« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
The girls at It's a creative world are so excited to be joined by the uber-talented Kate Hadfield today.
Kate has created these fabulous Easter digi doodles for YOU and they are absolutely FREE.
You can download the doodles by clicking on the Linky dink and have fun creating.
So, what are you waiting for? Get creating!!!
We at It's a creative world would like to wish you a very happy Easter.
Thank you so much to Kate.
Hi folks its MadDi here again with a SPLash of colour to welcome SPRING!!!
Although I have always made 'Granny square' blankets I can follow a crochet pattern as I used to crochet cardigans and dresses for Caz when she was a baby!!!
Caz and I bought each other a copy of this great book for Xmas in 2007, and I bought an assortment of cotton (Debbie Bliss cotton DK and Rowan handknit cotton).
The book has a wonderful variety of squares and provides suggestions for mixing colours as well. The squares are quite large so to make a cushion you only need 4 squares!!! Jan Eaton's book includes instructions on all the crochet stitches, ideas for borders, techniques for joining squares, and costs 12 pounds 95 sterling. Here is a closeup of the square I chose:
And my first square:
The square measures just a little more than 6 " by 6".
And here they are joined together and with the border done - the same square but using different colours :
Now the real easy bit!!!
I dug out some fabrics and found the perfect pink for the front of the cushion and a glitzy green and red for the back and then made a complete cover for the cushion using the two different pieces of fabric.
Firstly I attached the crochet squares, using Kimono ribbon, to the one side (PINK) of the cover. Then I completed the cushion cover. And here is my finished cushion on a chair!
I finshed three cushions and my dear sister Linda (the LEGEND) thought they should go on the patio!
Only PROBLEM now is, I have to make another 2 cushions AND recover the patio furniture LOL. I'll keep you posted on that project but am thinking that every cushion should be a different colour back and front... Only kidding, or am I???
Crochet using cotton is a very different experience to using wool. I struggled a little cos my left arm was in plaster of paris. However each cushion took me only 6 hours to complete!!!
Come on girls get those crochet hooks out, LEARN to crochet, get some SPLendid colours, and add a SPLash of vibrancy to your home to welcome SPRING!!!
Finally a challenge - what else could YOU make using crochet squares. I have something up my sleeve LOL
P.S. We have added a Geocounter to our blog to better understand where are readers are from! You will see it on the right hand side of the blog and if you want one you can get it HERE.
Thanks for visiting IACW and love from MadDi XXX
P.S Just in case you think I am not mad.... I added this SPLASH of COLOUR to my hair last Friday....
LOL and this is the second time I have done it!!!!
Todays card has caused me some heartache!
I don't really see myself as a card maker but I set a little challenge to make all my work colleagues birthday cards for the next year (at least!) Which is why scheduling these card days for me seemed like a good idea. This way I have to make cards and I can share them and offer a little inspiration too :)
But for the last week or two I have taken my card blanks out EVERYDAY, and just stared at them not having ANY inspiration AT ALL!
So instead of packing it in as a bad idea, I did a bit of card making achive surfing.
After that inspiration hit and at 6.45am yesterday morning I made my card :)
Firstly I chose some papers from one of the ScrapRoom kits, I always have loads of offcuts that are perfect for card making. I cut a piece to fit just inside the edges of the card front, and for a bit of decoration, cut one edge with scalloped scissors and inked the edges. This would form a base to build the card.
I had a thin strip of the stripy paper left over from a layout and thought it would be a good addition, as would the bit of ribbon also from the kit. The ribbon is stuck around the back of the paper so it doesn't frey.
My flower basket is overflowing with flowers I bought years ago (of course I didn't buy just one or five, I had to have 10 or 20 of each!), so I decided a little USE YOUR STASH was in order. And I managed to use 2, lol. The brad in the centre is by Making Memories.
Finally I stamped HAPPY BIRTHDAY, cut each letter out, inked the edges and stuck them down.
It is so great to be inspired to make cards again, and I think I may have to give the simple ones a break and have a play with 'more is better' and loads of colour is FANTASTIC!
haPPy huMp dAy!!
Caz
xx
With Easter being so early this year it is a great opportunity to get out into the garden and start planting your seeds. I always plant into trays first, then transfer to the ground. This way I get to choose the largest and strongest plants to go into the garden.
But sometimes I feel like I am all thumbs and the poor roots take a bit of a bashing as they are moved from the tray into the ground. So this this year I have whipped up a few of these.....
Cut srtips of newspaper around 6 inches wide, they can be as long as you like, and wind them around a can or bottle. A prima flower bottle is perfect. Fill them almost to the top with soil and pop your seed on top, then cover with a thin layer of soil. Stand all your 'pots' on a tray and water as you need. When it comes to planting out the whole thing can do in the ground as the paper is bio-degradable. This saves disturbing the root, and is great for flowers like sweetpeas! You can use toilet rolls for this too :) Well obviously not the whole roll, just the cardboard inside thingy!
It takes a couple of weeks for your seedlings to appear, so that leaves plenty time to prepare the beds and pots for planting.
In the autumn I turn all my beds over and smooth the soil with a rake or french hoe. All I have to do now is gently pull out the rogue weeds, give the bed a light covering of compost, and turn it in with a fork. Of course you need to be gentle around your perennials.
I am a gardening novice, so everything I am learning is through trial and error, but we have some neighbours who have been growing vegetables for 70+ years. Ron, who turned 83 in December is one of these people! This is a photo of his allotment taken in April 2007, and looking out my kitchen window it looks like this again now.
Ron has turned all the soil over with a fork and been over it with a rotavator. It's ready to be planted! I will take progress photos through spring and summer!
PS, thats our house in the background :)
If you have photos of your garden or any hints and tips to share, please do!! And we'll see you back here on the 1st April for now in the garden!
haPPy plaNTing!!
Caz
xx
A few years ago I bought loads of paint cans when everyone was doing them. I used a couple but then the rest have been kicking around my craft room gathering dust.
I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator just over a month ago. Stampin' Up! is an American company which has just arrived in Europe. They sell craft products through demonstrators and parties - a bit like Tupperware parties or Avon! The products are highly original and fantastic quality. Whilst browing through the current SU catalogue, some of the wonderful products inspired me to create this little scrapbook ornament to put in my dining room using one of my old paint cans. Here's how it was made.
I took four flower elements from the Stampin' Up! On Board Blossoms & Basics chipboard set and covered them with patterned paper. The paper I used throughout this project is Stampin' Up! Le Jardin. I coated the chipboard flowers in PVA glue (you could also use Mod Podge) and stuck them down on to the paper. Then I used my Basic Grey precision file set to file around the edges to take off the excess paper and get a nice shape.
I then inked around the edges of the chipboard flowers with SU So Saffron ink and Bashful Blue ink. The photos were then attached. The scalloped photo was made using the SU scalloped punch.
The flower "stems" were made using ordinary 1/4" wooden dowelling from Wickes. I bought a huge great length for about £3. I cut three pieces of varying lengths and painted them green.
I then attached the chipboard flowers to the stems using double sided tape. The flower "leaves" were made using lengths of SU 1/4" grosgrain ribbon in Old Olive.
The actual paint can was covered in a strip of patterned paper using double sided tape. I typed the sentiment on SU Very Vanilla cardstock using French Script font and attached it to the flower and then to the paint can. I then tied a length of SU Bashful Blue tafetta ribbon around the top.
To keep the flowers sturdy in the paint can, I placed a large piece of Blu-Tack in the base of the can and stuck my flowers into this in the arrangment I wanted. I then packed crumpled paper round the flowers up to just below the rim of the can. I found some co-ordinating green cardstock which I cut into 1/8" lengths and then snipped these into short lengths to look like grass. I then covered the paper in the can with PVA glue and sprinkled the cardstock "grass" on top.
I hope you like this new idea for old paint cans. If you have any queries or would like to know more about Stampin' Up! please feel free to contact me through this blog or you can get more information by going to www.stampinup.com.
TFL! Joanne xxx
Hi everyone can you believe that Easter is soooo early this year???
Here a just a few ideas for Easter:
Biscuits for Easter from Di:
Koulourakia is the traditional Greek Easter biscuit and they are delicious:
You can find recipes on the internet and here is a great source. HOWEVER, my sister has a great recipe that she has used for 30 years!!!! This is Lin's tried and trusted recipe:
Just a few hints before we start:
Here she is, my sister Lin the legend with her favourite toy the Kenwood mixer:
OK your final mixture has to be sort of like play dough so that you can roll it into a ball and then into a sort of pencil shape:
Here they are twisted and dipped in beaten egg then sesame seeds and ready to to go in the oven
And here they are ready to be munched LOL mine are the big ones on the right!
Trivia:
When and how long is Easter? Why is never the same each year????
Easter Day is always on a Sunday, but the date varies from year to year. Many years ago Christians decided that Easter Day should be always be on the Sunday following the first full moon after the first day of Spring on March 21.
This means that Easter can be as early as 22 March or as late as 25 April.
AND what's more it can be on different dates in different parts of the world!!!!
In western churches such as in the United Kingdom, Easter was celebrated on April 16, 2006 whereas in Eastern Orthodox churches the date was April 23. The reason for this is that in the west the date is calculated using the Gregorian calendar which is different to the Julian calendar which is used in the east.
Rabbits have been associated with springtime since ancient times. It is believed that a symbol of the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring Eostre was the hare. It was Eostre's sacred animal since it was a symbol of fertility and the rebirth of nature following winter.
As rabbits are similar to hares and are very common everywhere, Christians changed the symbol to the Easter bunny. So the modern symbol of the Easter bunny comes from pagan times.
Over to our very newest design team member Jakey!!!
Crafting on a budget? Crafting on the cheap? (cheep.. hee hee!)
A quick and easy centrepiece for your Easter breakfast table can be made with Styrofoam eggs (from a craft shop or hobbycraft), some acrylic paints, and a few scraps from your stash.
I painted an old ally can with a coat of gesso and then brown acrylic paint. When it was dry I gave it a quick coat of clear varnish, to give it a nice sheen.
Paint the eggs with gesso, and set aside to dry. Once dry, paint in pretty pastel colours with acrylic.
Next punch small holes evenly round the can with a bradawl (or paper-piercer), the ally’s thin so it shouldn’t be hard to pierce. Decorate with paper/silk flowers attached with a brad.
Crumple some tissue saved from a gift box – or maybe shred and crimp thin paper, and use to line the can.
Once your eggs are dry decorate them with scraps of ribbon, brads, paper flowers, ric-rac or whatever takes your fancy! Pop them into the can with a couple of Easter chickies – and you’re done!
A cute cheapy centrepiece for your table that will charm the kids – and cost you next to nothing to make!
Caz......
A simple Easter card using some florist abaca ribbon.
Last year I made these little bags using Cathy Zielskes felted purse pattern!
They went down a treat with the little girls in the family!
This year I have jumped back into my pile of fat quarters to make these little cotton bags.
Now I just need to decide if I am going to fill them with eggs or let the kids do a egg hunt and fill them up themselves!
Hope you are all looking froward to the long Easter weekend.
have fun and thanks for visiting IACW
gOOd dAy!!
Before we get into the A-Z project, I would like to welcome a new member to our little creATive world :) The fabulous Jakey!!!!! Jake is such a talented lovely lady, and we are thrilled to have her on our team. Keep an eye out for Jakes upcoming projects cause she is sure to get you moving and grooving, with all sorts of magical ideas. I've been a number 1 fan of this lady for a long time and I know you all will too!
So now let's get on with F!
Spring is just around the corner and our creative juices should be in full flow! As scrappers we tend to fall into a comfort zone, but as the weather improves, we find we can venture outdoors a little more (well in the Northern hemisphere!) It is time to step outside the box and stretch your mind to new things. Take a look around you, at the new life and the new growth. It's time to grow as crafters and take a new approach to the way we create.
Today I am going to share the challenge I set for the girls who receive the email prompts.....It's all very well creating beautiful pages that you understand but will future generations get the picture? Will they know how you felt from the elements and photos you used on your page. Journalling comes in many shapes and forms and is the simplest way of conveying a message. So I challenge you to journal your message, whether it's hidden, on show or just a piece of paper tucked behind your layout.
Some trivia:
In its earliest years, the letter that evolved into our F was an Egyptian hieroglyph that literally was a picture of a snake. This was around 3,000 B.C.
Through the process of simplification over many years, the F began to lose its snakelike character, and by the time it emerged as an Egyptian hieratic form it wasn’t much more than a vertical stroke capped by a small crossbar. With a slight stretch of the imagination, it could be said to look like a nail.
Here a few ideas for the letter F:
Book of me/you: Funny, Friend(ly), Feisty, Fearful, Favourite, Fabulous, Feelings, Footloose and Fancy Free...
Book of baby: Funny, Fat, Fingers. Feed time, Food, Face, Friendly, Fairies...
Book of everyday: Fun time, Freedom, Frenzy, Freaky, Fight, Favourite, Friday, Friends, Fear, Fruitfull, FOOD...
Occasions/ Life: Family, Friendship, Fun, Festive, Frolic, Frightening, Frenzy...
Tools and Techniques: Free, Fix (!!!), Flop, Fun, Fonts, Frames, Fabric, Flowers, Felt ...
Knitting: Fairisle, Fun, Fix, Fit, Felting, Fibre...
Andrea's 'F' tag:
(Ink, stamps, scoring)
Di's book of My life:
I am Fortunate that I have Family and the closest to me is my DD Caz. I have such Fond memories of Fun days spent with her growing up and we are now really discovering each other and becoming best Friends. Caz is the most Favourite thing in my life.
(aaaahhhhh wasn't I cute! Not sure what happened ;) Caz)
Caz...BoM
Faith: I am not a church goer, nor do I read the Bible, but I Believe. I believe that I must lead a good life. My page is simple to reflect my Faith, I simply Believe.
As always we love to see your pages so feel free to link back to your blog in our comments and email your pages, resized please ladies, to [email protected] so we can add them to our gallery.
haPPy satURday and haPPy creATing!!
Caz
xx
Jakey's letter F in the book of things she loves
F stands for Family Fun!!
I am blessed with a big family, and we love to play and have fun together. These days, some members of the family live afar, but when we all get together to celebrate a birthday or just at holiday times we like to make sure we make the most of every moment. My journal page today reflects this, and I journalled all around the edge with some of the fun activities we get up to like Murder Mystery nights, Barbeques, Luau's, card nights, game nights, carnival's and picnics. My family are my world and I love being with them.
Jake xx
Hi, it's Maria here and I hope that you're all well and looking forward to the weekend.
With the miserable weather and the Easter holidays soon to be upon us I thought I'd start a regular *boredom buster* slot. Simply click on the link and you will find all the information you need to keep a child busy for a wee while.
Todays boredom busters are
03. Make a mask
05. Visit bubble town Well, you never know there may be a sunny day.
The big ole www really is a wealth of information and there's no need for that familiar cry of *I'm bored*during the holidays or on a wet weekend.
If none of these suggestion appeal one of our favourites is self portraits. My daughter Charlotte drew this one of herself some time ago.
Have fun and don't forget to let us know how you get on.
Toodle pip
I simply cannot visit Ikea without picking up a frame or two so when I returned home with a new 2-pack this week (for under £2!) I thought I had better do something with them...
As I am in the middle of trying to revamp my tiny scrap space I thought it would be nice to have some new pictures on the wall above my desk, just something pretty and simple.
I replaced the paper inserts with two squares of patterned paper and stuck square photos directly onto the new paper backings - I converted them in to black and white before printing so that they were a bit more unified.
When the frames were sealed up again I decided to decorate the actual glass and leave the white edges plain. These butterflies were actually salvaged from an old pair of summer sandals (..and yes, I had bought them with the embellishment potential in mind!) but I have seen similar in the fab but cheapie accessory shops and also on hair bobbles. I attached these with foam pads.
I used a couple of stick backed gems as well to pick out a little bit of detail on the flowers. I think I am going to make a few sets of these as pressies as the frames are inexpensive and it's an excellent way to use up odd embellishments!
Happy Scrapping!
Charlotte x
I fancied doing something different this week and as Spring is in the air (hopefully!) I thought about a wedding card. This is a great one because you can try out different techniques on each heart! Here's how I did it:
First of all I made a card blank from white card measuring 15cm x 15cm. I then took a square piece of white card measuring 14cm x 14cm and wrapped cream ribbon around it as shown and glued it to the back of the card. I then attached a small diamante in the middle.
This was then matted onto cream cardstock and attached to the card blank like so:
I then freehand drew a small heart shape, cut it out and used it as a template to make four identical heart shapes:
For the "Old" heart I distressed it by scrunching it up, making it damp with a little water from a mister and then applying Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.
For the "New" heart I coated it in Crystal Stickles glitter glue.
For the "Borrowed" heart I embossed it with a Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing mat.
For the "Blue" heart I just coloured it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters.
The hearts were then attached to the card as shown with foam pads to give a bit of height. I printed the four words onto cream cardstock, cut them out and attached them, again with foam pads, under each of the corresponding hearts. That's it!
Hope you like this card and I'll see you again soon.
TFL!
Joanne xxxx
