My Bookatrix and Projects

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy christmas and new year in case I dont get time to get away from the kitchen tomorrow lol.

Have a great day

Christine

Paper Pricking & Card Stitching & Free Pattern

How nice it is not to be making Christmas cards so this was a nice change for me, after finding a paper pricking pattern on the net I was glad to have something new to try out. Just one problem though a quick trip to our brand new local Hobbycraft with whom I have a love hate relationship to buy some cottons I found myself at the till having spent £50.00 - wow how did i manage that one?

Not sure really products just seem to drop into my basket - oh well its good job the other half was not with me he would of had a heart attack. Now that is why I have a love hate relationship with Hobbycraft, its great to have their store on my doorstep and I am loving that, but I am just spending tooooo much so some stronger willpower will definately need to come into force me thinks before I get into trouble and married bliss becomes married horror lol.

I made this card with a free template I will post a link at the bottom if you would like to download it, it is the best one I have found so far and I have very much enjoyed the stitching so if anyone knows of some good sites for free templates please let me know. The backing paper was from Cuddly Buddly, some pale pink bazzil card and pink satin ribbon from stash.

A very nice economical card - ah thats good at least the card didnt cost much make. I now need to stay away from the shopping centre.

First attempt at card stitching - so nice and simple to begin with



Another one in the making



oops nearly forgot the link to the free pattern here

Fall Flower By FSS

Its wet cold and miserable today, I think I would prefer snow to rain :-) hope you are all wrapped up warm today as colder temps are on the way - so the weatherman says....

I had a play around last night with some colouring and blending tecniques and I really enjoyed myself. This card was made using one of Fred She Said digital images, I coloured in and blended with sansodor. The frame is also from FSS digi pack and includes a pricking pattern, which makes everything so easy to put together. I dont know about you but I love easy - especially when you need to do a quick card. The backing paper is from K & Company and ribbon from stash.

Christmas Fayre Update

Just a quickie for now, the Christmas Fayre went quite well and it is fair to say that for my first attempt I am really quite pleased. Apparently it is was fairly quiet this year so knowing that fact makes my sales a bonus and although I did not sell out it has boosted my confidence to go on and attend more fayres but my thoughts are that craft fayres would be the better option. So all you crafters out there who may be a little afraid to take the plunge I would say go for it as the feedback I got was that people do like and will buy your handcrafted products.

I hope this will inspire you to have a go for yourself and now on a different note I have some exciting tips for you regarding Google Picasa but I am afraid it will have to wait but please watch this space for some more very soon.

Christmas Fayre Today

Well the day has arrived and I will be doing my first craft table at the school tonight.... aaaaargh I can tell you I am really nervous about this, so watch this space and will let you know later if its a big flop or a huge success one can only hope

Catch you up later on then......

Snowflake Christmas Tree

Well here is a few more Christmas Cards for the school fayre, what a game i had getting a good photo of these, I couldnt use the flash as the white paper was throwing back I really could do with some photographic lessons I think but just dont have much time really. I was inspired to make these cards when I saw one made by Sue at the pink shop blog, she has an awesome blog with some wonderfull ideas and creations, you can visit her here.

While im here I just wanted to say a big thank you to everybody who visits my blog and takes the time to make a comment it really is appreciated, I do try to get round all your blogs as there are some fabulous projects on all your blogs but the problem is there are just sooooo many I love to visit I could spend a whole day looking, reading, posting and still not get round to see everyone. I really wish I could though, but anyway what I would like to say is thank you to you all.

Have good day....

Christmas Card Collection Is Growing With Fred She Said & Forever Friends Christmas Cards

Ive spent another whole day crafting - how lucky am I at the moment, everything has been put on hold so I can get these cards made for school Christmas Fayre. I must say I am getting a bit twitchy now its getting so close, well you see I have never done anything like this before and I am having nightmares that people will think they are all rubbish eeeeekk...... that would be so embarrassing. Ill let you know how it goes.

Most of the cards I made using Fred She Said digi flowers which I am most definitely addicted to lol and there are also some Forever Friend decoupage cards.

But in the meantime I just took some quick photos of a few, I hope you like them.

Crafting Like Crazy

Just a quick note tonight, I have been working like mad to get as many cards boxes and calenders made as humanly possible for the schools christmas fayre next week. I think I am nearly there and hopefully i can post you some pictures.

Hopefuly I can then find some extra love and care for my blog, its really looking sorry for its self lately :-( hardly any posts this year and im feeling a tad sad at how little time ive spent here, so my new years resolution is not going to be difficult to decide on this year lol.

Another project im working on at the moment is a light box for my photographs and dare i say it some more freebie background papers.....

How To Fold A Origami Gift Box Video

As promised here is the video tutorial for the origami gift boxes. I am also writing up a text and photo sheet for you to download if you would prefer, but they are really quite simple unlike some of the more adventurous origami folds.

Dont know about you but i have really felt the cold this weekend, a good sign that winter is on its way so its cosy days in my craft corner for me apart from about 15 mins when i run up the school to collect Sam.

Christmas Is Near

Hello everyone, yes I have been absent from my blog for a while and im feeling a tad bit guilty now. Like most of us bloggers our time seems to be consumed with homelife sometimes and I have been busy looking after the grandchildren through school holidays and then a fabulous holiday in Florida. Im just about getting over the jet lag and getting back into normal life flow.

So now crafting is back in full swing and I have been really busy this past week making christmas gift boxes for the local school Christmas Fayre. I am upto 14 so far and will be making a video tutorial for you, but for now here is some pictures. I constructed the box using a Origami fold and will be posting a tutorial very soon.

Time to do some catching up on what you have all been up to over the last few months :-)

How To Make A Paper Tortillion

A tortillion is a rolled up piece of paper which resembles a pencil. These can then be used to blend colors together using prismacolors and sansador. By making your own you can save some money, just follow the steps below.


TIP

You may find that your tortillion becomes stained after some use, you can clean the tip using a normal nail file and gently file the tip.


You Will Need

A Piece of Paper (A4 is recommeneded)
Ruler
Pencil
Tape
Scissors
Slim Knitting Needle/Wide Wire

Get an A4 paper (optional, you can use ordinary paper). At the top left corner, use your ruler to mark one inch down. Down at the bottom right corner, mark one inch up.

Connect the two points and cut across the line using scissors. Now you have two slabs of paper for two tortillions.

Beginning at the small end, roll the paper as even and tight as possible, working your way towards the wide end. Once this is done, hold on to it nice and strong.

Push a slim knitting needle or a fat wire into the open part of the tortillon so it takes the shape of a pencil.

Protect the paper with tiny strip of tape. Trim any extra paper around the top.

Crafty Pad Blog Candy

Val a very talented lady at the Crafty Pad has some lovely blog candy available so pop over and have peep at her wonderful projects.

Crafty Pad Blog Candy here

Wow 76th Wedding Anniversary

My second project this week was a 76th wedding anniversary card all I can say is wow that is some achievement 76 years of marriage. The couple in question are 100 and 98 years old. I didnt want to go over the top with this one so tried to keep it special but simple. I used the bookatrix board to make the bells and agin I used Fred She Said flowers to embellish, I think I must have an obsession with Fred She Said flowers, I just love them and usually cannot resist using them on my cards.

Hello Kitty

After a mad week last week trying to help my husband lay a new wooden floor in the kitchen (first attempt) in all that heat too, here is the results which even though I say myself its not to bad but it was hard work. After nearly six months of decorating and diy around the house I now only have two rooms left to do - hooray nearly there. So this week I have made time to do some craft work and have a break from diy.




Now getting to the more interesting stuff like crafting :-)

I have had two projects to complete the first one was some favour boxes for my grandaughters friends birthday party and the theme was Hello Kitty. Using the Sizzix Hello Kitty die cuts this is was I came up with, I must say they were rather fiddly to put together but all turned out OK eventually. This is a great way to use all those small scraps of papers you cant bear to part with ;-)

My First Horeshoe Attempt

This project didnt start off to well at all, Cricut decided to play me up and I thought it was going to end up a complete disaster, but i plodded on and things turned out pretty much ok. So it pays to carry on even when you dont think things are going to well. Anyway my customer was extremely pleased so thats what counts really...

To make this horseshoe I used pink pearlised card and cut two shaped pieces from a SCAL file on my cricut. The gathered lace I placed between the the two layers of card and then embellished with some gorgous peel offs and babies breath flowers from Princess Favours



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More Freebie Papers

As promised two more freebie background papers to download, these are quite rich colours. Just click on the picture and save to your pc.

Cows Curiosity or Steven Maybe

This is my youngest son Steven, who now lives in Bristol. He came home last week for a few days and this picture was taken by his older brother Mark in the fields at the back of our house.

I just had to share this photo with you, the cows look quite bemused I thought, either that or they were pleased to have their photo taken with Steven hahaha. Click on the picture to enlarge and see the looks on their faces....

This one is my family, not such a good photo...

Unfortuanatly I couldnt find the 23 year old cat...