Monday 5 December 2016

A Christmas card to make and give...

Hellooooo peoples, long time no blog!
I hope your autumn has been better than mine ... Fibro, cold weather and Chronic Fatigue have so much to answer for!

Right, straight down to business peeps ...before I go horizontal again :)

I thought I'd do a tutorial for a Christmas card, something simple enough to do with the nippers but stylish enough to be glitzed and glammed up for the adults.

You can buy packs of plain cards to use for decorating, they come with envelopes, in many craft outlets ...which means you can get straight down to the important stuff ~ your design and decoration.

However, it is very easy to make your own cards; packs of plain, A4,coloured card are widely available, as are packs of envelopes. 

The advantage of making your own card is that the you are not restricted by any one size.
A range of A4 card, cards and envelopes.
Firstly, I'm going to do a basic design, using both a ready made card as well as a homemade one, I'll also show you how the design looks when it is made by both an adult & a child.

Tap on the template image below, save it to your device, then print it out to use.
I've kept things simple, as promised, but you could use your own and draw any shape you like. 

Stencil/template.

If you're going to use a piece of A4 card, to make your Christmas card, score the card in half and fold, place to one side before you cut the stencil.

Making the template.
Cut a piece of card, from your scrap/ old box, cut it the same size as your Christmas card front (you can place your Christmas card on top of  the scrap card and draw round it), trace the stencil design on to the scrap card and cut out the shapes you want to decorate.

Place the template on your folded card, colour in the bauble shapes or glue diamantés inside the space.
Once your paint has dried you can glitter and decorate the baubles.



Draw a string, from the top of the bauble to the top of the card, finish it of with a drawn bow. You can also use thin cord, just stick it in place carefully.

This is my finished Adult version. I didn't draw the bauble shapes on, I just stuck the diamante's straight on to the card ...leaving spaces so that you're just indicating the shape. I also used a thin cord and a bow, as mentioned below, instead of drawing it on.

This next one was made by 7 year old Connie, without any help from me.


If you need to make small bows you can use a fork to help you. Fold your cord or ribbon around the fork tines, cross over at the front and thread one end through the centre gap, under and behind the ribbon and back over the top, out through the centre gap. Fasten of, trim the ends and slide the ribbon off the fork.

I hope you use the stencil to make your own cards, let me know if anything is unclear! ...& I'd love to see your finished cards ...Enjoy x






Thursday 1 December 2016

Boxing clever... Covering a box, one step at a time!

Hello all, I've recently had to start making a decorated present box, so I thought a step by step tutorial might be helpful ...I'll try and do a part 2, covering the actual decoration, just as soon as I finish the said box🌸
So, here's the original box. It's a nice sturdy one but the colour is not what I want.

Select your paper; I've used a white wall paper with a raised pattern; lay the lid on the wrong side of the paper and draw right around the shape. Measure the depth of the lid and add this measurement to each of the 4 sides, creating a border around your original shape.

Cut around the outer border line. Draw a line from each corner of your inner shape, out the the edge. Do this 8 times creating a mini box shape at each corner.

Now cut a V shape into the inner corner and trim the excess, don't worry about being too precise, these tabs will eventually be covered up.
You can also just cut out the entire corner square, I eventually decided to do this option because I intend to stick a ribbon around the edge of the lid to finish it off.

Glue the top of the lid. Use double sided tape if you wish. Because I may decide to paint effect the box, I decided to glue the paper to prevent any buckling if the paper gets wet.

Place the lid down onto the paper, smoothing and pressing it firmly in place, inside your inner line. Smooth any wrinkles out before gluing the edges (& the corner tabs if you're leaving them on)

If you're doing the tab option glue the tabs over each corner first. Wrap the wider edge of the tab around each side.

Stick the edges in place (overlapping the tabs if you've used them). Make sure you butt the edges together as neatly as possible, whichever option you use.

Now for the bottom part of the box. I'm working this out as I go along, so please bear with me!
...my box has a VERY very tight fitting lid and I know the lid will not fit on if I cover the bottom in the same way as I would a different box (ie covering the bottom of the box completely). 
I've decided to take the paper up to the point where the lid fits on to the box.
In this pic you can see the lid is on and I'm working out the measurement from the lid, down to the bottom of the box and enough to wrap underneath on to the base; at least 1.5cm. Add these measurements together for your paper width.

The next measurement you'll need is the distance around the whole box. Now cut your paper, it will be long and narrow (you can cut it in two pieces if necessary and butt them together when you stick them on to the box base).


I've kept the lid on as a guide for the paper. Paste the paper and start sticking it, pay special attention to the corners and look out for air bubbles. Smooth the paper on keeping it close to the lid edge.


Once you've stuck and joined the paper, cut down in a straight line at each corner.
Now fold in the ends and stick in place.


Do the same with the edges, until all edges are stuck down.



Trim and neaten any bits that aren't quite square.


Measure and cut a piece of paper to cover the base. The size should be large enough to cover the gap but it will look best if it is just slightly smaller than the base measurement. Stick it on and you're done!





Now I just have to figure out the decoration so watch out for part 2!
Happy box covering peoples (any questions?  ...just ask)🌸




Tuesday 1 March 2016

Putting some bookfolds to bed...

There past few days I've been crafting from a laid back position... I've done my back in, which has been extremely painful... but it has meant that I've been able to finish two and start another bookfold.

I've finally put my Fibrofighter bookfold to bed (hurrah!), all it needed were some finishing touches ...now all I need to do is bag an' bow it.





Wednesday 17 February 2016

Half term is upon us!

Oh my, has it really been seven weeks since my last post? How time flies! Trust me when I say it's not lazyness, I've had a pretty rough time with the usual Fibro but, thankfully the ME/CFS had taken a back seat. 
Last week I finally got together, with my youngest daughter, for an afternoon of crafting with the nippers. 

Bec bought some face mask kits with paints included which, along with her stash of glitter etc, proved to be a big hit.
The girls excelled themselves, producing some very different styles! ...I must add that these were all their own work with no help from us, except some mixing of colours.
So, in age order, this is Maisey's, age 9.


Sydney, age 8.


Connie age 6


...& last but not least, this is Darcie's, age just 3!


Half term is upon us, a time that can be very frustrating for baby sitting Gran's parents! It can be even more difficult for those with chronic conditions. I find that having a variety of things for the nippers to do is essential ...things that vary in the amount of supervision that is. 

Another craft that our girls enjoy is making hair decorations ...these were made using felt on a crocodile clip, they can be used on a hair band or as hair clips on their own.





These were all the girls own work, I supplied the felt, cut the shapes and let them get on with it. The finished hair decorations are really colourful and look great. I showed them how to tie the bows, next time they can have a go at that bit on their own as well ...before long they'll be experienced hair decoration makers! LOL