It's a Creative World

Frosty Window Card

 

If, like me, you want to make your Christmas cards but haven't got round to it yet, this is a really effective yet quick and easy card to make which could easily be done as a "production line" to speed things up.  Here's what to do:

 

First, take a card blank and, using REPOSITIONABLE adhesive, stick your chosen patterned paper to the front.  Then punch a circle from the card wherever you like.

 

Remove your patterned paper from your card front (this is why it's important to use repositionable adhesive!)

 

Next, find a piece of non-stick paper - eg a piece of sticker paper, the paper that glue dots or foam pads come on, or waxed paper.  Place your patterned paper upside down on the non-stick paper and attach a piece of clear packaging tape to the back as shown.

 

Remove it from your non-stick paper, turn it over and cover the sticky bit of tape, which is showing through the circle, in glitter.

 

Stamp a small image in co-ordinating ink onto white cardstock and punch out with the same size circle punch.  Using your card blank as a guide, stick it on the inside of your card.

 

Make a little frame for the outside of your card by punching a circle and then using a scallop circle punch around that as shown above.

 

Then you just need to assemble! Stick the patterned paper back in place on the front of the card using permanent adhesive and attach the frame over the circle.  There's your frosty window card complete! 

I like them quite simple like this one, but there's no reason why you couldn't add more embellishment and/or a greeting to the card.  You could also punch your frosty window anywhere you wanted on your card - not just at the top!

The materials I have used for my card are all Stampin' Up! products.  The cardstock is Handsome Hunter, the patterned paper is Wintergreen, the stamp is from a set called Season of Joy and the image is stamped with Sage Shadow ink.  Dazzling Diamonds glitter was used for the sparkle.

I hope you enjoyed this project and I'll see you again soon!

Lots of love Joanne xx

Last minute "Odds and Ends" for Christmas

Hi all from MaDDI

I recently spent a great long weekend with a friend in Cape Town and it was so good to craft with someone! I thought I would share with you today some of the easy peasy things I made:

Firstly fruit wreaths (you know that I love Christmas wreaths) and these could stay up all year in your kitchen.

I started with a cardboard ring, then just wound a 2 inch strip of calico around the cardboard. I used my stapler to keep the fabric in place at the ends. Then I stitched each piece of fruit in place - only a few stitches at the top of each piece of dried fruit. (I tried all sorts of glue but it dd not stick) You could add sticks of cinnamon as well. The fragrance is GORGEOUS.

 

 

With the centres of the large rings I cut smalller wreaths wrapped them in calico and made a 'chilli wreath - a set of 3

 

I also found some very cheap bunches of berries and made a few lke this:

We visited a great store where I bought very cheap brightly coloured note books that I thought would be perfect for shopping lists to hang on the fridge!

 

I detached the cover, made a new cover, stamped and attached a little roll at the top for a small pencil. Two magnets on the back and we are done!

 

Now would you believe that these little shopping lists cost less than 50p (sterling ) in TOTAL! And they took so little time to "Juge up".

Lastly I wanted to share with you my attempt at jakey's peg dolly!

 Her 'frock' is made from unbleached calico and her hair is made from the bits I frayed from the calico. I made little cardboard cones which fits underneath the dress so that she stands nicely.

 

But my dear friend Wild Roze has these to finish!

 

And 3 angels finished as gifts for my sisters colleagues

Thanks for visiting IACW and don't forget to share with us what you have been making for Christmas!

Love from MadDi

PS Don't forget AMIML December project, gets underway on the 1st of December. Record your December as it happens!!

10 minute layout

Hello, Cath here.

Now sometimes we want to scrap but time restraints mean we don't always have the time.

I made the decision about the photo i was going to use and the embellishments, which were all from the same pack, and laid it all out and stuck in down in less than 10 minutes.

The photograph is of my son Corey. He was born prematurely, that is why he has lots of tubes on his face, and hence why there are stickers such as Miracle and never forget this. We are very lucky he is here so each day is very special.

Basically i found the stickers, which are Daisy D's and thought i would base my layout around them.

I wanted to use most of the pack and thought the best way would be to lay down a photo and place all the arrows around it. 

I knew straight away that Crate papers Baby bee line would be a perfect match and you can't go wrong with a B&W photograph.

I didn't want to detract from the picture with very patterned paper and so i placed plain card stock on the top so just having a border or pattern. 

I mounted the B&W photo on to B&W card stock to make it stand out a bit more.

Then i simply used all the arrows, placing them neatly around the entire photograph.

I used a blank one at the bottom so i could add the date.

I hope it inspires you to scrap, even if you only have 10 minutes!

Cath xx

Pretty Empty Bottles

Hi from Trish, I hate to through things away and have a huge collection of what my hubby might call 'rubbish' that is waiting to be prettied up and put on display in the house.  One of my big loves is bottles, new or vintage.  When we got married back in September my sister bought us a beautiful hurricane vase and candle, but the candle would just not sit still in the vase, so off I went to find some candle sand, I bought two bottles and emptied them into the vase, but could not bring myself to throw the empties away, so I started to play with lace, ribbon and vintage images from my favourite vintage image site The Graphics Fairy. This is what I came up with.

 

   

 

I used some vintage lace first then place the image on top and covered the edges with some gorgeous velvet ribbon that I have had for a good few years. I also covered the edge of the plastic screw on lid with the velvet ribbon too, then tied 2 pieces of 3mm ribbon around the neck and knotted them then tied another piece of vintage lace in a bow over the top. I have another obsession with old and glitzy brooches so pinned one of my favourites to the bow.  I have a couple more bottles on the go and can't wait to get them finished.

Thanks for stopping by

Trish xxx

Buttons, buttons, buttons

Hi from Jo!

I don't know about you but I love buttons and now have a huge collection which includes the contents of my Grandma's button box (that I used to play with as a child) along with buttons found in charity shops and the more unusual ones I found on a certain auction site!

While trying to think of small Christmas presents I came across some papier-mache pen holders for £1 each. I painted my first one using a tester pot from a DIY store but of course acrylic paints would work just as well or you could use patterned paper . I then wrapped some vintage lace around it and used cord around the top and bottom.

 

I now have some other items to give the same button treatment to!

I hope I've inspired you to use your spare buttons.

Advent Bunting!

Hi from Caz!
I had such fun sharing ideas during our Christmas month. But it seems there weren't enough days for everything, so today I am carrying on the festive fun.

 

As we draw towards the 1st of December and the start of advent, I really wanted my own advent calendar. I don't ever remember having one growing up, although i'm sure I did have many. But I didn't want a throw away cardboard job, and I spent years finding the perfect one for my DH, that I also wanted a special one.

So I made it myself!

 

I used some of the fabric left over from cutting down a tablecloth, and fat quarters. I chose not to add a number to each pocket, although with all the alphabets I have I could have done! {Use your stash :) }

 

Cutting a stitching the pockets was the longest job, and obviously embellishing was the fun bit.

The little pockets are just big enough for a bite sized chocolate :)

Thanks for visiting!!
Caz
xx

It's Theme day again, and the Theme is...

COLOUR COLOUR COLOUR !!!

So Just a reminder: We choose a word and several members of the team will INTERPRET that word, create and share their creations!

Colour

“Colour or Color is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors.

The science of color is sometimes called chromatics. It includes the perception of color by the human eye and brain, the origin of color in materials, colour theory in art, … “

The creative girls have been challenged with the word COLOUR - lets see what they have come up with.

Hi from MaDdi

Yes I do know that black is NOT a colour LOL. The brighter the better for me and any colour will do. Here is my tribute to the colour in my life! If you need to know what colours 'GO" together, just look at nature!

"Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too."

I started with loads of pics some fabric and cardstock and just had FUN!.

 

Caz

I love colour and really battle to do 'un'colourful layouts or art journal pages. As well as loving colour I also like to do unconventionally coloured layouts. Like opting not to do a red/pink 'love' layout

 

lol, I love this photo of my niece showing off her magic skills, although i'm not sure the owner of the spoon was too impressed! These basic grey papers just scream colour and where perfect for this page.

Changing photos to black and white means you can use any colour your heart desires on a page. My niece again using up some of her boundless energy. The bold background colour doesn't destract from the photos but brightens the page.

If you use any of the layouts for inspiration please don't forget to leave us a link. It's always lovely to go visit our visitors blogs!

Don't forget to leave your comment if you would like to suggest a theme to challenge the team!

 

here are a few sites that just love colour!!!

http://www.colourlovers.com/

http://www.colormatters.com/vis_bk_white.html

Thanks for visting IACW XXX 

A Trio of Christmas Cards

Hi, today I thought I'd share a trio of hybrid Christmas cards I made using digi elements from a collab kit called Funky Junky Christmas, which you can buy from the Lilypad if you fancy using these elements yourself :-)

 

After downloading the kit, I just copied and pasted the baubles into a blank publisher document, sized, printed, and cut them out by hand. If you are clever with your robo, you could cut them with that saving even more time, but my robo hates me, so it's the trusty scissors and craft knife for me, but there you go... Cutting's therapuetic I find, so I don't really mind.

I also used some Magistical Memories chipboard frames to give a bit of dimension, and stuck the baubles onto sticky foam pads to lift them off the background.

Scraps of ribbon, and oddments of paper are brilliant for cardmaking, and the beauty of using digi elements is that you can size them to fit, and replicate them again and again making it great value for money - so easy too!

 

I hope you like my simple and quick cards and thanks for looking in on us at IACW today!

Love from Jakey and all the Creative Girls!

A to Z Journal - the X page

Woo Hoo and this is a difficult letter so all we are giving you are a few words and cheats

• Xmas
• eXtraordinary
• eXtravagant
• eXcellent
• eXemplary
• XXX

Caz

 

lol, no I don't think I am exceptional, although I would like to be :D

Lemons book of growing up

My daughter has not had the best year regarding health and I have documented all the different type of xrays that she has had.

Di's Book of my life

Hi from Maddi and it's confession time; My life is 'eXtraordinary. How 'eXtraordinary is it that after all this time I discover that I do like ONE cat - Josh. From the first day I met him I just loved him - he is affectionate, cuddly and the only cat I have ever liked.

 

Lets see those eXciting, Xtraordinary X pages.

Love from the cReative giRls

feel inspired!

Hi from Caz!
I love to be inspired by the world around me, but often I need a little reminder to actually take a look around me, rather than rushing about, letting life pass me by.

We are surrounded by inpiration all the time. The design of buildings, shop windows, in magazines, on the TV and even on our book and CD cover pages. People are being paid to inspire us, take advantage!

Today I am sharing two layouts and the source of the inspiration.

The first 'Treasure the Memory' was a layout I submitted in one round of the UKS scrapping comp, 'The Block'.

   

Part of the challenge was to post a photo of the book/magazine we were reading at the time. Mine was Dan Browns, Angels and Demons. And once we had, the bomb shell was dropped that we had to take inspiration from our book/magazine to use on our layouts. I was one of the lucky ones as I actually really like this book cover.

So the elements I chose to use on my page where:
The monochromatic colour scheme
The script lettering of A in Angels
The three shafts of light.

Another element on the page I love is the background (behind the text).

   

The second layout was done last year for a UKS weekly team challenge. And it's one of my favourite layouts!

 

My inspiration came from the cover of Nina Simones 'The very best of'. It's a design that can be adapted again and again. And turned any which way up!

 

If these covers have inspired you, please share your work with us by leaving us a link to your blog/online gallery in the comments. Or you can email us your layouts (resized to a max width of 400 please) and we'll add your work to our readers gallery.

Thanks for visiting!
Caz
xx