Pajama Party! - Kraft art folk Happy Days card

Welcome to the First Waltzingmouse Pyjama Party! 

It's a late night (UK!) blog party which replaces the Blog party/Blog waltz. I'll be honest, I'll miss the old format on the 17th, but I do welcome the broader range of the new challenge, as some months I was really struggling to find a way to play along, sometimes meaning I just wasn't able to, but the new format means that will be much less likely.

Personally I'm not a night owl, so will probably be one of the last to link up my cards, but hey ho!

I chose to do the In The Background challenge, and stamp one of the small Fold Art Medallion images.

Here is the card I made for a friend who is starting a new phase in her career and I wanted to let her know that bright days are ahead. I think Folk Art Medallions is one of my new favourite stamp sets from Waltzingmouse, and it's SO versatile. I stamped up the background super quick using Walnut Stain distress ink and it was straight forward using a grid acrylic block. I actually stamped straight onto the kraft card base. I then stamped the Folk Art Labels 25 onto some cream cardstock using more walnut stain and the sponged all the edges. The sentiment is from an old set of Banana Frog stamps, but they are now discontinued. A lovely chocolate brown ribbon edged in gold finished off this card.
I hope you like it, do check out the other cards over on the Waltzingmouse blog.

W Week Fun

So this week was the first of the Summer holidays, and as it was the first time since EJ was born that I would have both boys 24/7, 7 days a week I decided I needed to get organised!

You see when Joey was in Preschool every other day I didn't mind him watching TV and doing as he pleased in the afternoons he was with me at home, especially since we were out in the mornings at play groups. Unfortunately play groups finish over summer, and so does Pre-school, so I didn't want him just wasting the summer away and us not doing anything other than watch Disney films and build a bit of Duplo! 

I also have a slight ulterior motive that I'm trying to get him more in to craft and baking, but shhush, don't tell anyone!

So I remembered reading, a long time ago, a blog written by a mum who home schooled her kids, and she went through the letters of the alphabet week by week and explored all the different things beginning with that letter. I remember thinking it was a great way of getting some structure, but allowing you to be flexible with what you choose to do.

I put all 26 letters of the alphabet in a hat and let Joey choose one...he chose W!

My mind went into over drive. What could we do?

I listed all the things I could think of beginning with W, and as, after all, it is the holidays, all the possible films we could watch beginning with W! (I eventually expanded this to include any film with a W character, as we only had Wall-e!)

I printed pictures of animals beginning with W, characters we like (Winnie the Pooh, Woody,Wendy,Wall-e, Wallace etc). We coloured some in.

We made Winnie the Pooh shaped cookies (with walnuts and white chocolate!), we went for a walk, went to see a windmill. Ate new W foods: Watermelon (didn't like), Waggon Wheels (didn't like!) and Waffles (unsuprisingly he liked these!).

But my favourite thing for this week was making a Whale (with a snail on its tail of course! Thanks Julia Donaldson!)

I'll be honest. 90% of the whale is my work. He stuck about 4 pieces of paper on before he'd had enough, and I had to plead with him to even paint it (but he was pretty good at the in the end!), but he absolutely loves it now its finished!

Here's a picture tutorial to how I made it!

We started with a ballon and some scrap paper which was shaped like the tail. We added paper using a 50/50 PVA and water mix. We then painted him (the last photo shows it stood in a jug to help stabilise it whilst we painted, otherwise it would have meant paint everywhere!). The blue paint is normal poster paint mixed 50/50 with PVA glue to make it more lasting, but the white paint is acrylic, as I was worried it would go muddy if I used poster paint. I used a Sharpie to add the final details

Here he is, proud as punch, and I'm sure he'll be telling everyone he made it!

He's already asked if next week can be W week too!

Fantastic Ribbon Design Team Wonderful Washi objects!

This month the Fantastic Ribbon Design Team have been using Washi tape around the home. 

I know for me I love to see inspirational and aspirational projects, some of which are complex and time consuming. I also like to browse Pinterest and see things I think I could definitely have a go at quite quickly and easily. This month I have gone for the latter! I have made 2 picture frames for gifts and used washi tape in two different ways, one on the inside of the glass, and one on the frame, but both are super quick and super easy!

The first frame I was making was for my sons nursery teacher as he left last week. I started off with a basic black picture frame (I picked it up from The Range for a few pounds)

 Very simply I wrapped some washi tape over two sides and secured at the back.

To finish it off I used my Silhouette to cut out the words and date in some coordinating colours.

I rarely use mirror board. but for this space themed frame I thought it worked well.

The picture in the frame was only temporary so the teacher could put her class photo in the frame!

The next gift was for a very good friend who was moving jobs, and I wanted to give her one of my favourite photos of the two of us. Again a basic frame, this time with a larger mount inside.

This time I simply removed the mount board and wrapped the washi tape around the top and bottom of the board and secured at the back.

A small embellishment which says Friends Always made from Waltzingmouse Country Labels 4 stamp and cut with a Spellbinders Label 4 die is all that I added to this.

I hope you like the way I transformed two plain frames and made them into something truly gift worthy!

The Washi tape I used was Green with Clear dots and can be bought over at Fantastic Ribbons here.

To see more household projects from other team members just visit the blog.

Pretty Banner Card

Here is the card I made for my beautiful niece who was 1 a few weeks ago. This card is almost entirely made on my silhouette.

First I cut a number 1 from pink card and embossed it with cuttlebug Swiss dots. I also cut a coordinating white number 1 to layer onto. I also cut little banner triangles from white card, and some patterned paper I got in a magazine last year, each one with a letter of her name. 

I placed some pink card behind the letter banners to make them stand out. Each little banner is attached to some twine so it falls like a real banner.