Post-it note holder.

Hi all, hope you are keeping well and crafting loads?

Today i finished off a little project i have been working on, just a simple post-it note holder, but i wanted to test out a couple of new stamps. I made this for my lovely neighbours, they are two of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet, and i knew they would appreciate this make. The Wheel of the Year on the front shows the eight pagan festivals throught the year...i distress inked it, put a layer of UTEE on it and edged it with gold embossing powder...



I handstitched all the way around it with metalic multicoloured thread, always looks nice against a darker paper background. My neighbours love nature so i added a couple of brass leaf charms on small lengths of chain, and the antique brass srapbooking corner charms added to the nature theme with thier daisy design...

Inside, very basic, but i added another new stamp of mine.....The Green Man....

This is a beautiful stamp, very detailed compared to some of the Green Man stamps around, i got this one from the U.S....ordinarily he would be green of course, but as this was on a dark background i though i'd leave it plain....besides, unlike my girlfriend Maddy, i colour like a drunk chimp, so best leave it be i think...

Popped another leaf charm and chain through the spine....

The whole of the edge of the holder is lined in gold embossing, looks real nice against a dark background. In case you've not made these before, the holder is just a piece of cardstock covered each side with your chosen patterened paper.

I enjoyed making this, not only because it got me out of my crafty dry spell, but i know it is going to a good home where crafty skills are appreciated.

I'm also going to enter these into a challenge, Divas by design "Anything but a card" challenge...thank you to the Divas by Design ladies for the challenge. :)

Till next time...:)

Calv.

Guest designer for Papertake Weekly.

Hi all :)

I haven't made anything too crafty for a while, so i was chuffed to bits when Dawny from Papertake Weekly Challenge asked me to be a guest designer for this weeks Dads and Lads challenge.

I've never been a great one for matching colours and papers, so i just did what i liked, i like to think it turned out ok. I used the Mikey download image from the lovely Karen over at Charmed Cards and Crafts and then kept it simple with some chain and a few layers of paper and card ripped and edged with distress ink pads.....and you'd hardly notice where i got carried away with the Cropadile! :)

Hope you like it, thanks again to Dawny for inviting me to take part in this, it was a pleasure. :) Why not pop over to the blog and see the great makes that her design team have made, and even take part in the challenges yourself? By the way, i did see that Rotty got his snout in the picture too....i thought for a minute he'd been up to mischief, glad to know he hasn't .

By the way, for anyone new to my blog, i don't just talk about bees, trips to hospital and delinquant clay rats, i have on occasion been known to make cards and other papercraft items, proof being here, here and here! :)

Thanks again...

Calv.

My bees are hatching!

As most of you have already read here on my blog, i've been playing host to some solitary bees for the winter, they moved in, made cocoons.....they were even on time with the rent!

Well today i went out and saw that some have hatched and tunneled out of thier nests....



How cool is that?!!! There are about 4 0r 5 in each hole, i'm not sure if they've all emerged yet, i won't disturb them though to look.

So tonight i'll raise a cuppa to them and wish them all the best on thier new journey. It's nice knowing i did my little bit to keep a few more bees around.

I took a video too, a bried one of one of the babies emerging after hatching....heres a link to the Youtube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwyz_9CmJNU

Thanks for looking.....i promise the next post will be about crafting. :)

Calv.

Look what i just bought!

I've been after this for ages, it's been sat in my local antique shop for a while and every time i've passed it i've stared at it like a kid staring at an ice cream! There are so many things i wanted it for, some crafty ideas. maybe some kind of storage, but most of all i envisaged it as a nice addition to my garden.

The lovely lady who owns the shop gave it too me with a big discount, which was much welcome as it was the price that had put me off getting it for ages.

I thought i might put it in part of the garden where it could be used either as a hanging basket for trailing plants, or maybe something for the birds. I love the way the top comes off so i can access it easily for sorting out or cleaning. I think this will look even more lovely when it's weathered a bit.

What do you think?

Calv.