy project, I love it so much I might make another one for myself and fill it with mini beauty treats from ‘Santa’ 😉

Thanks for visiting!

Bev x

A Crafty Christmas Candle ...

Just a quick post this week as the Big Day draws ever nearer and there seems to be a million and one things still to be done ... beds to change, last minute gifts to wrap, cake to decorate ... is it time to get those spouts on yet?

We had the first of our family Christmas get togethers yesterday and about 10 minutes before everyone was due to arrive I realised that I hadn't got a table decoration ... damn! Then I remembered something I had seen on the trusty Pinterest site (don't you just LOVE Pinterest?!) and with a few simple supplies, (adapting slightly to fit what I actually had in the house) had a pretty decoration in minutes!

Here's what you need:

• An old glass jar (everyone who knows me knows I am a Yankee Addict so I had plenty of empty jars stashed in the cupboard waiting for a recycling project!)
• A few trimmings from the Christmas tree or any other such greenery - I didn't have any trimmings but had some Rosemary in the fridge so just used that
• Cranberries (or you could use any red berries you might have in the garden)
• A floating tea light - again, I used Yankee Candle tea lights as I happened to have a few boxes in the cupboard ... ahem ... and as they are in plastic containers they float - bonus!  If you are using normal tea lights, just take them out of the silver container which will help them float.
• Piece of pretty ribbon

All you do is put your chosen greenery into the jar, top up with water, sprinkle the cranberries on the top, sit the tea light in the middle and tie the ribbon around the neck of the jar.  Ta da!  Simple, effective and made in a few minutes.  I made three to sit down the centre of the table.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  See you on the other side!

Bev x

December Daily - Project Life

So ... how many of you are putting together or planning to put together a December Daily album?  I have never attempted one before as December is hardly a 'sit back and chill out' kind of month is it?  If you are anything like me, I expect you too are up to your ears in lists, wrapping paper & sellotape, never mind trying to keep up with a daily scrapbook layout!  This year though, since discovering the Project Life memory keeping system, I thought I would have a go.  So far, so good.  Not only has it  proved to be quick and easy to achieve, but it has also added to the festive mood and I have really looked forward to completing it each day.  With the Hello December card collection from Stampin' Up, all I have had to do is slot in my photo(s), write my journalling and add a few quick embellishments - done!

Those attending my January classes will be completing their own December Memory Albums (hope you are remembering to take those photos girls!), but in the meantime I promised to share a few of the completed pages from my album.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks - go off and make some memories!
TTFN
Bev x

White Christmas in a Flash!

December already ... how did that happen?!  Still, so far so good.  Presents all bought; cards made, and those for posting written and dropped into the mail box; home made mince pies & cranberry sauce safely tucked away in the freezer **smiles to self looking very smug** 

Just as I was patting myself on the back and congratulating myself for being on track with everything so early, I began to get that uneasy feeling ... you know the one ... when you are sure you have forgotten something but for the life of you you can't think what.  And then as I was just writing the last card I remembered.  Dammit.  I hadn't made any cards for Youngest to take to school for his classmates.

Never fear though, I had a crafty day planned this week with my lovely friend Louise so I would just have to make a conscious effort this time to actually get on and make something more than the one card or half a scrapbook page that I usually manage to achieve (due to the coffee that needs to be drunk, cakes that need eating and general catching up that invariable needs to be done when we see each other!)   With a few scraps of patterned paper, some 3x3" white card blanks and the White Christmas stamp set, I was able to whip up 15 mini cards in a flash enhanced with a bit of 'colouring in'.  Perfect!

In fact, in between drinking coffee, eating Nutty Apple Loaf (if you haven't tried the Hummingbird Bakery's recipe for this you are seriously missing out!) and munching our way through half a box of Milk Tray ... ahem ... we actually managed to be quite productive.  Here is Louise featuring some of the lovely cards she made with the Festival of Trees stamp set.... gorgeous!

Both of these stamp sets are available from my Stamping' Up shop (Click here ) and are great for creating quick and easy christmas cards in a flash.

I hope you have all remembered to start taking your December photos to include in your memory albums!  As I think I mentioned previously, I have decided to do a  'December Daily' Project Life album this year (although yours can be anything you want it to be) and have already made a start and am really pleased with the results so far.  So quick and easy to do and (so far) still up to date! I will share a few pics in next week's blog so you can see what I have been up to.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that there are lots of new items added to the Clearance Rack on the Stamping' Up site ... up to 80% discounts on some items too, so definitely worth a look. See you there!

Now ... I just fancy a mince pie ... oooh look, Delia says you can cook them straight from the freezer ... result!

TTFN
Bev x

Eeek! Only 5 weeks to Christmas ...!

What a miserable day!  Rain, rain and more rain ... Still, could be worse - at least it's not snow.  Did you see the pictures earlier this week of the snow storm in Buffalo, New York?  Now that is something to complain about!

This weekend I promised myself that I would get cracking with my Christmas cards and get them all done & dusted.  Usually I have them all made well before now (last year I did them all in August!) but this year I am really behind.  I have made so many for demonstrations at classes and workshops that I think maybe it has started to feel like a bit of a 'busman's holiday' (as my mum would say) making my own.  Still, time is fast running out ... can you believe that it is less than 5 weeks till Christmas?!! (how did that happen?!) and so yesterday morning I was up bright and early, ready to do some serious Christmas crafting.  Feeling a smidge guilty about all the lovely new crafty stuff I have purchased lately, (if Mr CC is reading this it was just a bit of ribbon **walks away whistling and looking shifty**) I decided that I should set myself the challenge of making this year's cards by using up my existing Christmas crafting stash ... **nips upstairs to the spare room cupboard to fetch
previous years' Christmas card/papers/embellishments etc.**  O...M...G!!  It was like a scene from the Magic Porridge Pot!  As fast as I could get boxes down from the shelf, more appeared as if from nowhere! Who on earth had bought all of this stuff?  Oh yeah ... that's right, I remember now ... naughty Dobby! **scarpers downstairs with it all before someone sees**

So after hours of oohing and ahhing over forgotten sparkly papers, shiny toppers, cute little gingerbread men and fluffy snowman embellishments ... oooh look, that ones even got sparkly mittens on! .... I decided I needed to have a ruthless sort out and give myself permission to ditch the ones I just didn't love any more.  It's very easy to hang on to everything because we feel guilty for getting rid of perfectly good stuff, but just like the clothes in our wardrobe, we hang on to things that we have fallen out of love with and lets face it, are never going to love again, so they need to go.  I applied the '3 box'  principle... Keep, Donate (to crafty friends or school/clubs), Trash. Now I just need to USE the stuff in the Keep box!

Fast forward to 6pm .... total of four Christmas cards and two bird houses made (ok ... I got distracted)..

 How are your Christmas preparations going? Hopefully a bit more productive than mine!  Note to self ... Must try harder today and not get distracted .... oooh look, my Christmas scrapbooking papers ... I'll just have a quick look and then I'll get started ...

TTFN
Bev x

A dazzler of a card!

Well, what a busy week it has been here at the crafty headquarters! Last weekend's 'Mum & Daughter' stamp class was a great success and everybody went home with a selection of beautiful cards that they had made themselves and a decorative Christmas cracker.  Perhaps more importantly though, they had been able to spend spme quality time together doing something fun without the inevitable interruptions & distractions that always seem to happen at home however hard we try (or is that just me?!) and none of the mess!  **one mum was hyperventilating when she saw me getting out the glitter which is apparently banned from her house ... Lol!**  

This is one of the cards that they made - complete with offending glitter! (and a sneaky peek for those attending Wednesday's stamp class - you WILL go home sparkling).
It was made using the White Christmas Stamp set, stamped in black Memento ink with a smatter of dazzling diamonds glitter added ... gorgeous and very sparkly!  

In last week's post I mentioned the Hello December Project Life class that I would be running in January details here. and class dates have now been scheduled and are open for booking.

I will be offering a choice of two dates:

Saturday 17th January - 10am - 2pm & Wednesday 21st January - 10am - 2pm. (Both classes will be held at my home in South Chailey, details provided on booking)

The cost of the class is £40, which includes hot & cold drinks, biscuits & cake (the cake is always an essential for any type of crafting I find), and as well as tuition and guidance, will also include:

• 1 x 6”x8” Project Life Album  
• 1 x pack of 6”x8” Project Life Photo pocket pages 
• 1 x Project Life Envelope Page 
• 1 x Hello December Project Life Card Collection 
• 1 x Hello December Project Life Accessory Pack 

The total value of product is £39.85, so essentially, you are getting your class for free!

As this is a seasonal item and only available whilst stocks last, payment would be required in full at time of booking so that product can be ordered well before the Christmas period to ensure availability.  If you are subsequently unable to attend the class for any reason, you will still receive the product for you to make up at home.

If you would like to reserve a place on either of the above dates, then please do let me know as soon as possible as classes are small to ensure maximum individual focus and therefore places are limited to 6 per class.  Most importantly of all remember to start taking your photos from 1st December!   Why not treat your Mum/Sister/Best Friend as a Christmas present and book a place for you both to do together?  (don’t forget to make sure they take enough December photos too though!).

If you are not able to attend a class but would like to have a go at creating your own December memory album, then click on any of the products below to go to my Shop.  

TTFN
Bev x

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Hello December ...!

As those of you who are regular visitors to my blog will know, I am a BIG fan of Project Life (if you missed my previous post on this topic you can read it here).  Project Life is an amazing memory keeping system which allows you to create entire albums in one evening; simply tuck cards and photos into pockets, stamp a few accents, add a quick embellishment, write your journaling, and your done!

Becky Higgins has also now introduced a Project Life app which means you can create your pages on the go and then either get them professionally printed to slip into a 12x12 page protector, or, as I did here, use the app to plan your pages in advance and then, when you are ready, just recreate the layout in your Project Life album.  I actually completed the below whilst we were still on holiday and then when I got home, my layout was already planned and all I had to do was print off my photos, copy out my journalling and slip into the pocket pages.

This year, I am definitely planning to complete a 'December Daily' album, which is a photo a day throughout the whole of December.  I had every intention of completing one of these last year but didn't quite get round to it (well, that and I kept forgetting to take the flippin' photos ... ).  This year I am determined to try harder as I think it is such a lovely way to capture all the hustle and bustle of the  Christmas season ... the shopping, wrapping, baking ... nativity plays, Carol concerts, visits to Santa ... buying the tree, putting up the lights, hanging treasured ornaments ... family traditions, gifts received, visits with loved ones.... and then of course seeing in the New Year, taking down the tree, packing all the decorations away again ... and LOTS more!   Sound too nostalgic?  Don't worry, in my head it's always going to be a 'perfect' Christmas.  My reality will most likely be rolls of sticky tape slung in the bin because it is impossible to find the end .... a lopsided tree... tangled lights ... hideous queues at the supermarket ...wonky chocolate log  ...  BUT it doesn't matter, good or bad, they will all be captured and preserved as memories of December 2014!

I will be running a 'Hello December' class in January to help you preserve your December memories.   All you need to do is remember to take a photo every day during December, then turn up to the class with a stack of photos in hand and you will leave with a seasonal album completely done!

The cost of the class will be £40 and as well as tuition and guidance, will include:

• a 6" x 8" Project Life Album
• a pack of the 6"x 8"variety photo pocket pages
• one 6"x 8" Project Life Envelope Page
• a set of Hello December Project Life cards and 
• Hello December Accessory pack.  

Then all you need to do is turn up to the class with your stack of December photos and after a few hours, you will leave with a beautiful album preserving your treasured December memories!
If you would like any further information, just drop me a message by clicking here -  Contact Me.
Class sizes are small and places are limited so if you would like to attend, book yours as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you all have a good week.

TTFN
Bev x

A Real Red Christmas ...

Morning all!

Hope you all had a spooktacular Halloween.  Wasn't it warm?  I did a quick Costco run to Croydon yesterday afternoon **well, I say quick ... deciding to go in half term week was probably not the best decision I have ever made!** and when I left the temperature was 23 degrees!! Unheard of for the end of October and officially the warmest Halloween since records began!  Let's hope we don't pay for it this Winter!  Youngest and I had great fun carving a pumpkin and making some Halloween cookies (we were definitely not the best at icing but we cried with laughter at the demented owls and cyclops witches we created!).  We don't go Trick or Treating in our house, but are happy to welcome those that want to call on us with treats at the ready -  last night we were visited by a couple of the cutest little ghosts and a rather large rabble of zombie boys!  How about you?

Now that Halloween is over and done with for another year, it's time to start thinking about getting ready for Christmas and this week I thought I would share another card using the White Christmas stamp set.

This time I swapped my usual white base card for a red one and stamped using the White Craft Ink.  I stamped the polar bear on a scrap of Whisper White in black ink, then cut him out and stuck him onto the snow scene.  Next, I used a two way glue pen and some dazzling diamonds glitter to add some sparkly highlights and finally stamped the message onto Whisper White and punched out with the Modern Label punch. A quick & simple card to do but very effective don't you think?

All the supplies I used are detailed below.  Just click on them to be taken directly to the shop.

Have a great week!
TTFN
Bev x

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Going Crackers!

Well ... what a week it has been on the old goggle box this week!  Poor Martha evicted from the Bake Off tent, Lady Edith almost burnt to a crisp in Downton, plus the long awaited return of two favourites in the Crafty Cow household, Strictly and Gogglebox **newsflash ... Jay has had his haircut!!**

Now on to this week's crafting news... 

Have I mentioned that I am in love with Stampin' Up's Envelope Punch Board?  No?  Well, I am totally and utterly besotted! 

Not only can it make ... er .... envelopes, but also a whole host of other super crafty projects, from boxes to baskets to bags to ... crackers!  I know! So cool right?!  **let's hope Youngest is not reading this (highly unlikely), otherwise I would probably be told in no uncertain terms with eyebrows raised 
heavenward that 'NOBODY says that any more and certainly not PARENTS!'**.

I had already seen a tutorial on how to make a cracker using the EPB whilst waiting for mine to arrive (Click here for link) and couldn't wait for it to come so that I could try it out.  I have only had it a few days and so far I have made 4 christmas crackers, 3 pretty boxes, 2 dinky baskets, 1 cute giftbag ... and a partridge in a pear tree!  **erm ... just kidding about that last part ... haven't quite worked out how to make one of those yet** :)

I decided to make sample crackers in 3 sizes ...

A small one, which measures approx 5.5" and uses a 4.5" x 6" piece of card or paper.  I chose some designer paper  from the Sweet Taffy range.

This was surprisingly sturdy considering it is paper, but I wouldn't use it to hold anything on the heavy side.  It would make a really nice individual table decoration holding a chocolate or two ...maybe one of those yummy Lindt chocolate truffles ... **oh great, now I REALLY want one of those ...**.  The big advantage with this size is that you could make 4 crackers out of one piece of 12x12" paper or card.

I then tried a medium one, which measures approx 7.25" using a 6.5" x 8" piece of card stock.  I used  Lost Lagoon and covered with designer paper from the Moonlight paper stack.  This is much more sturdy and would stand up to holding something heavier.  A word of caution though if you are going to use card stock - make sure that it is not too thick as you will need to punch through a double layer on the Envelope Punch Board.  I would recommend testing a punch through two pieces first to ensure that it goes through OK.  If it is too thick, do not force it or you may break your punch!  The Stampin'  Up! card works fine.

Finally, I made another HUGE cracker, which measures just over 11", using a 9.5" x 12" piece of card.  For this one I used up some random christmas papers and card stock that I had in my stash.  Again, this card was not too thick and so had no problem punching through the double layer.

I will be demonstrating how to make one of these at my November workshops and classes, so if you would like to have a go, just let me know! :)

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again next week!
TTFN
Bev x

It Looks Like Rain-deer!

Well, what a week it's been. From some of the most spectacular displays of lightening I think I have ever seen last weekend, to a spectacle of quite a different kind in last night's Opening Ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. (I shall refrain from further comment on that topic at the risk of upsetting any Scottish readers, however even Jimmy Cranky would have been an improvement on some of the line up!).   It did however remind me of a classic comedy moment, courtesy of youngest, whilst at the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics a couple of years earlier.  He was quickly becoming disenchanted with the amount of time it was taking for the athletes from all the competing countries to get into the Stadium (complaining desperately that they were 'just making up countries now!'), so I was trying to jolly him along a bit.  After Monaco had made their entrance I said, "I wonder what comes next?" to which he replied ...  "hopefully death ...." It still makes me chuckle now.

This week, I have been mostly playing with the Create a Critter Cartridge for my Cricut die cutting machine. I had forgotten just how cute some of the images are and I think I will definitely be doing a lot more with this one in the future.   I completely fell in love with this adorable little reindeer character and wanted to use him on a Christmas project.  I am think I will maybe make a Christmas wall hanging with Santa's 8 reindeer & Rudolph pulling the sleigh.  I therefore cut 9 of these at 3.5"  and once assembled cut an extra nose in red for Rudolph and covered it with Glossy Accents to make it nice and shiny. I am really pleased with how they turned out.  Now, I just need to find a suitable sleigh design (not liking any of the ones I have see so far) and then attach them all together with some red ribbon or cord.   I will share another pic in a later post once it is complete.

There is also another deer on the Create a Critter cartridge, which really reminds me Bambi.  I used to  watch the DVD with youngest when he was a toddler.  It was his favourite film and he would ask for it over and over again without getting tired of it.  **I, on the other hand, began to find it extremely irritating after the first dozen times and could have happily strangled the whiney Thumper!**.  I just need to find a project to use these on now ... hmmmm

Finally, as we have a couple of weddings to attend in the coming months, I made a cute card by cutting two of the sweet little birds and birdhouse. I added some faux stitching to the birdhouse and the large heart with a black marker pen and raised the birds up with 3D glue gel to add some dimension.  Finally I finished it off by adding a ribbon bow and a sparkly crystal butterfly.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you all have a good week.

TTFN

Bev x

It's Hot! Hot! Hot! ... must be time for Christmas crafting

Phew! How hot has it been this week?!  Rather inconveniently though, our boiler clearly didn't think it was quite hot enough and decided we needed all the radiators to be scalding hot too ... all day long! Cheers ... thanks a lot.  Thankfully, the engineer is coming with a new part on Monday, so hoping to have dropped two dress sizes by then! Ha! If only ..

So, as it's shaping up to be one of the hottest weeks of the year so far, what have I got to share with you this week? Yes, that's right, a tutorial for a Christmas crafting project....  What? .... We have to start early to get it all done in time!  

You could of course, make this in pretty summery colours and hang as a summer flower wreath, if the thought of the 'C' word is just too much to bear in July!

This was an idea I saw on The Charmed Home and immediately knew I wanted to give it a try.  For the flowers, I followed the method described over on Pink Paislee, using some Anna Griffin 12" x 12" Christmas papers I had in my stash and I cut the flowers on my Cricut machine rather than hand cutting, but you could equally use any flower template and simply draw around and cut out.  I cut these at 4.5" and got 4 on a page.  You will need 24 of these in total - I used two sheets each of three different designs.

Once you have your 24 flower shapes, gently scrunch them up to give a slightly vintage look.  This will also to help soften to paper which will make it more pliable and much easier to shape in the following steps.  Then, on the back of each flower, secure a large brad in the centre with a glue dot.  I already had the large brads in my stash from an old HOTP kit but if you can't find any I suppose you could get away with buttons at a pinch.

The next part is the trickiest bit as you need to take care not to rip the paper as you form and manipulate the flower.  It is obvious that I am speaking from experience here?  (You will also now see the point of the scrunching beforehand!).

Gather the flower around the brad and secure with a small elastic band.  The kind used for kids hair are great but I used a packet of Loom bands which are all the rage at the moment with the kids and were only £1 in Hobbeycraft and just the right size. Don't worry about the colour as you won't see these when finished.  Then, carefully open out the flower and straighten out the legs of the brads to hold in place (if you are using buttons you obviously won't be able to do this so you would need to make sure the elastic band is tight enough to secure without tearing the paper), turn over, and gently work and shape as desired.   If you do happen to tear the paper, (this did happen to me on a few of them), don't worry - it just adds to the vintage look!

Repeat with all the others until you have 24 completed flowers.  Now you can either leave them just as they are, or decorate/ bling them up to your hearts content!  I added some glitter glue to the edges of mine and also gave them a couple of coats of Spray & Shine to give them a slightly glossy finish and also make them a little more robust. 

Next, take a medium sized polystyrene wreath (I got mine at Hobbeycraft, £3) and wrap with ribbon, securing the ends with hot glue.

Finally, arrange and glue on all your flowers, again using a hot glue gun and they are not called HOT for nothing so take care not to burn fingers ... not that I have ever done that ... walks away whistling), leaving space at the top to add a large ribbon bow.   Secure some more ribbon to the back in a loop for hanging, or you could use florist wire.

et Voila! 

* Given our wet and windy winter weather in the UK, I would obviously only hang this on an internal door. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all manage to keep cool in the heat ... If you need me, I'll be sitting in the fridge until Monday!

TTFN

Bev x