Do you like miniatures?

Trying to occupy 13 years old teenagers is no mean feat! Take the electronics away and withdrawal symptoms start to occur within the hour. You know the ones I mean: chin dropping to the floor, shoulders levelling with the knees and the extend of conversation reverts to prehistoric times involving a mixture of grunts and shrugs. Determined my daughter was going to entertain her friend who came to stay with us for three days during the holidays I decided we would have fun crafting! My daughters' friend actually enjoys making things so I thought we could make some fimo jewellery and papercrafts (that's the next post!). The fimo experiment proved to be slightly harder than I expected as patience is a virtue few teenagers possess... But we got there and here is a sample of what they produced.

Mini glazed doughnuts

bourbon biscuit and chilli

Cheese burgers earrings

Chocolate earings

They had plans to make boxes for the doughnuts but the enthousiasm ran dry after a full afternnoon of modelling clay.
However I came across these handy sites whilst trying to make the miniature boxes.
http://www.printmini.com/printables
http://www.rainyblues.com/mini/howto/download_2.html
http://www.jennifersprintables.com/
http://www.mysmallobsession.com
http://www.angelfire.com/hi/harmonia/DOLLHOUSE1.html
http://miniatures.about.com/od/dollhouseprintables/ss/printshopbox.htm

A Nativity card

A quick Christmas card  for my daughter to take to school . I am not sure if they are selling them for charity or exactly what they are doing with them but it kept us busy for an hour or so. If you want to have a go at making your own version you can download the nativity characters here. Just do a right click and "save as" on each character.

The original drawings were created by Sharon Bennett for her book "The Crafter's Design Library" "Christmas" edition . This is a fantastic book for Christmas images and I highly recommend it. She also offers free downloadable images on her blog Steady on if you are interested.

3D card

Card front

 Another birthday card... this one was for my niece Lucie in France. Borders , flowers and flourish are cut with Marianne Creatables dies. The lined label is from the toga range and the "it's your birthday" is from Hero arts stamps.  The pink background was embossed with the dot folder from the "dot and flowers" Sizzix set.

Inside of the card

 

40th birthday...

When my friend 40th birthday finally came up I had to mark the occasion with a special card. I wanted something quite ornate but still fairly stylish as she's a classy lady! I used Amy Butler's papers (I lovvvve her designs!) and stamped florishes in rust colour all over the background. The flowers were made of shop bought and die cuts (Marianne Creatables).  She loved it, I hope you will too!

Shabby jean flower

Here is a shabby jean flower made from my other half recycled pants! Don't worry he's not running around in his birthday suit but these jeans were getting to the limit of decency so they had to go. However since it's always the bum and knee parts that go first, I am always left with the nagging feeling something could be done with the bottom of the legs which are always in good stead. So when my daughter told me she needed a jean flower to attach to the necklace she wanted to wear with her jean waistcoat my mind went TILT! And here it is...

I have attached it to a brooch pin but it could also be used on a ring, on an headband etc...

Here is one made in leather attached to a ring shank.

Hillclose gardens extravaganza

Sunday was beautiful and warm and having been warn this was our official last day of summer we decided to enjoy it to the full. We made our way to Hillclose gardens in Warwick for their Apple harvest extravaganza. I took this opportunity to take pictures of the last remaining flowers of the season. Of course we ate rather a lot of apples and even purchased some delicious apple juice and apple jelly. Yum! (I keep telling myself that apples are good for you... does it still count if they encased in pastry though...? 

My little girl loved the flower pot man so we took a picture to try and make one at home...

The best flower of all! This lady let me take a picture of her little flower. I thought she was so cute.

ça c'est ma fleur à moi, Molly...