Emergency 40th Birthday Survival Tin

A couple of weeks ago Susan (Tomsmum) made a fantastic 40th Birthday Kit for her daughter and posted it on her blog . I thought it was a brilliant idea and decided to make one for my BIL. He is the baby of the family and he teased all of us mercilessly on our 40th birthdays, so this kit is a form of revenge! I trawled the web for ideas and threw in a couple of ideas of my own and this is what I came up with (if you are easily offended, then please stop reading and don't look at the bottom photograph which shows the kit contents - thank you):









I'm off to try and make his birthday card - wish me luck!

Yet more fun with wire and beads...........

I've had a hetic weekend but oddly found more me time than usual. It started on Friday when my friend unexpectedly asked me to care for her son due to an emergency. Then DD reminded me that she had friend coming for a sleepover and to top the lot, I'd invited my BIL and his wife for the weekend. I'm not sure how it's worked out but I've mananged more crafting this weekend than on a normal weekend. However, I didn't manage to make DH a Valentines card, so have to confess to buying a shop bought one.

I decided to make up the remainder of the kits I bought last weekend. The first thing I made was this wire and amethyst bracelet. I didn't really follow the instructions for this one, as it involved crochet and used stitches I'm not familiar with (I only learnt to crochet last weekend and I am left handed, so the images and descriptions for treble stitch meant very little to me and I really wanted to get it done, so I just did as I thought).



I then made this wire bead bracelet.



I'm going to try and make some matching earrings and possibly a necklace over the next few days.

It's a Hoot!

I made this card for a little girl named Delia who is very poorly at the moment. You can read about her here. I've been playing with my Promarkers on this one. I still need to practice, but I am quite pleased the results I'm getting from them.

I'm not to sure about the sentiments I've used on this, but I wanted to continue the owl theme, so decided upon a play on words! I hope it works!!



Freebies used:
Eco Trees includes Green Dotty Paper & Branch by Cocoa Studio @ mygrafico
Owl Digi Stamp by LadyBug @ mygrafico
Brown Linen Crease Paper from the Away in a Manager Collection by Raspberry Road Designs
Font J I Chunky Caps from dafont.com

Adventures in Jewellery Making!!

I've had a hetic, but productive weekend. My friend and I went to the Brighton Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Show on Friday. Did we have fun? You bet!! Wasn't sure what to expect, but was exceptionally pleased to discover a wealth of goodies to buy and few new hobbies for me try (like I need anymore)! I also got given a free ticket to return on Sunday, so return I did and dragged DH along with his wallet ;0)

At the show there was a lovely lady running a jewellery making workshop which I decided to join in with. I had loads of fun making this:



I managed to resist buying a start up jewellery making kit and lots of lovely beads, but it's definately on my list of things to purchase at somepoint in the future.

I didn't manage to avoid jewellery making kits altogether though! I found a stall selling kits to make these:



Initially, I thought they were selling the bracelets, but upon further investigation I discovered they were selling kits to make them. Needless to say I had to have one, but can justify it fully as it is going to be a present for my Sister-in-Law! So Saturday evening was spent making up the bracelet. On Sunday, I ended up buying more wire and beads to make my own designs, so watch this space.

I also bought some Promarkers following the rave reviews that the "card making lovely's from MSE" give them. Have to say I'm really pleased with them and as a result have now printed out a few digi stamps and will be attempting to make some cards in the very near future. Somehow, some Papermania Watercolour Markers managed to find their way home with me too - boy was that demonstrator good! Seriously though they are fabulous and give me a totally different effect to the Promarkers.

Well I think that's enough of my waffling for now.....I've actually run out of things to say!

Post It Notes

I decided that I had to make something using my Bigshot and the free My Minds Eye Papers. I've been quite pushed for time lately so it needed to be a quick and easy make. It also had to be something that didn't involve me spending any money! So here's what I came up with, a Post It Note Wallet



Inside view:



The post it notes were bought a while back in Tesco for 19p. The papers were free with this months Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine, the white card was already in my stash and the Diamonte was from a pack of 100 bought in Poundland. The catch is part of an old magnetic photo frame. The flower has been cut from the red MME paper using Sizzix Bigz Die Daisies. I then heat embossed the flower with clear embossing powder.