Alive & Kickin'

Hello hello crafty bloggies!
I thought the idea of a whole room to myself, yes, one big room, just for myself, would make me set up my craft goodies right away and get crafting like mad. Err, apparently not! The 'study' that's waiting for me to give it some TLC is still waiting, patiently. Random boxes and things lay strewn, it looks nowhere close to the craftroom of my dreams right now, but will work on it soon. Oh, and yes, by the way, I've decided that husby darling will get a side, just one side for his computer desk and chair. I'm very generous and kind that way :)
So, yeah, my point is - I haven't set up my craft room in our new little nest yet. Will do so soon. Oooh and you know what? I'm going for a closing down craft sale this weekend and apparently the fixtures, racks and such are on sale too! I mean, it's sad that they're closing down, but yay for me :) Now, I only have to convince husby to take me there on Saturday morning. (No, I don't drive!)
Can't wait to get my things organised and get crafting real soon...

Happy Crafting!

Fun with colours and patterns

Hello all you crafty people! Today I'm sharing a simple little tag I made for CAS-ual Fridays CFC56 and The Play Date Cafe PDCC135 challenges. It's all about spots for Cas-ual Fridays and some lovely colours for The Play Date Cafe.

Here's my tag -

I started with a plain white piece of cardstock. Next, I used circle punches in various sizes, punched out circles in aqua, blue and clay and then created an abstract pattern with them. I tried out double punching here, it's so cool! This was fun to do, hadn't exercised my brain in a long time! I usually tend to run to my pattern papers and stamps to create something and this was kind of different :)

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

See, I've decided to get into my craft room and make stuff for challenges. To me, right now, it's a great source of inspiration and motivation to craft more regularly.

On that note, I want to share this really handy tip - while working on a project I usually tend to play around with the layout and design until I'm happy with the way it looks. Sometimes, I'm a little whacked in the head, and I tend to forget what I did before I glue everything in place. So I figured I'd take a picture of my arrangement first before I pull away everything to add adhesive. Then I simply use the picture on my iPad as a reference to put everything back together! Such a simple idea, I know. But that's me, I get excited about
 my little discoveries :)

Happy Crafting!

Shopping Buddies

Hey! Popping in to share a card I made today. I wanted to create something for Simon Says Stamp's current challenge and Hero Arts Monthly challenge. Keeping in with the respective themes, I decided to use my favourite Hero Arts Shoes set and make a 'Thinking of You' card with some gems (phew). Here's the result-

About the card:

• beige card base
• used some scraps from a previous project for the layers
• stamped the shoes on white card stock, coloured and cut them out
• popped them onto some white punched out circles
• handwrote the little note on a page I ripped off from my notepad, stapled it onto the card for added interest
• stamped 'thinking of you' sentiment from Hero Arts
• stamped teeny tiny flowers on the left corner
• finished off with some sparkly gems on the flower centres and on the shoes

  I had my besty in mind all the while as I was making this card. I remember how much fun we used to have shopping for shoes. We'd look at a hundred pairs, try on almost all of them and then head back home with atleast two big bags full of fun shopping! Oh those were the days, sigh! Nothing like a good shopping trip with a girlfriend with lots of giggles 'n' coffee 'n' cake.

I miss you G dearest...wish we lived closer!

Happy Crafting!

Altered Art: Upcycled Baby Formula Tins

Hello, hello! I'm back, as I'd stated earlier, with a fun project.
I've been saving baby formula tins and little baby food jars, oh the joys of being a mother! The father is not very pleased with the growing number of 'recyclables' (as he calls them) huddling together cosily in all possible corners of the house. I, on the other hand, have loads of ideas for them and every time I stash away another formula tin, I envision in my mind a beautiful new project.
So four of these graduated from being just boring old empty tins into personalised gift holders. I tell you, I had the most fun with this project!
 Here's how it all started - We got Little Miss from the hospital eight months ago (boy, does time fly!) and ever since her arrival I've been wanting to give something nice to the lovely midwives at the hospital as a 'thank you' gesture. Never got around to doing it, shameful, I know. But I'm a firm believer of 'better late than never' (as of today, heh) and I finally finished making my gifts. Call me wonked in the head, but I think there's something sweet and quirky about using baby formula tins as gift holders here, hospital-midwives-babies, you know what I mean? No? Never mind.

 This is what I did:

• Bought a bunch of little somethings for each of them (I have 4 lovely people in mind)
• Wrapped them in pretty scrap booking paper
• Made those handy key tags (the ones you wear around your neck)
• Customised plain coffee mugs - wrote RELAX.BREATHE.PUSH on them, fun hey?
• Made some CAS thank-you cards
• Decorated the formula tins (and had loads of fun!)
• Filled them up with all the goodies

Now, I just have to make sure I don't take another eight months to give them :)

 The BEFORE picture.
















Here's what they look like AFTER being dressed up :)

I threaded some pink sewing thread onto a big fat needle and it went right through the lids. I added tags to write the names on. I think it finished everything off so well.

The goodies all covered in matching pattern paper.

The key tags I made. They were so simple to make. I found the lovely wide ribbon at a local store and they were perfect for this project. I picked up some hook 'n' key rings from the same store. Then I simple cut the ribbon to length and stitched on the key rings.












The idea for the mugs is actually a Pinterest find. I wrote my text with Sharpies and then baked in the oven to set the ink. I avoided the rim to be on the safer side and went for the base of the mug. And of course, I didn't trust my own writing, so I created stencils for the words on my Silhouette. So handy!

And here are the CAS cards...

The highlight of this whole episode was when everything fit in (snugly) into the tins! Perfect, sigh!

So there you have it! My super fun upcycled baby formula tin project. Hope I've inspired you to create something similar.

Happy Crafting!

Father's Day Project for Studio V

Hello all! Thought I'd share a fun little project with a Father's Day theme. I made this for Studio V's Hands2Hearts Challenge for June.

 

Any man can be a father. But it takes someone special to be Appa (dad).

I was waiting for an opportunity to use the chevron background from Lawn Fawn and I love it in this project. I love the rough, distressed look it created. And I've been smitten by this colour combo - turquoise, coral and amber. Wanted to put them together somewhere! I created this fun little (upcycled) remote caddy with a matching card. I used one of Little Miss' empty formula tins that I've been hoarding for a while now. (By the way, those formula tins are great for upcycled projects. I'm currently working on another fun project using the tins, stay tuned).

So, I created some pattern paper using the chevron background stamps, wrapped it around the tin and secured with glue. Then I finished it off with some raffia twine and a little tag with a cheeky sentiment! The card was very easy to put together since I already had the colours picked out. A 5x5 card base in white, some more stamping and a simple little banner for the sentiment - easy! 

Go on and make something for that special man in your life who loves you, guides you and inspires you. And enter your creation in the Hands2Hearts Challenge for a chance to win some yummy goodies. You even have a chance to get 15% off purchases at ScrapKorner if you're among the top 5. So head to Studio V, look at the DT's projects for inspiration and get started with your own.

Will be back soon with some projects I'd love to share once I'm done. Oh by the way, if you read my previous post, I'm very pleased to say that I figured out what the matter was with me. My craft room was a big, humongous mess! I recently cleaned it and straightened it out a bit and what a difference that made! Husby even exclaimed at the floor space that he could actually see, ahem. So lesson learnt - I work well when I'm organised. How much simpler can the truth be? Sigh. 

Happy Crafting!