First Makes for 2011

Well I must be feelin somewhat better cos this morning I baked and this evening I crafted - still coughing liking crazy but it has to go eventually right? and it didn't stunt my creativity thankfully!

First the baking......

I whipped up a batch of chocolate mint cupcakes.  I added chunks of 'Twilight' chocolate mint candies into the middle of the cupcakes and then frosted with choc/mint whipped frosting and finally topped each cupcake with some more choc/mint candies finely grated.  It's quite nice to use my tiny grater for something other than nutmeg in the eggnog - it's normally the only time it gets used.

I picked up some pretty boxes at the supermarket (Sainsbury's I think) that were perfect for gift giving cupcakes.  I love that these kind of things are becoming easier to find - makes giving simple things like home made cupcakes easy peasy.

I needed a couple of boxes and each held 4 cupcakes.  Since I made 2 dozen cupcakes and only needed 8 I will be taking the rest when it's back to work tomorrow.  If I leave them here at home hubby and I will just eat them so sharing is a good thing.

Okay so now to my first ever crafting of the new year.........

I took my first trip out into town briefly today and stopped in at YTOC to pick out papers for the first class of the year coming up on 19th January.  The theme is Valentine's Day and I had in mind to make a set of stacking boxes just perfect for filling with yummy sweet treats.  I knew I wanted to make 'pillow' boxes in graduating sizes so the class is called 'pillow talk' - kinda cute huh?  Well I thought so.

After several colour selections I finally settled on the pink, white and black combo and chose a couple of Jilli Bean dotty papers and 3 colours of Bo Bunny polka dot cardstocks for the actual boxes.

After making the boxes I stacked them on top of one another and tied them together with black ribbon.  Then I decided to create a pretty decoration for the top using the Jilli Bean papers, glitter and nestabilities heart dies.  The smallest of these boxes is 3" x 5" and the largest measures 6" x 7" so there's plenty of room for goodies.

This should be a fun, relaxed class to start the year, nothing too complicated so I hope there's enough demand and the class runs.  I'm really looking forward to it already.

Although my craft room is still very much up in the air right now I am gradually putting things back together and have made sure I have a good basic supply of craft tools and space so I can still craft.  I now have a 6 week deadline to get it finished since we have a beautiful day bed being delivered in 6 weeks time and it's going on the side of the room that is still very much in chaos!!!  I can't wait to share a picture of it - it was love at first sight I'm afraid and the budget went right out the window - oops!  Never mind, I'll just make it up somewhere.

So far I've managed to keep the finished side clean.  Can you believe I actually crafted these boxes and then cleared away afterwards - all in a matter of seconds too!  Everything was close at hand and easy to put away.  I sure hope that's a sign of things to come.  I'm sure it helped that I had one of my new Michael Buble CDs playing while I worked and it was HEAVEN!  I'll have plenty more of that thank you LOL!

I am booked in for several dates over the next few months so hopefully I'll have more to share real soon.

Enjoy!

Christmas Shopping

Stuck in doors with a cough and cold this year I missed the post-Christmas sales.  For the past few years now I have hit them up to get a head start on next year.  This may sound crazy to some folk out there but the first year I did this and then got really poorly it saved my bacon and I've been doing it ever since.  It also means I can purchase nicer gifts because the reduced prices fit my budget easier too.  Who doesn't like a bargain huh?

I consoled myself with a bit of internet shopping - something I don't do very often and I ended up on the Cath Kidston site, oh dear - need I say more?  I simply couldn't help myself but then it's for Christmas 2011 right so it's ok yeah?  Well that's what I tell myself anyways.

I have also joined a Christmas sewing challenge blog this year (link logo at right of my blog) which means each month we have to make something for Christmas and I purchased a bit of CK fabric so I could start with that.  I had such fun with last years fabrics.  Now if I could set myself a few personal crafting challenges too I just might get a head start on that this year too - yeah right - like that's EVER gonna happen as well LOL! I'm only ever semi-organised and that's a struggle!

Amanda's Card

I wanted to share a lovely card made by my friend Amanda at YTOC.  She has been making some amazing cards lately - all very stunning and all very beautiful.  It's such a joy to see her enjoying crafting again.  Running a craft business might sound like an ideal job to a crafter but it can zap the 'joy' right out of you too.

I love the cream and gold colour scheme and card making is so super pretty when you use any of the Craftwork Cards products.  This doesn't shine in my photos but up close and for real the gold foiling in the design is just lovely.

 Amanda has been doing lots of stamping and embossing this past year and she does it so well too.

I especially liked this 'loopy' bow and had Amanda share how she made it with us girlies. This bow is a great way to add a really 'classy' touch to any card and I can't wait to use it on something of my own.

I almost missed the punched snowflake border.  This is probably one of those borders that I would look at and think - "nah! couldn't see myself using that" but actually when you see it made up in something you could find yourself re-thinking that statement.  I know - it happened to me with a Martha Stewart heart punch last year.

While I'm here can I say a shout out to Rosina :-) and welcome aboard! I'm sooooo glad you've joined our internet world and I hope you'll have a year full of inspiration and ideas m'dear.  There are masses of talented people out there who share and inspire and it's always exciting when you discover a new one worth checking out so enjoy!