Easter bits and bobs

Hi, I'm back with some Easter projects today.

Now, you've seen these boxes before. I make them a lot because they're good. They're easy to make, they fit a decent amount of treats and they're forgiving when you make them. A good formula, I reckon.

Click here and Erin will show you how to make them. I got the stack idea from her. She was giving brownies, I gave chocolate Easter eggs the same size as regular eggs.

Ye good olde curling ribbon always comes in handy!

And of course, punches, they're always handy.

Here's a little treat box, come basket, come bag thingy.

It houses about two or three of those small eggs. I just made it up as I went along. Not the easiest thing I've put together, that's for sure. Just being honest :o). Not that it was hard necessarily, it was just fanangaly. Try finding that word in the dictionary!

You know what fanangaly is, right? It means that you made it and you probably wouldn't make it again because it didn't come together easily enough to warrant another go. I bet you're thinking of a fanangaly project of your own. Yep, that one you did once and probably won't do again :o)

This little basket wasn't fananagaly...it was fine.

It's essentially the base of a box and instead of cutting to make the normal tabs, I cut down the middle of the tab square and just joined those bits together.

Clear as mud?

Sorry! Hard to explain!

Does this pic help?

Instead of cutting in to make a square tab (that you would normally attach sticky tape to and then stick to the long side to make the side of the box), you cut from the corner of the card to the point where all the score lines meet and that'll give you two triangular tabs. Glue those two together and that gives you the slant.

Trust me, it's not hard in real life, it's just hard to explain in words. And I didn't take a photo of it in bits or anything. Rats.

So, the last two little projects might've put you off making anything (sorry about that!), but this one's easy, easy, easy.

I did these at Christmas too. They're just any shape folded over a treat bag and decorated at will.

I decorated the decorations out of mine and went for glitter, embossing, eggs and butterflies.

Actually, I sprayed Vanilla Smooch over the embossed eggs too, so, make that glitter, embossing, eggs, Smooch and butterflies.

Don't think I could've fit anything else on there!

Here's a non-fat version for you - use real eggs.

(These are organic, free-range, top-notch, premium eggs, ie. they're from our chooks. Thanks, girls)

Another idea I heard about recently would work too - buy refillable eggs and put notes in them. For example, little jokes, riddles or "things I appreciate about you", stuff like that.

To finish today we're going to focus on the fake parsley in the box.

It's the Martha Stewart loopy border punch punched in two greens then rolled up and glued.

Okay, have a fab day!

Easter cards = chicks + glitter

Hey there!

Have quite a few Easter card and tag ideas to share with you today.

Gotta say, I'm loving the bright colours and the glitter paper. So fun.

Firstly, a cute chick hiding in the grass with a treat for you!

The punch at the bottom is one of those huge Martha Stewart deep edger ones. I don't know the name, sorry. Daisy something?
I'm just starting to get into the habit of labelling my punches - ie. their names. They always have the name on the packaging, but never the punch. I've started writing them on with permanent pen, so I know their names and can tell you!
I write on my punches all the time. Little marks to show me where the image is underneath the punch (because on the levers it doesn't line up with the picture on the top), names of the punches, sizes of the circles so I pick up the right one etc. And with the circles I write in both inches and mm - it's useful to have both on there.
Okay, back to the cards. The glitter paper is from Doodlebug. It was in a stand at PC near all the other Doodlebug papers. Comes in lots of fun colours.
It also gets all over your desk! The glitter, that is. We all know what it's like to work with glitter :o)
A giant chick with giant eggs!

The crepe paper is Melissa Frances Vintage Treasures and there's four colours in the pack (cream, green, blue, pink). Pleating the crepe paper like this is a lot of fun.

To do it - just put your tape on the card itself and then pleat along as you go. I made it a bit wiggly so it looked more grassy.

And some punch art fun - cute girl on a swirl.

I used my Matte accents (it's the same as Dimensional Magic, only matte. I use this strictly as glue as I have no need to make anything look matte) to draw the swirl and then put Banana Art Glitter over it. Sticks well. Dimensional Magic would work just as well.

This Easter basket is a new one for me this year. It's Martha (don't you love her?) and the punch includes the basket and four eggs. Those eggs are so cute!

Above I punched the basket twice and did the handle in a lighter yellow. It's not very obvious in the photo. A very simple card, this one.

Next, I pulled out the oft used Cupcake punch from McGill.

The cupcake bottom is the basket obviously, and the icing is the grass. Good punch that.

If you want to make simpler cards, you could make these.

Be prepared for people to say that the eggs look like shot-puts, though. I said that about my own cards, so others will too probably!

The background embossing folder is a Tri-Dots one from Sizzix (from a birthday set). It's a nice option, I think.

And more glitter paper. Been using it a lot lately...

This embossing folder is Caramelo by Provo Craft (Cuttlebug people). Love the flowers.

The chick looks a little sad or confused. Egg or shot-put?

All the little cards are the same as the bunny tag from last week. They have a back piece that's creased for the card flap bit.

They don't have the pierced holes like the bunny tag does, I just noticed.

And more crepe paper and hidden eggs.

Love the hidden eggs.

See what your macro setting shows up?

What's that black spot?

Hmmm....

I sprayed the background of the whole card with Vanilla Smooch - gives it a subtle shine. It's on the border at the bottom too.

And that little Scatter Joy stamp is from Daisy Bucket.

I got all these supplies from Photo Continental. Lots of fun things to be found over there!

I'll be back again tomorrow with some more Easter crafting ideas.

Enjoy your day!

:o)

Banners!

Erin predicted it two years ago.

I hoped for it two years ago.

It's finally happened.

Yep, a banner revolution.

It took awhile, but they've finally taken off and I'm loving it.

I've had these in my room for a couple of years now.
I had my own bunting revolution back then.
I made bunting galore that I use for decoration around the place.
(Aren't those wires hanging down there horrid? You'll be pleased to know they're not there any more. I know I am)
Here we are. Decoration like this.

These are Christmas ones obviously, but picture the first pattern from my room, a pretty blue tablecloth on the table and some flowers in the middle. A springtime lunch! We did that for Father's Day one year. Nice.

They're easy to put up near the dining table too. I just string them over the wall lights. Very easy.

Okay, bunting in the house and now bunting on the cards.

Oh, so fab.

I just love it when something is fab. And this is fab.

Not fab because it's my card, but fab because it's just fab.

Gotta have the close ups!

And guess what?

That McGill ice cream punch makes the bunting. It's perfect for it.

As I said to some lovely ladies the other day - the ice cream punch was a keeper before, but because of the bunting opportunities, it's now legendary. Love it.

Whoa, lots going on here!

Here's double bunting - more of the home-spun type.

I used deco scissors to cut around the triangle to look like it was on material.

The stars were added last. They finished it off well - they needed to be there for this one.

That little ice cream punch is an EK Success one I've had for years. Such a cute one. I pull it out a lot.

If you haven't made yourself some bunting, make sure you give it a go. You'll love it. I'm hoping so!

Have a great day, won't you?

:o)

Oh, and PS: Guess who received the birthday card? My dad. Yep, my dad. Who says a man card has to be brown and blue? He liked it!

I love close up shots...

...do you?

I've been getting down with the camera recently to get some close up shots, just for fun.

It's all about the details, see? Details are my thing.

Sometimes I don't like that they're my thing because I see droplets on windows, faint splotches on the walls, scratches on the car...you know, things that don't really matter, but they're still there and I still see them.

I don't mind these details, however.

Look at 'em. You can even see the grain in the patterned paper.

Don't you just love digital cameras sometimes?

Oooh, look at this one...

That's Rock Candy Distress Stickles on there. It's glassy and clear and looks particularly good on vintage paper.

In fact, it looks fab on vintage paper.

Any vintage paper. Get it. Put Rock Candy on. Fab.

I do not know this for absolute sure because I do not own every piece of vintage paper in the world, but I do know that Rock Candy looked good on the one piece of vintage paper I used, so based on that extensive use of the product, I'm saying it'd look good on any vintage paper.

I stand by my original claim...

Any vintage paper. Get it. Put Rock Candy on. Fab.

"Oh, that stupid rooster..."

Pity we can't read the rest of the story. Poor rooster, by the sounds of it he's not going to rule the roost for much longer.

Details, details, it's all in the details.

Hey, if you feel like it, the next time you have your camera out, get in close when taking your shots and see what cool photos you get. Put your camera on Macro, hold that sucker still and shoot away.

And since we're talking details, here's one for ya...

I got up before to check the name of the Rock Candy Stickles. It's Rock Candy Stickles alright, but it's Distress Stickles, not Distressed Stickles, which I've been calling it forever! Good old detailed eye noticed that one and thought, "Aye! See? Details!"

Joy book

A big hello to you today!

Thought I'd share something a little bit different today and it's a...

...book.

Not a mini-album because there's no photos. It's just a book. A Joy book.

I started this a couple of years ago just to record the fun bits of life because it's good to remember those, right?

Above is the front cover. It's grey chipboard (about 8 x 8) covered with patterned paper on the front and back. White card is on the inside covers.

As you can see the book is all over the place.

I tell ya, you've gotta do one of these books in your crafting career. Just pull out all your favourite papers and go to town making pages, pages and pages. And make them all sizes and types, it's more fun.

You can fold a favourite pattern in half - that's a page.

You can put one pattern on one side and another pattern on another side - that's a page.

You can mix 'em up and put bits and pieces all over if you like - that's a page!

Get me?

You just make pages out of any paper you like and make them any size. That's it. That's all there is to it. Excepting the punching of the holes and the sticking them in the book part of course.

Oh yeah, and make sure you luurve the papers you use. No use making a Joy book and not liking the papers. No joy in that!

Then once you've gone to town and come back again with the paper, you just start writing bits and pieces in there about anything you want.

Above you can read how I enjoyed the beautiful sky on 9 July 08. Now, I'm not sure if it's the same sky I'm remembering, but I can picture that bright blue sky with orange clouds. I remember the impression it made on me at the time, but I wouldn't be remembering it now if I hadn't written it down then.

I don't know, are you into remembering and writing and all that? I kinda find people are into it, or they're not.

Another thing I didn't realise until I saw the page above? I've had my Cuttlebug for two years this July. Didn't think it was that long. Remembering that piece of information isn't vital to my emotional well being, but it's fun just to know. All remembering doesn't have to be deep now does it?

Oh, and this is fun. A reindeer sticking out of a pocket. I just stuck him in there because he made me smile.

And that apple paper is one of my all time favourites. Love the whole and half apples, the graphicness of it, the blues and greens and the crispness of it too, I guess. Just like it!

Just a tip/note/suggestion/idea: "Pages" can be pockets, envelopes and tags too.

They can also be circular, punched up the side, made from acetate (oooh, cool), big, small, fat, thin, tabbed, not tabbed...etc etc. You know, whatever floats your boat, takes you for a sail and brings you back again.

Just go for it!

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the mess that will accumulate on your desk while doing this project.

:o)

Hippity Hop!

Hello there!

How are you today?

It's only a week and a bit until Easter, isn't that amazing?

Thought I'd share this cute bunny with you today.

I made the ears out of hearts by cutting them in half in two sizes (rounding them off neatly) and then gluing them together. I used an oval for the egg. Of course you can use an egg punch, but an oval works well too.

If I'm being perfectly honest, it looks like Mr Rabbit is about to enter the arena for his turn at the shot put event...

(Maybe if I had used an egg it wouldn't look like a shot put, but that's beside the point)

Let's not be perfectly honest, though, let's be artistic. That means I'm asking you to see the shot put as an egg, and not a shot put. Okay?

Thank you.

Oh, and moving on to the glitter!

Am I alone in the glitter department? Do you like it like me?

Love these close up shots too actually. I just put the camera on macro and get up nice and close. It's amazing what you see. Sometimes it's not-so-amazing...drops of glue stand out like a sore thumb at that range :o)

Look at the nose and all those little individual bits of glitter. Like it. Like seeing them.

The glitter by the way is Distressed Stickles and the colour is Worn Lipstick. Sorry to the girls in class on Saturday - I told you it was Cotton Candy. Cotton Candy is regular Stickles, so it's glittery. The Distressed Stickles is glassy. Either would be nice, for sure.

The paper is Doodlebug glitter paper and it comes in quite a few different colours. Nice and fun for Easter cards.

I punched a cream scallop, scored it at about 2cm and glued the flap to the front blue bit to make a complete card. These are still cards, just smaller. Good for when all you want to say is Happy Easter inside.

Okay, bye now. See you tomorrow!

PS. I have about 15 sets of alphabet stamps for sale. Some are Hero Arts, the rest are other brands. A Rebecca Sower one and PSX. They're $12, $10 and $8 (depending on size) plus the postage to get them to you. If you're interested just send me an email at and.deb@bigpond.com and I'll email images of them to you so you can have a look. Okay, thanks!