Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. We’ve had a great extended family day for DS’s birthday today and the sun shined on us – hurrah!!!

Let’s talk gift boxes – do you make gift boxes? I love to make gift boxes and bags – I think it really adds a special something to a gift but would have to admit that it’s something that I don’t get to do as much as I would like…  when I start my Christmas cards this week, I’m going to have do either a box/bag too… start as I mean to go on!

These beautiful boxes made by Amanda our guest designer are a fabulous inspiration – who wouldn’t be delighted to receive one of these?

“These triangle boxes are a perfect size for that special little Christmas treat, designer paper was cut to 8”x4½” and is held together with ribbon that has been threaded through punched holes. Handmade Christmas crackers are a fun way to decorate your table putting in a personal gift for each of your guests. Both these projects have been made using tutorials found on the internet.”

Supplies List:

Dovecraft 8×8 Let It Snow Glitter Paper,  Dovecraft Adhesive Gemstones, Hero Arts Create Your Own Snowman Stamp set,  Craftie Charlie Festive Ribbon, Kraft Cardstock, Rustic Jute Button Twine, Large Corner Rounder, SU! Close to Cocoa Ink, EK 1 ¼” and 1 3/8” circle punches, Scallop Circle punch.

Happy Crafting

Jane

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are but it’s been terrible here today in Sheffield – closer to snow than August sunshine!

It’s definitely the weather to put you in the mood for starting your Christmas cards – it’s my DS birthday this weekend and once the celebrations are complete, I’m going to get started on mine

Today we have two lovely snowman cards from our guest designer Amanda – they are quite different in style but both just gorgeous!

First up is this paper pieced little guy – SO cute:

“Snowman has been paper pieced and cut out, twigs were stamped onto the card before snowman was added. Two pieces of cardstock were embossed and edged to add dimension topped off with matching ribbon and sparkly gems”

Or how about this – so simple, so perfect! Doesn’t that beautiful paper just deserve to be shown off?

“This is a very simple card made from one of the fabulous designer papers from Dovecraft’s Let it Snow Pad. After cutting paper to size I added chipboard letters and matching ribbon. Hey presto a 10 minute card!”

Supplies List:

Dovecraft 8×8 Let It Snow Glitter Paper,  Dovecraft Adhesive Gemstones, Hero Arts Create Your Own Snowman Stamp set,  Craftie Charlie Festive Ribbon, American Crafts Thickers Dear Lizzy Bliss White,  SU! Close to Cocoa & Not Quite Navy cardstock, Memento Tuxedo Black Dye Ink, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder.

Hope you enjoyed today’s projects, back on Sunday with the gorgeous boxes previewed on the newsletter

Happy crafting

Jane

We made it! Charlotte and I survived the first Craftie-Charlie demo afternoon The ladies at our local craft group had very kindly asked us along to spend the afternoon with them and even provided choccie bickies – yum!  As with all craft groups there is a big range of different interests and levels of experience so we decided on two activities so we had something for everyone. I had taken my camera along so I could get some pics of everyone creating but forgot all about using it

Our first activity was 5 cards using a limited range of materials (the ladies make a lot of card for fundraisers so don’t want each one to cost a huge amount) but with lots of different ideas and techniques  to give some inspiration for those new to card making.

Here’s the five cards designs that we made on the day (with a couple of minor changes, I did change one of the papers and added and black mat to the one with the bow).  I think that the one with scallops made from 1″ circles is my favourite – really soft and calm

All made using:

Dovecraft C6 card blanks, Dovecraft Eastern Promise 8×8 paper, Martha Stewart 3 in 1 butterfly punch, Bazzill Avalanche, Vintage Pink and Blackbird, Kars 1″ Circle Punch, Personal Impressions Double Sayings stamp set, Memento Ink Tuxedo Black, Dovecraft 1mm foam tape, 6mm Black Organza ribbon, Dovecraft Christmas gems and Dovecraft dotty adhesive roller.

Here’s the rest of the samples that we took along – all made with pretty much the same list of supplies!

Happy crafting

Jane

What a week – I feel like I’ve spent most of this week taking boxes from couriers!  Lots of lovely new things including: Autumn Leaves & American Crafts stamps, DCWV new lines, Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen collections, K&Co Citronella and Happy Trails.

Here’s a little sample of just some of the loveliness )

We are still working on getting it all on the site but we should be finished soon!!

Happy crafting

Jane

Do you craft in centimetres or inches? I’m generally a centimetres girl but there are sometimes when it all seems to come together more easily in inches!  I guess this is because most papercrafting products are designed for the US market (which is firmly in inches!) and so the repeats etc just work right )

I went with inches for this project as I wanted to use the whole width of a 12″ sheet of Bazzill so it just seemed to make more sense. I’ve been toying with the idea of a gift bag for cards for a while and I am so pleased with how it turned out!

It’s amazingly economical – I’ve just used a single piece of black Bazzill, a scrap of pink that I had left over from another project, 2 7″ lengths of black grosgrain and 2 sheets of 6×6 Dovecraft Wild Blossom (I’ve used the rest of the ‘Try Me’ pack for my cards to go inside). Here’s the dimensions for the Bazzill (just click to enlarge) in case you fancy having a bash! I’ve cut the patterned paper panels 1/4″  smaller all round to fit with a nice border.

(thanks to my DH for this diagram – isn’t it impressive?)

Here’s the first of the cards that I’ve made to go inside (a sketch from my current fav – again!) – Wild Blossom 6×6 as with the bag (I’ve added some of the chipboard shapes too, and some black organza). Hopefully I’ll have finished the rest by the end of the week (the bag will hold about 6 depending on layers/embellishments etc) and I’ll pop them on here )

Supplies used: Avalanche and Blackbird Bazzill, Dovecraft Wild Blossoms 6×6 ‘Try Me’ paper pack, Dovecraft Wild Blossoms chipboards, narrow black organza from my stash and the sentiment is done on the computer.

Happy crafting

Jane

that you hadn’t started something?!  It was my Dad’s birthday on Sunday and I’d had it in my head for a little while that I’d do a card with some stitching on it, with the Dovecraft Masculine papers…  great – all sorted!  I was going to borrow my Mum’s sewing machine (as I don’t have one) but we live about an hour and half away and I never got that organised ) But not to worry, Charlie has got one – I’ll borrow that… we then had a conversation that went something like this “of course you can borrow it,  mmm not sure where the instruction book is, can you figure out how to use it?”! So we gave that up as a bad job but I couldn’t let go of the stitching thing though so ended up handstitching it (so there isn’t as much stitching as I was originally planning!)

Supplies used: Dovecraft Masculine 8×8 paper, American Crafts Rootbeer Thickers, Colorbox Chalk Ink – Creamy Brown, Embroidery thread from Charlie’s extensive selection!

Happy Crafting

Jane