Choc bar box - Monday 11th August 2014

Good Morning Friends!

I hope you all had a good weekend and  missed the rain yesterday...it really came down all morning here, but by the afternoon it was lovely again, except very very windy!

We went over to see Tom's family as is quite usual on a Sunday morning and I came back with a bag of lovely buttons that my mother in law had found for me, some of them are quite vintage - lovely! I have jars of buttons - modern that I've collected and vintage from my mum and grandmother, as well as some picked up at Vintage fairs...love them :)

Today I have another chocolate wrapper, that I made a few months ago but haven't shared before...

It's a box rather than a wrapper, made with red card and papers from stash. The rosette is made using a Sissix rosette die; confession - I'm not sure where  the sentiment stamp is from! I have been through my standalone sentiment stamps and it's not amongst them, so must be part of a set.

Before the weather changed at the weekend I went out into the garden and took some photos. We don't have lots of colourful flowers - Tom is the gardener (when he has time) and he likes shrubby plants, plus hens and flowers aren't a good mix when you let them free range.

But the flowers we do have are looking beautiful at the moment and I thought I would scatter my photos across the week rather than all at once and I'm starting off with one of our sunflowers, complete with butterfly...

Thank you so much for stopping by - I hope over the last week I did manage to comment on all your blogs. I had so much trouble with blogger last week, in the end I don't know where I'd even commented and my side-bar was updating on some of your blogs, not all of them.

I'll be back tomorrow, so hopefully see you then!

Love and Hugs

Carole X

Sunflower wrap - Saturday 24th May 2014

Hello Friends,

Well as it looks like most of us won't be sunbathing this bank holiday, I thought I would share another of my chocolate bar wrappers - this time with a definite sunshine feel to it!

For this one I used yellow check paper from my stash and the polka dot paper is a download from Pink Petticoat.

I cut both to size and inked the edges with mustard seed. I didn't want the wrapper to be overdone with inking. The sunflower is one of the new Spellbinders floral stamps. It's a beautiful stamp, but so much cutting and piecing together..worth it though I think. I used yellow card, which I inked with mustard seed and wild honey distress inks to soften the colour tones.

To finish, I added  a stamped greeting from a set by Creative Expressions and cut the paper into a banner shape, which was then matted and layered on to the plain yellow card and again cut to size. I tied some ribbon and that's it, ready to give as a little gift.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all having  a great Saturday!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

PS! What a great surprise I had this morning when one of my teamies from Creative Studios, Jackie, posted me a Facebook message that I am this week's card winner on Sue Wilson's blog! Yay a Sue Wilson original ! I hadn't had a chance to look at the time, so it was great to see Jackie's message! X

Bear Hug Candy Box! - Thursday 15th May 2014

Hello Friends!

Thank you so much for stopping by my little piece of blogland, I really appreciate it! This evening is the second of our 'Out of the Blue' Craft Group's 2nd Anniversary/Birthday workshops, so it's more choccie bars tonight...our ladies have to work for their chocolate though...by making their own wraps.

They have the choice of making a  wrap or a box...last week was about half and half; the wraps are quicker and some made two. I made quite a lot for demo wraps/boxes and I will be sharing them on here over the next week or so, but I think of them all this is my favourite.

For a start I love this stamp...the bear has such a cute, 'vacant' expression (just like my own childhood bear that yes, I still cherish!)..the stamp is by Sam Poole and the whole set of woodland creatures is gorgeous !

I made the box without measurements or a template..believe me, if I don't absolutely need to measure I won't. I wrapped my kraft card around the chocolate bar and scored at the sides and top to create a box shape. It really is easy.

I found the brown textured paper in my stash; it was just what I needed for the bottom half of the box front. I also found a piece of brown coredinations  card, which I embossed using a leaf folder and then sanded back to reveal the core. 

The bear was also stamped on kraft card using black archival ink and then heat embossed with clear powder, finally I inked it through with Vintage Photo. The 'Mmmm' stamp is from Sue Wilson's Home Baking set - stamped and heat embossed on to kraft card and inked as for the bear.

I decided to make the front a pocket, so I only glued the bottom and sides of the textured paper, leaving the top open. I them covered the top with hessian and ribbon.

I decorated the bottom with string and twine and added a seal/button from Sam Poole's Woodland Seals stamp set - I stamped it on kraft card and then dipped it in UTEE in my melt pot.

Finally I made a tag for the pocket:

I cut a tag shape from kraft card and embossed with the leaf stamp, then inked through with Vintage Photo. I stamped and inked the bear exactly the same as before and then added the "Bear Hugs' greeting that comes with the stamp set.

That's it for today, if I haven't caught up with your posts already today ( I tend to blog hop before work), I will do first thing tomorrow!

Thank you for visiting!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X