Christine - Christmas Cupcakes

Hi everyone, Christine here to share with you some scrummy Christmas Cupcakes! These are Fat free, Sugar free and Gluten free! Just what we all need at this time of the year. So go grab a coffee and have a cupcake with me!

First up are these cute little cupcakes made with the Paper rosette die.

Yummy!

 These would look nice displayed on your Christmas table at each place setting with the person's name attached to it with a toothpick.

Next up are some cupcake chipboard shapes that I have covered in patterned paper and  embossed card for the icing - topped with Kindy Glitz to give it some sparkle. Some holly leaves and some red rhinestones.  I have stuck a little hook in the top tied some Bakers twine and will hang these on my tree.

Teresa Collins - Christmas Home

My Minds Eye -Lost & Found - Christmas

Kaisercraft -  December 25th

Just to finish off I have to show you these 2 cards I have made with cupcakes on them! Just by using Christmas paper and holly leaves you can make them look festive for the season!

Well hope you enjoyed all of the cupcakes I have shared with you today.

TFL !

Christine


Supplies used: Paper rosette die. Kindy Glitz. rhinestones. Bakers twine. Teresa Collins - Christmas Home . My Minds Eye -Lost & Found - Christmas. Kaisercraft -  December 25th.

Lowri - Echo Park Advent Calendar

Hi Everyone - Lowri here - I have another advent calendar to share today - this time using the Season's Greetings Collection from Echo Park. I created this project as part of my month as Fresh Face Designer on the Echo Park blog. 

This fun project was a lot of work – but really worth it! The fabulous mix of colors in the collection make for a nostalgic feel and I am really excited about using this as a home for little treats during the Christmas countdown!

Each drawer front is decorated with paper squares cut from the 6x6 paper pad, stickers from the Alpha Stickers Sheet and a brad. 

To create the centerpiece I have layered more stickers and made the little 3-d trees using symmetrical die-cuts I cut from the papers using Spellbinders. A chipboard “Merry Christmas” painted red completes the scene. I really wish you could see and touch this project in person - it was very hard to photograph and get a sense of dimension and I don’t feel the pictures do it justice!

Please post a comment if you have any questions.

Lowri :-) 

Sandy - Merry Christmas Ornaments

Sandy back with more ideas for your Best Creatiion Merry Christmas collection. This time I went retro and made little dress-form tree ornaments. I was inspired by felt minature garments that Tone Finnanger made and adapted for paper.

Just draw your tent dress or sweater pattern. Cut them out twice on pattern paper. On the second piece include glue tabs along the top and sides to hold your ornament together. For embellishment I used ribbons, trims and Webster's cabochon flowers. The wire hangers were simply repurposed paper clips.  

Supplies : Best Creation Merry Christmas paper, Webster's Pages Roses in Bloom, ribbons, trims, paper clips,

Christmas Countdown Week 5

Hi Everyone - Lowri here and welcome to Week Five of our Christmas Countdown. There is lots of information in today's post so read carefully and be sure to scroll to the bottom to see the entries and winner of the Christmas Countdown Week Four Challenge!

**Shop Specials**
This week in the shop - all our Christmas Gift and Card Packs are discounted by 20%. It's a great time to grab a bargain and start making your Christmas cards and gifts!

Weekly Round-Up
What a great week of inspiration we have had from the Design Team again! Look at these wonderful cards and projects they shared with us. You can see their posts here: Lindsey, Lisa, Christine, and Lowri. 

Design Team Christmas Spotlight

We also asked our Design Team to answer some fun Christmas questions! First of all let's ask Sandy

* What is your favorite holiday album or song?
Has to be this wonderful Christmas carol - Once in Royal David's City. I heard it sang years ago in King's College Cambridge and it still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it today. 
* What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Christmas day buffet with my large, extended family 
* What was your most memorable gift?
A kiss from someone very special to me under the mistletoe
* What does Christmas mean to you?
Sharing with those less fortunate
* What would you love under the tree this year
Is it too soon to hope for another year designing for Artfull Crafts ??

Sandy created these amazing Angels when she entered one of our Christmas Challenges last year. She has a fabulous tutorial on her blog showing how you can make them too.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN
WEEK FIVE
Home and Tree Decoration

We are going to be sharing some ideas this week for home and tree decoration. This covers SUCH a wide variety of ideas - it will be great to see what the Design Team and YOU can come up with! The home decoration theme will be continued next week too - so you have plenty of time to send us your projects..

For some additional inspiration - here are a couple of projects created by the DT last year.

Project by Tina Conolly - details here

Project by Lowri McNabb - details here

Project by Clarissa Hardy - details here

Challenges

Don't forget you can see ALL the Challenge entries in our Gallery.

Week Five Challenge
You can WIN yourself a fabulous prize by entering YOUR Home or Tree Decoration  into the Week Five challenge by Saturday 10th December.
Email us a picture of your project and PLEASE name the file you send with your full name as this makes it a lot easier for us to administer the competition! Send your entry to entries@artfullcrafts.co.nz

Week Four Challenge
You can WIN yourself a Kaisercraft Christmas Journal and a set of Making Memories Twinkle Papers by entering YOUR Homemade Gift into the Week Four challenge by Saturday 3rd December.
Email us a picture of your project and PLEASE name the file you send with your full name as this makes it a lot easier for us to administer the competition! Send your entry to entries@artfullcrafts.co.nz

Week Three Challenge
The entries and winner of the Week Three Challenge can be seen below!

Tanya

Hayley

Linda

Tania

Carol

And the winner is - HAYLEY!

Congratulations Hayley and thanks for joining in the fun!
Please email info@artfullcrafts.co.nz with your delivery details.

Stay tuned for heaps more fun Christmas Inspiration this week.

Sandy - Liz Mini Book

It's Sandy sharing my handmade gift idea today. It's a little mini-book created by folding one piece of A4 paper. The book is held together by gluing down the accordian-fold spine. I added the stitching as an embellishment and made a slip-cover for it.



Mine has a theme similar to the Gratitude Album Lindsey showed you this week. I spelled out a Thank You message across it's ten inside pages.


This project combines many things I love :

• paper construction
• playing with fonts
• layering embellishments

 

If you'd like to try your hand at making one of these, I'll be posting the tutorial on 20th December. In the mean time look in the Christmas Store for a 'hardworking' paper. One that has a variety of patterns, colours and designs. You can add photo booth strip-sized pictures with a couple of journal labels and have a mini-album completed in a hurry.

  

Supplies : Creative Imaginations Ooh La La (French Patch, French Scroll, Parisian Border), Basic Grey (Curio Alpha sticker, Bling It), Making Memories ( Journalling Stickers Whimsy, Clear Glitter Shapes Red Pink, Jigsaw Shapes Red Pink, chipboard buttons black & white), MYLYB Cardmaking Sentiments Rub-ons, Scenic Route Sumner Label, Heidi Swapp Center of Attention chipboard alpha, snap buttons, baker's twine, jute, tooth pick

Lisa with some gifts made using Kaisercrafts' Madame Boutique....

Hi Everyone, Lisa here. Today I have some handmade gifts to share using one of my current favourite ranges....Kaisercrafts' Madame Boutique. It is such a lovely range of greens, browns & cream with a vintage theme. Recently I was lucky enough to attend a class with Melissa Kennedy at Kaisercraft. Here is what we made.

You may recognise this frame, as Lowri recently posted her fabulous version of the frame. We had worked on the frame in the class & completed the embellishments at home. This is why our versions differ. My frame was still sitting on my "to do" pile until this week when I decided to get it finished for this post..lol. I'm so glad I did I'm really happy with the end result. Its a little more over done with embellishments than I would normally do, but I think it works. The photo is of my children all dressed up at a Pioneer Village a few years ago. I don't have any old photos of relatives which is quite sad, so if you have them treasure them.

 

Here is a close up of the larger cluster of flowers. I started with some flowers from the new Collectables (Oh how I love thee!) I then added a handmade flower made using an old dress making pattern, that has a large pearl brad as a centre. I made another flower using a large paper blossom flower which I opened out completely & removed the foam centre so I could flatten the flower. I then inked the edges of the flower & placed a inked resin flower in the centre. I added some co-ordinating mini paper blooms, leaves & twisted wire for extra decoration.

I've made two other quick and easy gifts to show you today. I love to give token gifts & chocolates for those people that you perhaps don't really exchange gifts with but you want to give them a token of appreciation. This sticky note pad holder & corner bookmark are both really sweet and ever so easy to make.

This is how the bookmark sits in a book, so its quite functional as well as very sweet.

  
Here is what the sticky note holder looks like when open.

Here is a very basic template for both of these projects.
For the sticky note holder cut a strip of card stock 3 1/4 inches wide by the full length of the card stock (12 inches). Score at 8.5cm then 9.5cm then 19.5cm then cut at approx 22.5cm (the length you cut the excess off  at will depend on what border you create etc as to how much overhang you will need to leave)
Fold all crease lines inwards, once you have cut the excess off, punch your bottom overlapping edge. Place a piece of double sided tape on the very base of the inside of the bottom flap so that it pinches in & will hold the top piece in place...(hope this makes sense)
Decorate using co-ordinating papers & embellishments.

The bookmark is even easier. Cut a 4x4 inch square of card stock. Make a mark on one edge at the 2 inch point. Fold two corners in (see photo above) until they meet. Cover the join with patterned paper, I like to join with hambly tape/tissue tape as it is thin - then cover with the patterned paper. Trim the overhanging rectangle piece as necessary again depending on the punched border you are using.
Decorate using co-ordinating papers & embellishments.

I hope you will have a go at making these perhaps for someone for Christmas, they are also great for teachers gifts.

Have a great day.
Lisa

Lindsey - Thanksgiving

Hi - Lindsey here - "thankfully".  I know in NZ we don't celebrate Thanksgiving today officially. However, I try to be thankful every day as I have been given so much -in particular today I am grateful that my son has turned up unexpectedly! Such a lovely surprise.

During April last year, I was fortunate enough to attend the glorious Nic Howard's Autumn Escape at Wairakei during which there were a series of Make-N-Takes which had to be made into a mini album during the course of the weekend. I wouldn't normally even contemplate this sort of thing for a very good reason - I am absolutely useless under pressure. Anyway, in a moment of utter recklessness, I totally abandoned the plans for the layouts which I had prepared kits for and decided to give this a go and (much to my surprise) ended up with a Gratitude Album.  It's not too bad - considering - so I am going to show it to you.

I can't really put all the pages here as it would take up a lot of room (there's about 24 and I could have gone on and on!) but I will put the rest up on the Gallery for you to have a look at - if you are interested. Luckily, I had with me at the Autumn Escape, a Seven Gypsies sticker sheet with a Gratitude theme and some Cosmo Cricket papers from their Early Bird range, some Kraft paper to make the pages and some Kaisercraft Album Rings. I didn't make the pages too lumpy-bumpy because it annoys me when I can't shut the pages properly (plus I didn't have the time for fiddle-faddling around with loads of flowers etc). So - here it is:

I can't tell you how much pleasure this little book has brought to me - sitting on the carpet, smiling as I turn the pages and - once again - counting my many blessings. I am therefore recommending that you have a bash at making your own Gratitude Album - perhaps it could be an annual tradition. Wouldn't that be interesting to compare them in "years to come"?!  I do so hope that you too will have so many things to be grateful for that you won't be able to squish them all into one mini album. If you need more inspiration, just Google "Gratitude Albums" - there's heaps of stuff online.

While we are on the subject of saying "Thank You", I also wanted to show you something else - if you have the time to linger... ...  I was recently the recipient of two lovely "thank you"notes and they were so appreciated. They inspired me to get going on a bundle of thank-you notes for myself. Each one is topped with a gratitude quote. They are all made from Echo Park "For the Record" 6"x6" pad. I know most of us these days will say our thank-you's by text or email but how much more grateful do you look if you actually send a real card, in an envelope, with a stamp. Pretty darned appreciative I'd say. These cards aren't that fancy and are easy to make. Once Christmas is over and done with, I am definitely going to go through my leftover-bits-box and make some more of these and I am going to make a point of finding opportunities to send them. I am also going to get my two "little darlings" over one day for a spot of thank-you card making as I am sure they will have lots of presents at Christmas and we are trying to instil in them some good manners.  OK - so here are my cards:

In case you are wondering about the framed quotes: I found a frame stamp, measured the inside area, printed off the quotes on a sheet of A4 and then used the acrylic stamp (which is see-through of course) to frame each quote. I think I got about eight quotes on an A4 piece of paper. Hope that makes sense.

Incidentally, I have accumulated about six pages of Gratitude Quotes and wotnot. If you have been inspired to make some thank you notes, drop me an email (lindseymarch53@hotmail.com) and I will send them to you to save you a bit of time. Just put "Gratitude Quotes" as the subject so that I don't accidentally delete you from the Spam box.

Why are my blogs always so long? I think I have nothing to say and then all these words and pictures appear. Weird! Well anyway, thanks for looking. It's nice to see you here again.

Lindsey
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