November Monthly Planner Pages

Hello, it's Liz here today. Last month I shared my October monthly planner pages and told you a little bit about how I use the monthly pages (if you missed it the blog post is here). So continuing on from that here are my November pages. I have taken a totally different approach this month and have left lots of space in the boxes for notes - November is going to be a busy month! That's what I love about these blank pages by Waffle Flower, you can customise and decorate as much or as little as you want to suit your needs in any particular month.

Because I wanted to leave the boxes blank I simply decorated along the bottom of the pages. I also added some extra 'list' space on the side. The stamps I have used this month just hint at Christmas, that's because I like to go all out Christmas on my December pages! 

Here are links to the stamp sets I used -

Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers by My Favorite Things

Sticky Note by Mama Elephant

Little Peguin Agenda by Mama Elephant

Stay Focused by Waffle Flower

Holiday Houses by Wplus9 

The monthly planner pages are by Waffle Flower and are on special offer at the mo' here.

Thanks for stopping by today. Happy crafting and happy planning! 

 

Birthday Snail Mail

Hello, it's Liz here today. Have you ever thought of decorating your envelopes? We put so much effort into making our cards why send them in a plain envelope! Wouldn't this just make someone smile before they even opened it? It doesn't take long to do and these stamp sets from Flora and Fauna make it easy. I used Happy Bird Day, Aviary Love and Mini Snail Mail.

For the card I stamped the Happy Birthday sign and flowers inside the aperture. Then I stamped coloured and cut out the two cute birds (the matching die set is here). I stamped a branch and popped the birds on using foam pads. 

I stamped straight onto the envelope and coloured with water based markers, this means the colour will not bleed through to the other side.The name and address has been stamped using the Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers set.

On the back of the envelope I did some repeat stamping. 

Wouldn't you just love an envelope like this to pop through your letterbox? I know I would!

 

October Monthly Planner Pages

Hello, It's Liz here today. Paper planners may seem old fashioned in this digital age but they are a great way to stay organised with space for to do lists, notes and ideas as well as all those important dates and appointments.

Here are my planner top tips -

• Have a regular daily planning session, I do five or ten minutes every evening.
• Have a weekly planning session, I usually do this on a Sunday for the week ahead. I note up all the routine tasks that don't change from week to week.
• Use the monthly section, this is what I am sharing today. It's a brief overview of the whole month.
• Finally, and most importantly, keep your planner handy! It will not fulfil it's purpose if it's tidied away on a shelf.

There is also a creative crossover between planning and crafting. I use stamps, stickers and washi tape to have fun decorating the pages of my planner. The stamp sets I have used on my October monthly section are as follows -

Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers by My Favorite Things

Sticky Note by Mama Elephant

Little Dog Agenda by Mama Elephant

Stay Focused by Waffle Flower

The blank refill monthly pages are by Waffle Flower. These are perfect for creative planning as the paper is thick and smooth. You can find them in the shop here. And as a finishing touch I always add Washi to the edges of the pages. I have used the gingham from the Spring Farmhouse set which you can find here.

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting (and happy planning)! 

Let's Party!

Hello, it's Liz here today. Kate, Beth, Josh and Sam are all very excited! They have been invited to Beth's birthday party. Beth's mum is a bit crafty and has made cute place settings using the Lil'Inker stamp set 'Cake Party'  (matching dies available here) and the MFT stamp set 'Birdie Brown Alphabet & Numbers'.

The images have been stamped  using a Memento ink pad and coloured with Copic marker pens. Green and blue for the boys and green and pink for the girls. They were cut out and popped onto the place cards using foam pads.

This set would be perfect to make all the co-ordinating items for a party e.g. invitations, goodie bags and thank you cards.

Travellers Notebook - memory keeping

Hello. Today I want to share a couple of pages in one of my Travellers Notebook Journals. I use TN's to plan and record memories - I have nature, blogging and travel journals to name a few. This one is an ongoing project to record my visits to places listed in the book '111 Places In Glasgow That You Shouldn't Miss' (there are similar books for cities all over the world). 

Glasgow is my home city but quite often we don't know or don't visit what is on our doorstep! These two pages record numbers 4 and 30 in the book. I always include two or three pictures and some journalling - either a fact quoted from the book or a short personal observation.

The background papers and washi tape are Spring Farmhouse by Simple Stories. The numbers have been diecut using Number It Creative Cuts by Mama Elephant and the headers have been stamped using Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers.

I hope you enjoyed this little look into my journal, thanks for stopping by today, Liz

Happy Birthday with Alphabet Sets

Although I’m spending most of my crafty time making Christmas cards these days, I still need birthday cards too. Today I’m sharing a simple design that would be easy to create multiples of, if needed.

I began by stamping the large cake image from MFT Happy Hippos. I coloured it some alcohol markers, then cut it out. I used a white gel pen to add some decoration to the cake, just to give some more interest to the image.

On a piece of white card, I draw with pencil lightly around a circle die. This is to help me with placing the letters for my sentiment around the cake image.

I used the MFT Birdie Brown Alphabet & Numbers stamp set to create my sentiment (they have a standalone die set too, if you prefer that to stamping). A stamp positioner really helped me with this step, as I could better space the letters before stamping.

I stamped the images with an embossing ink, then embossed them with gold embossing powder. I also added a couple of gold stars, which I found in the Avery Elle Bunting stamp set.

I adhered the panel to my card base, then attached the cake image to the centre with foam tape.

I love the clean and simple look of this card. The most tricky part was positioning the letters for stamping, but once they are on a stamp positioner, you could quickly and easily make a few cards at the same time.

One last thing to mention, this is another example of how to use the extra images in your stamp sets, which just happens to be the SHC VIPS facebook challenge for November. Don't forget to join in!

Have a lovely day,

Gemma

MFT Happy Hippos

MFT Birdie Brown Alphabet

Avery Elle Bunting

The big 5-0

One of my best friends turned 50 yesterday so my makes today were all for her.  First off her card, which was inspired by one Jenny made but hasn't shared on the blog - but I just loved the sentiment!

So as my friend is a mathematician I decided to emphasise the sentiment with a pie chart which I just made by die cutting 4 different colours of paper from a circle die and then cutting them all into quarters (so you can make 4 cards at once should you choose!)

I used the Bold Numerals Die from AlteNew to die cut my 49 from both patterned paper and 3 sets from navy card so I could get a deep stack.

The rest of the sentiment was spelt out using the Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers Die set from MFT.


I also made my own gift wrap as I couldn't find any wrapping paper with 50 on in the shops.  So I got out my trusty roll of brown paper, trimmed a strip to the size required, taped it to my desk and set about stamping it with Concord and 9th's Notable Numbers stamp.

It may look like a lot of work, but it actually stamps up quite quickly.   The trick is to stamp diagonally so you get a nice finish to the final wrapping.

Once it's wrapped and jazzed up with a bit of ribbon, plain old brown paper can actually love rather lovely!

That's all my makes for today.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We got the Concord and 9th and AlteNew releases on Friday.  We'll get them added to store as soon as we can this week.

We also have a delivery from Hero Arts due this week.

Newton's Nook have a new release on Friday which should be here in time to release when they do.


Happy Crafting!

Tara