Advent Cube

Hi – its me again!!!

Well can you believe this – I have dropped another pot of gems! I was talking to my friend Katie on the phone, opened the pot upside down and that was it – a shower of tiny flat backed pearls! I'll soon have no gems or pearls left to drop at this rate...

For those who are on facebook and reading this now I do apologise as you may well have seen this already...or parts of it!

Its a fab Advent Drawer Box

All the photographs will be at the end so be sure to scroll down

I bought the kit after seeing it on Crate & Craft a while ago and every day I would think tomorrow I will get that started – then I was nagged by Layton's mummy so I set to and one day made up all the drawers – the joy with this was no tape needed for the drawers – so easy to do as all die cut and pre-scored.

The next day I set to and made all the sleeves for the drawers – again all die cut and pre-scored – just needed a length of red tape

The day after I made the drawers into towers of 3 – again I used the red double sided tape as its much more sticky.

Then the trickiest part – I laid out the pre cut square of card and had to stick the towers in alternate manner so it was 4 towers then a sheet of card and the next 4 towers

When you look at it you can see what I mean by alternate manner

Now to the messy play!!!

I love this part most of all...

I used a christmas snowflakes mask for the top – the kit came with the washables all designed with snowflakes for the drawer fronts, the sides and the top which was a chipboard top.

I used Tim Holtz Salty Ocean distress ink pad and the applicator tool..

The mask was laid onto the top and then I inked over it all making it slightly darker on the outer edges

Once the mask was removed I loved the effect it left behind.

Next I used the same ink and applicator to colour all the sides and drawer fronts then left them all to dry.

The large chipboard base was painted using the blue Funky Metallics paint and left to dry

I bought a set of Papermania large epoxy brads that had bright colours so after sticking the coloured and pre numbered front to the drawer I used a pricking tool to make a hole and pushed the brad through but before it went right in I wrapped a short piece of cream fibres around the brad then pushed in and fastened at the back

That was done to all 24 boxes and the base and top were finally added using the red sticky double sided tape.

When Layton and his mummy Vicky came last week they both loved it – they took it home and Vicky soon had the drawers filled with sweets, chocolates and small toys like lego kits and matchbox cars

The kit may well have been expensive and the drawers are deep so would be costly if you wanted to fill them up – but I think its super

And they say you can leave it so you get 2 sets of drawers instead of 2 sets as I did – and just image how cool to have these decorated to suit the craft room...

Now where did I buy this from … I think I need another pack for the craft room...

Hope you like the Advent Calendar Drawers

x

Santa's BIG Helper

Hi – its me again!!!

No real disasters here in Angie's craft room today I am pleased to tell you...

And we did get Guyus back – hubby was back to the tree where he left him last night – at around 6am and yep he was still there – sleeping, lucky for some – its amazing how losing a bird affects your sleep – poor hubby was tossing and turning all night and the relief when he came home with the bird was clear to see

Guyus actually flew from the tree he had slept in and landing on a rooftop at the top of our Garth – but then a flock of birds swooped so he flew across the road which so happens to be our local nature reserve so full of trees and bushes...

His mate Steve went over to him with some binoculars and they spotted the bird near the fishing pond so shot over there – its around ¼ mile from our house – armed with glove and food and as they hoped Guyus was hungry so when he saw the food he flew to the glove for it – PHEW!!!!

Back to card making....

Ann loved the card I shared with you all last night – her hubby delivered my avon this evening so went away with the cards and I had lots of praise and thanks – and more orders for unusual cards!

So this is the 2^nd of the cards ordered by Ann – she told me it was for her dog walking friend who has a big black lab type dog

So I searched my folders and came across the sheet – it may have even being a craftsuprint sheet

But it was far from festive...

in fact I thought it was extremely dull!

So I started by cutting out the pyramage and building it with large sticky pads, then matted it to a piece of gold mirri card

I had a sheet of blue snowflake backing paper in my christmas crafts box – so where it was from is anyone's guess as some of it could be up to 7 years old!

The paper was stuck to a lovely silver grey sparkle card blank leaving a narrow border then the matted image was stuck to it – I worked it so the matted image was just below the top row of snowflakes

I used a scrap of blue pearl card and stuck on a large gold peel off sentiment and rounded the corners before positioning just under the 1^st layer of pyramage

And also on the scrap of blue I added white peel off letters to spell EMILY & CO – this was added to the bottom of the card.

I came across a few green and gold holographic christmas tree peel offs so stuck one to either side of the main image

A clear and gold glittered sentiment “Santa's Little Helper” was stuck above the 1^st layer of the pyramage and I crossed out the LITTLE with a gold pen and wrote BIG above it!

Almost finished now – I took 2 odd die cut gold baubles and threaded a short piece of ribbon through the hanging loop securing it around about 2cms up with double sided tape

The other end of the ribbon went over the top of the card and was secured with double sided tape then a piece of clear cellotape, I had the ribbons at different lengths.

Lastly I sprayed the card front with Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle but didn't do the baubles – then going back to my disasters yesterday – I – without thinking – put the baubles on my lap and sprayed – removed the baubles and hey ho I have the bauble outlines glittered to my craft trousers!!!!

Well that's it – got writers cramp with waffling on so much – sorry folks – I get carried away

See you all tomorrow I hope

Bye for now

x

Bollywood

Evening

What a day!!!

If it could go wrong it went wrong

Dropped tubs of tiny pearls last night – again – so around 4000 covered the floor

Dropped bottle of glitter today – looked pretty!

Sprayed a lovely decoration for a card with glitter spray – had it on my lap – trousers look funky...

Neighbour frightened the birds with throwing things around so the newest arrival Guyus the Red Tail Hawk pulled so hard he broke his tether – Pete and Steve spent around 7 hours watching him – looks as though he had killed and eaten as he isn't interested in food so they called it a day around 10pm but will be back again first light and hope he hasn't moved and will be hungry again..

The same neighbour lit a fire and it was the thickest black smelly smoke so I charged out to move the birds indoors ranting and raving – swearing and he just said sorry I will put the fire out – and he did...but Uluka the Bengal Owl really doesn't like me – or me her so when I tried to bring her indoors she was hell bent on getting me – I got half way down the garden and gave up – she is fine!

Then to cap it all I knocked the bottle of blue ink over as I was filling the printer up – so have a blue patterned chair and carpet!

But I have done 3 special cards and finished off another

Did a lovely baby card for neighbours who became proud grandparents at 10am this morning

Then finished off a special 60^th card and made the envelope – will share it another day

Then it was 2 cards for my dear friend Ann

Have to say when she gave me the order I was stuck...

Bollywood for one and big dog for another!!!!

So after satting scratching my head I came up with this card as the Bollywood – I was told in particular it was the actor who played Khan in the brilliant movie My Name Is Khan

His name is Shah Rukh Khan

Ann also asked if it would be possible to add Linda and family somewhere so I got that on the card front too

You can clearly see – from the poor photos (sorry, one day I will get to grips with the camera settings) how I made the card...

That's the lot for today – before anything else goes wrong lol

Next time will be better – I hope

See ya

x

Another Printer Tray Card

Evening

Well I wont be saying too much again today

I have been working on this box card for days and got it all finished yesterday – it was for a good friend and class member Pat

I went with the colours as pinks to purples and did stay within those colours

What I will say is all the swirls and happy birthday were in white card so I coloured them with Tim Holtz distress ink pads

The carnation sprays I bought from someone on a craft forum for pence really – the beautiful purple glittered flowers and the feather dress were all sent to me by the lovely Yvonne – so a huge thank you!!

I actually painted the cover for the base using a funky metallic purple paint from B&Q

The doily and centre sentiment as well as the stamped verse in the bottom left corner inside the box were all inked with pink and lilac inks then sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mists – this gives a fantastic sheen but leave paper and card wet so I rolled a roll of kitchen towel over it and that soaks up so much moisture – and colour – so it leaves things muted but so shiny!!

I have taken loads of photos so you will get the idea of how it looked!

Pat was really pleased with the card – I wrapped it in tissue paper and added dotty ribbon to tie it all up!!!

A job well done....

See you next time

x

Last Of The Owls

Hi

I am so busy just now – cant believe its almost December and I still have so much to do before it gets here!

As you will know already I have so many cards that I have already made up and some have been shared with you

In fact the last 2 days have seen me share the Owl cards from the new Card Creations Plus – Brush Strokes in the Wild

Well I have another 3 of them so instead of boring you all with Owl cards I am going to share them all tonight

They are very much the same so I wont go into how I made them – but if you were really interested you could just email me angmacw@googlemail.com and I will happily write up a How I made these sheet for you

And that's its for today folks – short on the reading but plenty of piccies to look at!

See you tomorrow

x

Owl card 2

Evening

The card for today is the 2^nd I made from the fab new cd from www.cardcreationsplus.co.uk

Its called Brush Strokes In The Wild and if you love wildlife you need this cd!!

So materials for this card I used ….

Heat mat to work on and protect your surface – I always use it...

A5 white card

Brown A4 card

Scrap of gold mirri card

cream & gold foiled sentiment

Vintage photo distress ink pad

Optic Dot border and corner punch set

Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue

Double sided tape

Sticky pads

Eazi Score Board & tool

Tonic 8” guillotine

Scissors

Tweezers

Shaping tool from www.dimensionstamps.com

Foam shaping mat – stamping mat or even a mouse mat

To make the card ...

I scored and folded the brown card to create my A5 card blank

I cut the main image and the 3 panels of decoupage – I used a couple of large sticky pads to stick the decoupage panels to the main image.

I used the white card and cut it down to measure 6 3/4” x 5” then punched the 4 corners, next I used the border punch carefully lining the border and corners – this created a lovely patterned mat for my image panel

 

I used the Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink pad and an ink applicator to carefully cover the edges and using a circular motion it inked towards the centre in a lighter shade.

The main image panel was the stuck with double sided tape to the right side of the punched mat and then the mat was stuck to the card black more to the left side.

The cream and gold foiled christmas sentiment was attached across the top left corner of the design and the Owl message that came with the design was stuck onto a small oddment of gold mirri card and then attached at the bottom right hand side of the card to finish

I didn't use any glitter or glossy accents on the card as I felt it was just fine as it was ...

And that is owl card number 2 completed and shared – do you want another tomorrow???

Ok – see you next time...

x

Barn Owl card

Evening

I thought we had managed to escape the rain here in Hull but it started a few hours ago and boy is it coming down – poor dogs had their night walk cut down a fair bit as they hate the rain as much as we do!!

Anyway to the card – as most of you know we are lucky enough to own 3 real live owls and I do have a thing about owl – if I see a picture, ornament or whatever and it has an owl on I have to have it

So when I opened this fab new cd from www.cardcreationsplus.co.uk and saw it had a Barn Owl I just had to get the printer working hard again

So the cd is called Brush Strokes In The Wild and if you love wildlife you need this cd!! It had lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes and many more beautiful animals – oh and the Barn Owl of course!

I printed one set out which was 2 sheets for the card base and decoupage, and a sheet of backing paper and an insert – this made one card – which I am sharing here today – but I also printed out 2 different sheets of toppers and so far I have made 4 other Barn Owl cards – all different – and still have enough toppers for at least another 3 cards!!!

So materials for this card I used ….

Heat mat to work on and protect your surface – I always use it...

White A4 card

A4 backing paper

A4 gold mirri card

cream & gold foiled sentiment

Black glitter by Debbi Moore

Dusty Concord ink pad

Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue

Double sided tape

Sticky pads

Eazi Score Board & tool

Tonic 8” guillotine

Scissors

Tweezers

Shaping tool from www.dimensionstamps.com

Foam shaping mat – stamping mat or even a mouse mat

To make the card ...

I scored and folded the white card to create my A5 card blank

The insert was printed but still had the white edges so I trimmed the white then added the insert – rather than glitter and wait for it to dry before opening the card to add it.

I cut the main image and matted it onto a piece of gold mirri card and this was then positioned on the white card

The decoupage was cut out – this was so easy to do and only had 2 or 3 pieces to cut out and add

Once the decoupage was in place – I used tiny sticky pads – I used the quickie glue pen to highlight the edges of the silhouette trees in the background then covered it all with the lovely black glitter.

I added a small dot of gold stickles to the moon then rubbed it off again leaving just a little track of it.

The cream and gold foiled sentiment was added at an angle to the bottom right of the card

The only downside is it all seems dark – too dark in places – I have looked at several of the other animals on the cd and it seems it was just the owl – but I guess owls are usually known to be out in the darkness....

I hope you do like the card – I will share the others in one go tomorrow night!

Ok – see you next time...

x