Gift card holder

I think trying to make gift cards look something is always abit tricky so here is a template I downloaded from creationsbyar.com for a little gift card giftbox.

Spring Fling

Well I might not have put much on my blog lately but it doesn't mean I haven't been busy. My church, St Mary's in Acklam are having a Spring Fling this month and I have been making some stuff to go on the crafty stall. You will probably recognise quite a bit.

Do you like these flannel and soap bunnies. I know it's not Easter but they are sweet.

And these little envelope boxes have a teabag and a biscuit inside. Of course I also made lots of square boxes too. I have a bit of a thing for buying accessories so I used the boxes to hold some costume jewellery I don't wear anymore.

and here are some brooches I have decided to get rid of. I thought I'd give them a vintage look on these little cards I made.

And of course there are all those corsages I made with the Friends of Marton Library last month along with a few of my scarves I don't wear anymore.

And finally more picnic baskets full of sweets. Yum! I hope that some of this lot gets sold to add to the church funds. Now I've got to get cracking making more stuff for another stall, this time to raise money for Thorntree United, Better get busy x 

Santa Chocolate bars

I saw these in a magazine and thought they were great so I covered loads of choccy bars like this, however, no one else seemed to think they were as cute as me!

Christmas Lantern

I got the idea for a Christmas lantern from a magazine but the project in the magazine required so much special equipment it was going to cost a fortune so I altered it to fit in with the stuff I already had and this is the result. I used a battery operated tealight - of course!

Artists Way

Well I've managed so far to do my morning pages, I'm having to get up early but that's not a problem considering I'm not sleeping too well. Yesterday I had my Artists Date. I was working in the afternoon and normally I would have spent the morning at home probably doing the housework but instead I went to see a lovely exhibition about the Transporter Bridge at the Dorman museum followed by a trip to a beautiful gift shop called Conxept and I treat myself to an inexpensive bracelet but very pretty and then I had a wonder around Albert Park taking pictures of the Autumn leaves. It was lovely, the sun was shining and I enjoyed the fresh air.
There are a few tasks for this week. The book suggests you do at least two, the one you're drawn too which seems the most appealing and the one you dislike the most. It asks you to quickly list 5 altenative careers which you would have liked to do. Don't think too much into it, just write what pops in to your head first. My list read: Dancer, Textile Artist,Florist,cake decorator and community worker. Now I must do an activity this week connected to one of those jobs. Today I was at my textile class but I think I fancy a go at flower arranging so that's my next job. The task I didn't like the sounnd of was thinking of 3 old enemies of my creative self-worth. Those people in my past who have critised and knocked my abilities. Now I have to write a letter in my defense and send it to myself.I'm putting this one off but I will do it before the weeks out I promise!

The Artists Way - Julia Cameron

This week I have started the 12 week course called the Artists Way. For anyone who isn;t familiar with this it is a fantastic book by Julia Cameron in which she helps you discover your creative self. Each week you are given tasks to do to discover what really gets your creative juices flowing and also to identify what could be causing you to doubt your abilities, feel blocked and unable to allow yourself to follow your dreams. Two tasks which are musts for every week are the 'Morning Pages' and the weekly 'Artists Date'. The 'Morning Pages' involve writing three pages of long hand every morning about anything and if you can't think of anything you just write 'I can't think of anything' over and over if you have to. For the Artists Date you need to imagine you are taking your creative self on an afternoon (or morning/evening) out and imagine where it would like to go. One of the suggestions was to take £5 to the pound shop, market, carboot sale and see what you can buy which really strikes a cord with your creative self. I reckoned if I start the course now the twelve week will coincide with the New Year and I'll be all set for a creative 2012. 'Wish me Luck!'

Sewing Kit

I enjoyed making the sewing kit so much I thought I'd do another one in a green and brown colour scheme so I could send it in to the Ribbongirl Challenge, hope they like it!

Sewing Kit

I bought these lovely sewing stamps from Crafty Individuals and wanted to use them on something so I came up with this sewing kit using some vintage ribbons and bits I got from the Art Market at Middlesbrough Town Hall. I also used some lovely papers from 3D Jean.

Decopatch Screen

Well I haven't posted much lately and this is partly the reason why. I bought this MDF screen in a charity shop for £5 and decided to cover it in decopatch papers. It took some covering. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now it's finished but I really wanted to have a go at decopatch and if you're going to try something you might as well start BIG!

Canvas

After going to our EfemeraInk monthy meet I couldn't help doing more pictures like the one you can see on http://efemera-ink.blogspot.com/search/label/Canvas (mines the cat picture), so here are my further attempts.

Wooden House

After doing the wooden tray I thought I'd have a go at decorating this wooden house I bought from www.3djean.co.uk. Take a good look at this picture cos I don't like it so I'm going to pull it to pieces and start again. I used retro chipboard shapes to decorate it which were free in a magazine I bought but I'm not happy with how its turned out so am going to try and find some small objects to fill it. Watch this space!

Crafty Individuals wooden tray

I have had this little wooden tray from Crafty Individuals for ages. I decorated it when I first bought it and hated it so I stripped it back and had another go and now I quite like it. I painted the frame with pink paint and mounted it on some mount board covered in gold card for a border and then some fancy Crafty Individuals paper. Each box has one of those mini tags in again which I have decorated using various bits and pieces and finally topped it off with a fleur de lis also from Crafty Individuals.
I reckon this counts as Bright and Beautiful so I thought I'd enter it in to the Crafty Individuals August Challenge.

Compartment Picture

I made this picture a while ago but thought I might as well put it on. You could do something like this with a theme such as 'Our holiday in Italy' including all your little momentos. All the materials are once again from Crafty Individuals. I do buy stuff from other places but this and 3D Jean are my favourite suppliers.

Altered Art

This little frame is from Crafty Individuals, another one of my favourite websites. The film star images I bought from 3DJean.

Altered Art

My lovely hubby paid for me to receive some Altered Art kits from the 3DJean website. I received a monthly kit with all sorts of bits and bobs such as labels, buttons, stamps etc to do some altered art. I started using them to make some small pictures. When I had made quite a few I decided to put them in a frame, I thought they were too nice to just keep in the drawer. Anyway here are the results.

Paper flowers

I had my mother and sister in law round for lunch the other day. I bought some nice table settings and then thought I could have done with some flowers for the table so I quickly made these paper ones. What do you think?

Baby keepsake book

A friend at work is expecting a baby and I have made this baby book for her to write down memories and stick in keepsakes etc. Here are a few pics, I haven't included every page. It took some doing I was sat sticking for hours!