Catch The Bug: Anything But a Card...

Hey,

Happy Monday to you.

It has been a hard weekend for Hubby and I, as we had to put our beloved Boscat to sleep on Friday. We are a bit of a mess, to be honest, but time will heal us. She was 13 and we know that she is better off, it just never feels like that!

It is a welcome distraction to have work and my blog to thing about.

Today I am with the Catch The Bug team for the Monday ABC post.

I love elaborate gift wrap and the Birthday Cake Tag stamp is one of my all time faves and I thought it would work really well with this little gift for a friend

I coloured the image, using Promarkers and die-cut it using a stitched circle die. Punched a hole and added a little piece of ribbon.

I hope my little tag gives you some inspiration of how to use the Bugaboo images in different ways.

Go over to the Catch The Bug blog and check out the rest of the DT makes.

Cx

Christmas Wrapping: Presents..

Hey,

Earlier in the week I showed you the awesome tags that I made, for the gifts that need to leave before I leave for London.

Here are the gifts that they went on.

Pretty simple, just brown paper and twine, so that the tags pop.

On the reverse they are secured with bright, fun washi tape.

Cx

Christmas Wrapping: Tags...

Hey,

Happy Monday, hope you had a great weekend, Hubby and I had awesome fun with the Nixons.

I have a few Christmas gifts that need to leave now-ish, as they are going to faraway climes.

As we all know I LOVE tags - shop bought, handmade, I don't care, I just love tags.

So the starting point of any gift for me is the tag.

I had to make these very quickly, so I cheated and used ready cut manilla tags, smooshed them in some Distress Oxide ink and then stamped the cute sentiment by Unity Stamp Co and the Reindeer by Clearly Besotted.

I like to just colour bits of the image, it adds a bit of interest to the tags. I did this last year, but made the entire tag (smooshed background + tag die).

Fun and easy to make and will look pretty on the gifts.

I'll show you the wrapped gifts later in the week.

Cx

Christmas in July...

What!!!

I know, I know.. it's too early to be thinking about Christmas right?

Paperless Post is doing a Christmas in July challenge and I was so excited to be invited to participate!

There are some really great party invites over at Paperless Post and it sparked an idea for creating my own one..wouldn't it be fun to throw a  Christmas party in July - what would it be like?

I like the idea of a beachy, bright Christmas celebration - like it would be if I lived in Hawaii..

So that is the theme for my imaginary party - Hawaii...

Here's my invite -

Invite template by Paperless Post (image not included)

Ha ha ha - see you are wishing that this party was on now aren't you!

As we are in 'Hawaii' I'd be hosting my party at the beach, we'd be barbecuing the Turkey and the sides and I'd ask everyone to bring a Christmas / Holiday dessert -

Like these fun Meringue Trees -

Image courtesy of Two Sisters Crafting

 Or these Christmas Tree cakes..yums!!

Image courtesy of Cuded Art and Design

How do you decorate a beach Christmas..

Wouldn't it be fun to add twinkly lights to these homemade Christmas Mason jars..

Image courtesy of Put it in a Jar

...then as it gets late, everyone gets a jar and it would feel all festive and intimate..

Of course everyone loves to get a present and I wouldn't let you leave my party empty handed.

Continuing the Hawaii theme, I stamped some paper with Pineapples, Christmas trees and festive wording and made it into mini Christmas boxes, complete with a Snowflake flower LOL -

Who knows what would be in your Christmas in July present, but whatever it is, I am sure you'll love it!

It is still a bit early for some people to be planning Christmas, but personally I think that it's always good to start thinking about these things...If you are not a crazy cardmaker like me, check out the great Christmas Cards on offer over at Paperless Post.

Cx

Get well in warp speed...

Hey,

So today I am showing you a little package that I made for a friend's Niece who was recently hit by a car!!

Liz and I have been friends for twenty years and she lives in New Zealand, so snail mail is our friend.

I thought it would be nice to send her Niece care package as well as a get-well card. 

The card used my new Paper Smooches 'Space Cadet' stamps..I have wanted them forever and they are awesome. The stitched speech bubble die is new too, by Spellbinders..on sale $2 for 3 dies - had to be purchased.

I am loving the new square kraft card blanks, you will be seeing a lot of square cards LOL!

Here is a photo of the final package -

It is prettily wrapped in a Hema window envelope (Hema is in Amsterdam and I AM OBSESSED), inside it contains, one of my handmade notepads, a pencil and x4 mini cards.

Here's a photo of the notepad (sorry rough Instagram photo), essentially, I cover the mini notepads I get in sets of 8 from the dollar store and add loops / string for closing. Simples.

Final photo for today of the mini cards - love these, need to make more of the 'Hey' cards. The stamps are a mix of Avery Elle, Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp and Recollections by Michaels.

A nice simple care package for a girl who needs a smile.

Cx

One die 3 cards...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

Well it is nearly time for Hubby and I to return from our Mexican paradise.

Today I wanted to show you some thank you cards that I made as part of a gift for a friend.

I used a fave thanks die by Lawn Fawn, I thought it would be fun to use this die to make 3 different cards.

The main card used a simple masking technique, I cut the thanks twice and adhered one of them (with removable adhesive) to my card and stamped the doilies all around it. I then carefully peeled it off and replaced it with the red version - cool right?

This card uses a very simple technique using distress inks and water. I inked up the Stampin' Up Watercolour Stripes stamp using 4 different distress inks, then I lay my paper on to the stamp. Once it transferred to the paper, I die cut it and then spritzed it with water before heating it to dry it.

The final card is a shaker - I couldn't resist. Super simple. love my shaker mix here - it uses some great Martha Stewart sequins from a Simon Says Stamp cardkit. The paper is by Stampin' Up.

As I said at the beginning of this rather long post..these cards were part of a gift for a friend. Below is a photo of the rather fetching little parcel I put together.

Cx

All wrapped up

I have been a very efficient bunny!

I have bought all of the Christmas presents and wrapped them all. They all look very beautiful thanks to Panduro Hobby.

I saw an idea on their site (shown below) and thought with a bit of modifying it would be really nice and easy for Christmas. I liked it because you could mix and match your papers and ribbons and even though I like a bit of uniformity in my wrapping I get bored every year when I choose a theme and then have to stick with it.

The main photo today is of a little stack of presents for various people, I think they look gorgeous and I have started distributing some of the gifts already and everyone has said how much they love the wrapping. Which is nice and makes the effort worth while.

So what did I use...

Plain brown paper - available everywhere
Block colour and patterned bright wrapping paper - from Hema in Amsterdam
Various patterned ribbons - from Ikea
Gift tags - handmade by me, using x3 Woodware punches - super dupa circle, scalloped circle and snowflake.

I tackled the extensive wrapping task in x3 phases..
Phase 1 - wrap everything in brown paper, write the recipients name in pencil on the paper (in a spot where it will be covered)
Phase 2 - add the brightly coloured paper and 1st stage of ribbon
Phase 3 - make gift-tags to co-ordinate with the coloured paper and add to gift, finish the ribbon tying

Sounds like a lot of work, but honestly it was easy peasy. Here are a few more photos.

Close-up on Ma's tag...present it a bit Carrot shaped!

I tried a different technique with the ribbon here

Close-up of the tags and you can see all the beautiful ribbon in detail

Now that JT and I are post HamnMule Christmas and craft fairs, I have been enjoying all these little projects and I've taken loads of photos of what I have been up to so should have a few more posts before Christmas. One of my favourite projects was making my Christmas Thank You's - as you know I love a Thank You set and I think this years ones are the best yet!

Cx