Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Frantic Stamper Precision Dies

My lucky draw gift from Frantic Stamper, arrived a couple of days ago with a couple of items I had ordered.
See my post here
I was so thrilled to receive the dies that I made a gap to use my fabulous gift this morning.
I embossed the card and placed the 'two window' die onto the card and ran it through the Cuttlebug. Cut perfectly first go - not that I expected it to do any differently! I layered this embossed die cut card, onto a gold card which had ribbon wrapped around the base and attached it to the front of my card base.
Using the Inkadinkadoo Inchie set I bought from Fran moon's ago, I stamped it using the pad I had arrived with the dies, Delicata Golden Glitz, then punched the two images I chose, using a 1" punch and mounted them in the middle of each die cut aperture. Simple, quick and in my book, stunning! The little holly leaves are punched using the Olba punch set and I embossed them with an embossing tool, and added a few red beads from the stash.  Brenda told me about this Delicata pad. It is very glitzy and does not fade when it dries. Unfortunately, the camera did not pick it up, but trust me, it is gorgeous! For your information, and for a giggle, the gold card used was the back of a Ferrero Rocher label that was in a box of their gorgeous chocolates - of course, long gone! Recycle, I do, and this gold matched the Delicata ink perfectly!
My thanks to Fran for her generous gift and this is a set that will be on permanent stand-by on my desk!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Business Cards and Boxes

I am incredibly lucky to have a very talented son, well two extremely talented sons,(that's the proud Mom talking!) but am talking about the eldest in this instance. He is a Software Designer and Developer by profession who is extremely talented in designing. He designed these fabulous business cards for me and I had them professionally printed and cut.


I was asked to place some in a couple of shops to assist their clients with invitation designing and making and had to quickly prepare a box to place them in. 

I used a sheet of double sided, patterned card and used both sides on the boxes. I kept to the colour scheme of my cards, which is my very favorite colours to go to, and lined the boxes with the reverse striped side of the paper and used the floral patterned side for the outsides.
 I painted the parts of the boxes that would be showing with a Hazelnut Paint Dauber and adhered the card with Modge Podge and gave it another coat when it was dry.
Then the fun side of it began. I die cut the Cameo out of coordinating card and my initial in a contrast and attached it to the back of the box so my initial showed above the cards. It was absolute coincidence that the initial die I had was an exact match to the font used on the cards. At the top of the cameo is a hole for hanging, but I used it to place a genuine Swarovsky crystal in for the touch of bling!
I used die cut leaves, organza ribbon, some lovely chain like cord, paper flowers and hot glue to attach them all to the bottom corner of the box.
Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the reverse side of the card. It has my contact details and a brief description of what services I offer, beautifully designed!

I'm pleased with the outcome and am very happy to place them, with my amazing cards, any place where they are needed!

Thank you by boy!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

"Made It" Challenge

I have signed up for the monthly "Made It" Challenge hosted by Woolhogs.
If you look on my sidebar you will find the banner and click on it to take you to Woolhogs blog.














 I love the idea and will do my best to enter monthly, besides, who doesn't like to win?? There is always a little something up for grabs, so do consider taking part. I entered my hearts above.
I predict big things for this blog in the future - keep an eye on it, or better still, sign up for feeds or better than that, take part in the challenges! See you there.......

Silhouette Cameo

My precious family gave me a Silhouette Cameo for my special birthday, as well as an amazing holiday - how blessed am I??

I had to get a longer USB cable because of the positioning of the Cameo and my tower, so once that arrived I had an opportunity to play. I loaded the software, looked at the instructional video, read the manual and decided to 'cut'. I kept getting messages saying there was a problem connecting via the computer and I was stumped. I had also purchased a USB adapter with more ports to accommodate my growing collection (lol) of add on's and something made me move the USB cable to another port, nothing, then another, nothing, then to a port on the computer, and voila, it worked!

Well, I then had to contend with trying to lift off my design and as you can see by the photograph, I don't keep it simple, do I? No, I had to have this intricate tree with lot's of little curly bits that I battled to lift off the mat. So sticky, it tried my patience and I left a few bits and pieces on the mat. So next time round, I will have to 'unsticky' the sticky mat somehow, and take it from there. I am very chuffed I finally got it to work and need time to play with the software and of course to understand the many applications this amazing machine can do! So my special birthday lives on.......

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Crochet Hearts

 I do occasional orders for a lovely decor shop and I was asked to make some hearts to be used on cushions or just to hang from various items.

It was a challenge for me as I could not get this pattern right, but a friend found an error in the pattern, I could not see, and once that had been corrected, I was on my way. Funny how you can look and look and not see it, but someone else can spot it immediately!


Considering the lovely shop they were going to, I felt I had to present them in a complimentary manner, so I die cut these amazing little labels from PTI, stamped them with 'Thanks'  and made these lovely tiny flowers using my Olba punch set. The roses are made using tiny hearts - aren't they stunning? I just love this punch set and find more and more uses for it. I then threaded ribbon through the center hole and tied a bow and attached the label.

The owner was very impressed with the presentation and the hearts and I was happy that I took the trouble and presented them so beautifully.

Now, waiting for more orders, but in the meantime I have to source more lace for another big order for tea nets. Busy, busy, busy.......

Thanks for popping by....

Friday, October 19, 2012

Cheap Christmas Gifts

I am teaching these two gifts during November. Both have been inspired by friends - Gail and Sharon - who have shared details of their projects with me and I have added my own touches to the projects, where I could. Thank you ladies! I appreciate your friendship and support.

Tissue Box Cover and Note Pads

The two projects are a tissue box cover made out of lovely shimmer card stock and a note pad that uses up scraps of patterned card stock.
Very cheap projects and lots of fun to make!







Tissue Box Cover 


The tissue box cover uses any embossing folders that you fancy. Obviously, a repeat pattern is better. I also used a Martha Stewart punch and some lovely rolled flower dies and stunning leaf dies, pearls and stickles! This would look lovely made up to suit the decor of different rooms and can be fun to make up for a child's room. The ideas are endless!

Thank you Gail for sharing this with me!






Note Pads

The next project is the delightful note pad from Sharon. She sent one to me for my birthday and I asked if I may use hers as inspiration and teach it in my class. She graciously agreed. Thank you Shaz!

This project is fabulous to make and I can understand how Sharon finds it so addictive and that her pads are in such demand in Cape Town.

I used scraps of matching card stock and tags and ribbon.
I placed a small calendar onto the inside cover of my pads.
Always nice to have a calendar for quick reference and these take up no space at all!

I'm now going to make a couple suitable for men. 
Even they need a note pad at times, although they profess to remember EVERYTHING!  Ha-ha......

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Heart Themed Wedding Invitation Suite

The full Heart Suite
I hold Wedding Invitation classes monthly and have to keep coming up with new ideas - a huge challenge!

I have just changed the format of the class. Instead of teaching two different invitations during each class, I am now designing and teaching a themed suite, that will hopefully help the bride and wedding planners with all the stationery required.

This month I have used the Heart theme and have worked with the most sumptuous, elegant, embossed suede, handmade paper and a very classy mat silver card.
The picture to the left shows the full suite. Unfortunately I have not been able to capture the rich colour and detail of the beautiful paper in the photograph.


The Invitation, closed
On the right is the invitation.

It opens up and beneath the flap is the invitation together with a map to get to the venue.

None of the typed information shows when the invitation is closed, other than the sentiment on the tag "Always & Forever" and on the silver card at the bottom 'You're Invited', both stamped and embossed in silver.

The Ceremony details for the church



 On the left is the Ceremony card, which holds the details of the wedding party on one side and on the back is a double folded sheet containing the order of the service and the wedding retinue.

The table card, guests name on the glass
 and favor pillow box containing chocolates

On the right is the table card and on this side is the 'Thank You' message from the bridal couple and the Menu.

If you turn the card around, you will find the Wine list together with the Seating Plan 


This card stands open in a 'Z' shape on each table.

Also on the table is a heart with each guests name which is pegged to the champagne glass, indicating the specific seat, together with a pillow box decorated with a heart and ribbon, that can hold chocolates or sweets or a gift, for each person, as a thank you favor from the couple.



It is a very intense lesson, but certainly worth the effort when the set is completed.


Friday, October 12, 2012

I Won, I Won, I Won.................................

........a set of the fabulous new Precision Dies designed and made by Frantic Stamper!







Please click on the link below and take a look at these fabulous dies!
I  can't wait to receive them and start playing!!  Thank you Fran - you have made my day!


Thursday, October 4, 2012

Word play.....

I was asked to 'play' with these 'words' and this is what I came up with.
The "Joy" was easy - I had this lovely sheet of double sided card stock that I cut out and flipped for the center letter. I cut out extra Christmas trees and popped them up using foam squares just to add a little dimension. I sealed the paper with Gel Sealer and added some Stickles just for a little bling! 
The wire word was more difficult to 'play' with.
I took left over ribbon bits and tied them around the wire, added paper roses here and there and that was as much as I could come up with. Had I taken the glue gun, I could have placed bling, charms and who knows what else on the wire, but was just not in the mood to over embellish. Maybe I should have......