60 little boxes

Burnice has been a busy bee these last few weeks.   

A work colleague was looking on a website for little favour boxes and commented on how expensive they were.   Burn butted in with "make them yourself Alisa - it's easy!"

After a few "how do I do that" and "where do I get the stuff from" Burn had talked herself into making them!!!

Fortunately for Burn she had seen some not two days before made by the wonderful Clair at Valentines.   Great idea she (Burn that is not Clair) thinks.   Just one great big gynormous humungous problem.  Burn doesn't have a big shot let alone the die.    She emails the wonderful Clair, grovels slightly and borrows said big shot and die.   I got to keep it for a whole week................

Alisa's mum loves freshias (so what I hear you cry!).  Alisa is doing a surprise 75th birthday party for her mum and that's what the boxes are for.  

Now for the next problem - I don't have enough coloured card but I do have tons of white card so I cut them all out of that.  When I stuck the patterned card on it looked awful.   Now this is the point where I thunked "should have used coloured card!".   Guess what I went and done......  I got out my distress inks and coloured all the white card.    It took forever and I got very very inky fingers!   A little tip for any other plonkers out there like me - use a stencil brush and not the blending tool - it's bloomin' quicker and doesn't use so much ink!!!!   

The paper used was from the "Pocket of Posies" 12x12 pad.

I layered the inside with some tissue which will be folded over when Alisa fills them with choccies.

Drum roll and VOILA ......

60 BOXES LATER.

Must apologise for the quality of the pics.

The top right is Burn's favourite

The bottom right is a special one for Alisa's mum.

I have to say Burn thoroughly enjoyed herself making them.   Some have wooden butterflies on the front, some have sticky on butterflies and some have punched flowers with a tiny flower centre and a gem - in fact kinda wish they were all done using the punched and embossed flower.  But hey too late now!

Oh, and by the way, guess what I bought.........................

Had to be done didn't it.   It was Ron's idea - no honest it was.    I had been saving 20p pieces for ages.  In fact they were initially saved to spend at the Ardingly Quilt Show.   Forgot to count them up and pay in to my bank.   Then I thought that's fine I'll use them to go to the Sandown Quilt Festival - yep you got it, forgot again.   So they were sitting there in their bag and we sat and counted them one Sunday evening and I had £97 odd.   Cool eh!   So I went and bought one with the extender plates etc etc and an embossing folder kit thingy - the lot came to £102.  

Right that's enough from me now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice xx

Ava's word book

Ava's Book.   Ava is Milla's mummy's cousin's new baby.  Ava Rose is her name and she is being christened this weekend in Blackburn so Milla and I set about making her this book.   

 This is the first page.    I haven't put on the reverse pages because for some reason they came out blurred!!   Thanks to Tasha for the die cut swirl...

This is the "V".   I had to put the butterfly on the other side to steady up the arm of the V.  It was a bit wobbly.  The butterflies are from a necklace I bought yesterday from superdrug and pulled it apart!!!  Die cut Tim's flowers from Tash again.

This is the last "A" .

A close up of the front page.

The finished article !   I think they make fab christening pressies.    In fact I am doing one for a little boy - will show that when it's done!

Materials used:  
Zutter's corrugated cardbord
Kaiser paints - pink and white
glaze paint - pink
viva precious metal paint - silver red
the heart and die cut flowers were covered with Terra, heat gunned and then glazed. also rubbed silver red VPM paint on them.
The gems and pearls are all from my Sarah's Cards kits
The stamp is Crafty Secrets - Journeling
The ribbons and fibres and from my stash.
In amongst the ribbons there is a tiny baby's bottle and bib bought from the Button Lady (I think!)

Right I think that's it, I think, cos I am struggling with this new blogger thing.  Just when I was getting used to the other one!!!!!!
Thanks for stopping by
Burnice x

I would just like to add that this is not all my idea!   I took my inspiration (okay I lifted it!) from the wonderful Linda Elbourne.   AKA T!ms's stalker!!!!!!  

Ron's Birthday BBQ

We had a BBQ on Saturday for Ron's birthday.    It rained.     The sun shone.  When it rained it bloody well rained and when the sun shot it was bloody hot !!!!  Still, undetered we sat out in the garden in the marquee which we put up "just in case it rained"!!!!!!    We had a laugh though which is all that mattered really.   Milla was a star - she was a waitress, drinks person, tea/coffee maker (we had a 10 ltr urn in the kitchen to save boiling kettles all day!) cabin tour guide and photographer.  She did very well but unfortunately failed in the photography stakes on the day.  Never mind - she did have a lot to do!!!!!!

Here are the invites I sent out.   I coloured "Ron" in all different combinations with my copics.  

The  night before Milla and I made some Garden Cup Cakes for Ron.    We decided to do these rather than have a cake for him.   The recipe is from a book Milla bought in The Works.  It's a cool cake cook book.  Am going to invest in one myself.

The first pic is of Milla with my new colourful sillicone cupcake cases.  Aren't they fab colours.  The next one is the mix.  It was supposed to be green (for the garden!) but it wouldn't go green.  Then a pic of them baked with the decorations and the last one is with the sillicone cases with "Happy Birthday" candles in them.

A grand time was had by all.

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice x

Look wot I got today!

This is a pressie from my mate Sam. You will see on her blog how she produced this wonderful masterpiece.

This is a close up of the bottom bit.

This is a close up of the acetate bit. There are bits of gold leaf behind the acetate me thinks !!!

Isn't it just fabulous. Made my day when it arrived this morning.

All I did was leave a message on her blog saying how it would look great in my cabin !!!!!! And believe me it does !

Thanks a bunch Sam.

Thanks for stopping by.

Burn x

Happy Birthday Katie.....

Hope she doesn't read this !!!!

I painted a 12x10 canvas with terracotta acrylic paint. The pattern is a stencil (which I found whilst rummaging!) and painted with viva precious metal copper paint.
Then I went to town (not literally!). I made a mini version of my artsy craft weekend project. I used some metal which was cuttle bugged. The middle one on the bottom row is sticky backed metal placed over die cut letters, a butterfly and a flower. The other three tiles were done with viva terra. I can't remember the colours used!!!! I did write it all down but lost the bit of paper.......

I think I may do myself one with silver metal! As you can tell Burn likes doing these!!!!!

Actually, doing this post has just reminded me - I must phone Katie and make an appointment to have my hair cut !!

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice x

It's only me!!!!

Hello peeps. I have been told off by three/four peeps for not blogging. Well here I am. I have been a busy bee.

First of all I made a little canvas thingy for a friend at my sign language class. Here is the metal rose. I just lurve this rose. I can't stop making them !!!! This one was done with silver metal and royal purple stazon ink.
I also did a bird cage. I like making this too. Again it's royal purple stazon with mother of pearl viva precious metal paint, kaiser antique white and dusky pink paint (all this done on the reverse)

Here is the finish article. The canvas was painted with dusky rose paint and stamped with a paperartsy swirl (loving this stamp at the moment) with stazon (royal purple). The middle is a piece of grey board covered with communal garden tin foil, glued on to the grey board and then put through the cuttlebug and dabbed with various colours of stazon - a la Sue Roddis. The edge of the canvas has viva precious metal paint in silver red and blackberry.

There yer go !

As I said I have been creating like a looney just lately so tomorrow I will post another project!

thanks for stopping by.

Love Burnice x

Look wot we made today!

It started off like this - we put about 35 of them into a large bowl with 50gms of citric acid, 2lb sugar, 6 lemons (cut into quarters) and 3 pints of boiling water.

We left it for 24 hours and it looked like this. Not pretty eh! We strained this through a jay cloth (I know - didn't have a muslin cloth!) and got this.............

It tastes delish - I am sooooooooooo pleased. I have put it into two water bottles so don't panic peeps, I shan't be drinking it from this bowl with a straw!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by

Burn x

Metal on canvas

Linda came round last night for her monthly fix in my cabin. She brought with her some metal having been inspired by Carol Cann at the Craft Barn's Extravaganza weekend.

So off we went: I had some small canvas panels which we painted. I did mine red (not surprised there are you!) and Linda did hers in a gorgeous teal colour. Then we swirled the edges with a paperartsy swirl. I stamped mine in black cherry stazon and Linda used adirondack stream. We then got some nesti/spellbinder flowers and laid them on to the canvas. Then peeled back some sticky back metal and laid it on top. Burnished to our hearts content and were very impressed with the way the texture of the canvas came through - well it would really wouldn't it as we were pressing down hard!!!!! The tools then came out and away we went. Paint was then smeared over the top and wiped off so it was left in the grooves. I finished mine off with silver red precious metal paint around the edge. Linda used blue lagoon. Here is mine:

It needs a title but haven't done that yet. Think I will stamp some words onto the metal and then place it on the canvas somewhere. Perhaps Linda will blog hers so you can see it.

This is very "clean looking" for me but I am pleased with it.

Oh and all this was done to Paulo Nutini!!!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Burn x

P.S to yesterday's post !

I had a comment from Janet on my challenge piece.

"The bits of "stone" are actually paua shell fragments. The bird is a pukeko. The shrink plastic is a maori design".

There, see, told you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Burn x

How I done it !

I should have told you peeps how I did my NZ challenge. Sorry folks, so if you want to know, read on, if not go make a cuppa!
The base is a tag from my paperartsy weekend. I painted it with broken china crackle paint and stamped a paperartsy swirl around the edge. I then stamped the little bird on it. The little bird is stamped all over the back.
The "flower" was made from the serviette. It was three ply so I took two off (just for strength at this stage) and stamped the new paperartsy flower stamp. Three big ones and one little one. I then cut them out, sprayed them with some champagne crafty notions. Dried them off and then scrunched them all up! Then I glued them on slightly off centre so it looks a bit fuller. I then glued the shrink plastic piece in the middle. I then peeled another layer of the napkin so it was just one ply thick!

The wildflower stamp is also from the same paperartsy range. The bird in the flower pot was one of the die cuts which I then glued to the marble paper and cut it out. I then glued the little "stones" on it. The bird table die cut was covered with one ply of the tissue put it through the cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder and rubbed some gold viva precious metal paint on it.

The saying is from a Tim Holtz set. I then rubbed gold precious metal paint around the edge.

Hope that clears it all up and I promise I won't let it happen again!!!!!

Thanks for popping by.

Burn x

My New Zealand challenge

When my forum buddy, Janet, ccame over to the UK (from NZ) for a holiday she popped by to see me.
Janet gave me some craft bits and challenged me to do something with them. She gave me:
A serviette - marble effect
Two pieces of marbled paper
Two die cuts
A shrink plastic circle
Two pieces of stone (sorry Janet - really can't remember what you called this!)
A rubber stamp of a NZ bird
I have a terrible confession to make - I can't find the piece of paper that Janet wrote the names of the bird, symbol, "stones" and paper. I am really sorry Janet. No doubt you will email me and let me know so I can put it in this post!

This is the finished article. I must say I am quite pleased with it. As you will notice it is a take on the large tag I made at the Artsycraft weekend.

Hope you are pleased with my effort, Janet............

Thanks for stopping by folks.

Burnice x

I'm back from me hols.......

Thought I would show you the Riverside Walk alongside the River Spey not far from my brother's (where we stayed) in Nethy Bridge, Inverness. This is a spot where we scattered my dad's ashes. We now call in Bernard's beach!!! The first pic is to the right of the stoney bit and the third pic is to the left. The water really was that clear!

These are some of the purchases I made at Funky Kits in Elgin. They had all their wooden stamps half price. Couldn't resist. Actually I was very restrained. That may have had something to do with the fact that Ron was with me !!! This lot cost me £29.00 odd..... Good eh!
I bought this wool at a fab little shop in Craigallachie. It used to be in Aberlour but moved. The shop in Aberlour was very very tiny and the new one is a lot bigger. The curly wool is Wenslydale sheep wool with some blue dye for me to dye it. The little bits are some scraps she was selling.
We spent 3 days in Edinburgh where it absolutely pee'd down with rain the whole time. I did video our time spent there. Had great fun with the camcorder (it was my dad's but we have only just got to grips with it!). The filming I did was quite comical (if I say so myself). When we got back to Peter's (my brother) we took the disc out to put in his computer to watch it but we made the fatal mistake of not finalizing the disc and therefore lost the bleedin' lot. I must explain here that we have no manual for said camcorder.... We have now downloaded said manual from the internet (all 123 pages of it!).

We had another go at videoing with a tad more success (except for my camera work which is quite pooh actually!) except we can't get sound when viewing on the computer now. We watched it on Peter's computer and it was fine (with no sound) but I don't seem to be able to open the movies up on my lappy toppy. Still Ron is going to read (!) the manual and see why not.

Right that's enough now - hope I haven't bored you too much.

Off to do so knitting.

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice x

Not for the faint hearted !

Got a text Friday from Emma (who used to live next door). She said it was their 7th wedding anniversary on Sunday and would I help knit her a willy warmer for her hubby. He he I thought..... So I scanned the internet for a pattern, found one and asked her what colour she wanted. We (that's the royal we!) went for pink !!!! So I set about knitting it.......

I would like to soften (excuse the pun) the blow a bit by showing you their card first. This time I used a sugar nellie stamp and me copics. The paper is Bo Bunny (I think).

Now for the fun bit! I even managed to crochet the top bit from a You Tube video !!!!

Brill isn't it. I did say I wasn't going to ask him for a fitting - I'll let her do that!!!!!!

Wonder if I will get any orders from it................................

Well that's it for today folks, busy bee. Doing loads of housework - thought it was about time!

Laters

Burnice x

My new word book.........

I have been a tad AWOL just lately and here is the reason why. I have been making this word book. I have to admit I am slightly pleased with myself. I have pondered over what to actually do, what colour to use, what paper to use (found some originally but only had a little bit of it and couldn't match it). I have been collecting all the fibres and little crystals etc. for a couple of months. Finally made it!!!!

The rose is a grunge rose (like you didn't know!) with a magnolia image coloured with copics. The metal letters were given to me by Caroline. The date has been stamped on to shrink plastic and then shrunk (yeah honest!). The letters have been edged with stardust stickles.
The little heart in amonst the fibres is a swarovski crysal.This page has a magnolia butterly and the little journalling piece is from the Fancy Pants - Road show range.

This page I really struggled with. The flowers are prima and the magnolia butterflies again all stickled up. Sat and cut them all out last night !!! Another magnolia image. The paper is Foolafalah (or whatever it's called!)

This page is for Red's picture. I have used a photocopy one which is not very good and stuck them on with repositional glue. I have asked my friend to tell Ellie that she can replace the photocopy one with the original and glue down the frame with proper glue. Isn't she just adorable. I think she was only a few months old here.

This is the last page. The stamp is an old favourite of mine from Clarity Stamps (I think!). I just love the sentiment. The flowers are my old favourites stamped, embossed and cut out. I really like this stamp.

The very back of the book is quite plain with a nestie scalloped circle in the red paper with a bird stamped onto grunge paper and cut out. I have photographed it but it was a bit plain cos I forgot to go around the circle with my stickles..........

The making of this book came about after I made the "BABY" book (blogged earlier) for one of my bosses (Lesley) at work. She then showed me a pic of Red. I was smitten. Red's daddy is a very good friend of Lesley's son. I immediately said I wanted to make Red a book and Lesley then told me who her mummy was. I have to say that because of who her mummy is I took a lot longer to decide on what to do. I needed it to be perfick!!!!!

I might also add that when I took it to work today and showed it to Lesley she cried. Just the kind of response I like....... I just hope Red's mummy has a similar reaction and likes my book.

Well there it is. I hope you like it.

Sorry for the long post....

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice x

My Artsycraft Weekend goodies!

First of all I'll say that Caroline and I had an absolutely wonderful amazing time. Leandra and Lin were fab - as usual. Also a big thanks to Jo and Lynne for all your input. Thanks to Karen too for taking all my money (Ron hasn't half got the 'ump with you for serving me!!!).......

Anyway - first of all we did "Secret Garden"..... This is my tissue rose at the top. It was great fun scrunching it up into a ball and then straightening it out again! The little bird is made of metal and then rubbed with alcohol inks to distress him!

This is the finished piece. It's a giant tag! The tree is grey board with a stencil on it and then Ferro rubbed on to give the texture.

We then went on to our main project (saving that for you !).

This next piece was our last project. I chose Lemon and Lime - so out of my comfort zone but I thoroughly enjoyed the colours. All citrussy. The centre is a piece of metal put through the big shot with an embossing folder and then rubbed over with alcohol inks. The heart stamp is a paperartsy one (of course!) I then went round it with a black slick writer.

Now for the main project. This is one of the squares. Embossed metal with alcohol inks (I think) and an embossed moth.

This next one is the moth again (this time stamped) on a square of canvas stuck onto grey board. The stamp is one of paperartsy (of course!) I really like this square.

This is my bestest favourite thing of the weekend - my metal rose. I just love this. It is on a tile that was covered with Terra and heated til it bubbled and we rubbed it off.

This is the final piece all put together. The tiles were put onto a canvas panel which was painted black and then I painted it brown! The gold edge is gold goop. The red goop is painted on through a stencil. My colourway was Mediterranean Mix.

Tiles 1, 5 and 9 are metal, tiles 2, 6 and 8 are sticky back canvas and tiles 3, 4 and 7 are covered with Terra.

The birdcage was stamped and die cut from acetate and black card for us. The reverse was painted with kaiser paints in antique white, a brick red and a mustardy colour and then pressed onto the black card and the paint made it stick! It curved naturally which was kinda cool!

Anyway hope you like my efforts. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the whole thing made all the more great by the aforementioned ladies who helped us and got us out of many a sticky situation - you know - we don't make mistakes we have happy accidents - that sort of thing!!!!!!!

I have to confess it has taken me over an hour to do this post cos I keep watching "the Buble" and getting distracted.

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice x

Hi - it's meeeeeeeee!

Hi peeps - bet you thought I had emigrated - fraid not, still here. Just been a tad quiet and busy, busy (crafting!)

I have had a few commissions and I have been sewing. I have made the front of a quilt, half a bag and half a tea cosy!!!!

Today Caroline and I went to Crafts U Love and met (AT LONG BLEEDIN' LAST!) the wonderful Kim Piggott Had a fantastic day learning to paint with the distress inks. Here are my efforts:

This first one is using brushed courdory and black soot; the face is antique linen and tattered rose; the dress is weathered wood; the petticoat is victorian velvet as are the socks; the shoes are very very pale black soot.

This one is same colours for hair and face; victorian velvet for dress and very pale victorian velvet for socks and shoes.

This one is same for hair and face with barn door for the dress etc. Went a bit over the top with the shoes tho'. Practice, practice, practice..........

I have to day I am just sooooo chuffed with meself and would like to thank Kim very very much for her patience and guidance. Can't wait to meet her again.

I went to the Artsycraft weekend 8/9 May and made some fabulous stuff - can't show it tho until tomorrow as there is another one this weekend. Watch this space - hopefully for not as long as the last time I posted.

Great to be back!

OH BY THE WAY - HIYA TRACY!!!! THANKS FOR ALL THE TEA.............

See you tomorrow.

Burnice x

When Dave took Janet to The Craft Barn .....

..... and didn't she have a fab time too!!!!!!

This is Janet outside the Craft Barn after her spend up.

Janet is a Tanda Stamps forum buddy all the way from New Zealand. She is over here on holiday with her husband, Roger, and staying with friends they met when they were over here on a "teacher exchange". Think I got that right!

We left The Craft Barn and went to my house. The sun came out (for about a minute or two) and we passed a few land marks - well the building of the new Brighton & Hove Albion football stadium and Sussex University - what more does a New Zealander need to see!!!

This is Janet on my new decking with new railings!

Had a fabulous day with Janet and then it was time for her to leave. I and Dave drove her to Lewes to catch her train and we passed a couple more land marks - Lewes Prison, our new office building (not yet built!) and Anne of Cleves House. There - sorted!

BTW Janet - could job we went when we did because the traffic going into Lewes was nose to tail and that was only about 20 mins after we left my house. Phew !

THANKS FOR A GREAT DAY ME DEAR!

Thanks for stopping by

Burnice x

The decking's done!

Whilst I went to my friend Kim's yesterday Mr L did my decking. All it needs now is a rail to stop me from coming off the edge. I have trouble walking on it at the moment because the slats go width ways and as I suffer from vertigo when I walk on it I veer to the edge cos my brain is following the line of the boards!!!!! Could only happen to me eh!! I did sit at the table in the sun knitting but I was hanging on to the cabin for dear life !!!!
Wasn't it lovely and sunny yesterday.

Been up in the cabin today (it's been raining and misty) cuttin fabric to make a bag and a quilt. Got the sewing bug after my friend Maureen popped round on Friday to cut out her bag.

Trouble is I have tons of other stuff to do first!

Best go and get Mr L some dinner..............

Thanks for stopping by.

Burnice x

Dave went to Dover yesterday........

...... to pick up two errant travellers. Yay - they are home and Miss Milla is absolutely bloomin' full of it !!!!!! Just very relieved they are home.

Milla phoned me today and I asked her to tell me all about it - it went something like this:

We flew to Thailand and the airport at Cinimethingywhatsit (that's my word!) was outside. There were fountains and rivers and it was beautiful. Sarah (mummy's friend) picked us up and we went to a huge swimming pool and went for a swim. We then went to Sarah's house - it's a big black and white house. We unpacked and then went for another swim - it's hot there!! I am now thinking this is going to go on for a flippin' long time so I said "then you had a fabulous two weeks holiday" and she said "yes". Then I got it chapter and verse about the journey home. There were some bits where mummy was crying when we got to dubai cos the planes weren't flying because of the volcanic ash (!), Emerites put us up for one night so we found this penthouse suite of a posh hotel, there were five bathrooms, dining room, lounge, kitchen, bedrooms (Burn can't remember how many she said!), we had to pay for the other days ourselves! We flew to Vienna, then flew to Paris and went to the Eiffel tower, went to Calais, went to Dover and granddad took us to Brighton...........

Well I am now gasping for breath!!!!

I hope I haven't bored you to pieces but just had to share this with you.

She is coming over next weekend so I expect I will get it all again!!!

Ron has finished the decking so I will post some pics tomorrow.

Wonder where Dave will be going for his run. Mind you he went to Wivelsfield Green this afternoon to see my friend, Kim. Perhaps he should stay home and have a little rest tomorrow, then I can may my bag - it's fabby!!!

Laters and thanks for stopping by

Burnice x

Spare a thought..........

...... for Esther and Milla. They are stuck in Dubai having been in Thailand for a holiday. Long story but they have been in Dubai since last Thursday. It is costing them a bloody fortune. £6 for a bowl of chips !!! Anyway to cut a long story short they were booked on a flight on Thursday to fly to the uk. Esther did this as soon as she got to the airport last week. She phoned today to double check it would be okay etc and they said she and Milla weren't booked on the flight. They were on a standby!!!! Now they can't get a flight until 13 May. We (that's Peter, me and Esther) keep ringing a number in Dubai to try and get them on any plane to the UK within the next week. She is holed up in a hotel (which she is having to pay for). Fortunately there is a cooker etc in their room so at least she can cook for herself and not have to eat out all the time.

I bet the poor girls heart sank when she was told she wasn't on that flight. I nearly cried so god knows what she did.

She is a teacher and was supposed to be back at work today (along with thousands of other teachers and pupils stranded).

It is all very stressful and I can't concentrate on anything.

I had my first workshop on Saturday. My friend Caroline and her mum came over. We covered a box in sticky backed metal with shapes underneath. Here is the one I did as an example. There is far too much on the lid but I wanted to show them what they could have and what it would look like !

Caroline and I went to the Craft Barn yesterday afternoon to do a copics class. I bought set D!!! That's them all now..........

I also bought Tim Holtz's pad called Shabby Vintage. It's absolutely bloomin' gorgeous. I also bought some felt pads for my alc. inks, some magnetic sheets for my nesties, some cut and dry and some Bo Bunny paper for my word book for Red... £100 gone just like that !!!!!

I apologise for the first part of the post. I appreciate there are hundreds of others in the same position. In fact at work we have one in New York, one in St Lucia and one in Spain. One of the docs at our surgery is stuck in Australia - so it could be worse.

Thanks for listening and popping by....

Burnice x