Cupcake Holder

I’ve been wanting to create one of these forever. I love giving cupcakes as pressies -but no-one seems to do anything to give them away in. This makes it more special. I know its crazy, but I had to bake loads of cupcakes so I had one just to fill it.

The little handle lays flat. I’m going to create it as a PDF and sell it ..so let me know if you fancy making it too.

This is also showcasing some of the gorgeous new Sweet Pea papers. They come in a set of 48 for £19.50. That works out at only 41p per double sided sheet. Try and match that quality and price in your local shop- I have and nothing touches it!!

I know I’m still doing the polka dot thing, but I still haven’t quite got it outta my system yet!! The little cupcakes are adorable- just in case the recipient hasnt worked out what’s inside!

I’m just gearing up for Easter. Normally the kids have broken up much earlier and we do all sorts of Easter Crafts. Sadly, there won’t be much time for that, but there is going to be some serious chocolate eating going on.. oh dear!! My hubby has just started training for a marathon. I am half tempted- I’d really love to get more fit. Maybe I could have a go at some of the training- but maybe give the marathon a miss (he he)!

Better dash- have a load of flour to clean up off the kitchen floor on account of dropping the entire container of flour  over the tiles. I also dropped the cupcakes into the oven before they cooked- so I have an oven to scrape cake mix off too! Honestly, the lengths I end up going to for crafting! The eating isn’t so hard though…

Don’t look too closely at the ribbon- it was a beautiful shade of whisper white until I managed to transfer the chocolate icing on my fingers onto the bow (I’m such a mucky pup!!)

Project supplies- Cardstock- bashful blue, whisper white and close to cocoa. Acetate sheet. Sweet Pea brown dot paper. Whisper white grosgrain ribbon and Choc Chip stitched ribbon. Crop-a-dile (to punch all the dots!). Supplies from Stampin’Up!

xx

Stampin’Up Mini Catalogue Blog Hop!!

Ta daaaaaa!

It’s today – the ‘inspire-your-head-off-and-write-a-long-shopping-list-Mini-Catalogue-blog-hop’!!! a whole hour earlier than it should have been!!!  (thanks to the clocks going forwards).

You may have come from the lovely Pat and when you’ve done here- hop on over to Amanda’s blog.

Keep looking and scrolling on down because these weren’t the stamp sets I was supposed to be doing. These vintagey tags are using these new products.. Vintage Vogue stamp set. Tiny Tags stamp set. Tag punch (way  too cute)and the delicious new satin ribbon in Old Olive (of course). The rest of the gear will be listed at the bottom as usual.

The next set I’m showcasing is called My Sweet Pea and these stamps are adorable. They’re only £9.95 for 5 stamps which I reckon is a bargain in anyone’s book! They are fun and funky and would do for kids or adults. I have a bit of a bird thing and love the little winged thing. I thought I’d do them in a frame rather than a card (for a change)- but it was a mare to photograph!!! If you look carefully you can see the reflection of my fingers in the lower right hand corner!!

Here’s a closer look!

I used this set again to decorate a choccy bar for last night’s Stampin’Up! party. I love the combination of these colours, Taken With Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turqoise, Rose Red and Old Olive. I haven’t photographed the whole bar- I reckon you know what one of those looks like. Me, I’m rather too familiar with chocolate wrappers!!!

I used the frame and stripy strip from the Simply Scrappin’ Petal Party kit. See how the leaves from the flower make fab corners and also the sentiments from the Tiny Tags double as a really cute flower stem. See how your imagination starts to go in all sorts of directions. I can honestly say this new Catalogue is one of my favourites.

I’ve probably kept you for too long- see, I’m being greedy. I’ll release you to Amanda and you can go and be inspired by her.

Enjoy the hop, and pootle back to me soon – I’ve got allsorts planned. If you fancy anything you’ve seen, I’ll be putting an order through in the frst few days of April- just in time for you to be the lucky few who get these exclusively new products that are so not available in the shops! Makes you feel special doesn’t it!!

My fave project again- I really love these teeny tags!

Project supply list- wait for it…

Cardstock, whisper white, Kraft, Pumpkin pie. Inks- Versamark, Stazon Black, Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Not Quite Navy, Ballet Blue, Tempting Turqoise, Pixie Pink, Rose Red, Old Olive.

Stamp Sets. Frames With a Flourish (on the tags). My Sweet Pea (new). Tiny Tags (new), Vintage Vogue (new).

Old Olive satin ribbon (new), Linen thread.

Phew!

Sneaky peek and Blog Hop

Just to tease you- and I know its been too long. This is an itty-bitty peek at one of the things we’re making at my hostesses Stampin’Up party tonight and also you’ll see if you come and join in the blog hop at 10am onwards Sunday 28th March (ok, Sunday, then!).

Its being hosted by ILWS and there are 3 different blog hops consisting of about 15+ per blog hop. All are showcasing the very exciting launch of the Mini Catalogue. But don’t don’t despise it cos its small. It’s packed full of really scrummylicious  stuff. I for one, have had loads of fun experimenting with brand new products never seen before in an SU catalogue. For the moment though, you’ll have to wait. The catalogue goes live on April 1st  and then the fun begins!! ‘ve already got 2 parties booked for the Mini Catalogue and I’ll be posting the date shortly for an Open House at mine where you can come and play with all the products for FREE! Yay!

What a blinder of a week! It was supposed to be chilled and not full. Why do I kid myself that life can be anything other than full on? A friend and I were musing at school about an American publication where lots of Mums talk about what they get up to with their super-sized families. No, I’m not talking obese, but rather 10+ children. Now, you can start to feel a little inadequate when 5 seems like lots of work!! We reckon that a certain lack of state education, school runs and living on a farm could really be advantageous but even so, I can hardly imagine my family doubled or even tripled!!

Tomorrow morning it’s crop/card making  time again. 9:30-11:30am at St. Annes Parish Hall, Dundonald Road, Aigburth, Liverpool. Cost is £4 and absolutely anyone is welcome. Bring your friends and enjoy a creative morning accompanied by cake. It has to be cake as the main thing really, but I couldn’t really call it a cake morning!!

Need to pack my bags. I’m not leaving home, just off to a SU party with an ‘arty’ feel to it. We’re making tags for a change and these are quite intricate but should be lots of fun to make. Come and catch my Sunday post. There are some more unusual projects and I’m sure you’ll be inspired..

This piccy was one of the projects we made at my last Stamp Class- I’ve another one coming up at the beginning of April . April 7th to be precise. I’ve got 4 booked so if you want a place- contact me. Check out the details at the top of the blog under the Classes Tag. This one’s about embossing with powder and you’ll come away some really lovely projects!

See you on Sunday!

Projects- Inks- Tempting Turquoise, Pixie Pink. Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon. Word window punch. Stamp sets- Whimsy wheel and Wow Flowers. Whisper White card stock

Coordination and Book To Look Jar

I do like coordinating things. Love it when things are happily matching! I wasn’t always like that- I remember turning up to see a friend from school who looked pretty startled as he opened the door. I was 16 and wearing pink, red and orange!!! Now, I like to look a little more put together and its one of the things that I love about Stampin’Up, -everything matches and you don’t have to try too hard. This close up pic is of a quick project I made that I’ll be taking along to my workshops and parties. It’s a ‘Book To Look’ jar. In each of the cute little containers is a surprise free gift that you will receive when you book for a party. The free gifts are all from the catalogue except for some exclusive Stampin’Up! stamps that aren’t available to purchase anymore. Either way- it’s all good, a freebie is a freebie!

And the freebies don’t stop there. You get an Ideas Book and Catalogue worth £4.95 and lovely glossy invitations to invite your friends . As if that wasn’t enough, I’ll be giving you a little pressie from me and you just might end up getting the project that I demonstrate on the night. Mine are always based around chocolate!! Then, on the night you can end up earning free stamp sets (which are exclusive hostess ones- you can’t buy them) and free products! Interested? It’s all free to you and your guests and by the end of the night, you’ll have had a good laugh, made some crafty things (free, of course) and got presents!! Give me a ring and I’ll sort out a date for you. I’ve got a few booked in at the moment but there’s still plenty of space in my diary!

Tonight, I’m going to hold an evening at a Craft Club. It runs once a month at Childwall All Saints Church Hall and they’ve asked me to come and bring some projects for them to make. I’m all sorted and really looking forward to it. I’ll be relieved when this week is over as I’ve been messing lots of things up! Monday was a case in point! Some of you will know that I love baking and am never happier than in my kitchen..(but only baking- not doing the catering for family!!!). I made a batch of scones and instead of using my usual recipe, thought I’d mix  it up with a recipe plucked from the internet. The Internet is a wonderful thing- but NOT when you try someone elses dodgy recipe. The scones were a complete disaster, they couldn’t even be downgraded to a rock cake! So, in desperation I thought I’d rustle up a cross between Tiffin and Rocky Road which would have been fine if I’d just stuck with Digestives and not Rich Tea. Honestly, it was pitiful! Fortunately, the kids are not conniseurs and will eat practically anything, so at least none was wasted. And, the microwave did an excellent job of turning granite-type lumps of baking into soft fluffy edible morsels (even if it rapidly returns to something resembling solid stone in the space of about 2 minutes- but just long enough for the kids to down them!!!).

Here’s a better pic of what the jar actually looks like - finally!- it has taken over an hour simply to get the photo’s to show on this post. I think WordPress is playing with me too! Right, I’m going to leave before technology reduces me to a quivering wreck. At the risk of complete meltdown, here’s a final piccy….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All supplies are from Stampin’Up! Bashful Blue DSP (paper), Bashful blue cardstock, Not Quite Navy and Bashful Blue ink. Stamp set -Occasionally.Bashful Blue grosgrain.

 

 

 

 

She didn’t get them… the postie let me down big time. So I felt pretty rubbish that I was enjoying Mothers Day and getting thoroughly spoiled whilst Mum had nothing to show from me! Thankfully she was with my bro’ so hopefully she still had a good day. The piccies show part of what she got. I know maybe y’all are sick of polka dots but hey, I’m loving them and they are sooo easy.

I’m recovering from a slightly traumatic visit to the hairdresser. Nice hairdresser but oh, I am not the person I was and I lost quite a lot of hair. I’ve never had so many compliments in such a short space of time so it can’t all be bad, but trust me- its pretty radical. If I can bear to have a piccy taken, I’ll change my profile pic so you can see what I mean! I also apparently have a lot of ‘product build up’ on my hair that is making it more dull! DULL! It seems that along with Cheryl Cole, my hair has lost its mojo. Not just my hair, I might add.. by the time I left the salon and reflected on the whole experience I could understand why my friends were jokingly calling me ‘minger‘!. So, it seems, my hair needs cleaning. It is good to be humbled on occasion, I must tell you that I felt about 5cm tall by the time I left. Not that she was horrible, she was lovely, but  guess I wasn’t expecting that! She sent me off to Boots to buy your hairs’ equivalent of paintstripper. I now must wait until my next wash, and it will be a bit flyaway to start off with and then it will do what it’s supposed to do?!!!

So, I have a hairstyle that I wasn’t expecting, found out that my hair isn’t terribly clean and wanted to cry every time I looked in the mirror and saw a person that I didn’t recognise. So, now, I’m making friends with my hair. It will be some time before we are back to how we were but, life’s a challenge and its good to get out of your comfort zone once in a while?!!! I was challenged about how vain I was and reminded myself that actually it’s my ‘inside’ that is more important than what I look like! Good job Mother’s Day came along then! My kiddies were really kind, aswas Steve. I had breakfast in bed delivered at 7:15 Sunday morning. !!!Through my bleary eyes I tried to be especially grateful whilst wishing at the same time it had maybe been just a teensie bit later (give or take an hour!!!). Today, I’m catching up on all the stuff I didn’t do yesterday. The kitchen is happy now, so it might leave me alone for an hour or two!

I Have scones to bake now and later, a friend is coming around to babysit. They offered sothat  Steve and I can go out and grab a caffeine drink somewhere nice. I have some truly amazing friends!

I’ll leave you with a piccy of Will doing painting which is his no.1 fave thing to do at the mo!

 

Project recipe;

Real Red, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White  cardstock. Red striped ribbon. Old Olive ink, Crystal Effects and Schoolbook Serif stamp set.

 

 

Bags and Mothers Day

I’ve been making bags again. I’ve had several requests now for them and have nearly decided what style I’m going to do and how much for. I’ll be selling them on here- so look out for a new entry soon! I love mixing together patterns and wanted to try putting pockets on the outside (there are 8 of them!!). This would be perfect as a craft tote although I couldn’t squeeze much 12×12 paper/cardstock in. Maybe it needs a redesign.

I’m looking forward to the weekend. My hubby has been working very long hours. On Sunday we’ve been invited out to friends from church which is a real treat particularly with it being Mothers Day. The guys need a medal as there will be 18 of us all together! Sunday is a hard day for many. It’s certainly a hard day for me. If you can’t do emotion today, just scroll to the bottom of the post where there’s a sneaky peek of what I made several times over for Mothers Day. Over 3 years ago, one of our children called Nattie died suddenly and unexpectedly from a disease she’d been vaccinated against. It has been incredibly difficult for us as you can imagine but its been my faith in God that has got me through. Next Saturday I’ve got to do something quite tough, a group of churches are getting together in Liverpool to put on a couple of evenings called Passion For Life and I’m being interviewed on the Saturday night about how my faith has made a difference through losing our little girl. It’s on Sat 20th March at 7:30pm in the Novas Contemporary Urban Centre (opposite Cains Brewery in the City Centre of Liverpool). I’d love to see some familiar faces if any of you fancied coming to give me some moral support!  So on Mother’s Day I love to thank my Mum, second Mum and Mum-in-law and enjoy being with my 5 kiddies but it’s also a reminder of my other little girl who’s safe in Heaven but missed incredibly here.

Back to the sneaky peek.. I know Mum occasionally checks the blog so it wasn’t safe to post the whole thing. I hope you have a lovely day, whether you’re being spoiled, spoiling someone else or just fondly remembering …

By the way- I have used SU stuff on my bag- the closure was using white grosgrain ribbon. It’s fab quality. The sneaky peek is using Pumpkin pie, real red, olive green and whisper white and Crystal Effects.

See ya soon! xx

 

Polka Dots

Love them.. in any colour. I used to have a dress- just in black and white polka dots- really big ones and no, I didn’t look like Minnie Mouse! I’m not sure I could really pull off that kinda look now- but I’d have fun embarrassing my kids!

I was playing around with my punch. Poor things- they’re the sort of ‘Cinderella’ of the craft world. Not glam enough to be a proper ‘die-cut’ but not essential enough to be used regularly (at least not by me). So, I played Fairy Godmother (I’d love to !) and let this Cinders out of the dimly lit room where it was stoking the fire ! Better leave the analogy now, methinks I’m getting too carried away!

So, in all their glory, the 1 3/8 punched circles!! I am going to do this a lot more and reckon it would make a man card if I lost the flower.

I survived the dentist! Thanks to those of you that asked, I’ve been referred! To a Mr. Cooper (who apparently is very nice!- he’ll have to be- I’m not I’m going to like the procedure!). So , now I wait. The dentist very rudely (in jest) asked me if my husband wanted the problem made worse! Cheek! Yes, there’s no denying that Steve would probably enjoy a day or two of me being unable to open my mouth completely, but really, did the dentist have to draw it to my attention?!!

I’m preparing my kitchen for meltdown this afternoon. One of Heather’s friends is coming over. You would think that a nice tea would suffice? No, no and nodey no, you see they have to cook it themselves! The whole shabang. Homemade pizza, homemade cupcakes. They’d make the salad leaves if they could! Granted, I am proud of their independence, but could they please clean the war zone that they leave behind! Guess what I’m doing tonight?! If you’ve ever seen 6 kids all trying to prepare pizza in a galley kitchen, it is NOT a pretty sight! I must remember to wear shoes when I enter the kitchen later, or I’ll have made my own pizza on the sole of my socks!

Okey dokey- my littlie wants eggy bread (French toast, for the southerners!) for lunch, so I need to crack on.

Card Recipe;

Textured basic black and real red cardstock.   Plain real red and Kraft cardstock. 1 3/8 circle punch.  Basic Black ink . Striped red ribbon. Linen twine. Stamp set- Wow flowers. Cropadile.

All supplies Stampin’Up!

 PS- thanks to an automatically generated matching WordPress post, I’ve just discovered that Polka Dots are on trend for Spring/Summer 2010 fashion! So, get me, I’m finally on trend for a change. Let’s not discuss whether what I’m wearing is actually ‘on trend’ though!! x

 

Simple cards

Following on from my simple comments in the last comments, I decided that my crafting style had seemed to have been on holiday. I looked closely at some of my recent entries and projects, wondering who, exactly had made them and please could my own usual style come back. It sort of has. I sat down last night and reigned myself in and this is what I came up with. I am really a more pared back kind of a girl at heart and I really love more contemporary images. So – here is what I came up with. I really love scallops (both the pescatarian and paper sorts!) and hope that one day Stampin’Up! might give us a giant scalloped eges punch. Until then, just punching out circles and arranging them seems to work just fine!

I’m trying to distract myself, awaiting an appointment with my dentist tomorrow. I have a somewhat restricted jaw (don’t laugh) which makes eating rather a challenge. I still can cram in cake if its not too deep!!! It’s either a wisdom tooth gone astray and the root somehow restricting  my jaw or a well known muscle tightening problem . Either way- I don’t fancy it.. I must add I’m not a dentist (!!) and I’ll probably come back tomorrow having been completely off base with my diagnosis! I keep telling myself that honestly, you’ve birthed a baby without pain relief so what is it with dreading the dentist!? Irrational fear, I reckon.. and one that needs firmly taking in hand.

After tomorrrow, I’m going to treat myself to a haircut in recognition of surviving the dentist. I haven’t had my hair coiffed (or chopped) since New Years Eve 2008 (I kid you not!). I think my follicles need some pampering although I’d prefer to spending my money on something else!

 Notice the little ‘domes‘ in the middle of the stars? That’s just ‘Crystal Effects’, and I love the way they look like little water droplets. This photo does unfortunately home in on my heavy handed stamping- the ‘b’ is smudged! I never claimed to be perfect!

Looking forward to Wednesday then! See you post dentist.. xx

 

Card Recipe, Cardstock Kraft and Close to Cocoa. Choc Chip grosgrain ribbon. Designer Series Paper in Kaleidoscope. Ink, Close to Cocoa and Tempting Turquoise. Crystal Effects. Stamp set ‘Occasions’ (star) and sentiment from ‘Wow Flowers’.  1  3/8  circle punch. Stamp-a-ma-jig

 

 

Brayering and Solutions

Good day (in my best Australian) accent! I have been feeling a little ‘upside down’ (Australia… other hemisphere? ..Get it? No? ..nevermind!) A couple of things have been completely perplexing me! This morning I have finally solved the problem of my ‘blue tinged’ piccies. After hunting through the whole house in an attempt to get a better place to take them, I discovered whilst playing around on the camera that some kind soul had changed the settings! It had been reset to ‘halogen’ which adjusts the lighting to compensate for halogen light! Duh! All this time.. and with one small click..proper daylight was restored. I was wishing I’d been Mary Poppins yesterday, and suddenly I felt I’d solved something with a ‘click’ of my fingers too. If only the whole of my problems were that easily solved!

Last night I held a brayering class which was actually lots of fun. Scroll down for some more pics of the class itself and I’ll be posting some more of the projects over the next few days. This card was made with a brayered background. It was extremely messy but people all ended up with completely unique plaid /tartan backgrounds. You do it using a brayer, post it notes, cardstock and copious amounts of babywipes (for the Brayer and your hands!)

There were lots of funny conversations including one where one of the girls whispered to the other about how simple the card was (once she knew how to do it)- I pretended to overhear that she was saying that I was simple! I concurred! I even had the ‘Simple’ branded babywipes to prove it! So now I’m ‘simple Keren’! (thanks Monika- you finally said what everyone has been dying to say!!!!).

The card is very simple and shows off the brayered background. We covered brayering basics, changing cardstock colour using foiled card. We looked at creating backgrounds, two colour brayering and then looked at two examples of brayer resist techniques!

The next class is on Sat April 10th (had to change the date!)   book now before all the spaces go! we’ll be covering Embossing with inks (embossing powder, not relief embossing!).

Well, a date with the Ferry calls. Yep, the same Ferry Across The Mersey that Gerry and the Pacemakers sang about!

See you!

Card recipe; whisper white, Rose Red, Green Galore, Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise. Inks, Tempting Turquoise, Pixie Pink, Green Galore. Stamp set- Wow Flowers. Versamark Ink and Rhinestone Brads.

Card Holder and Felting

Yesterday I spent a fair part of the morning doing various errands but had time to pop into a few charity shops in search of wool jumpers. You’d be surprised at how hard it is to find these. I wanted to do some machine felting – those of you who’ve shrunk a jumper before will catch on here pretty quickly!

With a high temperature and agitation (movement of the water in the machine) you make wool into felt whilst youput your feet up and drink a coffee! Hmmm.. in theory this works- unless the maunfacturers have treated the wool first to stop it shrinking! Guess which ones I bought! Yep, ..but I was saved from complete frustration by purchasing a tanktop (in’ Old Olive’ green, of course!) which wasnt actually 100% wool. It was 80% wool and 20% nylon. It shouldnt have worked but it did! I was so excited (sad, I know) to put in a wool tanktop and take out a seriously shrunk, but beautifully felted garment that only really would fit my 6 year old. So, I had to use it- there and then. I have great plans for all the rest…brooches, hair slides and more yummy flowers! All the charity shops locally now know that I need old fashioned type wool jumpers- I really would like to get my hands on a nice Fairisle too!!

So, I made this card holder. I used one of the seams to add dimension to a straight edge and I just needed a flower for my button. I was fiddling with my Cropadile and although you can’t tell too well, I’ve punched out some of the circles in the Whimsy Wheel and backed it and then put Crystal Effects into the ‘holes’.

Sorry about the light ‘striations’- I guess this shows you the side view .

Am putting the final touches to my Brayering Class (rollering with ink and then some!) we’re making some exciting things- and yes, one does contain chocolate! I’ve two places left, if anyone fancies coming; 8-10pm, Fri 5th March. Location, my house (Liverpool). Cost £12- includes all supplies and refreshments.

I’ll be off then,

Card holder recipe; Cardstock, whisper white , kraft and Old Olive. Ink, old olive. Button, designer playground series. Papers- designer paper Tall Tales. Striped ribbon, Stamps ‘Seasons of Joy and Whimsy. Cropadile and Crystal Effects.Butterfly punch. All supplies Stampin’Up!