Ollie & Co: March 2014

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Card making - Christmas tri-fold card order

I was asked to make a Christmas card by an extended member of our family. It was for their daughter and her Husband, who just happens to be my Hubby's uncle.

Shirley loves bling and I wanted a feminine touch, but not over the top.

The letter dies are MFT and the Christmas tree is Memory box. The snowflake is also from MFT.

The letters and snowflake were cut from glitter paper. The paper is from my stash- and I sprayed the Crafters Companion glitter spray over them for the added sparkle that I feel Christmas demands.

The patterned paper was then edged in silver marker just to help make it pop. The stamp sentiment was MFT and stamped in silver ink. The base for the sentiment is a Spelbinders die.

I really enjoyed making this card - I googled the instructions after seeing so many on the Splitcoasters gallery that I view daily! It's great for inspiration and there are so many talented card makers and paper crafters out there.

Two more pics of the card, but please excuse the quality of the photo's. Now that I am slowly finding out what you can do on an iPad, I hope to become a little more professional.

That's all for now folks. Planning to try one of those 3d card-in-a-box soon.

BTW: today is the first day of Lent. I have given up alcohol and snacking for the next 40 days. It's gonna be hard not to nibble my way through the day, but my figure may see the benefits!

Take care x

12 tags of 2014 - January

Yay, one tag complete!

The tag I am using has been cut from the Tim Holtz Sizzix "Tag and bookplate" onto thick card stock.
I clear embossed the background - stamp from Stamping Up! and then spritzed a shimmer mist over, which has a vintage walnut and purple shimmer.

The barcode stamp is "stamped and coded" from Autumn Leaves and ink was Satin Rose.

The 3 roses are My Favourite Things dies "royal rose" and "rolled rose" medium size. The paper for the roses was spritzed with the glimmer mist before die cutting.

I think the flourish is a Magnolia die, but not too sure. I definitely need to do some catalogue work on my dies!

The ribbon is from my stash and I used 3 different colours.

February is underway, the image is stamped and coloured, however I am at a loss of what to do next.

Hope you like my tag- any comments welcome. I often look at something I am working on, and think what little tweek would have made it awesome! LOL

Must admit that I am loving being back in my little craft haven.

Take care and keep crafting........

Cake decorating - Hello Kitty 2nd birthday for V

Our little Princess turned 2 in January. She was very clear in her Diva voice that she wanted a Hello Kitty party......(however, I do suspect that her brother may have helped her decide)!

The various components to make up the cake. The stars are 4 shades of pink. Unfortunately, I could not match the super-doper pink that I wanted, but had to use what I had on hand.

I could not remember where I had put the floral tape for the wires until AFTER I had attached the stars! It looked ok in the end - as long as you do not look too closely.....

The cake done - shew............

loving the attention

action shot

The birthday girl

My first tag for January is complete so will post later this week and I have a card order that I made for Christmas.

Take care.

Saturday, 1 March 2014

A belated new years resolution.....

I have been in a tunnel....a long and dark one! Sigh....however, there is some light at the end of it now.
The move 10 months ago has really hit hard - my family and friends so far away, a cold, dismal winter and my hubby working away MOST of the time. There has been no will to create beyond the forced few cards.

3 weeks ago my hubby and I decided that I should return to gym...well the pool at least. I have also downloaded a fitness app to my ipad and now on a focused mission to get back to the old me....(and that is literally as 42 is but 3 weeks away...).

I have met some really great gals - Sarah, Kate, Jenny and Alison. Sarah and Kate are twins and enjoy crafting like I do; Jen (from the US) is the most inspirational and courageous gal I have met in ages and Alison is a fellow Saffer (South African) with the MOST ADORABLE baby girl.

It is truly amazing how God works - both Sarah and Jen have sons at the same school as O, and thanks to a mutual friend of Jen, I met Alison. We all have bits and pieces in common and thanks to this, I am beginning to feel whole again.

OK - so enough of my rambling.
My belated new years resolution - .........I am going to attempt to post something handmade once a week at least. I hope that this is the push I need to get me into the groove, and off the couch.

Sarah and Kate are trying to teach me how to crochet. Friends back in SA did show me a bit, but the mist has clouded those instructions. I was going to proudly post a pic of my first attempt, but the look of horror on my hubby's face deterred me. However, I will get it right somehow and hope that one of my future posts will include a crochet item.

I also want to make 12 tags of 2014 - if you are a Tim Holtz fan, you know what I mean. I will have to make Jan and Feb quickly and will post those as soon as I am done.

V celebrated her 2nd birthday in Jan and sweetly asked me (in her DIVA way) for a Hello Kitty party. I will post some pics of her cake which was such fun to make. O and V have decided that I have to have a princess party for my birthday, so I guess a princess cake will be made for them to enjoy.

Anyway....hope I have not bored you too much with all these thoughts and promises and hope to have something creative in the next few days to share.

Take care

DIY - Re-purpose spice racks

This is a post that I started in summer last year........anyway better late than never!!

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. On Thursday O went back to school and Hubby was at home to look after V. I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to "up-cycle" two wooden spice racks that I have had for years.

BEFORE.......