Guess How Much I Love You

Well now that Valentines Day has been done and dusted I can finally share the ‘card‘ I made and has now been given and proudly on display.

It’s not actually a card though.  This year I thought I’d start a new ‘thing’ for us.   A new Chez Cobs tradition.  A Memory Book for each Valentines Day  – and this is the first one.

It’s made in the same tried and trusted way I make mini Albums – but with just a few ‘pages’, as it’s meant to be a Valentines Card/Memory Book. so it has to cover the dual aspect  –  if you get what I mean.

Rather than try to explain how I made it, I took photo’s of each step of the making so that you can see how it comes together…

valentine-memory-love-book-making-the-cover

Using 12″x 12″  Chipboard, I cut three sections – measurements for my ‘book’ are as in the photo above – but you can make an album/memory book in any size you want.

valentine-memory-love-book-making-the-cover-2

Pieces cut, and placed in position so you can see how they go together.  I’ve written on the individual parts in pencil so that it just makes everything doubly easy.

valentine-memory-love-book-making-the-covering-the-cover

Cover the front and back in your chosen papers.  All the papers used here are from the First Edition Papers, by Trim Craft, in the Love Story 12″x12″ pad and cut to size.

binding-and-decorating-the-spine

The ‘spine’ is covered in Card – by Anna Marie, and some plain red papers which I had in my stash.  Each of these were decoratively cut using 2 different Spellbinders Dies, which work together and come in the same set.

valentine-memory-love-book-putting-the-cover-and-spine-together

Fixing the ‘spine’ to the book covers.  I’d fix the spine chipboard to the papers/card first,  once in place,  you can then fix that whole spine section to the covers.  Make sure that you leave enough space for the book to open and close.

valentine-memory-love-book-cover-done

Outside done …. now for the inside.

valentine-memory-love-book-time-for-inside

For my Card/Memory Book I took three 6×6″ ready scored and folded card blanks, then fixed them together using red tape and glue.  I then fixed the very back page of those now glued cards to the back, inside cover (which I’d already fixed decorative papers to in readiness).

valentine-memory-love-book-inside

Then basically, you’ve got your ‘book’.  Now you just have to go to town and make it pretty and put into it what you visioned it was going to be!

I decorated each ‘set’ of pages in pairs.  Each page which faced another page was decorated in the same paper.  That way they kind of ‘spoke’ to each other.  BUT … you can decorate you pages in any way you want to.  Different colours, looks, designs etc on each page if you wish.  It’s your book.

valentine-guess-how-much-i-love-you-2

On some pages I just had a sentiment and some decoration.  On others, as in the above photo,  I fixed a little envelope which had a little ‘billet doux’ (love letter) hidden inside it.  I made sure that there was plenty of blank space on the envelope for it to be addressed to the receiver.

valentine-guess-how-much-i-love-you-3a

There are hidden tags (see the page on the left as you look at the above picture);  places for a photographeither one already taken, or one taken on  *that*  day;  and tags fixed into place which held their own message, but one which could be added to in order to personalise that particular message in some way or another.

valentine-guess-how-much-i-love-you-4

A Blackboard, in the shape of a heart, on which a personalised message could be written.  Bunting ‘strung’ across two pages saying:  ‘HAPPY  ❤  DAY’ (happy hearts day – or happy valentines day) …  and a set of golden keys.

As you can see in the above photo, there are places all over the Memory Book where you can write little messages.

valentine-guess-how-much-i-love-you-5

There are hidden tags, and tags which show you where they are.  The tags are of a size that you can write messages or memories on them, and also fix photographs to them – so that all the messages and memories all come together inside the Memory Book.

valentine-guess-how-much-i-love-you-1

And finally …  I decorated the outside.  I knew exactly what I wanted the front to look like, and because of that, I left it till last so that I didn’t crush the roses or accidentally pull something off!  (I’m such a klutz and knew I’d do it, so took precautions and decorated it last of all).

I was so thrilled at how this came together and so pleased that, although filled with love, it wasn’t ‘mushy’,  but had a charm and clearly showed a true friendship,  which spoke volumes.  Oh… and I can happily tell you that the Memory Book/Valentines Card was very well received and is being proudly displayed on the dresser.  😀

I hope your Tuesday was a lovely day – whether you celebrated Valentines Day or not.  It was just a day which happened to be the 14th February.

Did you know:  That academic studies have shown similarities between falling in love and obsessive compulsive disorder, taking cocaine or eating chocolate?

And ….  Research (in 2012) showed that when a loving couple stare into each other’s eyes for three minutes, their heart rates synchronise. 

oh … and:  Research also suggests that the average person will fall in love seven times before marriage.

Also:  A recent survey reported that two per cent of couples have fallen in love in a supermarket.

And finally …..  Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary defined love as, “A temporary insanity curable by marriage”.

See?  You didn’t know that you didn’t know that did you?  And there you are again!  PROOF … as if proof were needed, …  that The Cobweborium Emporium (i.e. this ‘ere blog)  is very much an educational tool.  You get educationalmalised every time you pay a visit!  Bit like reading a book while you’re on the loo!  LOL

And now we’ve reached the depths of my sense of humour,  I shall send you love and plenty of happy squidges.

Have a truly wonderful Wednesday,   with love    ❤    from  ~

sig-coffee-copy

 

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Take time to Stop and Smell the flowers

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I’m going to attempt to say as little as possible in this post (because I’m WAY too ‘wordy’),  and instead just add ‘points’ to tell the story of what went into the making of this card, in case you’d like to make one like it.

1

↑ ↑ ↑

White 8 x 8″ scored & folded card on which to build the finished card  + 2 x  sheets of Kraft (craft) card  +  1 sheet of  Black card.

Measure, cut and attach the black card to the front of the white base card.

2↑  ↑  ↑

Embossed one sheet of craft card in a ‘hessian’ effect embossing folder

3↑  ↑  ↑

Cut into the edge of the ‘hessian’ card to make it looked like frayed hessian.  Then lightly dragged some ink in three colours over the hessian effect so that it looked grungy.   It didn’t matter that it wasn’t blended properly – most of it isn’t going to be seen – but it’s more important for it to have that ‘old and battered’ look.

Attach the ‘hessian’ to the black card which is fixed glued to the front of the card.

4↑  ↑  ↑ 

Embossed another sheet of card (cut to size) – but this time the Kraft card is a warmer shade than the ‘hessian’ effect card.

5

↑  ↑  ↑

Die cut a bike and fill the ‘basket’ on the front of the bike with an assortment of flowers.  Add brads to the centre of the wheels, then attach the bike to the card.

8

Stamp up a tag with the sentiment. 

(The wiggly border on the tag is hand drawn with a fine tipped pen).

9

Die cut a fob watch shape, added a metal clock face, pointer – and a ‘dis-armed’ large brad cap. (there’s a smaller,  hidden brad which holds the pointer in place and because of that the pointer actually does spin round!)  Attach the fob watch to the front of the card – over the ‘hole’ in the tag, so that it looks like the tag and watch are ‘paired’

Add a brown ribbon bow.

6

Ta dah!  Finished.

Thank you for coming and taking a look at one of my card makes. 

I really like this card.  Do you like it too?  Please – let me know!

Cobs siggy sml

Forget me Nots ~ on an ~ ‘In Sympathy’ card. 

Forget me Not 1

I love making cards, it’s one of my favourite things to do, however, there is one type of card that I find ‘difficult’ to make – and that’s  ‘In Sympathy’  cards.

How do you second guess someone’s pain?  How do you know what they’re going through, so know how to address the traumatic time they’ve found themselves in?

I realised today that I hadn’t made a ‘sympathy’ card for my blog, so thought I’d put myself to the test and make one.

I wanted to make something which would be the right card for several options.  If someone wasn’t a believer, then I didn’t want to push a religion upon them by saying that I was praying for that person – as some folks are so anti-religion that a card of that type could cause the person concerned to feel offended – so in the end I decided to opt with the sentiment you see on the card above.

The card is (was) based around those little blue flowers you see running down the card on the right hand side.  If you’ve already seen my post in the ‘Ranger Melt Pot’ category, then you’ll know that I made those flowers especially for this card.  I wanted to make  Forget me Not  flowers to put on this card, and I wanted them to be blue.  So I set about making them using the Ranger Melt Pot.  Once made, and with the addition of a little gilding wax (and a polish) – the flowers were perfect, so I set about making a very simple card – but one which you could feel the love which the card was made with.

Forget me Not 2

Made on a brilliant white 6″x 6″ scored and folded card;  I partially embossed the front of the card using an embossing folder from the Sheena Douglass range.

Forget me Not 3

The sentiment is a stamped image from a collection of Stamps made by Heartfelt Creations, which I stamped in black,  then die cut (using a Spellbinders die) and  gently inked around the very outer edge, using the same black ink as the sentiment was stamped with.

The butterflies were die cut using Tonic Dies.

The addition of a short length of black satin ribbon and the card was made.

Frye Poemclick on the picture ↑ to make it bigger so that you can read it.

Thank you SO much for visiting. I hope you like the card, and the post too!   

If you’d like to leave me a comment, it’s easy to do:  Just scroll up to where you see the title of this post  (Forget  me  Nots on  ~  An  ‘In Sympathy’  card.)  and look just to the right of that title.  You should be able to see a grey speech bubbleIf you can’t see it, just move your mouse cursor to the left of the title – the speech bubble turns red when you roll your cursor over it.  Click that speech bubble,    it will open up any comments that have been made already – so that you can read them if you wishand it will also give you a comment box where you can type your own comment.

You can do this on every post, in every category on the board.

Wishing you all a truly blessed Thursday.  Have a wonderful day.

Cobs siggy sml

 

 

A Summer Sundress for a Wonderful Wednesday

Summer Sundress for Wonderful Wednesday1

Hello all.  Happy Wednesday!

The weather here where I live in the South West(ish) of Great Britain has been heart liftingly glorious for the past few days.  The sky is a blended mix of the palest duck egg right through to the deepest, diaphanous turquoise.  The sea is the most incredible blue and picks up the colour of the sky and changes it into a water representation of the same thing.  The sun glinted off the ripples of the water in such a way that it looked like a gazillion diamonds were floating across the sea and the sun was catching the diamond cuts, making them dazzling.  So dazzling that I had to keep looking away because it was so bright.

I am so blessed to be living where I do.

This fabulous weather made me think that I should be doing something summery today – so I decided upon a summery dress card.

The dress is made from the exact same print as the paper I used on the front of the card (and part of the inside) – but the dress print paper is in a much smaller scale.  I turned the dress into a ‘spinner’.  This means that it’s hung on a strand of thick cotton thread, and you can actually touch the dress and make it spin back and forth.

Of course … I had to make the inside pretty too …

Summer Sundress for Wonderful Wednesday2

The ‘things’ which look like buttons down the side are Candi Dots, fixed with teeny tiny foam pads.  (They’re on the front of the card too – along the top and bottom).  The fancy die cut edge (and the one on inner crease) were made using a Spellbinders die.

This card made me feel like I wanted to get my pretty sundress on and go for a picnic in the park.  Hope you like the card. 

So .. what’s the weather like where you are? 

Have a blessed rest of your day all.  ~

Cobs siggy sml

With Love in Powder Blue ~ an elegant handmade card.

 

a more elegant card  handmade by Cobwebs
a more elegant card
handmade by Cobwebs

I have this love affair going on with the colour Teal at the moment, and when I saw this beautiful, teal, velvet ribbon on sale at a haberdashery local to where I live I was shocked to find that some just jumped into my basket – where it promptly held me to ransom until I’d bought 5 metres of it.  [tsk tsk.  what an absolutely shocking way for ribbon to behave!]

Made on white cardstock which has a very slightly hammered texture to it.  The powder blue edge strip along the fold line, was made using a Spellbinders Classic Petal Edgeabilities die; and the central circular, lacey type die cut, which includes the sentiment  ‘With Love’, was made using a Tonic Indulgence Semi Circle (item number: 471e).  The powder blue  card which I used for the die cuts was a huge sized piece of random card which I’ve had for ever!

Of course me being me  . . there had to be a little surprise waiting on the inside. . .

With Love in Powder Blue close up of tag inside.

I made an insert from papers which had a sort of heavenly, cloudy effect – added another Spellbinders Edgeabilities die cut (from the same set) and made the little tag from some printed papers which I think I got free with a magazine a while ago, which I mounted onto a piece of the powder blue cardstock which all the die cuts were cut from.  But this time, instead of the velvet ribbon (which would have been too thick and substantial to use on this tag) I used a short length of teal Rayon Seam Binding. (American Seam Binding).

With Love in Powder Blue Inside tag

I don’t normally make ‘elegant’ cards.  I’m more the fun, shabby chic, steam punk, vintage type of card maker, so this card really was a step out of my comfort zone.  But I like the way it turned out.  Less is more really worked for this card.

Whoops – nearly forgot  … the flowers on the front are all from Anna Marie Designs, who you can find on this clickable link:  

Welcome

Thank you so much for visiting and taking the time to have a read.  Please have a look around while you’re here.  There are lots of categories (see the menu over to the right – you might have to scroll up to see all the categories) where I hope you’ll find something you like.

Have a really lovely rest of your day all.

Cobs siggy sml

A Thank you from The Cobweborium Emporium

Life is a Journey .. not a Destination. ~ A vintage style handmade card

 

Life is a Journey, not a Destination.
Life is a Journey, not a Destination.

This post is dedicated to Stacey, a fellow blogger on WordPress, who came up with a brilliant idea of promoting other crafting blogs in posts.  Stacey very kindly mentioned my blog (with a link) and other crafters blogs that I hadn’t seen before which was enough to tell me that I too should take up her idea and promote crafters blogs on my own blog here. 

So, since Stacey came up with the idea, I am firstly promoting her blog (link below) and dedicating this post  – and this card  –  to Stacey. 

Stacey’s blog can be found here:  http://staceyscorner.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/share-sunday/  ~ go and take a look and maybe even click to follow her.

To Stacey,   a dedicated blog post and card,  for an amazing idea!  ~ from Cobs.

. . .  join me on a journey through this card  . . .
. . . join me on a journey through this card . . .

 

Every few days/weeks  … now and againI’ll make what I call a ‘labour intensive’ card.  One of those cards which takes more time than the regular cards you’ve so far seen me post here.  This card – ‘Life is a Journey, not a Destination’, is one of those cards.

It’s not that these types of cards are difficult, they just take a little more thinking and working out so that you end up with the ‘feel’ that you started out knowing you wanted.  This particular card was inspired by a piece of wall art which I have hung in my bedroom, facing my bed.  It’s an iron framed rectangle with a piece of calico strung in the centre and printed on the calico are the words Life is a Journey, not a Destination, and that’s what gave me the theme for the card.

I wanted the card to have a vintage style, with a slightly ‘steampunkery’ feel to it – but at the same time I knew I wanted it to carry a message,  and wanted the message to be read as either literal or spiritual, depending on who the card ended up with, and the circumstances they were in within their life, at that time.  And ... I think I’ve managed it.

This card could be for someone who’s:-  moving house;  going on a cruise or going abroad;  it could be a simple regular birthday card (for either a man or a woman);  it could be for someone who’s starting a new job;  or perhaps for a person who needs some encouragement;  maybe some tests soon?;  or … it could be given to someone who is going through some sort of personal challenge or challenging time, and this card would be a gentle, loving way of saying that they’re going to get through this time and move on to a better place or time.

I’ll give you a list of everything I used to make this card at the end of the post, because I don’t want anyone to look at the list and think that they couldn’t make a card like this.  I might have different stash to you, and I might have different cardstock; dies; ink pads; glues etc etc … but I’m pretty sure you will have things in your stash that you could use to pull a card like this or similar together.  Just because the list of stuff I’ve used might look long – please don’t be put off.  If you want to make something like this, go and look at your stash.  You’d be surprised what you can use in order to make your own style of card.

For now .. I’ll just give you different photos of the card so that you can see things closer up….

Up up and away!  . . .

Life is a Journey not a destination 2

(working)  compass  to help you keep you going in the right direction . . .

 

Life is a Journey, not a destination 3

 

Time passes quickly, –  so some gentle encouragement to enjoy the beauty of every moment.

 

Life is a Journey not a destination 4

 

As followers and readers of my blog know  …  I LOVE to put surprises inside all the cards I make.  I feel that the inside of a card is just so wasted and such a let down when you open a birthday/Christmas or any other time card, and find a big white space with a little bit of writing. 

I like cards to be beautiful inside and out and surprise the receiver when they open their card! . . . 

 

Life is a Journey not a destination 5

Oooo…  I wonder what the magnifying glass is for?!   ;D 

Life is a Journey not a destination 6

OOhh .. another surprise!   ..  now we have a lucky wish star and a ticket which gives me ‘entitlement’ to one wish!    But .. what the devil is that magnifying glass for???

Life is a Journey not a destination 6a

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .   It’s so you can read the page from the dictionary/thesaurus!  Ok .. one mystery solved,  . . .   but  … what’s that pink ticket by the end of the handle?

 

Life is a Journey not a destination 8

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .  mystery number two solved!  (Just call me Sherlock.  lol)

Life is a Journey not a destination 7

Oh, and by the way  … the postcard inside . . .  is for you to write your message on, for the person you’re sending the card to!  See?  It all makes sense!

Life is a Journey not a destination 9

And that  . . . (photo above)  . . .   is the just finished card, stood on a glass cutting mat, on my desk …  and that’s all my  mess  important, essential, fabulous, well organised   {cough}  equipment and tools behind the card.  (I’ll clean it up properly at some point, so that I can take a photograph of my craft room and share it.)

 

The Recipe for this cardI used:

  • Sheena Douglass – Little Bit Sketchy – Magnifying glass stamp.
  • Papermania Acetate (for the ‘window’ of the magnifying glass)
  • Papermania Black Embossing Powder
  • Stazon ‘Saddle Brown’ ink pad
  •      ”       ‘Jet Black’ ink pad
  • Memento Dye Ink Pad in ‘Desert Sand’
  •      ”               ”            ”     in ‘Rich Cocoa”
  • Xcut Build-a-Scene Dies – Vintage Hot Air Balloon
  • Heartfelt Creations 12×12 pad – which I used some of the images from.
  • Spellbinders ‘Once upon a Time’ Die
  • Tattered Lace ‘Postcards’ Die set
  • Heartfelt Creations ‘Time Sentiments’ stamp
  •         ”               ”          ‘Journey Sentiments’ stamp
  • Pinflair Gentle Blends – in Denim colour
  •       ”            ”            ”      –  in Dark Khaki colour
  • Graph It Glitter Ink Pen
  • Compass – was in a pack of 4 I bought a while ago, from the children’s section of either Asda or Tesco.
  • Dictionary page was cut from an old Dictionary/Thesaurus which was no longer used.
  • Cardstock used:
  • Warm Chocolate Brown 300gsm
  • Plain Black 270gsm
  • Orange – was scrap from my scrap draw
  • White – 270gsm
  • Kraft Card – 300gsm
  • Extras:
  • 2 x short lengths of silver-grey Rayon Seam Binding.
  • Grey and white Bakers Twine
  • 3 x fuzzy, funky fibre, Eyelash Knitting Yarn/Wool –  1 x length of warm brown.  1 x  length of jet black.  1 x length of a blues and purples mix.
  • One tiny metal vintage looking Postcard embellishment.

And that’s all there is to it!  😀

Aw, please don’t be daunted by the apparently long list of ingredients for this recipe.   I’ve named almost everything I used here just to be helpful to anyone who wants to know where I got a particular thing, or the make of the papers or dies etc,  (named everything apart from glue .. but if you need to know:  I used Collall All Purpose, Anita’s Tacky Glue, hot glue, and Double Sided Tape) – but I bet you use tons of stuff when you craft a card and you don’t even notice what you’re using anymore.  It’s just all  … ‘stuff’ … which is treasured and loved,  and there because you use it!

Thank you so much for coming to read.  I hope you like the card!  Oh … and don’t forget to visit Stacey’s blog!

Please have a look around my blog here and check out the different categories.  There’s a list of them all in the column over to the right, – you’ll find the list of categories towards the top of that column.

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day!  ~

Cobs siggy sml

 

 

 

*Toadstool Toots* ~ Saturday’s Superduper Sweety! ~

* Toadstool Toots * Saturdays Superduper Sweetie!
* Toadstool Toots *
Saturdays super-duper Sweetie!

Meet  Toadstool Toots.  Isn’t she just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen sitting on a Toadstool?!

To Create:   Die cut a 6 x 6″ card with a Scallop edge on three sides.  I used some polka dot card from a range sold by  Anna Marie Designs  which I again scalloped using a die in my Big Shot machine.    I keep all my dies in die cut folders on magnetic sheets and I can’t quite remember who made this particular set of scallop dies, but looking at it I’m going to guess that it’s  Spellbinders.

*Toadstool Toots* is a little girl from an Art Pad selection of images, from a range by Lili of the Valley .     She isn’t named Toots by LotV – I christened her that, and it seemed to suit her!  

I then die cut Toadstool Toots, again with a scalloped die,  but this time a smaller size,  so that she matt and layered onto the card nicely.

Toadstool Toots Card 2
Toadstool Toots at The Cobweborium Emporium

I wanted to ‘lift’  the picture a little so applied some Anita’s 3-d Clear Gloss to the toadstool which Toots is sat on, to give it a plumpcious look, and also gloss it so that it picked up the light and glinted.  I stamped a tiny tag (a simple hand cut tag from a bit of card) and 3-d Glossed that too.  Once these were dry I finished off the card with a ribbon bow and added some candy dots on each corner.

The die cut vines were made using a Marianne die on some cardstock which I’d got lying around in my ‘leftovers’ draw.  A crafter never throws anything away – especially not cardstock!

It never fails to amaze me how much of these bits of left-over paper and card that I actually do use.  I will frequently poke around the drawer to find a bit of something in the right colour, rather than use a brand new bit of card or paper.

Lili of the Valley do have an angel policy, so if you decide to buy their pads from looking at this card, then please make yourself aware of their policy before buying, so that you know how many cards you’re allowed to make and sell, and also the other guidelines which they have as a company.  They have their Angel Policy on their website (clickable link above – their website will open in a new window).

Their  art pads are great quality and the card stock they’re printed on is excellent.

Anna Marie Designs ~ I’ve bought from Anna Marie several times and always find that she has some quite affordable, different embellishments than I see on the high street.  There is a clickable link in her name above.

*Toadstood Toots* at The Cobweborium Emporium
*Toadstool Toots*
at
The Cobweborium Emporium

Thanks for visiting and spending a few minutes with Toadstool Toots.   She’s as cute as a button and I love her to pieces.  

Cobs siggy sml

I love comments

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