MerryMade Crafts etc ...

Thought I would go through my photos of the swaps I have participated during the year and post them for you to see. I will start back in January when we did a Valentine swap at Craftmad . The first card I created the tear bear from thick Mulberry paper then put him in an envelope that I cut from some pink paper. Stamped out the word 'love'. Also paper punched a collection of hearts. The second card - I cut the hearts out using my craftroobo and then added a little bling and chalk. Wording is a rubon.

I did these two cards for the August Swap theme Vellum over at Craftmad Vellum has been sitting in my pile of papers and I don't tend to use it often as I am never sure how to attach it to a card. So this swap was fun to make me figure it out. The first card I used a vellum with a fern print on it and inked the edges of the card, added a premade tag and flowers with a split pin through the centre which holds the vellum on. The second card I attached the vellum with the eyelets across the top and the strip of cuttlebugged board along the bottom. The embossing I brushed over with a metallic chalk. I also used butterflies from Stampin Up Priceless set. Great fun.

This is a collection of tear bears that I made a little while back. These bears are all torn from thick mulberry paper and then edged with chalk. They are so much fun to make and really come alive when their noses and eyes are added.

My Mum gave me these flower images from a UK papercraft magazine that she buys. I love the colours in the flowers and they matched so well with the Stampin Up 'In Colour' board. This made it much easier for me to create these cards. Over time Mum has also passed on sheets of sayings that magazines print from time to time. I have used some on different ocassions but always horizontally and layered on board. Suddenly on Sunday I thought I could use these sayings sideways on a card as a tab. duh! For some reason of always stamped little tabs before. I will now look at all my sheets of sayings in a different light.

I was looking around the web and found this great blog Cuttlebug Challenges . Just what I need to get me using my cuttlebug more. I came in at Challenge no. 6 which is here and these are the cards I created. Heaps of fun.

Almost forgot to post something today. We had power off 7.30pm - 8.30pm due to a storm going over. Funny seeing the kids trying to think of something to do. My addition today is another christmas card. I cut the rosette shape with my craft robo and the present is a stampin up image also stampin up board and paper. With a touch of Cuttlebug as trim.

Some journals I have created for our Christmas Craft Fair here in Cairns on the 30th November at the Fred Moule Pavillion.

Today I thought I would share some more bears. These are bears that I have sewn. My first bear was a present for an online friends first son who was born almost a year ago. This friend then asked for a second so that she could rotate the bears. I thought I might as well make a couple more as they are so much fun to create. Wow, I have so much to learn about this blogging. I have been looking at other blogs and wondering how to get those lovely backgrounds they have. Well I happened upon this site this morning http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/secrets.php Now I need to happen upon some TIME to do a little reading and playing.

I have had a wonderful creating different snowflake designs from my seed bead collection.

I used the snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder along the edge of this card. Also the holly embossing folder. Before embossing I rubbed Certainly Celery stampin spot on one side of the folder and then embossed. Added red glitter to the berries and a wonderful rub-on from Kaiser. With this card sponged some brown ink around all the edges of the card and the topper to give it an older/antique look. Added some pearls to finish it off. Much the same as the card above but different colours. Dug out my craftrobo and cut out the circle and flower cutout for the embellishment. I inked around the circle and then used rub-on letters for the word 'JOY'. I have been busy this morning. A batch of patty cakes and a batch of milo biscuits. Now the kids lunch boxes should be full for a couple of days. In between I have finished off these three cards.

Had fun using my Stampin Up gear for this card. I used cranberry card with the matching cranberry papers. Merry making a mental note here that she should have all the names of items used sitting her ready to be typed in.

I have been checking out other peoples blogs and enjoy looking at the crafts they create. I thought I would share mine. I am really looking forward to sharing what I do. At the moment it is mainly papercrafts - Christmas cards. I created this card for Xmas 2007. I think I will slowly work my way through my favourite cards for the year. Enjoy!