Christmas candles

I'm not going to go into to much detail on how to make these...I have already done one on candle decorating i will link the you tube video below.

Just a quick something i would like to add in the next couple of weeks i am planning and have already started to prepare for a give away i will be doing on my you tube channel on these candles but with different designs....So if you would like the chance to get your hands on one of four i will be giving away come on over to my you tube channel and subscribe as i will update it on there !!!

I just wanted to share some of the Christmas craft I was up to in December, These candles were actually Christmas Presents for my sons school teachers. 

The process of making these are exactly the same as the video.. and the images i used on the candles are from www.thepapershelter.com, and are called: The most adorable snowmen, Christmas elf and Are you ready my friend? 

The images are printed on to tissue paper, i used my laser printer.. but the do also work with an inkjet.

I have used both to make these..

Then they are coloured with my spectrum noir alcohol markers

Then heat set the image you have coloured into the wax laying grease proof paper around the candle and securing into place with clips. quick easy and simple little gifts that cost virtually nothing.    

Thanks for stopping by 

Laura xx

Christmas fun

Over the Christmas season, having my little boy off from school i wanted to try and keep him busy try and contain his excitement in the anticipation of waiting for Santa to arrive, so i planned the days out with activities to keep him entertained..all of the things i had planned didn't cost a fortune and we are all on a budget and lets face it Christmas is expensive enough without adding more to the cost....So starting with cake making and decorating, I purchased everything i wanted from the local pound store didn't spend anymore then about £6.00... I did cheat and got one of those pre-made mixes, I'm not a baker and quite frankly my cakes generally tend to taste cardboard (even when i do follow a recipe)  in all honesty he had great fun...he even wanted to share his creations with the girls from my local hairdressing salon (we had an appointment to get his hair cut in the afternoon)

So for the second day i had invited a friend round with her children and we done salt dough decorations.. 

I had pre-made all the decorations about the week before, the recipe for this is:

Half a cup of water.

Half a cup of salt.

And a cup of plain flour

Mix together the flour and salt, and then start adding the water... keep mixing until you have something that looks like a biscuit dough..

(you could stop at this point.. add some food colouring and you have home made playdoh but would need to be stored in an air tight container)

Pre heat your oven on a low heat, make your decorations and bake for around 2-3 hours... i took mine out at around 2 hours, and i they wasn't quite baked through enough.. but this was just a bit of fun for the kids so i wasn't to fussed, but this does mean they wouldn't be any good for next year and will need to be thrown away. 

I made the kids up little bags each with a paint brush, a sponge paint dabber, some stickers and their decorations.. Put the paint in a few old ice cube trays and some glitter in plastic containers with spoons just to try and contain the mess a little.. (but i was hoovering up glitter for about a week after my son knocked one off the containers of glitter over and it went all over the floor) I covered the table with just a plastic table cloth again from the local pound shop this was so once the kids had finished.. i could take of all the stuff i wanted to keep and be reused, all the mess could be just folded in the table cloth and binned without to much messing around for a really easy clean up.. and as you can see from the pictures there was A LOT of mess but they had a lot of fun, and it kept them entertain for the afternoon. 

                                    

I know this is a little different from the normal things i would share, but as it was Christmas and having to pack all my craft things up and putting them away, i just wanted to share this with you and give you a little insight into the things i do when i'm not crafting, or writing on here. So with that said i hope you all had a fabulous Christmas with your family, friends and loved ones and would like to wish you all a happy new year. 

Laura xx

How To Create A Ring Binder Book

Hello.. Me again, Today I'm going to show you how i created this ring binder calendar. even through i made mine into a calendar this would easily work as a note book too. I have also made a video on how i have made this, which i have linked at the bottom of the page.

So for this you will need:

Calendar Pages 

Ruler

Pencil

A Pen or something round (the size you want your wire binding to be)

Wire Cutters

A 3mm Single Hole Punch 

A piece or card stock the same size as your calendar (This is to create a guide)

Clips 

and Post its or some low tack tape.

To start you will need to create the guide for the holes that need to be punched for the binding

To do this you will need to measure 0.5 cm from the top then 3mm do this on both sides and draw lines across with a ruler

Fold in half to find the middle

 

Then from that mark, measure and mark every 3mm and colour in every other square... these will be where you will need to punch out the holes.

Line up the hole punch to these marks and start punching.

Doing only 4 pages at a time (if you are making a note book you will be able to do more then 4 sheets of paper at one time, i could only do 4 because of the thickness of the card stock i was using) line up the guide and hold into place using the post it notes and the clips.. the post its are mainly to keep the clips from marking your pages. Do this until all of the pages are done are all done.

To Make the wire binding count the number of holes you have made and Wrap the wire around the pen a few extra times (I needed 30 so made about 33 wraps around with the wire) 

I cant remember what gauge wire i used, it was just some spare i had left from a previous project but it could have done with being a little thicker but it still done the job.

Get all of the pages into order, start to thread the wire through, It can be a little fiddly to start of with but after you have the first few holes done the wire goes in quite easily. Use the wire cutters to trim any extra wire you have left over. 

This was the first one i made, and a test for the you tube video.. (my mum loved it so she stole this one)

All the digis i used were from digi stamps boutique go check them out they have some fabulous images there!

Don't forget to check out the video

Thanks for stopping by 

Laura xx 

How To Money Wallets/Envelopes

So lately I have been busy making things for Christmas and I just wanted to share these money/gift card envelopes with you all, they are so easy and simple to make and such a great way to give your friends and family a gift and making it just that little bit more personal. 

To create the base you need two pieces of card one at 25 cm by 11 cm, score and fold this at 

14 cm

The second piece 9 cm by 11 cm, score an fold this piece at 8 cm

 use a rounded corner punch

on the 1 cm fold on the smaller piece use some double sided tape or a small amount of glue and stick the two pieces together

To decorate the front

you will need 

 card stock cut to 10.5 cm by 7.5 cm 

10.5 cm by 10.5 cm

2 cm by 8 cm

2 cm by 11 cm

 3 mm ribbon

i used a bauble x cut die

a snow flake cling stamp from hobby craft  

and some 2 mm gems

I first started by using the snowflake cling stamp and just stamping in a random pattern

 for the lilac card i used tsukineko versacolor in hyacinth and versamark ink pads for the green i used tsukineko versacolor green and versamark 

leaving those to dry i made up the 2 cm strips, spacing the ribbon and fixing the loose ends on the back with a little double sided tape

i then used my sizzix big shot to die cut the baubles and glued them to some cardstock the same colour as the base card

once the ink is dry double side tape the snowflake design you have made into place, then stick the ribbon strips you made about 5 cm from the top again with double sided tape and use some 3d foam on the bauble a stick it about halfway hanging over the edge on the shorter side. then i used a small amount of glossy accents i glued in some 2 mm gems but only to the snow flakes in hyacinth pigment ink

to create the pocket you will need the white backing this is just card stock cut to 10.5 by 13.5 cm 

and stick that into place

in the same colour as the base of the card, 5 cm by 14 cm score and fold 1 cm from the bottom, then again use the rounded corner punch, line up with the bottom and adhere into place, use a small amount of glue on both sides close to the edge and fold until it bonds

then to create the decorative strip with the snowflakes do the same as before in 13.5 cm by 3.5 cm white card stock and adhere with double sided tape into place.

And there you have it! a cute little money/gift card envelope

you could leave out the pocket completely and you have a just a cute Christmas card as well

I hope you enjoy this little tutorial

 and if you made these for anyone I would love to see what you have come up with

Thanks for stopping by 

Laura xx

Colouring With Spectrum Noir Markers - The Adorable Snowmen By The Paper Shelter

So getting ready for Christmas and starting to get some cards ready (as i have decided to hand make all of the ones i will be sending this year)

 I went to the paper shelters site www.thepapershelter.com and picked four of the cutest images which i will be using,

 I done a colouring video using The Adorable Snowmen i will be doing a video on the others too so kept an eye out for those.

To make this card i used Die'sire Edge'ables Let it snow

X cut Happy Christmas that also comes with the holly,

to make the holly i used the holly die on some green card stock then punched some 2mm circles out of red card stock and glued these on the leaves, used a white gel pen to give the the look of a shine then used some glossy accents to finish them off.

the large snow flakes are all occasions dies by robert addams 

the smaller snowflakes i made with a punch from hobbycraft and attached small gems in the middle 

and the little calendar is 2cm by 2.5cm normal paper all glued at the top with 25th of December 

stamped in using silver versa colour ink

Really Pleased with the way it has turned out.. and the calendar is stamped all the way through to the 31st of December, just thought it would add a nice touch rather than leaving it blank...

as usual i used my spectrum noir markers to colour the image

The colours are

Snowmen: IG2, PP1,

 OR1, OR2, OR3, 

IG1, IG6, IG4,

 EB1, EB2, EB3

Hats and Scarves: LG1, LG2, LG3, LG4,

 CR10, DR2, DR5, DR7, 

IG1,

 BT1, BT,2, BT4

Gift: GT1, GT2, GT3,

 LG1, LG2, LG4, LG5

Bag: EB1, EB2, EB3, EB4

Teddy: TN1, TN2, TN3, PP1

Candy Cane: DR2, CR10

TB2, to line around the snowmen and IB1, for the snow

I have linked the video below so don't foget to check that out

thanks for stopping by 

Laura xx 

Colouring With Spectrum Noir Markers - Andy On A Tyre Swing By Pink Gem Designs

Hey guys, Sorry I'm a little late with getting this one out

 I did do the video over a month ago so for that I'm very sorry,

 But here goes,

This lovely image is from pink gem designs www.pinkgendesigns.co.uk and is called 

Andy on a tyre swing 

Just how cute is he and his little puppy?

Please go over and check them out they have some fantastic images and all at a really great prices!!

  

So the colours i used to colour in this cute little guy are:

Skin: TN2, FS3, CR3

Hat and trousers: TB6, TB3, TB4

T-shirt: CR10, DR2, DR6 

Puppy: TN3,TN2, TN1

Rope: GB9, TN3, TN2

Hair: GB9

Tyre: IG9, IG7, IG5

Shoes: IG5, IG3, IG1

I will link my video below so don't forget to check that out.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. 

Laura xx

Colouring With Spectrum Noir Markers - Mothers Love

Colouring with spectrum noir markers

image is called Mothers love by Teresa Sherman and in available to purchase from www.craftsandme.co.uk

                                                                Skin TN1, TN2, TN3

Hair GB10, GB9, GB7, GB4

Lips and Nails CR3, FS8

Blanket CT4, LY1, LY2

Baby TN1, TN2

Thanks For stopping by

Don't forget to check out the video

Laura xx