Tickle my fancy

Have I mentioned once or twice (or a thousand) times before how much I love Pinterest? So much inspiration to be found :-)

Like this amazing feather tutorial for example. I could NOT WAIT to make my own feathers thanks to this! And here's my first attempt....

Yes, maybe a little time consuming, but totally worth it I reckon! I gave this card out for a wedding... (are feathers wedding material? hhhhmmmmm..... not sure.... but I did it anyway) I did add glitter so I think that counts for something surely?

I got the most amazing scrappy new today... will share as soon as I can ;-) But that's why I'm in the mood for celebrations and congratulations!

Now She's 5

It's birthday season around here - first Munchy, now me (tomorrow..... and it's a big one.... shhhhh!!!) and then Moodles in another week or so.

This was one of those layouts that I had been imagining in my head for the longest time and then when it actually came to translating it to paper it just.... well...... didn't!! *LOL*

Oh well! The birthday essence is still there - with the colourful flags and ephemera and misting/splattering fun. And the idea of capturing a moment in time is still there. I did a mini-interview with Munchy about all her favourite things right at the moment and tried to include as many of them as possible in my journaling.

I even had the courage to let her write her own name up in the corner on my almost finished layout. It went a bit crooked hey? But adds to the charm I think :-)

So there's a few birthday celebrations going on around here and I might not have a chance to get near the computer for a few days for which I apologise in advance. But don't worry because I've been scrapping up a storm lately and have quite the backlog of projects to share when I get back!

A Note For You

1. Create a messy but really fun background using shimmer sprays with the technique that I shared here. Makes a lovely watercolour effect. And don't forget to splash some extra droplets on for even more interest.

2. Emboss background with a fabulous sunrays effect because that just equals happiness in my opinion :-)

3. Punch and piece and sticker and stamp and glue a bunch of cute little embellishments to make a pretty little card.

4. Enter it into the Moxie Fab World Stamping with Shimmer Sprays challenge before giving it away to a friend. 

Advent Calendar

I figured my girls (well, at least Munchy) are old enough to have their first advent calendar this year.

I admit on first glance this looks complicated. But trust me when I say it's not! I whipped most of this up while sitting in front of the TV (trying to resemble being half-way social!)

As you can see, it's merely a collection of matchboxes covered with pretty paper (all from the Jovial collection by Basic Grey) which means despite the fact we have an electric stove, we now have 500 matches to burn...... with no matchbox in sight!

A mix and match of numbers (great way to use up all those left-over numbers by the way!!)
The red ones are by Basic Grey.
The green ones are Pink Paislee (and currently on sale at HBS).
The white ones are Thickers.
The black ones are October Afternoon.
The pale blue ones are Cosmo Cricket.

Most of the embellishments are fussy-cut from the Jovial papers, but there's also some Green Tara flowers, Prima lace, buttons, May Arts ribbon, and a Fancy Pants transparency for the star on top.

They're all mounted onto a plain canvas which I zazzed up with a bit of spray-paint and Tattered Angels glimmer-screens.

Now I've just got to work out what to put in each one!! Any ideas? Obviously something like M&M's would be perfect. I'm just wondering if perhaps it should be something more meaningful? But that's where I don't actually have any ideas!!!

(and while we're kinda on the subject, Suzanne is having 30% off all Glimmermist and Glimmer Glaze this week only)

Secret Santa Swap?

I know it's only the middle of November and some might say that was too early to be sharing Christmas projects.... but hey, I've already shown you my first card so I might as well take the plunge and share my first Christmas layout too.

Plus, I've got an idea for a Secret Santa Swap which you may be interested in. I'll share at the end.

I was a very lucky girl to receive the most gorgeous package filled with Basic Grey Jovial products from Handmade by Suzanne this month. And lucky for me that I also happened to have these left over Christmas photos from last year which I hadn't yet scrapped which matched the collection perfectly!

Apart from the kraft cardstock all the papers, alphas and brads are from Jovial. And I paired it with those delightful Maya Road doily transparencies which are just the best! Of course, I couldn't help but add lots of glitter too :-)

And here you can see how I've used the same technique to 'burn' the edges of my card that I shared in the post. I used my Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze in 'Cowboy' and dribbled it around the edge.  I also splashed it around a bit to add some more detail to my background too.

Earlier today I was exchanging emails with one of my friends I've met in blog-land and we ended up arranging a kind-of Christmas present exchange program between ourselves. Living in different countries means we both have access to different products that we've been admiring on each other's blogs etc.

So then I thought, why limit it just to ourselves? Here's my idea......

You have between now and December 3rd to email me on nat@elphie.com if you're interested in taking part. I'll collect names and addresses and match you up with someone randomly (or not so randomly if you suggest to me that you would only like to be matched with someone from your own country if possible)

After December 3rd I'll email you back with the name and address of the person you've been matched to, and then you'll get to put together a little scrappy present for them and mail it off as quick as you can so it gets to them in time for Christmas!! What do you think? Sound like fun?

To make it fair on everyone, and to limit our postage costs I would suggest we only send a package no bigger than an A4 (8.5 x 11inch) envelope or something similar. And feel free to fill it with unused/open/second-hand goodies if you think someone else could use them, but some new things might be nice too. It will all be kept anonymous unless you elect otherwise.

Any questions? You can ask in your email, or just leave a comment on this post. I'll update this if things aren't clear enough.

Inspired by..

Putu Princess Escapes, which is the Etsy shop we're drawing inspiration from in the Etsy Inspired Challenge this week.

I made this Christmas card:

Using some of the lovely Jovial collection papers from Basic Grey. The reindeer is cut from one of the papers called 'Nordic' which was my absolute favourite from the collection and I begged Suzanne to include it in my DT kit this month!

All the other details on this card were created using stuff from the HBS shop too. It's a Green Tara flower, Prima lace, and a small brad from the Jovial collection. And have you heard much about the Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze? I hadn't. But I received some in my kit and so I had a grand-old-time with it. It's pretty cool. It comes in a little bottle with a built in brush. It looks (and smells!) a lot like nail polish. It's quite a thin consistency and has more of a subtle shimmer to it and of course comes in a range of beautiful colours. I used my 'Cowboy' Glimmer Glaze around the edges of my paper to give it a faux-burnt look :-)

Oh, and did I forget to mention that I was using this shirt from the Etsy shop as my inspiration? Mainly the colours really!