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Shy at first. Like getting and giving hugs, like my own company but like having 1 on 1 time with my friends. Not keen on big changes. Like to know what's happening!

Monday 25 April 2011

Update

Hi everyone

Hope you are all well.  Have you been entering the Creations By Gill M Blog Challenge?  It's a good one to do, especially just now since Spring has sprung!  Go to http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/2011/04/cbgm-blog-challenge-6-birds-in-garden.html for more details.  Have you tried the card that I made, following my instructions?  Hope they were easy to understand!

I'm going to be uploading some photos of my recent card projects.  I hope you like them and look forward to hearing your comments.

Hoping to get a bit more crafting done soon as well.  My business isn't as busy as I would like, so I'm having a think about my future, the business and what I should do for the best.  It's such a hard position to be in, and I know there are so many people in a similar position.

That's all for now in this post,

Take care.

Lisa xx

Saturday 23 April 2011

Creations By Gill M Blog Challenge - Birds In The Garden

Hiya

Here we are again, ready to start a new challenge courtesy of http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/2011/04/cbgm-blog-challenge-6-birds-in-garden.html  If you would like to enter the challenge, or wish to see other entrants, just click on the link and you'll find all you need to know, and hopefully get some great ideas from the inspirational design team.

So this is my card:

The challenge was to create a project including a bird (or birds) you'd see in your garden.  So I'm going to say that this is the owl that lives in my best friends garden.  She lives next to a woods, and I'm sure I've heard an owl there before.  I think I've heard an owl at the back of my garden too, but everyone tells me it's pigeons! Oh well!

This is a bit more intricate and time consuming than some of my previous projects, so good luck!  I first saw this type of card at a Do Crafts demo in Inverness by Beckie Dreyer  http://beckiedreyer.blogspot.com/   So a BIG Thank You to Beckie.  Hopefully I can do you proud and try and translate my notes from the demo into proper English for others to understand!  I had a lot of fun making this card, so much so that when it was finished, I showed it to my Mum and Sister going "twit twoo, twit twoo" at them, whilst opening and closing the card!  That's my weird sense of humour and the child in me!

Through out this project, make sure you score each line really well, as this well help with the final formation of the card.

So, to make my card, you need a piece of card or thick paper 12" long by 4" high.  (approx. 30 x 10cm) Mark lightly with a pencil 6" (15cm) along the paper, this should be the centre of the paper.  Take the right side of the paper and fold it in towards the centre, where you have marked.  You should now have a diagonal score line on the right side of the paper.  Do the same with the left side, pull the top left hand corner of the paper down towards the centre line, and score.  You should now see a triangle shape.  Open the paper up so it's at it's original size.  Turn the paper around and fold each side down towards the centre of the paper.  Open the paper up and you should see a diamond in the centre of the paper and two criss crosses on either side.  Next step is to fold the right hand side of the paper towards the left hand side.  Line the edge of the right side of the paper with the centre of the criss cross on the left.  Open the paper again and repeat this step with the left hand side, folding it in to the centre of the criss cross on the right hand side.  Then take each end of the card, and fold it in towards the centre of each criss cross (right hand side tot he centre of the right criss cross, left hand side to the left criss cross!)

With the "peaks" of the paper facing you, the card should now fold in on itself.  Once folded, you should be left with a diamond facing you, with 2 rectangles on either side at the back of the card.

To decorate the card, I used a decoupage image from the Do Crafts Woodland Folk 8x8 Decoupage Pack.  I matt and layered this onto a piece of co-ordinating card to match the card blank.  I attached this image onto the centre of the diamond with double sided sticky tape.  I stuck 2 googly eyes to the owl aswell.  I attached two fabric flowers to each side of the card with an orange flower brad and used a small piece of 3d foam to attach them to the card.

To complete the card, I used a "New Baby" sentiment from the Do Crafts pack and attached it to the main image with 3d foam.  I finished the project with 6 gold gems.

Simples!

Hope that all made sense to you.  I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know if you try and make this card blank, and how my instructions do.  So please do leave a comment.

Good luck, and have fun! 

Lisa xx

Saturday 9 April 2011

Creations By Gill M Blog Challenge - All That Glitters

Good morning Bloggers.

How are you?  Hope you're all well.  It's the weekend at last and time for another challenge courtesy of http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/2011/04/cbgm-blog-sketch-challenge-5-all-that.html

This is my creation here: 

To make this card, I followed a sketch as part of the challenge brief.  I used the Hunky Dory Butterfly Kit which has been POTW a while ago on Create & Craft TV.  I used a white scallop card base and covered it with a square of shiny purple card.  Leaving a small border on the left, I cut a piece of the butterfly border with a silver outline and used 3D to stick it to my project. 

Then using my trusty X-Cut cutting system!  I used a small and medium circle to cut out purple shimmer and silver mirror board.  These were attached together with dsss and the main image, also from the H.D kit with 3d foam.

I used more of the purple shimmer and silver mirror board and matt and layered them together in a small rectangular shape and attached them just off centre to the project.  I used 3d foam to give more dimension to the card.  I then attached the main image to the card, also with 3d foam.  To meet the criteria of the challenge, glitter had to be included in some aspect of the card.  I used a Quckie Glue Pen over the main butterfly image and decorated it with fine silver glitter, 8 small lilac and 6 medium silver gems.   I also attached a purple bow which I recycled from a toiletry set I got at Christmas about 5 years ago! lol.

To complete the card, I used 4 medium purple adhesive gems in each corner of the card.  I also used a sticky peel off.  It's sticky on both sides, so once you place it on your project, you can pour glitter over the top and it sticks!  Quite nifty!  A final medium silver gem was placed in the centre of the sticky peel offs.

Oh, and I made the card into a Get Well Soon card by using silver peel offs on the top round of the main image!

Done!  Hope you like it.  It's a lovely card to make, and as I'm sure you've seen from the other DT examples, you can make so many different styles of cards.

Please go to http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/2011/04/cbgm-blog-sketch-challenge-5-all-that.html for more info or to enter your creation in the Mr Linky.

Good luck!!

Lisa xx

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Tartan Day Blog Hop Thank You's

Good evening everyone.

Hope this finds you well.  What a horrible "dreech" day it is.  or in English - a crap day!  It's been pouring down rain all day and I've lost count how many times I got soaked when I was out today.

Just want to say a quick thank you to:

Val, Linda, Gill, Debbie, Jenn, Misty, Becky, Ann, Cherry, Shazza, Jill, Beckie, Jenn, Lillian, Jill, BeckyJoydee, Jessica and last but not least, Anne.

Thank you to you all for all my lovely comments regarding my tartan day blog entry.  It was really fun making it, and although it was only a few weeks ago, it brought back a lot of happy memories.

Hopefully I've been able to get onto your individual blogs.  If not, please accept my apologies, I will try my best to get to you soon!

Right, time for bed people!

Night night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

Lisa xxx

Tartan Day Bog Hop - 6th April 2011

Och Aye The Noo!  Welcome to the Tartan Day Blog Hop!  It's going to be so much fun!

You may have ended up in my novice blog through Linda's blog, http://thefruitofmyhands.blogspot.com/ , what a creative lady she is!  If you have, great stuff, if not, drop by http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/ , who is hosting the blog hop, she'll be able to fill you in with all the necessary details!

The aim of the hop is to connect with other crafters around the world by sharing your own creations, which must include tartan in it, in some form or another!

Within the hop is a wee game to play along with.  Some of the hoppers participating have a secret letter in their blog.  No-one knows how many letters there are, but they spell out a word connected to Scotland.  It's your mission to go into the blogs entered into the hop to work out the secret word, and of course check out the tartan creations!  Once you think you have the word sussed, go back to http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com and enter the Mr Linky at the end of the blog hop post, without revealing your answer!  You will then be in with a chance of winning some fantastic crafting goodies!  Sounds good, eh?!

This is a picture of my entry.  It's a scrapbook page featuring my favourite band, Boyzone.  I've been a fan of theirs since the band started in 1993, my favourite member is Keith Duffy.  The photos shown on the project were taken at Boyzones most recent concert in Glasgow on Saturday 12th March 2011.  It was an emotional night, being the first concert without Stephen Gately, a member of the band who died suddenly in 2009.  For the encore at the end of the concert, the band all came out in kilts on small stage just 10ft away from where I was sitting!  It was amazing!  Although all being Irish, they all claimed to be "true Scotsmen!"  I think they were, although they never proved it!!







To make the scrapbook page, I used 4 photos taken during the encore.  I used my X-Cut cutting system to cut them into oval shjapes and then matt and layered each indivudal photo onto silver mirror card and blue or pink card.  I then used a corner punch to round each corner.  I used silver peel-offs on each of the photos to label each of the members.  I also matt and layered my ticket from the concert on silver mirror card along with some information about the page.

I rounded the corners of a black 12x12 Abracadabra sheet of scrapbook paper and used this as my base layer.  I managed to find a nice sheet of black and white tartan paper and cut this down to size to fit onto the base sheet.  This was also rounded on each corner with my corner punch.  Using the same tartan paper, I used a heart punch to punch out 4 tartan hearts, one for each member of the band!  I positioned each element of my scrapbook page on the base layer and attached them with double sided sticky tape.  For the finishing touches, I used 3d foam to attach the word “boyzone" at the bottom of the page.  This was embellished with silver adhesive gems as was each corner of the scrapbook page. 

So that's my entry into the Tartan Day Blog Hop.  Hope you like it.  It would be great to receive any kind of feedback so your comments, good or bad, are greatfully received!  If you want to add me as a blog you follow, even better!  I want my list to grow!

So are you going to take part in the hop?  Hope so!  It's a great way of meeting new people with similar crafty interests!  All you have to do now is hop on over to  http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/  for the next tartan creation. 

Or, if you want to see who else is going to be hopping along, or if you get lost on the hop, check their blogs out:


Take care, have fun, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Lisa x

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Spring Fayre

Hi Everybody.

Well I'm back and I survived the Spring Fayre.

What a mammoth task it was though for me.  Compared to other people, my total number of cards made was nothing, but I'm really chuffed with what I did.  I was so tired after though!

So 160 cards were made in total.  I went to the fayre with my friend Karen, as I mentioned before.  She was selling some homemade baking, some gluten free (Karen is a Coeliac so she cant eat wheat or gluten or foods containing these ingredients) and some with gluten in them.  She had a selection of crispie cakes, tablet, bounty slices, rock buns and marmalades.  They all looked delicious, and I know for sure that a lot of them tasted delicious too!

We were there for just over 2 hours.  I made £50 and Karen made £20.  We're both really pleased with that, however Karen would have liked to have made a bit more.  We think the fact that she was advertising some of the baking as gluten free scared people away, but we wanted to try and attract the gluten free people to the stall too.  It's quite difficult to get the right balance.

I was a wee bit disappointed on the day.  I was told by the lady organising the fayre that because I was selling handmade cards, she wouldn't take anyone else selling cards.  However there were 4 other people selling cards on their stalls.  One of which was a lady who I do not like or get on with, and she was right at the entrance (our tables were allocated when we arrived).  So as soon as people were coming into the hall where the fayre was being held, people were stopping at her stall and buying cards.  She was charging £1.50 for her cards and one of the other stalls were charging £2.50.  I was selling mine for £1 each, but had some individually priced from 50p (for small 4x4 cards) up to £1.50 for A5 sized.

Overall I'm really happy with the outcome.  Still have a lot of cards left, but at least it means I can have a break from card making (for selling) for a wee bit and concentrate on blogging and challenges for the design team for http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/

So here are the photos I took during my preparation for the fayre.  We also took some photos on the day itself. 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts, good and bad!

Lisa xx


160 cards on my bed!


Another view of the cards (my dog teddy just HAD to get in the photo!)


Just some of the Easter cards I made

Our stall

This is me!