Cupcakes & Coffee Evening

Hi there,

My GB company (First Antrim Presbyterian Church, Antrim) are having a fundraising event on the 17th November 2010 from 7pm - 9pm to raise funds for our company and charity of choice.

It's a Cupcake and Coffee evening where you can buy cakes, cupcakes, a small selection of crafts and books and have a chat over a cup of tea/coffee. If you are free we'd love to see you there.

The cupcakes will be deliciously tempting!

Cupcake Addiction

Hi folks,

I have a major cupcake addiction and i have been baking non-stop these past few weeks. Watch this space for some of the themed cupcakes i have been attempting.

yummy

Baby Thank Yous

Hi folks,

I had planned to be so organised this time round and have all my thank you cards made before the arrival of the baby! Unfortunately due to not being able to settle on one design ( i kept changing it and changing it and changing it) it took a while to get round to making the final ones - altho i probably could have used all the trial versions, everyone would be different.

This is the final design i settled on inspired by Sarah's beautiful card click on the link to see the inspiring work of a very talented lady:

http://sarahslittlesnippets.blogspot.com/2010/10/baby-girl-card.html

The card is A6 landscape and as always sourced from the Paper Mill @ junction one, the image is a forever friends stamp coloured with pro markers, the circles and scalloped circles are woodware punches and the embossed background is created using the cuttlebug and a sizzix embossing folder. The wording is from a woodware clear stamp collection.

Just a quickie...

Here is the prayer pot I made for our Girls' Brigade prayer requests.

It is very simple as was done in a hurry using a stampendous pail, patterned paper by papermania and cut out shapes from my cricut. Its very simple but quite effective the only problem now is that my seniors and brigaders want to decorate their own pails!! What have i started. lol

Birthday Bodice

Hi Folks,

My aunt asked me to make a 21st birthday card for my cousin at the last minute and this is waht i came up with.

The bodice is a dimension fourth stamp which i stamped in black and added a touch of colour with pro markers and papermania gemstones. The skirt was a rectangle of mulberry paper frayed along one edge and then folded in a concertina fashion. This was then stuck underneath the bodice which was raised with 3d foam squares. The numbers were cut on my cricut (plantin school book cartridge). The 3 gemstones in the corner were papermania also, and i used two different sizes.

The finished card was 140mm square.

Thanks

Lynda

Birthday Candle

Hi Folks,

This was the little present i made for cousin on her 21st birthday.

The base candle was winter berry purple from Asda.

I stamped the verse, i think it was from a stampin up set, using memento tuexdo black onto some lilac mulberry paper and used the heritage happy birthday stamp below it. Then i carefully teased the edges apart to create a frayed rectangle. I repeated this on a piece of whit mulberry paper only slightly larger to allow me to create a layered effect. I then used my promarkers to turn the white mulberry paper into a darker shade of purple. I use my promarkers on anything that sits still long enough to be coloured, lol!

I stuck the two layers together with double sided tape and fastened them directly to the candle using double sided tape also. To add a little bit of sparkle i added four purple self adhesive gem stones by papermania to each corner of the stamped mulberry paper.

I popped it into a large cellophane bag along with some little purple punched daisies and tied it closed with three organza ribbons of various thickness and shades of purple.

Quick and cheap to make.

Lynda

The things i get roped in to . .

Hi Folks,

My cousin turned 21 last week and several weeks prior to the big day I managed to end up with the creative job of baking and decorating the cake. Now I love to bake and decorate cakes for my kids but i was a tad mystified what i would do for a 21 year old female! In the end i decided to play on her past achievements as Miss Teen Ulster and create a fondant model to drape over the cake. I made a little fondant banner and painted Miss 21 on it and on the little fondant tiara. Needless to say when she saw the cake she wanted to know why i'd made her bum and hips look so big, lol!

As usual it was all very rushed and last minute. The base was a vanilla sponge and the top tier a caramel chocolate one. Both were covered using plain white fondant icing.

It turned out to be a success at least and was enjoyed by many!

Thanks for looking

Lynda

Last minute birthday card...

Hi Folks,

as usual I have been doing so many things that i almost forgot my friends sons birthday!

Therefore it was a very rushed last minute card before we headed off to meet them.

I keep telling myself I will be more organised but as of yet it hasn't happened!

The finished card is a white A6 with a hammered finish (from the Paper Mill Shop of course!).

The red piece of card was embossed with sizzix dots through my cuttlebug. The greeting is a Heritage stamp stamped onto white hammered card that i coloured with my pro markers to match the coloured image. The stamped tractor image is from Stampasorus, I bought it at the Kings Hall craft fair in the spring time as it reminds me so much of my eldest son Caleb who is obsessed with tractors and trailers. I stamped with memento ink and coloured the image in very quickly (scribble fill I like to call it!) using my pro markers. The scalloped circle was cut using my cricut and stuck to the card using 3d foam pads, as was the greeting.

It was a wee quickie but the little boy receiving it was very pleased and he thought it was him!

Thanks for looking,

Lynda

WARNING

Hi folks,

quick warning - there will be a blog post update overload this afternoon with all the bits and pieces that have kept me crazy(!!) over the past lot of weeks.

Watch this space . . .

Lynda

Summer Sun

Hi Folks,

not much crafting being done these days due to the necessity to entertain little people.

I took this picture at white rocks the other day we were there and i love it so i thought i would share it.

The kids head back to school next week so hopefully then i will have a chance to play and create and post!

Thanks Lynda

Starbook days

Hi folks,

while sorting out photos on the computer for my scrapbook pages i came across these pictures and thought i'd share them with you.

These are of a birthday starbook that i made and decorated as a birthday present for a friend.

I used card stock from the paper mill shop, junction one to create the actual layers of the book in shades of ivory and purples. I stitched all the layers together to create the over all star effect seen in the top left image. I kept the decoration simple as i wanted the focus to be on the verses and the pictures which i had left spaces for to be added by the recipient. The verses were all computer generated and the stamped border background was with a colour box cats eye - royal silk and a hero arts border stamp (wavy pinwheel - i think).

It made a lovely gift and was gratefully received and sits proudly displayed on the coffee table.

I'm trying to finish off my many half completed projects ( too many - it's really naughty of me, i'm easily distracted with something new!!) so hopefully i will have some new project pictures for you soon.

Thanks for looking.

Lynda

One down . . .

Hi folks,

Here is a picture of the quick birthday card i made for a birthday party my children were invited to.

The party was on Saturday afternoon and of course i only got round to making this card about an hour before we left! (not the most organised of people)

The card is 11cm square. I used the sizzix dots embossing folder to add texture to the front of the card and added a pink happy birthday ribbon from trimcraft. The scalloped square background was cut with my cricut and coloured in with pro markers. The stamped image is a dimension fourth polymer stamp from their fairy collection, again coloured with pro markers and then cut out. I attached it to the card using 3d foam pads for extra dimension and added 4 little star gems to the wings for sparkle.

Nothing too fancy but little Kaitlyn loved it and so did my little girl (she wanted to keep it - so looks like i'll have to make another one for her to keep!)

Didn't get round to finishing my other projects so best stop chittering and get on and do some work.

Thanks for looking.

Lynda

Where does the time go?

Hi Folks,

I had fully intended on posting some of the craft projects i had finished this week while my little girl was at holiday bible club! However the latest little addition decided he would feed and feed and feed some more while she was gone and I haven't got a thing finished!! Keep watching though as i have to have a few items finished for Saturday (deadlines :s) so i will be able to upload them then.

Lynda

Busy week . . .

Hi Folks,

This past week has been rather busy!

Baby number three made his appearance on Thursday last at 3.30am, weighing 7lbs 15oz.

We finally settled on the name - Eli Thomas Little.

He's so cute (but then i am his mum and am slightly biased!).

I finally finished the baby blanket i had been attempting to crochet during labour (was a good distraction!) so it was ready when the wee man arrived.

I had set myself the challenge to learn to crochet this year so I'm quite pleased with my first attempt. Who knows what i'll attempt next?!

It's a simple granny square, using treble crochets and 4ply yarn in purple and turquoise (as i didn't know if it would be a wee girl or boy). It's not overly big - just the right size for his Moses basket or car seat.

This pictures include the latest little and his new blanky less than 24hours old.

Thanks for stopping by,

hopefully i'll get to post some other craft items soon.

Lynda

And here's another one . . .

Rhonda McKeown was also playing at my house that day and showed us how to make the Tim Holtz style grunge rose using your cricut die-cutting machine.

My first attempt under Rhonda's supervision turned out like it was supposed to, however later that night trying it myself things didn't turn out exactly the same.

I blame it on using a different cricut cartridge! All the same this little flower turned out to be quite funky if i do say so myself even if its a bit wonky!!

The flowers were coloured using cosmic shimmer mister sprays in shades of purples, blues and reds.

The flourish's were cut using the cricut and again coloured using the misters in three shades of green.

Both were spritzed with the colours then dabbed with and old bit of plastic to create a textured effect.

I decided to combine the two new projects I had learnt that day and made a little pearly gift bag to attach the flower to.

This bag is the same size as the previous one.

I used two pieces of narrower organza ribbon for the handles on this one.

Thanks for looking

My latest addiction . . .

Hi Folks,

I thought I'd post a few pics (sorry bout the quality - they were took in a hurry) of my latest addiction!

Last week a couple of crafty friends were over at my house for a little play day and I thought i'd share what i learnt.

Sarah of Little Snippets (http://sarahslittlesnippets.blogspot.com) showed me how to make gorgeous little gift bags which are really quick and easy (once you figure out all the measurements and which side of the ruler you're suppose to use - not good trying to mix inches and cms!)

My attempts are not as beautiful as hers (check out her blog for amazing craft projects) but they're not bad for the first few attempts.

This picture is a little bag and matching c7 size card suitable for a birthday girl who's very trendy and you just want to giver her a little something.

The finished bag size is:14x6x10cm (wxdxh)

The card stock is all from The Paper Mill Shop, Junction One.

The scalloped circles are made using woodware punches 2" and 1".

The stamped images are from the Smirk Love/Friendship range (can't remember which one as i have both) and are coloured in using pro-markers.

The wording stamp on the little card is from an inkadinkdoo birthday set.

The diamanté are Papermania - iridescent.

Ribbon handles are green satin from my stash.

Thanks for taking a look.

Lynda

Hi Folks

Hi there Folks.

After much persuasion from a few friends I have finally got round to starting a blog!

This is all new to me so please be patient with me as i try to string it all together.

As I'm on maternity leave now I have 9 months to create something that will hopefully inspire you and keep my sanity.

I'll do my best to update as regularly as possible (but as any of you mum's will know time isn't always on our side. )

Thanks for stopping by.

Lynda