Quick cards

I've been really busy selling craft supplies at Click2Craft, I'm really enjoying running the eBay shop and have been able to build up a good range of stock. I love the excuse to buy crafting supplies!

The one downside of this is that I don't have as much time to sit and craft. To help me get my crafting fix I recently purchased a lovely Kanban set. The set includes die cut toppers/embellishments and coordinating background papers. It's ideal for making quick cards, I don't need to plan too much and the end results are really good. I think I'll be making lots of quick cards from this set over the next few weeks!

 

Promise to Make Handmade Gift

At the start of the year I placed the following on Facebook

"I promise to make something handmade for the 1st 5 people who comment below. The rules are: 1) they must also post this status & make something for the 1st 5 people who post comments on their status. 2) It must be made by you and received before the end of 2013.
This is intended as a fun challenge as ‘handmade’ could be interpreted as something simple as making someone a cup of tea!
So Who's in? Sign up below..."

Four people commented. I think the commitment to make five items was a off putting for non craft lovers! I've just completed and sent the first item, a hand stitched and embellished card to welcome my friend's son into the world. I'm making good progress on two more items and I'll share them soon, in the meantime here's the card.

I'm still here and still making Christmas cards...

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! I have a good excuse - We've had a new kitchen installed, new radiators and decorated most of the ground floor! Finally a couple of days ago I found time to sit down and craft.

There really was only one thing I could make and that was more Xmas cards. I used the Enchanted Christmas papermania range for these cards, I've had to keep them fairly simple because there's so many to make and so little time!

Here are a few...

Christmas is coming...

the cards are being made!

It's nearly October and I've just started making Christmas cards. It's a bit later than last year but there's still time to make  the 50+ cards which will be needed!

I'm going with two themes this year. This one uses pearlescent card, glitter and jewels! Using dies to cut out the flowers and leaves is fairly quick and I can still make sure that every card is different!
Here are my first four cards.

 

 

 

There's still lots to make..I'll post some of my second theme soon.

Using up leftover beads

Each time I finish a beading project I have a few beads left over. I always struggle to find a project to use up left over beads and am always looking for new ideas.
This project involved making beaded beads (making beads out of beads - perfect for a bead lover!) and simply threading them onto a piece of tiger tail.  I used circular peyote stitch to cover small wooden beads, I varied the colour and size of beads and managed to use up several packs of leftover beads. It took a couple attempts to get the number of beads right but once sorted it was quite quick to do.

I love the endless possibilities with this project. Hope you like it too!

When it doesn't go to plan...

I knew I was helping a friend move house last weekend, so on Thursday night I sat down to make a house warming card. It didn't go well! The new house is going to be called The Acorns so I wanted to include acorns in the design. Simple.

Going through my craft cupboard I realised that I didn't have a house stamp, die or embossing folder - that was three ideas out the window! I needed to make a house warming card without a house!

I found a great digi-stamp for an acorn, and tried to work it into a design, I tried it as a topper and made a background paper but I just couldn't get it to look right.  Several failed attempts (and hours!)later I had to admit defeat - the craft inspiration just wasn't there. There could be no acorn in this card.

I had to go with quick and simple, so out came my Friendly Plastic and this is what I came up with - fairly simple but at least I got a house on the card!

The friendly plastic started off like this

After cutting a few strips, heating is with a heat gun and running the comb through it looked a bit like this (this is my practice piece so the colours are different)

A bit a careful trimming and you have a house!

The moral of the story is not to leave things till the last minute with more time I would have managed to work an acorn or two into a design!

Jewellery Making

On Friday night I attended a jewellery making class. We just went over some simple techniques for starters - using crimps, making loops in wire etc. Having self- taught myself most of my crafting it was really fun to learn from an expert, I picked up some great tips and had a fun night.

The lesson was a groupon bargain and at £10 for two and a half hours including materials it was definately worth it. Here's what I made: