It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

Well it is in our house at the moment anyway :-) I've been getting together my swaps for our quarterly training and I've got them finished with a week to go would you believe!!  Yes I know Miss Disorganised here is pulling it together with time to spare! Mark this date in your diary it'll never happen again lol.  So here are my swaps, I mentioned I was doing these in an earlier blog;

My kitchen smelt Divine after heating all these tea lights as they are vanilla scented, I have also made a little gift bag to carry them all in ;

I used the broadsheet alphabet for the candles, and the Pennant Parade for the bag along with the Petite Pennants Builder punch. I've used Garden Green card and ink, Crumb Cake ink, and  Riding Hood Red card and Ink and also the Decorative Label punch.  I have also added either Cherry Cobbler or Always Artichoke seam binding ribbon on the candle packs.

Happy Crafting

Deb xx

Dragonfly Candles

Yes you've guessed it I've been busy stamping candles again, no idea why I choose to do something that involves heat when its so hot. So here they are, I've stamped using the natures nest stamp set and Marina Mist and Crumb Cake ink pads;

 If you're wondering how it's done you just stamp onto tissue paper, then place on your candle and heat, if you're not that brave place the stamped tissue paper on your candle then wrap tightly in greaseproof paper then heat, you can see the image 'turn' under the greaseproof paper so you will know when its done.

Happy Crafting

Deb xxx

Tealight Stampin

ohhhh bit of a strange day yesterday, I've been off work (LSA job) because I've been suffering with vertigo so yesterday, feeling a bit better I thought I'd try a little walk, big mistake lol people probably thought I was drunk!  Back to sitting today and not wandering about too much.

So what have I been doing?  Stamping Tea lights, I'm sure you've seen in a previous blog where I have stamped church candles so I thought I'd have a go with tea lights, it is far easier than stamping on candles and here's how I got on;

Aren't they lovely, I also made a gift box to go with them;

The box, by the way fits three of the tea lights inside.  I wanted something though that would take a little less time in the making than a box as I'm planning to use these as swaps if I manage to get to our next training, the theme of which is Christmas, so here's what I came up with;

Unfortunately the little stamps and the little reindeer stamp aren't available in England :-( They make up a set that you can use to make an advent calendar with.  I got mine sent to me as a Christmas present from a friend in America.

As you can see I just inked the image and not the number so that I could use them on the candles.

Well happy crafting everyone

Deb xx

Coaster Gift Packs

If you read Stampin Corners facebook page yesterday you will have got a sneak peek at what I was doing yesterday, not much of a clue by the photo though lol.  I was hoping to blog about this yesterday but I was rushing around sorting out some last minute fathers days gifts, one of the things I did was pick up some cakes from The Cherry Blossom Bakery that I'd had made for my Dad, in Muppet characters.

I'm getting off track as usual so here are the things I made, first the coasters I got this idea from the lovely Monica;

These are so quick and easy to make and a great gift idea, it's just a matter of winding some fabric around some cord then spiralling the cord round, I used the candy cane fabric for these.

When I first started to do these I didn't have in mind doing them as a gift set, but I thought how wonderful if I packaged up some tea and coffee to go with them, so here's the coffee;

I've made this with Baja Breeze and Pretty in Pink card and used the Tea Shoppe stamp set, and it fits two sachets of coffee;

And here's the tea gift pack ;

Again this fits two twinnings tea bags inside;

I've used the Attic Boutique papers for the pockets in this one, I adore these papers they are just so beautiful.

I then decided to gift pack two coasters and the tea set in one package and the coffee in another;

I've added the "made just for you" stamp from the creatively Yours stamp set.  The pink ribbon is from some of my own craft stash.  I really like these sets so simple and yet a lovely gift.

Well that's all for now
Happy crafting
Deb xxxx

Scraping and Gifting

Well I'm writing this on yet another raining day in deepest darkest Yorkshire, I also think I just heard thunder.  Thunder always reminds me of my Granny Gelder, she knew I was terribly frightened of it so would sing to me whenever there was a storm, while we we staying with her.  " I hear Thunder, I hear thunder. Hark! don't you?" I'm sure you must know it from your own childhoods :-) well that brings me neatly to my first make of the day which is a scrapbook page;

We were given this page as a make and take at our recent Leeds training.  The picture is of my Grandma and granddad and my dad aged 3.  I believe he was once so cute!! lol

Talking of dad I finished off the gift bag I was making to pop all his pressies inside for fathers day. Here it is;

I've used the Open Sea stamp set to match the card I made him which is in an earlier blog, and I've again used the framelit dies

 and also the Two Tags die to make the gift tag,

I've attached the tag to the gift bag using the new coloured bakers twine, I love it!! and I did all this wearing false nails!  I usually paint my own nails and add my own nail art but since I've been having problems with my shoulder its been very hard to do, so I decided to pamper myself and this is the result.

Aren't the little 3D flowers lovely?  I was really very pleased with them and feel that this may be the way to go for me now.

Well that's all from me, better go and tidy up my mess ;-)

Happy Crafting

Deb  xxx

Chocolate Bar Covers

Well I hope this post finds you all safe and well after the floods that have hit some parts of the country.  Today here in Yorkshire looks like a bit of a let up rain wise, although still no sun yet :-(

Well down to today's crafty bits, I was wondering what I could get my Dad for fathers day seeing as he seems to have everything he needs and this is what I came up with.  CHOCOLATE!! Can't possibly fail with that, but how do I make a bar of chocolate something that bit special?  Here is how I did it;

Ok so this is supposed to be Doogle from The Magic Roundabout, he reminds me of my Dad so I thought this was a good place to start.  Now to make him you need to have the kind of chocolate that still has the old type of paper wrapper around it, not easy to find now but as luck would have it The Cherry Blossom Bakery still wraps their chocolate in this way and even better, their chocolate is to die for!  All made by the lovely Charlotte.  If you haven't tried their Choc bars, cakes, cupcakes or chocolates then you need too as they are very scrummy!

As you can see Doogle is made using crumb cake card, for his hair I just cut a half inch strip and wound it around a pen.  I've used used the Oval, 3/8, 1 1/4, 1 3/4 circle punches, using basic black for his eyes, nose and mouth and real red for his tongue.

But I didn't stop there, oh no I was on a roll, at least thats what I thought lol.  So I also did this;

This is Animal, one of my Dad's favourite Muppet's, for him I used Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Real Red and basic black card, I used the Modern window punch (teeth and eyebrows), small oval, 3/8, 1 1/4, 1 3/4 circle punches and drew around a cup and a coaster to make his mouth.  I hope he likes them.

Happy Crafting

Deb xxx

Envelopes for Square Cards

As promised a blog with envelope sizes for using with the new diagonal score board.  I will follow this up with another blog of envelopes with a half inch depth in case you have some cards with a lot of dimension to them.

As a rule I make all of my envelopes just for the reason of being able to personalise them, it just adds that little extra special touch to a beautifully handcrafted card.

So we'll start with a 5" x 5" square card
Cut your paper to 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" Square,  Then score all four corners at 3 5/8, then simply fold in the corners, it should look like this

 and tape your envelope together. You can make this envelope from A4 card or paper, all the other sizes that now follow need to be made from either 12" x 12" paper or A3 paper.

6" x 6"  Envelopes

Cut your paper to 9 3/8" x 9 3/8", then score all four corners at 4 3/8"

7" x 7" Envelopes

Cut your paper to 10 3/4" x 10 3/4", then score all four corners at 5 1/8"

8" x 8" Envelopes

Cut your paper to 11 5/8" x 11 5/8", then score all four corners at 5 5/8"

A5 Envelope (Just in case you missed it on my other post)

Cut your paper  to 11" x 11", Score opposite corners at 6 1/4", then score the other two opposite corners at 4 1/2"

And lastly here's a small 3" x 3" envelope this is great for small thank you cards or for tooth fairy money ;-) as you can imagine they are most popular in our house with Scotty too Hotty

Cut your paper to 5 1/8" x 5 1/8", then score all four corners at 2 3/8", this envelope can be made using A4 card or paper

Well I hope you've found that useful, if you have a particular size card that you want an envelope for then send me the measurement for your card in inches and I'll do my best to size the envelope for you :-)  If you'd like to order the Simply Scored scouring board and or diagonal plate please email me debbie72keating@yahoo.co.uk

Happy crafting

Deb xxx