Decorations with Calories!

 

 Hi! Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of DECEMBER!

Wahoo. It's finally here. In lieu of having actual calories, I thought I'd just take photographs of some, or more precisely, capture some and save them for later!

 Well, a plain packet of sweets is not up to much, but create your own sweet filled tag or even something to hang on the Christmas tree or adorn your table. It's really easy, when you've got the perfect die!- (or this one if you want the dies that cut out the stamped characters from the matching stamp set too!)

 

I've backed the globe with the lovely' Let's Bokeh in The Snow' paper

It's just a case of gathering all the elements together (including these yummy mint M&M's)

Then just stick the acetate window into the frame shape. Add the blue snowy cut out to the larger outline piece and add a ton of foam pads.

When I say ton, I mean a TON. Unfortunately the sweets I'd chosen were super enormous. Let's just say it took rather a large amount of foam pads layers. Next time, I'm choosing some flatter sweets!



I wanted to add some glimmer and sprinkled in some edible lustre. It went everywhere!! I had to open it up, wipe out the lustre and re-seal. Fortunately, there was enough left to give a shimmer. Once I'd finished, I had the rest of the sweets to use up!

 
 This was really easy to make. No faff, no foam pads ;-) Here's what you need.

The tag set by Lia Griffith is perfect for this treat box. Simply make up a simple box shape. I just took the width measurements slightly wider than the tag shape.

I found a small acetate bag, added in the sweets and sealed it with the Candy Lane Washi tape

 Add the bag to the bottom of the box and then stamp out the 'Noel' and add to the tag.

Pull the tops together with twine and you'll find it makes a lovely shape.

Hope this gives you a push to creating your own favours, tags and decorations. If you don't like calories, just add a diamond ring or two ;-)



Happy (Escape) New Job....

Hey! How are you all?

Ok.. this card will take a little bit of explaining. 

It all started as I was thinking about the Lawn Fawn Ready Set Snow Shaker die set. It's temporarily out of stock but this die will work perfectly instead.

I got thinking about snow globes in general and about the poor little people and animals who are permanently stuck inside the globe and can't get out. This led me to thinking it would be fun if they made a bid for freedom and so the 'new job...escape from the old job' idea came into being.

I was explaining the idea to one of my daughters and she looked at me and said 'Mum are you doing drugs?!!

Well I wasn't, but granted, it's a slightly 'out there' idea!

 I had so much fun creating the scene. You wouldn't believe quite how many different Lawn Fawn sets I've used...

How many can you see?

Here goes.... Milos' ABC's ( for the sentiment)

Thankyou Tags (for the diddy bird)

Joy To The Woods (for the bird, chipmunk and fox)

Hello Baby (for the little rabbit)

Happy Trails (for the trees and the landscape line)

And last.. but not least..Penelope's Blossoms

AND they're ALL in stock. Every single set!

I hope you like my little furry friends sliding down the outside of the snow globe. I had to choose the smallest critters so they'd look more in proportion with the globe!

Anyhow, enough from me.

Hope you have a lovely and sane Tuesday!

I'll be back next week with maybe something a little more sensible (although I wouldn't hold your breath!)

Keren xx

Let it snow!

I know in theory it's still summer but it is almost cold and wet enough to snow here today and with the arrival of all the new Lawn Fawn Christmas products this week my thoughts turned to snow and Christmas cards and I have 3 to share with you today.

Firstly, I'm taking the Hero Arts Snowflake background stamp I used last week for another spin and pairing it with the new Let is Snow Border Die from Lawn Fawn.  If you need to make a lot of cards then this is a really quick make - you could knock out loads of these super fast!

Simply stamped in grey onto a silver pearl card with the die cut mounted on a pop of pink (grey and pink is a great contemporary combo but a more traditional Christmas colour would work just as well if pink is not your thing).   I used stick-it on the back of my white card before die cutting to make sticking the fiddly border on a breeze!

I wanted to have a play with the Lawn Fawn Ready Set Snow Shaker dies - it does look a little confusing that they have two die sets to match one stamp - but this die set can be used as a stand alone as well as with the stamp.

Here I used it as a traditional shaker.  Use the smallest dome die to cut the hole from the centre of a piece of white card, poking out all the little bits and keeping them to be your snow in the shaker.  Stamp the snowflake background in blue.   On the base card, stamp the contents of your globe - here I've used the snowman from Mama Elephant's Polar Pals to show that lots of things fit in the globe.  Then there are two outer globe dies that are the same size - one simple outline and one with the base and outline shape together.  Use the simple one to cut your acetate and the other to cut your outer globe - here I chose a dark blue to make my globe stand out.  Fix your card to the front using foam tape ensuring your have no gaps around your globe for your snow to escape.  Use a powder tool to make sure there are no "sticky bit" around the inside for your snow to stick to.  Fill with your snow bits and some sequins and beads.  Fix your acetate over the top and cover with you globe.

You don't necessarily have to make a shaker with this die set though - if you are worried about dimension and postage, you can make really cute flat snow globes too!

Here I die cut the original dome in blue to give a snowy background to the inside of the globe (thanks to Jenny for that idea!)  The snowy hill comes in the set too and I just added the deer from Toboggan Together before covering with acetate and and a holographic globe.   This would pass the Royal Mail thickness test!

 

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• Stamping Bella's winter release plus lots of other stamps that are new to us are now in stock
• Lawn Fawn's full release is now available here
• Winnie and Walter restocks are now also available.  They have a new release out at the end of September/early October.
• We received restocks from Hero Arts yesterday and they will be in store this afternoon (including the stamp I used above)   
• We have the latest Christmas collections from My Minds Eye - they will be available this afternoon too in the Paper and Embellishment sections of the store.
• Avery Elle will start showing their new release tomorrow and it is already en-route to us so will be available on Thursday when it is released in the USA.
• We are starting work on our new website - if there is something you really dislike about our current website - do leave a comment to let me know as I want to make the new site as user friendly as possible so your feedback would be really helpful!

That's all for now as I will be back this afternoon with the winners of our current challenge ahead of the new one starting on Tuesday!

Tara