Joy Card & Getting Ideas

Top of the morning to you! (well, it’s nearly over the hill and into the afternoon!!). I keep getting asked the same questions recently, so I thought I’d answer one online! People keep wondering  where I get all my ideas from. The answer, in short is all around me, or with reference to this card, a tea bag!!!

Teabag? ! Yes, a ‘The’ (add accent over the e) Coquelicot Gourmand one to be precise!! We’d all gone into Liverpool One for a wander and went to Waterstones for a coffee. I saw the packaging which was loveliness personified and had to take a picture of it. I’m well used by now, to the funny looks that accompany my seemingly bizarre behaviour! I simply came home & adapted it into a card. I even used the shiny black onto matt black detail (read, clear embossing powder on plain black card).

You see, I dont wake up in the night with new and excitingly original ideas, I’m just inspired by the talents of others. It might be a billboard advert, or a layout or simply a colour scheme on a mannequin. It takes a little practice to look beyond the blindingly obvious and see the little details all around us. Go, on. I challenge you to look a little more into your surroundings next time you’re out and about and create something unique inspired by what you’ve seen. Oh, and please show me what you’ve created- I’d love to see!

At the moment I’m resisting the urge to go into school and have a chat with them about why it is deemed necessary to take our 6 year old away for 2 and a half days in June. I’m no fan of school trips for the little ones and when it costs £140 too, I feel we may have lost our way a little too. My 6 year old won’t be going- I fail to see why it’s important at that stage and have misgivings about entrusting my little bundle over to a set of staff (not from the school) who I’ve never met. I feel I’m handing over something too precious to just anybody. What makes me sad is the reluctance of other parents to send their kids and yet they do because they feel they have no other option and don’t want their kid to miss out. I guess I’m learning to be true to what I believe as I only have one chance to do this. He’ll soon forget that he wasn’t there although don’t get me started on what he might be doing instead whilst he’s not on the trip!! I suppose it’s a clarion call and a reminder to me that peer pressure of a more mature kind is still very much alive, and I do well if I stand by what I believe so I shall have no regrets that I didnt! There, off my soap box now! Hope you have a day where you stick to your guns and honour the things that you know are important to you!!

Card project;

Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock. Versamark ink. Clear and white embossing powder. Stamp sets; Broadsheet Alphabet, Playful Pieces (hostess set). Black satin ribbon , linen thread and Rich Razzleberry button.

After Eight Boxes & Jolly Holiday

 Where is the time disappearing to?! I thought I’d make some teeny boxes to hold After Eight Mints in using an Origami technique. If you google origami box you’ll find a few. The lid and bottom are made the same way. The dimensions are the larger one are starting with two pieces of Jolly Holiday DSP, one 6 1/2″ inches square and the other 6 1/4″. The smaller box is 5 and 3/4 and 6 inches. Apologies for the bizarre colourings- I’m still getting to grips with this camera and it doesnt seem as good as the last one! The cardstock is actually Cherry Cobbler but looks more like Cajun Craze!! I went a bit mad with the tiny pearls, but sometimes it’s nice to be deliciously over the top! I’m selling lots of rhinestones and pearls at the moment- everyone else seems to love them too!

We’ve had a birthday this week- my littliest celebrated his 3rd birthday. Instead of making him one, we let him choose a cake himself; all design and no taste! I’d have rather eaten the cardboard quite frankly! I think so much time goes into the modelling that there’s no time for a decent cake. As we are actually supposed to eat these rather than look at them, is it really too much to expect them to taste nice too? Just a thought Mr. Tesco!

On this frilly box, I’ve sewn a running stitch along the middle of the ribbon, pulled it to gather and then secured it with brads to the piece of paper. The pearls looked really cute just stuck on the top! The tag is using the Tiny Tags stamp set stamped with Cherry Cobbler and attached with linen thread.

All these papers are from the Jolly Holiday set and I’ve used them loads and still have plenty left! Don’t forget about using my Wish List facility for Christmas and getting what you’d actually use rather than the mad guess work that our families often go through trying to get us just that perfect craft item!!

I’ve just had a box delivery from Stampin’Up! so I need to go and sort out some customer orders. There’s some of that gorgeous new ribbon from the Bundled Up offers- and that offer runs out in December- so be quick!!

Well, toodleoo- hope you’re enjoying all that Christmas prep crafting- I know I’ve loads of samples made but no Christmas cards- oops- better get my skates on!!

xx

Boxes- Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper, Pearls, Rhinestones, Linen thread,  Very Vanilla grosgrain, silver brads, scallop edge punch, Cherry Cobbler Cardstock, Tiny Tags Stamp set, Medium Jewellery punch (tag), Cherry Cobbler ink

Union Jack Keyring & Parenting Skills (or lack of!)

I’ve been away.. and finally managed to get something to take pics with.. so I’m back in blogland again!

This is one of the swaps I made for the Stampin’Up! convention last weekend. It was a truly unique experience..ask me about it when you see me! Because the event was in London- I thought the British angle was a good one to go with, so I made about 110 of these. Yes, I know, it was a nutty thing to do! The idea is that you swap your items with other people and so get a wide range of other lovely handmade items in return. Most of them were cards, but there were some other beautiful 3D items, that I’ll post about some other time.

One of the other interesting swap items was where 90 of us agreed to make some tiny 3×3″ scrapbook pages. I didnt get the chance to swap all 90 but came back with 70 odd. The problem then was how to display them as they wouldnt even fit on some extremely large book rings I’d got stashed away. I decided to make an album from scratch. I kinda wished I’d consulted a few books first, but this is uniquely mine and I enjoyed the challenge of constructing it!

I made it from some kraft type board that we got from the weekend in our craft packs. All the papers are Playdate, Greenhouse Gala and the letters are cut out from Newsprint  papers. I made a spine separately out of 3 pieces of card laid out with a samll gap between each piece and then covered back and front with Designer Series Paper. The gap gives it ‘bendability’!  The inside was somewhat of a challenge, and although I’m not perfectly happy with it, I just used whatever I had in.

These give you an idea of how it closes and the inside structure. I used jumbo eyelets and a spine made from the thick kraft type card.

If I get time, I might decorate the inside too. I just wanted to get them all in one place and protected from little fingers!!

Speaking of little fingers, if I ever thought I was passable as a parent, this weeks events have helped dispel this notion. Without giving you all the gory details, I thought I’d share one of the more humourous events of the week (humourous, that is, for you reading it!). Picture a harmonious afternoon.. I’d just come away from a parents evening and had a lovely report for one of my kids. I rarely buy my children sweets (as everyone else does it for me!), and thought I’d get them some as they’d been really good. All was fine.  We picked up a few Christmas presents (in the space of 10 minutes) and the 3 littlies chose some sweets. I paid and we headed out for the car. William then decided he didnt want to wait until we got to the car and demanded the sweeties right then and right there. I explained that they were all in bags and he could have them in the car. That simply wasn’t acceptable. A complete meltdown occured.

In this situation, I normally just wait it out. Wait for it to all go away and for the kid to exhaust themselves. This wasnt going to happen that day. The other two were getting really embarrassed; ‘Mum, do we have to stand here, everyone’s looking at us’. It was true, I could feel the onlookers disapproval; people staring at us.  Quite a few minutes later, a woman approached me. Think of her with a big broad Scouse accent ‘Just give him what he wants’, she told me. I looked at her, smiled at her through gritted teeth and replied ‘No.’ She tried again; ‘Love, just give him what he wants’. I couldnt believe her interference and so told her, ‘If I give him what he wants, he’ll learn that throwing tantrums gets him what wants’. She looked at me, said, ‘Good point’. and walked off.

Without going into the finer points of why people think it’s ok to interfere in someone elses situation, particularly when no-one is being hurt or looks like they need help, I couldn’t quite believe how unhelpful she had been. A few more minutes passed and I realised that he wasnt going to calm down anytime soon. I decided that the ‘scoop and run’ technique was probably the only way forward. The only difficulty was that I was carrying a large amount of bags. I asked Harri if she could manage two more and bless her, she picked them up and started to struggle to the car. At this point the flailing two year old was not watching where he placed his legs;- crack-, a leg in Jamie’s face- so I had one heavily laden child moaning ‘the bags are too heavy’, one kid crying, ‘ he kicked me in the face’ and one imploding kid.  I’ve never been so glad to get into the car! Once in, the ‘screamer’ turned it straight off, apologised (after some stern words from me) and piped up ‘I’m really, really sorry Mummy, please can I have my sweets now’? 

Has the story made you glad you weren’t me? Glad to be of service! You never can tell when all the potential stresses are going to be rolled into one! Thankfully, Will is learning that tantrums really don’t achieve all that much and I’m serving as a ‘phew, I’m passed that stage’ visual aid to others. I still love my kids to bits, but may be giving Home Bargains a wide margin for a week or two!!

Off to breathe deeply! xx

 

Project Supplies;

Album: Wide choc chip striped ribbon.Designer Series Papers. Heart punch .

Key Ring; Artistic Etchings stamp set (on key ring). Poppy Parade, Whisper White & Marina Mist cardstock. Dazzling Diamonds & white craft Ink. 2 way Glue pen.

New Ribbons and a Stampin’Up! Christmas Bundle

 

A great big Christmassy offer!

Apologies for it not being my photo but we’re still camera-less and wont have one for at least another week- BUT, in the meantime, here’s an offer from Stampin’Up! that is fabulous and only available November and December and whilst stocks last!

How does it work?- check out the list below- the stamp sets, I’ll show at the bottom of the post. All you have to do is pick a bundle, decide whether you want Clear Mount or Wood mount (for the 1st two options) and I’ll get it ordered for you

 

Description	Wood-Mount Item	Wood-Mount Price	Clear-Mount Item	Clear-Mount	Price
Gifted Bundle	Gifted Set and Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper	124051	£35.70	124052	£30.70
Welcome Christmas Bundle	Welcome Christmas Set and Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper	124063	£36.90	124064	£31.90
Season of Joy Bundle	Season of Joy Set and So Swirly Stampin’ Around Wheel	124055	£36.45	—	—
Delightful Decorations Bundle	Delightful Decorations Set and Ornament Punch	124058	£37.45	—	—

The Cocoa papers listed are these:

Really gorgeous aren’t they? There are 6 double sided papers, 2 of each design and they’re 12×12 size. Once the papers are sold out, the Welcome Christmas Bundle wont be available. If a ribbon sells out, they will just offer you another ribbon still in stock.

Do you want to see the ribbons?

 

 

Im going to get hold of the papers and as many of the ribbons. If you’re not sure what the stamp sets look like- here they are;

 

Phew!! What a mollywaner of a post!! I’m stuck in wrestling with technology. You would not believe how long it has taken me to compile this post!! There has been a small war between my internet connection, computer and me! I seem to have won which is fortunate as nothing else today is going very well; no car, reliant on people taking and picking up my kids, I’m getting a window replaced and one kid is being lifted home in a taxi as she’s ill and I have no way of picking her up!!! I’m also trying to prepare for a few days away with stampin’Up! at their convention. Hubby is looking after the kids and I get a couple of days off! More about that later!

Better go, and wait for my sick daughter to arrive (and pay the taxi fare!!)

I’ll be ordering through the next few weeks and I can get these goodies to you straight away! Give me a shout on kerenjb@hotmail.co.uk.

Tataaa!