Note to Self

I've been playing with my Note to Self Quirky kit this weekend and so far I made a book...

Other side of the bookmark -

It's an accordion book I've made just taping together pieces of card and spare card blanks. The cover I've made with board covered with fabric and embellies from the kit and my stash (added the yellow ribbon, flower button, Primas and polka dot gaffer tape). I used some of the little Sassafras paper Whimsies cards - two if them just glued together with ribbon fixed in the center to make a bookmark with. The other half of the ribbon is fixed inside the cover so it's always handy to save a place. I'm not sure what's going to go in there yet but probably lots of cute inspirational stuff - stuff to inspire future Quirky kits maybe :-D
I also used some more Sassafras to make a quick card for Julie {Julie if you're reading it's going in the post now!}.

I used more Sassafras Paper Whimsies cards with a bit of paper and some Sweet Treats Stickers then stamped on the message.
Julie has been and is making loads of cute stuff with my Quirky kit and it's looking v cool - check out her blog for a peek I think everything is going up there - http://www.notesonpaper.blogspot.com/ loads of inspiring stuff there anyway :-D

xx Leo

Happy Spring!

It's official it's defo spring time! I've had my good spring clean out - sorted out unwanted clothes for charity from my wardrobe and added a few cute springy outfits to it - got a cute blazer jacket so I'm really hoping it doesn't rain too much so I can actually wear it! Blazer jacket rolled up jeans and Birki's mmmm need to make some new jewellery now too...

I also spring cleaned my stash so I treated myself to a few new bits and pieces including lots of yummy Sassafras! So I've been playing......

First a card for this weeks DMC challenge which had to have bunnies or chicks on - I cut out some of pieces from one of the Vintage Yummy Sassafras papers with a little bunny on and one with cute little birdies on so I guess I have a little bit of both!

My desk is still a bit messy so I need to spring clean it up a bit but I did make a cute windmill decoration from some leftover paper to add some lovely springy colour to it!

Also made a layout. I cut up a few different papers and used some Sweet Treats stickers to make a little collage
By this time I'd got a few scraps laying around so I made another quick card...

Then I found out some more little off cut bits of Sassafras I had and couldn't resist making another bunny card. This one is going to be for my aunty Jen I think because she loves bunnies just like me :-)

Then it got too dark to play :-(

I'm off to a mini foodie party now although I have just been informed there will be no pizza - no pizza - rubbish! Moroccan stuff apparently - I'm sure they have pizza in Morocco right? lol

xx Leo

Thickers!

I love Thickers so I had to have a play at the challenge on the American Crafts blog this week. The challenge is to use 3 different Thickers on one project. I combined my go with this weeks Scrap Like you Mean it challenge too.......

I used American Crafts Lullaby foam Thickers in Sunflower, Chit Chat Puffy Thickers in Tangerine, Daiquiri foam Thickers in pink and green and Sprinkles Glitter Thickers in black. The papers are American Crafts 'Craft Fair'.

I also made a little card with some of the left over bits + some American Crafts mini Marks and a bit more paper......

xx Leo

Waste not want not

I'm one of those crafters that likes to keep scraps and offcuts from projects and in the years I've been enjoying making things with bits of paper the scraps have amassed rather a lot. I do get around to using them but it's always good to challenge yourself to stick to just using off cuts and waste, not only is it cool to not waste stuff but it also takes a big chunk off your ermmming time deciding what to pick out to use!

This project was great fun to do, it's another recipe book I've been asked to make one just with cake recipes in (cupcakes muffins etc). I might end up keeping this one though and making another to give! lol. More scraps will get used up that way too ;-)

All the papers are October Afternoon from the Daydream, Weathervane and Detours ranges, Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts Thickers, MM Tiny alpha stickers, October Afternoon and Banana Frog stamps and Theresa Collins recipe cards + other odds and ends from my stash.

I cut down the largest scraps of papers and cardstock to 4x6" to make the pages at the front of the book. The shaped pages are freehand drawn out with a black marker and then just cut out, really easy to do with offcuts and you don't have to find a straight edge!

Some more of the inside pages:

At the back I've included some lined pages to write notes and new recipe ideas in.

This is another scraps project again using the same October Afternoon paper leftovers and a circle punch to punch out the shapes and layer them up into the design.

This is the card I've made for Mother's Day this Sunday. This time I used fabric scraps to make the embellishments with and mixed them in with some newer paper from the yum American Crafts 'Craft Fair' range. All the buttons are vintage ones from the massive stash my great grandma has - now that's a generation that know things about reusing and making do, if my gran hadn't saved all those yummy buttons I wouldn't have them now to enjoy :-)

xx Leo

DMC - Circles

I was stumped with this card, it's for an uncles birthday, what do other ppl do for uncles? It's such a toughie. Anyway I popped onto the DMC blog to see if anything could spark me off and it worked! Circles this week...... ok so what colours do I go for, scouting around for something and there sits my gogo greetings kit, still with loads of lovely SEI Jolie Chocolat papers in - can I make a man card from such pretty papers...... why not! I picked out all the brown and grey ones and punched out circles then tore out strips and stuck it all together. The other circle bits are Candy Drops and then some SEI alpha and a stamp that was in the Greetings kit.Might use this design again but it bright neon colours! lol

Thanks again DMCers for the inspro!

xx

I'm here!

I've not dropped off blogging land just been mega busy. I made these a few weeks ago but thought I'd share now because they're lovely and bright and I feel like sharing bright things this morning because the sun's all shiny and it feels almost like Summer :D Wish it was, still a long way to go yet :(
I got into the idea a few weeks ago (when it was all grey and snowy and slushy) of making fun bright cards because it's the ideal antidote to the winter blues.

Everything is American Crafts, papers (Teen), cardstock, Thickers, Flair, Galaxy Markers and rubons + some felt, ribbons from Ribbon Oasis and vintage buttons from my stash.

I'm in love with the American Crafts cardstock for making cards with at the mo, so many fun bright colours so little time......

xx Leo

An October Afternoon

Over on the October Afternoon blog all this week there have been reveals of their new lines and I've been so excited because I absolutely love October Afternoon papers! Anyone who knows me knows I love polka dot stuff and October Afternoon papers are the polka dottiest on the block along loads of other awesome patterns and crisp clean colours. I just love em and can't wait for some new patterns!

Among all the fun of the new goodie releases there are also some cool sketches to have a play with so I had to I have a play....

Sketch #1

I used loads of different October Afternoon papers, the 'Rosie's Dinner' clear stamps set, Detours Journalling cards and 'Charleston' rub-ons. Also used a little bit of fabric and some vintage buttons from my stash. The photos are actually little pockets that contain the journalling bit and other little tab bits to lift out. The sun I made with some October Afternoon paper, doodled on and cut out and then a piece glued onto some chipboard and made into a big chipboard button punching holes with my cropodile.Sketch#2

I love colourful fun vintage stuff and I think that's why I do like October Afternoon papers so much because they are a little bit vintage kitchy. These are all photos of my grandparents from the 50's and the papers and stamps work with the photos so well (I think so anyway). I used the diecut remains bit from one of the Detours Journaling Cards sheets to make frames for the photos and then layered those up with foam pads to give it dimension. The title is stamped with the Rosie's Diner stamps again (yep they are my faves lol) and I made some more chipboard buttons using off cuts of chipboard covered with paper and sanded on the edges then punched holes in and stitched on my LO.

The lace at the top and the buttons on the journal card are all ones from my grandmas sewing box (she always knows I can give her old junk a happy home) so they could actually be from the 50's, I like to think so anyway. lol

Thank you to the October Afternoon DTers for some fab sketches and giving me a good excuse to get my cute papers out again and have a play. xx Leo

Jewellery Challenge ~ handmade

This week over on the jewellery challenge blog the challenge is to make something with handmade beads. I felt like doing something with fabric so this is what I came up with....

I know it's a loose interpretation of 'bead' lol. I guess it's a pendant kind of bead :). All I did was print some images on to fabric transfer paper (the kind that you iron on and peel off). The images I used are all downloads from Kitschy Digitals. Once transferred on to the fabric I cut out the images and layered them up with some denim fabric then stitched the layers together. To make it a 'bead' I stitched a pocket bit on the back that has two open ends. to allow thread to be strung though. The beads on the necklace are vintage beads from a broken necklace (thrift store find ;) ).

Looking forward to another challenge!

xx Leo

Hearts

There have been loads of recent challenges and things about with 'hearts' as the theme and I couldn't resist playing along with some of them.

Over on the Banana Frog stamps blog there is a challenge to use hearts and because I haven't got my BF stamps out in an age, I figured I should have a play. I picked out the 'Paperchains' and 'Dear Joe' sets and made some little notecards. I love making stamped notecards and most people who have something though the post from me usually get one so I try to keep a pile handy. Prettier than just scribbling a note on a bit of paper ;-)

Stamping them means you can set up a mini production line, stamping each card in turn and building up a unique design till you have something like 10 super cute little notecards. Then when they're all gone you can make up a different design :).

A recent discovery is this jewellery challenge blog, http://jewellerychallenge.blogspot.com/ .

I used to design jewellery a few years ago and have a big stash of beads and things to use. I still like to make it for myself but I thought I could start making some more for prezzies. Here's what I came up with for the current challenge, to use hearts & red.

The heart beads are hematite and the large red beads are cherry quartz, the smaller beads are smokey quartz. I just strung them on some Stretch Magic so it can be used as a necklace or doubled up and worn as a bracelet. Will defo be playing along some more with those challenges.

xx Leo

Happy Valentines!

If you're still looking for a quick gift idea grab some ribbons, (the ones I've used are all from Ribbon Oasis), cake ingredients and cases and get creating some yummy treats! I was thinking this would also be a perfect way to decorate birthday cupcakes, wedding cupcakes or any other kind of gift cupcake you want to make, best of all it's realllllllyyyy easy!

For these Valentines ones I decided to make the classic Red Velvet cake mix. It's basically just chocolate cake with red food colouring in so it's easy to make but it always looks amazing when you break into them.

Recipe

• 140g of self raising flour
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 110ml of milk
• 1 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 tsp of vanilla flavouring
• 1 tablespoon of red food colouring
• 60g of butter
• 170g of caster sugar
• 1 large egg

Preheat your oven to 180c. Measure the milk out in a jug and add the lemon juice (or vinegar) vanilla and food colouring in to the milk then set to one side. In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until nice and fluffy and beat in the egg. Next measure out your flour and then add to the flour the cocoa powder and mix it together. Add half the flour mixture to the eggs, butter and sugar mixture, mix in then add half of the milk mixture and stir in. Add the rest of the flour mixture, stir then add the last of the milk mixture and stir again till everything is mixed in together. Your mixture should be fairly scarily read at this stage!

Add your cake cases to your tin and fill the cases with the mixture. It should make 12 smaller cupcakes (using about 2 tablespoons of mixture per case) or about 8 larger ones. Bake for about 20 mins but keep a check on them, when they're done they'll spring back up when you squidge your finger in the top.

When they're done leave them to cool on a cooling rack. You can make your buttercream for the top while they're cooling. I used a standard buttercream with half a capful of red food colouring in it. You could be more adventurous if you like or you could go for something like melted chocolate as your topping, go with whatever you have in the cupboard.

When they're cool you can decorate the cases with the ribbons. Make sure you add the ribbon before you add the icing. You can get some really cool self adhesive ribbons from Ribbon Oasis that work really well otherwise you can add double sided tape to the back of your ribbon and then just roll them around the case.

Make some bows tying the ribbon and then glue them on, you can also use little tags or add stickers to decorate them some more if you want.

Finally comes the cool part, adding topping and sprinkles! Spoon on the topping and swizzle round with a spoon or you can pipe it on if you have a piping bag (and can be bothered to clean up after!) and then sprinkle on other bits if you want. I used edible glitter and candy sprinkles that I had left over from Christmas but a gorge traditional topping for red velvet cupcakes is chocolate dipped cherries, wish I had some! Chocolate shavings would look really cool too.

Love this ribbon it reminds me of the love hearts sweets! You can get it here, the other bits I used are American Crafts Thickers and stickers from KI Memories

There's loads of cool ways you could add decoration to your cases with ribbons so have a play!

xx

Daring Cardmaker and Blog Candy winners!

Here's my take on this weeks Daring Cardmaker challenge. I'm also on D of the manufacturer A-Z challenge so I picked out 3 'D' papers, Dream Street, Doodlebug and DCWV. The papers sort of went together but not 100% so I had to think of an idea to get them all to work so I went with a Spinner card and used some nestabilities to cut out the shapes. I also added some Doodlebug alphas and some rubons from an old kit.

Side one,Side two,

The instuctions for the spinner card are on Lou's Dotty blog check it out here.

Ok on to blog candy winners!

These were pulled out of hats at random........

winner of the boy card kit is......

Maddy said...
Boys are cool! That boy kit looks pretty cool too :)
6:21 PM

winner of the project kit is......

Pam said...
they are both cool!I struggle with all cards, especially boy cards-but having said that I LOVE the project rules kit, so I reckon I'd go for that one!! I love the cards you made btw!
7:40 PM

Ok mail me your addys to llbbanks@yahoo.co.uk and I'll get your goodies in the post.

If you weren't lucky don't be sad too long and hey the new Crafty Goodies kit is out today so you can treat yourself if you need to ;)

Happy snow day! xx Leo

Stitching a DS Wrap

Here's the wrap I made for my DS!

I came up with this idea from the fabric pencil crayon wraps people make, I thought that would make a cool storage case for the little Nintendo DS cartridges that end up everywhere, so I set on making one. I played around with a piece of fabric, {it was just shy of a fat quarter size, doubled over} and decided to make a wrap with two pockets on either side, one for the DS itself and one to keep the little cartridges in.

These are quick diagrams to try and show how I made it, the first one is how the fabric is folded, you need to start with a doubled over piece of fabric cut so you have a long rectangle shape.....

Then you need to fold over each end to make the pockets, the side on the left is folded over about 3.5 inches and the side on the right is about 4.5 inches. You need to leave a gap in the center of the wrap so you can pull out the DS and cartridges from the pockets.

When you've pressed the pocket folds all you need to do is stitch it together. I included stitching along the folded edge, it doesn't need it but it just makes the whole thing look neater. I also used some American Crafts ribbon as binding along the pocket edges to make them a little more hardwareing. You need a good long length {about 36 inches long} of ribbon or thonging for your closing and that needs to be stitched into the pocket of the left side of the wrap.

The dashed areas show the stitching around the pockets. To finish off thread a button on the end of the closing and tie a big knot in the end to secure it. Here's my wrap all opened up. To close it you just fold it over and wrap the closing around then tuck the button under.

If you have any to pass on I would love some shares of other projects, I've got a stack of cute fabric waiting to be used.

xx Leo

P.S if you're here looking for the blog candy draw it's in this post and you have till the 1st of Feb to enter the draw. xx

Daring Cardmakers & C for Core-dinations

This weeks DCM dare is to make a card with a heart on, so, not much to go on but I was thinking something cute, because generally hearts are cute right? I also wanted to make a good luck card and I'm on to C with my personal stash bashing A-Z challenge so I picked Core-dinations cardstock because I never use it enough and it is very cool stuff so it should be used. All those things combined together made me come up with this card.......

I just sketched out the shape of kittys head on some core-dinations black magic card and then embossed it with the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder then rubbed it back. Added on the features then made a background with some patterned paper off cuts and some more core-dinations, this time torn to reveal the core colour. Jammed the whole thing together and finished with the chipboard heart and the tape writer message.
Thanks for another fab dare!
I've got a sewing project to share tomorrow, if you have a Nintendo DS and like me you are good at leaving the little cartridges everywhere then losing them you might like it ;-)
Oh and don't forget about blog candy, here. End date for blog candy draw is the 1st of Feb.

xx Leo

101th post! + blog candy + new cards

So I finally got to the 100th post on here, that's something for me because I'm such a pants blogger. I am going to try much harder this year and I think I'm getting there because this past couple of weeks I've had a massive creative splurge. I've been scrapping, making cards, sewing and all kinds of creative-ness. I even found time to make a new blog header, mostly from bits I had on my desk, which I actually tidied! Yes I can see actual patches of desk now, lol.

So anyway all this creative-ness has made me think I should update my blog with not just card things but try and include other makes to share so that's my aim for this year for defo. I'm also working my way though my stash piles and I've decided to do an A-Z of manufacturers challenge so for A I picked out American Crafts and I've only allowed myself to use American Crafts goodies. You can play along if you want to or make your own A-Z challenge up to get your inspro going. It's come in really handy for me already because my calendar in January and early Feb is full of birthdays...

A for American Crafts
I used lots of their lush patterned papers, Guesthouse Foam shapes, Minimark rub-ons, ribbon, Flair and Thickers. Everything is American Crafts apart from a little bit of felt and that one paper blossom and button, hey it's my challenge, my rules :P
OK on to blog candy business, I did say that I would do a give-away when I got to my 100th post so here is what I came up with. I plundered the office draw that has a load of spare goodies in from past Crafty Templates kits, added a few extra bits and pieces and made up two kits to giveaway!

1. Boy cards

Boy cards are so difficult and it's cool to have a stash of goodies there as a starting point so here I've made a kit to make boy cards with. There's loads of papers, Bazzill card, 6 card blanks and cool kraft envelopes with some boyish matching embellies.........

2. Project fun-ness

Picture the scene, it's a rainy afternoon you have a bit of spare time and you fancy sitting down to a crafty session, you get all your crafty stuff out and then nothing happens because your you time is up already. So here I've made up a fun kit full of bright colours to go along with the Crafty Templates Pinwheel mini book project, {I'll send you a free download of the project sheet too or print one off if you need me to}. Everything you need to follow the project is in the kit apart from adhesive and photos so you can sit down with the kit, follow the project and end up with something cool at the end of it.

Nothing complicated to do just post bellow Boys are cool {if you want the boy kit} or 'Projects Rule' {if you want the project kit} and I'll pick two winners out at random. E Z P Z!

xx Leo

Merry Christmas cards!

A quick photo I did of a few more cards I made for this Christmas......

Have a fab holiday time whatever you get up to!

I'm going to have a little blog candy draw in the new year to mark me getting to my 100th blog post so watch this space.

xx Leo