Scrapbooking: H is for Harry Potter

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good! 

This was an Alphabet Adventure that we had last year, but it came in two parts. First, we went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the theatre. If you love Harry Potter and you haven't seen it and you get the chance to go you MUST because it's amazing! Even if you don't like Harry Potter and you get the chance to go you SHOULD because the special effects are just incredible! Neither of us have seen anything like it on stage. But... #KeepTheSecrets

The second part of the Alphabet Adventure was at the Harry Potter Studio Tour, which was a 30th birthday present from my friends =) This was my third trip, but there was still so much new content that I'd not seen before. We went around Halloween during the "Dark Arts" Event - I actually almost walked straight into a Death Eater in Diagon Alley. It was terrifying! I'd also never seen the Forbidden Forest or the Hogwarts Express before - we had a lot of fun on Platform 9 and 3/4!

Anyway! For this scrapbook page I picked a background paper that looked like the Marauder's Map and changed the background using the house crests of Hogwarts. To make these I used my die cutting machine. Yes...I have official Hogwarts dies...the Danger Channel has everything! (Danger Channel = Create and Craft. Website link on the right.) Then, I stuck them onto the background to make it look more like "Hogwarts Paper"

Intelligence and Wit

Hard Work and Loyalty

Ambition and Cunning

Brave and Daring

I was also thinking, these dies would be great for making Harry Potter themed stationary, like notebooks, paper or folders.

Finally, I stuck the photographs onto the background paper, made the tag and arranged the letters - I tried to make a lightning bolt; didn't work! I'm still pretty pleased with how the page turned out though. 

H is for Harry Potter: Parts 1 and 2

Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a while to do the page for "F is for Festival" because I haven't had the photos printed yet. That's our most recent Alphabet Adventure and we haven't planned the next one...anyone have any ideas for D, E, G, K, M, N, O, R, U or Y??

Mischief Managed! 

Scrapbooking: X Marks the Spot

It has been a REALLY long time since I updated my blog =( It's not that I haven't been crafting, but somehow I just haven't found the time to actually upload any of my creations. Maybe it's because I've been too busy crafting!!

Anyway, I'll gradually upload some of the things I've been doing and some of the new things I've been doing, but first: something I've literally just finished.

So, my husband and I have been doing this Alphabet Adventure (yes, we're still doing that!!) where we do an activity beginning with each letter of the alphabet. You can see some of the scrapbook pages of previous letters if you flick back through my blog, you know, if you're interested.

X was always going to be a hard letter, so we sort of cheated a little bit with the naming of it...! For this one, we went into London for a Hidden City treasure hunt called "The Hunt for the Cheshire Cat". First of all, I would totally recommend Hidden City - we had so much fun! I won't spoil it for you, but basically: we started at the National Portrait Gallery and we were then text a series of clues to our mobile phone, which we had to follow and text back the answer. If we had the right answer we'd be sent the next clue. We walked around a fair bit of London and saw some fabulous new places. Best of all, the route took us via some cafes and pubs so there were plenty of chances for a snack and a drink! =)
C

X Marks the Spot!

So when it came to scrapbooking this activity, I tried to include lots of "Alice in Wonderland" references. I chose the backing paper because it looked like the fur of the Cheshire Cat (the one that we were hunting for, not the Disney one. But as you can see, there's a Disney Cheshire Cat in the bottom corner too!). I arranged the letters in the style of "tumbling down the rabbit hole" and in the top right corner there's a plastic button of Alice sitting in some tea cups. I made the tag from black and red like the playing cards and threaded a charm on white ribbon. The charm replicates the White Rabbit's watch - which we were given at the start of the hunt, by the way! (Yes, I did want to keep it...!) I finished the tag off with a white rose button, which I picked because it reminded me of the part of the story when playing cards are painting the Queen of Heart's roses.

The White Rabbit tag charm

Viewing my artwork in the National Portrait Gallery!! 

I am seriously talented!! 

I think this one has been our most original Alphabet Adventure yet! You can check out the Hidden City website here: https://cheshirecat.inthehiddencity.com/ They also do other themed trails; we may try the Sherlock Holmes one in the future.
The next Alphabet Adventures I need to scrapbook are H is for Harry Potter and F is for Festival, so stay tuned for those!




In the next few blog posts, I want to make up for my shameful silence and show you some of my recent cross stitches, knitting and baking. Also, I plan on getting back to dress making this month (the luxury that is school holidays!)

Postcards Around the World - October

A couple of days ago, I finished the October installment for my Postcards Around the World cross stitch - a few days ahead of the end of the month deadline, are you impressed??

This month it was New York. It was a fun one to stitch, even if I'm not sure about some of the colour choices. But I went with it because it still looks like fun, and it's obviously meant to be New York.

October - New York

The whole picture so far - September and October completed.

November and December will go along the bottom row next to New York. After that, I need to go to the top to start January, and I've sill got to stitch the top three frames for January, February and March (which is why you can't see them in the picture!) In fact, I've also got to finish the frame for April as well!!

Something for Miss Beauregarde

Just a quick one to show you the Blueberry Muffins I baked today from my Mary Berry 100 Recipes Book - very kindly bought by a girl in my class last year as an end of year present!

The recipe is very simply plain flour, baking powder, caster sugar, lemon zest, melted butter, eggs, milk, vanilla extract and blueberries, to cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

Fit for Violet Beauregarde 

Ok, so the blueberries leaked a bit. But they still taste good so what does it matter?! =D Best of all, they're not so sweet so they'd make a good healthy breakfast muffin. That is, assuming there's any left of course!

Postcards Around the World - September

This was a Stitch-Along project I brought from Cloud Factory *ages ago*. The idea being that every month, starting from January, you get sent part of the design. Except, I forgot to start in January. So, I've decided to start with September in line with the academic year instead. Makes sense, right??!

September's postcard was Tokyo. I also had to stitch the white frames for other months so that I knew where to put this one, which took a fair bit of time, but the Tokyo postcard itself didn't take very long.

The Bigger Picture

The fabric that I've chosen is  hand dyed fabric that I bought online - it reminded me of old style postcards. I don't think the pictures do it justice -it's an oatmeal/brown sort of colour.

September - Tokyo

October is New York - a place I've actually been to! Stay tuned to see that one soon =)

Greetings!

A little while ago, I made some cards for some good friends of mine. It was the same weekend I'd been going through my old World of Cross Stitch magazines so I was inspired by the mini designs that they feature in their issues.

For Christina

This was a birthday card for a friend that I made using my Sissix Die cut machine. I cut squares of pink and blue squared paper and layered them on my blank card. Then, I used my Happy Birthday die to cut the main motif from pink card. Once I stuck it all down with foam pads, I stuck self-adhesive rhinestones in the corners. In total, a pretty quick design but I was happy with how it turned out!

For Kat

This was a mini cross stitch that I found in a past issue of World of Cross stitching. It took me a couple of hours to stitch and then I frayed the edges of the fabric. To make the card, I cut a square of blue card and stuck the cross stitch onto that with double sided tape. Underneath the blue square is washi tape. At the bottom of the card I put some more washi tape and a ribbon with a hand tied bow and then the "Congrautlations" wording came from my Sizzix machine.

For Claire

This was another mini design from a past issue of the World of Cross Stitch magazine. The whole article was a A-Z of Oriental designs. I picked this one because my friend loved her visit to Japan. Again, this one only took a couple of hours to stitch, and then I frayed the edges and mounted it on pink card with washi tape underneath.


I am also in the process of stitching Christmas cards for my sister-in-law. Yes, it's early, but still!! I won't post them yet because I don't know who they're for and I'd hate to spoil the surprise!!

Ribbon storage hack

It's back to school tomorrow! Unfortunately, that means significantly less crafting time =( However, I did manage to do a quick project this afternoon that I thought I'd share with you quickly. Especially as it's more of a life hack rather than an artistic masterpiece.

This was an idea I saw from Pintrest - effective ribbon storage! Up until now, my rolls of ribbon have been in a box getting a bit tangled and this idea seemed to be an easy solution!

Post pliers treatment!

 All I did was find a wire coat hanger - I probably didn't choose the best one as it was quite thick to cut and was coated in white paint that flaked everywhere. I used a pair of pliers to untwist the top. Then, you can just put your rolls of ribbon on and twist the hanger back together again.

Now I can easily see which ribbons I have available to use in my scrapbooking and card making! It's hanging on the window latch in my craft room The bad news is, that hanger is now full so I'll either have to stop buying ribbon or find another coat hanger and make another one!

Complete with colourful ribbons!

So, it may be a while before I post any more craft updates, being back at school and all. But, I did make some cards that I'm rather proud of a few days ago, so when the recipients have got those I'll share them with you!