On Your Birthday

First of I'd like to apologise for my photographs but due to the mirror card I had a heck of a job getting a picture without me in it.

This is my card entry for the Crafters Companion January blog challenge.

As well as the Spectrum Noir January blog challenge.

This little bear is Bamboo from the Party Paws range from Crafters Companion, although he is supposed to be a panda he has been designed in a way that he can be used as an ordinary bear.

 I coloured him in using Spectrum Noir pens, using the following colours:

Bear TN2, TN3, TN4

Butterfly CR3, CR5

Flower CR3, CR5, CR6, JG1, JG2

 

This heart in the background was cutting using the Heart Doilies die from Crafters Companion, I didn't emboss the die as I didn't want too much detail in the background.  

I then added a piece of silver mirror card behind the heart a piece of baby pink gingham ribbon and a greeting. 

Ouchy but beautiful

This is Teresa's other Christmas present. I have been searching for some of these glass dome necklaces for a long time just so I could make this.
The first thing I did was make the grass to fit in the bottom of the dome. This consisted of me needle felting a very small piece of green wool into a tiny flat circle (sounds easy you say), what actually happened was I lost said piece of green wool several times, including in the foam you use for needle felting. When I finally got the shape almost right I carefully glued the 'grass' into the bottom of the dome.
 Next I made the tiny toadstool from white and red felting wool. This mainly consisted of my stabbing myself repeatedly with a felting needle (if you've never seen one of these they are extremely sharp barbed needles).
After much chuntering and a bit of bleeding I had something that resembled a miniature toadstool.
So how do you get a miniature toadstool into a tiny glass dome? It was a bit of a ship in a bottle situation, but with a little more glue and a good pair of tweezers I finally succeeded.
Even gluing the metal lid to the glass dome turned into a challenge but I was really pleased with the end result.
I just hope Teresa likes it as much as she says because she has the only example of this piece of art (I doubt I'll do it ever again)

Totally Gorjuss

Every Christmas I try to make something different for my friends at work, working in a craft shop this makes life a challenge. I mean they are all as crafty as me. So this year I decided to make everyone a personalised wooden chopping board (my risky present) and a piece of jewellery (my safe present).

Here is the present I made for Teresa who, like me, loves the Gorjuss girls range. 

I bought these lovely heart shaped wooden chopping boards in Home Bargains after a friend told me about them. 

The next step was how to get my image onto the board, I decided the best way was to stamp onto it with Stazon ink.

Then I used my pyrography tool to burn the image into the wood.

I am really pleased with the end result and I'm hoping Teresa is too.

Trumpeting our way to Christmas

I got this cute little Crafters Companion stamp free with Papercraft Essentials, I don't normally bother with magazines but I really need this stamp.
So I have stamped the image on to cream card and coloured it using Spectrum Noir pens. Then I mounted it onto silver card and then onto a card with a piece of patterned paper on. I added a greeting (also on the free stamp sheet). The corner florish is cut using a Memory Box Die, it is silver card with added bling in the form of stickles.

The Spectrum Noir colours are:
Elephant IG1 and IG2
Hat DR4 and DR6
Holly DR3, JG2 and JG4
Tree LG5 and JG1
Decorations GB6, BT8, BT9, CR8 and CT4
Shadow BG1

Sorry I moustache.

I really wanted to do something for the charity Movember, last year I donated to a few friends and family who were growing their Mo for the charity, but that didn't seem enough. So this year I decided to put my crafty skills to work and created this.

This little guy is the Mobadge. I used my favourite toy, my melt pot and an ice cube tray from Poundland. I had a few false starts and even managed to give myself a fab blister on my finger (don't ask).I've been selling them for £2 with all money going to the charity. So far, after 3 days, I have sold my first batch of 12 and have had to make more. Yay :)

A little birdie told me.

This is a cute little stamp from Crafters Companion's Barkley Christmas range, it is called Purr-fect Christmas, I really liked this stamp so I couldn't wait to get colouring. I stamped the image onto white card and coloured it with alcohol markers. I then layered the image onto burgundy and gold card. I then stamped one of the sentiments onto white card and layered onto the same burgundy and gold card. Finally I wrapped a piece of burgundy ribbon around the card and added drops of glitter glue to give the card a bit of bling.
I'm entering this in the Crafters Companion November challenge. 

It's all in the finger work.

So I got bored over the half term holidays (the joys of young children who don't want to do anything), and this is what I ended up doing.I've been tempted to do this for a while after seeing it on Pinterest, then a friend put a picture on facebook. So I had a go, the Nightmare Before Christmas ones are ok, but after looking again I have seen a better version. However I love the eyes in the dark they made me laugh a lot (and were easier to do).