Tina's Christmas Banner

Home decoration is the theme for this weeks DT project for Artfull Crafts
Here's what I came up with....

I used Martha Stewart and Fiskers punches to make the rosettes. Kaisercraft chipboard letters were heat embossed, and I used gold Stickles, and Kaisercraft pearls to bling it up a bit!

Christmas Decoration tutorial

Have had an extremely hectic past two weeks. My daughter's dance concert was on Saturday (Two 3 hour shows, and they danced in 46 dances between the two of them). I spent the week before sewing costumes for 10 dancers and had to pull a few all-nighters to get them done. Up early Saturday to do their hair and makeup, and get them to the Entertainment Centre by 9am. Then busy selling raffle tickets, & helping backstage for the first show. Phew....still exhausted thinking about it! I got to relax and watch the evening show, which was fantastic.

Haven't had a chance to do any scrapping til tonight, so here's what I came up with for my design team post. I saw something ages ago on the net, but can't remember where. (I'd love to give credit if anyone can help me out!) Found it..... the clever person is Liz (perspicacious.org) on Flickr. Mine is a little different using only five 'petals', and adding the flowers to the centre.

I made this using Graphic 45 Christmas Past paper, Spellbinders and Marianne Designs dies, plus a little bit of ribbon/cord, gold Stickles, and Kaisercraft pearls.

I cut five labels, and then used the four smaller dies as a guide to cut four < > shaped cuts. Hopefully this shows up on the photo. ( Make sure you don't cut through the centre.)

I curved the first < > shapes around a pencil and then glued them to each other, overlaping the point.


Bend the centre of each petal to glue it to the next. I used the Marianne Designs Poinsettia die to cut some flowers, I adhered these to the centre, and added some Stickles and a pearl. I hope the pictures make this easy to understand

Some girly things to fill those stockings...

This weeks Design Team post for Artfull Crafts is Christmas stocking stuffers/uses for your scraps.
As a mother to two girls (10 and 15years), it can get expensive buying girly things for their hair. My daughter wanted to buy a hair clip for $4.95 during last weeks shopping. Instead, I bough a 10-pack of clips for a dollar less and made my own using some material scraps and a bit of bling from my stash.

I cut the fabric and held it over a tealight candle to seal the edges with the heat (do this near your sink, just in case). This works best on synthetic materials, and all react differently. You can get some cool ruffled effects if you experiment. The trusty hot glue gun stuck it all together, but you could easily sew it onto the clip.

I also grabbed some combs

...and some headbands. My girls are fighting over the white one, so I will have to reproduce that to avoid dramas on Christmas morning.

If you use pinking shears, it will stop your fabric from fraying, otherwise you could use some Stickles or Kindyglitz around the edges.

I also made a cute vintage pincushion using ribbons and laces from my stash, and a bit of calico that I had. It honestly took about three minutes in total to make, and would be a lovely gift for someone who sews.

Tomorrow I'm lucky enough to be attending a class with Jane Tregenza at Print Blocks. Jane is on Graphic 45's design team, and an extremely talented scrapper.

I'm also madly sewing costumes for my daughter's dance concert next Saturday, so may be pulling a few all nighters! Pretty sure I won't have time to post (or create), so I hope you all have a great week.

The 'Fall Girls' Blog Hop

The Fall Girls: Members of an Suspected International Craft Ring, Wanted for Great Creativity in Papercrafts.

Hi, Thanks for stopping by. Wow, I've been super busy this week working, getting my DT projects done, and making costumes for dancing. There's never enough hours in the day, so this is going to be a quick post.

In the theme of Fall, I've got a couple of layouts in Autumn colours. (I don't have any Autumn photos because our climate is so mild here in Queensland that most of the trees are green all year long. )









Your next stop on the Blog Hop is My 3 Little Monkeys at the-monkey-hut.blogspot.com

Design team projects - Homemade gifts

I've been busy making little gifts for this weeks DT projects for Artfull Crafts.

My first project is a decorated lunch tin. I painted and stamped (with gold paint) the top part, then sprayed it with a coat of varnish to seal and protect it. I covered the bottom half with paper, and covered the join with beaded ribbon.



I added some flowers to the top and made my own beaded wire thingys (that's the technical name!)



My next project was an "Envelope" mini album using Graphic 45 Christmas Past papers. You use a standard envelope for the pattern. I hope to do a tutorial soon, but ran out of time...sorry! I embossed my Kaisercraft letters, and added Stickles, Diamond Dust and, glitter to the front.




The back cover...

Inside the front cover...


I added some Papermania adhesive ribbons to the edges of my pages.



The next project is a concertina tag book. I love how this turned out using the Graphic 45 papers. I don't know if I'll be able to give this one away.... might have to make another one!




I stamped my tags with Tim Holtz stamps (he has some great sayings in his range)






I also made a couple of mini-books using Pipe Dream Ink Opals UTEE and stamping into it while hot with Papermanis Christmas stamps, and Tim Holtz embossing folders (make sure you ink whatever your stamping with to help release it from the UTEE)




The back...

My second booklet...


The back....