Elijah Rainbow Banner

In preparation for the Cake Smash photos I wanted to make some props, and really liked the idea of a name banner. As I had planned a rainbow cake, a rainbow banner was obviously appropriate.

I used my Silhouette to cut the banner shapes, which made it super easy, and I cut each of the letters of his name out too. I then stamped onto each white banner with the coordinating colours, and used square, circle and star stamps.

Here's a close up...

And here's how the finished banner looks :)

Candle Stamping Part 2

If you haven't already, you have a little time left to enter this weeks candy here.


Earlier this year I saw a great idea of stamping candles for presents, you can take a look at my first attempt and also a tutorial here.
I have made a few recently and thought I'd share them!

The first one was for a friend who's my age, and I used some of my new Minds Eye stamps Bloom and Grow stamps. They're a lovely selection of leaves, flowers, birds and sentiments. I started by stamping all the images I wanted to have on the candle onto tissue in Forest Moss distress inks. Here they are all laid out ready to attach.

Next is the finished candle, with its matching tag.

And finally it all wrapped up. I think the tag was a little big for the size of the candle perhaps!

Next was a present for my friends daughter who was turning 16. I wanted this to be a little bit trendy, and wanted her name on it. I used a whole variety of stamps for this, so there are Waltzingmouse polka dots around the top and bottom (Offbeat backgrounds), a Banana frog frame for the name plate (can't remember which set!) and then just some cheapie alphabet stamps for the name.

The name plate is being held on either side by a Kirsty Wiseman Lila Bug, and the hearts are from a freebie set I got with a magazine. I think it looks good in black ink, more trendy!

 At the back I have indulged and put a little Stampendous bee!

Finally is a little candle I made for myself. Its very simple, but I wanted it for Christmas. The sentiment is from Papermania Christmas sentiments A Silent Night. The lovely vine like top and bottom are from the Minds Eye Bloom and Grow set. This was very quick to make as I kept it simple, and would make a lovely advent gift for a friend.

Why not try some candle stamping with your favourite stamps this Christmas, you can even make coordinating packaging and cards!

Paper roses

I have seen a few times recently people making their own rose embellishments and thought it was something I'd like to have a go at. As far as my 'style' goes, I'm not very flowery, so I haven't really had a need for any roses, but I'm planning to make a few thank you cards and thought they would work well. I started by drawing a circle on a piece of paper (I drew around a tape roll!) and then cut out. I then cut into the circle in a spiral pattern. I have drawn what it would look like, but I just do it free hand with my scissors. It doesn't have to be neat, it probably makes it a better if its a bit uneven!

You then start from the edge and roll in until you have rolled the whole thing, you loosen off the rose towards the end and then stick the whole thing onto the little circular tab you have left at the end.

I started off using some raffia effect paper, and when my hubby got home he said "did you use book paper for that?".

 Now he wears glasses, but I'm not sure why he thought it was book paper, but it did make me think what a good idea it was. So I made a few of those too! In fact, when you get started you can't stop! I have loads now!

Union Jack bunting template

Well here in the UK we've had an extremely long weekend due to the Royal wedding on friday and also today being May day(another bank holiday!). We had a very laid back friday! We got dressed up in our finery and I decorated the lounge with bunting and paperchains. I bought a flag for the monkey, but he only managed to have it for 5 minutes before he broke it and then started to assault people with the stick!!

Here he is with his flag and his smart jacket. He appears to be missing a sock too!

We watched the wedding with grape juice in hand and then afterwards ate an english picnic lunch of sandwiches and scones!-and my patriotic cupcakes!
I made my bunting, having been inspired by all the banner dies and stamps around at the moment!

I started by trying to find a union jack outline...and couldn't, so resorted to my trusty Digital Scrapbook artist, which is my version of photoshop!

 I then cropped it to be banner shaped, and printed off a few copies.

I couldn't decide if I should use my promarkers, or pencil, so I did both! I decided that I prefered the promarkers for this, so printed off 6 more and coloured them too.

I used my trimmer with its wavy blade to cut them out, and stuck them to some cream card. After punching out the corners I tied with small amounts of navy blue and white ribbon!
They look super cute on the mantle piece!!!

Feel free to use my union jack image and the banner templates!