Christmas is coming

Only a few days until December and I'm feeling decidedly Christmassy! I'm not so organised as to have started my Christmas shopping yet, but I have been able to create this little clean and simple Christmas card set, which will be going up on my Etsy shop very soon. I shared a sneak peek of them in progress waaaaay back in October, but they've been sat on the shelf for a while, waiting to be photographed! The bad light and the dark evenings here have meant fewer opportunities for clearer shots... oh how I'm looking forward to the new camera that's on my Christmas list ;) I used Docrafts wood shapes, Centura Pearl Hint of Gold cardstock, red satin ribbon, a BoBunny Christmas paper stack and a Vintage Music A4 embossing folder for these, and I'm loving the effect of the embossed pearlescent card blanks - so simple yet stylish! Have a great weekend :)

Stanley's 2nd Birthday!

Stanley turned 2 over two weeks ago and I can't believe I haven't documented it on here yet! We had a party at a local soft play centre followed by a day at Legoland Discovery Centre. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend, despite me being stunningly less organised than last year... gone were the handmade party invitations and party bags and in came the Facebook events manager and flimsy readymade bags. Time just wasn't on my side, so it seemed wise to use what time I did have strategically and focus on birthday presents, decorations and cake making. The cake was a homemade Thomas the Tank Engine cake that I made with my mum, and it went catastrophically badly - first when we didn't have enough blue icing to cover the cake (hence the red ribbons!), then when I attempted to add Thomas's nose and mouth using a piping bag (what was I THINKING?!). It was horrific, so I scraped that off and tried it with some pieces of royal icing. Much better! You can't make it out on this picture though - nor will you at all, as I forgot to get any photographs of the cake. Gah! Cake decorating definitely isn't something I'll be taking up soon... ;)

Creative Cardmaking 74

The latest issue of Creative Cardmaking landed on my doormat this morning and guess who's featured in it! I had a great time making these memory boxes - the first of which is a 12x12" frame using mementos from our wedding day in 2011. Luckily I'm a bit of a hoarder (I'm sure a lot of crafters are the same!) so I still had our place cards, the Mr & Mrs wooden letters that adorned the top table, some purple hearts from a decor wreath, a paper bag from the dessert table and a spare wedding invitation - all of which I managed to cram into this project! 

I struggled a little with the colours on this one - the brief called for browns, pale greens and baby pinks, but my wedding colour was purple. I agonised for ages over changing the pink Crate Paper heart-patterned paper to a cream variety, but eventually I decided it made the purple look too dominant. The pink worked well to fit in with the required colour scheme and softened the deep purple.

The second project is an 8x8" frame and features my cousin's little girl on her first birthday earlier this year. Being a smaller frame, and with less opportunity for mementos on this occasion, I used a pink paper napkin and the number candle from the cake. 

The paper napkin was peeled to a single layer and used as a backing for my photographs, but I also used it to create some rolled paper roses. This was done in the same way as the silk ribbon roses I've made before, although I had to work carefully to prevent tearing. The smaller rose uses just one napkin strip, while the larger rose uses two. I think they look really effective - I've become a little addicted to making ribbon roses lately, so maybe another tutorial is in order ;) That's all for now, have a great weekend!

Clean & simple

Ooh a week already since I last blogged! I don't know where the time is going! Last weekend was Stanley's birthday, so it has been a bit full-on making his cake and planning his party and birthday treats. It all went brilliantly and I feel like I did him proud - I promise I'll tell you more when I get a minute! In the meantime, it's time for a new Polka Doodles challenge, and this time the task is to create a clean and simple (CAS) card. I love CAS cards - I would definitely say it's my style! Don't feel you need to use a white card blank and leave loads of white space to get this look - the emphasis is on placement and embellishments (or lack of them!), making sure your finished product is unfussy and uncluttered. For this card I used the lovely black & white postcard from the Festive Hollybobs CD. I mounted it onto a kraft card blank at an angle, coloured the holly leaves with my pens and added a subtle pop of red with some gems for berries. I then simply tied the card with red & brown twine and added my sentiment. So simple, without being completely plain! Have a great weekend :)

Recycling challenge

It's that time again to share my make for the Polka Doodles Challenge blog, and this time it's recycling - something I love doing! For this project I decided to upcycle a glass candle jar for a first Christmas keepsake or gift. I used the wonderful Festive Hollybobs CD for this, which contains some lovely design sheets with papers, toppers and extra elements that were perfect for decorating this candle jar. I added some punched snowflakes, a chalkboard panel and red silk ribbon to finish.

The final touch was a red silk ribbon bow for the candle jar lid. This Mistletoe Kiss image is also available as a clear stamp in the Polka Doodles store - gorgeous! Have a great weekend :)