Minimalistic Birthday Card

This is the card that I made for the Charmed Craft Talk member challenge - a minimalistic style card was needed.

I stamped the background paper with a 'writing' background stamp then decoupaged the head & shoulders on the stamp. I used alphabet ribbon & used punches for the happy birthday sentiment.

Also required was decorating the inside a little.

I used my Martha Stewart edge punch for the inside detail and added 2 strips of the gold nail head embellishments on the front to finish.

Hearts and flowers bag

This is the bag that I made for the members challenge over at Charmed Craft Talk, set this time by Carmen - thanks Carmen.

I'd got this bag cut out a while ago but hadn't got any further with it & then Carmen set the challenge! It is made from a not so old sweater that had shrunk in the wash!

The above photo shows a bit of both sides - hearts & bobbles on one side & flowers & buttons on the other.

  

This shows the flowers & buttons side.

The flowers are felt & cut out with my Big Shot using the Build a flower Sizzix die, then sewn onto the bag. The tag is backed with dark pink felt & again cut using the Scalloped tag die from Sizzix.

This shows the hearts side of the bag & the ribbon trim which also helps to shape the bag. I blanket stiched around the handles again in the co-ordinating dark pink wool to match.

This shows the magnetic clasp & also the felt ball that I cut in half & sewed either side of the fastening.

My Nesties Storage book

My Knight in Shining Armour.........

Helped me go from the above

to

This!

My Nesties storage book.

My Knight in Shining Armour is Calv who when he heard of my problem - solved it for me :-) 

I had finally got round to making my Nestibilities storage book & had covered the front & back covers then tried to use my Bind it All. I have an original blue Bind it All & had used official Zutter covers which I assumed (wrongly) would fit into my Bind it All. So I had my covers all ready for their binding but DISASTER!!

The covers wouldn't fit into the Bind it All!!!

After asking fellow crafters I found out that I wasn't alone with the problem & that was why Zutter had brought out the new Pink version of the Bind it All which addressed the problem. Not very helpful for those of us with the original!

So Calv came to the rescue & lent me his Pink (which is now white story here) Bind it All 

& SUCESS!!

I used the Zutter pages in black & then cut

Magnetic photo paper for the interleaves to 'stick' the nestibility dies onto.

I used some brown paper along three sides which overlap the pages as extra insurance when carrying my book around - I'd hate to lose any of my Nesties!!

This shows the book closed.

I used the Zutter Perfect Closure fastener. It has a real leather strap which I left plain but could have coloured.

I embellished the binding with beads ribbons & bits (you may recognise the keys from an earlier post :-)

The buttons were special, sent by a fellow crafter friend & the nail heads are one of my lastest purchases. The letters were cut on my Big Shot, it's the Go Slim alphabet & mounted on matts cut using of course my Nesties :-)

So I can now carry around my Nesties in a nice compact form instead of all the plastic packaging - I'm sure you agree that it looks prettier :-)