Black & White

I am trying to be prompt with taking pictures of my crafting before gifting away, so here is one hot off the press. This boxed cards set is for the other Mrs P, my beautiful sister in law, whose birthday we're celebrating tonight. I hope she likes it.

One of the things I certainly find quite frustrating with crafting is my indecisiveness. I keep deliberating whether to put stripes on the box, just like the cards, or leave it plain black. I'll be thinking about it until I give it to her tonight. What would you have done?

So I made 4 "all occasions" cards, but could fill the box with 2 more cards. The trouble with working with black ink is that you have to be very very neat and take extreme care, especially on white paper. And I reckon it does stain the rubber stamps. Oh well...

Also, I forgot to take into account the bigger size of a standard card envelope, so they don't actually fit inside the box. I could custom make the envelopes too, I suppose. Hmm....

Now what I reckon will make these cards have a polished look is having the heat embossing tool to wet emboss the stamped image. It is already on the shopping list, might have to see if I can bump it up the list, lol.

What Kind Of Book Is It?

The answer is, whatever you want it to be!

The Meander Accordian Folded Book has many aliases, so is it any surprise it can be whatever book you want it to be? (This link has a video tutorial if you are that way inclined.)

I made this one to gift to a friend's 5 year old girl - the idea is that she can fill each of the 16 pages with her favourite things. I gave suggestions of favourites, such as favourite song, favourite animal, favourite saying/quote, favourite thing to do, etc...you get the gist. I am thinking I have to do one of these for each of my children each year. This can be my answer to scrapbooking which I know I am not discipline enough to do. The children each can fill their new book each year on their birthday - wow, imagine a collection of these little books for each child journalling how their favourites have change over time. Hmm, I like....

Next one of these I make will be a Baby one - for a newbie born at the beginning of this week.

Mini Milk Cartons

It's another one of those last minute idea that I just have to give a go - last minute because:

1) I see the idea on Friday afternoon, and think, "Oh look, that's what I can make for Deb's Baby Shower gift!" The baby shower is on the next day. Never mind that I have no templates, and not even the time to google but you know, the idea is there, and I just have to run with it.

2) The earliest possible time I could experiment/work on it is Saturday morning, and that's when I also have three active boys all to myself as DH had to pop out for an hour or so.

I did have another gift planned but if this worked out, then that gift will be given when baby is born.

The idea is a picture on page 33 of the Stampin' Up 2010-11 IB & C (Idea Book & Catalogue) - NZ edition.

Unfortunately, I don't have the Bigz L Mini Milk Carton Die - indeed I don't even own the Sizzix Big Shot machine. I have not even seen the die nor the actual template it cuts out.

Fortunately, there's a small picture in the catalogue of the shape of the template the die cuts out , so I could easily just make some measurements up for it. The prototype I made up looked a decent size for what I wanted to use it for so yay! Next is working out how to do the carry tray with handle. This time I had no template to work from, but it is simple enough really to work out. I just didn't know how well it will hold up four mini milk cartons filled with yummies as I was using Designer Series Paper cardstock. Oh well, I gave it a go anyway. The end result appeared to hold up well enough. I'll just have to find out from Deb later down the track how well it served its purpose :-)

So, here it is: "Deb's Care Package"

I think it looked a bit more complete with the label embellishment:

Paper: Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper (DSP)

Punch: Heart to heart, 1" Circle, Horizontal Slot, Scallop Circle Extra Large 1 3/4"

Other: Double sided tape (though I think I'd use Sticky Strip instead if I had some - I read somewhere it's better for gift boxes), Gold decorative cord, cello bag for filling up yummy munchies in, cutting blade to cut a slit on the bottom of the tray to feed the handle panel through, 1/4" Grosgrain (I think?) Ribbon in Certainly Celery ( I think?) - I "stole" it from an old project that I had done in a class last year as it seemed to match the green on the DSP though the green there is Kiwi Kiss.

One box was filled with Prunes (if you haven't had a baby before, one of the things you always get asked by the doctor or midwife that see you in the days post birth is if you have passed bowel motions, because, well, it is important that you have a healthy bowel. So prunes can help some women).

One box was filled with Nuts (natural whole almonds and unsalted roasted cashew nuts) for energy and good fats.

The third box was filled with Lactation Cookies (actually I ran out of time to bake so I just substituted with shortbread that I had in the pantry! Will have to make Deb a batch of the actual lactation cookies when I visit her post birth. Google will give you many results, this is one of them, haven't checked if it's the same as the one I use, but it's got the main ingredients, ie flaxseed meal/ground linseed, brewers yeast, oats and chocolate chips, of course!).

Finally, the last box is filled with some chocolates. We all need a little bit of chocolate indulgence, don't you think?

The KTFPC Post #3

I had seen on ebay that someone was selling little kitsets to make-your-own bookmark projects of cute animals like bears, lions and frogs. So I googled to see if there was any tutorial on making a pig bookmark. Since I didn't find any, I just based mine on what I can see in the picture of one of the ebay listings :-) Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of it, and it was promptly given away the day it was made to the 12 year old pig crazy recipient :-) I'm sure i will be making more of these novel bookmarks so will blog about it at some stage.

However, in my search I found http://artgirlzscrappinattic.typepad.com/artgirlzscrappinattic_web/2008/02/altered-office.html and love the idea of a note/photo holder.

(That cutie patootie would be my 3rd born J20month, then 8.5months old)

Stamp Set: Best Wishes & More, Best Yet

Ink: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Whisper White, Bella Bleu DSP, Good Morning Sunshine DSP

Punch: Scallop Circle Extra Large 1 3/4", Circle 1 3/8"

Other: Double sided Tape, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Ribbon, Jumbo Binder Clip

(As you can see, I don't having the corresponding ink to the Not-Quite-Navy blue in the Bella Bleu paper, and the ribbon is just one that I found at the local Spotlight store that is the closest match in colour. Oh to have all the matching products! Oh well...at least, I think, this turned out quite well.

For future reference:

DSP Bella Bleu colours are: Very Vanilla, Kraft and Not Quite Navy

DSP Good Morning Sunshine: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip

The KTFPC Post #2

I do so love gifting handmade gifts - my dear friends who get them hopefully know that for me, it is not just a money saving way to gift. It is about gifting something of myself.

What do you do with standard off-the-production-line journals like this:

With the right tools and supplies and plenty of time and patience, you transform it to something like these:

Stamp Set: Sense of Time, (not sure but will update as I find out)

Ink: Basic Black, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Naturals Ivory, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Old Olive

Punch: Scallop Circle Extra Large1 3/4", Two-Step Bird Extra Large,

Other: Sizzix Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Sizzix Big Shot Machine, Dimensionals, Sizzix Circles Dies, Snail Adhesive, Double Sided Tape, Sponge daubers.

I got the idea for these Christmas 2010 gifts from the talented and kind hearted Penny who let me spent an evening late into the night at her home to use her supplies and the Big Shot machine to emboss the papers that covered the journals.

These were made with each person in mind, and prayers of blessings were declared over each of their lives.