Let's Start Easter Crafting

I don't usually make Easter cards, but I do like to decorate the house 'for the boys.'  It's just another fun excuse to craft really!  (As if we need another excuse....)

This is part of what I was making today:

 Can you tell what it is yet?   It's easter themed......

..Its mini chick's easter nests!:

I had some plastic eggs (bought from Woolworth's a few years ago) so I made these little chicks some nests out of old book pages.  The pages were coloured first by rubbing them over with an ink pad and then I snipped the pages with these fringing scissors (The Works, £3 a few years ago)

You can also use a shredder (this idea was spotted on a blog this morning) or simply cut them with ordinary scissors. They are only small so you don't need much.

At first, I tried colouring the chicks using alcohol inks the colours of the eggs but they looked strange! This little fella looks as though he's been rolling around in several of my ink pots:

(Apologies for the fact that he looks a bit too realistic! He is plastic, honest! )

As they didn't look right, I decided to keep them all yellow:

I think they are going to make a fun decoration for my children's activity table.

Personally, I like the picture of all that type at the top and am planning on framing that!

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

This Old House... Scrapbook Page

This is my entry to the Gauche Alchemy Julie Fei-Fan Balzer painted page challenge which is due for today (eek!):

It's a page about the house I grew up in (the address is on the tag but I have blurred that for privacy)

This is the journalling:

...and the finished page:

The dark blue background to the photo is a piece of canvas cloth that I coloured with a Memento ink pad (as seen on QVC today!) All the letters were painted blue.  They were from 3 different styles of chipboard lettering sets.  The letters for OLD were distressed, I attempted to crackle them but that didn't work out.  I've added vintage buttons using Glossy Accents and everything else was stuck down using PVA or Multi-Medium.   The reason for the blue colour was because for many years the paintwork on the house was blue so that is how I remember it.

 I showed you how I made the painted background on this slideshow post here a few days ago.  For the layout of this one, I used a sketch  from the 'Pencil Lines' book that I (woohoo!) got for Christmas. I'm just off to link this layout with Gauche Alchemy now and then its off to bed with me, its the middle of the night! 

Hope you've had a good week, thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Let me make a note of that....

..in one of my notebooks....now, which one shall I pick for that particular note?

 

..and this doesn't include my plain covered collection! 

We have the retro look:

(I used to love Starsky & Hutch as a teenager!)  

..or the patterns:

...or the spots or stripes:

Maybe I could use the notebooks with the painted illustrated covers and quotes inside?:

..or perhaps I'll go with one of the ones with the quirky, fun covers:

. Actually, every one of these notebooks is blank, unused.  I have been just bunging them in a box in our attic for years with the obvious intention of using them one day.  But today I came across a journalling blog where the artist had made a book called 'Lists' and I thought, 'Wow! What a great idea, I love Lists' I'll make one of those (a book of  'Lists').... and then I got to thinking, 'what other books could I make?'  So, in my current, everything-goes notebook, I made a list (groan!):

I could make a:

HAPPY BOOK 

A GRUMBLE BOOK (Get it off my chest!)

A BLOG BOOK (Ideas for this blog)

A QUOTES BOOK

AN INSPIRATION BOOK 

A SHOPPING BOOK (Things I need!)

A HOUSE BOOK (Interior design ideas, etc)

 A BOOK for DOODLING IN

A SKETCHING BOOK

A COOKING/RECIPES BOOK

and AN IDEAS FOR THE GARDEN BOOK

...plus many others, but you get the general idea!

So finally, my enormous notebook collection will actually get used. I'm going to title them all up on the computer and get myself a bag on wheels to cart them all around  get myself organised!  

Are you a fan of notebooks?

Hope your week is going well. Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Kathryn Wheel April Calendar Blunder

OOps!  Between yesterday and today I've been making my April calendar for the Kathryn Wheel Project and I remember thinking, "this should be easy this month, there are only 30 days so they will fit on just nicely on the journal calendar." (Meaning no having to accomodate for the extra '1')  So I was punching out all my numbers to put on my squares, got to 12 and thought "something is not right here"...and then it dawned on me, I'd only stuck on 24 squares!  Aaaah! Especially as I'd completed all the rest of the calendar.  Doh!  I was just going to start completely again (Noooooo!) when my clever younger son suggested that I doubled up on a line, so that is what I did:

I just can't do as much to write about on those days! lol.

Here's the close up detail:

I didn't half hurt me thumb punching out all those numbers too! 

For the calendar itself I focussed on Easter and used the fun chicken themed set of stamps that I got  from the NEC recently. 

I thought I'll just paper pierce some of them and colour the rest. But when I did that, the coloured ones didn't look 'complete' so I ended up paper piercing everything!  Tails, wings, flowers, hen house... it took forever!  Overall I'm happy with the result and I'll just have to gently gloss over my little mistake.... 

* * * * *

Moving on and LETS GO FLY A KITE ...and let's not make it normal sized, let's make it BIG! Well, that is what my hubby and his friend did yesterday with the boys.

Here they are making it:

The 'real' boys (in the background) made the tail out of coloured paper into leaf shapes that were stapled on to the string:

See? Told you it was BIG!:

 ..and YES, it flew:

(Think it helped that my hubby is an engineer!)

Finally today, I hope those of you in the UK enjoyed Mother's Day.  I was lucky enough to get breakfast in bed and a fabulous meal made for me in the evening.  I also received two lovely handmade cards and a book on acrylic painting.  We went to the park briefly today and here I am (at aged 48) after having climbed this tree with my boys!:

Have a good week.  Thanks for stopping by and for any comments,

qwiksave

(Almost) Late Mother's Day Card

Wow! April already! Where does the time go? This year I've been participating in the kathryn wheel project and here is my completed calendar for March:

For privacy I've not made it very big, but don't worry the things I've written on it haven't been THAT exciting this month - apart from maybe meeting the Queen on the 5th (blogged here).  I have to say that really was quite exciting! Has to be ranked as one of those 'once in a lifetime' events.  Other than that, going to the NEC Hobbycrafts show on the 25th was quite fun. I went on the train by myself and I never do that, I'm usually too worried I'll get on the wrong train or something.  

Now of course we are into April so I need to get a move on with this month's calendar.  Maybe that will be a 'tomorrow job' now.

* * * *

I am so 'last minute' with people's birthdays.  I do this blog of crafty stuff but tend to do it on a day to day basis without thinking ahead - and before I know it an event is on top of me without me having done anything about it.  Which is what happened with 'Mother's Day' this year.  I literally made and posted this card with minutes to spare before last post today (relying on 1st Class post which is never a good idea!)  I'm not impressed with it at all, but my Mother-in-Law (luckily!) is appreciative of anything that is handmade rather than bought so I should get away with it (provided of course it gets there in time!)

A very simple flowered card with paper pieced button centres and hand drawn details.

I would like to link this card up to this challenge:
Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #6 - For Mum

Have a great weekend, thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments,

qwiksave

Gauche Alchemy Painted Paper Challenge

I've been meaning to do this challenge ever since I saw it on the GA blog over 2 week ago.  The challenge was created by a favourite blogger of mine, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (of Balzer Designs), who was one of the guest designers for last month on Gauche Alchemy.

The challenge was "to give an old piece of patterned paper a new lease of life by painting on it and incorporating it into a project." Well, I've done the first bit, (I, um, forgot the rest!) and will be, ahem, finishing off the second part (ie making it into a project) in the next few days!

The idea actually came from Julie's blog (Balzer Designs). In her sidebar is a video link to a DVD she has made (available for purchase there). There is a clip from the DVD showing this fab technique that I have used to make my painted paper.

This is how it looks close up (click for details):

..and here is a slideshow that shows how I did it:

"Painted Scrapbook Paper"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

I've had a bit of a busy day today, I've finally dyed my hair(back to brown, it was getting very grey!) and I received a fabulous parcel from my sister this morning (thanks Liz, if you are looking in). I also got some fantastic bargains at charity shops (future post) and I've been to the school for parent's evening. Not forgetting to mention creating this picture today and making the video, it's all go here!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Scrapbooked School Photo

Those of you that have been with me a while may remember this post where I said I was going to make scrapbooking photo pages of lots of my relatives to put on display around the house.  This idea came back to me last night so I came up with this:

(My boys count as relatives too!)  

I know, I will do other relatives but I do want pictures of my two little scamps in amongst them.

Speaking of scamps, the reason I did the photo like this with the inkblots and the untidy distressed look is because, like in the way most school photos are taken, my boys look as though 'butter wouldn't melt!'  Well we all know the truth don't we! lol.

For the background I used the title page of a block of an old range of Basic Grey paper:

And originally my letters were purple:

 ..so I coloured them with a black Sharpie.

 I typed the titles with an old typewriter but the ink was so faded that I went over the lines with a fine black pen.  Then I used a school range of rubons for the other random lettering.  As this is to be behind glass I couldn't use thick embellishments.  The inkblots came from a stamp.

(The background used here is an old 1960's school desk complete with a hole for an inkwell)

 

And finally the picture framed:

Enjoy your week, thanks for stopping by and for any comments,

qwiksave

Famous Crafters at Hobbycraft 2011

Well, famous to us in the UK that is, they are featured on our 'Create & Craft' channel.  I went to the NEC Hobbycraft Show (for free today, I won tickets on the 'Craft Stamper' magazine blog).

First up we have  Joanna Sheen:

 (who posed nicely for me when I asked if I could take her photo)

Then we have Stephanie Weightman:

 (Who was lovely, so funny, telling us about how messy she is and reckons she is going to be chucked out of the new office she is working in because she makes too much mess! lol.  She was also telling us how 'She can't wait to get up in the morning because she has so many crafty ideas that she can't wait to get started on...')

And finally we have Barbara Gray from Clarity Stamps:

 (unfortunately this isn't very flattering, she was in the middle of demonstrating.  Clarity stamps stall was ever so busy, they have some great stamps and Barbara is a fantastic demonstrator).

No one else seemed to be taking photos of them - and there was me thinking everybody would be wanting to put them on their blogs.

Onto what I bought, which was a few bits and bobs. I had a long shopping list but very little of it was there. :-(
 
Just this:

..and this:

Here's a close up of the stamps:

I don't normally do Easter cards for people, but I simply couldn't resist these cute chickens from Artemio.

I also had a bit of luck at the show too. At the Craftsuprint stall they had a 'Find Bob' tombola and I won £5, yay!

Good luck for anybody going at the weekend. It was pretty busy today but I hear that is nothing compared to the crowds they get at the weekend!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Text Bookmarks

This picture is too dark but it is an indication of how the bookmarks look with letters showing through punched holes.

I made two bookmarks yesterday using a picture from a wallpaper magazine:

I cut the lettered wallpaper background into bookmark sized strips 

..and made random holes using my cropadile (both sizes, large and small).

 

At first, I used an old book page and laid the holey bookmark on the top, but despite the fact that this book has a small typeface and no spaces for paragraphs, the holes didn't line up with the letters neatly...

 ...so I had to rip up a page into little pieces and stick them over the holes individually. (This picture shows the back)

So those letters you see through the holes aren't from the page you see in the background.

After the letters were completed I covered the backs and laminated both bookmarks:

 ..and finished them off with embroidery thread:

The completed two text bookmarks:

Hope you are all fine and enjoying the Spring sunshine (I have added a picture of the blossom in our local area on yesterday's post)

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Craft Supply Inventory

My laptop is back from the repair shop with a brand new hard disc but our home pc is still acting up. Computers are so frustrating when they go wrong aren't they?!

The weather has been so lovely and Spring-like here the last couple of days that our family have not only been walking to the local park, but we even had icecream!  Hope its been as nice where you are.

Local street scene showing the blossom on the trees lining the streets

Craftwise lately I've been making up a folder detailing some of my crafting supplies.  This time it was the turn of all my hundreds of coloured pens. I l-o-v-e pens and can spend hours drooling in stationery shops. The trouble is, I forget which ones I already have and buy duplicates - which is why I made up this folder:

 

(These pictures replace the earlier picture I used which I decided wasn't appropriate)

* * * * *

My eldest son went to school on Friday (for a 'wear a suit' theme) dressed as President Lincoln:

...for Red Nose Day.  I made the ribbon bow tie using a ribbon from my ribbon stash and my hot glue gun and I have the slightly tinged fingertips to show for it!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave