You Create your own opportunities

Helloooo there fellow crafters.

Welcome to another happy crafternoon. Getting crafty seems to be the perfect way to spend the days given just how awful the weather is. My poor neighbour had a new wall put up last summer, such a nice new wall is now laying across the road. She must be very upset. However, my heart goes out to all those people whose homes and businesses have been destroyed by flooding. Please know my thoughts and prayers are with you all. Its at times like this you realise just how lucky you are - and maybe a blown down wall isnt so bad after all.

Well I have been watching create and craft and mothers day keeps being brought up so I have decided to get ahead of myself and make some cards :-) A few of my friends have also requested a couple of cards from me which is really exciting. Here are a couple that I have made so far,

 The above is one that I am planning to give one of my friends. This card is made from good old Hunkydory cardstock. I did the mat and layering myself though. I need to get a set of those perfect layers which makes mat andlayering much more easier.

 
This is one that I plan to give to my own mum :-) I am however, waiting for some new tattered lace dies to arrive...I will be putting one of those in the centre. My mum like horses so I may go with that. I treated myself to both the rocking horse and the horse and carriage dies. Spent a fortune but I see them as a lifetime purchase. Plus they are sooooo beautiful. Its the tattered lace magazine which is to blame. They have a ticklist at the begiining asking you to tick which dies you have. I LOVE LISTS, which makes me want to buy the dies just so I can tick them off the list!!! Why did I choose such an expensive hobby lol.

A couple of my friends have been moving into new homes, so I had to create a couple more cards for them.

The majority of this card has been made by both spellbinder and tattered lace dies - you can see how delicate they look. The butterfly is an EK success punch.

 

This card has been made with the lovely Hunkydory cardstock. Hunkdory is the perfect place to go, if you have been thinking about starting to make your own cards. They do some perfect starter kits with everything you need. Obviously make sure you have you own glue scissors etc.

 

see - http://www.hunkydorycrafts.co.uk/ for more details

 

I have been watching Supernatural from the beginning and have just started season 8. Thus, today I will be crafting whilst watching that and create and craft. I plan to make some embellishments today such as flowers, butterflies and 3D stars. I also have a new EK Success heart punch. Obviously I will be making some more cards to. STAY TUNED!!!

I Taught Myself to Draw Cats!!!!!!

Ok, so I love cats as you know. I have two of my own...Poppy and Boots. Poppy is the little Kitten hiding behind Boots. However, she is much bigger now. Poppy is eratic and playful, whereas Boots is stubborn and sophisticated. When I was younger I used to draw really well. However, its something I have not done in years. Thus, when I went to draw a cat - I was terrible. Thus, I started practicing again and with each try I got a little better :-) I hope you like them xxx

This reminds me of Poppy :-)

This reminds me of Boots, with her back to me lol. I am giving this one to my mum from Boots for valentines day hahaha

Its raining outside but its all craft inside - VOTE FOR MOI!!!!

Please go to - https://www.facebook.com/#!/CreateandCraft?sk=app_515720611858523&app_data
and vote for my card in Create and Crafts Valentines Competition:

Procraftinating

Ok, so as you know in the summer I starting crafting again. It has gone from a hobby to both a lifestyle and obsession! I live and breath crafting. My card making has got better (I think), and I have even taught myself to knit and use a sewing machine. Both of which were very proud moments. All day I am thinking about what I could make. Boxes appear to be my specialty. Create and Craft is the DEVIL, I spend so much of my wages here. I have just recently purchased some more punches and some spectrum noir pens. I plan to spend my day making card toppers today. Here are some of my latest inventions. Hope you like them, you can see them all on https://www.facebook.com/#!/CreateandCraft - you may even want to start crafting yourself. Word of advise - Everyone NEEDS a Spellbinder Grand Calibur!!!!!!  http://www.createandcraft.tv/_252000.aspx?matchtype=_4DD&gclid=CNCPgubFvrwCFQKWtAod5FAAkg

 This was my 1st box attempt, simply made from cardboard, papermache and pretty paper and embellishments. I also discovered my love for glue guns when making this. Yes I also have a love for candle wax! I like making boxes because its less messy than cards, when making cards there is not an inch of space around me, which for a neat freak can be very frustrating. I know what your thinking - get over it Becky you cannot have a neat crafter. I used Hunkydory Pearlescent embellishments for this box

 My 2nd attempt. I bought a butterfly punch from EK Success and was playing with it when I made this. I used the same technique to make the box as mentioned above. So basically, I cut out all sides from a card board box - thanks Lee! and stuck it together with a glue gun - Thanks Lee again!. I then used flour and water to make paper mache paste. I then had to leave this to dry overnight. I then covered it in pretty paper and stuck on my embellishments.

 My sister passed her driving test faster than expected bless her. Thus, i chucked together this card in an hour and was soooo impressed by the outcome. It taught me that sometimes the best cards are made when you do not have a plan in mind.

 I taught myself to knit via youtube. No it was not easy, nothing ever is when you first start. I sat there for 3 hours trying to do one knit stitch! However, once you know what your doing.... yes it is easy and yes it is very relaxing. I cannot follow a pattern yet so I am still learning. This is the picture I took when I first learnt and I was very proud.

 The butterflies you see here are spellbinder dies - to be used with your grand calibur. I love dies, they are stunning.

 My patchwork cushion. I know what your thinking, the girl cannot stick to one craft. No I cant I adore it all. This is the first one I have ever made after learning how to use my Toyota sewing machine - Thanks Lee :-). As you can tell from the picture, I have not yet learnt how to seal it up, someone has suggeses an envelope fold???????

 I made this yesterday for my mummy for Valentines Day.

 I have entered this card into Create and Crafts valentines competition: https://www.facebook.com/#!/CreateandCraft?sk=app_515720611858523&app_data
PLEASE VOTE FOR ME

 This is my sisters wedding day card!!!!

 I LOVE THIS and I LOVE CATS - as you can tell from pictures shown in previous posts. I made this quite early on using one of the craft books that I first bought. If you put an LED candle inside i lights up.

 I thought I could frame this

 and this

 This is the first card that I sold - to my mum lol

 This is Evie 1st birthday card, once again using Hunkdory Pearlescent Collection http://www.hunkydorycrafts.co.uk/
I cannot believe Evie is nearly 1, she has grown up soooo fast.

 This is my best friends Bon Voyage card - I hope she doesnt see it before I give it to her. Would however like to think that she is reading my Blog!!!! This is by far my FAVOURITE card, it was also the most fun to make. Jenny will be travelling around South America this summer for 3 months, I am very jealous but at the same time very proud:-) I used cardstock from paperchase.

 Another good friend of mine Sophie has just moved house, this card is for her when she invites me over.

 Another card I sold - to my mum - she appears to be my only customer lol.

The above cards I made with decoupage - very fun!

Make your own games continued....

After of the success of the Scrabble game, I asked my friends what else I could potentially make. It was at this point that Uno was suggested. Thanks Jen :-)

This game was soooooo EASY to make! Basically cut out 108 identical rectangular pieces of card to whatever size you like. To be entirely honest - I ran out of card and was only able to do approximately 85 cards. Luckily, I was still able to play the game successfully with seven people. Thus, please do not worry if you run out of card. You need 4 different coloured felt tip pens. As you can see I used red, yellow, green and blue - however I would not say that this is a requirement.

For the skip ago card, the reverse direction card, and pick up two card I created two cards for each colour. In other words, there were 8 of each card in total. I also drew easy symbols and wrote on the card what the symbol meant (This is good for people that have never played Uno before). Due to the fact that I ran out of card I only did  6 wild cards in total. However, you are supposed to have 8 but like I said, I would not worry too much about this. There are two types of wild cards, one wild card allows you to call the colour you want everyone to play, and the other also allows you to do this but also requires the next person to pick up 4 cards. Finally, create 2 sets of 0-9 cards in each colour.

A couple of nights ago I went round my friends house for a Christmas party. I took these Uno cards with me, and then went down a real treat. I totally suggest making a set.

Make you own games for New Years Day

Hi Everyone :-)

A few weeks ago I had this ingenious idea to make my own games to play with friends and family over the Christmas period. The idea came to me when wandering around John Lewis trying to find Scrabble. I found the game but was shocked to discover that it was £50. Thinking back to all the materials I had at home, I decided to ATTEMPT to make the game myself.

To make the base I cut out 2 pieces of cardboard (30cm by 30cm) and stuck them together with double sided tape. I then stuck white card on the base. You need to have 15 squares upon each row and 15 rows in total. Basically its a 15 by 15 grid of squares. The squares need to be identical. Thus, I measured each box as 2cm by 2cm. With different coloured pens you need to create double letter scores, double word scores, triple letter scores and finally triple word scores. Voila - you have a Scrabble board.

To make the Letters I cut out 1.5cm by 1.5 cm squares from card. I stuck two of these 1.5cm by 1.5cm together using doubled sided tape (every crafter needs loads of double sided tape), by doing this you make them 3D and much more sturdy.

I did three of each consonant and each vowel. However, my friends and I discovered very fast that this was wrong! After a lovely evening of G&Ts and playing Scrabble, we were struggling to make words because we all had consonant and no vowels :-/ Thus, with a little help from my friends I decided to do 6 of each consonant. The game is a little easier now. I put all the words in a little bag - which I am ashamed to say that I did not make! I will make a little box for them soon I promise. I also make my own letter stands by folding a couple pieces of card together

As you can probably all tell - I am no expert at crafting (I am a beginner), this is probably demonstrated in my over simplistic instructions that probably make no sense. However, if you have any questions please get in touch.

Hello to all other Create and Craft Club Members

Just joined the Create and Craft Club :-) In the words of Create and Craft themselves:

Join our crafting club and become part of a huge crafting community who all love to craft - and enjoy all the great benefits the club has to offer!
Membership is only £20 for a year - and we will give you back an instant credit of £10 to spend - making it truly great value for money!
Becoming a member brings you so many benefits for 12 months, including:

• Your Create and Craft Magazine - Delivered to your door
• 10% discount on craft purchases for the whole year
• £10 credited to your account
• Exclusive craft gift - you only pay postage and packing
• A team of UK agents available on our order line from Monday to Friday
• Exclusive access to craft competitions and special offers
• Weekly Members' Newsletter Email
• A special Club Badge!