Bah Humbug :: Sweetie Bags!

Hey Folks!! I am still alive!! I have been crafting flat our for christmas fairs and gifts and have not had a chance to blog!!
These are something that went down well... Bah Humbug sweetie bags!!

Just some humbug boiled sweets...popped into a small cello bag

Printed and then die cut bag tops - on my fave colour of card right now!

Finished with a die cut snowflake!

I will be posting the rest of my christmas ideas over the next couple of days so keep your eyes peeled!!

Hugs

L xXx

Some Big News!!!!

Evening all...

I have some big news for you tonight...well...big news for me anyway!!!

I am now officially a Stampin' Up Demonstrator!!!

How very exciting, i still plan to keep this blog going with all my non stampin projects, but you may want to have a mooch over here for all my stampin' up related waffle!!!

L xXx

Crafters Near Wolverhampton... I Need Your Input!

Evening all!

Rather a odd post from me tonight... I would love to hear from any crafters in Wolverhampton (and those near by) who would be interested in a card and gift making workshop?
I do not have a venue yet as i wanted to gauge interest to see if it would be worth doing

So... Do you live locally or would you be willing to travel once a month for a workshop? It would be on a Saturday as i work during the week so if you are interested please drop me an email lisa@craftfairies.com

More cards tomorrow

L xXx

My Shopping Trip to the Hobbycrafts Show at Birmingham NEC...

Today saw the yearly pilgrimage to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for the Hobbycrafts Show
My friend Helen and I go every year, we save all of our crafty cash up for a good old spend!!!

I have not blogged all week as we have had Ofsted in school and it has been a manic week with 12 and 13 hour days!!!!!

This year I drove, we normally get the train but driving was much less stressful and meant we could pop to the car at lunch, have a bite to eat and unload our stash ready to fill our bags again!!!

I have photographed all of my spends, so i hope you are sitting comfy!

First up we have:
Sweet Treats Cricut Cart :: loved this as soon as i saw it, you can cut cupcake shaped cards, i think these will still work nicely on my little create machine and will show you some examples later in the week!
4 rolls of DS tape :: essential!
A Bach issue of cards mag :: love this mag but missed this issue so thought i would grab it while it was half price!
Set of fiskars texture plates :: these were a bargain at £1 so i got them even though i was unsure if i already had them...turns out i do...bummer...so there will be some blog candy coming soon ;o)
2 unmounted Stamps :: Music notes and gingham background stamps, I am not the best stamper but thought these would be great for backgrounds and tarting up scraps of paper... oh yesh scrapheap challenge!
2 inks :: to go with new stamps, i don't have much ink!
Little scissors :: i had a pair of these last year and they are fab for £1 but i left mine in the garden so had to replace them!

Envies!
Lots of envelopes and some card blanks :: i use square card blanks normally but want to make some of my own up and wanted some unusual sizes of envelopes so these should fit the bill, all envies £1 per pack of 25

12x12
I am mainly a cardmaker but do love some pretty papers, these here were total bargains!!!
Basic Grey :: these fabby sets were a bargain, reduced from £15.99 to £4.99 i snapped up 2 as i love the designs... and did i mention the price!
The other single sheets were great too, pick and mix 25 for £7 lots of love elsie, MM, Rusty Pickle and chatterbox to name a few!!



Embellies
Loads here, the only things that were over £1 were the scrabble alpha letters that were still a bargain at £4 for a box of 360
I totally love the brads in the bottom of the pic, they are quite chunky but not too big!

My find of the day, wood grain embossed card!!!
I love this, it will be ace for making cards and gifts with, infact i loved it so much i had a large box and small box with mainly those 2 designs in them!!!

Close up of my lush wood grain card
I am so glad i took the car, it whould have killed me lugging this as well as everything else to the train!



My bargain of the day...

I think this will be a great card making tool, it has all of the markigs on it for A4, A5 C5 C6 etc on it which will be a godsend!!
It was reduced from £59.99 to £15.00 so i could not resisit!!!



hmmm... Craftwork cards have a lot to answer for!!!
I fell in love with the xmas papers, very expensive at £4.00 for 12 8x8 sheets but i will only use it for best...LOL
Also some pop out birthday greetings and some cute little bird house boxes!



some colour me ovals that i thik will make some great quick cards!
And some festive bauble greetings, there were not from CWC stall but another stall that had them on offer for £1 per pack!



Punches and dies... you didn't think i would come home without a die or a punch did you????
little frilly square punch
leafy punch
flower punch - retro type
Dino border punch, dunno what i will do with this but i loved it!!!

Spellbinders create a flake 2 ( i have set one so it will go good with that)

cute crimbo tree die, this will make some cute cards and gifts
owl on branch die, i just love all the cute owl's about at the mo, and working in a school these should go down well on cards!
at the back there is a little handbag type die, this was free with the owl and tree die which was nice and i am sure i will put it to good use!

This is a little test i did with my dino punch!!
I think it is fab...still not sure what i will do with it so keep your eyes peeled!

all in all it was a great day, it was tarnished slightly by the sheer volume of people at times you just could not move!! That couples with all of the trollies that people dragged over my feet did wear me out a bit!!!

If you are planning a visit tomorrow ENJOY!!!

Hugs

L xXx

Scrap Heap Challenge :: Die Cut Notelets (sizzix)

Another little update to my scrap heap challenge - die cut notelets!



I am rubbish at a straight line so i have die cut the little notelets / car blanks using a sizzix bigz XL movers and shapers die



One was embossed with an embossing folder the other left plain



I have filled the windows on the plain one with blossoms and rhinestones set in the centre
and the other one i have popped some paperchase stickers in the little windows
both embellished with ribbon from stash



I plan to have a blitz on mt scrap box and make a few little bundles of these for christmas pressies for the girls in the family!



If you set any challenges using your scraps please leave a comment with a link cos i would love to see them!

Hugs

L xXx

Birthday Gifts :: Etched Glass, Matching Card & a Flanel Cupcake!

This is a little something i have made for Our friend to give his fiance for her birthday, I think everyone is a little short of cash at the monent especially with christmas looming so i made these for robs best mate to give to his fiance, i think the personal touch may have earned him a few brownie points too!!!

I have done tutorials / given more details for these in the past you han find the blog posts for these below
flanel / facecloth cupcakes here
and for the etched glasses here




This is the card, quite simple but my only guidance was "something girlie" aren't men great!!!



The die cut font it the Cricut font - Cutting up, Layered up using nestabilities dies.




finished off with ribbon, blossoms, tiny heart rhinestones and larger heart rhinestones



The wine glass has "Kerry" etches on one side and "all my love now and always xxx" etched on the other side (at Rob's friends request!)




Hugs


Lisa xXx

Scrap Heap Challenge :: Gift Card Holder using Sizzix XL Die

A little while ago i set a challenge to myself (and any bloggers out there who fancied it) to make some cards / gifts just using scraps from my huge heap of card and paper oddments. I can not bear to throw scraps away when even the tinyest ones can be used!!!

The gift card itself was cut from a sheet of A4 card using a sizzix die

The present die cuts and the wording were cut out of scraps of textured card

I left some space on the left hand side for the person giving the gift card / money / lottery ticket to write a message, but think when i do some more that i may pop a little label type die cut in there.

Ingredients ::
Card
Scraps of card
Sizzix Bigz XL Gift Card Die
Sizzix Sizzlits Die for the celebreate and happy birthday die cuts
Boss Kutz Present Die

Review :: Big Shot V Big Shot Express...

It arrived today, which i thought was pretty fast as i only ordered it Tuesday afternoon!

In comparison it is actually smaller then the original BS if you take into account the handle!!! There was no putting together, just un-pack it and plug it in...and your off!

I must say i totally love it, i really {heart} it! It made cutting 70 place cards this afternoon a walk in the park, it whizzes the dies through so fast and the cutting is super clean.

I am now cutting (and embossing) almost 200 butterflies - pics tomorrow

It came with a new set of cutting plates that i tried at first, but i wondered how it would cope with my bent and gnarled cutting mats that i am using in my manual big shot, i thought that it may not like the way they had curled and that they may be hard to get through the machine... no problem at all, they whizzed through like a dream!

One thing i will say is tht it is not the quietest machine in the world... it sounds a bit like a drill, but as it is so fast it only lasts seconds!

All in all i think this is a great addition to my die cutting family... i may sell my original BS when my big shot pro arrives hopefully at the end of November but will wait and see, at the moment it is siting under my desk like one of the rejects from toy story... what a horrible crafter i am!

Hugs

L xXx

Christmas Cards - Cuttlebug, Cricut and Glittery Felt!

Just some pics of some christmas cards, very simple and very much my style!

These were made last year, before i had ever heard of nastabilities!!!
The scallops were cut on my cricut out of Bazzill card.

The snowflakes are die cut using a cuttle bug die (the one that comes on its own with a matching embossing folder) they are cut from some glitter felt that i picked up in hobbycraft, it was about 70p a sheet but you can get a good few snowflakes from a single sheet!

The snowflakes are attached to the scalloped mat with brads, a mixture of brads from my huge collection!

The wording was printed on my dymo embossing tape writer thingie! Onto Pretty coloured tape!

Review :: Papermania Brad Making Starter Kit

I purchased this set a couple of days ago when mooching through one of my favourite online stores - Cutting Edge Crafts I spend most of my spare cash with these lovely people and have just ordered a Big Shot Express from them, so keep your eyes peeled for a review of it when it arrives!

The instructions on the back were great, i love instructions with photos or pictures, i generally just find them so much easier to follow, maybe that is why i love ikea so much!

This is what you get in the pack, which cost me £12.00 (postage was free)

3 circle punches 5mm, 10mm, 20mm (i think - as i have lost the packet!!)

sheet of stickey pads

sheet of stick on domes

Brad bases in 3 different sizes

I chose the pewter set, but it does come in gold, there are 2 sized circles and a square design of brad, but i would feally like to see them bring out some plain brads without the frilly edges!

Overall i think this is great for the price and i will use the punches generally too - not just for making brads!!

So overall i would give the Papermania Brad Making Starter Kit 8 out of 10

Hugs

L xXx