Craft Mojo Christmas

Hello to my lovely blog chums,

we'll yet again I didn't keep up my blogging as promised due to all the hussle & bussle of family and work , but I did manage to complete my task for this months  Craft Mojo DT.

As you may have guessed the theme this month is CHRISTMAS, so with that in mind I began the cutting sticking and glueing .

This idea came to me almost immediately as this months theme was announced.

I've always hankered after those warm cosy farmhouse kitchens , smelling of spices , turkey and full of christmassy spirits and days of old with a big kitchen dresser filled with lovliness, of course the chances of me actually having one is just a dim & distant dream , but dream I can and although my version my not be the fully size it gave me a warm glow when I had finished it .

I made a few boxes from card stock 2 large & 2 smaller match box sized ones and attached a brad in each
 I then made an outer casing to house them in , and finally a larger box to sit on top of the first one with a couple of strips of card inside , now bear with me I know it sounds complicated but its not really .

I then made some really diddy boxes out of pattern paper and tied them up with spangly ribbon. I managed to find a tiny china tea set which I painted with my promarkers for added fun, a little bit of xmas bunting  and hey presto it was all done

it was really fun to do and I do hope you can join in with this months Challenge at Craft Mojo

Happy Makings
Bev xxx

The trains ready to leave

Hi to all in blog land,

I've been busy up in the craft room of late making this and making that trying to get organised for the craft fair at the beginning of December after the madness of the 50th wedding party bits and pieces.

My thoughts turned to Christmas and I thought I would be a good Grannie and make my Grandtots a  special advent calender each . I saw a lovely video on you tube from some very clever ladies and based my idea on what they had shown with  my regular tweek on things .

Its starts by making several very simple boxes , as many or as few as you decide to make these are all joined together with ribbon to form the carriages and of course we have to have a big Daddy engine to pull them (if only in my imagination)

I played around with different size boxes until I was happy that they all fitted together nicely and resembled the above mentioned engine and joined this to the carriages.

Some printed buttons stuck onto card stock made up the wheels and a few printed images dotted along each carriage side with a Christmassy image finished them off.  I made little triangle paper pouches and filled them with sweeties and numbered them with the countdown to Christmas with a  larger chocolate prezzie sitting inside the engine to open on crimbo morning.

I hope they will like them and have as much fun eating them as I had making them

Happy Makings


Bev

OH SO COMFY

Hello bloggie chums ,

I have once again neglected you all and for that I apologise , so with that in mind I have given myself a good talking too and have promised that I will post every day for a week to try and make amends .

So onto the first one ,
with winter just around the corner( so we are told) , I decided that a warmer kind of crafting fest should get underway , so off I went to find my trusty old crochet hook.

 After a few moments dithering with colours and yarn types and what I actually wanted to make , I sat down in the Grannie armchair to begin work.

Of course what starts out as just a little something to keep my hands busy didn't quite end up that way.I crocheted and crocheted  mixing this yarn and that ,making the pattern up as I went along as I often do , and trying out a couple of new crocheted flowers that I found patterns for on the internet.

A few hours hours later a couple of very comfy new cushions were done.

I do love it when you have a nice piece of work at the end of it .

Happy Makings

Bev

Inspirational book for November

Good morning to all blog chums ,


I have been up to my usual tricks again in the craft room and messing around with paper and glue. October has passed us by and Christmas is almost here , but before the madness of the wonderful season settles in I just wanted to share my latest creation with you all which I made for the lovely Craft Mojo DT.


This month challenge was "Anything Goes" and I took my inspiration from the very talented Astrid  @ Astrids Artistics Efforts who showed a post on how she made her altered book . Like Astrid I had seen these books before and this seemed like the perfect time to have a go and make one myself .

At this point the dilemma of what design I wanted set in , I choose my favorite flower THE ROSE .

I began by removing a few of the pages from the book from both the back and front sections, (this helps it to stand up better when finished), I covered the book with some pretty paper on the reverse  just to hide the original spine and actual title of the book, and also on the inside front & back covers

The pages were then folded in half a few at a time and each section was given a quick woosh of acrylic paint just down the middle of the page.

 I punched some circles from pearlescent card stock and shaped them to form petals for the roses and as I only have one die which luckily contained a leaf shape& swirls ,  I cut these out and coloured them with promarkers to form the leaf stems.

I tied ribbon around one end and this acts as a hinge to keep the book open , although this not needed if you prefer the book to be left completely open as this adds another dimension, and added a little ditty just for fun

I hope you give this a try , they are really fun to do and have time to join in this months challenge at Craft Mojo I've already made another couple as I had a request from my Mother and one for a xmas prezzie 

Happy Makings   

Bev xx

Halloween project

Hi to all my blog chums ,


I just can't believe that September has been and gone in a flash !!!!

So the days are getting a bit chillier and the nights a little darker which can only mean one thing ....  that Halloween must almost be upon us .

As you know I am delighted to be part of the CraftMojo design team, and this months challenge is of course HALLOWEEN.

I like to create things that are a little different so I pondered all the things that came to mind about the Witching time of year and decided on a Spell Book with a little twist.

In the absence of any thick-ish card in my stash for the book cover I disected my desk blotter and recycled the backing board into the book cover. I added different splodges of acrylic paint until I got the  look I wanted and whilst the paint was drying peeled back and scrunched up different layers of the card so it began to look like faux leather and punched a couple of holes for the fastenings .








I then made a couple of simple boxes and attached them to both the back and front covers.

Then the fun part ......I painted a simple moonlit  sky, and cut out some house shapes , put some old sweet wrappers in the windows, ripped some black card into hills and edged them with a marker and finally cut a couple of bat shapes from some black card just for added spookiness and stuck it inside the box of the front cover.

The back cover is the witches den . I coloured some stonework onto card stock added broomstick made from coloured paper and a real twig, some  fun foam  which I heated over a candle and formed the cauldron and filled that with cotton wool dipped in some green paint and glitter and cut & coloured some witches jars out of card.

The book closes as you can see and I made the star from tracing around a drawn shape with my hot glue gun and just dusting with some gold paint .The little cobwebs which hang between the boxes was made from all the stringy bits that you end up with from your glue gun.

Any how I hope you like it , and that you have time to pop over to the CraftMojo October blog challenge , we would love to see you there.

Happy Makings

Bev xx

Autumn

Good morning  blog chums,

as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was very excited to be asked to join the Craft Mojo design team.

Today is the start of a new challenge on the blog and the theme is  AUTUMN COLOURS . Please pop over and have a look and enter the challenge which runs until the end of this month . There is a £10 prize up for grabs for the winner to spend in the new Craft Mojo on-line shop

I made this little wall hanging for my first design on the team .

I backed some lovely autumn coloured paper onto heavy card stock, then mat and layered some different papers from my stash in shades of orange & green before I added the hand drawn image (which I coloured with Promarkers) to them .
I framed the whole picture with some garden twine which I twisted to form the basis of the tree , before I cut out the little leaves with crinkly scissors from snippets of papers I had left over.

Happy Makings 

Bev xx

The Secret Bouquet

Hi Bloggie chums ,

as promised a quick update on the goings on with all things for "The Party".

After the Fathers buttonhole had been made (see previous post ) , it was full steam ahead with the bouquet for the Mother .
 I toyed with the idea of whether it should be a spray or posie type of arrangement , and settled on a posie.  I already had a picture in my head of what I wanted it to look like.
After a visit to the shops for some fabric & lace , and trying to track down some affordable vintage type jewellery for the flower centres,  the creating began and of course with the anniversary celebrating 50 years of marriage the flowers were all made in cream, gold, yellow & ivory.

So without any more waffling from me here is the finished bouquet for my wonderful Mother , just hope she likes it .

It then dawned on me that I would have to put it into a presentation box of some sort , so I set about making something to house it in , and this is what I came up with

 happy makings one and all 

Bev xx