My Crafty Life

Today is the last day of my Christmas in July Event. I have made this cute Christmas Top Hat Gift Box. I used the Cutting Craftorium Christmas usb. There were only 3 pieces to the hat. The main part of the hat, the brim, and the hat band. It went together quite easily. It was a bit fidley attaching the brim to the main part of the hat, but it was not difficult. Once it was together I just needed to glue the hat band in place. There are some embellishments included on the usb so I put some Holly leaves over the join on the hat band. I think it is the perfect gift box for a man. What do you think? Until Next Time Happy Crafting.

Today I have made page 2 of my Classic Christmas Mini Album. Page 2 is a lovely waterfal page. Again I cut the base page to 7.5x7.5 ins. The waterfall pages are 6.5 ins wide x 5ins high. Then scored at  .5 of an inch on the short side. The closure mechanism is 2 ins wide and 6ins long. I then scored at .5 of an inch on the long side. I added glue to this small flap and glued the strip centrally at the bottom of the page. Then I added the main page mat which I cut at 7.25x7.25 ins. The waterfall mats all measure 6.25x4.25ins and we're glued in place. Next I added glue to the flaps on the waterfall pages. Be carefully to line them up properly. I added a tiny topper at the top of the closure. I added a magnet to the back of the topper and the front of the top waterfall page. Remember to do this before you add your decorative paper. If you would like to see a video of how I made this page here is the link  Page 2 I have also made a short video showing how I add pages to my albums which

Today's Christmas in July make is this pretty card made with Joanna Sheens Vintage Christmas cdrom. I used an A5 card blank as my base. My first mat was black card which I cut slightly smaller than the card base. I glued a mat of patterned paper on top which was slightly smaller than the black card. Next I cut 2 strips of black card and added a mat of a contrasting paper. Then I added the topper I had chosen and again added a mat of black card before gluing it in place. Finally I added a flower I had made. You could easily use a ready-made flower. That's the card finished. You will notice that adding the black card has made everything else seem to pop out of the card. I hope you like it. Until Next Time Happy Crafting

What Christmas is complete without a pretty poinsettia or two? I made this pretty poinsettia with the help of my Scan and cut. The files are from The Christmas usb by Cutting Craftorium. This usb is one of the earlier usb's. It has some lovely decorations on it. Once the poinsettia was cut putting it together was straightforward. It was simply a matter of layering the flower up. I did this one in traditional red and green, but you could experiment with lots of different colours. Here I have attached the poinsettias to a paper pot. The cutting file for this came from the same usb.  I hope I have given you some crafty ideas to work with. Until next time  Happy Crafting

I made this Wreath using files from a Carnation crafts Christmas usb. It was really easy to make. It comes with all of the mats and layers you need as well as all of the decoupage. There are 3 mat layers. I cut two base layers in black, a middle layer in gold and the top layer in black. I cut two base layers because I have put a ribbon loop at the top so you can hang the finished Wreath up. I simply held the ribbon in place with a piece of tape and then sandwiched it between the two black base layers. Then I added the gold layer and finally the black top layer. Next was the decoupage. I printed the decoupage onto 128gsm Navigator paper. This is my go to paper. The print quality is exellent. I get mine in bulk from amazon but if you have a Wilko nearby they sell it as well. I glued the base layer in place flat. Then I added the decoupage pieces using silicone glue. I shaped the pieces to give a better effect by just gently moulding the pieces with my fingers. The sentiment was cut from

Today I have done the first page of my mini album. It's a simple gatefold page. I cut the page to 7.5x7.5 ins. The two side flaps are cut at 5.5x5.5 ins and scored at 1.5 ins on the short side. I stuck the flaps at each side of the page to form the gatefold. I chose complimentary papers in traditional Christmas colours from rhe Classic Christmas Collection by Hunkydory. I cut all of the papers .25 of an inch smaller than the pages and flaps to give a border all of the way round. If you are using magnet closures remember to place them before you add your decorative papers. If you would like to see a video showing how I made this album page here is the link  page 1 I have also done a short video showing how I add my album pages which you can find here  adding pages to album Until next time Happy Crafting

     Today's card is made using the Paper Pantry Vol X11 USB by Creative Crafting World. I used an 8x8 in card blank. I used a mat of gold mirri card which I cut to 7.75 by 7.75 ins and then glued it onto the front of the card. I chose two matching backing papers. These paper patterns are also reflected in the topper I chose. I chose the decorative paper first and cut it to 7.5x7.5 ins and glued it on top of the mirri card. Next I cut a piece of gold mirri card at 5.25x5.25 ins and glued it in the middle of the card. I cut the green paper at 5x5ins and glued it on top of the mirri card. The plain green paper is one of the coloured cards from the Collection. As it was just going into mats and layers I just printed it onto paper. I chose the topper and when I had cut it out I measured it and cut a piece of gold mirri card quarter of an inch bigger all around. Then I carefully glued them into the centre of the card. You could leave it at that but I wanted to add something extra. I had

I have been a fan of Craft with Sarah for a long time. She designs beautiful svg files. They are designed for use with The Cricut Machine In particular but I have successfully used them with my Scan and Cut. There are a range of free cutting files on her sight like this one. Great to make some very pretty cards for Christmas. There are files to make cards, gifts and beautiful home decor. There is also an svg subscription section which gives you even more choice. Finally there is also an svg shop to check out. All in all I Iove this site and hope you will like it as well. If you would like to take a look at the Craft with Sarah site just follow this link  CWS  I hope you enjoy browsing the site. Until next time Happy Crafting

It is no secret that Ciao Bella make my absolute favourite papers. to me they are the best quality and designed papers n the market at the minute Carrying on with my Christmas in July theme I just wanted to share this beautiful paper collection named Snow and The City. It came out in time for Christmas last year. I cant wait to se wht Ciao Bella have in store for us this year. I hope you love this collection as much as I do.                  Until next time                  Happy Crafting

As part of my Christmas in July Event I have today started work on a new Mini Album The papers I am using for the Album are The Classic Christmas Collection from Hunkydory. I have the Hunkydory at Home usb so I can print as many sheets as I need which is a good thing. I started with the cover today. The album is 8x8ins so I cut a piece of gold mirri card 7.75x7.75ins to go on the front. I then cut a piece of paper from the Collection 7.5x7.5ins and stuck it on top of the mirri card. I chose a topper to match the paper to add to the front. It's worth adding here that I cut the topper out on my scan and cut. All of the Hunkydory at Home toppers have lines that in the original die cut toppers were where you popped out the different layers. If you scan your sheet and use the direct cut function your machine will recognise these lines as cut lines and cut the toppers out perfectly. I added handmade paper poinsettias and Holly leaves that I had in my crafty stash. Now it just has to dry

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back I am busy doing some design work of my own. I am pleased to say I have finished my first album design. I will be cutting it over the next few days to make sure it goes together properly. When I am sure it goes together properly I will be looking for someone to make up some samples for me. If this is something you might be interested in drop me an email at this link  Design Team  with Design Team in the subject line and I will get back to you with the details. I'm very exited about this project and I hope ypu will be as well.                 Until Next Time                  Happy Crafting

Today I made this pretty gift box. It is made using one of the inbuilt patterns on the Scan and cut machine. I made it bigger using the % feature on the SDX1200. I made it 122% which made it fill my 12x12 mat. The snowflakes are also cut from a design on the scan and cut. I had to resize these as well. I shrunk them to 90mm and cut four. I cut mine in a thin silver embossed card, but adhesive sheets would also be a good option. Once the snowflakes were stuck in place I simply folded the box up. No glue needed. If you would like to see a video of me making this box just click here Snowflake Box Until next time Happy Crafting.

A couple of months ago I bought a Tattered Lace Toner Pen. I used it for the first time this week. I used a design of a Christmas Tree from this usb. I drew the design with my scan and cut using the toner pen, and then foiled it using my laminator  Then I put it back through the scan and cut and cut it out. I cut a mat in red card and mounted it on that. Next I added some glitter and left it to dry  It's not perfect but for a first attempt I'm quite pleased with it. I think next time I will draw it and then cut it out before filling to see if I get a better result. You know what they say practice makes perfect. Until next time Happy Crafting.

Welcome to my first ever Christmas in July event. Everyday this month I will be posting something to do with Christmas  My fist Christmas Make of 2022 is this cute little snowflake tree decoration. It's made using one of the built in cutting files on my scan and cut. I cut four identical pieces in greyboard and sandwiched them together along with a ribbon loop. I coloured it with one of my sparkle pens, and finished it off with some iridescent glitter. I will be posting a video on how I made this decoration on my YouTube Channel. You can check out my YouTube Channel here  YouTube Until next time  Happy Crafting