KaiserCraft Dress-Up Dolls

Some time ago I received these in the post... I have to be honest and tell you that I felt tempted to light the fire with them!! Well, not quite, but I did wonder what on earth I was going to do with them! These Dress -Up dolls were the 'surprise' in store for all of the people who made it to the 100 point mark after round 8 of the Kiwiana Competition over at the Scrapbook Outlet.
It was my job, as a design team member to provide an example...ARRrrrgh
Much to my total amazement, once I began decorating my dolls my whole attitude towards them changed! I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and it took me back a year...or thirty... to the days when I was a girl who liked nothing more than to dress up her many dolls.
Here is my finished resulting pen/pencil holders....


Andrew laughed when he saw this one, and said she looked just like the little cartoon girl from the original KFC advert! (That makes Andrew pretty old as well, that advertisement goes back to the days when I used to enjoy dressing up my barbie dolls!)

I hand sewed tiny buttons onto my 'boys' shirt and made his belt from ribbon.

...he looks a little started!

Faux stitches worked quite well on the paper clothes

I used scraps of Echo Park paper that were left over from my August SBO kit

This is mum, can you tell by the apron?

To add dimension I backed parts of the clothing with cardboard, fiddly but fun!

Here is dad, looking rather flamboyant in his floral shirt!

...and ribbon tie!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the ladies create with their dolls. You can see what the other design team members come up with over at the SBO gallery. There are some very clever takes on this challenge.

Thanks for looking.

Hope you have all have a great weekend. I have been super busy in my garden, quite a change to be out of my craft room!

Cup Cake anyone?

Take one Christmas bubble....remove the hanger and cut a slot....

...and vol la....one cup-cake!

this was one of the projects I completed with the goodie's I received from Megan this month.
Find out how to get Megan's Premium Scrap-pack HERE

Hand made Fan

Megan, from Better Scrapbooking has made a wonderful job of putting our fan pieces together.

Thanks to everyone who made a fan blade!

Anniversary and... storage.

Today was the anniversary of Andrew breaking his neck... Five years ago our whole life changed big time! We didn't celebrate today, in fact we tried not to dwell on this anniversary at all!!!

Tomorrow we head to Burwood hospital for a week, funny that this visit should fall so close to that dreadful day five years ago.

On to brighter things now...

Here is my entry for week 4 at Crafty Tarts. This was a tough one, we had to create an inspired storage idea. At first I thought this was going to be so simple as I have my ribbon holder that I had made from a handy towel holder...but alas, I could not use that as I had already posted it onto my blog. Hmmmm... after lots of thought and coming up with blanks I had a poke around my room to see what needed a better storage space. Look what I found!!...

this great tangled mess!!

My embroidery threads and laces really DO need a new home!

After poking in corners and under beds I found this treasure of a box that I always knew would be handy for something one day!

The only problem was ..what, and how was I going to go about transforming this old gift box!!First up I drilled sawed and dremmeled

Then I painted and sanded and ...

painted some more.

Next I sawed...

... hammered, glued...

threaded, typed

cut and stamped, glued some more...hammered some more ...until...

FOL LA!!! ... Look at my threads and laces now...all neat and tidy and mounted on my wall , just waiting for me to reach in and start creating!

I still have a little detangling to do, but I'm getting there!
Thanks again Crafty Tarts!!!

Check out the other wonderful storage ideas here, I am going to borrow some of these ideas myself!

Paper Machie Mask

Here is something a little different I created recently for a swap over at Glamour Girl Stamps.

A paper machie mask... I found a recipe HERE ...

then got to work, and what alot of work it was!! This was one piece of 'art' that I could not rush! After plastering layers of machie over an old dolls face I sat my 'face' very very close to the fire, hoping to fast forward the drying process.
At the beginning of drying day two Cody's hypo pup decided it looked tasty, good enough to eat in fact!! I had to reconstruct one whole side of my mask - and, begin the drying process all over again!

After almost a week I covered my dry mask with glue and sand (the sand covered imperfections a little bit)

I applied three layers of paint, dried the whole thing some more, then at last I was up to the fun part... decorating

Here is my finished mask, its not wonderful, but I did enjoy the decorating process!

Here is the mask I was lucky enough to receive from the very talented Ngaere

Have a browse through the gallery at Glamourgirls to see more masks created for this swap, and lots of other wonderful works of art!

Ribbon Fairys

Take a wee look at a Ribbon Fairy I made for a swap at Glamour Girl Stamps recently

These really are such fun to make and very simple

Find out how to make your own Ribbon Fairy at TenTwoStudios

I have my name down to make more for a swap at Better Scrapbooking. For anyone keen to take part in the swap you have until Wednesday this week to add your name to the list... found HERE

Over at Scrapbook Studio our WINTER WARMER Competition is 'heating up' still plenty of time to join in, the first challenge is under way and all that is required is one single page LO that use's three or more photos. You have until Thursday evening to get your entry emailed to me.Carol is busy organising Challenge 2 details for this will be posted on the BOARD this Friday

Altered Angel Puzzle

Some time ago I took part in a swap with the girls from Glamour Girl Stamps. Ten of us took part so we each purchased a large blank puzzle and sent one of our puzzle pieces off to each of the other nine ladies. We chose a theme and colour scheme for our own puzzle then sat back and waited for each piece to arrive back home.... looking gorgeous!
It was fun to slowly piece my puzzle back together again. I love the end result here it is.....

I stuck each piece to a canvas, which I have painted very brightly and my puzzle now adds so much fun to my wall. Check out the gallery at Glamourgirlstamps to see more puzzles and work created from swaps. Feel free to join up and play along!

Don't forget to keep a close eye on this spot at Scrapbook Studios as well....somethings brewing there!!

Challenges and Angels

Today I had a bit of a catchup day and set about making the charms for a swap over at Glamourgirls. They are not finished yet, but well on their way.
Tomorrow Aimee, Camden, Andrew and I are off to Dunedin for the day, mostly because Aimee wants to go!! We will have a catch up with Andrews brother and his family and no doubt have lunch in the mall and I will pop into the odd shop here and there I'm sure!
Alas the Scrapbook shop in Dunedin has closed, very sad for me! I used to Love getting in there!No doubt it will be kinder on the purse though.

Just in case you have missed it , here is this months Sketch at Scrapbook Studios. You have until the end of the month to create a page biased on Lianne's Sketch...
Click HERE to see the page Lianne has created biased on her sketch and click HERE for details on the close off date and prize.

Almost forgot...here is the Handmade item I sent to Renate. Its an angel, of sorts, made from a microscope slide, wire, solder and metal. I was a little worried it may not have made it all the way to Germany in one piece, but Renate assures me it did. Thank you to the posties!!

March Madness

My last post showed you the beautiful journal that Amanda so very kindly made for me.

The latest swap I have completed was March Madness at Glamourgirl Stamps. I got to make, and send something to my dear friend Robyn. Now I loved Amanda's journal so much that I have 'lifted' her wonderful idea and made a similar journal for my wonderful friend.

Although mine is not up to Amanda's standard I thought I would share it with you anyway.

The picture on the front cover was called 'Bath Time', and it makes me smile every time I look at it, so I thought it might just make my dear friend smile to!

Amanda, I loved your idea of the matching card ... so ... I lifted that idea as well! Do hope you don't mind??!

Here is a photo of the inside back cover, it has a pocket with two blank tags.

The photo comes from a photo disc I brought here it's CD #3 and also contains the 'bath time ' image and many other very neat images.

Now just for you Renate, and Wolfgang I am going to pop 'I'm Yours' back onto my blog!! I am missing my old song already also!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy weekend

Another Calendar

I have one more calender to share with you, its pretty much the same as the last two I made, only with a different front!

Origami Fun

Yesterday, as well as making my card for Card Patterns, well cards, (I was not happy with the first few attempts). I had a go at a bit of origami and made this bookmark.

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Thought it looked like a fun idea when I spotted it on a very cool blog called 'How about Orange'

Check it out for your self right HERE.

Another project completed!

I have finished Aimee's calendar and already one month has turned over!!

Aimee choose the paper and the photo for this one. I must add that I found it quite a challenge to do a beach theme on the dotty paper! I haven't really been successful either!

Here's a few close up of the embellishments I have added, the vine is a rub on.

I love stamps and seldom tackle a project without having at least one stamp close at hand! For this project I used four of them.

Thought I would add a memo pad to this calendar, for Aimee to jot down little memories on, and it was another excuse to have a play with my somewhat unused Zutter. If any of you are thinking of buying a Zutter I would say - Go for it, it is so surprisingly simple to use, even for someone as untrained as me!!

The little memo pad can be swung easily to the inside, apart from the coil you would not know it was even there! Here is the whole photo that hides under the cover.

Fingers crossed this will pass Aimee's inspection tomorrow!

Calender

Here are a few peeks at the Calender I made for Karen

You can see the whole thing at Scrapbook Studio , but no peeking from you yet Karen, as it is still in the post!
My daughter liked it so much that she has put in an order for one to take back to the hostel with her on Sunday! So I will get to use my Zutter again- that will be the second time I have used it since I brought it (about a year ago). Go me!! I am on a roll.

Here are a few peeks at the calender I made on Sunday.