Googly Tags

This is a guest blog post for my sister's shop, Millymog (her blog is here). 

Hello! My name is Bexx and I am Emma's much younger sister (Sorry Em, couldn't resist!). I live in Southern Maryland with my husband, two little boys & cat. I occasionally help Emma out tweaking images for the Millymog website but more often you can find me sewing, knitting, crocheting or papercrafting. Emma asked me if I would share an easy craft project on her blog, so here it is!

When we were kids, our mum & dad would wrap our Christmas presents and separate them out in the living room. Our older brother Richard's presents would be on one chair, mine on another, and Emma's on the sofa. However, they would NEVER EVER have tags on them, so usually at least twice on Christmas morning, a non-plussed Emma would open up some underpants, or Richard would be stunned by a beautiful make-up set. I am now a huge fan of using gift tags, one per gift.

I'm going to share with you today how I whip up cute and easy gift tags for all occasions. They don't need a lot of fancy equipment, although there are a few things that would be helpful, if you REALLY get into making tags.

Step 1: Make or buy your tag. You can usually buy luggage labels from WHSmith, or from places like Amazon or eBay. If you've bought them, skip to step 2. However, if you want to make them super personalised, it isn't difficult. First up, find some good card. I like to use neutral colours so that when you're writing them, you don't need a fancy pen. But coloured card also looks awesome.

Next, you need to cut your card to about 10cm x 5cm, or 4in x 2in. Then, mark a spot in the middle near the top of your tag. That's where your string is going to go.

If you want to reinforce the hole, punch out two 1/2" circles and stick them over the dot. You can use any colour for this, cheerier the better!

You then need to punch your hole in the tag. A standard office hole punch works perfectly for this, or if you have a craft punch, that works too. Just make sure that, if you used reinforcement, you wait until the glue has dried. Otherwise your punch is going to mangle the whole thing up.

Next, you need to add your string. I use a lot of baker's twine - it's cheap, readily available & cheery! But you could use garden twine for a rustic look, wool if you have it lying around, anything really. You need to fold your length of string in half, poke the loop through the hole, then string the ends through the loop. You just made a Lark's Head knot, former scouts & guides!!

Step 2: Stamp your image on your tag. I used a stamp set called Fox & Friends from Stampin' Up!, but you could use anything with eyes. I also used Stampin' Up! ink as I have it on hand, but there are lots of different brands available from craft shops.

Step 3: Take your googly eyes (get them from that craft shop we mentioned, or raid your kids' art box, or sometimes you can find them in haberdasheries) and glue them on. You're all done! Easy eh?

Step 4: Run with the concept and make tags for all occasions. Here's a Hallowe'en tag using exactly the same idea, and a Christmas tag to which I added a couple of jingly bells and replaced the googly eyes with glitter glue.

I've enjoyed blogging with you today. I'd love to see your tags - check out my own blog, the Dented Spoon, if you'd like to share your tags with me, or to see more ideas.

Bexx xxxxxx

Stampy Saturday

Lots of cards done today, and there may even be another!

First up - a card for my friend's niece:

I am not at all confident on "vintage" and that was not the look I was aiming for, but it just evolved this way! I like this one. 

And now for something completely different.

I finally cracked how to use my Piestra Tile die - I used Dotto to tape a strip of DSP to the back ( leaving a 1/8" border) then used the shims from my SU! crease pad. This one is for my sister's 39th birthday. Colours are Summer Starfruit, Sahara Sand and Raspberry Ripple. Yum! 

And! I started, at long last, my Christmas cards for 2013.

This one is for Retro Sketches #50. I rarely use purple but I recently discovered that Wisteria Wonder is quite pretty with Baja Breeze. 

Anyway I am hoping to do one more challenge this evening, HOPEFULLY it will be making a card for my Stampin' and Socialisin' night on Friday. Looking forward to it very much. 

Hoping for some nice, boring days!

Aaaaaahhhh.....

Christmas is done, we are back in the States and getting more or less organised to resume normal life! It is so nice to relax after the hectic holidays.

Whilst we were in the UK over Christmas, we held Leo's Christening at St. Columba's church in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. It was a wonderful service and a really lovely day. It also meant we got to catch up with loads of people all at once!

I've made a couple of thank-you cards tonight to give to the minister & organist (handily, they're married!) and Stew's parents for organising the do. Here they are!

This one is for the minister & his wife. I used supplies from January's Simon Says Stamp kit, and the awesome "Swallowtail" stamp from SU!. I am seriously addicted to those ribbon slides too...

...as you can see! A much simpler card for Stew's parents and this one's SUO. I coloured the ducks (geese?) in using a blender pen & SU! inks.

Finally a quick snap of my gorgeous boys just before the Christening (whilst they were still looking smart!):

Squeaking in with my last two Chrimbo cards for September...

Phew! Made it!

I am however behind on my ACAD challenges, but I have GREAT PLANS for this weekend. (Don't they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions? I think they invented that saying just for me.)

As always, (for Christmas cards anyway) I made two of these. The top and bottom parts of the balloon are raised up a wee smidgen, as is the basket. It's a simple card, but I had fun with it and I am seriously LOVING this set... it's a Hostess Rewards set called Christmas Wishes (only available if you host a party of $150 or more) which means it's SUPER BARGAINACIOUS:

For Clear-mount, it's $11 of your hostess dollars (these are FREE and you get at least $25 hostess dollars with a $150 party / big order), or in wood it's $14. The images are lovely and big (no more umming and ahhing about how the heck to fill up the rest of the space! Ask me how I'm an expert on that...), cute, and very versatile. 

Speaking of parties and the like, my lovely friend Laurajane has decided to host a party for me! It's going to be November 5th (remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot!) and I am very excited. She is a superstar. My first "proper" party! It'll be a blast. I wish I could have squeaked it in in October but it just wasn't working with our schedules. 

I've set myself a target of selling $300 a month for September, October, and November. I've actually exceeded it in September (so proud!) but October is looking dicey as I move slap-bang in the middle of the month. Oh well, I'll think of something. That - or perhaps you have suggestions? PLEASE share if you do!

In other news, I have also signed up to do a craft fair at the end of November! Very excited. So November looks BUSY... Praxis, Party, Thanksgiving, and Craft Fair! 

Just watched Hunger Games with Stew. I thought they did a good job. Shame the next two books are a bit pants. Jacob has soccer tomorrow morning (4th out of 6 sessions, not sure he'll want to do it again, but he really has tried his best so I am proud of him); and Leo had his 6 month check up on Wednesday. He is a stonking 19lbs 8oz!!! 

  

My Dad is 70 on Wednesday!

Isn't that crazy?

I have been absolutely wracking my brain trying to think of something really special to give him, but I have failed. So I settled for a book about the Auto Train (he's a huge train buff), and a handmade card. I'm still hoping for a flash of inspiration on his pressie!

Anyway, here's his card:

Supplies:

Whisper White cardstock ($8.50, 100730)
Champagne Glimmer Paper ($4.95, 127885)
Pool Party cardstock ($6.95, 122924)
Sakura Gelly Roll pen
Rectangle die
Designer Paper from my stash

I drew and cut out the numbers all by myself!

I also have another couple of BIG projects to get on with:

** Jacob's Ninjago costume for Halloween. I picked up a super-cheap Karate uniform on Amazon which I am going to dye blue (for Jay, the Lightning Ninja). Then I will sew on some silver parts, somehow fabricate shoulder pads and a head scarf type scenario and hopefully he will be a very happy Ninja!

** Florida scrapbook album - I've bought divided page protectors and a Simply Scrappin' kit (my first, but I have NO IDEA why I waited this long, it's lush!)
Supplies:
Pinwheels on Parade Simply Scrapping ($21.95, 126929)
Divided Page Protectors ($5.95, 127690)

** House move (October 15th onwards)

** .... and last night I booked myself onto the November 3rd Praxis 1 tests... yep, I'm going to try to get certified to teach over here as I have reasons to believe we'll be here longer than planned... I am excited but nervous. It's 2 years since I did anything remotely intellectual so I expect I am severely rusty! The plan is to get Praxis 1 under my belt, then hit the books to prepare for Praxis 2 in the areas I need. I am kind of excited, but also nervous. It's amazing how quickly you lose all semblance of self-confidence as a SAHM - it's not all it's cracked up to be! :D

Zonko Malonko

Is what we say when we're SUPER TIRED!

But on the plus side, we're off on our holidays (vacation for all you Yanks!) a week from today! Woooooooooo! If things go to plan, we will be in Emporia, VA this time next week on the long drive down. We're breaking it up over 3 days to make it a bit of a "Road Trip" and to make it easier on the boys. I am very excited, but I really need to get packing. Not sure what exactly to pack into, usually when Brits go on vacation we pack suitcases because we're getting off the island by hook or by crook. However, a driving vacation is a different kettle of fish!

Anyway, I'm sure you'd like me to stop wittering on and show you what I've made today! As I'm tired, this was HARD. But I like the result, it contains a really weak pun, the colour green, and chevron paper. What's not to love!?

Couldn't even be bothered to get the light tent out, so you can't see that the green banner thing is popped up with the pear. Still debating putting a teeny-tiny "You're" on this. But we shall see.

This is ALMOST all SU!. The paper is from the Summer Smooches DSP pack (125409 $10.95). I used Certainly Celery, Lucky Limeade and Always Artichoke. The stamp is from the Perfectly Preserved bundle (it has matching Framelits - squeeeee!). I wasn't sure about investing, but I can think of loads of uses already. And I think there is lots more scope for my side-splitting puns. (129944 $38.95 CM, 129943 $44.95 WM) I've put a diamante (ooops, sorry, rhinestone!) on the pear. Finally the letters are from Basic Grey. I wish SU! did letter stickers. They are fabulous for when you want an unusual and hilariously punny word! :D

Catching up

Well, I am catching up on blogging. Last night I made myself do some "making" as Stew calls it. It wasn't a success as I was too tired and kept making daft mistakes. But I want to blog them because it's all about learning from your mistakes. How can you learn if you pretend it didn't happen, right?

Not sure what my plan was there. Next!

This was for the monochromatic challenge on Shop Our Stash. Something's missing.

Finally, today, whilst Leo was in his swing (!!! Not quite there with the cot but making progress!) I made this for a friend who has just had a baby called Noah. I never thought I'd like this stamp, so I borrowed it from Lovely Heather, and I have fallen in love!

For me, that's a damned good job of colouring. I try, but it isn't my forte. Not quite sure what is my forte, mind you.

Anyway! The stamp is called "Two by Two"  ($8.95) by the awesome Stampin' Up!, coloured in with a blender pen & SU! inkpads. When I get my own, I think I'll cut the sentiment off and mount that on the side of the wood block. That way it's really easy to use the image and sentiment separately. I also love the wavy sentiment - it means I have a bit more leeway than usual on trying to keep it looking straight. Again, not a forte!

Right. Must go and wake Leo up. Jacob has requested McDonald's for dinner, and since he's been a bit poorly, I am obliging him this evening. I'd like to pat myself on the back there for my "great mummy" skills, however, I am not sure taking your child to the Golden Arches really qualifies.

Rule Britannia...

We just started a new blogging group on SCS for graduates of the 100 cards in 100 days challenge called "A Card A Day". Well, I am not managing to make a card a day thus far, but I am doing my best!

Anyway we decided to start a mini-challenge every week - and this week I set the challenge "London Calling" - to have something to do with London/the British - inspired by the Olympics!

Here's my take on it...

My Union Jack came out a bit wonky donkey (as we say in Lancashire!) but I like it anyway! It's such a clever stamp set - Keep Calm by Amuse Studio. The cleverness is the fact that the image is made up of two stamps - one for the traditionally "red" parts and one for the traditionally "blue" parts.

My sentiment is from Simon Says Stamps "Absolutely Delightful". I actually wanted to put "Brilliant" but I don't have a stamp saying that, clearly this is a hole in my stash as I say the word 20 bazillion times a day!

I used Pool Party, Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Primrose Petals, Sahara Sand, Summer Starfruit, Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder SU! marker pens. Nice eh?! :D

I may yet do more British inspired cards. It is after all my nationality! Another project I got done today was Jacob's Lego bag. I've been meaning to make one for a while, as Leo is getting alarmingly mobile and Jacob is obsessed with Lego at the moment. These things aren't really compatible. So I used this fabby tutorial to make a Dino Lego Bag! I'll try to snap some pics tomorrow.

CAS Clouds mark II

The challenge on CAS-ual Fridays this week is projects including things you would find in the sky. As you know I love clouds, so this was a doozy...

See the neon? Love it... This is a similar card to one I did a while ago, so if you think it looks familiar, that might be why! However this time I clustered everything at the bottom, cut the card 1/4" narrower so that the sentiment strip could hang over the edge slightly, and used Neon Yellow (Hero Arts).

The raised clouds are made from 4 layers of white cardstock die cut and stuck together, I then sponged the edges with Neon Yellow ink and added my final layer of the embossed cloud. The chevron pattern on the sentiment strip is from Lawn Fawn (Chevron Backdrops), and the sentiment itself is Papertrey Ink's Up, Up and Away Sentiments. Finally, I used my Stampin' Up embossing folder, and the clouds are cut using PTI's cloud dies. One last thing to note - I used Basic Grey ink rather than Basic Black as the BB looked too harsh.

Hope you like it!

CAS Christmas

Well, last week I found out I was a CAS-ual Friday Favourite! I was very excited as it was the first time I'd ever entered that challenge. I've had another go this week, though I am not quite as pleased with my card...

The challenge was to use lime, aqua and navy. So I chose Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Midnight Muse DSP from the In-color 2011-2013 and 2012-2014 stacks. Although these stacks are quite a big investment, I can't tell you how handy it is to be able to pick out DSP in just the colour you need.

My original idea was to tessellate vellum snowflakes to give the illusion of hexagons but it was too tricky for me this evening - I am super tired. I think the day of "crying it out" might need to be on the horizon. Poor baba Leo.

Seriously. More Christmas cards?

It seems like in Blogland at the moment, everyone is making Christmas cards in an effort to keep cool! It's genius. Or insane. One or the other!

When I saw this palette on Apron Strings Pinterest challenge #19 -

I immediately thought of traffic lights! Not helpful. But then I thought of street signs, street furniture etc. I'm not sure this was what Lori was thinking but hey, if we all thought the same, we'd live in a very boring world!

I second-generation stamped the background with my new "Sanded" background stamp (got it from the PIF threads on Splitcoast Stampers - check them out if you haven't already) in Basic Grey on Sahara Sand to get an asphalt-y look. Then I sponged the edges to make it look a bit more distressed. Then I grabbed some bits of ribbon (didn't have grey - no probs! Used cardstock) and scraps of paper in roughly the correct colour palette and voila. The sentiment was stamped onto vellum and embossed in silver. I am so pleased with this card.

If you receive this card from me at Christmas you must be very special indeed because I'm going to have a hard time parting with it!

Black dog

Winston Churchill was prone to bouts of depression, which he called his "black dog". Well, about 6 months after having Jacob (my eldest son) I was diagnosed with post-natal depression (for some reason it's referred to as post-partum depression here). I spent a long time battling it and was off work for quite some time. So the decision to increase the size of our family wasn't taken lightly, particularly with us being so far from our families & support networks.

Well, to cut a long story short, I've been slowing feeling worse and worse for the last three or four weeks. Because I know the warning signs and I am DETERMINED not to go back into the dreadful state I got in during 2008, I called the doctor on Wednesday. She has increased my dose of meds and is seeing me very soon for a review.

Anyway - serendipitously, look what Unity's Stamp of the Week club sent me this week:

How funny! Just when I'm going to need it...

So this goes out to all the people who are helping me to keep my chin up! Anything which gets me out of dwelling on stuff is a winner. So I have been stalking lots of blogs and calling lots of friends just to hear about the minutiae of their day. Cheers me up no end!

No more moaning in my next post, I promise!

Another one layer card!

I am getting quite into One Layer Cards. It is a total change in direction for me. But something about the more streamlined look appeals to me occasionally. This one is for Cas-ual Friday CFC62 - use a black card base.

A busy day today for us today. Jacob has been coughing quite a bit in the night, a very dry cough. He is absolutely fine in himself though, I blame being out in the rain all evening on Saturday watching a horse show! I took both boys shopping this morning which tired us all out. We needed to do various other jobs too for a secret project I have on the go... more details on Sunday/Monday. It is NOT FUN lugging Leo in his car seat anymore. He is TOO BIG. :D

Forgot to mention the HUMILIATION I suffered yesterday. Mad Bexx decided that Step class was a good idea. Blinking heck, it was bad. I have no spatial awareness, no coordination, cannot process instructions aurally and occasionally have to really think about which is my left and my right. So you can imagine how well I got on at Step. I eventually decided that "Just Keep Moving" would be my motto. I didn't fall off the step which I think is the only good thing that can be said about it. Not sure I will be returning to that one. I would imagine the instructor's heart would sink if I darkened her door again!

Wordy Wordy Happy Happy

Heard some TOP SECRET awesome news today. Can't share details (not that you know the people involved anyway!) but I wanted a "So Happy for You" card and I was inspired by Stretch your Stamps' Day 10 (border stamps) and another of Lori's Pinterest challenges (#12):

100.99

Unfortunately the Sahara Sand (possibly my favourite SU! colour) came out green looking. Doubtless the green background didn't help!

Just love that zip stamp. It builds together so I can make as long zips as I like. FUN!

This was the colour inspiration pic from Lori -

I think I actually managed to follow the challenge quite closely on this one, unusually!

I have an idea/cunning plan for Apron Strings' Pinterest challenge #13 too... will have to see if I get chance to put it into action tomorrow.

Tawny Cards

Urgh...

Well it has been a tiring few days with Stew working really long hours. As a result I haven't had much energy for stamping in the evenings. I've been feeling really homesick, sometimes I just wish I had some family around so I could get a break. Anyway. Our life here is awesome but I really miss my sister, brother & parents sometimes.

However I had to get off my bottom tonight to make a gift for Mrs. Tawny, Jacob's teacher. It's her birthday tomorrow and she's bringing ice cream for all the kids. So sweet!

I tried to get Jacob to do a secret mission to find out her favourite colour but I think he was nervous. So we went with bright cheery colours!

I am going to call this 4 projects as I actually had to make them twice - had a MASKING DISASTER. Masked them all, stamped them all, then peeled off the masking paper to reveal ink had soaked through. There were some expletives muttered. Sacked off the masking and just plain stamped them in the end. The idea came from the Stretch Your Stamps class.

Jacob has also made her a bead bracelet with her name on it and drawn a big picture of an ice cream.

100.93-100.96 (Almost there!)

I also couldn't be bothered with the light box tonight. Sorry! To be honest it's a miracle they're even being blogged!

Black and Blue Christmas!

Well after my success with 523 {Christmas} Card Throwdown last week (Honourable Mention! First ever challenge success! Chuffed-to-bits.com!) I thought I'd try the colour challenge for July. When I first saw the colours I was a bit dumbstruck but then I had an idea which tied in nicely with SYS day 4 - Graphic Stamps:


100.86 and 100.87 (made two of these):

I actually REALLY LIKE this card and if I was mass-producing my Christmas cards this would be a good choice. Plus, it's a one layer card!

I am debating outlining "Holidays" with Pacific Point (to match the snowflakes) but I can't quite decide... thoughts?

In other news, Leo had his first proper food today! He tried BANANA gloop. He couldn't quite work out what was going on at first but he very quickly got the hang of it and wolfed it down! It was very cute, and quite a relief, as he's been very hard to satisfy with milk the last few days. He is a giant baby.

Such a cutie! Big day for little Leo today, he also tried out the ExerSaucer my friend Lindsay (notecard lady!) was kind enough to lend us...

I think Jacob secretly wanted a turn. Jacob has really enjoyed building Lego models today, he's really good at it for a four year old! I have zero spatial awareness so I have to position the model I'm working on EXACTLY like the picture, but Jacob surprised me with his skill!

Anyway, a good day here in SoMD. Hope you enjoyed the start of the weekend as much as I did. 

Nice and Neon

I am so excited about neon colours at the moment - I think I mentioned this in an earlier post? Anyway I let myself buy Hero Arts' neon ink pads, and I am having FUN.

100.79 (skipping about a bit here, sorry)

I gave this card to the same friend who got the notecard set, I had made another card (the spreading sunshine one) but could I find it when I needed to write it? No. So I gave her this one instead. I'm not sure Lindsay is a big fan of neon, but she liked the notecards! :D

SYS Day 3 - Alphabet Stamps

I didn't have the suggested stamp set for this one, but I snapped up a similar set on Splitcoast's BST forum for $5 - Contempo Alphabet. Mega bargain! Only problem is, the clear mount would have been infinitely better for making backgrounds, especially with the Fiskars Stamp Press which is number 1 on my wish list. Anyway! For $5 you can't really complain!

100.84

Something doesn't quite work here, I think perhaps my background is a bit TOO pale. I used my favourite Sahara Sand stamped off to make it super pale but I possibly went too far! I'm not sure about the Wild Wasabi embossing either but not to worry!

This one was for Freshly Made Sketches #43:

I made it portrait instead of landscape. Not sure it was my best idea ever but not to worry! Fun sketch.

SYS Day 2 - Collage Stamps

I have to say, when I saw this stamp set, I wasn't keen at all. But... WOW. It makes some awesome cards. There are SO many great ideas in this course, I am really struggling to keep up. But, I am holding on by the skin of my teeth.

100.83

Loads of really clever techniques on this one, including water embossing, iron-off embossing, colour blocking... This is about as close a CASE of Jennifer Maguire's original as I could do with my supplies. And I changed the colours up.

PS The sentiment is straight in real life!

Christmas in July part 2

Tried a non-traditional colour scheme for my second lot of July Christmas cards. The sketch was from this challenge blog,  found via Patty Gorka (a fellow 100in100'er). Cool idea for a challenge blog, I will be taking part a lot I suspect!

100.78 & 79 (made two of these)

Not 100% keen on this one, the sketch is good (thanks to the challenge!) but I think the colour scheme is a bust. I just can't seem to get non-traditional schemes to work for Christmas cards. Oh well I shall keep trying!

Edited to add - I got an honourable mention badge for this challenge card! Wooo! Check it out!: