Fishy news. . . .

My two bristlenose plecs have been busy making babies – well, they have been practicing a lot and the eggs have failed to survive. (See here)

On Tuesday evening, I was sitting at the computer and I happened to glance over to the fish tank where I saw something unexpected. On top of the “beehive” was a tiny fish!  On closer inspection, I discovered, to my amazement, that it was a bristlenose plec.  Obviously, “Daddy” plec has mastered the care of his eggs and one has survived.  Baby plec has been (temporarily) named Snorlax by DS.

Further investigation revealed another batch of eggs underneath the bog wood, being well guarded by “Daddy” plec.  I wonder if Snorlax will soon be joined by other baby plecs.

As soon as I can get a picture of Snorlax, I will post it on here for you all to see.  He is currently 1cm long and very camera shy!!  I hope (fingers crossed) that he survives.

Happy Birthday

Today is my FIL’s birthday.  He is a fan of jazz, which I used as a theme for his birthday cards.

Season’s Greetings

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year!!

A Christmas Wedding

Friends of ours are getting married today.  How lovely – a Christmas wedding, but not in all this snow and cold but in warmer climes in South America!!

Using one of my wedding themed rubber stamps, I stamped the image onto parchment.  I then spent hours (well, it felt like it!) carefully embossing on the reverse to raise the image. I then added the colour.  The parchment piece was then mounted on the silver frame and the whole thing was glued to a self-cut aperture card blank.

. . . . and another

Ribbon bows and gems make the tree, a gift embellishment for the pot and a star to finish.

First Christmas as Mr & Mrs

This one speaks for itself. I made this for my cousin’s son and his wife – they married in October (see October post).

Used:  Sizzix Texturz Polka Daisies, Ellison Thin Cuts Alphabet Tiffy Taffy, the holly came from the Christmas pud in theSizzix Sizzlit Christmas set.  The berries are crystal gems.  The greeting was printed on the computer.

Noel

This card was made for our dancing teacher.  I think he deserves a special card as he has to put up with a lot from us during the year, and it’s a nice way of showing him that he is appreciated.

Used:  Sizzix decorative strip alphabet Wingo Zingo, Sizzix originals (green) Holly & Berries, Sizzix Texturz Polka Daisies.

First Christmas

A first Christmas deserves a special card (any excuse eh?)

It is an easel card and I have used my lovely skiing snowman stamp as the basis of my design (as he is sooo cute!!).  The letters were cut with my Sizzix decorative strip alphabet “Wingo Zingo”and the number was cut with my Sizzix decorative strip “Frosting Numbers”.  I coloured the snowman with brushmarkers and the background with pastels.

Parents & Grandparents

 

More

Krafted Keepsakes tales of the unexpected

DH is not a “crafty” man.  Creativity is not his thing but something he admires in others (which is nice).  However, on Saturday he came to my rescue. 

I needed to make 3 large florist bows to hang on our bookcases.  I had bought some ribbon and 3 hearts and I sat down to make said bows and the nightmare began.

Carefully following the instructions I began to wrap the ribbon – I was soon to realise that my ribbon wrap didn’t look like the one in the picture.  I undid my ribbon wrap and had another go – once again it was wrong.  Now, I am not one to give up easily but after several more attempts I was getting to the point where it would be going in the bin!

DH having watched the “performance” took over (absolutely unheard of).  He laid all the components out, found a video on YouTube and set to work.  I was blown away with the result and not only did he make one – he made all three!!

Judge the results for yourselves – I think he’s quite clever but I will master making these bows (I will not let it beat me!!)

Something a little different

This year’s Christmas decorations have had to different due to our two fur covered hooligans (our beloved cats – see Moggie Mayhem for their antics!).  So instead of our usual big Christmas tree we have a little one, out of the cats way.  With a little imagination and some help from DH (see tomorrow’s post) the house looks and feels quite Christmassy.

Even my table decoration has had to be put on hold or so DH told me  - “we can’t have the cats playing with that, they might get hurt”, sort of thing.  But I had a different plan.  At the weekend I bought a small table decoration, quite a plain one really -  a built in candle holder, a bit of green and a few sparkly bits.  I had some spare decorations which I cut up and added to the table decoration, placed the whole thing on a matching candle plate – now I have something that is right for the table but more to the point the cats can’t ruin it (especially as I cover it with a food net overnight!!).

The start of the Christmas cards

We exchange our family Christmas cards on the 5th December, the Dutch Christmas day.
I always make our family Christmas cards.  Here are this year’s efforts.
For DS from me:

As you know from previous blog posts, DS is a bit of a logo lover – can you spot the logo in this card?
For DS from his Dad:

For DH from me:

and last, but not least,
for DH from DS

paul said...

 

nothing more I can say other than BRILLIANT we love em ... don't think we anywhere near you standard yet

9 December 2010 20:00

Thank you for your kind comments Paul

Crackers

As usual, I have made my own Christmas crackers.  It took me an afternoon to make 12 crackers. 

Christmas is coming (already)!

Once again Christmas is looming on the horizon.  I don’t mean looming in a bad way, just with amazement at how quickly the time has gone since last Christmas.
Back in October I started my Christmas preparations, not because I was being efficient but simply because I had to get Christmas parcels in the post to distant places (& not so distant places!)
I always try to theme my Christmas wrapping: this year I chose quite a simple look based on some lovely gift wrap that I had found.  The gift wrap is similar in look and feel to ordinary brown paper (the parcel type) but is printed with gold flourishes and swirls.  It actually sounds better than I can describe it!
I made gift tags to match the paper -
I die cut the tags with a Sizzix Bigz Scallop tag die (middle sized tag) and then stamped the image using gold ink.  I then coloured just the holly & berries.  Threaded with gold coloured gift ribbon, they matched the paper perfectly. 

Cards for men

I always find it challenging to design cards for men.  In principle it should be no different to designing any other card but for some reason I find it difficult.

I needed a card for my cousin.  I decided to use my new Sizzix embossing plate, Happy Birthday.  I used a bronze card blank and embossed directly onto the blank card.  I cut the happy birthday from white card (Sizzix Decorative Strip – Wingo Zingo).

Lest We Forget

New Arrival–Part 2

Now for the gift. I like to be different and I love being creative, especially with everyday items.  Put the two together and what do you get – a nappy cake!

As with the crib (see yesterday’s post), I have never made a nappy cake before and in my naivety thought “how hard can it be?” Well, let me tell you:  design – pretty straightforward; rolling the nappies – ok, once you establish a method; putting it all together  - hard.  I needed several pairs of hands just to keep things where they should be!!  On the upside, once I had established what was going where, it all became a bit easier.

New Arrival–Part 1

Today, I met my friend’s grandson for the first time.  He is absolutely adorable and I was thrilled to be able to have a cuddle.

I made the card & gift before his arrival, so I kept to neutral colours.  Today I will show you the card and tomorrow I will post pictures of the gift.

I wanted to try making a 3d crib.  I mapped it all out first and then transferred my pattern to the white card.  I drew and cut the crib by hand.  I could have used my Craft Robo but never having made anything like this before, I wanted to get a “feel” for it.

Having constructed the crib, I lined the inside with some yellow and white stripey paper, made a pillow from a small piece of white card and a blanket from yellow gingham ribbon.

 

 

I then decided to make a box.  Again, I could have used the robo to design & cut it but I decided to do it by hand.

Having cut my desired shape I then stamped the card with “precious baby”.

To protect the crib, I added acetate to the apertures.

I then made a tag so that I had somewhere to write my message.

 

A pair of knitted bootees (another of my makes!) and a yellow gingham bow either side to hold the box together and it’s done.

60th

Last week our friend celebrated his 60th birthday.  He had already had his best present – becoming a grandfather a few days before his birthday!

 

I used a white (5” x 7”) card blank.  I covered the front in bronze metallic paper.  I then embossed the front using one of my new Sizzix Texturz embossing plates (Happy Birthday Phrases).  I cut a “60” from white card using my Sizzix Decorative Strip, Frosting Numbers.  I used foam pads to mount the “60".

Now for the present.

Components:

4 wine glasses

1 terracotta wine cooler

1 nice bottle of red

gift wrap

purple foam sheets

long craft pipe cleaners

cellophane wrap

gift ribbon

4 “60”s cut from silver paper using the Sizzix Frosted Numbers die

Method

I covered the cut down wine glasses box with gift wrap.  I then stuck the wine cooler box inside the wrapped gift box.  I returned the cooler to its box and put the wine in the cooler.  I cut the foam into 4 long lengths, which I then wrapped around the wine glasses.  I used the “60”s and some double sided tape to secure the foam to the glasses.  I then (carefully) wrapped the pipe cleaners around the stems of the glasses and used them to secure the glasses to the top of the wine bottle.  The whole lot was then wrapped in cellophane and tied at the top with the gift ribbon.