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 :-)

Bookatrix and Projects

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 again 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

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...

Free Backing Paper

I have been learning how to create background papers in paintshop pro and really enjoying the flexibility of creating my own papers. It has been quite a journey needless to say quite alot of stuff I have done has ended up in the waste bin but here is one that I would like to share with you. Please feel free to use this paper for your projects all I ask is that you leave me a comment to say you have downloaded it... and if you get chance send me a photo of your work so i can display it here for you.

Hope you enjoy it and have fun.

To download double click on the image and save to your PC





I made this card using Fred She Said digital flower downloads and the background paper i created in paintshop pro

Daisychains Blog Candy

While blog hopping today I found Christines (great name lol) blog Daisychains, please take a look she has some very inspirational cards but if you visit before June 8th you can be enter into her blog candy. There is some lovely candy for you in the Forever Friends range. So dont wait visit Christine at Daisychain here

The Craftypad Stamp Giveaway - Final Day

The final day for the Craftypad giveaway,to be in with a chance to win a Craftypad stamp visit the craftypad blog here

Todays stamp is a gorgous teddy stamp, so all you teddy bear lovers pop on over to have a look, just scroll down the page a bit to find the stamp

Spellbinders

I know yet another video lol....

But I just couldnt resist blogging about this video which I found today on the spellbinders, which im sure you must all adore like myself. I just wish I could win the lottery and buy them all, imagine that a complete set of spellbinders, just a dream for me im afraid. Hope you enjoy watching this as much as I did.

Squidoo

Just a quickie today, as I am really tied up decorating the downstair rooms at the moment and I really wanted to share my Squidoo with you. I think some of you already use squidoo but for those who have never heard its well worth having a browse around to see if it is for you. Squidoo is a fabulous way to promote your projects and designs so pop along and have a look her is a link to my Bookatrix Projects & Ideas Lens.

Cover A Notepad

This is a great little video tutorial on how to cover a spiral notepad I found on You Tube. For those of you who dont own a Bind It All machine this is a fabulous alternative way to make some personalised notepads. Have fun...

More Fairy Doodles

Some more fairy doodles here.... yes im still playing with my new stamps. Just in case you are wondering about all my LILAC cards, I have a neighbour who buys all her cards from me and her favourite colour is lilac so I seem to have rather alot of left over papers and card in lilac, well i need to find some way to use it all up. It may also have something to do with that i also like lilac to, lol.

Anyway, again i have watercoloured the fairy doodle image and highlighted with sakura glitter pens but I also shaded with dovecraft shimmery chalks, which gave a lovely effect, unfortuantely the picture has not picked this up. The flowers again are from Fred She Said collection, I do love her images. I then used a crystal clear lacquer on them. Stamped sentiment is also from the fairy doodle range from The Pink Shop.

Fairy Doodles

I just recieved these Fairy doodles Stamps from The Pink Shop today and they are soooo cute, ive been playing with these all day, even though I have a awful cold at the moment.

I watercoloured the image and highlighted with Sakura glitter pens and the embellishment is from Fred She Said.

Bird House

While blog hopping yesterday i came across this bird house on Kaths Blog and fell in love with it, just had to make one as they are so cute. Kath very kindly left a link on her blog to Nicole Headys blog where you can download a free template for the bird house, so here is the download link for you.... scroll down to find the download.

I made the birdhouse with Bazzil cardstock and embellished with Fred She Said flowers.

These are a great gift idea.

A Bit of Quilling

I just learnt how to make these lovely fringed flowers so now im hooked you may see many more. These are great for using up your bits of papers and with the help of Susan i managed to make a decent flower. You can check out Susans blog here

You will need a strip of paper measureing 3cm by 30cm long to make a large flower like this.

Scottish Keepsake Bookatrix Project

Hello wow its been quite a long time since my last post and I have really missed updating my blog, but unfortunately due to several reasons I have been unable to keep up to date. But now im back and hoping to give Busy Bees Craft Place some much needed TLC.

Bookatrix cards seem to be quite popular at the moment I have had several orders for them lately, please forgive the me for the poor quality photos as my camera is not performing to well lately or maybe its myself. Oh well not to worry, this is a bookatrix for a scottish wedding and i made this with some gorgous organza and satin roses teamed up with some blue paper roses,

I used blue and green tartan themed backing papers. All the flowers are from Princess Favours and the backing papers I downloaded from Cuddly Buddly

You can find a tutorial for making these Bookatrix Keepsakes here

BOOKATRIX PROJECTS & IDEAS








BOOKATRIX PROJECTS & IDEAS

A Big Thank You

Am I so glad to be back to normal that has been one of the worst couple of months I have had, what started out as a bad strain turned into damaged ligaments and boy was it painful, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But what i really want to say is thank you to all your good wishes that you have sent to me I have just been reading them all and I am overwhelmed by your lovely comments. I am hoping to start blogging again with a vengeance, but is going to take me quite some time to catch up with you all and find out what you have all been upto.

Just to draw your attention to the link on the right to a site I found where you can download some candy bar wrapping software just in case anyone is thinking of making some sweets for Christmas or even if you buy some chocolate bars and would like to add a little personal touch. You may even know someone who is thinking of making their own wedding favours. Im off now to start reading some blogs.

Check it out here also

Apologies

Well guys i just cant believe this, here I am again giving my apologies for the lack of activity on this blog but here is the story. Last weekend Princess Favours had been asked to supply some favours for a very posh local hotel Hogarths who were holding their wedding open day. So on my arrival laden with all my boxes and eager to get going I hastily checked which room i needed to take them to, but ooppps whats this here a tiny what agggggghhhh steppppppp well that was oh soooo not such an elegant entrance you have ever seen and then a hasty trip to the local hospital, thankfully no broken bones but a serious strained ankle is the result and a week later still suffering with nasty swelling but im so glad i can now at least walk on it a little as if i overdo it then the aches and pains tend to set in. So I have had a very interesting week if not very pleasant. As you can imagine there is loads to catch up on but hopefully we wont be keeping you waiting to long now. So from us keep safe and keep watching as we have loads to announce soon.

Christine

Happy World Card Making Day

Wishing everyone a happy crafting day, I have spent the morning blog hopping around and I have visited loads of people to see what you are all up to. Hoping to upload my card later today when i can drag myself away from this keyboard long enough to actually make one lol have great day all

Boxes for Enchanting Tiaras

Well no cards today I have been kidnapped to decorate some keepsake tiara boxes for my daughters work I was quite pleased with the end results they actually look quite elegant I think, well my daughter was pleased so thats the main thing.

Candy Time Again

Vixx-a-Craftin': Candy Time!!

Some more brill candy on offer here

And Arline has some really fab candy here

Dont forget to visit Fran here to take a look at her fabulous candy

Lim also has some fabulous candy here there are some very inspiring projects too

Blog Candy Winner

First of all I would like to apologise for my delay in announcing the winner, I should of done this yesterday but a bit of an emergency with my grandaughter on staurday afternoon and I had to pop over to my daughters to stay with my grandson, so I am sorry for keeping you waiting.

I got my sons girlfriend to pick a name out of the hat this afternoon and I am pleased to announce that the winner is

EVE

so congrats to Eve and if you would like to email me your details I will get your craft goodies in the post for you. I hope you have good time crafting with your new stash.

Can i just a say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and I really enjoyed reading all your lovely comments, hope to do another quite soon probably for 5000 hits, I guess that may come around quite quickly too. Hope you have all had a good weekend hugs to you all.

Chrissy

My First Blog Candy

I appreciate everyone who comes here to visit and if you’d like to help spread the word about my blog candy, please be my guest! So as its looking like i might reach the 1000 mark very soon i have decided to start the blog candy now. I dont have any photos of the stash as yet but i can tell you it will be a very nice mixture of various papers, some coloured card, stamped images, ribbons, punched cut outs, some bling stuff, paper roses and some surprises.

please submit a comment to this post and tell me how you found my blog and if you have visited more than once before. Even if this is your first visit, I’m very happy to have you and certainly hope you’ll come back often! So all you need to do is the usual leave me a comment and put my link on your blog. Heres wishing you all good luck.

Ooopps forgot to mention as its my birthday in September thought I would run this until Fri 26th Sept and I will announce the winner on Sat 27th.

Bookatrix Keepsake Wedding Card

Had to do a real quick card last weekend, while attending a funeral of a very old friend who we had not been in contact with for over 20 years we were invited to the evening do of a wedding the next day, needless to say I spent most of Saturday making this bookatrix, well I thought I really need to take at least a special card phew theres nothing like leaving things till the last minute

One Day To Go

A quick reminder that there is only one day left to enter for my blog candy as it closes at midnight on Friday

Princess Favours Have a New Blog

Why not pop over and take a peek just click HERE

Ive been Tagged

Gosh my first ever tag, yes ive been tagged by Rachel so a big thank you to Rachel and here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

OK so here goes a little about me:

1. I have been married for 31 years to David and have three grown children and two grandchildren

2. We have had various pets over the years to name but a few cats, dogs, birds, fish, rabbits and even gerbils uuughhhh

3. I have also had a variety of jobs in offices, hospitals, shops and restaurants.

4. For quite a few years i was a childminder and had a part time job in the evenings

5. My pet hate is Spiders, gruesome movies, food shopping, most definately ironing and the dark (when im on my own lol).

6. I love all kinds of crafts and spend as much time as I can trying to be creative.

7. My ambition at the moment is to move to the coast.

Ok i would like to tag the following

Lana
Sarah
Linanna
Jo
Alison
Pauline
Linda

Well done all hope you have some fun tagging your friends

Fairy Fairy Glittery

Nessy has some blog candy to celebrate her birthday and 12000 hits to her blog, she loves glittery and girly things so would like to visit your creations using this theme, so her is my attempt, hope youy like it Nessy. Click here to visit Nessy

Pay a visit to My Little Card Blog here
for a chance to see some more lovely candy


And you can visit Elinas blog just click here
Elina has some lovely embellishments in her blog candy

Bevs Blog Candy

Pop over to Bevs blog and have a look at her fabulous cards and get details of her blog candy click here or above

Blog Bling Competition

Heres a chance to win some lovely jewelry at Enchanting Tiaras for details on what you need to do click here

Are You Following Me

I like this new gadget for bloggers the follow me link, so have added to my sidebar, Why not add yourself to mine or even try it out on your own blog.

Enchanting Tiaras New To Blogging

Sarah at Enchanting Tiaras who is new to blogging has some beautiful handcrafted tiaras on her website, please go and take a look as they are fabulous you can use the link opposite or just click here Sarah offers a bespoke service and creates the most stunning tiaras and jewelery.If you would like to visit her new blog to you can click here

A few pictures of some of Sarahs work

More Candy

Pop over to see Adele at Dilly Dally Dangle to see her fabulous blog and candy she has on offer to celebrate 15000 hits, WOW just click here


and if you would like to take a look at Carmens blog she is celebrating 20,000
just click here

Also my friend Jude has some lovely Laura Ashley stamps you can click here to pay her a visit

You can pay Gina at the The Card Kabin a visit here for her lovely candy

Blog Candy

Karin at Scrap Everyting has nearly reached 10,000 hits and is offering some blog candy to celebrate so why not pay her a visit and take a look at her lovely blog. You can follow the link above or just click here

First Scrapbook

A few years ago when my dad passed away my grandaughter was 4 1/2 years old she was very close to him and he loved to tease her as he always did with us when we were children and she loved the attention as little ones do, Im quite surprised that she does still talk about him quite often and generally out of the blue, so i got to thinking that as she grows older these memories will gradually fade and beocome very distant. This inspired me to make her a scrapbook full of photos and memrobelia of him so she can look at it often with the hope of keeping those memories a little more fresh in her mind. I have now completed my first 4 pages so only 16 more to go, I have started with the oldest photos I have of him and will gradually bring them upto the times she can remember. Hope you like them, im fairly pleased so far and I think Megan will just love it, hope so anyway.

Scrapping Mommys Blog Candy

There seems to be a lot of blog candy around at the moment take a peep here at Scrappin Mommys blog and view her blog candy here or click on the link above

More blog candy

I couldnt resist this one as Kristin has got some fabulous Magnolia stamps on offer in her blog candy you cant catch up with Kreative Kristins blog here

10k Blog Candy at Craftlings Cosy Corner

Some super blog candy on offer you definitely need to take a look and if you dont i can guarantee you will wish you had. For a full list of what's in the CANDY and what you need to do to enter click HERE. Some rules apply but here is a few paragraphs to hopefully get you interested and follow the link above to read some more.


Everyone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.

The problem with word verification is that it takes too long. The characters are very often hard to decipher, and it’s frustrating when you get them wrong and have to re-enter the little suckers!

So this campaign is on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of blessing and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make the Land of Blog a cheerier place.

Wedding Invitation Set

I have been a busy bee over the past few days trying out some new designs for wedding invitations to go in store at
Princess Favours so please feel free to make good or bad comments on these as I am looking for feedback, do they need something more or are they just ok or maybe you think they are good, lol im giving you the chance to be completely honest. In fact maybe a rating would be good like score them between
1 and 5 with 5 being the top mark. Hope you have fun and I look forward to reading your comments.

New Look

Not much to talk about today but I do have a new look, just felt like a change of cloths, I hope you like it.

1000 Visitors

I am getting very close now to a 1000 visitors so I will be putting together over the next week a collection of goodies to offer as some blog candy to celebrate. So come on ladies keep on visiting me to get the opportunity to eneter for some blog candy.

80th Birthday Bookatrix

I love doing these bookatrix cards for special occasions, this one is for one of my customers, I think the flower arrangments on these just make them look so special and the pull bow ribbons just finish them off perfectly they are great for weddings and anniversaries. The paper tea roses and pull bow ribbons are available from my website Princess Favours The borders were created using the Laura Ashley Stamps.

Sarah Kay

I have been so busy again with cards and cakes and favours i almost forgot i had this blog to update. Just a couple of cards using the Sarah Kay stamped image which have been watercoloured and touched up with Stardust Pens.

Blog Candy at Katherinas

Please take some time out to veiw Katherinas blog im sure you will not be dissapointed it is a lovely site and she has fabulous blog candy giveaway for 100,000hits how wondefull is that, such an achievement.

Chrissy

Simple Daisies

Made this one for a customer who always has pink or lilacs so just a simple card today, had loads of fun with the acrylics paints in the background and by the time I had finished messing about with the paints decided to do something real simple and easy.

Preview of new stock

A sneak preview of new stock arriving at Princess Favours, there are some lovely new colours and designs coming in and we are quite exciting about a new range of beads. I have posted just a few pictures here and will be announcing when they will be available in store here.

Blog Candy at Janes

Jane is celebrating her 1st year at Carrolls Creations and is offering some blog candy. Jane is a Winnie the Pooh fan, but best of all you must take a look at her beautiful creations, just pop along, to visit use the link above.

Breast Cancer Fund Raising

I have recently been asked to provide 100 favours for a breast cancer ball being held at a local hotel ( Ramada Jarvis Solihull). The lady who is organising this has recently finised her course of treatment for breast cancer and I have decided that I would like to donate all the favours to this worthy cause. So following on from there I will also be organising a raffle to raise extra funds, we have a few donations to add to our raffle but are actively seeking more goodies to add to the list. If you feel you would like to contribute anything please leave me a comment with contact details.

Details of gifts and donators will be listed here shortly.

Wylde Woman Award

I am thrilled to have received this award from Lana at

www.sweetpeaspapercreations.blogspot.com/

Please take a look at Lanas blog as she has some lovely creations where you will find very much inspiration.

The Purpose of the Award:

To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy. What a lovely gesture.

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you.
Make sure you link to their site in your post.
2. Link back to this blogsite

So here is my list

Carole
www.supermum-crafty.blogspot.com
Petra
www.pethowspapercraft.blogspot.com
Julia
www.wigglescraftybitz-wigglescards.blogspot.com
Leanne
www.fluttabyz.blogspot.com
Kitty
www.kittyskrafty.blogspot.com

New Award from Lindy Lous Meeting Place

www.lindylousmeetingplace.blogspot.com/

I Would like to say a very big thank you to Linda for sending me this award but also my appologies for my delay in forwarding this on, but have been so busy the last two weeks with cakes, wedding favours and a weekend break hardly hard time to breath. So the rules are to send onto 5 more people, such a dificult job to do when there are so many craft friends that i would like to send to.

1. Only 5 people allowed
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the World
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

It is a way of saying thank you to those who take time out to leave wonderful comments to boost your day.

1 Tracy at www.craftytracysstampingcorner.blogspot.com
2 Andrea at www.andie66.blogspot.com
3 Lyn at www.mickeysmate.blogspot.com
4 Jilly at www.jillyscreations.blogspot.com
5 Kazan at www.nunutoolies.blogspot.com/