Christmas Card Tote Christmas Gift!

Hi all, i hope you have had the most fantastic weekend!!!! I have had a brilliant one! Yesterday i went Crimbo shopping with my sister and had a yummy lunch. Then in the evening we went out for a meal with our friends Tim and Lucy. Then today i had a super crafty day, with a visit from Jade in the morning, followed by an afternoon of crafting with Lucy! I have got so much done today, including packing up lots of handmade cards to go into the handmade card totes that i have made for our grandparents. So today here is the card tote that i made for Dave's grandparents who live in Spain. (It has featured on my blog before, to see details of the materials used click here.)

Here is the tote with all the cards that i made to put inside!!!

And here they are all packaged up ready to be sent!!

I really hope Dave's grandparents love their gift! They often find it hard to buy English cards so i'm sure they'll appriciate their gift!!

Topnote Mummy!!

Boo! Yep it's me and i'm back with another halloween project!! Today a spooky mummy - yes, made with the trusty 'Top Note Die'!

This mummy began life as lots of 'Very Vanilla' strips, some cut neatly and others ripped. I used a 'Sponge Dauber' to distress the edges of each strip, and then glued them all onto a piece of 'Basic Black', arranging them to leave a little gap for the mummys mouth! I then ran it through the 'Big Shot' using the 'Top Note Die'. His nose was made with the 'Round Tab Punch', chopped in half, and his nostrils was created using the '1/2" Circle Punch', which i also 'Sponge Daubed' around the edges. His eyes were created the same way as yesterdays Frankenstein card. Two 'Whisper White' '1-3/8" Circles, his eyelids are made form one Very Vanilla' '1-3/8" Circle' chopped in half, his pupils from two 'Basic Black' '1/2" Circles'. I stamped out the 'boo' using the 'Just Perfect Alphabet' stampset and then i punched out each individual letter using the '1/2" Circle Punch' and stuck those in place using 'dimensionals' onto an 'Early Espresso' cardbase!!

Isn't he scary! Why not treat yourself to this wonderful 'Top Note Die'? You can make so much use of it - there are tonnes of designs you can make with it - you'll wonder how you survived without it?! Check out the catalogue on the righthand side of my blog, jot up your wish list and email me over your order: amyjtidd@gmail.com

(I'm entering this into the 'Cupcake Craft Challenge')

My Card Tote!

Hi all, i have been working on this craft project for a couple of days on and off, and really very excited to share it with you. I have made a card tote (using an amazing tutorial brought from Lynda - an Australian SU demo).

OK, I'm not going to lie - this project was pretty fiddly and took me several hours to create, but now i know how it's all done i'm pretty confident that i could make it much quicker the second time around!! I made the tote using completely Stampin' Up! materials. The great thing about using SU materials is that they all coordinate!! The 'DSP' used is from the sadly retiring 'Love Letters DSP collection', i used quartered '1-3/4" Circles' cut from 'Early Espresso' card to decorate the corners, coordinating 'Satin Ribbon' for the handles and the 'Just Perfect Alphabet' stampset to stamp 'cards' on the front!

Here's a side view of the card tote:

The tote is tied up with 'Grosgrain Ribbon' and here is the tote opened wide:

You'll notice that i have made monthly dividers so i can get organised and store birthday, valentine, anniversary and any other cards in their correct place! (I have used 'Red Riding Hood' cardstock to coordinate with the 'Love Letters DSP' to create the accordian sides and the dividers.

Along with Lynda's tutorial she also supplied me with monthly calender templates! So i printed them off on 'Very Vanilla' cardstock and mounted them onto the 'Red Riding Hood' dividers. I punched some tabs out of 'Red Riding Hood' card, using the 'Round Tab Punch' and used the 'Just Perfect Alphabet' stampset to stamp the months on the tabs (in 'Early Espresso' ink.)

I slightly altered Lyndas tutorial - but overall i couldn't have made this without her detailed tutorial notes! I'm planning on making a few more of these to give away as christmas gifts, i just love the way these have turned out!

I'm planning on running a craft class on how to make these lovely totes, so watch this space ... details to follow!!

It's The Final (Wedding) Countdown!!

Hello everyone! Sorry for posting late but i have been quite busy today in one way or another! Last night i went out for my friend Iwonas hen do! We had a fab time, playing lots of games, having a ride in a limo, going to a casino and having a good dance to finish off the evening!! Here's a few pics of the evening. 1st pic is of the beautiful bride to be, we creatively made her a wedding dress out of white bin liners and toilet roll! Next pic is of me and my best friend Suzanne in the limo! Below that is a pic of me collecting mine and Suzannes £60 winnings from the slot machine and finally a pic of me and Iwona playing on the roulette table!

It was a really fun night, and not too long now to her 1st wedding (the UK one! They are also having a Polish wedding in October!! We're really looking forward to that one!)

Anyway along the theme of weddings, it seems that all of our friends are getting hitched at the moment! We have three weddings this year and another two now planned for 2012! I remember how excited i was counting down to our wedding so i decided to get crafty and make a wedding countdown project for the 2012 couples. I got the idea from Karla Anders blog (where she had created a similar birthday countdown project) Here they are:

I could resist the new 'Sprintime Vintage DSP' and the lovely 'Seaming Ribbon', the cardstock used is the versatile 'Crumb Cake' and i have used 'Crumb Cake', 'Night of Navy' and 'Rose Red' ink and the 'Just Perfect Alphabet' set to create the 'days until your wedding', the numbers have been created using  'Rose Red' and 'Baja Breeze' ink, depending on the project and the 'Schoolbook Serif Numbers' set, stamped on 'Whisper White Card Stock' and then mounted on 'Baja Breeze' or 'Night of Navy' card. I have backed the numbers with velcro (attached with red 'Sticky Strip') So the recipient can alter the numbers as they countdown to their big day!!

Here they are individually:

 

Material wise this project uses very little card etc, just a word of warning, they take a fair bit of time to make, as you have to stamp and mount A LOT of numbers!! (Approx 24 for each project in total!) If you wanted to speed up this project i guess you could do a weekly countdown! 

I'm so happy with the final product and will definately making some christmas countdowns! So if you would like one, put in your order! I'm thinking of using the 'Jolly Holidays' DSP, but can customise them for you if you would like!

Sorry for the mega long post! Thanks for visiting and i hope you come back to see more of my crafty creations soon!! xxx

Happy Hen Do!!

Hi everyone, I have scheduled this post to publish once Iwona's hen party is well on it's way, so there is no way she would get a sneak peak of my gifts to her. So here they are:

Firstly here is the card that i made for her:

The cardbase is 'Whisper White'. It uses a strip of 'Brights DSP' ('Melon Mambo') The 'L' sign is made of 'Melon Mambo' and 'Whisper White' cardstock, i lined the 'L' with some 'Basic Rhinestones' and found a pretty pink feather to make it very girly!!

Secondly i made Iwona a photo album! I plan to take lots of photos tonight and print them off for her to put in her album! Here it is:

Again, i used 'Melon Mambo' cardstock from the 'Brights' collection. On a piece of 'Whisper White' cardstock i printed (in 'Pretty in Pink') the round stamp and the crown stamp from the 'Artistic Etchings' set, then using 'Melon Mambo' ink i stamped 'Iwonas hen do' using the 'Just Perfect Alphabet' set. I also stamped the crown several times in 'Melon Mambo' and embellished them with some 'Basic Rhinestones'. I used some retired Stampin' Up! ribbon to bound the album together. (This album is often referred to as a 'brag book', there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube, so why not have a go at making one yourself! They make a lovely gift!!)

Happy Birthday Jana!

Today is my little sister Jana's birthday!! She is 9 today!! We're off to London for a day out to help her celebrate (and then, as we are already in London we have decided to go to the theatre tonight to see Chicago!), so before we get going i thought i'd share with you the card that i made for her:

This card is known as an 'easel card', i got the tutorial to constuct it from SCS. The stampsets used for this project are 'Four Frames' (to make the bunting) 'Just Perfect Alphabet' (to personalise the card with Jana's name) 'Plane and Simple' (for the 'happy birthday') sentiment, 'Sweetheart' (for the little birdy!!) and although you can't really see it on the photo i used the large stamp from the 'Baroque Motifs' stampset as a background. The 'stopper' for this card was created using a piece of 'Rose Red' cardstock edged with the 'Eyelet Border' Punch, embellished with a piece of 'Whisper White' 'Satin Ribbon' and a little pink butterfly created using my 'Big Shot' and the 'Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die'. I could resit using a couple of 'Basic Pearls' to add a bit of bling!!