Elf-Creations

Hello. Not sure if anyone wanders this way anymore but if do then have I have moved to here!x

Hello all. Have finally got round to looking at my blogs after months of neglect and nearly ran the other way. So after much thought (and a couple of glasses of Merlot) I've decided to simplify things in the hope of not feeling quite so daunted by the whole prospect of blogging again.

I realised many months ago that I was spending so long blog hopping that the crafty side of me was being completely neglected and that is the whole point of my blog! Don't get me wrong I love looking at other peoples work (that's where the inspiration comes from) but sometimes the pressure to create and keep on top of challenges can be a bit overwhelming and then spending up to 3 hours going through my blog list, everyday to keep up with you all :), is just...well...overwhelming.

So my blog list is empty. I plan to slowly and gradually build it back up and spend the time appreciating my friends creativeness instead of worrying that I may offend them if I don't comment on their blog every day...and yes I know I'm not the only one that thinks like this ;)

A lot has happened in my personal life since my last post and all good for a change. My wonderful son has become a junior soldier and hopes to become part of the Royal Artillery. To say I'm the proudest mum in the world is a very small understatement. Missing him like mad and still not used to music not blaring out of his bedroom every night!

We are also having a new addition to our family in April...and no I'm not expecting. My darling Nana is moving back from New Zealand to live with us and we are over the moon. I just wish I could persuade my mother to move back to the UK as well...if you are reading this mother please take note!

Finally (you can stop snoring now) many thanks to everyone that has kept in touch and for all my lovely cards...I have a huge boxful and I promise that when I get the time I will display them all for you to see that I really did appreciate them and keep them!

So I will be over to visit you in the not to distant future and look forward to seeing what you've been up to.
Hugs,
Emma

Angel lovers look away now....

Honey I'm home!

Yep I'm back but under strict orders to take things easy for a while...and so you may notice a few changes to my blog.

Not going to bore you with my trials and tribulations of the past 4 months (gulp it really has been that long!) but I've taken up a few new crafty obsessions and we also have two new additions to the household.

Below is a few items I've made recently for a greyhound charity auction...can you guess yet what the new additions are!?!

Earrings made with greyhound pendants...
Key rings made with greyhound pendants as well!

Hello. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I'm still not here so if you are reading this...delayed posting works. I've made this brooch for the latest challenge over at the Craftypad. This week you have to add some bling to your creation.

A few years ago when I lived in Gibraltar I got into the awful habit of destroying my hubbies CD's to make jewellery...so when Tina sent me a link recently on this subject it gave me the perfect excuse to start destroying again.

Debbie has asked for a tutorial and I know there are tutorials out there showing how to make them but this is how I do it...

*Colour your image in using Distress inks and then put a very thin layer of crackle glaze over the top and allow to dry.

*Cut a CD (needs to be cut at a 45 degree angle or it snaps) into the shape you roughly need. Sand it on the shiny side. Paint a layer of Acrylic paint and once dry stamp all over with alcohol inks finishing with a touch of gold.

* Edge in Walnut brown Distress ink and then decide where to punch your holes. I used my Big bite for this. Then just thread lots of gold wire in and out and add beads.

* The crown was originally silver so I used espresso and gold alcohol inks to give it a distressed look. Then very carefully glue gems onto it and attach to your image with silicone glue. DO NOT attach to your brooch just yet.

* On the back of the brooch adhere twisted and beaded wire in a position you like. Once they are stuck in place and completely dry turn over and glue down your image. Once the whole brooch is dry attach strong card to the back and then used silicone glue to add a brooch attachment.

* Spray with varnish and allow to dry.

Voila one unique brooch!

Put your sound on...press play...wait a few seconds...and let me and Belle entertain you!

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Hello. I just wanted to share some of the wonderful gifts and cards I have received from my crafty friends...

I've received this gorgeous card off my gorgeous friend Debbie as a thank you for a bracelet I sent her...her work is stunning and I am so honoured to be on her DT...thanks Debs...

This is a selection of the wonderful hand made Christmas cards I have received so far from my bloggy friends...they are all stunning and I love them! So many thanks to Chris in Gib, Debbie, Natalie, Christine, Cathy, Joana, Pauline, Ali, Nessy, Kath, Dawn, Lainy, Linda, Donna, Sammi, Chrissy, Cass...

Sammi also sent me my very own Princess Amber stamp...and its adorable...fab present from a fab friend....

And then the postie brought me a huge parcel from my SBS Secret Santa...and I was in heaven! (There should have been a big bar of Galaxy chocolate to show you as well wrapped in the star paper....now I wonder where that went! LOL!) So whoever you are...my lovely secret sister Santa...thank you....

But then I also received this oh so cute hand made phone charm from my pal Donna...its very me and goes perfect with the new pink phone that Santa got me as an early Christmas present...thanks Donna....

And then Chrissy sent me these!!! To say I was over the moon is an understatement as after my mammoth bracelet making session a few weeks ago my bead stash was wearing a bit thin....thanks hun...they are perfect....

My pal Tina decided this year not to make Christmas cards...but to make us individual calendars with personal photos on them...this photo is of my beautiful daughter Belle on her third birthday a few weeks ago...thanks Teen...it will be treasured...see you Christmas Eve!

And finally...well I couldn't leave this wee card out could I? Even after having a new born baby (and boy does he look like his mother!) my best mate Gill still managed to get hand made cards out to everyone...and its gorgeous...thank you babe.x

Considering I've only been blogging for less than a year I've been incredibly lucky to have made some wonderful friends...and I can't wait to craft along side you all for another year!

Thank you to everyone for all your support and love throughout the past year and I can't wait to see what 2009 brings us...

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!

My fabby team mate Becky has got together with Chrissie and Lisa to bring us a new sketch blog...Sketch and Stash....(love the name!) which will go live on Monday the 5th of January.

To celebrate they are offering a gorgeous 'Willow' with umbrella stamp from Whiff of Joy...so pop over to their blog...have a nose...and put your name down to take part in the draw!

And don't forget over on Craftymuse there are freebie Christmas downloads and a Christmas challenge where you could win a Muse stamp........

and over on The Crafty Pad you can meet 'Faith'....Debbie's latest gorgeous stamp and take part in the first challenge where you could win some gorgeous ribbons!

(Oh...and I'm not really here...meant to be doing DT work...failing miserably....to busy playing with Belles new toys....that I should be wrapping!

Look what Sammi did for Belles birthday! I was in shock when I received it as its so personal and was such a lovely thing to do for us.
Sammi has also named one of her male images 'Jake' and my boy is chuffed to bits!

She has also done two fab 'ELF' images....a boy and a girl...which you can download for FREE if you pop over to the Craftymuse blog...and I thought there was only room for one elf around here! LOL!
Don't forget to check out the latest challenge as well.

(Crikey I've just realised that I've had over 30,000 hits...better sort some candy out....lol!)

I really can't stop grinning! Not been around for a while as my Internet has been playing up and have so much to tell but would first of all like to apologise for not visiting you all for a while. Big thanks to Mrs T for being my secretary...she was terrible though! LOL!

Many thanks to everyone for the lovely Birthday wishes you sent Belle...she had a fantastic party but for some strange reason all the other mums went white when I dumped a load of finger paints in front of the kids and told them to get as messy as they liked...!

Anyway...some of you already know but I can now proudly announce that I am part of the Inspirational Team and I can't stop grinning! Having been featured on there twice it was a dream come true when Julie added me to her list and I feel very honoured especially when you see who else is on the team! I'm really looking forward to getting to know all the girls and to do even more blog hopping!

And.....the oh so talented Debbie has asked me to become one of her DT for her fantastic new challenge blog...The Crafty Pad...and as I love her images there was no way I was going to say no! Many thanks Debbie for asking me.

And finally...yes there's more...something I've made recently is going to be featured in an e-zine...but will reveal more when it happens!

So that's all for now. I'm going to be spending the next couple of days going round all the blogs and seeing what you've been up to. Out with the girls tomorrow night for our Christmas meal so may be slightly hungover on Sunday!

I really hope you are all well and many, many thanks for the beautiful Christmas cards that have been landing on my door mat.

**The lovely Helena has been in touch to ask if she can feature these on her new blog Helena-handmadegifts blog which is a new blog featuring gifts that bloggers have made...that has made my day! Thanks Helena**
Hello. I actually made this lot one night last week but could not show them until now...so I'm just hoping the postie has already been to a few bloggy homes!
I've got more to make but just waiting on a bead order. Tina popped round on Saturday and we made some bead brooches and key rings etc and even Belle joined in!

I also want to say a big thank you to Michelle at Poppicrafts who has featured my ribbon tree on her website...thanks honey it means an awful lot!

And an even bigger thank you to you! Life has been complicated lately but there's always one of you around to chat to and its so lovely to know you are there and I am very lucky to have found such wonderful friends.

And finally...its Princess Belles birthday on Wednesday and I've been making hundreds of butterflies, clouds, suns and flowers to hang from the ceiling as we are having a teddy bears picnic for her and her little friends! I handmade the invites and have done some homemade gift bags for the children to take home....with some gorgeous white chocolate teddy bears from Thornton's....they look to scrummy for the kids! Tina is helping out as Daddy is away and we are getting the kids to do hand and feet paintings after the picnic...so wish us luck! LOL!

I probably won't be around until Thursday now...if I have survived the party so have a lovely week and I will catch up with you all very soon.

Hello. I've been meaning to make one of these Trees for ages but finally got round to it last night. If you would like to make one you will need a large Polystyrene cone, lots of ribbon (most of mine was from Poppicrafts!) which you will need to cut into 4 inch strips (approx 200 of these!) and some sequin pins.

I painted the tree with a bright green acrylic paint first and allowed it to dry. I started at the bottom of the tree and just folded the ribbon in half and attached to the tree with one pin. Make sure your ribbons slightly goes over the bottom of the tree to so that it lays nicely. Just work your way up the tree, overlapping each layer.

I topped my tree with two wooden snowflakes that I had painted white, glued a needle in between them with about half an inch sticking out so that they could be stuck into the tree.

And there you have one tree to sit in the middle of your table on Christmas day!

I'm going to use this for the Artygirlz challenge this week which is to use your favourite colours and the Secretcrafter challenge which was to use layers.

Hugs,
Em.x

Hello. This is the box that I altered for Tina for her birthday. It actually started life clear...then got the Elf distressing treatment! I loved making it as it was such a personal gift and I have included all of her favourite things including witches, tarot cards and purple beads.

Ok I'm only kidding but the challenge this week at Craftymuse is to create something using the colour purple...not one of my favourite colours (she says ducking as Mrs T throws something at her!) but Sammi let me use 'Princess Amber' who is new to the collection so I'm not complaining! Sammi has also been madly designing away and some male figures have now joined the collection so you might want to wander over and have a look....

I would also like to say a huge welcome to Becky, Ruth and Sarah who have joined the Craftymuse team! Not only are they fantastic designers....but they are also great friends so our little team is now one big happy family. Really happy to be working along side them and their design work is now showing on the blog :o)

Not going to be around for a few days as I have a 'you know what' to make for 'you know who' and its nearly Belles birthday and I have so much to make....HINT HINT TINA!!
I'll catch up with you very soon and big hugs to you all.
Em.x