Altered Book Box

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.   

It's been a little while since I did a post so I'd like to show you a book box I've altered.

A very close friend's daughter is having a baby and I'm making a mini album for her which I am placing into this box.  The mini is still a work in progress but the box is done.

The paper collection I'm using is Baby Steps from Simple Stories.

Here is the original box.

 

 I purchased it from one of our cheapie outlets ( I think it was Ned's ) and all I had to do was re-cover it with my selected papers. 

 

In this paper collection there are a lot of different tags and on one of them was this little banner so I cut out the letters, glittered the edges and then attached them to a piece of twine. But it didn't stand out enough from the cover so I decided they needed to be matted.  I cut some white cardstock to size and glued them onto that.  I then attached them to the front with pop dots to give them a bit more dimension.

 

The bird cage and bird are from Scrapmatts.  I painted both with Paint Daubers in white and glittered the birdcage completely.  For the little bird, I inked the edges with Versa Color Cinnamon and then glittered the wings and the tail  and also a little around the edge.  I colored his/her eye with a blue Texta.

The flowers are a mix of Prima and Kaisercraft and the little white berries and the white flower with the pearl stamens are from Magnolia Ink.  I trimmed the hooks off some heart charms I had in my stash and glued them on with 

Helmar glue.

  The leaves  are pieces I cut from a larger velvet leaf that I also had in my stash.

The lace came from my stash.  I cannot remember where it's from which is a shame because I love it and would like to get some more.

 

I also trimmed the hook from this little bear charm before attaching it to the bow.

I really like this paper collection.  It has some pink and blue but it's really not gender specific, and it's pretty without being too over the top.  There are some really cute tags and sayings with it as well which will make it easier to decorate the album.

So, there you have it, the box is ready to go, now I just have to finish the album.  The baby is not due until February so I still have plenty of time.

Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless and
 wishing everyone all the best for 2013.
oxox Marg

Easy Peasy Christmas Tags

Hello everybody!  I made some really, really easy Christmas tags yesterday.  

I had some kraft tags and all I did was ink the edges with Walnut stain distress ink. Then got some tags and labels from a number of Kaisercraft's  Christmas paper pads, mixed them up, inked the edges and glued them on.

For the back I used some papers from the same collections, inked the edges as well. I then cut to size some of the borders and placed them on the side so I would have some room to write a message.
And that's it. Sooooo easy and really quick to make. If you wanted to you could add glitter, maybe use sticky dots to add dimension, but I am quite happy with these the way they are.
That's all for now.
Thank you for visiting, take care and God Bless.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
oxox Marg

More Christmas Cards

Hello everyone.  Just a short post to show the last of the Christmas cards I made this year.

These are the straight easel cards.

 

As I said in my previous post, all of my cards were made using similar elements, I just changed the papers and the aspect a little so I won't bore you by explaining it all again or by showing all of the cards  I made.

Perhaps next year I will have plenty of time to make something really specky.
Yeah, right, dream on girl. LOL

That's all for now.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Christmas Cards

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog.

I'd  like to show you some of the Christmas Cards I made for this year.

As I said in my previous post, they were made in a hurry, so there's not a lot of detail and they are all pretty much the same, I just used some different papers and slightly altered the design.  They are all easel cards and the  ones I've shown here are the twisted easel.

 

 The papers I've used are from different Kaisercraft Christmas collections.

 This card simply twists in the opposite direction to the previous one.

 The base of all the cards is brown cardstock and I've matted the fronts with cream.

  The poinsettias I made myself also out of cardstock and the little branches underneath them were 

punched out with a Martha Stewart punch.

   The gold bauble sprays were from some larger sprays which I purchased and then cut into smaller pieces.

All of the shapes on the cards, the circles the swirls the fancy mats, were cut out using my new Silhouette Portrait.  I love this little machine, if I'd had to cut out everything one at a time I would not have been able to finish as quickly as I did. 

These  are just a sample of the cards I made.  In my next post I'll show you the straight easels and the inside. Hopefully you'll be interested enough to come back and take a look.

Thank you so much for visiting and I wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and  happy New Year.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Aaaaah!!! Christmas

Hello everyone.  I LOVE CHRISTMAS but it can be really stressy in the lead up, especially when you're running way behind in making your Christmas Cards.  I've just spent the last three days madly trying to make my cards for this year. 

I actually started making my cards in early November  ( thought I was really good this year to start so early - HA!! )   The first one I made was an advent calendar card. 

Made the Poinsettia out of cardstock.  Spent quite a few evenings in front of the telly cutting out lots of  petals, spraying them and scrunching them up a little bit and then glueing them together.  Enough for all my cards. The leaves were cut using a Tim Holtz die.

 I really like this card.  I downloaded the template from Norma at 'From my Craft room'. You can find it HERE. 

This was going to be my card for everyone this year.

Silly me.  Didn't happen.

 It's not a difficult card to make but it does take a bit of time to do especially with all those little number cards you have to print and punch and cut out. Then my lovely man and I got really busy with lots of different stuff and I found myself running out of time.

 So I decided to make shaped side step cards. They don't take long do they?  Got all the bases and the mats cut out with the help of my daughter-in-laws Silhouette Cameo and put them together and then got the inside done. But when I decorated the outside on one of them, I did not like it at all.  I don't know what went wrong but it wouldn't sit right and it just looked ... blah!  Soooo!!!  I had to start all over again, hence the mad rush in the last few days.
I  ended up making easel cards.  Hopefully I'll get them in the post tomorrow and then I can show you.
Whew!!  
Like I said, I love Christmas  but sometimes ....
Thanks for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Easel Card

Hello and welcome to my little blog.
My 2nd Daughter-in-law had her Birthday the day after my oldest son and I can now show you the card I made for her.

I actually made this card quite a while ago.  Although she's not a 'girly' girl she does love butterflies and flowers, so of course I had to make a card with butterflies and flowers on it.  She's not into the pinks and pretty pastels so the colour range I went for was more to the beige and brown side of  the spectrum.

I wanted something a little different so I chose to make an easel card which is a simple card to make yet looks very effective.

The papers I used are from Prima's En Francais collection.

The Imaginarium butterfly was colored with Hazelnut Paint Dabber, coated with Crackle Accents and, once it was dry, I mounted it on dark brown cardstock which had been sprayed with Pearl Glimmermist.  

The red flower is from Kaisercraft but the others came out of my stash and I have no idea where I got them from.  The leaves were cut with Magnolia Ink's Vintage Flower & Leaf die and the tags are from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe collection.  The flourish is a Make'it'Crafty Flower Leaf Swirl which I colored with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then coated with Crackle Accents.

These cute little roses are all from Kaisercraft.

My daughter-in-law is actually Kerry-Jean from KJWStudio and she makes some really fabulous cards. If you're looking for some unique Christmas or Birthday Cards why don't you check out her Etsy Shoppe.  You can find the link on the right hand side of my blog.

That's all for now. Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

 

Book Card

Hello everybody!  My son had his Birthday this week so now I can show you the card I made for him.  This one is a bit different.  I found a tutorial by Sandie Edwards of  'Delightfully Crazy'  on a Vintage Book Card.

You can find it  HERE.

I really loved the card and thought I would try one myself.  It turned out to be quite an easy one to make.  Sandie's instructions are very clear and easy to follow. 

As my son is an avid gamer I based the card on one of the games he plays.

 

I finished the inside of the card first and then found I had nowhere to put the sentiment.  I had intended to make a pocket inside to put in a tag, but somehow that got lost along the way.

Anyhow I ended up putting a door? on the front which opens to reveal the sentiment. 

 The Door.

I wrote the sentiment on this tag.  The 'doors' are held closed with some magnets.

Among the images from the net I found a map and a creepy creature which I fussy cut and placed on the inside cover.  I also found the sword and shield which I placed in the corner.

For the 'book' side of the card I  printed two copies of the character and fussy cut one of the figures and glued it over the top with foam squares.  The chipboard corners are from Make it Crafty which I coloured with Versa Magic Midnight Black and then rubbed a little VersaColor Bronze on the edges.
The frame around the central image was covered with paper from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe.

Here you can see the edge of the 'book' which I highlighted with VersaColor Bronze..  For the closure I simply cut a strip of cardstock and bent it around to slide underneath the paper on the front of the card.

 This is the full view of the inside.  Some of you may recognize the images, they are from the Kingdom of Amalur - The Reckoning.
My younger son's partner also makes cards.  Check out the one she made at KJWStudio it's awesome.
I would like to thank Sandie Edwards for her excellent tutorial.  This card was really fun to make. 
That's it from me for now.  Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
xoxo Marg

Anniversary Card

Hi everybody! My oldest son and his wife just celebrated their 19th Wedding Anniversary and I thought I'd show you the card I made for them.

A few years ago I spotted a card on someone's blog (can't remember whose) which I really loved. It was an easel card done in black and peach and it was gorgeous so I saved the image but hadn't got around to using it as an inspiration until  now.
Here is my card.

 Unfortunately I didn't have much in the way of peach coloured stuff in my stash but made do with what I did have. 

 

The papers I used are from Prima's Rondelle collection (love those) but  the one I used for the front was just black with a few floral images in the corners and it was a bit flat so I stamped it with a Kaisercraft script stamp using VersaMagic Cloud White.  Luckily it turned out exactly how I wanted it - uneven and patchy.

The flowers are from my stash.  The small cream one is from Prima the two pink ones are Kaisercraft but I can't remember where I got the large one. It could also be a Prima but I'm not sure.

The little Imaginarium frame was painted with Adirondack's Dabber in Pitch Black and then sprayed with a little Pearl Glimmer Mist.  I've backed it with a small doily which was cut out with the Die-namics Decorative Doily Duo Die.  ( Try saying that 5 times really fast. lol )

 These little flowers are all Kaisercraft, the doily is the same as on the front of the card and the little branches were punched out with a Martha Stewart punch.

And here is the inside.  I wrote our greeting on the journalling card.

 Here is the original card.

 
My version is not exactly the same as the original but then it was never meant to be a perfect copy.  I'm pleased with the way my card turned out and I am very grateful for having the original design to get me inspired.
Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless.
xoxo Marg