Today, I will be mostly recycling

Well, so much for me keeping up to date on the blog.  Having figured out I could use my old phone to take pictures I then lost the lead to re-charge the thing.  Anyway, I've now found a lead to use instead so I'm back.  Just don't hold your breath between postings.

Anyone that knows me knows that I don't have a lot of spare cash to use for crafting...or anything else for that matter.  That's how come I like to use off cuts and I never throw anything away.  Not that I can always find it when I come to want it, but you can't blame a girl for trying.  One of the things I never throw away are old cards.  I've got a huge box of them.  They are handy for using the greetings or the inserts sometimes make pretty backing papers.  Not to mention the topper potential.  Recently, I seem to be recycling a lot.  My desk is often not visible below a pile of old cards.

I made a whole set of notelets out of the pink mum card.  I just cut small squares out and matted them before putting them on some of my off cut notelets.  The swirly pattern was quite abstract and I just added a couple of pearls in one corner of each.  They looked really pretty but my camera was dead at the time.

Here are a few cards that I did managed to take photos of.

I was really pleased with the results and they hardly cost me anything to make.  Just don't let on to anyone I might be sending them to.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Playing with Offcuts

Firstly, I apologise for not  blogging for a fair few months.  Unfortunately, my camera gave up the ghost a while ago.  I was beginning to despair when I found that one of our old mobile phones has a macro setting.  The quality isn't quite as good as my camera but it does mean I can blog once again.

As I make quite a lot of cards during the year I have found that the cheapest way to do this is to buy my card in bulk and cut my own card blanks.  My favourite being the 5x5 inch square.  If I cut these from an A4 sheet of card I end up with loads of offcuts at just over 3inches wide.  Originally I put them all to one side and used them to rubber stamp onto.  If I was careful not to add to much water I could colour them with watercolour pencils with a fair degree of success.  Then, one day, my very generous friend Jeanette brought her Cricut machine out for me to play with.  I'd never used one before, being an avid fan of the Wizard die cutting machine, but I was really impressed when she showed me how to cut little gift bags.  I was so impressed I spent the rest of the afternoon and a good portion of my card stock cutting lots of them. 

You see, the reason I'd cut so many was that I knew just what to fill them with.  If I turned my offcuts into little square cards they would fit nicely in the bag when it was made up.  I worked out that I could use photocopier paper to create a little envelope (if you measure it carefully the off cut from the envelope can be cut to make an insert for the notelet) and you could get five notelets and envelopes in a bag.

I decorated them very simply - if you look closely you can see what else I used the Cricut to cut -

and put them together as little gift sets.

And here's another one that I made earlier

They don't have to be decorated with die cuts, I've made sets with my favourite rubber stamps.  I decorate the bags on the back and front with the same design as on the notelets.  All of the ones I've made so far have been the same on all 5 cards but I'm toying with the idea of a set with themed quotes on.  If I can get together 5 quotes on a certain theme I may give it a go.  Of course, I'll have to cut a lot more 5x5 card blanks first.  I'm going to need all those offcuts.

Love Dawn x

Been playing

I thought I'd better get used to playing around with the computer if I was going to stick with this blogging lark.  I've been on so many blogs by other crafters and they all look so much smarter than mine.  Anyway, I was trawling the web for digistamps and found myself on Digital 2 for Tuesday's blog ( they have vintage digis from old magazines and can be found  here).  At the top of their page I found a link to 'the cutest blog on the block' and decided to play.  Their site can be found  here.  They have some lovely blog backgrounds and - more importantly - really easy to follow instructions.  So now my blog has a brand new look.  I hope you like it.

Love Dawn x

A bit of a sew and sew

I must be the worlds worst blogger.  When I signed up I had wonderful intentions of blogging regularly and sharing my craft projects.  I now see that I haven't posted for several months.  It's about time I altered that.

Some time ago I was very lucky to receive my mother-in-law's old sewing machine.  Now it has been years since I did any serious sewing (over 20 years, in fact).  As this was the case I duly popped the machine into my craft room and there it sat.  It sat for quite some time as I went through various blogs and galleries on websites, noting what good use other people made of their sewing machines.  I even used a pricking tool and a ruler to make a lovely border around a card, which I then painstakingly stitched by hand.  Finally, I decided that enough was enough and, after an hour with a reel of thread and the instruction booklet I can say that using a sewing machine is like falling off a bike.  When you've done it once it all comes flooding back to you when you do it again.

Here is the rather shaky result.

and a closer view

and finally, the machine that brought it all back to me

Thanks to my mother-in-law for my new crafting tool. 

If anyone is interested in the lovely tulip stamp it is a free digistamp from Bird's Card Blog.  It can be found here along with some other lovely florals.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Paper Piecing

I have decided to try something different on a card this week.  I tend to stamp and colour my images and the only variation on that theme comes when I decide to cut around the said image and decoupage it.  The image that I used was one I picked up from the Free Digital Stamps site quite a while ago.  I think the link took me to 'the Frugal Cafe'. I instantly fell in love with the image - which is a bit different from the cute stuff you get on digital stamp sites.  However, I was stuck as to how to colour it.  My colouring is a long way from perfect and I really didn't think I could make the stamp look as good as I knew it could be.  The answer, I thought, would be to attempt to Paper Piece.

I started by printing the stamp onto ordinary white card (I did it twice just in case it didn't go to plan).  I also printed out a backing paper (from a set I bought at Crafts u Print).  I then put the backing paper back through my printer and printed the stamped image again (make sure it's the same size as the one printed on white card).

I used a complimentary blue ink to stipple around the dress image on the blank card and painted in the swirls with the same blue ink.

With the image printed on the backing sheet I cut around the dress.

I then added glue to the back of the dress (I used a glue stick so it wouldn't seep through and ruin the backing paper) and added the piece to the stippled image.

It turned out to be the simplest technique and I'm really pleased with the result.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Using up Scraps

As a crafter I am loathed to throw away any offcuts and have a desk littered with bits and pieces.  Yesterday I spent a quiet afternoon amongst these bits and pieces and altered several notebooks.  The notebooks I used cost 11p at Wilkinsons and I bought loads of them with this in mind.  I thought it may be interesting to show you what I did.

Firstly I lined the edges and over the back with double sided sticky tape:

 Then I covered it with an off cut of paper (this is some stuff I bought in Paperchase and I love it)

I then used some more scraps I'd found when I moved my craft stuff recently.  I'd got a small piece of woven stuff and a die cut square I'd had as a freebie.  I used a small heart stamp to stamp and emboss onto an even smaller scrap of the paper and cut them out.

Once I'd done all that I just layered them up in a way that pleased the eye.  I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

I spent the rest of the afternoon messing about with bits of ribbon, beads, some old Disney stickers I'd never used and some bits of scrap paper.  The green check pattern that I used below is a backing card from a set of polymer stamps (I told you I don't throw anything away).  I use offcuts of card on the inside cover to cover up any bits of ribbon or stuff I've folded under.  It's a good idea to do it anyway as it stiffens the flimsy paper. 

I thought it would be good to share the idea as a possible fund raiser for any Christmas fairs that are coming up.  Use up all your scraps and raise funds for whatever cause for very little outlay.

Here are some more of yesterday's efforts.

I hope you like them.  Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Talented Parents

This week has been frantic and, as such, I have had little time to craft myself.  What I have created has been for orders and has gone out straight away so, when my other half asked me if I'd blogged this week, I panicked.  I'd nothing to show for my efforts.  I'd had no time to enter any challenges and not planned what I was going to say.  What on earth is a girl to do?

Well, this girl is going to show off other people's talents.

For the last 4 years I have been coaching kwik cricket for my local club.  I fell into it by accident when the previous coach moved on to follow his son to hardball cricket.  My own son was a keen cricketer and my other half volunteered to take his coaching qualification and take over the team.  Then he changed his job.

Rather than let anyone down, me being me - one of life's volunteers, I offered to take it on.  After all being an overweight, nearly forty something, none cricketing women I had lots to offer!  Time, enthusiasm and memories of watching my dad play when I was a little girl being my best qualifications.  And, I have to say it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.  I have had an absolute ball for the last four years (and hope to continue to do so).  Number one son (one and only son actually) has long since moved up to hardball cricket and has even played at district level this year.  In the meantime I have seen a succession of kids grow and develop as cricketers and as sportsmen - and that includes several girls.  This year, however, I have been overwhelmed.

I run, with the help of two volunteers - Susie and Bob, two teams of under ten year olds.  One team has my more experienced players in it and the other team provides match experience for the newer players to the game.  This year I've also had another team - the parents.  I have always had the support of the player's parents but this year they have all gone 'above and beyond'.  They have volunteered to score, to warm up the players whilst I'm organising the matches.  They've umpired for me (believe me that's the hardest job) and they have actively encouraged both teams - regardless of who is playing.  They even organised an end of season party for all the children.  The team work and enthusiasm they have displayed on the side lines is an inspiration to all of the kids.

It also transpires that several of the parents have crafty talents of their own and it is these talents that I want to show you this week.  At the end of the season I was treated very generously by several of the parents to gifts of chocolate, drinks, cake and even jewelry!  The cake and the jewelry made even more special as they were the work of the some of the children and their parents themselves.

Firstly, I was presented with a huge box containing a fantastic work of culinary art:

And it tasted as good as it looked.

Secondly, I received a fantastic bracelet.  It had been made by one of my cricketers and his dad.  Dad has been scoring for me for several years and next year they will both be moving on to hardball cricket.  Now, I do tend to get a little bit excited during matches, especially when my teams are doing well.  Although I always try to be totally fair as an umpire (I'm not saying all my decisions are the right decisions but I make as many wrong ones against my own team as I do anyone elses) I have been known to lose track of how many balls have been bowled in all the excitement.  Many is the time when I've stood in the middle of the pitch with a bemused expression uttering the plaintive cry of 'One to come scorer?'

Here is the scorers answer to my plight:

Now, those of you who know what I'm talking about, will note that - whilst there are only six balls in an over - there are eight pennies on the bracelet for me to count.  Well, the scorer says that, in his experience, there are usually about two extras bowled in the over at this level so he's put me an extra couple on. 

A lot of umpires have six pennies or stones in their hand and move them across as each ball is bowled.  I can now do this myself and look stylish in the process.

I hope you have enjoyed the talents of my cricketers and their parents as much as I have.

Love Dawn x