A present from my Creative ladies

I have had a couple of beautiful creative presents from my creative Ladies.
The first one is from Kate, but I cannot share that with you at the moment as I know she has made some for other people but after Christmas I will share the cool idea with you.

The second one was from Kate, Alice  & Lucy. They made me a wreath & if you look really closely I am sure that you can work out what it is made from.

Have you worked it out yet?

The wreath is made from a whole tin of Quality street, a Box of Roses & a box of celebrations, all tied around a shaped wire coat hanger.

Thank you ladies everyone who has seen it & raided it thinks it's so lovely. So something else to add to my list of things to make for next Christmas.

I want to share with you some makes from my talented ladies

Every now and again I like to set my Ladies a challenge, this month they certainly rose to the occasion, I asked them to make something Christmassy. I had decorated the house in readiness & everyone loved our upside down tree & took loads of pictures.

The first pictures are of the robin place name & napkin ring made by Kate.

Can you spot the Stampin' Up Scallop circle punch?

The week previously Daphne had taken part in a Cyber crop & had made a 3D scene & a 3D picture cube.

Aren't they just the coolest, I have never done a cyber crop, maybe that is something that i'll have to add to my to do list for 2011.

The card was from Jeanette she had seen a sample very similar at the Ally Pally show & made one for me.

I love the use of the shades of Grey on the card, not a colour I often use at the moment. Something else to remedy during 2011.

Ann is following Shimelle in journalling her Christmas. It was lovely because Ann loved our decorations & took loads of pictures to add to her journal as our Christmas evening was part of Ann's Christmas preparations. Ann had been making embellishments & she made these using the season of Joy set & bottle lids, I love them & it's something else I need to try & I have been collecting the bottle tops of my Pepsi RAW bottles in readiness for this project.

During the evening we had home-made mince pies with sweet almond pastry & home-made sausage rolls with Cheesy pastry I will add the pictures & recipes later.
I hope everyone enjoyed the evening as much as I did & i look forward to seeing you all again in 2011.

Paper Wreath

I saw these on line whilst searching for the origami Christmas tree's & thought that I would try them out. 


Christmas Wreath

Instructions:
1. Cut 8 sheets of rectangle paper the same size where the length is double the width. The sheet size will depend on how large you want the wreath to be ( the wreaths in the photo use 4cm  x 8cm  sheets). Choose your favorite paper or mix and match patterned and solid styles.
2. Fold each sheet of paper down the center lengthwise (use a bone folder to make your folds nice and crisp). If using a patterned paper, make sure the pattern is showing when folded.
3. With the folded paper horizontal and the open edge at the top, fold down the corners (bring the top two corners down to meet the bottom edge of the paper, forming 45 degree angles).
4. Then fold the paper in half widthwise, keeping the angled flaps inside. Bring the points flush together. This is the final shape for each individual piece (3 straight sides, 1 angled side).
5. Repeat these steps for all 8 pieces of paper.
6. Take one of the pieces and hold the points together – look inside the shortest edge of the shape to find two pockets formed by the angled edges of the paper. Insert the points of a second piece into the two pockets of the first piece – push the second piece into the first until the points touch the bottom of the pocket.
7. Take a third piece and repeat step 6 using the pockets of the second piece…and so on. You will see your wreath take form as you build and repeat.
8. On the eighth and final piece the tips of the first piece will insert into its pockets, completing the circle. The center of your wreath should form an octagon shape.
9. Make adjustments to your pieces to even out the shape. For added strength, use small pieces of double stick tape inserted within the pockets to hold pieces firmly in place.
10. To hang your wreath, add ribbon by looping through the center of the wreath, or use a 1/8″ hole punch through one of the points then thread ribbon through.

The papers, ribbon & punch are from Stampin' up & are available to purchase through me as an Independent Creative coach 

Christmas Canvas

A few weeks ago whilst visiting Blog Land I came across a Christmas Canvas which inspired me to try one of my own, unfortunately I cant find the original post, so if you are the original creator I thank you for your Inspiration.

UPDATE ~ Many thanks to Dawn & Sheryl who pointed me back to the original blog that inspired me & an even bigger thank you to Fiona for the original inspiration I do love 3D canvases.
The original idea came from a demo at convention 2009 Jenni pauli

The canvas is 10" square & is pre primed. Then using the En Francais I attempted to stamp the background in Crumb cake ink. This was a lot harder than I had anticipated. But if you try this project don't panic as you can easily re-prime your canvas with white or cream acrylic paints or gesso. Eventually I had a few background images I was fairly happy with, So I set the canvas aside to dry whilst I started to make the buttons.
 I found that it is best to make the buttons in batches. yes I did say make the buttons, they are all made from Stampin' Up Cardstock, Circle punches, Tombow glue & Crystal effects with a sprinkling of Dazzling Diamonds.

1. Punch out 3 circles for each button that you want to make. for this project you will need an assortment of sizes.

2. Punch out ( With space around the punched shape ) a size smaller circle.

3. Holding the original size punch up side down over the smaller hole, centralise the larger punch & punch a hoop.

4. Glue all four Layers together putting the hoop layer on top & leave to dry completely.

5.When dry use the crop o dile to punch the two button holes in the middle of the button. Repeat these steps until you have sufficient buttons for the project, I made more than I needed so I could use the spares on some Christmas cards.

6. On a non stick surface cover the buttons with Crystal effects, making sure not to shake the crystal effects as you don't want any bubbles, If you do get bubbles then use a pin to pop them before the Crystal effects dries.

7. A very light sprinkle of Dazzling diamonds enhances the buttons & then leave to dry completely, I left mine overnight.

8. Lay out the buttons on the canvas in a Christmas tree shape.

9. Thread ribbon or cord through some of the buttons to add texture before finally sticking the buttons in place. Again I used Crystal effects as the adhesive.

My Colours


Cardstock
Real Red
Chocolate Chip
Old Olive
Daffodil Delight

All of the above products with the exception of the canvas are available from the Stampin' Up range & are available to purchase through me as an Independent creative coach.

Folded tree tutorial

I am loving this colour way at the moment & really should try harder to try one of the other fabulous combinations, you never know I may find a new favourite.

That was after I had seen the card & cut a circle in half & kept folding it until I was happy with the tree, that tree is on a decorated Christmas cracker at work.

The recipe for this card

Old Olive cardstock 106576

Tiny tags stamps 118091

Tiny tags punch 117190

Scallop trim border 118402

Linen thread 104199

Very Vanilla cardstock 106550

Real red Ink pad 103133

Four the Holidays stamps 116921

Dazzling diamonds 102023

2-way glue pen 100425

Jolly holiday DSP 117159

All of the above product is available from Stampin' Up and can be purchased through me.

Making time to blog surf

I'm having a kinda couch potato day today, I did have plans to clean the house from top to bottom in preparation for the Christmas decorations this coming weekend but I came home from work feeling kinda yucky, not ill but really yuck maybe my bodies way of saying " hey slow down there are still 23 days left until Christmas you don't need to complete everything in the next 48 hours".

So after completing the essential household tasks, today is a couch day & whilst sitting here I have come across some new blogs that weren't in my list. 

The first is Amanda's blog The craft spa where I found the most adorable little Christmas pudding table favours, now I have already made the Christmas day favours so I thought maybe Boxing day for these little beauties. So I hot footed it into my craft room to try making my own Christmas puddings. I am not good without instructions but these were surprisingly easy.

1. Soft suede card 10cm square

2. Scored at 3cm in on all four sides.

3. Cut a line into the creased line, one on each corner to make the flap ( dont cut them off completely )

4. Glue each flap & hold in place with a mini bulldog clip until dry.

This is the little box part of the Christmas pudding holder, ready to decorate.

5. Cut 2  x 13/4" circles from the soft suede, these will be the Christmas puddings.

6. Using a scrap piece of card punch assorted holes using the crop o dile, 1/4" circle, & 1/2" circle randomly but not adjoining.

7. Using the punched piece of card as a stencil take a sponge dauber & Chocolate chip ink pad & dab through the holes  on the two pudding shapes to make them look fruity, this can be repeated using a different colour.

8. From Whisper White card cut 2 scalloped circles & stick to the top of the Christmas puddings to make the dripping icing & trim. The bottom of the puddings will need to be trimmed to a straight edge.

9. Using a Two way glue pen & some Dazzling diamonds i glittered the edge of the icing, this is personal choice I love glitter with everything.

10. The holly berry is punched from real red card stock using 1/2" circle punch, cut one for each pudding.

11. The Holly Leaves are Old olive cards tock cut 4 small ovals from the card & using the small  heart punch using just the very top of the heart nip the pieces off the small oval to shape the Holly leaves.

12. Using real red ink pad stamp the Merry from the tint tags set onto Very vanilla card & punch with the Jewellery tag punch.

13. Assemble the holly at the top of the Christmas pudding & stick a pudding on the front 7 back of the small box.

14. The box is now ready to fill with a Lindor ball or a ferro Rocher chocolate.

The next site that I found is an Origami site which I have seen before but never ever attempted to make anything from, If you know me personally you'll know that I don't do Fiddly & I really struggle with anything that needs to be measured precisely.

But I decided to have a go at the Christmas tree that Alice showed me how to make the other day.

The Tree

The tree is folded from some of the papers from the Simply scrappin kit called Christmas Jingle, I have now made about 10 different projects from that kit & still have a whole load of the papers & stickers left, I cannot believe just how far those kits go.

The card is made up from a Crumb cake base, the matt on the card is whisper white & a piece of the patterned paper from the Scrappin kit again & the eyelet border punch.

The stamped swirls on the card are using the beautiful swirl from the season of Joy set, stamped in Versamark, heat n stick powder & Dazzling diamonds.

The Tree decorations are the spiky flower from the boho blossoms punch with little nicks cut between the petals to get the star effect. 

Tombow glue dotted in the middle & then dipped in Dazzling Diamonds.

The final site that really caught my eye I found by accident in pursuit of the instructions for the folded Christmas tree in the previous card I found Lydia's blog ( well at least I think that's her name ).

From the blog understandtheblue

Check out some of her cool ideas, would you have thought to use printed petals to make thanksgiving turkey his tail feathers? No & neither would I.

On this blog I found another kind of folded tree card so I thought I would give that one a try. Please check out understandtheblue blog for tutorial on this card.

I know the tree is wonky, it moved after I had glued it down, I did weigh it down with a paper punch, which must have moved it before it dried.

What a cute & simple card if you need a card to mass produce, maybe this is the one. The bird is made from the wing of the bird on a branch punch & one of the basic pearls for his eye.

It's day 8 of the snow here in Norwich & despite having to go to work in the snow I am still loving it

Whatever your doing today take care & stay warm.

XX

Is your tree up yet?

I love this time of year when all of the decoration boxes come out of the loft & it really begins to feel like Christmas, well if your house hasn't yet descended into Christmas Chaos then here is a little tree to keep you going, its all made with Stampin' Up punches.

Supply List

110844 1/4" circle ~ Berries / Decorations

119883 Full heart ~ Tree Branches

117190 Jewelery tag

Old Olive Card

More Mustard Card

Early Espresso Card

Real Red Card

Whisper White card

Frost White shimmer paint

All of the above products are from Stampin' Up & are available to purchase Through me.

Christmas is Coming ~ Ring That Bell

Ring That bell

Supply List

119859 Wide Oval = More Mustard Bell "dome"

119855 & 119863 Large & Small Oval = More Mustard Bell "opening"  

119861 1-1/4" Square = Strip of Chocolate Chip for bell "clanger"

110844 1/4" Circle = Chocolate Chip for bell "clanger"

119855 Large Oval Punch = Old Olive for Leaves (use 1/2" Circle punch to punch away leaf shape)

110844 

1/4" Circle = Real Red Holly Berries

Reindeer Table favours

I have been experimenting with some different ideas for table favours for the Christmas dinner table, so here is Rudolph ready to hold a small present or a sweet treat.

Supply List
Crumb cake Card stock 121685
Chocolate Chip Card stock 108599
Basic Black Card stock 121688
White gel Pen105021
Basic Black Journaller pen 105394
Bird Punch 117191
1/2" Circle 119869
1/4" Circle 110844
Top Note Die or similar shaped die

The inside of the box is made from a strip of card either matching or co-ordinating. The strip is 10 1/2 " long x 2 1/2" wide, & is scored at 1/2" in on either long side, & again at 3 3/4" & 6 3/4".
Fold along all of the folds & snip into the middle fold lines.

Glue as shown in the picture.
































Glue on the back Top note panel




















































All of the above products are available from myself as an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator.

Contempo Christmas is one of the latest set I've bought & I thought that i'd try the clear mounted stamps & I love them, I don't think that they will ever replace my beautiful wood mounted stamps but who knows.

Recipe sheet for this project.

Old Olive cardstock 106576

Jolly holiday DSP 117159

Real red cardstock 106578

Chocolate chip cardstock 108599

Very vanilla Cardstock 106550

Real red ink 103133

Whisper white Grosgrain ribbon 109025

Ornament punch 119847

1 3/4" circle punch 119850

1 3/8" circle punch 119860

Contempo Christmas 120594

Basic pearls 119247

Occasional Greetings 110520

All of the above products are from the Stampin' Up range & are available to purchase through me.

Santa Table favour

Another Favour box for your Christmas table, of course this could be made in alternative colours to coordinate with your colour scheme.

.

Bird House table favours

I originally saw these birdhouses earlier in the year when the bird punch was first released by Stampin' Up on Jo's Blog Jo is a very talented fellow demonstrator. I never got round to making the original project but when I popped back to Jo's blog a couple of weeks ago I fell in love with her Christmas version of the little birdhouses & even better Jo has altered the template so you now get two little birdhouses from a single A4 sheet of card. I decided that I would have a try of this project & make them as the favour boxes for my Christmas dinner table.

I've made six of these now ready to be filled, that's why the roof is only stuck down on one side.

The colours for my Birdhouse


Cardstock
Crumb Cake
Chocolate chip
Soft Suede
Real Red
Garden Green
Ink
Whisper White
Early Espresso
Stamps
Vintage Vogue
Serene Snowflakes


I will now have to try & make something equally as beautiful for the table for Boxing day., So watch this space.
Thanks Jo for the inspiration

Christmas verses for your inserts

Season's Greetings

To those we love and see each day
and other loved ones far away
To all good friends who mean so much,
and those with whom we're are of touch...
Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy New Year.

One of the real joys of the holiday season
is the opportunity to say thank you for being a part of our lives
and to wish you the very best for the new year

Holiday Greetings and Best Wishes
For a New Year of Happiness in a World of Peace

May all the Joys of this Holiday Season
Be yours throughout the New Year

Season's Greetings...
with best wishes for your happiness in the New Year

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a very happy New Year

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season and the New Year

Wishing you a beautiful holiday season and
a new year of Peace and Happiness with best wishes from...

May all the seasons of your life be filled with Peace and Love

May you be overwhelmed with Joy this Holiday Season

Best Wishes for the New Year

Warmest wishes for a Happy Holiday Season and a Wonderful New Year

May Joy be your gift at Christmas
And may Faith, Hop and Love be
your treasures in the New Year

The magic of Christmas never ends and its greatest of gifts are family and friends...
Best Wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season
and throughout the coming year

I wish you the gift of Faith, the Blessing of Hope
and the Peace of his Love at Christmas and always

May the Spirit of Christmas bring you Peace,
The Gladness of Christmas give you hope
The Warmth of Christmas grant you Love

May the wonderous spirit of Christmas fill your heart today and always

The wise still seek him...

The gift of love, the gift of peace, the gift of happiness...
May these be yours at Christmas

May you have the gift of Faith
the blessing of Hope
and the Peace of His Love at Christmas
and throughtout the year

May the Spirit of Christmas bring you Peace,
the Gladness of Christmas give you Hope,
The Warmth of Christmas grant you Love

May the blessing of Christmas be with you today and tomorrow

The Blessings of Peace
The Beauty of Hope
The Spirit of Love
The Comfort of Faith
May these be your gifts this Christmas Season

May His coming bring you peace and blessings this Christmas

May the Spirit of Christmas be in your heart and soul
throughout the coming year

May you have the Spirit of Christmas, which is Peace
The Gladness of Christmas, which is Hope
The Heart of Christmas, which is Love

May the Blessings of Christmas be yours
And Happiness fill each day of the New Year

May His love fill your heart with Joy and Peace this Christmas
and each day of the year to come

One shining start to make the world bright,
One infant child on that wonderful night,
One little prayer for those we hold dear,
To bless you at Christmas and all through the year

May the Peace of the Lord fill your soul
May the Love of God fill your heart
May the Light of the Lamb shine upon your path
May Hope Eternal guide you through the world
May Christmas remain with you each and every day

Peace, Frieden, Paz, Joy, Joyeux Noel, Shalom, God Ful,
Frohe Weihnachten, Buon Natale, Prettige Kerstdagen,
Prosit Neujahr, Meilleurs Voeux, Paix,...
No matter what language or words we use
The heart still knows that these wishes are the best sent to you

God has given us two hands - one to receive with and the other to give with.
We are not cisterns made for hording; we are channels made for sharing. Billy Graham
May you share the Love, Peace, Joy, Hope, and Faith of God with your fellow man.

Ribbon Tree

After making my paper strip Christmas tree I thought I would tree & make a ribbon tree like the one I saw here in blogland 12 months ago, incidently that is when I bought the polystyrene cones to make the tree's.

This tree was a little simpler to make.
1. Paint the cone with either brown or green paint & set aside to dry, by doing this is the strips of ribbon dont completely overlap you don't see the white cone.
2 Cut your strips of ribbon into 4" lengths, I did mine in a random organised pattern but you can just mix them up . The tree that inspired me was made from all oddments and looked amazing & jewel like.
3. Starting at the bottom about an 1 1/2" up from the edge start pinning the ribbon pieces with both edges together.
4. After completing each row, start the next row slightly offset.
5. Carry on until you get to the top.
6. Using a matching cardstock cut 1 1/4" circle using a punch. Cut a slit to the middle & make a wide cone, like a mandarin hat, glue together using a wet glue like tombow, I use a mini bulldog clip to hold glued items together.
7. When the little cap is thoroughly dry I glued it over the top of the cone before gluing on my droopy bow to finish the top of the tree. I have used a cool melt glue gun for this.

The Pot
The decorated pot is made from a small terracotta plant pot.
1. I painted the pot with antique cream acrylic paint, it did take 2 coats for an even coverage.
2. I then stamped the snowflakes in Real red ink onto white tissue paper & set aside for a few moments to dry.
3. When the stamped images are dry, I highlighted areas with the Platinum frost paint using a blender pen & again set aside to dry & trimmed closely.
4. Using the decopatch glue I coated the area of the pot I wanted to place the snowflake on. Place snowflake on the glued area. & coat with decopatch glue & smooth flat with the glue brush, repeating until the pot is decorated & completely covered in glue.

Assembly
To assemble the tree I painted a pencil with acrylic paint & carefully pushed it into the polystyrene of the tree.
Inside the pot I put some oasis into the pot & put the pencil into the oasis, Once it was assembled & I was happy it was straight I added a spot of glue to keep it stable.

My stampers 10 Ladies

My lovely stampers 10 ladies are so creative.
Last month when we met I set them a challenge to make a Christmas item that was NOT a greetings card, It had to be 3D & of course it had to contain a Stampin' Up product & not just Tombow glue.
On offer was a £15 Stampin' Up voucher to spend with me, so basically if you rise to my challenge your name goes into the draw for the voucher.


Lucy was inspired by Monica to make this beautiful pendant, she realised after she had made it that I had specified it must be a Christmas item, so creatively she made a 3D stand of a Christmas tree.

By Lucy

Lucy used Occasionally ( Retired ) Tiny Tags set & True Friend ( Retired ) The pendant is made from a domino.


Kate made the cutest snowman, can you guess what she is made from?

By Kate

Did you guess? The body of the snowman Is a children's white glove, her face is a polystyrene ball, the buttons are punched with the triple flower punch ( Retired ) with a brad through the middle, the nose is an orange pencil lead. The Stampin' Up item in this project is the 3D tree that the snowman is holding made from the A Holly, Jolly Christmas set ( Retired ).

Well done Kate that is lovely, How any are you making for Christmas?

By Alice

Alice made this tree decoration using an origami fold that she taught me, she made me a layer & I have searched for it all day, but I think I remember how you make it, Alice used Certainly celery ribbon to Hang her tree up with.


Thank you to all that took part, The winner of the £15 voucher was Kate, chosen at random during the evening.


Well done kate