Getting ready for Christmas

I had an idea the other day ... how nice it would be to give my female relatives a handmade Christmas gift .... after all I've invested most of my hard-earned into my craft stash so why not use it to make something lovely and totally unique for my mum, stepmum and the hubsters mum! So I decided that I would make each of them a selection of handmade cards and present them in a box, organised with dividers as a very personal gift.

I started by searching for a suitable presentation box that could be embellished and that was large enough to take some large 6" square cards as well as the usual A6 size and that I could also put dividers inside (and that didn't cost a fortune). I found a few cardboard cubes that I thought might work if I cut the lid off and made a proper box lid in the Card Factory that were cheap enough. However today I stumbled across these in a new shop in the Arndale Centre called Hub which is a new one on me

There were two styles available Born to Shop and Forever Friends and I needed three so I bought two Forever Friends and on Born to Shop. Born to Shop defines my mother in law so that's for her. They are both by DoCrafts and were £9.99. Just perfect!

All that remains is for me to find the time to fill them with creations. I'll post each of the cards that goes into them over the run up to Christmas.

Chris x

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x

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Chris

Swap shop

Here are the lovely swaps that from the Stampin' Up ladies in Bicester ... some gorgeous ideas here ...



This was my offering .....

x

Stampin Up Swaps

These are the swaps I prepared for a Stampin Up day on Sunday in Bicester. I've never done this before and am not a Stampin Up Demonstrator, but my friend Jane is and I've bought a number of things from her recently. Its such desirable stuff and I love the concept of swapping ideads that the Stampin Uppers seem always to do - offering one of your ideas and receiving something in return. In this case I've prepared 21 mini card toppers (well actually 22 because I remembered to make one for myself) and hope to get some lovely mini cards coming back at me.

Anyway here's the recipe for my simple card topper

Whisper White cardstock, Basic Black cardstock, Dot Dot Dot stamp, Whisper White ink, Basic Black ink, Linen Thread, Snail Adhesive, Stampin' Dimensionals, black pen oh and, of course, their fabulous new Ornament Extra-Large punch!

Incidentally if anyone wants to view the catalogue or order Stampin' Up stuff you can visit Jane's site by clicking here.
x

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Norman's Italian Roadtrip

Here's the product of a lovely evening spent with my bezzie Dawn, who has arranged a surprise trip for her fella for a BIG birthday ...












This little book is made from 6 pale blue DL envelopes, each with both of the short edges trimmed off and then creased 9cm from one edge. Each envelope then glued to another and the pages decorated with papers and tags (cut from the George cartridge on the Cricut machine), ribbons, photos etc.

Incidentally, does anyone know where I can get a Cricut machine fixed in the UK? my screen's bust so although the machine still works the screen does not. As you can imagine that means lots of trial and error to get the size you want ... and hence lots of paper being scrapped!

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Long time no see ....

well hello again ! worst blogger in the world here. I bought a great book from Amazon last week and Gary took me to Lakeland and treated me to a great piping set and so I could make these little beauties.

I'm so chuffed with my first attempt at piping and decorating. As there's only the two of us at home there was no way we'd eat all these ourselves, so they ended up going to work with me and were shared around the office today. Yum. x