Vintage Style Card

I saw a fab tutorial for making paper roses on Monica Gayle's blog and just had to have at making some, even though I had no idea what I was going to use them on!  After they had been kicking round on my desk for a few days inspiration finally struck and I came up with this:

Ingredients:  Vintage image from here, Daisy D's papers, brown parcel paper, Nestabilities circle and scalloped circle dies, faux chipboard mat/frame*, Quickutz leaf die, paper roses made with Cuttlebug dies (Monica's tutorial here), twill tape and pin from my local market.

* The chipboard mat/frame was made by cutting a piece of scrap cardboard with a Nellie Snellen die which was then painted with acrylic and distressed using an emery board.

Following on from the Easter chick sweetie bags on my last post, I couldn't resist having a go at the bunny tails bags which Craft Fairy featured on her blog.  Here's my take on them:

The bunnies are made from a Quickutz die matted on Nestabilities circles.

Toffee bon bons always go down well in the office so hopefully my colleagues will like them.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

Easter Sweetie Gift Bag {Inspired by Craft Fairy}

I was blog hopping the other day and stopped by Craft Fairy's blog.  She makes fab cards, and also fantastic gifts including sweetie gift bags.  (I paticularly like her Bunny Tails bags, they are very cute.)

I decided to have a go at making some myself to give as Easter gifts for my team members at work.  I popped into my local Aldi and managed to get some chocolate eggs and here's some of the finished products:

Ingredients: Chocolate eggs from Aldi, Boss Kuts little bird die, Nestabilties ovals dies and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Thanks for looking and thanks to Lisa Craft Fairy for blogging her sweetie bags.

A Few Recent Projects

Here's some pics of my recent projects:

Free Standing Pop-up Card:

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (freebie with February's Card Making and Papercraft magazine), Cuttlebug, Quickutz and Nestabilities dies, Poundland stick on gems, Hobbycraft ribbons, Fiskars scalloped lace punch and finally a dreaded peel off!

The tutorial for the pop-up card is from Splitcoast Stampers HERE.

Easel Birthday Card:

This was a card I made for my mother in law's birthday.

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (freebie with February's Card Making and Papercraft magazine), Nestabilities dies, Cuttlebug embossing folders, butterfly punches, Fiskars scalloped lace punch, scrabble tile letters (Papermania I think), paper flowers from Sarah's Cards, Papermania pearl brad, lace from my local market and Making Memories pom-pom ribbon.

The easel card tutorial is also from Splitcoast Stampers HERE

Mother's Day Card:

Ingredients: Papers - My Minds Eye (freebie with February's Card Making and Papercraft magazine), Nestabilities and Quickutz dies, Cuttlebug embossing folders, paper flowers from Sarah's Cards LTD, Papermania pearl brads, Hobbycraft ribbon and heart pin from my local market.

Valentine's Day Projects:
For Mr Crafty Blogger's valentines card I decided to get my camera out and do a photocard. 

The first challenge was where to find Love Hearts sweets following the demise of our beloved Woolworths.  Fortunately Wilkinsons have stepped into the breach and I was able to get a few packets to set up my photo shoot:

About 500 photos later I managed to get this picture:

I cropped the picture down and printed it onto canvas paper (Aldi special buy a few weeks ago) to produce the final card:

The photo was post processed using  Coffee Shop's Butterscotch vintage action followed by a bit of my own tweaking.  If you use Photoshop Elements (as I do), you really need to visit Rita at the Coffee Shop blog, as her actions are FREE and they all work in PSE!!!! 

Mr Crafty Blogger did not fully escape my paper crafting.  I filled a Kilner jar with is favourite chocolates and made a little tag.

Ingredients: Cuttlebug and Quickutz dies, scrap paper and cardboard, Papermania stamp, ribbons and button from stash.

Mountain Rescuer's Birthday Card:

If in doubt with a man's birthday card, go back to the old faithful Sizzix doll dies!

Ingredients: Sizzix doll and winter clothes dies, Quickutz tools and toolbox dies, Dymo tape, Cuttlebug embossing folder, embroidery floss.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

A Couple of Cards & A Bit Of Girly Indulgence!

Well, my get ahead of myself campaign is continuing and I've done another couple of cards ahead of time. First is this one which is my Mum's Mother's Day card for this year. I'm so far ahead I don't even know what date Mother's Day is this year!


Of course there is felt on there, and some of it is thanks to my Mum. She found a load of pieces in a cupboard at home and gave them to me to use on my cards. Free felt, love it!

The pearl topped pin is from a new addition to my crafty stash. I've been meaning to get some for ages and found some on one of the haberdashery stalls on my local market. (Much cheaper than buying the 'Scrapbooking' ones). I also picked up some nice ribbons at the same time but I've not used those yet.

Ingredients:
Paper - Basic Grey 'Gypsy'
Felt flowers cut using Cuttlebug, Quickutz and Sizzix dies
Dovecraft brads
Coffee cup sleeve
American Crafts ribbon
Pearl topped pin
Inking and pen stitching

Yesterday was Daring Card Makers Challenge Day, and it was Lythan's turn to set the Dare:

I just love, love, love patterned paper so this week I dare you to join me in
Patterned Paper Passion
I want to see 3 different patterned papers on your card.And to be extra daring, why not see if you can use 3 different lines of paper!

Well I wimped out on using three different lines of paper and stuck with three from the Basic Grey 'Infuse' range:

It's another Mum card, but this time it's for my MIL's birthday next month; you see I am really getting ahead. My sister is getting married in August, at this rate I'll be making the wedding card next week!

Ingredients:
Paper - Basic Grey 'Infuse'
Felt flowers cut using Cuttlebug dies (leaves also cut with a Cuttlebug die)
Papermania brads
Papermania felt ribbon
Tag - Cuttlebug die
Scalloped and plain oval nestabilities dies
Lettering - Quickutz Katie Skinni Mini dies
Pearl topped pin
Inking and pen stitching

Now for the bit of girl indulgence - new SHOES!!!! Contrary to what Mr Crafty Blogger will say, I am not really a shoe mad girly girl, but when I saw these babies I just had to have them:

I have got them to go with a cocktail dress I am wearing for a black tie ball in a couple of weeks. The planned ensemble may end up looking hideous, and I may end up looking like I've gone in fancy dress at Dorien from Birds of A Feather (as Mr Crafty Blogger suggested when I told him about the shoes), but I 'll take a chance.

Just to prove I'm really not a girly shoe girl, this is a pic of how my feet are usually attired (when I'm not at work). Forget Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo, Dr Marten knows a thing or two about shoes!

Finally, I have moved my new DAB radio/I-Pod dock to it's permanent home in my craft room so here's a pic.

Have a good weekend,

Cheers

Ruthie x

A Productive Day

Yesterday was a very productive crafty day. I holed myself up in my craft room to finish my friends recipe binder (based on THIS fab tutorial), and here it is:

Front cover:

Side/inside view:

Dividers:

Close-up of the dividers:

I just need to print off the cards to go inside and then it's good to go.

Ingredients:

Based on Cathy Zielski tutorial (get it HERE)

American Crafts Modern album and page dividers from HERE

K&CO Amy Butler Sola 12x12 papers

Letters cut from funky foam using the Cuttlebug Red Tag Sale alphabet

While I was waiting for the bits of my binder to dry I decided to make a couple of cards with the off-cuts of paper which were left.

As some of the paper was stripey I thought it would tie in with a challenge over on Crafts By Carolyn's forum to create a card featuring stars and stripes. The star is very subtle as I used it for the brown petals of the flower, but it's there!

and a close up:

Ingredients:

K&CO Amy Butler Sola Papers
Bazzill brown card

Papermania felt ribbon
Lettering cut with Quickutz Katie Skinni Mini alphabet
Flower cut from felt and homemade chipboard using Sizzix star and cuttlebug scalloped circles/flowers die

Dovecraft brad

I carried on playing with the off-cuts and came up with another birthday card:

Ingredients:

K&CO Amy Butler Sola papers
Coffee cup sleeve
Flower cut from felt and a coffee cup sleeve using Cuttlebug asterisk and scalloped circles/flower dies

Cuttlebug swirl border

Greeting created using Dymo tape

Yesterday was also a productive day because while in my craft room I listened to an album I hadn't heard in ages (possibly even years) and realised I love it:

A bit of a controversial favourite as it was absolutely panned by the critics when it came out, but I'm not afraid to admit I like it, but it does make me feel old as it was released nearly 15 years ago. It also reminds me of the scene in the film Shaun of The Dead where they are killing zombies using old vinyl records and the Second Coming gets saved as Shaun liked to too. (Love that film, might have to watch it tonight :) )

I ended up listening to the album as I was reading a discussion on Crafts By Carolyn's forum about what kind of art people like. I remembered I read in the paper last week that the artist John Squire (former Stone Roses guitarist) has a new exhibition of his work starting shortly in London. For some reason this made me want to listen to the track Begging You from the Second Coming, so that's how I ended up crafting and listening to the album (twice through).

All in all a very productive day: recipe binder done; an album rediscovered and cards made. Excellent!

Cheers

Ruthie x

Bring On the Burlesque and Other Crafty Projects

Well I never thought I would be doing party invites inspired by those tassels which Burlesque dancers wear, but there is a first time for everything. My sister is getting married this year and we are going for a Burlesque dance lesson at the Ministry Of Burlesque for her hen party. She has asked me to come up with some hen party invite designs, and so far I've come up with this one:

I took inspiration from the email my sister sent informing me she has found sequined heart nipple tassels on ebay. She assures me they will be stuck to t-shirts for the event!

All the hens have also been tasked with coming up with Burlesque names which will be printed on the t-shirts, so I am now going by the alter-ego of:

What do you think?

I've got quite a few other crafty projects I need to start this weekend too. I am going to attempt to make a recipe binder so I can get myself organised. If it goes to plan I am also making one for a friend so fingers crossed. I've also got some cards to do and I am going try and continue to be organised and make Mr Crafty Blogger's valentines card.

Obviously you need inspiration to complete all these projects and last night I found myself in hobbycraft and inspiration just jumped into my basket, including this fab 12x12 K&CO pad:

I already have the 6x4 mat pad, but decided this pad would be perfect for doing my recipe binders. I also purchased some felt to co-ordinate with it :)

Have a good weekend.

Cheers

Ruthie

Die Cut Felt Christmas Gift Tag

This year I've decided to wrap my Christmas pressies in plain brown parcel paper and then tart them up with some nice ribbon or raffia. According to a recent interview I read, Nigella [Lawson], queen of all things domesticated is also a fan of wrapping presents in brown paper so I am in good company! She also said she uses Italian broadsheet newspapers, however I don't think the Lancashire Evening Post or Chorley Guardian would have the same artistic effect.

As part of the present tarting up I've decided to add some homemade tags. I started playing with a few ideas last night while watching CSI (double episodes on Tuesday, love it). Here is the first one I did:

Last year I did some cards with paper puddings on so I decided to try and recreate them in felt. I cut brown and white circles using the red sizzix die and then cut a wavy line in the white one to make the sauce. The holly leaves are a quickutz die and the raisins are mini brads. I didn't have any black ones so I painted some gold ones with black nail varnish. To make the tag stiffer I glued another brown circle on the back. It also hides the back of my very primitive stitching and traps the ribbon. To make the bit for the message I just cut one of the smaller sizzix circles from card and glued it on.

Now I just need to buy some presents to wrap. Urgh Christmas shopping!

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Why do men have birthdays?

Well I know why, but it's really hard work making men's cards. (Well I think it is!)


Anyway today is my FIL's birthday so I can't really get away with not doing a card. I opted for the easy option of the word 'Dad' and a beer. A winning combination in my book when it comes to Dad cards (unless the dad is teetotal of course).



Here is the finished item (poor light strikes again):




Ingredients:
Basic Grey 'Infuse' papers
recyled coffee cup liner
Chipboard letters cut using the Cuttlebug red tag sale alpha
Quickutz beer mug die
Screw head brads from Crafts By Carolyn
Inking and stitching


Also just a quick thank you to everyone who has left comments on my blog, I love reading them. It's also nice to know that people appreciate my attempts at crafting and rambling.

Got to go and make tea, I've promised Mr Crafty Blogger a chicken pie (his favourite). Oh what a domestic goddess I am :)

Cheers

Ruthie x