Explosion Box for Baby....first attempt

Good morning all! It's quite a busy time leading up to Easter. It's the busiest and most crowded time of the year in my home town. Finding a car park is like winning the lottery! The Autumn weather is beautiful and the town and countryside is looking magnificent, so no wonder everyone from near and far want to visit over the four day Easter break. We'll be playing host to our visiting family, so we are all very excited to be spending time together. I'm hoping to get some great photos too! They've been few and far between of late :(  In the meantime I've been experimenting with a project I've been wanting to do for a while now. A work colleague of mine is due to have her baby very soon and I wanted to make an explosion box for her. This is my first attempt and I must say it was lots of fun (once I figured out the correct lid dimensions and how to embellish it).

I found the box measurements on Pinterest, decided on the colour scheme (as I don't know if the baby will be a blue or a pink). I then cut, embossed and die cut the base for the inside of the box.

The lid was a bit trickier because the measurements from Pinterest weren't correct and squashed the box up too much when closed so I had to re-jig the measurements. Sorry about the dappled light from my window.

So let the fun and games begin! I found some quotes online and typed them up onto some Bazzil cardstock and die cut them with a circle die that would fit nicely in the middle of the doily die cuts. I chose some wooden embellies, flowers, leaf sprigs and flourishes and played around with them until I was happy with the arrangement. The wooden heart was covered in paper and the "cherish" word was coated in a Viva Perlen-Pen in White Ice.

Then it was time to glue everything in place and decorate the lid. I don't have a lot of baby-themed embellishments (well actually I have zero baby-themed embellies, only stamps) so I just went with flowers and leaves.

 I'm not sure who are the authors of these quotes, so I'm unable to give credit but will rectify when I find out who they are.

I had a little box that I was given at a baby-shower a few years ago that I saved (of course!). It fitted perfectly in the centre of the explosion box. I cut the top off it, wrapped a little yellow ribbon around it and bought a tiny pair of bunny socks to fill the smaller box.

I love how the bunny is poking its head out :)

I hot-glued a satin ribbon to the bottom of the box then tied it around the whole thing to keep the lid from falling off.

All in all there were quite a few hours work in this, but only because I was unsure of what I was doing. I'll be doing another one of these very soon all going to plan, so stay tuned.  Thanks for dropping by xx

Flutterby Designs project continued....

I'm back again to share with you another PL page made with the lovely Anita Rodway's Flutterby Designs Wild Bohemian Kit. Firstly I want to show you the circles that were orginally white paper. I used some water colour paints on them and I think they've come up at treat! The little Flutterby Design's Flair is perfect for this page. As we know, it takes a brave warrior to be a teacher :D

A recent photo of our DD in her classroom with a work colleague, after hours as usual, constructing Easter hats for her students to decorate the next day. Dedication plus!!!!  The Flair sums it up completely :D

 I love this next filler card as well. A map of the World for our travel obsessed off-spring. And I found the little Tim Holtz sticker quote to add to it. Perfect for her chosen vocation.

There is some journalling on the this page as well along with a photo with her students which I won't show here. I'm having a lot of fun with this Kit and it's so colourful. I don't know why it's taken me so long to use it.
                                                        

Thanks for dropping by again xx.

Swatch it Up with Kraft Plus

I'm popping back in to give you the heads up about the new Challenge over at Kraft Plus.  And yours truly is a Guest Designer for April...yay!  Boy! did it take me out of my comfort zone or what?!!!
The Challenge.....to use paint swatches.

This turned out to be more fun than I first thought. It was just a matter of thinking outside the square. I hope my Slipperhood Sisters don't mind me using this photo, but it suited the theme perfectly. Thanks Mary, Lizzy, Cheryl & Bec xx

Besides their wonderful inspiration, these girls never fail to cheer me up, so when we all get together (a rare treat, sadly) we certainly make the most of it. They really do make life colourful :) 

Call on over to the Kraft Plus blog and check out all the fabulous DT inspiration.  I hope you get to play along. Thanks for dropping by xx 

Catching up on overdue projects....

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a great weekend! The first day of April has brought slightly cooler weather. A relief from the intense, continuous heat we've been experiencing. We're on the count down now to our next big adventure....only six weeks now so I really want to get all the projects up to date that have been sitting around for a while.  Firstly though I have decided that this time I'm going to create my own Travel Journal to take with me. I purchased a cheap A5, spiral bound, sketch book and I plan to pre-prepare my pages, adding a few keepsake envelopes here and there. So today I finally made a start on it. It will be a work in progress over the coming weeks so stay tuned for the transformation of this little book.  
I downloaded a freebie map for the front and back covers and I'm tossing around ideas for the inside of the covers which hopefully I'll get done tomorrow.

I popped some washi tape along the top and bottom edges for added protection. I probably won't decorate the front cover too much until after our trip because it will get knocked around with all the handling.

The inside covers maybe a bit of a challenge, but hey! who isn't up for a challenge? :D

I found these adorable wooden Postcards at the Kaisercraft shop (on sale!!!) last week which will be perfect for the front and back covers of the postcards that I intend to buy and write on whilst away. They measure 6x4, so I'll keep a lookout for the smaller sized postcards.

The other project I finally started today was some PL pages I've been wanting to do of our DD. These pages will be a small snippet of what she's been up to in the two & a half years since she returned to live in Oz. She certainly leads a busy and full life and makes the most of every opportunity. I've been pretty keen to play with my Flutterby Designs stash and the "Wild Bohemian" kit is just perfect for this project. The sentiments on the cards, I'm convinced, were purpose made for our Girl :D

It's only one page for today, but at least it's a start!  Thanks for looking and as I've said, I'll be posting the Travel Journal progress over the coming weeks.  It's after wine-time so I must be off. Take care xx