It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know it’s November but us crafters have to get an early start on these kinds of things.  Here are a few of my more recent makes.

This is a simple MDF wreath.  All I did was paint it with a creamy gold metallic paint and set to dry.  Once dried I added the glitter to the snowflakes and then let it dry completely. Finally I added silver pearls around the outer and inner circle to make it more sparkly.  I didn’t think I needed anything else on this.

So here is another make.  This is MDF again and this time I have painted the main tree a rich green, the star using the gold metallic again and the base a brown.  Once dry you could see that it needed something.  I used some gems and placed different sizes where the baubles would be and once completed I left it at that.

Now this is my huge make, and its taken ages to get this finished. Lsat year I received this ball of toiletries by Soap and Glory.  Loved them of course but I thought, hello, I can make something with you.  It had been sat there for months so I thought I had better get a move on and do something so I painted it in black and was looking to glitter it.  However just as I was researching and planning the make, Dreamees brought out sequins!  Not ones with holes either.  So I knew they would be better.

A few weeks of adding sequins, filling the ball with polystyrene odd bits, adding ribbon and looking at it I felt the middle needed work.  Here come the Dreamees to the rescue.  At the Christmas workship one of our projects involved a whole sheet of christmas decorations.  I saved them, brought them home, glittered them and fixed jazzed them with glitter and the result is what you see.  I have absolutely no idea where this will hang but it looks pretty good.

More Christmas makes to come but thank you for stopping by and I look forward to you popping by again soon

❤️

A

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To blog or not to blog that is the ultimate question

You may have noticed that in recent months I haven’t posted anything on here, I wondered if there was just any point anymore

If I am honest I started this blog (maybe under a different name in the past) in an attempt to be visible for design team call ups but unfortunately I have gained nothing by this.  I have tried to make my blog more appealing to brands seeking DT members and I have incorporated DT style blog posts but NOTHING.  Whatever I do nothing seems to attract any interest and I have been very down about this.  I sometimes see other design team posts and in my heart I KNOW that I am better than them.  Thankfully those posts are by strangers and not by my fabulous crafty friends who are so talented that they deserve their places on design teams.  I have submitted to design teams and have received no feedback, nothing.  This has been over the last 4 or 5 years and finally I have decided no more. No more using products by brands in order to get noticed and no feeling upset when I am not chosen.  For me it has been very disheartening to see design teams with the same faces over and over and just not to be given a chance, it has bugged me but I will not let it anymore. I am better than some people but there are others whose work is constantly brilliant and I count one particular friend in that category.

I did wonder whether or not I should just stop with the blog but then I thought no. Crafters love to share and from now on I shall just share my work.  No telling you how I made the blinking thing.  Friends can come and have a look and fellow crafters may think ooh I like what she has used there, what is it.  I will list what I have used and then that is it.  No more tweaking the blog for more appeal and no changing what I do.  If someone does pass by and see what I make and wants me for their team well contact me, because I am not trying anymore,  Everything I have sent out whether a gift or a card has always been well received and that means more to me when all is said and done.  I am going to go back to my initial reason for crafting and that is to give something where I can, bring a smile to a face and pass on the crafting love.

Sorry for the long winded and probably not much interest to non crafters post but I had to get this particular bug bear off my chest.  So in future just pictures and letting you know what I made and what I used.

❤️

A

Prosecco gift box

Life has got in the way of my blogging in recent months but I am now able to find some time to blog again. Another reason for blog silence has been that what I have been making has been for gifts and I cannot share these at the moment!

This first post is of a gift I made for a friend of mine last month.  This design from Anna Marie Designs really caught my eye and I knew I could make a lovely gift from it.

The box comes ready to assemble and it was so easy to do that.  I used some strong glue and made sure that everything was sturdy before putting my paint on.  The paint, Maya Gold Purple Romance by Viva, I had never used before and I was blown away by its texture and the ease of application.  The paint has a beautiful glitter effect which was extremely hard to pick up in the photos.  I applied two coats and it dried very quickly.  I didn’t paint the inside of the box as the bottle and any subsequent bottles would hide it.

For the decor I wanted something simple but stand out.  I do not like to over do my work but I like flowers and my new obsession of adding hat pins where I can!  These all came from Anna Marie designs and were so easy to arrange. The colours perfectly complimented the flowers.  I used some of the flowers and hat pins on the lid too. (sorry about the blurry photo)

There was also a tag with the set and I thought I would try to stencil “friend” on it using my Leonie Pujol stencil but as with everything else I stencil it didn’t come out the way in which I had intended.  I was rather upset by that so more practice needed on that before I go wrecking anything else. Again I used the gorgeous flowers to accent the tag.Before securing the ribbon I gave everything a coat of Viva Premium Glass Coat.  This was a new product for me but I saw Anna Marie use this and I thought it would suit the Maya Gold much better than the spray I normally use.  I was right. After it had all dried (the Glasss Coat did not take long I was impressed) I threaded the tag with some matching ribbon and hung it in the box.  I confess that it did look rather beautiful once it was all finished and I didn’t want to part with it but off it had to go.

My friend’s reaction…she loved it.  That makes me happy. This is why I craft, to put a nice smile on faces when they receive something that nobody else has.

So again my apologies for the wait but hopefully we are now back to regular blogging.

❤️

A

Friends

Hello again and here’s to another post where it would be far too much for me to tell you exactly how I made this.  There are plenty of photos and my best friend loved it.  All products used including the MDF is by Dreamees.

Jewellery Box

Hello again and thanks once more for stopping by.  Today I am sharing a jewellery box I made for my best friend.  It took such a lot of work that if I told you how I made it then we would be here until Christmas, so I shall just leave you with photos this time.  Everything on here is by Dreamees except for the ribbon around the box which is from a selection by Create and Craft.

Sunflower birthday

Hello again.

Today I am sharing a card which I made a little while ago but which I haven’t blogged.

This card was made using products from my favourite company Dreamees.  I covered the blank card with paper printed from their CD Sweet Sunflowers and I found some coordinating Adorable Scoreable to use to mat and layer.  The card itself was made with Dreamees Sunflower stamp which I masked over on parts of the card and a sentiment stamp and some leaves all made using masking.  I found the correct colours in the Dreamees Dinky Inkies to colour my card in.  Once that was dry I decided to use the stitching tool and made a hand stitched border around the card to add some texture.  As lovely as machined stitching is you cannot beat a bit of hand sewing on a card.

Thank you once again for stopping by and I hope to see you here again soon.

❤

A

After a long time – Birthday cards for my niece

You don’t have to tell me that it’s been a while since I blogged.  Unfortunately other things have encroached on my blog time and I just haven’t got around to getting proper posts written, some are actually still in the draft section.  Now I seem to have that little more time on my hands I thought that I would start off some blogging today showing you the cards I made for my niece’s 9th birthday which happens to fall today.

These cards were easy to make but also enjoyable.  First card is the obligatory Unicorn card. She is mad about Unicorns and if you are mad about unicorns then you must have a unicorn birthday card. These images just suited her, sparkly unicorns, with a little help from a Tattered Lace alphabet die and some Hunkydory Adorable Scoreable.

The second card is Mr Men and Little Miss.

I adore these characters and there are so many for different people but the sentiment on this decoupage just summed up what I wanted to say.  She is indeed my sunshine and crafting mini me, I cannot wait to show her how to use the new Scan and Cut I have acquired, once I have got it out of the box and tried it out myself that is.

❤

So first post of many.  Thank you for popping by and I will be posting soon, that is a promise.

❤

A