More pop-up Boxes

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Following on from last week, I thought I’d catch up a it on all the pop-up box cards I’ve made over the last few months. These have become one of my most popular customised order items in the last couple of years.

I have a plastic template for making a box card which I draw around and cut out twice to make the boxes. I can usually get one box out of one piece of A4 cardstock. For these I have been using Hunkydory ink-me cardstock (white) and Kraft card (brown) as it doesn’t crack when scored for the edges. I have also used HD Adorable Scorable in the past. In order to make the cutting out less time-copnsuming and to reduce the amount of hi-tack tape I need, I am also now working on a personal template so it’s only one piece with one side tab to attach.

First up is the box I made for a Swiftie! A 13th birthday card to go with tickets for a concert. I managed to find an image of the set list and the gig poster for the venue to add to the box, as well as adding in some album covers. I used some craftwork cards papers and Hunkydory mirri card and gems to complete the look.

Last year I had lots of weddings to make these cards for and the same lady asked for this one. I try to customise for the recipients as much as I can and this wedding box includes images personal to the couple – wedding and engagement venues as well as hobbies, where they work and the colours of the wedding invitation. Here I used some hammered card for an expensive feel and the foiling is all in silver.

An 80th birthday card for someone that likes bowls, wine and lives by the sea! This was a fun one to make with lots of bright greens and sunshine. Again I looked for image in my boxes of cut-outs and also found some free images online. I particularly love the seagull on the front of this one – probably got his eye on the ice-cream cone!

I really enjoyed making this 50th birthday box as it was for my brother, so I was able to look around for all the things that remind me of him. He’s been a massive Bury FC fan since he was about 5 so I was thrilled to find tiny images of all the club shirts over the years. I basically themed everything around football and added in a few beer bottles, albums and film references. I think he liked it.

Another milestone birthday box, this time for a son’s 40th birthday. I was given lots of ideas to add to this one, mostly games, space and theme park related. The Hunkydory duo design paper pads are great for this type of background too.

I was given lots of photographs to add on to this birthday box along with the hobby of triathlon. Again I have found Hunkydory to be a great source of pop-up pieces and here I have used a running topper set, sporting delightful die-cut book, sporting die set, FTLS stamp set and just my type pad. I finished it off with some Papermania square gems and Hunkydory wheelie paper.

After posting details of the retirement box I made for a teacher, I was asked to make a set of five more. Four of them were very similar to my original, the only difference being the stamped images painted and the colours used. This final one was again along the same lines, but was to include table tennis . For this set I used an old OS map for the background and added in lots of images from the Hunkydory die-cut pads.

Finally, I have just completed a 30th birthday card where I was given so many suggestions and images it was hard to fit everything into the box.

It really has been a summer of pop-up boxes! I hope they were all enjoyed by the recipients.

Time to get on with the Christmas crafting now I think, but in the meantime, have a safe and happy Bonfire Night.

Happy crafting

K x

Halloween makes

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Tomorrow is Halloween, if you hadn’t noticed! I’ve been busy making lots of pumpkins again, both for us here at home and to sell.

I’ve used the same basic pattern for all of them, just sizing up /down my needles depending on the yarn I was using. This year, I’ve experimented a bit more, using a variety of yarn thicknesses. I’ve also doubled up some of the yarns and tried a few variegated yarns too. The chenille yarns are particularly lovely to work with and the finished results are very soft and cuddly to the touch.

I have also made some more tassel ghosts. I made a few last year and they were very popular for hanging decorations and with the kids. I’ve used white DK yarns and made the eyes by die-cutting tiny circles from black felt.

My local sandwich shop – Food Foundry – asked if I would like to make a basket of pumpkins and some ghosts for them to sell in the shop. So they currently have a selection adorning their till area. Fingers crossed they sell them all too!

Well I must get everything ready for the Trick or Treater’s tomorrow and I still have my pumpkin to carve!

Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween.

Happy crafting

K x

Summer’s Over, Box cards and painting

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Well Summer is over, half term finished here and it’s Halloween this week! Where has the last three months gone? I hope everyone had a lovely time and is keeping well now the dark nights are back.

So what have I been up to I hear you ask? I know lots has gone on and I have certainly been crafting when I can. It’s been a particularly busy few months for pop-up box cards, so I thought I’d share a few with you.

I was asked to make a special one for a favourite teacher retiring at the end of the last school year, so I thought I’d have a go using some of the stamps I got in a craft haul from FB Marketplace. These are a set of Hunkydory For the Love of Stamps , part of their Nature Watch collection. The other stamp set has large binoculars on but there are to big for a box card.

I chose to do some watercolouring and using my Prism brushmarkers are perfect for this. I don’t have the full range of them yet, but I am slowly building up the collection.

I always get confused over which ink pads to stamp with when using different colouring mediums, so heaven only knows whether I used memento or Stayz-on for these! But the colours didn’t seem to run, so whichever it was, it seems to have worked. (NB: Use the opposite base for the ink to the colouring medium – water-based inkpad with alcohol markers and vice-versa)

I was quite pleased with the finished results here as I haven’t painted for a very long time. It was fun to do and the Premier Craft-Tools Messy Mat was perfect for using as a pallet and to stop me getting water all over the office desk!

Whilst the paintings were drying, I put together my box card. I used kraft card for the box base and a piece of vintage map card from a collection from Hunkydory. I always use red-liner tape for putting these together as they do get some use folding flat and popping up again and this tape holds the box together brilliantly.

Once everything was dry, I cut out the painted images using a circle nesting die and also added some die-cut leaves. Then it was time to put them all together, using some thin strips of acetate for some of the smaller images so they look like they are exploding out of the box. The recipient also has a penchant for pigs, so I found a little pig stamp and added them on to the side panels.

So there you have my retirement box card. It was one of many boxes I’ve made over the last few months.

I’ll be back with a couple of craft hauls in the next few days, so in the meantime,

Happy crafting

x

(I have been back at Parkrun and I have managed to equal my PB of 44:25 twice!)

Oops, I did it again!

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Well, so much for no spend! I’ve gone and done it again. Another Facebook Marketplace haul of crafting goodies that I just couldn’t resist. It’s like a massive crafting lucky dip. This one was a bit further away from my house, so I roped hubby into driving me there as we could call at B&Q on the way home!

There were three huge boxes in this haul which I have managed to condense into two with a few larger items on the side! So first up is this large box of papers, card stock and card blanks with envelopes. There is so much in here, lots from Create and Craft but also some from Lidl, a set of mixed inserts from Hunkydory and a 12×12 paper pad possibly from the Range. It’s hard to work out where to start with it all. There is a set of diecut sentiments from Craftwork cards and two storage boxes full of stickers and peel-offs.

This box took a long time to go through. And it did involve a little bit of rubbish, but I put together a lovely collection of stickers and papers that I wouldn’t ever use, to give to the local primary school – I thought they would be ideal for the last week of term fun making.

So after the joy of papers, I was stunned to find this Paper cutter. It’s from Lidl and hasn’t even been opened! I’m intrigued as to what I can do with this and if anyone has one already, do let me know how you find it.

There was also this little manual die-cutting machine. This is from Aldi and has been well used. It included all the plates too. I have been wanting to get myself a smaller machine to keep on my desk for cutting out sentiments instead of having to get out my Big Shot. So this is perfect. It seems to cut really well to, and I expect this will get a lot of use.

The smaller of the two boxes is packed with smaller bits and pieces. There are fancy scissors, washi tape, toppers, dies, a few stamps, ink pads, glitters, ribbon and adhesives.

I spent hours going through all of the loose toppers and a lot have gone to the primary school, but I’ve kept loads for using in my pop-up boxes as I have a few to make in the coming weeks. Don’t you just love the box though? It’s such a pretty box with handles and a lid too, so I’m definitely going to find a use for this once I’ve used up everything inside it (will that ever happen?)

The floral tin contains lots of little dies. I don’t know which companies have made them, or even what they all are yet, but there is a really good collection here. There seems to be quite a few floral ones and there is an alphabet set from The Works which I already have, but I can’t believe how many there are and that set is my only duplicate!

Finally there are six Hunkydory Little Books and I’ve never seen any of these before. Some are in well used condition with lots of loose pages, but I’ve managed to get them together and can’t wait to make up some of my £1 cards with these, particularly the Christmas ones.

So what do you think to this haul? I’m pretty impressed with the amount and variety of items. I certainly have a lot to get stuck into as well as another pile of boxes with nowhere to store them! So I really had better get a move on with using things up.

No more spending for a while I think. Have a great week.

Happy crafting

K x

(No Parkrun still too sneezy)

Another Great Day

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What a week it’s been. I’ve just calmed down from my Bury Show wins and received my Hunkydory magazine. Having a quick flick through and I’ve only gone and won the sketch challenge from the last magazine!

Talk about thrilled and flabbergasted! So I have a nice little prize to spend on their website. I think I’m going to save it up for the Christmas goody box, but you never know as they are bringing out lots of lovely new products all the time and I might just cave from my no spend Summer!

Here’s a close up of my winning card. It was made using the Dreams of Spring collection which I’ve been trying to use up and this design was a great stash buster for some of the little bits left over. It’s a 6×6 scalloped edge card blank, silver mirri and cardstock from the kit. I loved the scalloped circles and they were all far too nice to put on top of each other. I thought this large circle in particular was very pretty. I used a corner rounder on opposite corners to tie in with the scallops and a leaf shaped sentiment I had left.

I really enjoyed putting this together, so much so that I made another one for a friend moving on to a new job.

What do you think?

Time to get cracking on the rest of the kit I think!

Happy crafting

x

Bury Show 2024

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I managed to enter a few items in this year’s craft competitions, after the traditional last minute decision that I had to make something new to enter into the knitted / crochet baby item class!

It was an early start to walk down to the show grounds, but I made it in plenty of time and entered 7 items into 4 different categories. I really must do some baking for it next year too!

I went home for some breakfast and made some lunch to take back later. Nobody wanted to come with me so I took a more leisurely stroll back to the show, hoping to spot a kingfisher. ( I didn’t) It was pretty cool and drizzly so I went straight back to the craft tent to see how I had got on.

I was thrilled with my placings. Four prizes out of seven entries wasn’t a bad haul at all. There were two third places for my knitted headband (bottom in the above photo) and for my crochet baby comforter – which I had only finished after midnight!

Best of all though were being placed First and Second in the Handmade card competition.

Apparently the pop-up box card was loved by the judges and was considered for best in show! Although that was won for a needle felted picture which was gorgeous.

There were more entries than I’ve seen in the past, which is great for all the crafters. And there were lots of visitors to the tent during the afternoon. So it was a good day all around and I really did need my roast dinner when I got home!

I’m going to aim to make some things for the show much earlier next year as the knitted and crochet items that won obviously took more time than the day before! So next week I shall start thinking about what I can make and getting prepared.

Happy crafting

x

Summer is here!

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Summer seems to have descended on us with gusto! I can’t quite believe the change in weather conditions over the last few days. I hope you are all well and staying hydrated.

I did my stall at the school fair last Friday and it was pretty hot. We were outside and this year there was no gazebo to take shelter under. It was also rather windy, so I rather limited the stock I put on the table as I didn’t fancy spending the time chasing it all around the playground! As is usual for this fair, I sold only a couple of cards and lots more little knitted and crochet creatures.

I was disappointed that I didn’t sell any of my newly crocheted keyrings, but I did sell a few of the bookmarks and I have plenty left over to donate to the Guides fundraising evening in a couple of weeks time.

So whilst it’s been crazy hot for the last couple of days and I’ve been hibernating inside due to the farmer cutting the fields for silage, I’ve also been subjected to the nightmare of pile driving in the site that once was a wildlife haven. It’s awful. I’m still waiting for responses from the local planning dept and the construction company – I think I’d best not hold my breath!

To try to take my mind off the noise and vibrations, I’ve been working on a couple of box cards for orders and trying to decide what to make for Bury Show next weekend. I’m also looking out for some more possibilities for stalls, do let me know if you know of anything locally.

Well I’d better get back to my orders. Have a good day.

Happy crafting

x

(No Parkrun again last weekend – too sneezy)

Christmas in June – not for me just yet.

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Christmas has come to all the crafting companies! Yes, I know it’s only June and we haven’t even had anything like the start of Summer yet (in North West England). But that’s the way it is in the crafting world. In order to get ready for the biggest time of the year, we have to start early. Having said that, I’m not quite in the mood for Christmas yet, so whilst I’m keeping an eye on what’s new and going to be ‘on trend’ this year, I’m still working on florals and birthdays.

I’ve committed myself to a few things in the next couple of weeks. First up there is the local Primary school Summer Fair. This is going to be on Friday (June 21st), so not much notice this year. So I am trying to get together a stock of low cost items to take. I’ve had a first go at making bookmarks and I’ve put together a large collection of £1 cards. I’m also trying to do a bit of crochet to take too. I think it’s going to be a busy couple of days/evenings!

I’m also aiming to take part in several of the craft categories at Bury Show. I haven’t taken part for several years as it’s usually the same weekend as my Dad’s birthday. But this year I’m going to be able to have a go. I’ve highlighted about ten of the handicraft classes, so wish me luck on being able to make something for them all.

Finally the week after the show, Crafty-teen is helping out at the local Guide unit fundraising craft sale. They’re raising money for Bury Hospice and Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary. So I’ve been roped in the bring some makes along for them to sell. I think I’m going to see how the bookmarks do at school as I can make those relatively quickly and with a box of letter stickers, they can be personalised too.

So I have a lot going on, making wise (and that doesn’t include the orders I have for some pop-up boxes, my Dad’s birthday and my brother’s 50th coming up too).

Better get back to the crochet!

Happy crafting

x

(I didn’t Parkrun last weekend, too sneezy)

It’s Hunkydory Goody Bag time

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Last week was Hunkydory Fest, with lots of great fun live shows as well as some extra special festival prices and the best part of any festival – the goody bag!

For £20 they guarantee at least £50 worth of products, and like their larger goody boxes, these include new products, not just old stock. So what did I get?

I did order some of the card blanks, so I could get free delivery and every order got a festival wrist band too.

There were a few small items in the bag, including some glue and a pack of glue dots. Then a fantastic background stamp set and a lovely roll of diamond sparkles gem stones (Aurora Borealis). I’m not a big stamper, but these stamps look really useful so I must have a go at doing more than stamping a few sentiments. The gems will be really useful. Finally for the smaller items, there was the little square book of Vintage Journeys. This is a matt finish pad of 20 different images (6 of each) and they are gorgeous. Lots of reminders of holidays past – Rome and Paris, as well as some lovely vintage images of campervans and cameras. This is definitely one I need to start crafting with. This little pile alone would cost over £20, so all the rest of the bag is essentially FREE!!!

Hunkydory are well known for their topper sets and there were a few included here. The Swan Lake and Sit Back & Relax are from the Topper Favourites range. I think both of these will be useful for family and friend’s cards.

Next were the Just married topper set (including 2 pieces of patterned and foiled cardstock) and the deco-large – Go Ape. I have the full deco-large kit with this in, but I’m ok having it duplicated. I think it’s a fab image (although at a push I might have preferred the red panda!)

These are another decoupage sheet of a princess tiara and a butterfly – not really my style, but I’m sure there will be someone out there who likes these images. But I love the bicycle stepper card and this will be fun to make.

Finally came a collection of cardstock, both shimmer glitter card in lavender and a full collection of pearl patterned card. I didn’t have any of these in my stash already, but I do have other collections of the patterned card packs and they are great for backgrounds.

So all-in-all I’m pretty happy with this little lot. It’s a goody bag and you have to be willing to take the chance with what you get. Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily have bought some of the items, it does mean I go outside my comfort zone with some of them and I get to have a try of something new (stepper card). I have seen a few bag openings on the internet and there have been a few quite like this bag, but not everything is the same. The people who ordered more than one bag do seem to have got a good mix of things, although all are along the same lines. In my opinion it’s worth the risk in what you get because the products are of great quality and it’s a nice surprise to get in the post (and who doesn’t want that once in a while?!)

Time to get on with some actual crafting as I have a few things coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Happy crafting

x

(Parkrun was Clarence, time 49:18 – it’s a mud bath!)

Hunkydory Orders

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After my ‘no spend’ decision going to pot after less than a day, I thought I’d catch you all up on the other recent Hunkydory orders that have arrived in the last couple of weeks.

First up was an order from the sale. I was after a stock up on some mirri card as I’ve been without any full sheets of rainbow mirri for some considerable time. As the price was too good to miss, I added in some gold too – I use it all the time these days and only have a couple of A4 sheets left.

As the paperpads were half price, I added in this shades of browns and greys. It’s a colour selection I didn’t already have and I think it will go nicely with some of the animals, wood and more masculine themes I have in my stash.

I then went a bit mad on inserts and papers sets as they were great value (reduced from £9.99 down to £1.99). I don’t actually have all the corresponding kits for these, but I do have some of the little books and even so, the papers are so lovely, they will work in their own right.

Finally for this order were a few essentials – isn’t everything essential though really?! And who doesn’t need a spider web stencil?! It was so lovely I just couldn’t resist it.

My other order was from their Club birthday event and included the new set of Delightful Die-cuts which covers sports, birthdays and music. These will be so very useful for all the pop-up boxes I make and it means the image quality will be better than having to print out from the internet. I’ve also picked up the most recent club gift bundle – Moonlit Moments. The colours of this kit are so vibrant I can’t wait to find an event to make use of them. I’m not sure why I didn’t take pictures from this order, but I’m sure they will pop up on some makes soon.

I do love the quality of Hunkydory products, they really are lovely to work with and last a long time too. I’ve had to place an order during their current Hunkydory Fest, just so that I can get the limited edition wristband (it would be rude not to) and that’s including one of their festival goody bags – I can’t wait to see what I get in that one.

Happy crafting

x

(No Parkrun last week – had a lie-in instead)