Now we are 5. A Super-Hero Mini Album!

It was my much adored Grandsons 5th Birthday a few weeks ago.  We weren’t able to go to his special Birthday party on the day of his Birthday so we (Grandad and I) decided we would surprise him with ‘Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘ at our home the day after his Birthday.  (Why have I never had two Birthday party’s?  I obviously just wasn’t cute enough).

The ‘spine’ of the mini album, and the Spiderman tag (made using two Tim Holtz charms (thick, plastic, shaped pieces, much like you find Keyrings made from. I chose 2 rounds from an assortment).

We took tons of party photographs and I decided that I would make a Mini Scrapbook album to put all the photographs in.

I made him an album just before he started big school, all about the things he did with Grammy and Grandad in the summer before his first day at school.  He absolutely LOVES the album.  He loves to look through the photographs, pull out the tags and gets me to read them to him, and basically enjoy all the moments or occasions, which are pictured in the album, all over again.  So it was a no brainer that I would have to make him another mini to house all the photos of his ‘5th Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘.

The ‘plan’ was that I wanted to make the mini album as if he’d actually been sat there with me as I made it, choosing everything that went inside himself.  So this meant that I had to think like a 5-year-old boy.  Those of you who are followers or have read my blog posts before, know that I’d have no trouble thinking like a 5 year old.  (I admit it.  I never really grew up).

The following photographs are of the pages and tags, photo books, magnetic bits, openings, fun stuff … etc…  and, I have to warn you, this post is VERY photograph heavy.  Because of this I’ll keep the talking to a minimum so that you’re not here all day reading my yammering on!

The name of the Birthday Boy is all jumbled up on the front there …. he really wasn’t christened with a gobbledygook name.

Pages one and two

Tags from pages one and two

pages 3 and 4

Magnetic ‘book’ on page 3, …  a hidden tag from page 4, …  and a photograph ‘frame’ with a sliding out photo mat and room for notes on the back of it.

Close up of page 4 so that you can read everything.  One of the ‘presents’ we bought for his Birthday was a Spiderman costume – hence the speech bubble which says:  “Like the Suit? It comes with the job”.   I’ll pop a photograph of Mr. Birthday Boy wearing his Spiderman Costume into that sliding out photo frame so it will make sense.

The long shiny black bit to the far right of the photographs is where the Birthday Boys name is.  I die cut all the letter of his name – twice.  Once in blue and once in red (Super Hero colours)  and fixed them in place so that his name read ‘down’ that black bit.  But for the purposes of sharing this mini album on the internet, I blacked out his name.  (I’m a protective Grammy)

pages  5  and  6

Tags from the pocket on page 5

Tags & photo mats from the pocket on page 6.

the other side of the tags from page 6.  All the tags and photo-mats in the album are all doubled sided.

pages 7 and 8 of the  ‘Now We are 5’  mini album.

tags and photo-mats from page 7

I love to emboss the edges of some of the tags with this ‘deckled’ twinkly style of embossing.  It kind of adds a dimension to them.

close up of page 8.  That ‘POW’ is a magnetic fold out book for photos

page 8 with the magnetic book opened.

A hidden tag.

The poem written on this tag (above) holds such a special meaning to me.  My  Grandson has Cerebral Palsy.  It affects different children in different ways, and for my Grandson it affects his speech to some degree, educationally to a degree, and his walking.  He can walk, but he falls over a lot and has trouble walking very far.  He suffers dreadful pain in his legs – and has to have injections into his calf muscles to try to help with this and also to relax the muscles in his legs so that walking is made a little easier.   He has some other problems too, because of this condition.  This is the reason why this poem means so much to me, and why it catches me in my throat whenever I read it.

the back of the poem tag

pages 9 and 10

That big spiders web you can see on page 10, is one I drew on, using an embossing pen.  I then embossed it with Tonic Silver embossing powders (because their silver is the best I’ve ever found), and try as I might I couldn’t seem to get a photo to show up how much that spiders web shines!

tags and photo mats from the pockets on page 9

page 10 has a magnetic fold out booklet, for photos and journaling.

page 10 – the booklet folded out fully.

pages  11  and  12.

the tags and photo-mats from the pocket on page 11,  –  and … the finger you see pointing to the Happy Birthday – is to point out that it’s magnetic and will hold a tag or note under it.

page 12.  The ‘Heroes’ is embossed all around it in Tonic Silver embossing powders.  This is a book which folds out to hold photos and bits of journaling.

it folds out like this … and it’s double sided, so there are photo mats on the back too!

.. and when you look under it, there’s a little message for the young man himself.

If you’ve got this far and are still with me …. keep going  .. the end is in sight!

pages  13  and  14

Page 13 holds a poem which says it all  ….

I love this poem.  There’s a space right next to it waiting for a photo of my little rascal.

page 14 which has a deep, deep pocket for special things ...

… his official SUPERHERO certificate;  a postcard waiting for something special to be put on it.   A very colourful tag/photo mat;   some spare balloons from his Birthday Party;   and there’s other stuff to go into this pocket.

And finally ....  the back….

I found a fabulous picture on the net, used by someone else for their child’s birthday party, and I thought it might make a fun picture for my Grandson … only I removed Superman’s features and replaced it with my Grandsons face. (blurred out here because I’m a protective Grammy).  It works so well and tickles the heck out of me when I look at it.

… the bit down the side reads:  you will always be my favourite Super Hero

There actually is a little bit more which I wanted to share with you, not of this album but of something else I made for his ‘Birthday Party’, but I think you’ve suffered enough for one day so I’ll post a little blog post about it another day.

Thank you SO much for coming and taking a look at my Mini Scrapbook Album.  I had so much fun making it – although it did take me rather too many days to actually get it finished.  I’m such a slow worker! tsk tsk.   I know that my little rascal is going to love it.  I just have to get all the photos into it now.

If there’s anything you want to know – glues, papers, bits, pieces etc,  please just ask away in a comment.  I’m more than happy to share information.

Before I sign off,  may I just take this opportunity to say a very warm hello to a couple of new followers.  Welcome, it’s lovely to have you on-board,  please make yourself at home here, and feel free to ask questions, make comments or just grab a coffee and settle down for a bit of a read.

Thank you everyone, for visiting me.  I love you coming.  I really do.  It’s like having a stream of friends popping round for coffee and a chat.  Fabulous.  Absolutely, totally Fabulous with a capital F.

Have a wonderful day out there,  and what ever you’re planning to do today, remember to stop, smile, and make a memory.

Have a blessed day all,

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Fairy Shoes, fit for a Fairy Prince!

Cobwebs the Cobbler is back – this time bringing shoes which once belonged to a Fairy Prince!  Prince Extea to be precise.

Prince Extea is a Fairy Dragon Warrior, and also a Dragon Trainer.  He enchants Dragons, bewitches them, mesmerizes them and then, finally, captures them and trains them to be the protectors of all who live in the Land of the Fae, and even to carry elderly Fairies on their Dragon backs,  just like a horse would carry you or I to wherever we wanted to go!

Prince Extea is a very handsome chap with the most fabulous gossamer wings made from the cobwebs spun by the smallest of spiders.  As the light catches his wings they flash the colours of purples, greens, blues and hints of rose-pink.  Naturally, Extea likes shoes which compliment his wings.

Although he doesn’t actually ever wear his shoes out – (being able to fly is very economical with regard to footwear!)  – he still requires a new pair of shoes every now and again, perhaps for a Fairy Ball, or maybe a Fairy Tea Dance, or simply because he has a new set of clothes which he wants matching shoes for.  He brings back his no longer required shoes so that they can be sent to the Fairy Museum.  And that’s why I’m able to show these to your today, before I carefully box them and send them, by Dragon flight, to the Fairy Museum, which is hidden deep within the Enchanted Forest of Fae.

Ok, well back to reality for a moment ….  Cobwebs Fairy Shoes are all handmade from a mix of Polymer clays.  There are no mold/moulds used in the making, and all the Fairy shoes you’ll find in The Cobweborium are designed entirely from the strange and enchanted corners in the mind of Cobwebs (or ‘me’ in other words. lol).

I make each individual shoe to look as if it’s been carefully worn, – so you’ll find all the ‘creases’ in the shoes which you’d expect to find in your own shoes which you wear daily.

The buttons ‘sewn’ to the front of Prince Extea’s shoes are again all hand-made and shaped, and the sewing thread holding the button to the shoe is actually a very fine ‘thread’ of polymer clay, carefully manipulated to make it look like sewing thread.

As you can see from the photograph above – even the soles of the Fairy shoes are ‘worn’ and showing signs of where the wearer has stood momentarily on a rose thorn or branch of a bush;  or stood cheekily in a Birds Nest admiring the baby birds;  or even walked amongst the twigs on the forest floor.

I love making Fairy Shoes, and I think that if I could, I’d probably make them all day every day.

Do you have a favourite thing which you make – or something which you do  – that you’d love to do more often?  Do tell me about it via a comment.  I love people to actually get talking here as it kind of gets everyone talking and getting to know each other.  The internet then gets to be a much more friendly place, and goodness knows we need more friendly places on the net!

Whatever you’re doing today, may you have a day of fun and love …  and ….  do something nice for someone else today.  Pray for the next person you pass on the street. If you don’t pray, then simply wish something wonderful to happen for the next person you see.  Push that wish right out of your head and heart.  Let’s all band together and do something good in the world!

Have a beautiful, blessed day all.

 

 

 

To capture a Fairy in a Jar . . .

To capture a Fairy in a Jar ...  you simply have to be gentle and kind, and want to capture her (or him) with all your heart.

I originally found a photograph of a fairy in a jar on Pinterest. I fell in love with it instantly and literally stopped everything I was doing and got all the supplies out on my desk and began to make my own jar ready to capture my fairy, right there and then.

I’ll warn you now that this blog post is photo heavy.  I totally forgot to take pictures at each stage of the make, simply because I was SO into making it.  But I’ve taken a photograph from all angles of the finished fairy in my jar, so that you can see it all around and even on top, and I’ve taken photo’s in sunlight from the window in my craft room,  at dusk in my craftroom and even in the house in the darkness – at night-time, with all the lights off.   So here goes, dear reader.  Get ready for lots of photos ….

My Captured Fairy in a Jar with the lid off.  But she didn’t want to escape!  She preferred to gaze at her star and make wishes!

Showing the left hand side of the Fairy in a Jar.  You can see the grass which the Fairy is sitting in.

The right hand side of the Fairy Jar.

The back of the Fairy Jar ~ created by Cobwebs.

looking at the jar with the lid in place, from above.

I chose to keep the lid of the jar, as I wanted to have a choice of how it was displayed (lid on/lid off).  My original idea was to have the lid on during the daytime when the Tea lights weren’t alight, and leave the lid off at night when the lights were switched on.  But I actually love it both ways.

I did, at first, decorate the glass lid with white cotton fabric (like shirt fabric), which I tied on with string around the  knob on the top.  (It was glued in place).  I decorated it with buttons and flowers.  However, when I stood back to look at it, I wondered if I’d like it better if I’d have done the same thing on the lid as I’d done to the jar itself.  I lived with it for a couple of days, then stripped the cotton off, scrubbed it clean again and decorated it to match the jar.  And …. I love it like that!

The Fairy Jar without the Tea Lights lit and no flash from the camera, just lit by the light from the window.

Lit only by the light from the window.

Showing the Tea Lights inside.

You should only use battery operated Tea Lights inside a Fairy Jar.  That’s so important that I’m going to say it again:  YOU SHOULD ONLY USE BATTERY OPERATED TEA LIGHTS IN A FAIRY JAR!  This is because you’ve glued paper and or card to the inside of the jar.  Paper/Card and Candles DON’T MIX WELL  – unless you want to start a FIRE!  We don’t want any accidents … so please don’t even try out a candle inside the jar.  Please, please buy battery operated Tea Lights for your version of a Fairy Jar. You don’t have to put three in if you don’t want to.  One works … Two makes things twinkle brighter, and three, for some reason, makes Fairy Wings seem to flutter just a little.  Why is that, I wonder?  It must be Fairy magic!

Even with no lights on an only the sunlight from the window to light it in order to take the photos, the Fairy Jar still looks incredible.

Another view of the Jar from above, so that you can see it without any light other than that from the window.  Still looks lovely, doesn’t it!

My wonderful little Grandson comes to visit at the weekend and we have him for about 5/6 hours to give mum and dad a little free time to do stuff.  When he came last weekend, I introduced him to the “Fairy Shadow I caught in a Jar!”  …  I didn’t want him to hear me say I actually caught a Fairy in a jar, because … well, he knows me to be kind and loving, and anyone who’s kind and loving most certainly doesn’t catch a Fairy and stuff them into a jar!  So I explained that I’d caught a Fairy’s shadow.  That sounded much nicer, more gentle, more kind and loving.

I didn’t think he’d be over-impressed, after all it was just a Fairy, and the big thing in his life was CARS!  – however he was awestruck!  I came in from my craft room, carrying the already lit and lidded jar really carefully, and I whispered to him that he had to:  “be very quiet and careful because I’ve captured a Fairy Shadow in a Jar!”  ….  I placed the jar down on the coffee table so that he could see it.  His little face was a picture.  He got down on the floor and perched his chin on the coffee table and gazed, . . .  and his eyes grew to the size of saucers!  There was so much magic showing on his face and in his eyes.  So much ‘awesomeness’ (I don’t think that’s a word,  I think I made it up for the purpose of explaining – lol).  He looked at it for ages.  Then, moving quietly around the coffee table – he examined it carefully from all angles.  All of a sudden  … he slowly lifted his arm,  and with one finger he delicately reached out and  v.e.r.y.  gently  touched  the side of the Fairy  Jar,  almost as if he wasn’t sure if what he thought he was looking at, was actuall really, really there!   Thankfully …  I managed to capture that very moment on my camera . . .

My Grandson – aka ‘The Funshine of my Life’ – was incredulous.  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing with his own eyes.

I was totally thrilled to pieces that he liked it.  Everybody else could hate it if they wanted to,  but the fact that he liked it, was so impressed and so awestruck by it meant the absolute world to me.

I was so engrossed in the making of this Fairy Jar that, as I said previously,  I totally forgot to take photographs of each step of the making.  However …  I’ve got something better than my explanations.  A video, which you’ll find at the end of this post.

I enjoyed making this so so much.  It was fun from the start to the end.  I was going to give it away,  but, once it was made  …  I fell head over heels in love with it and couldn’t part with it.

In the video which you’re about to watch  …  White tissue is used in the making.  I however used a VERY PALE pink tissue in this project (above)  and as you can see, it worked perfectly – as you can see from the photos.  But it was simply a matter of choice.  I have a selection of tissue colours.  Something about the pale pink called to me, and I found my hands reaching for it.  So … don’t feel you have to follow the instructions to the letter.  If there’s something you want to do which will make a fairy jar yours and yours alone, then do it!  If you want to use  …red tissue then do so!  Blue tissue to make it look icy?  Go ahead!  Oh – and do post some photo’s on your blog, and then come back here and let me know so that I don’t miss your fairy, because I’d love to see more of these.  I’m already planning another one and I’ve just today found a wonderful jar in the shed which will work brilliantly!

Edit 29/6/16 – to Add:-   There is  NEW  FAIRY  JAR,  complete with photographs of how it was made,   here:  https://thecobweboriumemporium.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/a-fairy-captured-in-a-fairy-jar/    . . . .  It will open in another window for you. ~ Cobs.

 

If, after watching the video, there’s anything that you want to ask about the Fairy Jar In the photographs above, which I may have forgotten to mention, then please feel free to ask in a comment here and I’ll answer you within 24 hours.  One thing I think I haven’t mentioned is that the glitter I used on the outside of the jar was a chunky glitter, not the fine stuff, which I mixed a little card makers ‘snow’ into it, just to add that ‘frosted’ look to the whole thing.

So,  that’s me done and dusted for another beautiful day.  It’s been a little windy around here the last few days.  But thankfully we were not ‘hit’, other than a few branches in our garden came tumbling down – but nothing structurally was hit, so I’d call that blessed.

I hope you too have a truly blessed day.  Remember to stop and enjoy life – even for just a moment, and in that moment be thankful for all you too are blessed with.

Sending love ~

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Blog Hop

I’ve been nominated for a Blog Hop.  😀  Isn’t that great?  ….  apart from:-  I didn’t know what a Blog Hop was.   I’d seen folks talk about them, but never paid much attention to what they were, so being nominated meant that I had to sit up, pay attention and … ask the questions I needed to ask in order to make sure that I was agreeing to the right thing, and was going to actually do things in the right way so that the spirit of the Blog Hop was kept alive.

Firstly I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to:  Allie Cat,  Zumba,  and  Tiggers Mom (they’re all cats) AKA WhatImUpToToday, not just for nominating me, but also for the really lovely things she said about me.  I have to admit that she said such nice things that I thought she’d got me mixed up with someone else.

What I’m Up To’s blog post can be seen here: http://whatimuptotoday.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/blog-hop/

I checked to make sure that a Blog Hop is as easy as it seems and it appears it is, so … I’m going to be answering a few questions, and then I shall be nominating two blogs that I myself love, and passing the baton to each of those.   (Only TWO???  I love a gazillion blogs!  How on earth am I going to choose just TWO?!!).  But anyway … here goes!

What are you working on?

Right now ... I have two scrapbooks on the ‘go’, and I’m also working on some Christmas Cards for  family members, and a special Christmas Card for a friend who I met over the internet and have never met – and probably never will.  She’s 74 years old (just had her birthday) and lives in Australia.  She’s one of the nicest people and I love her to pieces.  I kind of feel like she’s my adopted Nanna.  So I’m making something lovely for her – but I can’t blog about any of these things as I don’t want the recipients to see the things I’m making otherwise it will ruin the surprise!

I want to also make some bookmark type cards, which I’ve had on my list of ‘want to make’ for about six weeks!  I’ve also just recently come across a Papier-mâché book box which I remember buying about four years ago but didn’t get chance to decorate up as I had to pack up all my crafting stuff because we moved house – (about 170 miles away from where I used to live), and I’ve just a couple of weeks ago found the box book in a box of stuff which I’d labelled  ‘Craft Room – unbreakable bits and bobs’.  So that’s sitting on one of my desks calling to me.  I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do with it yet.

How does your writing process work?

I pick up a pen … and I write.   Ah .. you didn’t mean that did you!

If I’m writing a post for my blog here, I plan before I actually do the project.  I find it better if I have a plan and an idea of what I’m going to make and how to go about making it.  I try to remember to take photo’s as I’m going along – it doesn’t always happen though.  I seem to get that wrapped up with my project that every other thought goes out of my head.

I then load any photo’s onto my lap top ‘puter, so that I can crop and re-size them.  Once that’s done, I can then begin to write the post.  I find it easier if I try to walk the reader through the process of making what-ever it is I’ve made, step by step, and add the photo’s as I go along.  After that … I try to tighten things up a bit and remove any unnecessary ‘waffling’,  as I’m far too wordy.  My motto seems to be:  Why use just three words when you can use 300!

How does your blog differ from others of its genre?

I’m not sure that it does, other than it’s written by me.  I try to be as open about my projects as possible, because if someone wanted to use a product which I’ve used to get an effect that they want to copy, then I do my very best to make sure that I give the details.

I also LOVE people to leave comments – but not for the reasons of getting folks to compliment my ‘stuff’ – but to encourage a dialogue between the lovely folks who visit here and me.

I tend to look on the blog as my  ‘home’  on the internet, which I throw open the doors to and send out a general invitation to all and encourage them to come and visit me.  Now I don’t know about you, but if I was invited into someone’s home and encouraged to look around at their decorations and rooms, then I wouldn’t remain silent.  I’d chat to the home owner; ask questions; talk about the things of interest.  And I feel the same way about blogs.  If I visit someones blog then I try to leave a comment behind as a sort of ‘thank you’ for inviting me in and entertaining me.

The internet is a soul-less place.  It can have a gazillion people on it, and only a small percentage of those people are talking with each other.  It concerns me that we are going to evolve into uncaring shells.  People who have no manners and don’t know how to chat with each other.  How to make those small talk comments which kind of help the whole world to go round in a positive way.  But if we’re all just looking into windows on the internet and not talking to anyone – even in a comment which has been worded nicely and with correct spelling so that we can all understand it,  rather than —  ‘txt spek’  — (text speak) – which can make things very difficult to understand, then we are losing something magical which I don’t want us to lose.  So maybe that’s where my blog differs from some of the others.  I actively try to get people chatting.

Nominate 2 blogs I follow

http://thelemondaisy.com/    —  Kim, from The Lemon Daisy,  is just one of the loveliest people.  She has a chatty, friendly way of writing and I’ve learnt tons about magnets which I never knew before.  She’s turned a passion for crafting into a business and I think she deserves more attention than I think she gets right now.  I want to tell everyone about her, so here’s a great way to do that.  Go and have a read of her blog.  Tell her Cobs sent you.

http://prettycolorful.wordpress.com/  —  Catherine from Pretty Colorful is  a lovely lady,  who specialises in handmade quilts and cards.  She’s recently been making some striking Christmas cards which really are just gorgeous!  Pop over there and have a look.

It was so amazingly difficult to choose just two, there are so many creative people out there who can really write, and create the most wonderful art.  But the rules said two so these are the two I chose.

And that, as they say, is it!  How easy it was,  once I’d started!

Thank you so much for coming and joining me in having a read.   We really must do this more often.  Just getting together and having a chat.  Chatting is so fabulous when it’s with friends, as you get to learn so much about the person you’ve made friends with!

Have a truly wonderful Wednesday. 

Sending love your way ~

Experimenting with Cobs and Astrid. AKA: Testing the Stickability of Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss.

Craft Product Recommendation
Of The Week!

Regular readers of my blog will remember that I have already blogged a Recommendation on Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss many moons ago.  However a fellow blogging buddy [the wonderful and immensely talented] Astrid,  wrote and asked me how well Anita’s Gloss stuck things.  I couldn’t answer this truthfully as I hadn’t tested the Gloss for ‘stickability’ so we’ve been testing it (via emails – as she lives at one end of the UK and I live at the other) – and I’m back here sharing the results with everyone – so that you all know too,  – and I’m  Recommending this product again as Craft Product of the Week,  simply because of the great results I got from this  ‘costs way less than that other particular brand of Glossy stuff which you can buy from the hobby retail outlets‘.

I’ve taken before and after photo’s … but … they aren’t brilliant in standard.  It’s dark and dingy weather here, and no matter what lights I had on or off, I couldn’t get a decent photo.  So … my apologies for the rubbish photos, but they’re the best out of a bad bunch of over 40.

The ‘before’ photo – so that you can see what types of things I chose to stick with the Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss:

Combination of items I experimented with to test out the ‘stickability’ of Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss

You can click on all of these photographs in order to make them load bigger – but remember to click ‘back’ in your browser so that you come back to this page to continue reading.

I scribbled on the scrap card so that I could show you what I stuck and where I stuck it.

• The Glass Beads selection of 7 types,  are (as you’re looking at the photo) bottom left and bottom centre.
• All the 8 various different metal charms are top left and then trailing down into the middle of the card.
• Top right are a mixture of flat back plastic (pink) pearl.  Flat back glass Dew Drop (in clear pink), and a little mix of plastic gem type stones.
• Bottom right is a  green plastic button

The metal charms:  Some are flat, but others are undulated or are more of a rounded back, and the Angel (in the top left corner) is hollow back – but I wanted something larger so that I could pour liquid all over it to see what happened – so this seemed like a great one for that test as it was all bumpy.

The Angel you can see close up in this ↑ photograph, and you can see how I totally smothered it – just so that I could see what happened.  The two ‘Made with Love’ little heart charms – I put a smaller dot of medium on the uppermost one, and a large blob of the medium to stick the lower positioned heart – just so that I could test one against the other for stickability.  The ‘doughnut’ or ‘polo mint’ embelli just had three tiny little dots of medium on it.

The glass beads:  I chose two different sets to squeeze a little (and it was only a little) of the gloss over them, to see how it behaved and so that I could compare it to the to the other glass beads which I simply lay on top of some of the 3D Gloss which I’d squeezed out a tiny bead, and spread it slightly, then popped the glass beads on top of it and with my finger, I gently pressed to make sure that the beads were in contact with the medium.  I then left them all over-night.

The following day, everything was stuck firmly.  I turned it upside down and gave it a  darn  good  shaking.  Nothing fell off.  I set it flat and holding on to the card, I pushed each of the items very firmly.  Nothing moved.  I took my index finger and flicked each one repeatedly with a good flick, over and over,  and I know that with some other glues this action would have been enough to send some of those things flying across the room – but nothing moved.

The Glass Dew Drop was a real surprise to me, as I’d not found anything (up till now) which would stick those little b*ggers securely – but this 3D Gloss had done the job.

But the real test was to try some really rough handling.  So since I hadn’t been able to move any of these things by the type of basic rough handling (which I would say they might possibly encounter on a postal journey) … now I wanted to really tug on them.  I wanted to force them to part company with the card:-

The smothered Angel … she really was very well stuck and I broke a fingernail getting her off – but she didn’t come off the card, the card came off the card with her.  She was still stuck to it.

The little metal heart which was stuck on more lightly than the other – also stuck fast.  The metal hand – again so well stuck that it pulled the card off rather than it was pulled off the card.  The metal charm I thought would be the easy one was the irregular shaped open heart with the arrow through it – but again – it pulled the card off with it.

The Dew Drop was probably the easiest – but that didn’t part with the card, it again took the card with it.

I couldn’t get the plastic gems off at all. (and didn’t want to risk another fingernail).

The glass beads … the only ones I got off  ‘easily’ (but not really) were the big charcoal coloured round ones – but again – they brought the card off with them.

If you click on the ‘after’ photo above it will open up much larger so that you can see the results for yourself.  (remember to click back in your browser again though so that you come back here).

All in all – I was stunned and amazed at what a great job it did of this ‘stickability’ test, and because of that I’m repeating my Craft Product Recommendation so that you can see for yourself the results of this test which Astrid and I decided needed to be done!

Link to my previous recommendation about this product:  https://thecobweboriumemporium.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/anitas-3d-clear-gloss-my-recommendation-of-the-week/

Link to the wonderfully talented  Astrid’s Artistic Efforts  blog (you’ll fall in love with her too!):- http://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.co.uk/

Thank you so much for sharing a little of your time with me, here today.  I really appreciate your company, and if you’d like to leave a comment, please do – even if it’s only to say hello!  I so love to hear from folks who come for a read.

Have a truly fabulous Tuesday.  Do something today which makes you happy!

With all my love ~

 

The Christmas Tree and The Holly Wreath.

For this last day of easy to make, cost conscious, Card-io Stamps Christmas cards, I wanted to make two cards which would be suitable for men.  So I pinned in mind two particular men and made cards which I thought  they might like – but I still stuck to my ‘rules’: –  they had to be simple;  with few adornments or embellishments; and they HAD to fit into a regular sized envelope – so that they’d be less costly to make and to post.

I decided upon a Holly Wreath, and a  ‘manly looking’  Christmas Tree. 

The Holly Wreath card, was made on a plain 6×6 scored and folded card, using a small selection of individual Card-io Stamps.   I stamped a circle of leaves, branches and fronds, randomly, but still with a nod to it being balanced.  I didn’t want it to be symmetrical, but instead sort of loose and flowing.  With a red, fine nibbed pen, I dotted little red berries into the wreath images, which gave it a little bit of interest.

With that same fine nib red pen, I wrote the flowing, red  ‘~noel~’  at the bottom on the card, as the ‘sentiment’.  Then came the fun bit.

I bought (some time ago) a couple of metres (or so) of teeny tiny holly leaves and red berries, bound onto some slim wire, (can’t remember where I bought mine from, but I know you can get it on Ebay for less than I paid, so do have a look there, but shop around on there as there are sellers who are selling it far cheaper than others).   I trimmed a short length (about 5 inches) off it,  made it into a circle, and then attached it to the card (using glue gel), directly on top of the stamped wreath so that it gave it life and movement and brought the whole card together making it more ‘special’.  I tied a little red satin bow, added it to the top of the wreath and VOILA!  Card finished.

I absolutely adored making this card.  It was easy, clean, pretty to look at and apart from waiting for the glue to dry, it was made in minutes.   AND … it fits inside a regular envelope!  YAY!  😀

Card 2

I wanted to make a ‘man card’  with a Christmas Tree on it – but I didn’t want to make that abundant tree with all the tinsel, baubles, lights and presents beneath it which you normally find on Christmas Cards.   I wanted something a little different, but which was still recognisable as a Christmas Tree.

I searched through my box of Card-io Stamps to find the tree I had in mind,  mounted it to an acrylic block and, using a dull brown colour of Memento Ink Pad, I stamped the tree in the middle of some craft cardstock.

Ok..  that turned out great … what next?

I really didn’t have a plan for this one.  I was just ‘winging it’… 

I looked around my craft room for something which would look like baubles … but not baubles.  I didn’t want brightly coloured things, I wanted something more … ‘organic’.   Something more in keeping with the masculine feel which I was trying to achieve.  My eyes came to rest of some bags of Craftwork Cards CANDI!  Yes!  The very thing!

‘

I chose a handful of  Candi in just the right colours and using some teeny tiny little double-sided sticky foam dots, I attached Candi to the tree.  Once they were all in place, I then felt that they needed a nod towards something twinkling.  So using a small nibbed glue pen, I ‘drew’ glue around the edges of the Candi and then sprinkled a little glitter over the glue.  The effect was exactly what I wanted.

I added some fine lines of glue along the branches, and sprinkled some fine white glitter dust over this to make it look like twinkling snow resting on the branches.  The finally …  using Pinflair Glitter Glue, I scribbled glue around the base of the tree and then added Pinflair Ice Diamond over the top, and sprinkled just a tiny bit of iridescent glitter over that, just to give it that eye-catching sparkle which freshly fallen snow seems to have.

I mounted this onto tartan paper, and then mounted it all, at a jaunty angle, onto a 6×6 scored and folded card.  I had to forcibly stop myself from adding ribbons, twinkly sparkles, sticky back pearls and all the other things which were all calling to me from their hanging hooks…  “Cobs.  Co-o-o-bs.  We’re here!  Come use us!”  Tsk tsk.  …  these embellishments are such flirts!

For readers who might not have come into contact with Candi before …  They’re ‘dots’ of paper type product, which are shaped into domes which look very much like brads.  You can either glue them flat (I’d use a glue gel for this, since they’re domed) or, like I did on this card, use teeny tiny sticky foam pads.  But … although they’re raised from the card and add dimension, they still remain quite ‘low’ in height, so they fit easily into a regular envelope and don’t add any depth to a card.  You can buy them in a huge variety of colours and designs.  They’re very lightweight and perfect for all sorts of things.  (You can even make flowers and leaves out of them!).

photo to show how Candi hardly adds any depth to a card.

Again, this card was so quick to make, but a very enjoyable make, and I really loved the end result.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing a few moments here with me.  I really do appreciate the time you share with me, and it means the world to me to know that you’re here.  Thank you.

Have a fabulous Friday.  May your day pass without any problems and I hope no gremlins get into the day at all!

Sending my love ~

 

 

 

 

[gasp] . . . What Happened to Christmas Dinner?

I’ve missed blogging my Card-io Christmas Cards over the past two days, so I’m blogging three of them today to catch up. (As you view each photograph, you can click on it to make it bigger – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ in your browser window so that you can come back to reading here!)

If you’ve missed the last few blog posts you won’t know that I normally don’t make Christmas cards for neighbours, or friends and family whose cards I have to post, simply because you can buy a box of Christmas Cards for so little that it would cost me more to make and send my own handmade ones than to buy some, – so have always gone with the more ‘frugal’ ready made boxed cards –  as those were cheaper not just to buy but also to post.

A ‘group photograph’ of the cards I’ve blogged about over the last few days, and the three I’m blogging today.

However, this year I had such a stash of cardstock, I thought I’d challenge myself to make cards which wouldn’t cost me the earth to make or post, so I got out some of my favourite stamps,  Card-io Stamps,  and decided that I’d try to use just those stamps, some ink pads and some cardstock – (and try not to put any expensive or BIG adornments or embellishments on them, so that I didn’t have to make specially sized envelopes or boxes), – so that they wouldn’t cost the earth to post!

But, today I’m blogging three cards:  Starting with … a Christmas warning to our feathered friends . . .

Don’t stop here lads   –   apparently  –  they’re eating BIRDS for Christmas!

The little bird down on the ground there, has been earwigging  (a British term – means eavesdropping)  at the open kitchen window and keeps hearing: “What time will that bird be ready to take out of the oven?” –  and . . . “Is that bird cooked yet?” – and even . . .  “The bird looks so lovely. I can’t wait to eat it!”  . . .   Eeeek!  No wonder he’s fretting!   😮

A simple to make card. I began by making a mask to ‘frame’ off a square in the centre of the card. Using a spare bit of thicker paper, I measured out the size I needed to cut, then once ready, I took it outside and sprayed the back with some Stick and Spray from Crafters Companion and carefully stuck it to the card front.

I then ripped a bit of copy paper and put the ‘frilly’ torn edge on an angle across the card and made the winter sun you see in the background, using three colours of Versa Color ink pads. I stamped the bare winter trees you see in the distance, just over the top of the hill, and the one standing on top of the hill.

Wanting to add some Pine Trees, I angled the torn paper again on the card, but a little further down the page, so that the Pines looked closer.  Once the torn paper was in place, I stamped the Pines using the 2nd generation stamping method I talked about in previous posts over the last few days.

Finally, I wanted to add the little bird, stood all alone on a snow drift.  Then came the fun stuff.  SNOW!

The ‘snow’ you see on the card is a simple effect to achieve. I use Pinflair glitter glue, and Pinflair Snow Dust. That’s it. It takes a short while to dry, but once dry it’s a lovely addition to a card.

Time for Card 2.

Oy! You’ve Forgotten my Christmas Dinner!

Oy! You’ve forgotten my Christmas Dinner!

The family have eaten their Christmas Dinner and are now out for a walk to give the children some fresh air, and hopefully wear them out so that they’ll go to bed! But oh!  Look!  They’ve forgotten to fill up the bird feeder and that little chap on the floor is having a grumpy moment about it!

This card was made basically the same way as the previous card, only this time:  I made a mask with 4 equally sized sections in it, so that it looked like you were looking through a window. Once the mask was in place it meant that I could ink up the sky, the winter sun, and stamp the trees, the church, the family, the bird etc, and even draw in the fence. Once everything was in its place, I removed the mask and added the snow.

Card 3.

Who Buried Dinner?

 

I don’t actually really know what the conversation is which is going on here, ↑ –  but I do kind of feel that the little bird in the centre of the card is either ‘getting it in the neck’,  or he’s letting the bird on the right let off steam and voice his complaint so that the digging, scratching and searching can begin to find all the seeds, nuts and mealworms which have obviously been blown off the bird feeder, and are now hidden under a layer of snow.

Made in the same way as the two previous cards.

Well,  . . .  I’m pretty sure you’re probably fed up with Christmas Cards by now, so rest assured, I’m not going to bore you forever. But … I have just two other Christmas cards which I want to share – only this time they’re totally different from any of the ones you’ve seen over the past week. Still made using Card-io Stamps – but different.  These one’s have some of those things which I said I wanted to avoid (embellishments) – but, they’ll still post in a regular envelope, and they’ll still cost the same as the cards above.  (Have I piqued your interest?)  ;D

I’ll share those two with you next time.

In the meantime – thank you SO much for coming and sharing a few minutes with me here.  Your company, honestly,  really is very much appreciated.  So thank you for coming and sharing your time with me.

May you have a truly blessed Thursday. ~ love ~

 

They’re all coming for Christmas Dinner!

Continuing with my easy and  ‘low-cost to make and on postage costs’  Christmas Cards, – made using Card-io Stamps, stamp ink pads and a bit of imagination.  Today we’re feeding the birds their Christmas Dinner.

All the photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ to come back to this page to carry on reading!

I love this card as it has some humour built into it somehow.  It makes me smile when I look at it.

To make:  I began stamping the garland towards the top of the card,  using a twiggy stamp,  and a berry stamp – to which I added a little red by colouring over the berries with a fine tipped red Staedtler pen.

Then I ripped a sheet of cheap copy paper in a wiggly but straight(ish) line and angled it on top of the card in the place where I wanted a snow-covered hillside in the background  to be.   Using three colours of Versa Color ink pads I ‘made’ the sunset  by blending first the lightest yellow colour, using a cheap cosmetic sponge – over the edge of the torn paper.   I then added a soft shade of yellowy orange to the centre – blending it outwards so that the colour began to graduate.  Finally I added a tiny touch of a deep warm shade of orange, again blending outwards so that there were no ‘edges’ to the three colours, but a warm glow.  Voila!  A sunset.

To make the blue sky over to the left hand side of the card, I did the exact same thing as making the sunset – simply blending (this time) two colours of blue.

Next came the sentiment closely followed by stamping the bird houses/feeders.   I added the trees in the background, and birds on the bird boxes, individually.

I ‘framed’ the whole  scene by hand drawing a pair of wiggly, barbed,  lines around the edge of the card.

Then came the fun stuff …  the Snow!

I took this photo at an ‘odd’ angle so that I could capture the snow to show you where it was.  I used Pinflair glue, and added Pinflair Snow Dust to make the snow on the hillside, and on the tops of the bird houses/feeders;   around the bottom of the post on the one bird house/feeder and along the ledges.

I also added more ‘snow’ by using a Graph It marker in white.  Using it as ‘snow falling from the sky’ by dotting carefully and gently over the scene, and also adding little strokes to the garland so that it looked like snow had collected on some of the twigs.

And that, as they say, is all there is to it!

I really enjoyed the making of this card, it came together so quickly and was such fun.  (I was watching Judge Judy at the time – so I’m astounded it turned out well at all.  Judge Judy is SO acerbic and caustic, she has me hooting with laughter.    I’m quite sure that I’d get it in the neck from her for doing that – so please don’t anyone tell her or she’ll ground me for a week!  LOL)

Whilst I’ve got your attention:  those of you who were waiting for my ‘Craft Product I Recommend’ blog post about Card-io Stamps – it is in the pipeline, and there is a reason that it’s not on the blog here yet, which you’ll find out about when I actually post it.

Thank you so much for visiting and staying with me for a while.  I SO enjoy your company.  I always feel like you’ve come and joined me at my kitchen table, and shared a coffee with me while we’ve had a good ol’ chat and a few giggles about crafting.  Perfick!    (lovers of Pop Larkin;  author H.E. Bates;  Darling Buds of May, will ‘get’ that word:     →  but for those who haven’t got the foggiest notion of what I’m talking about – replace ‘perfick’ with ‘perfect’).  😀

Have a truly magnificent Monday!   In fact, I hope it’s  PERFICK.  ♥  love  ♥ ~

A Frosty Nights Seasons Greetings

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling:  “How could it be so?”
“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,”   he thought,  “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

Where I live,  my neighbours and I are surrounded by huge pine trees.  80 feet (plus) tall.  Now I have to admit that I love them, they give my garden some wonderful cool shade in the summer months, and offer protection in the winter.  However there’s a downside to these fabulous trees – because in the autumn and winter months they shed pine needles like crazy and bury all our gardens under a deep carpet of them,  – and they also shed pine cones.

(Which my dog loves!  She sits in the garden, staring up at the trees, waiting for the pine cones to drop, …  and the minute they do, she chases round the garden to collect them and promptly brings them into the house as a present for me.).

I wanted to make Christmas cards for some of my neighbours which had some sort of personal ‘thing’ about them,  so I chose my stamps to include a pine cone  and also a silhouette of a large black cat …  as a representation of one of my cats – who all my neighbours know.

I’m owned by three felines.  One is a very old lady who’s almost 19 years old and the ‘boss’ (and how!) of the trio, and the two others are loveable rascals of two years old who love nothing better than to play Cowboys and Indians at breakneck speed through my cottage!.  One of these youngsters is a beautiful, huge,  luxurious,  black velvet coated beastie, called Alfie.  He’s way too heavy for me to pick up – but not overweight;  long, tall, sleek, powerfully built, adept at walking along the edge of a high fence with such elegance, which makes his muscles ripple like that of a panther.  However, he’s a big softy, who loves a chinny tickle, and who has the teeniest meow you’ve ever heard!

To make this card;  I began by masking off a circle on the card, which was to be the moon, and also masked off where I wanted to put in a snow drift so that it added depth to the card.  I blended three ink pad colours;  two blue Memento Archival Ink pads, and a tiny touch from a black Ranger Archival ink pad.  The photographs haven’t captured the true colours of this card.  The blues are a little darker than they show here, making the whole scene very much like the sky at midnight, on Christmas Eve.

Once the sky and snow drifts were in place I then went straight into stamping:    I Stamped the Pine trees on the snow drift, and then the crescent wreath shape, using the second generation stamping method which I’ve talked previously about in the Christmas cards which I posted about over the past few days.

a section of the card, in close up, to show the second generation stamping method. (click on photograph and it will open up, in a much larger size, but remember to click ‘back’ on your browser window so that you come back to this post to continue reading).

I wanted to add a tiny bit of colour , so stamped some small red flowers to represent Christmas Poinsettia flowers, and stamped the pine cones in a dry brown colour.

Next came the Seasons Greetings sentiment – which I wanted to be in gilding flakes, so I stamped the words using  Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue,  and then used Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes to gild the stamped words.

Following this I added some glitter to the snow drift and the wreath, using a fine nibbed glue pen and Wow glitters;  and then used a Graph It white marker pen to add snow ‘dots’ falling against the dark sky,  and also added  ‘snow’ onto some of the branches of the wreath, where snow would have settled naturally.

And that’s all there is to it! 

I had fun with this card – and I have to admit that I really love the finished article.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a few minutes of your day with me.  I’ve loved have your company.

Have a truly fabulous, blessed,  rest of your day.

The night before Christmas . . .

I loved making this Christmas card.

I wanted to make some night-time Christmas cards  . . .  but I wanted ones which weren’t the typical  ‘cottage with the lamp in the window’ views, nor the:  ‘Santa driving his sleigh across the moon’ type of thing.   These sorts of card are really lovely, pretty cards.  But they weren’t what I had in mind to make.  I wanted to make something more ‘edgy’.  Christmas night sky – but with a difference.

Made using only Card-io Stamps for the images on the card.  I began by first making a mask for the moon – which I cut from a post it note, using the sticky part of the post it as part of the circle, so that I could attach it to the card without any fear of it marking the card when I removed it.

After getting the moon in place, I then ‘put in’ the snow drifts and then stamped some trees.  I added the birds flying in the sky, and then chose a black fine tipped pen and drew a swirly line around the left hand side of the card and across the top.  To this I ‘pegged’ some stars, (in three sizes), some hearts and some Christmas Trees.  The hearts I coloured in red, the trees in green,   and the stars:  I coloured some in icy blue;  some in Gold glitter from a Glitter It pen, and some in sparkly Silver, again from a Glitter It pen.

 

I then added ‘snow’ to the snow drifts – using Pinflair Glitter Glue and Pinflair Snow Dust.  (see close up, above, of a section of the card so that you could see the Snow Dust).  I then took a fine tipped glue pen and added some tiny dots of glue, which I sprinkled some glitter dust on to make twinkly dots in the sky.  Finally, just to finish the night scene off, I used a Graph It marker in White, to add ‘snow’ dots to the scene.

And that, –  as they say in some of those TV shows,  –  is all there is to it.

This card was seriously simple to make, and I really like the way it turned out.

I pretty much think I’ve told you everything I’ve used to make this card as I was walking you through what I did to make it.  The only things I think I’ve left out are:  I used Whisper Archival ink pads in three shades of blue and also in a sage green (only the teeniest bit of this).  I also used Ranger Archival Ink pad in black, and used Staedtler fine liner coloured pens to colour in the trees, stars and hearts.  Finally – the glitter I used was from a collection of glitters by WOW.

If I’ve missed anything and you want to know just ask using the comment box.

Thank you for coming and visiting.  I’m always so thrilled when I get visitors, and even more chuffed beyond measure when someone leaves a ‘like’ or comment for me, so please feel free to comment away!

Wishing you a thoroughly lovely Thursday.  Have a good one!   ~ love ~