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...)

Trendy Trees

So, can anyone tell me how to use this set of stamps from Stampin' Up! without wanting to throw them out of the window? I'm feeling quite tired and exhausted lately, so it probably wasn't the best time to try to master using these stamps for the first time, but I thought they looked quite easy, right? Wrong. But i'm hoping someone will share with me on here that actually they are very easy and I've just been doing it wrong, and then I can get lots of use out of my new set!

I tried to stamp the trunks first, and then the foliage on top but I couldn't get them to line up right. So then I tried to stamp the foliage, then the trunk. No joy. How do stamp these two so that they line up perfectly, like I've seen others do? Please let me know as I was getting very annoyed with myself! And I hate to waste so much card in my attempts.

I'm moving onto my heart/valentine's set for now until someone informs me otherwise...

And I must update this blog with new links of the sites that I follow, and my personal information etc - feel free to point me in the direction of any fab sites for inspiration, I need new ones too. x

Peace and tranquility

This beautiful little cottage is where I was whisked away to last weekend for my birthday, and I had a lovely time! It was a surprise so when we arrived, I thought how much it was like the little cottage in 'The Holiday' film. It was very romantic and a treat to be in the countryside.

It is in Suffolk and is very traditional and cute, with a real log fire. A lovely touch was that the owners bake a fresh cake and leave it on the table to have with tea, and leave you a breakfast basket filled with gorgeous goodies so you have all you need for the morning! Just lovely.

And from the very same person who whisked me away, came this...

Isn't it good for a male card that was actually hand-made? Not to say that men can't make cards of course, just that most usually don't! I have to say I was very impressed. Even if it did mean someone else got to use my new ribbon and Stampin' Up stamps before me! (They were inside, which you can't see). I can only apologise for the really bad photography, I know it's not as pretty to look at, but I never seem to be around at home to photograph things in the daylight.

Now, just contemplating what else I was going to write on my blog today, I'm shocked to say that it was a year ago I said I'd be having an overhaul of my craft materials and shipping some out on ebay! I am shocked. It took me most of the year to have the clear out, but that I did, and now I have a cupboard (rather large), full of things I need to get rid of as I simply **DO NOT** need them. I know that is a crime to admit, but as crafting is now only a hobby for me, I cannot justify keeping so much that I probably will never use. Some I'm giving away, where I know it is going to a good home.

So taking inspiration from Kirsty here, I might put some books up here soon!

Cupcakes

Not only do I love making cupcakes, but I've loved creating with images of them too. I've been busy celebrating my birthday and using lots of new Stampin' Up goodies! I've taken first inspiration from Monica (here) and made some birthday cards in an alternative colour scheme. These actually haven't turned out as good as I'd of hoped, but I was not at home making them so only had a limited supply I could use. They still look nice enough! Monica's look lovely, she made them in bright blue.

I'm off to Kenya with the charity that I work for this year so I'm making and selling some cards towards the cost of that, hence why you will see at least six of every card soon - the quickest way to make the most!

My next post should include a birthday card made for me by a special someone - and I have to say I was super impressed! Stereo-typing I know, but who thought men can't make cards?!?

2010

Happy new year to everyone, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Kicking off with some inspiration, here is a birthday card I made recently with a Papermania (I think!) message stamp, a Banana Frog background firework stamp, and Stampin' Up ink pads and ribbons.

It's been a lovely Christmas break, filled with lots of good memories. I was the lucky recipient of some lovely Stampin' Up goodies for Christmas, and I can't wait to get using them! I'll post some pictures of them soon hopefully, and even more hopeful that I'll be able to post some images of cards using them!

But for now, it's back to work...