First birthday of 2011

My MIL and I both have birthdays in the first couple of weeks in January.
As usual, I have made MIL’s cards – one for Mum and one for Nan.  I have used a variety of techniques and I am pleased with the results.  Hope Mum likes them too, especially as she keeps all her handmade cards  (see here).  It is largely due to the comments from Mum, my dear aunt and my dear friend Paul that Krafted Keepsakes came to be (thank you x x ).

Happy birthday Mum! x x

Mastered!

As you will know from an earlier post, DH made 3 large florist bows for me as I couldn’t seem to manage it myself.  I was thrilled with his creations and very surprised as DH is not at all crafty.  However, I refused to be beaten. 

Having watched DH making the bows, I decided to have another go myself.

Result!! Florist bow mastered!!

Snorlax

Finally, a picture of my baby plec!

Happy New Year

Wishing you all a very

happy & healthy 2011!!

Message from me: I am not sitting at my 'puter 1 minute into the New Year - this is a scheduled post and as this is posting I will be seeing in the New Year with a drink in hand!!

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).