Making giving a gift card a little more interesting

Phil and I have 6 nieces with a nephew on the way :) We don't see any of them very often due to Phil's work, our constant moving, and living around 200 miles away. For 2 of our nieces I was totally stumped as to what to get them for Christmas and so resorted to a Gift voucher (naughty auntie).

Here is what Toys'R'Us gave me, hmm not very Christmassy and not very girly so an improvement was needed. I measured the gift card holder and it was 4" by 3 1/8" (sorry it's always going to be inches with me even though I was taught metric in school roflmao).

I found a nice girly image for each of them one a Crafts and Me stamp by artist Jasmine Beckett-Griffith called Pink Lightning (the larger fairy) the other looks like a Gorjuss stamp but it was given as a freebie in a promarkers class I did so I am not certain;

I cut a piece of card for each gift card measuring 9 3/4" by 3 1/2" and scored across the short length at 3", 7 1/2", and 7 3/4";

I folded the score lines to form a "matchbook" and using Broken China Distress ink coloured the two ends on each piece of card and then stamped with Dusty concord on the larger end;

On the back of the shorter coloured end I attached 2 thin strips of foam tape and attached the short end to the inside of the middle section to form a pocket to hold the cards;

Using my nestabilities I cut out some 3" by 4" shapes from patterned paper and attached the stamped images to them and added the girls names. These were then attached to the shorter coloured end and the longer end tucked in behind them so that when you have it closed both the stamping and giftcard are hidden but when you open the "matchbook" you see the message;

So here they are finished something a little more interesting, pretty and girly than what Toys'R'Us provided me with and very quick and easy to put together;

Thanks for popping by hope you like my little demo and apologies for the poor photo's along with most of the UK I am suffering from a lack of sun today!

A new little addiction :)

I am loving getting very messy with my Art Journal and did the first page yesterday a bit at a time in between the 6000 other things that needed doing around the house and with the monkeys!

I decided to just concentrate on learning how to use Gesso and going bold and bright with primary colours. I used my new brickwork mask and splattered some mist on the page which came though from under the paint. A bit of stamping with glue lids and a favourite saying and then painting some white blocks for the journalling. I loved that the white went over the other paint but that the mist still showed through it and so outlined the bottom and right side of each journalling block with the mist as well.

Art Journal cover

With my birthday money (thank you Nan and Grandad and FIL and step-MIL :D) I bought a book to use as an Art Journal and some new goodies specifically for it. Yesterday evening I made my cover, I am not sure it is exactly how I wanted it but I am looking on this as more of a learning experience that expecting it to look wonderful like the ones you see in blogland right away.

I am going to continue my little chipboard journal with the aim of having that as a handbag book so I can jot down things that happen whilst I am out and about. I have now gesso-ed my first page of this journal and am waiting for it to dry before I go attack it with paints rofl.

Best of friends.

Best of friends, that is certainly apt for my second child Dylan and my brother Marc. All 4 of the kids love their "Uncle MarMar" but Dylan is a little shadow when Marc is around. I had these photo's from Christmas 2004 when Dylan was a little over 2 yrs old with Marc and as there was a fair amount of background in the photo's they needed cutting down.

I used the MME sketch for the latest challenge;

as I already knew I wanted to use the gorgeous Lost and Found II papers and stickers I had;
I flipped the sketch and moved the title across to beneath the other strips so that the lovely word box wasn't covered on the paper. I sprayed the card with some Copper perfect pearls mist and added some brads a cute little purple pumkin button and two colours of MME twine twisted together. The two narrow strips are from the bottom cut off sections of the papers they are too cute to waste in the bin :D

My Dad

Since doing the book for my dad for Father's Day this year I have a few photo's left over that I have wanted to scrap. These are two of them and I was struggling to decide on a setting for them, I knew I wanted to use the Glitz papers (Vintage Blue mainly with the birds cut from a Dance in Sunshine paper) and some distress inks to give a nice aged look but couldn't make up my mind how to lay it all out.

To my rescue came the sketch challenge from Scrap 365 magazine. The magazine is new but in my opinion looks very promising and I would recommend giving it a try to any of my scrappy friends.

I am really happy with the way the sketch worked with the photo's and am pleased with the finished layout. Thanks for popping by x

Altered door hanger

Friday evening I went to a craft evening and made a greenery centre piece with holly and pine cones and pine and a door stop. We also started a door hanger but ran out of time to finish it which turned out quite well as it meant I could go to town a little altering it with my inks and paints and stamps.

First the hanger was painted in pine green mixed with white to lighten it. I then dotted some of the green (without the white) onto the hanger and brushed it in roughly giving a marbelled effect. I then painted the word Cherish in the original green and the two hearts and pegs in crimson;

Once it was dry I stamped on the hanger with picket fence distress stain and the red distress ink from the winter's special editions collection. I also inked all the edges with Walnut Stain distress ink;

I dabbed some of the picket fence distress stain on the hearts and then wiped with a dry baby wipe to lighten the effect. I then stamped some swirls onto the hearts in Walnut Stain distress ink which does show up very well irl.

I also die cut the bird from the Caged Bird Tim Holtz die in grunge paper and coloured it with the distress stain and then covered the biord, wing and Cherish word in rock candy crackle paint;

Once the crackle was dry both bird and Cherish were coloured with Walnut Stain ink and the wing glued on and an eye added. my crackle paint always seems to come out in clumps so I need to practice (this is what we tell hubby anyhow lol);

Once everything was fully dry it was all stuck together with strong glue and the pegs under the hearts are now holding my kids certificates they recieved from school Friday for good work :)

Super duper easy peesy mini book

For the ditzy crafters and any-one else unsure about mini books here is the simplest way to make a fab mini book using only 1 sheet of 12x12 card giving you 8 6x6 pages.

Take your card and score a line halfway horizontally and draw a line halfway vertically;

Cut a line from the top of the card to the horizontal score line 2-3 mm each side of your vertically drawn line and then cut across the score line between the two cuts to remove a "notch";

Score the vertical line along the drawn line from the horizontal scoreline.

Fold the two top squares down along the horizontal scoreline to make a 12" wide 6" high rectangle and then fold the rectangle in half along the vertical scoreline to make your book.

That's it easy right?

The notch is needed so that the book still folds easily once embellished with papers and photos and you can not use anything too dimensional on the inner pages. If you glue a piece of ribbon along the back page before you stick the papers etc on then this can be used to tie your book closed.

For a finished example see here