BBQ in a Box

G'day from WA :-)  The project I have today is a card-in-a-box I made for my son Chris's birthday... in 2015! (Well his birthday IS at the end of November so it's not as dire as it sounds, lol)  We bought him a barbecue as his gift so I thought I'd make a card that went with it

I thought the black and silver was "manly", and the papers I used were, in fact, part of the box of goodies said son bought me for MY birthday - he likes to know what he has chosen is "useful" to me so it gives him a buzz when he sees it "in action".  The black with silver glitter on it is a tissue sort of paper, the snippet of grey and white stripe is flocked and the silver and white on top is foil; all the food groups covered there :-)  The black and white polka dot strip is also paper, though I could just as easily have used ribbon.  The stars (MFT Die-Namics Stacking Stars) on the top are attached to acetate strips, 
I made the whole box from silver card, the decorative strip around the middle is cut using a die.  Of course the real feature of a "card-in-a-box" is what's IN the box... so here it is

Obviously, all the same elements used on the inside as on the outside... plus black leathergrain card. The barbecue is made from that card, the legs are black straws with an eyelet joining them and the wheels are Card Candi I've had in my stash for years.  
The controls on the bbq are silver flat back "pearls" and the red "light" is a hole-less pearl.  I used a jewellery finding (the type that you use to have a multiple string necklace) as a handle for the bbq lid.
Having a son called Chris is handy sometimes... the "Chris" on the right-hand panel was cut from a "Christmas" die, Memory Box I think, the Happy Birthday is an Elizabeth Crafts die and the 31 are Kaisercraft
The lid of the barbie opens too: I wish the plate of MY barbecue was as clean and shiny as it is on THIS one, lol

That's about it for my bbq in a box.  I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

As You Like It: Favourite Die and Why - "Chris", from the "Christmas" die... I love it because I love Christmas, use it a lot ... and the die cuts nicely too :-))

Card Mania Challenges Monochromatic
Crazy 4 Challenges #419 "Opposites" - black and white

Fab'n'Funky Challenges With a Number

Allsorts Challenges Old Favourites - the Christmas die, and those silver "pearls"

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets (striped paper)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper
Tuesday Throwdown, Aud Sentiments, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Creatalicious Challenges, Paper Creator Crafts, 4 Crafty Chicks, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Crafting With Friends Challenge 59, Corrosive Challenge, Little Miss Muffet, Create and Inspire, Crafty  Creations, Creative Fingers and Simply Papercrafts all have Anything Goes Challenges

I'll be back soon (hopefully) with another offering, quite likely from my drafts... though I have been adding to THAT recently so it may not be an "old" make.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Butterflies, Boxes and Back on the Horse

Hello everyone.  Things have finally settled down enough in my "real life" for me to get back, at least in a small way, into my crafting.  I have dragged one of my makes out of my Drafts Folder, it's an "exploding box" card I made for my friend Andrena's 50th birthday, I really like them - she loved it, I hope you like it too.

It is made of quite heavy gold card, the patterned paper is Graphic 45.  I've also used a handmade paper as a mat and there's a ton of embossed velour paper involved too, oh and the trim is ribbon.  

The border on the lid was cut with a die cut, I think it's a Magnolia one... frankly I can't be bothered going to my craft room to check!  It works great as a border of the lid... just bends a bit when you stand it up! 
I used a Memory Box butterfly die cut in gold and trimmed with Swarovski diamantes on the top.  Stripy pink and plain green ribbon from my stash.

You all know how these things work; here's a picture with the lid "off"

The inside butterflies were cut from the Graphic 45 paper and jazzed up with some pearl and iridescent paints before being cut out and stuck to acetate strips to make them "float"  Photos never do these cards justice, it was really lovely in real life, with loads of texture.  The flowers are from my stash, the green ribbon on the inside is SO lush, yum yum. Wooden numerals painted with the same paints and a Happy Birthday die cut from gold (Sissix I think) complete the card

I always find it hard to find a place to write on these box cards... in this instance I made a mini card using some gold card and a scrap of the Graphic 45 paper, embellished it with a border and some bling then stuck it inside the lid of the box; worked really well :-)
That's about it for today's offering.  I hope to be back fairly soon... I do have a LOT in my drafts still, and I have made a few cards in the last year, most of which I photographed though not all :-(
I'd like to enter in the following challenges: 

As You Like It	Fave…Ribbons or Flowers, and Why - loads of flowers here, but I actually prefer ribbon because it's so user-friendly, comes in so many patterns and sits flat - which suits "my" style of card
The Paper Shelter	Border Punches or Border Dies (used a die)
Crafty Cardmakers edit: ineligible... my card/box is entered in more than 15 challenges, whoops. sorry ladies!	Fancy Folds
My Time to Craft	Die Cuts Only (no image, but yes to sentiment) even my sentiment is die-cut, lol
Sweet Stampin'	Autumn - I've used Autumn colours... my favourite!
Cute Card Thursday	Anything Goes
Hanna and Friends	#283 Anything but a Card - if you count this as a box!
Polkadoodles	Anything Goes
Hiding in- my Craft Room	Freestyle
Pixies Snippets Playground	Snippets -I've used snippets of card AND ribbon
Cute As A Button	#Anything Goes opt: Fall - used Autumn colours
Inky Chicks	Anything but a Square - well it IS square, but not a "square card"... I think that's in the spirit of the challenge
Little Miss Muffet	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes (Always)
Crafty  Creations	Anything Goes (Always)
Crafting With FriendsCrafting with Friends #52	Anything Goes (Always)
Creative Fingers	Anything Goes (Always)
Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends	Anything Goes (Always)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge	Use Patterned Paper
Create and Inspire	Anything Goes
Creatalicious Challenges	#123Anything Goes, opt: Leaves
Simply Papercrafts	#51 Anything Goes
Crafting With Attitude	Anything Goes (Always)

On a personal note: My Dad has gone into permanent care, which is a hard thing for a family to come to as any of you that have done it would know, but we just couldn't keep him safe at home anymore.  It is a lovely place and he is settling as best as we could hope.
I have sold his house (emptying it first!), very stressful in a buyers market when we had a lower limit on what we "needed" to pay the bond for the home; we nearly made it, and have enough to come up with the shortfall.  Not having to pay $1200 a fortnight INTEREST on the bond (which hubby and I have been coming up with) is going to relieve the stress a lot - this is the first fortnight it won't apply, so we'll see :-)
I have managed to keep only six (albeit large-ish) boxes of "stuff" from Mum and Dad to sort and/or store... they bought a Royal Albert Old Country Roses full dinner and tea set each for us, I have emptied one of the display cabinets in my craft room (which is next to our family room) and installed lighting to display it and SOME of the gazillion matching crystal glasses my son eventually wants as his heirloom - it looks really nice, even though it was never my cup of tea, pardon the pun 
Anyway, until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna                         

Time to Use Your Dies for the Card Mania Challenge

I can't believe more than (another!) week has gone by since I posted on my blog... I've been spending a lot of time over at Bonesmart... sharing recovery stories with my fellow Hip replacees, time to think about bigger issues, like Craft, lol.  There's a new challenge starting today at the Card Mania Challenge, my third already as Guest DT, the theme this time is "Use Your Dies"... I love dies, not a problem; here's my contribution, a boxed set of note cards.

Now this project was a lot of work, very fiddly, so I'm going to bore you with a lot of photos... even if it's "more of the same" :-)  The main thing to note (as this challenge is about using dies) is that the dies I used are from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Curved Borders 2 set. 
I love these things as they nest really well, but getting the "lining" behind the scrollwork lined up with the fancy edges perfectly was harder than I thought it would be... and of course I was committed to doing it seven times once I started!   I used very heavy weight textured brown card.  The orange paper is textured too, but light weight; it was a peachy shade originally... I coloured it with a YR Copic. Clear It Out has Theme: Orange  Stash: Use orange things so I'll be entering there. The patterned paper is from my "go to" shop for gorgeous paper; Starfish Lane.  Hiding in my Craft Room and Sparkles Monthly Challenge have Autumn colour challenges, so I'm entering there too.

Front of Box

Box Open

Back of Box

Here's the box, the front matches the note cards, the back uses the plain edge die used along the edge of the orange paper on the front of the box to cut the brown card as a flap,  I used some Velcro as a closer.  I'll pop back and post a template for the box... I just can't find where I hid, err I mean 'put' it at the moment!

The "pearls" are gold flatbacks from my stash coloured to suit using the same YR Copic I used for the paper.  The little brown bows were part of the fabulous basket of goodies my son Chris bought as my birthday gift, again from Starfish Lane
The note cards themselves are... well more of the same.  The only hiccup I encountered when making them was that I cut the top layer of first one with the "grain" of the textured card going in the opposite direction to the base of the card... so I had to cut the others the same, it meant I used more card in the end, ah well.
Crafty Cardmakers want to see something Cut Out for their challenge so I'm in, and the cut outs I have are Swirly and Curly so they'll fit in the Delightful Challenges Swirls and Curls Challenge.

I added patterned vellum to the inside of the cards, I had just a panel of it initially but it just didn't look right. I added another "loose" layer with a strip of the orange paper to hold it on and I think it works well.
Catch The Bug, Through the Craftroom Door, Divas by Design, Simon Says Challenge and Anything But A Card challenges all have Anything Goes themes this time around so I'm entering them all.
Well that's it for today's project, I hope you liked it... and aren't sick of all the photos, lol.  Pop over to the Card Mania blog and check out the rest of the DT's inspiration, and I know we all like our Dies so why not get cutting and enter the challenge too.... there are great prizes from Marianne Design and Hobbisimo!
I'll be back in a day or so with a card from my drafts... I really thought this hip replacement would have me crafting and blogging every day - but for one reason or another I just haven't made it yet... and I can drive in less than two weeks so I'll defo be out partying then, lol
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Grab a Pencil: It's Time For Di's Digis Back To School Challenge

Yup, it's time for a new challenge at Di's Digis Challenge blog... we have a "Back To School" theme.  I decided to make something "useful" as my project, so I grabbed one of the pencil tins I got in a sale (2 for $1) some time back and decorate that. 

As it will probably get shoved in and out of a bag or shelf countless times I thought it best to keep the layers and embellishments to a minimum; that's when I came up with the idea (not really that original!) of printing all the elements on one layer, so that's what I have done... with the exception of the twine of course.  

I used Microsoft Word; I made a rectangle by cropping a sheet of digital paper from Nitwit's Live n Learn 2 collection, then I added an oval, filling it with one of Word's inbuilt textures (cork)  adding the bevel edge and dropped shadow (using Format Shape, just in case you're not familiar with the process)  I then added the fabulously cute image, Back To School Bunny -available here for only $2. I had already removed the white background from the image and saved it as a .png - I do this with all my images so that they layer well.    Crafty Little Fairies wants to see Cute and Cuddly, I'm in, and Pile It On wants Primary Colours, I've got the red yellow and blue as my main colours so I'm in there too.   

Next I added "Pencils" using Wordart and printed the whole thing out, voila! I coloured the image with Copics, with a bit of Prismacolor pencil shading, and added gloss to the pencil and to the Wordart - I added a really thick layer to make the letters stand out, it looks much more even in real life, and surprisingly effective.  All that was left to do was add a bit of twine from my stash. Crafts 4 Eternity wants to see Something Old, the tin is at least a year old and the twine is more like three - hopefully old enough! 
Here's my pencil tin doing what pencil tins do :-))

I think it fits the sketch from Seize the Sketch so I'm entering there, and Whimsy Inspirations Challenge has a Back to School challenge so I'm entering there too.
Through the Craftroom Door, Crafty Girls Challenge, Crafty Calendar, Stamping Sensations and Little Miss Muffet all have Anything Goes challenges running so I'm entering them as well.
That's it for today's project, a very simple little thing it was too - but still I had fun making it.  Check out the rest of the team's inspiration, awesome as always.  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too, we have a great prize from the Frantic Stamper and as always, if you use one of Di's fab images you go into an extra draw with a prize of it's own.
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna 

New Challenge at Di's Digis

And a good evening to you all :-)   I just haven't had five minutes to "blog" recently, but this evening I've managed to get on here and remind you that there's a new challenge starting today at Di's Digis.  This time we want you to include a Person and an Animal;  Di has so many images that fit the bill, the hardest part for me was choosing one!

 I thought I'd do something a little different (well, different than a card, lol) this time... I've altered a little box I bought in a discount store.  
The cuter than cute image I've used is Daisy with Basset, and it's available here.  I've coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, which gave a nice texture to the dog's coat, and added some Viva Decor Pearl dots randomly around the image - it gives a sort of dreamy effect I feel, not sure WHY I feel that, but I do :-)  There's also some Pink Stickles on Daisy's petticoat and some Glossy accents on the Basset's nose.
The silver corners started as chipboard (from Make It Crafty, sadly no longer available), I heat embossed them with silver EP and run some silver cord between them to better frame the image.  The dragonfly (again, from Make It Crafty) got the embossing treatment and a bit of Pink Stickles just to jazz it up a bit more.
I covered the outside of the box with some lovely lavendar handmade paper, which has silver threads in it, then added some gros grain ribbon around the lower edge of the lid.  I added some silver cord above that as it just didn't look "finished" then embossed a chipboard slider (from, you guessed it, Make It Crafty) with silver EP and added that as detail on the "front" of the lid - it covered the join in the ribbon.
I added some lovely textured pearl card to the inside of the box, it is so much nicer IRL, finishing the top edge with more of the grosgrain ribbon and the inner corners with silver cord. And that's it!!
I'm really happy with the end result, I'm going to make a couple more with some of my horde of printed images - great to have on hand and they get those images coloured (the part I enjoy the most) and out there where they should be!
I hope you get a chance to check out the rest of the team's work , awesome as always, and a chance to join in the challenge too; there's a fabulous prize on offer from SVG cuts, and as always if you use one of Di's gorgeous images you go in an extra draw with a prize of two digis.
I'd like to enter the following challenges with my "altered" box

Digi Sketch Challenge	Cute
Corrosive Challenge	#194 Animals
Crafty Calendar	Animal Antics
Little Red Wagon	#228 Truly Dimensional
Simon Says Challenge	Mother's Day, Special Girl
Gem of a Challenge	115 Mother's Day, Special Lady, Female Birthday
Colour Me Copic	89 Show some skin
Cute Card Thursday	312 Girls, Girls, Girls
Crafty Cardmakers	Mixed Media no cards
Stampin' for the Weekend	Anything Goes
Hiding in my Craft Room	Colour It
That Craft Place	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments (F)	#102 Anything Goes

On a personal note, I'd like to thank those of you who left me comments re my recent accident (or as my husband refers to it, clumsiness!), your well wishes were much appreciated :-)  I received a letter from the hospital in the week giving me the results of my MRI; the osteoarthritis in my hip has reached end-stage, bone on bone (which I knew already) the fall caused Bone Marrow Oedema... let me tell you, it hurts!  The MRI and some blood tests are showing some markers for Rheumatoid Arthritis too, which I'm not happy about (Osteo is no fun, but I'm sure RA is worse)  After being treated for ten years for Osteoarthritis, you do wonder why they've only just looked at the possibility of RA.  I have to go to a Rheumatologist now, as well as the Orthopedic Surgeon to discuss the inevitable hip replacement - all of which is seriously cutting into the little crafting time I have left, with the continuing pool area renovation we're knee deep in soaking up huge chunks of time... and energy!  Oh well, at least I'm not bored, lol
I'm trying to get a cake made for the twins' birthday too - can you believe they turn ONE in two weeks time, now THAT year went fast!!
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Notes for Mother.

Today I have something a little different, I've made a set of note cards in a presentation box as one of the little gifts I plan to give my Mum on Mother's Day - which is next Sunday here in Australia; Mum's always needing a card for this or that so I made them with different sentiments.  Warning; Photo-Heavy post coming up 

I made the box by cutting up a box that one of the presents to my grandbabies came in, it holds six cards, six envelopes and I made some envelope seals by printing on self-adhesive paper which I mounted on a piece of card on the inside of the lid. Here's a picture of them...  

Gem of a Challenge has Recycle for their challenge theme, so I'm entering there, That Craft Place wants to see an Altered Item, hopefully this is fine to enter there too.

The patterned paper is silver grey, the black is flocked and has silver glitter detail, very pretty IRL.  The ribbon is from my stash, it's glued on up to the slider and to the edge of the base, the bow keeps the box shut (the lid is "hinged") 

The whole idea came about when I saw the theme at Less is More is this fab Sketch - I really love a sketch and thought this nice Clean and Simple look is easy to replicate to make a set of cards like this!  Easy it was, but time consuming nonetheless.    

I used a digistamp from Digistamp Boutique one of  the Black Floral set.  I used word to change the colour so I could have a set of six variations, I added six different sentiments (Thinking of You, With Love, Just Because, A Note To Say... and For You)  I'll be entering the Digistamp Boutique Monthly Challenge

I mounted each image on cardstock to match the image and sentiment (made on the computer) and added pearls from my stash to match too - those I didn't have a match for I coloured to suit with Copics.

I used my Versa Mark pen, traced over the image and embossed with Clear Detail EP - it's hard to see in the photos, but it's there!)

I did a simple embossed border using my score board, mounted the image panel on foam pads then the sentiment on to that with more foam pads.  
Simon Says Challenge theme is "Happy Mail" - cards that are for Just Because rather than specific occasions, I'm in - in spades!  Sweet Stampin' has Anything But a Birthday so I'm in there too :-)
I used the same image on the inside of the cards, scaled down and flipped (I love digis!) to "fit" the outside edge of the card. Bearly Mine Challenges and Paper Crafting Journey  have Anything Goes challenges so I'm entering there.
That's (finally!) about it for today's project, I'll be back on Sunday with my latest offering for the Here Come The Boys challenge.  I

I've had a lovely day today, we went in to Perth to the Mint to buy some gold as a birth gift for the twins; Perth Mint is world renowned, it holds over 3 billion dollars worth of gold reserves from countries around the world,half of that from the US alone!  It's a beautiful old building and it has a most drool-worthy jewellery shop.  The watch I got for Christmas came from there, made with a 1959 (yup, I'm that old, lol) Australian sixpence as its face and a fob chain - it's gorgeous!  We had lunch at one of our favourite haunts and I've done nothing but craft/blog since we came home - perfick!
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Birthday Lucy Gift Bag and Tag

I have another new digistamp by CC Designs to show today... this is Birthday Lucy and you can get yours at All That Scraps.  Instead of a card, I've made a gift bag and little tag set.

I've never made a gift bag before. Craft Your Passion has "In the bag or box" as it's challenge this time (you have to make your own, not decorate a shop-bought one!) and it got me thinking... so I found a template on the net, tweaked it up a bit (to make it a little wider and taller) and voila!   

I used a sheet from the DCWV Mariposa 12" pad for the bag, and cut the butterfly from the leftovers using Martha Stewart's Large Monarch punch, sparkling it up a bit with Diamond Stickles and adding some pearl antenna.
The image panel is cut using Nestabilities Classic Oval die, the mat is cut with Nestabilities Scalloped Oval die from American Crafts cardstock and embossed with Cuttlebugs Swiss Dots folder.  The strip around the bag is from the same cardstock, embossed with the same folder and the edge punched with EK Success Scroll and Hearts slimline punch.  Sugar Creek Hollow has Embossing as its theme, there's not a lot of embossing here... but there is some, so I'm in!
The image is coloured with Copics, as is the cute little tag, the stamp is another new digi from CC Designs, this is from the Birthday Logos sheet.  I cut the mat for it using fancy scissors (which have been sitting in one of my craft boxes for years, nice to crack them out!)   The eyelet is from Fiskars, I got an eyelet setting kit for Christmas and used this opportunity to test it out; one on the tag and four on the bag; with varying degrees of success I might add!     The lace is from my stash, as is the organza ribbon (which is actually recycled from gift wrapping - lucky for me my son Chris "does" great wrapping, and is a constant source of ribbon and paper for me, lol)  Cutie Pie Challenge is Ribbon and Lace, I've got both so I'm in!  Stampin' for the Weekend has Out With the Old (use some of your old stash) as its challenge, so I'm entering there too.

Crafty Cardmakers has No Flowers of Any Kind as its theme - no flowers here :-)  Stamptacular Sunday Challenge has Texture Please, I've got a few different textures so I'm entering there, both Bizzy Becs and Cupcake Craftroom have Anything Goes challenges so I'm in there too.  Crafty Emma's Store has "Vintage Dahling" as its theme, I'm not sure if this is vintage enough but it feels vintagey to me, so I'm entering there too.
That's it for today, do pop over to the All That Scraps Blog and check out some more eye candy using these lovely new digis... and I'll be back tomorrow with another project that uses a super cute image.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

I'd like to be...under the sea

As promised; "Now for something completely different"

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge this fortnight is "Altered Food Containers".  While some may not consider a wine bottle a "food container" some - like me - do, lol.
I can't remember the name of the wine, it was something like Glass Mountain, and suffice to say, I have painted many of these bottles over the years...I only bought it for the bottle (yeah, right!) the same company bought out a red and gold coloured bottle, but I don't have so many of those gathering dust in the shed!!
I used Jo Sonja paints and Glass and Tile Medium, the bottle wasn't too slick to start with so I didn't have much trouble getting the paint to stick.  I saw the pattern used on a plate and added some details and adapted it to the bottle.
My husband had some family over from England recently, I painted the bottle for the parents, a photo frame for the little girl (Grace) and the trinket box with the crab on for Dan the Man!!  I used patterns from Susan Pirone's fabulous book Splash! for the frame and box.
My husband's niece went swimming with dolphins for her birthday while she was here; in fact the entire time they were here the whole family were in the water, so the gift seemed appropriate - they seemed to like it, anyway.  I had a cute photo of the little ones at the beach, so I gave them that for in the frame.
Anyway, that's about it; just thought I'd "share", and when I saw this challenge theme, and that it didn't have to be papercraft I thought I'd enter.
Fab'n'Funky Challenges has Summer Loving as its challenge theme - and it as it can be any craft project, I'm entering there too.
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dee

 

Rubber Ducky You're the One....

Rubber Ducky you're the one, you make bathtime lots of fun, Rubber Ducky I'm awfully fond of you.....so the Sesame St Song goes, and why wouldn't you be fond of this little Rubber Ducky?

This tissue box cover was made using a template and tutorial from Diane at Splitcoast Stampers, here's a link.  All I had to do was "metricate"; and the template is readily adaptable to different brands of tissues; Kleenex have a funky new OVAL tissue box out now, I'm going to have to make a template for a cover for that - it's gorgeous!
The image is from another one of the CC Designs sets that is heading for retirement at the end of March: My Rubber Ducky.  You can get it at  All That Scraps, and on sale at 10% off too!  

The patterned paper is from Starfish Lane, and yes it was in the basket of goodies my lovely son Chris gave me for Christmas :-)  So is the "plain" brown paper, which isn't plain at all - it's shiny brown and matt black stripes, which you can just see in this photo.  
I cut the mat for the image and the hole in the top of the box cover using Spellbinders Scalloped Squares Nesties.
The image is coloured with Copics and there's Royal Coat Gloss on the bubbles, which helps them "pop".  I used foam dots to attach the image panel to the box, helping it  stand out, quite literally!!
The ribbon is from my stash (bought at a craft show a few months ago -  I bought about a pennys worth of about a hundred ribbons - the man serving me was VERY patient with me, lol) 
Creative Inspirations has Use a Template as it's challenge this week, Stamp Something has it's Digi Day, yay - as I've said before I am a Digi kind of girl! So those are the challenges I'll be entering my little bit of monkey business in. If I weren't on the DT for All That Scraps I'd be entering their Wednesday Challenge which has an Open theme, love those!
Hope you liked this little offering, I really did have a ball making it. I've made a tag using different images from this set, I'll be posting that shortly. Until next time, Happy Crafting, Dee