Quick and easy mini canvas

A cute mini canvas (when I say mini, I mean 4" square!) was just perfect for making a quick dedication gift and I'm pleased to say it was very gratefully received! Handmade gifts are just the strangest things sometimes aren't they, some people love them, some people just don't "get" them - but thankfully, the people who received these loved them, so brownie points to us.

The mini canvas hangs on wide pale blue Stampin' Up ribbon and the canvas itself has been painted cream, with a brown spotty background stamped with another SU stamp, and then a blue decorative edge cut and then all inked in brown. I love a bit of inking! The phrase is also a SU stamp. How come the designing of things takes forever, but once made, you could easily create a second one of the same in about 30 minutes?!?

I made this dedication card to match the other gifts, and they all looked very cute together. Unfortunately the last photograph of the candle doesn't look that great - note to self, I must stop taking photographs indoors and at night! But its the only time I get.

Does anyone have any good tips for me on photographing in bad lighting inside? I'm not bad as far as photography goes, I've picked up alot of hints and have taken some really good photographs, but only outside. I haven't learnt the master tips for inside photography yet.

Dedication crafts

Our friends are having their baby dedicated on Sunday morning, and we were a little stuck for ideas for a present. Should we take a traditional present, or will they end up with lots of similar gifts? The only solution seemed to be - make something!

I took a plain white candle (just a few pounds in the supermarket) and printed a baby photograph onto a sticker sheet, along with the name (blurred out here) and date and simply peeled and stuck them onto the candle. Voila! Completed in just a few minutes.

I love money-saving ideas and these personalised candles can cost a fortune in the shops compared to what it really costs them to make them. So do it yourself! It's really quite cute, isn't it? It does of course help that he is the cutest baby.

For a while now, I've been a converted fan of 'Safmat' - which is a clear sheet of sticker material that you can print onto. The packaging is shocking and totally doesn't do justice to the multitude of uses for this little simple item. It's perfect for all sorts of crafts!

Don't forget the pancakes...

oooh a yummy freebie which I've just seen from Pink Petticoat!

I think the owners and designers of this company are onto a real winner as their products are gorgeous, and they are kind enough to give something away for free this time. I'm sure they won't mind me sharing this as it's all good publicity... join their mailing list if you want to hear about these first hand like I did today. This lemon idea is such a cute card, it's made me want to go and make one right now! There will always be a use for a card with this sentiment.

Download it here

Happy pancake day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a lovely day, whatever they are doing. Ours didn't quite go to plan, but we had a nice day in a funny sort of way and I received a lovely card. I also had the opportunity to give this cute card, using my Stampin' Up! set.

The inspiration came from the card in the SU catalogue, with a bit of inspiration from a card by Natalie O'Shea too, all rolled into one. The only thing is I used a standard size card but I felt it was a bit too small in the end! But my larger cards are just too big. I like the square cards the most - perhaps because they are in between.

What have you all been up to? That's it for my creativeness the last week or two but we'll see what creeps up soon. I also haven't had time to list my craft books for sale on here but I will do that soon too.

Delilah Golightly...

It's been a chaotic few weeks, but I'm able to show you the first of a few sets of cards i've made very sporadically, and only just finished off yesterday. If I make cards in bulk I tend to make the main parts of the cards, and the greetings get left until the end and sit on the side for a while, waiting for completion. Do you do that?

But before I do, let me share this little beauty which is for my niece (obvious, I know). It did happen to be a bit of a rushed job so please excuse the smudging and general lack of polish! The gorgeous little doll embellishment 'Delilah Golightly' is thanks to the lovely Kirsty Wiseman - which can be downloaded ***for free*** because she is generous like that! You can download it **here**. I'm sure she would love to see what you have made with it if you do create something. My niece is going to love it and Kirsty posted this bang on time for when I needed it. Thanks Kirsty!

So it seems I need...

... a Stamp-a-ma-jig!

I've been a bit daft, I must have changed the settings on my blog recently when I was having a look at something, so I was a little bit sad that a fab crafter had not come to my rescue to tell me how to use this set and that I was just going to have to try again with lots of patience... but I was wrong! I hadn't realised I had 13 comments from you lovely ladies waiting to be moderated, I must have switched off my email notifications by accident. Thank you!!

In a way, it's actually been nice as so many of you have replied with helpful comments and if you had seen the ones before, you might not have done so. So a big thank you to everyone who has offered me help and it seems to be one conclusion only! I will look into this now.

I consider myself quite an experienced crafter as in that I've been doing it for many years, and it was my career doing magazine projects, shows, products etc but stamping is not something I was ever that experienced at personally. Until Stampin' Up! drew me in. It seems I have a lot to learn! You can buy these from your nearest Stampin' Up! demonstrator - here

Thanks for all your help ladies, rather than post my disaster attempt at wrong stamping, hopefully I'll be able to post some successes soon instead! (I thought it couldn't be the only one having that problem...)