New Product Packaging

Hey All

Hopefully you have all been super crafty and made some lovely things, maybe even used some of the things I have chatted about through the blog.

I have been busy busy getting things ready for my biggest market ever at the weekend.  I am taking all my bath products, jewellery and also my cards.  I usually only take the bath products so this is something new for me, lets just hope its a busy weekend.

So I have made up some lovely fresh bath souffles, big ones.  I like to make them as I need them, the lovely fresh smell of new products fills any venue I visit inside & out and it works well to bring people over.  I have made a top-up batch of Moroccan Fig and also some Baby Powder which is super popular;

I then made up all the boxes needed for the small souffles that were made the other night, it took alot longer than I expected it to though;

To make the whole product look more finished, I placed in a cello bag & added a business card;

I am very pleased how they have turned out, its a great "pick-up" product, something that's just a wee gift and ready to give without any fancy wrap etc;

They are going to look great on the table with all the other products, really bright and colourful.  These did take sometime but I think it has been completely worth it.

The recipe for the souffles and how to make the boxes are in earlier blogs.

Tomorrow I have a driving lesson eekk! and then the afternoon will be spent getting the jewellery all priced and ready to go, maybe make up a bracelet or two, if I have time that is.

Happy Crafting

Amanda x

Mini Bath Souffles

I'm Back!!

I couldn't sleep yet again and so I was able to get some of my new teeny weeny chill pill sized softening bath souffles done.  This means that instead of making these tomorrow morning I can pop into town to pick up a few wee crafty things, although I have double-sided tape on its way, the pound shop will be getting a visit for me to pick up some meantime.

Do you want to see?  of course you do, these are Lavender & Bergamot with dried lavender flowers;

The blue ones are Baby Powder & the Greeny ones are going to be called Island as they are a mix of ocean breeze and zesty fruits, they are delicious!!

The blue ones are actually green just the photo isn't that good as took them in my kitchen about ten minutes ago and fake light is rubbish for photos, anyway, its more of the Island ones and the orange one are Mango, our most popular scent for bath bombs & souffles;

This is the size of them, they are just really cute and my house smells great;

Well that is definately me for tonight I am now heading to bed and I will stay there this time I am sure!!

Sweetdreams,

Amanda x

Budget Cards using Cute Critters Stamps & Friend Embellishments

Hey Crafters

Just a quick post today, spent this afternoon with some more free magazine bonus papers and made up some more lovely cards.  I popped gems and sentiment on all the ones I have made over the last three days and put them in cello wrappers for the market. 

The only reason I have stopped today is that I ran out of double-sided tape & glue dots!! I know right, how could a crafter run out of the basics? to be completely honest I actually thought that I had another few rolls.  I have used 3 rolls of tape over the last three days, yip, I always put on way too much but I like to know for sure that things are stuck down!!

These are the cards I have put together but before I put on the finishing touches on;

These are some of the cards wrapped and finished properly;

So all those lovely free papers and some random bits from my stash made up a grand total of 42 cards, that's a great haul plus so many more could have been put together if I had the tape, which is now on order and will hopefully be here in a couple of days so that I can continue with my thrifty crafting.

Big Bath Souffles and Mini Bath Souffles are on the menu tomorrow, till then have a great night.

Much love

Amanda x

Quick Cards using Buttons & Other Stash Embellishments

Early Morning/ Middle of the Night Crafting

Its something that we all do right?  I am pretty tired but will be heading to bed after I show what I have put together today with two magazines worth of free bonus papers and some bits from my messy pile of scraps.

Pretty much the same bits as I used the other night, ribbon, buttons, Promarkers, stamps that I had already coloured, glue dots, double-sided tape & foam pads, stuff that we all have in abundance!

The cards are quite simple but are not quite 100% finished as they still have sentiments and inserts to be put in.  I may do that tomorrow as I need to print these out from my laptop.  Its good really just to have the main bits done as that is what takes the time.

These are tonight's makes;

I also made a couple of simple easel cards which are really popular at the moment and look different from the usual cards but need a stopper to keep them up.  I have pictured a close-up of how easy these are to create, sentiments can be used to do this aswell;

Being a thrifty crafter is great, the results are good and I am certainly getting through the stray bits and pieces that were building up, aswell as using those bonus papers that I have ignored for so long.

I am actually hoping everyone gives it a go!!

Happy Crafting Everyone,

Amanda x

Finished Oil Paintings

Evening

I cant quite believe that its Saturday night already, where did the weekend go!

We are expecting heavy rain tomorrow so not much planned, usual food shopping and tidying up for the week ahead, after that who knows.

Instead of doing some more cards, today I took advantage of the good breezy weather things morning and finally varnished my oil paintings that had been sitting since last summer and the one I finished last month, they have a lovely finish now and the varnish I used dried really quickly.  This is just stuff that can be picked up at any art store or on-line. 

I was advised to leave the paintings at least six months before varnishing as the paint is quite thick and takes a little while to dry.  Its been nearly twelve months for the tulips, ten for the purple flower and about seven for the cat, well all except the feelers and the legs on the butterfly that is but they are just little flicks of paint and were dry within the month.

The cat oil painting has already been on the blog, it was posted on the day I finished it, think I was tidying up or something.

So after making the effort to finally spray these, taking minutes, I decided that I would maybe start another one.  I had all the stuff out anyway, however when I thought about it and the fact that I really want to try and use up the stuff lying around, and could do with putting down the easel and creating some space, I decided to do something quick.  For me that means Watercolour or Acrylic, maybe even Pastels. 

I settled on Watercolour's, something I haven't actually used since school which seems like a millennium ago!

It was alot easier than I remember, waiting for the paint to dry was probably the biggest struggle.  I certainly need much more practise, may do a small collection to stick on the front of cards? good idea? not so good idea, what do you all think?

Anyway this is my finished piece for today, I do like it, I'm guessing art is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Well I will be back tomorrow night with my crafty offerings.

Enjoy your night, be safe!

Amanda x

Felt Berry Brooches & Friends Cards

Happy Friday

I had loads of new things delivered from Create & Craft the other day, some lovely new card making kits.  There are now quite a few building up in my Craft Room AKA the Dining Room, the only thing is I cant bare to use them as they are just so nice.  So, while I sat trying to decide which one to start making up, my eyes fell on my big pile of craft mags.

I subscribe to Craftseller, Quick Cards and Cardmaking & Papercraft, as do quite a few crafters no doubt.  They always have free things with them, papers, chipboard's, sewing projects etc. and I NEVER EVER use them.  I have challenged myself now to go through all my mags and use the free papers and anything else that they have in them before I start on my new kits from C&C, this could take a while, but it has to be done!

This is such a great challenge as it will use up all my little bits of ribbon, papers, card, chipboard's, stickers, rub-ons etc that I have in my stash, things that just build up and take up space, things that are not easy to tidy up and just look messy.  I think this will work out great, using up all my scraps and tidying up at the same time...................bonus!!

My first task was this months Craftseller.  In the magazine we were given a free brooch kit, in this there was some felt, some wadding, buttons, ribbon, thread, needle and brooch backs.

There was enough to make up three strawberry shaped brooches.  Firstly I cut the felt & wadding to size, I sewed the brooch backs on, then I sewed the wadding and one felt piece together by doing the seed detail, once this was done it was easier to sew the two pieces of felt together.  Once I got to the top, I folded the ribbon and kept this & the felt leaf in place with the lovely heart shaped button.

I am actually really pleased how they turned out, if you know me you will know that I am not a fan of sewing anything, too fiddly!!

I then picked up this months edition of Quick Cards.  The freebie this month was a set of stamps, some lovely papers and chipboard's.  In addition to this I used from my stash some card blanks, some ribbon scraps, a pack of rub-ons, some pre-coloured stamped images that you have seen in previous blogs, a Staz-On pad, some sparkly gems, Pastel Promakers, vinyl cut-out, double sided tape, glue dots & foam pads.

This card is simply a plain white card blank, a piece of aqua card cut down and inked around the edges with a purple Pastel Promarker.  A piece of ribbon was fixed around the aqua card using glue dots, a ribbon was added through the chipboard tag and this was fixed to the aqua card with foam pads to give some height.  I then used a rub-on for the lettering and attached the aqua card to the card blank with double sided tape.

I used one of the bonus papers from the magazine, cut to size and attached to the card with double sided tape.  I then layered the cake stand on a piece of aqua card which was inked around the edge with a aqua promarker and attached to the card with double sided tape, the big birthday cake and one of the sundaes were added with tape also.  To add depth the flowers, cupcake, sentiment, sweetie and one of the sundaes were added to the card with foam pads.  A small rub-on was also added.

I have used more of the aqua card and backing papers from the magazine for this one.  I have inked around the edge of the orange and the aqua card with matching Promarkers, this just gives a nice finish to the pieces of card.  The cups and teapot have been decoupaged to give depth.  I have added some black sparkles to compliment the rub-ons that have been used and just links everything together.

I love this selection of cards, they really show off the quality of the free bonus papers, a simple ribbon, tiny chipboard and a rub-on creates such a simple fresh basic finish.

I have added a strip of sticky back pre punched vinyl down this card, it comes in a roll and there is loads.  I actually bought this from someone who was having a destash, didn't have a clue what I would use it for but just shows that you can use up anything you have collected in your stash.

This card has punched out flowers on here also aswell as some sticky gems just to finish and to tie in the ribbon, the black picks up the colours on the chipboard's aswell.

All of these images on these last three cards are sparkly chipboard pieces, apologies for the rubbish pictures but the lighting isn't that great at night and its really just so you could see the amount of things that can be made from one magazines freebies.  Even I am amazed, plus there is still a few sheets of lovely pretty pink paper left which I will use tomorrow.  I am going to look at last months magazines now and see what the theme was and dig out some bits from my stash to match.

Hopefully I will be able to put together some more lovely cards.  The pictures actually don't do them any justice, they are lovely,. vibrant colours, sparkles, and the texture of the ribbons pull them altogether, such a nice wee batch of cards which have cost next to nothing to make.

I am going to enjoy being a thrifty crafter, at least till I get through all my magazines and stashes anyway.

Please feel free to share any crafty money savers that you have, I would love to hear them...........inspire me!

Happy Crafting

Amanda x