Tag: Crafts

Make Shift is all Go

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts8 Comments

Hi everyone

I am so excited to announce, after several months of hard work, we have finally managed to get a lease signed on a shop in Lower Hutt and Make Shift is now a real shop!.  We open the beginning of next month and we are in a great location with a wonderful shop layout with two workshop areas in the back.  I would like to thank my fellow Collective who helped to make this happen through lots of trials and tribulations.  They have been amazing and deserve to make a success of this venture.   So if you happen to be in Lower Hutt, Wellington make sure that you come and visit us.  The address is 8 Margaret Street, opposite Queensgate Shopping Complex.  We would love to see you there so please spread the word as we would really love to make this a success and a place for local people to sell their handcrafted creations.

I am also excited about getting my Consultants kit from Close to My Heart and my first order.   I am like a kid in a lolly store with so much to choose from lol.  And the papers (especially the Chantilly papers) are so lovely I didn’t want to cut them up to make cards.  But I did manage to steel myself to make the first cut and here is one of the first cards that I have made with my new products.
Chantilly card

Materials used are from CTMH (of course):

Chantilly paper

Chantilly Complements

Pink Glitter Gems

Sparkles Clear Flourish – small

Sentiment from the You are My Happy stamp set

Inks – Desert Sand for distressing and Cotton Candy for the sentiment

Cardstock – Bamboo

The You be Happy stamp set is an exclusive stamp set that is only available for this month and it is great value for only $15 when you spend $75.  This set has a retail value of $77 so it is great value and a good stamp set to get started.

I will be busy making more cards for Make Shift and will look at doing some workshops there for those who are interested in learning how to use these great products to make some amazing cards.  I am planning to do a chocolate themed workshop which should be a lot of fun.  I will keep you posted.

In the meantime I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Die Cutting Using Toilet Tissue

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Crafts, Digital Art, Marianne Craftables, Marianne Creatables16 Comments

Hello everyone.

A warm welcome to all my new followers of my blog.  I hope that I can inspire you to go and create your own masterpieces.  I also enjoy looking at your amazing blogs in return.  I love that we can share and inspire each other.

While I was waiting for Close to My Heart to come to New Zealand my Aunt and I have been doing some experimenting.  We had just had a fashion competition and show using toilet tissue to create beautiful fashion to wear.   My Aunt works in a rest home and the residents were curious about how this would work and so she and I got together to see what art we could create out of toilet tissue.  I would like to credit my Aunt for the idea but we worked together to see what we could do with the tools and materials I already had.

Firstly we used adhesive glue to glue several layers of tissue together and discovered by trial and error that we needed to let it dry overnight.  So we had to make another date to finish off the die cutting.

Some dies cut better than others including the English Rose die from Marianne Creatables.  These were easy to roll up into roses, and in fact they came up really well.  Leaves and the little Memory Box Pippi Butterfly were also really good to die cut.

Here are some photos of us and our handiwork.

Toilet tissue ready to be die cut Diecut flowers from toilet tissue Diecutting toilet tissue My aunt rolling up flowers

 

Here is my Aunt very busy getting all the flowers sorted.  I did all the Cuttlebugging and she did all the rolling up of the roses.  To finish these she bought small canvases to put the die cut ovals on and then she was going to get the residents to help choose which flowers and embellishments they want to make a little wall hanging for their rooms.  She has based this on some cards that I have done and I will include a link at the bottom to give you an indication of what these may look like.

The dies I have used are:

Marianne Creatables LR0107 Flowers and leaf

Marianne Creatables LR0162 English Rose

Marianne Creatables LR0151 Branch

Marianne Creatables LR0206 Ivy

Marianne Craftables CR1205 Butterfly

Marianne Craftables CR1204

Memory Box Pippi Butterfly

I will try to get some pictures once the residents have done their artwork.  I am really looking forward to seeing what they look like as the toilet tissue was challenging to work with, but in some ways the tissue was easier to manipulate into a nice shape.

Have a great day and Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

 

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The Final Countdown to Close to My Heart New Zealand

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Greetings, Scrapbooking3 Comments

Hello

I would like to welcome all my new followers to my blog and I hope that you enjoy coming on my creative journey with me.  I would also like to thank those who take the time to read my posts and also leave comments as well.  I really appreciate the feed back that I am getting.

I was very excited to receive an email this morning from Close to My Heart informing me that we are very close to the launch in New Zealand – the first week in September to be precise.  I can’t wait to start and am starting to de-stash in order to have space and money for my new CTMH products.  The Cricut cartridges look so awesome and I am very impressed with the cards and scrapbook layouts that are coming through from the Australian consultants.

In the meantime I have been doing some scrapbooking and cards.  I am getting through my son’s album and I am now up to his 3rd birthday.  I have used the It’s a Boy stack pack to complete his second year and I am waiting for the cricut cartridges to make some titles to complete them and then I will post a few pictures on here.  I love the colours of this stack pack and they went very well with the photos of James.  I am looking at doing his next album using the Pro-player WOTG kit.  The colours are great and I love the coordinating stamps and shapes that go with it.  It is more appropriate for an older boy as well.

I have also made some more cards for Make Shift.  I haven’t done many get well cards so I have made these using up some of my stash and am pleased how they have turned out.  I am a little disappointed in my Chloe die from Memory Box though.  The cut shape doesn’t seem to pop out quite as easily as my other dies.  I will keep persevering with it and see how it goes.  Anyway, here are the cards:

Get well card - love this combination of yellow and red Love the combination of red, grey and yellow Love this combination of yellow, white and dots Red and white simplicityMaterials used are:

Fiskars flower punch

Memory Box die – Chloe

Cuttlebug embossing folder – Swiss dots

Stampendous Get Well Stamp

Kaisercraft greeting stamp

Red and Yellow scrap cardstock

Stampin’Up ink – Real Red

Bling from the local $2 store

Marianne Creatables flower and leaf set – sorry I seemed to have mislaid the name of this die.

Coloured paper from my stash

I am pleased with the colour combinations and the simplicity of these cards and I hope that you like them too.

Have a good weekend everyone and Happy Crafting.

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Special cards for the budding ballerina

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Children, Crafts, Creative Memories, Greetings, Scrapbooking2 Comments

Welcome back.

I have been busy going through all my stash and found these gorgeous papers that I bought years ago when I first starting scrapbooking.  They are from K & Company and the pack is called Hopscotch.  I have no idea if they are still available, but the papers make beautiful cards.  I have already done a couple of layouts of my ballet forms from many years ago and will perhaps keep a couple of papers for layouts for my daughter for when she did ballet.  I managed to match up the colours with various cardstock that I had already and I am really pleased with how they turned out.  For most of these cards I have distressed the edges and that has helped with making the different papers stand out more from the backgrounds.  The little pictures of flowers, butterflies and tutus have been fussy cut out from the paper.  These cards have been easy as the paper and colour coordination was made easy by using the same range of papers.

I am sure these will go down a treat at Make Shift.

Here they are:

Ballet card Ballet card Ballet card Ballet card Ballet card Ballet cardMaterials used for these cards:

K & Company Hopscotch 12 x 12 pad

Creative Memories Cardstock – Pink Shimmer

Bazzill Cardstock – Bling (sorry not sure of the name)

Peelcraft stickers

Kaisercraft pink pearls

Stampin‘Up greeting

Versamark stamp pad

Gold embossing powder

Creative Memories Place-n-Punch – Blossom

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – circles.

Tim Holtz Distressing Ink – Victorian Velvet

I am really excited to be going to Auckland tomorrow to find out more about Close to My Heart and also get my hands on some of the products.  I can’t wait to join up and start having workshops at Make Shift.

I hope you all keep well and safe and Happy Crafting

Patricia

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Cool cards for those difficult to please teenagers

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Creative Memories, Greetings, Photography2 Comments

Hello there.

Welcome to all my new followers and thank you to all those that visit and take the time to comment and like my posts.  I really appreciate the feedback.

I am back to showing some of my cards that will be available at Make Shift when we open.  I don’t know about you but sometimes I find it very difficult to make cards for teenage girls who are not into the flowers or butterflies or all things girly.  So when I was in the local $2 shop I found these really cool layered stickers for these cards.  I have made use of my CM border maker to make some borders as a contrast so the cards are quite edgy and not soft or feminine at all.  I think the contrast between the deep pink and black is kind of cool as well.  Anyway, here they are:

Cool chick handcrafted card Pink and black handcrafted card Pink and black handcrafted card for teenagers Disco ball handcrafted card Rock chick handcrafted card

 

The materials I have used are:

Bazzill card stock

Plain black cardstock

Creative Memories Border Maker – hexagon and banner cartridges

Peelcraft stickers

Stampin‘Up greeting stamps

Couture Creations Drink Me embossing folder

I am really looking forward to going to Auckland in a couple of weeks to check out the launch of Close to My Heart in New Zealand.  I am drooling over the cartridges for the Cricut machine and am scouring Trade Me for some bargains.  I like using my Cuttlebug, but it will be nice to have an accurate cut each time and be able to layer the images and stamps together.  It should add a whole new dimension to my crafting.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and I will catch up soon with some more cards and/or photographs.

Happy crafting

Patricia

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Join the Make Shift Journey

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Crafts8 Comments

Hello there.

I am so excited about sharing this new venture with you.  I am part of a Collective of talented and dare I say it crazy craft people who will be opening a pop up shop in the Lower Hutt CBD.  This is part of a Hutt City Council initiative to revitalise the CBD and they have been fantastic in their support with this venture – Thanks Cyndi Christensen.

Please check out our Facebook page and like us to follow our journey to opening the shop and beyond.

https://www.facebook.com/MakeShiftShop/posts/345234165604842?notif_t=like

There will be a wide range of products for sale and we are starting to advertise on Facebook for craftspeople to sell their products through the shop.  The interest so far on our Facebook page has been phenomenal.  We are still working through the Terms and Conditions and the application form but they are not far away and will be posted on our Facebook  page.

I am still really busy making cards for Make Shift and have really struggled to make cards for young children.  There are not a lot of cute and funky stamps for children so I popped down to the local $2 shop and bought some stickers that I thought were suitable.  I have also used bright primary colours together for a striking effect.  I am particularly pleased with how the circus cards turned out.

Here they are:

Child's birthday card Child's birthday card Child's birthday card Child's birthday card Child's birthday card Child's birthday card Child's bithday card Handcrafted card Handcrafted card Handcrafted card Handcrafted card

 

I have used a range of products here:

Cardstock -some Bazzill and some Stampin‘Up and some I had in my scrap drawer.

Stampin’Up stamps and inks

Hastings Rubber Stamp greeting

Creative Memories Shape Maker System – jigsaw

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – circles

Creative Memories Rotary Trimmer

Creative Memories Tape Runner (this is only while my stocks last)

Circus and car stickers.

Thank you for visiting and come back often as I will keep you posted on our progress with Make Shift.

Have a great day and Keep Crafting

Patricia

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I found the Easter Bunny!

On By patriciamanhireIn Art, Cardmaking, Crafts, Creative Memories, Digital Art, Easter, Greetings, Holidays, Photography5 Comments

Today I went out to take some photos down at the Hutt River and came across an errant bunny in the bushes around the bridge.  I managed to get one photo of it before it disappeared.  I thought the timing was quite timely especially as we have just had Easter in the weekend.  However, I could not find any Easter eggs – lol!

The Easter Bunny

While on Easter I have just purchased the Creative Memories Border Maker rustic fence cartridge and I could not resist making one last Easter card with it.  I can see myself using this cartridge a lot – and distressing it with inks as well.  This would look lovely with flowers and leaves climbing up on it on a card.  This cartridge is while stocks last only.

It seems strange to put a cute lamb on an Easter card in the southern hemisphere as Easter is a sign of Autumn for us with the changing colours of leaves and cooler temperatures (?), but it is a sign of rebirth that is universal.  I also love using the Classic Stickers from Creative Memories they are so colourful and pretty. Plus they are reasonably priced.

Easter card

 

The sentiment on this card was last weeks freebie from Creative Memories that I printed off from my StoryBook Creator, as well as the background paper.

Materials used in this card:

Creative Memories Cardstock – Green Apple

Creative Memories Stickers – Easter

Creative Memories Border Maker – rustic fence cartridge

Creative Memories Reflections Digital Kit

Creative Memories freebie sentiment

I hope that you all had a great Easter.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

More rugged baby boy

On By patriciamanhireIn Crafts, Creative Memories, Scrapbooking4 Comments

While the weather has turned to rain (much needed to break our drought thank goodness!  We have a total water ban on at the moment.) I have completed another couple of pages for my son’s scrapbook album.  This time I have kept the pages simple and used a white page for the background.  I love the combination of the border maker picket fence and twinkle chain cartridges and was really pleased with the combination of the yellow and the blue.  The blue complemented the clothes we are wearing in the photos and the yellow helped to highlight as well as James was wrapped in a yellow blanket.  I use colour a lot when I am scrapbooking as I find that the right colour behind the photo really highlights the photo.  I also like to keep embellishments to a minimum as well so as not to overpower the photograph and journalling. These photos are rather special as James was my grandmother’s only great grandchild and died when he was about 18 months old.  So it is lovely to have the whole family in the photo.Rugged Baby Boy scrapbook page Rugged Baby Boy Scrapbook pageMaterials used:

Creative Memories Rugged Baby Boy Additions

Creative Memories Cardstock – Cloud

Creative Memories Cardstock – Yellow

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System- round cutters

Creative Memories Border Maker – Picket Fence and Twinkle Chain cartridges

Creative Memories Rugged Paper tags

Happy scrapping

Patricia

 

 

Easter Greetings

On By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Crafts, Creative Memories, Digital ArtLeave a comment

Hello

In between going out with my camera I have been busy doing more Easter cards to sell at a local wool shop.  I have used mainly the Creative Memories products, but my Cuttlebug and embossing folders have come in handy to provide a textural effect.  I have a list of all the products used after the images.

Here are my cards:

Easter Card Easter Card Easter Card Easter Card Easter Card

Materials used:

Creative Memories Cardstock – Apple Green

Creative Memories Cardstock – Cloud

Creative Memories Cardstock – Yellow

Creative Memories Classic Easter Stickers

Creative Memories  Absolutely Fabulous scrap patterned papers

Creative Memories Reminisce paper flowers

Creative Memories Epoxy Stickers PS I Love You

Creative Memories Rotary Trimmer – straight, zigzag and scallop blades

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – ovals

Creative Memories Border Maker – Twinkle Chain cartridge and Picket Fence Border

Creative Memories downloaded freebies embellishments

Creative Memories – Reflections paper that I have printed from my StoryBook Creator 4.0

Cuttlebug embossing folders – Swiss Dots, Elegant Frame, Combo Welcome Baby

Easter Stamp – Effie Glitzfinger St Louis Design – I have had this stamp many years.

My Favourite Things Die-namics – Fancy Flourish

Please feel free to contact me if there are any questions about any of my creations.

I hope everyone has a great Easter.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

Pink and Black Music Digital Layout

On By patriciamanhireIn Digital Art3 Comments

Welcome back.

I am still working on the digital chic theme and this time I have used music as my theme.  I love the combination of pink and black and I have put in my own flower photos.  All the embellishments on this layout is free including the background paper from http://freevintagedigistamps.blogspot.co.uk.  There are lovely vintage papers and ephemera on this site and free to download.

Digital music layout

Have a good day and Happy Scrapping.

Patricia