Christmas Mini Book!

Today I have a Christmas minibook made with the gorgeous Bo Bunny Noel range to share. :)  I used one of the Bo Bunny edgy albums which are so easy to work with as they are beautifully finished so you don't need to paint it or completely cover it!  I will still be adding a few finishing touches to this like a couple of titles and some pearls etc that I just did not get around to before I photographed it with my crazy life recently!  Here's hoping the new year will bring a bit of calmness and order to it!!!!! (well one can only hope! ;) )  Please excuse the dreadful photos but the light has been dreadful with all the lovely weather we have been having!

 

Supplies used :
Noel;  Noel Cheer;  Noel Dot;  Noel Holly;  Noel Joy;  Noel Memories;  Noel Ornaments;  Noel Postcards
Noel Rejoice;  Noel stripe;  Noel Traditions;  Noel Cut Outs
Noel Combo Stickers
Noel 12x12 Chipboard
Traditions CS Sticker
Jolly Old St.Nick CS Sticker
Glitter Noel iCandy Chipboard
Glitter Noel iCandy Stickers
Holly Berry Wrap
Noel Clearly Stamp
Antique Lace Petal
Coordinating Double Dot Almond Dot
EKSuccess edge punches
Ribbon
Brads
Liquid pearls

I want to wish all my lovely friends and followers a Happy New Year and I hope you all have an amazing, happy, prosperous, love and fun filled 2011! :)

Christmas photos!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Except for the fact that we were all still down with various bugs we had a lovely quiet Christmas! :)  These are some photos of Son no. 1 and his favourite present a Tony Hawk shred board and game for the PS3 and as happy as anything because he got loads of books (I can never resist The Book People) and he is such a book worm, I wonder where he gets that from ;)

These are of Son no. 2 who was ecstatic with all of his presents because he is a Club Penguin and Puffle fanatic and between us and Santa he got a wealth of Puffle things!  It says a lot for how obsessed he is that he stopped to put on the hat (which has been worn non stop ever since) and shirt before opening the rest of his presents and then he stopped to read the some of the Club Penguin books before opening the rest of his presents!

I also had to share some of my presents!  I was spoiled rotten again.   I am pretty good during the year and have the smallest scrapbooking budget of anyone I know but my hubby does like to spoil me and go crazy at Christmas and my birthday, he really is the sweetest :)

 

All sorts of scrapbooking things, including some lovely masks, stamps and a new trimmer.  A new mobile phone as my old one is about 5 years old now, it is a touchscreen and of course is pink, I just love it!  The Twilight calendar and puzzle ball was from the kids.  My mixed cd's of downloads that Paul makes for me every year (it has definitely become a bit of a tradition) as well as a couple of other cds (30 Seconds to Mars and The Wanted), the first season of Vampire Diaries on DVD, some books (yay!) and a gorgeous willow tree ornament.  The huge black thing at the back is to build puzzles on (and a box of puzzles to go with it) which is something else I love to do!  I have to say I did buy the wooden tree in the front and give it to Paul to give to me lol and I can't wait to decorate it!   So as you can see I was very spoilt and have loads of lovely new things to play with :)

I also took part in a stocking swap on UKScrappers and wow did my lovely stocking fairy Maxine really spoil me!  I got a stocking just jam packed with all sorts of lovely gifts including scrapbooking, sweets and bath treats but my favourite things in the stocking were this gorgeous little Twilight minibook she made for me to fill with my favourite quotes and pictures and this beautiful Twilight bookmark which I am already using.  I have seen these sorts of bookmarks before and did not really see how they would work but now that I have tried one they are fantastic and I don't think I will ever go back to a normal bookmark! :)

The kids had PS3 move controllers on their lists to Santa and they each got one and Santa bought one game and we bought another game and we have been having lots of fun trying them out over the last few days and fun as it is it really is pretty much like playing the Wii!   I am dreading life going back to normal as the last few quiet relaxed days have been just what we needed after the last few months but I suppose you can only lock the outside world out for so long!  Paul goes back to work next week but the kids only go back to school on the 10th so at least we still have some holiday time left :)

I will be back tomorrow with a Christmas mini album! :)

Christmas place setting and Teachers gift.

I have a couple of things to share with you today.  First up is a Christmas place setting I did for Bo Bunny.  I have made it to tie in with my wreath so I have once again using the beautiful Noel collection.







Supplies:
Noel Cheer
Noel Ornaments
Noel Rejoice
Noel Stripe
Holly Berry Wrap
Cranberry Rose Trim
Double Dot Ribbon Olive
Edger punches
Liquid pearls
beads

The other things are some teacher gifts!   I kept it simple again as life has been so crazy recently and just made a big batch of fudge and coconut ice and each teacher got a little jar with those in.  I normally give the office staff etc but only did the 4 teachers this time as then I was thinking I should also do some for the caretaker who is just the sweetest and then I would also have to do for the headmaster and find or make something to put them in so I just gave up and just did for the 4 teachers! 

 

I did however make a little frame with a teachers prayer in it for Kierans teacher as she has had a lot of extra work so far this year!  I used Bo Bunny Learning Curve which was of course perfect for it and a frame from The Range that I adore!

Kieran is really liking his teacher today, probably because it is the last day of school but also because he found out yesterday that she put him forward for a Royal Institution Mathematics master class next year where they will be doing 'material beyond the scope of the national curriculum' and taught by university lecturers.  He is so excited because he loves maths and really proud of himself for being one of the 2 kids chosen for it, but.... it is on Saturday mornings for 6 weeks and he is still excited!  Only Kieran could be excited about doing maths classes on a Saturday morning, crazy child!   Now I just have to talk Paul into taking him every week because they start at 9am and I love my bed on a Saturday morning!   Mwahahahaha!

Christmas Wreath Tutorial part 2

 The second type of flowers I used on my wreath were rolled flowers which I did in two ways.  These are the  first ones with the flatter edges.

Firstly draw and cut out a spiral, you can draw a circle first if you want and then do the spiral inside but I usually just do a freehand one as I think it makes the flowers more interesting when they are all different.  Adjust the size of the spiral to the size flower you would like.

 Then use your nails to fold over the outer edge of the spiral like this...

 

It should look like this once you are done

Then start winding from the outer end, keeping it quite tight, I usually start with winding it around a thin paintbrush for the first few twists.

Then release it to the tightness that you would like it to be wound and put some glue on the circle at the bottom, I usually use Glossy Accents or a glue gun and then just hold it in place until the glue is dry.

 

Your flower is then finished!

These are the other variation....

So exactly the same as before cut out a spiral but then cut a wavy edge along the outer edges of the spiral.  You could of course just cut the spiral with a wavy edge to start off but that makes the base wavy too and it is then harder to stick down.

It should look like this...

 

Once that is done start winding tightly again from the outer edge.  I usually do it in a bit of a cone shape with the bottom edge being tighter.

Then once again apply glue to the bottom circle and stick down.  I usually use a pair of tweezers to grab the centre and twist it a bit once I have glued it but before it dries to tweak it to exactly how I want it.

To make the wreath I cut out a circle using a plate and a bowl from the kitchen (very technical I know) and then painted it green so that the background could show through the flowers.

 

I then chose some matching ribbon and tied some around the circle, leaving it open at the bottom where I knew I would be putting the chipboard plaque.

 

I then gathered all the elements that I wanted to use together and just laid them out on the wreath until I was happy with the positioning and then just stuck it all down using a hot glue gun.

Of course if you want to make less flowers you could always use some of the beautiful flowers that come with the Noel range like the Cranberry Rose Trim or the Antique Lace Petal which would both look gorgeous on a wreath!

I hope my tutorial was helpful and if you do make your own wreath please leave me a link as I would love to see them! :)

TFL!

Christmas Wreath and Tutorial

One of my latest assignments for Bo Bunny was to make an item of home decor for Christmas.  I decided to make this Christmas wreath which was so fun to make!  I used the totally gorgeous Bo Bunny Noel range which I think works beautifully on this.

There have been a few requests for a tutorial so here goes!  As this will be very long with loads of photos I will do the rose and the leaves today and then will do the other 2 flowers and the wreath in another post tomorrow :)

The first flowers I am going to show you are the roses...

I have seen a few tutorials for these now but the first time I saw them and was inspired to make some was after seeing them on a my friend Gemma'a blog My Simple Life that she learned to make at a crop.

Firstly you need to cut out three 6 petal flowers, I use a Woodware punch but you could just make your own template and use that.  I have a large and a smaller punch so I can make them in 2 different sizes.

Cut the flowers as in the following photo so that you have cut out a 2 petal from 1 flower, 1 petal from another flower and the last flower just has a slit. I normally fold the flowers in half a few times to work out where to cut evenly.

Take the 3 main flowers and glue the 2 edge petals of each one together so you have 3 full flowers in different sizes, a 5 petal, a 4 petal and a 3 petal.  You can peg them while they dry although I use glossy accents and it normally just dries in a few seconds anyway.

I then use a thin paintbrush to curl the edges of each of the petals a bit.

You have 2 options with the base of the 2 bigger flowers, you can either cut a piece away or flatten the bases.  I usually use the back of my hole piercer to flatten them so they will sit nicely.

I usually cut a small piece off the end of the 3 petal flower.

Then take the 2 petals you cut off before, curl the petals and then roll them around something (I used my trusty paintbrush again!) and glue the edges together.

Then take the single petal and roll it (you might have to cut a small piece off the bottom).  Put a blob of glue inside the 2 petal roll and put the 1 petal roll inside.  You will probably need to trim the end of this to fit it neatly in the flower, you just need to test and judge how much to cut off.

Then just start gluing the pieces together with a big blob of glossy accents starting with the biggest at the bottom and moving until you are satisfied that the petals are in the best alignment.

 

 Leaving you with your rose :)

  

 For the leaves I just drew a template on some cardboard and then cut out a whole lot of leaves.  I inked all the edges and then embossed them in my cuttlebug with one of the cut and emboss butterfly folders.

Once they are embossed you can either sand or ink the embossing to enhance it or leave as is.

I then just bent the leaves a bit down the middle to give them a bit more shape and depth.

I hope I have explained everything properly, it is quite hard to put down in words, if anyone has any questions just let me know! :)  I will be back tomorrow with the rest of the tutorial. :)

TFL!