Mothers Day card project - easel box cards with photo space.

I wanted to do something a little different this year for Mothers Day cards for my Mum, and for my Mother in Law, and upon a deal of browsing, I settled on having a go at an easel box card.  I'd seen projects like this on the Crafters Companion website, and a Youtube search gave lots more similar projects to browse.  As ever, resisting making life easier by following tutorials or instructions, I just decided to crack on and have a go myself, and these are the results.  I was pretty happy with them.

I used the Heartfelt Creations Birds and Butterflies collection paper pad (I'm sure that's what it was called?!)for the entire pink box, and for the main image of the blue (remainder of blue was First Edition Up, Up & Away), which made things so much easier.  I LOVE Heartfelt Creations for projects like this, I just adore how the paper pads are full of pages which can be cut into tags, instant scrapbooking pages, etc.  The moment I discovered HC, I have to admit, I may have just gone ahead and purchased nearly a dozen different paper pads of theirs.......but only if my husband isn't reading this ;-)!!!

I constructed the base boxes and drawers out of chipboard, and the easel element just from strong cardstock.  For the handles, I threaded beads onto ribbon, which I then pushed through the front of the drawers and tied as a bow inside.

The easel element lifts for a personalised message inside.

The back panel of the easel doubles as a photo frame, should one wish to use it as such.  The photo can be slipped between the frame and the back image, where it will be framed with the lace.  The frame is secured to the back panel with foam strips on the outer edges of the sides and bottom to leave sufficient space.

I filled the drawers with wrapped sweets!

A fun project offering something a little different!

More crochet projects

So, crochet has really kind of taken over my already sparse craft time at the moment.  I love that it's so easy to pick up and put down again, and just ready to go at a moments notice.  A few of the vaguely diverse bits I've done recently:

A sweater for my daughter.  I am not much of one for following patterns, so I made this one up as I went along.  I've treated myself over the past couple of months to a couple of books of crochet stitches, and whilst having a browse, I chose a stitch and decided to turn it into this jumper.  I decided to do the open weave look only across the 'skirt' of the sweater, and convert to a plain stitch for the bodice and arms, partly because I knew it would be easier to shape and join :)

I'm actually pretty happy with the results, although am the first to admit it's not perfect!

 Easter baskets.  I wanted to do something a little different this Easter for my children and for my sisters children, so instead of getting the usual big chocolate egg (believe me, they got enough of those from other relatives!), I decided to crochet each of them a little basket and fill it with sweeties and smaller chocolate bits.  (This was also particularly useful as my youngest two can't have dairy).  They were so simple and quick to make, but rather sweet and the children loved them.  So, I think, did my sister!

A pair of slippers for myself.  These I have to say were slightly disastrous!  I kind of messed up my DC2tog stitches on the left slipper and ended up doing those stitches about 3 different ways - as can quite clearly be seen in the picture.  BUT, instead of being all professional and unpicking and redoing, I just ran with it :).  After all, they are only for me!  (Oh, and they actually have a nice rounded shape to them, the distortion in the picture is caused by my arthritic toes, rather than the slippers themselves.  Next time, a picture with no feet in, methinks?!!

Ah, my husbands cafetiere warmer.  I was nagged for this for some weeks before succumbing.  Again, no pattern, just playing.  AND mismatched buttons!  Ah, well, never mind.  According to my husband, it works a treat, and that's the goal, right?

So, my recent projects - yet again showing that enthusiasm doesn't always mean flawlessness!! :-)

Crochet animals - turtle and snake!!

My eldest son has a thing for turtles, after being kindly given a handmade turtle whilst undergoing radiotherapy at the UFPTI in Florida.  Shortly after I learned to crochet, he asked me if I could make a companion turtle for his existing friend.  I was completely bowled over - there was nothing better than actually being able to create something by request from one of my children!  We sat down and he chose the yarn he wanted me to use and everything!  I still get fuzzy feelings every time one of them asks me to make them something specific........so, here is my boys' turtle!

 

  

 

Of course, as soon as I'd made the turtle for my eldest, my other son decided he wanted a snake from the same yarn....

Being owned by a (then) 3 year old made the poor snake subject to an awful lot of pulling around, tying up and other general snake cruelty, and as such he's looking a little uneven in the pics below.  His poor innards....!!

These were the first, but they haven't been the last things I've made for the children :)

More paperless projects!

It's amusing, considering it wasn't that long ago that I started this blog, that my crafty outlets have exploded so. In fact, considering the blog title that I'm crazy about papercraft, I'm finding that I'm spending just as much time crocheting (which I only learned to embellish the explosion boxes!), sewing - both by hand and machine (which I only really fully branched into when working on embellishments for the explosion box - although admittedly I didn't use the hand sewn stuff in the final cut), and other miscellaneous stuff (which I've stumbled across in various places, such as Pinterest, when researching ideas for the exploding box!).........so as you can see, that box had a lot to answer for!

Anyhow, my point is, that whatever my original intention, it seems just since Christmas, I suddenly have a lot more to share than just paper.  So, here are a couple of the other bits I've completed of late.

Both outfits here were made for World Book Day dress up at school for my two boys.  The littlest wanted to dress up as the snake from the Gruffalo, so I did the snake outfit, and crocheted a little logpile house for him to carry.  Lovely and easy to make, he loved wearing it, and it allowed him to stand out from all the standard Super hero costumes donned by many of the other kids!

The other outfit below for my eldest, was Count Olaf, from Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Although my son loves the books and they are really all he knows Count Olaf from, I have to admit I generally used the costume idea from the film with Jim Carey.  I made trousers, long tailed coat, waistcoat, and the 'bald head with fringe of grey hair'.  My boy looked ridiculously cute - its to my regret that the couple of photos I took of him didn't do him justice!  He also loved his outfit, and even kept the 'hair' on all day at school!  He has also used the outfit several times since for dress up, including to birthday parties!!!