Edited** Customer Service from EK Success

Just to update people on my problem with an EK Success punch that had been going on for some time.  I finally managed to resolve it with EK and they have sent out replacements to me which I have received today.

My faith has been restored in them now and I will continue to buy their products and enjoy using them!

Cute Bunny Treat Boxes for Easter Using Stampin Up's Curvy Keepsake Die

Hi - I'm into making boxes at the moment!  Good thing Easter is just around the corner.

Today, I wanted to show you this fabulously, versatile box die from Stampin Up called the Curvy Keepsake Box.  It is a thinlits die set comprising of the main box die along with some tags.

You need to cut 2 of the box panels and then you simply stick them together so that you have the same sides facing each other.  The basic box is cute but looks even nicer when decorated.

With help of punches and dies, you can make up all sorts of designs.  Have a look on Pinterest, it is full of them!  I have set a board up decdicated to Curvey Keepsake ideas - you can find it here.

I liked this tutorial so have based mine on it - it is from Sam at Sam's Sentiments.

Here are the ones that I made

I used Spellbinders ovals for the ears as I don't have any oval punches!

I filled them with 10 of the little chocolate eggs from Lidl.  I had to get some more yesterday as I had eaten some of the last lot!!!  They were still on offer £2 for 2 bags or £1.29 a pack.

I love these little boxes and I am sure I will be making some more designs soon.

If you are in the UK, the die can be purchased from my friend Tracey George here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mini Easter Milk Cartons

Where is this year going - I cannot believe that we are already approaching April and Easter!  It doesn't seem 5 mins ago that it was Christmas.  I am glad the Winter is behind us now although it is still abit wet and chilly.  The mornings and nights are getting lighter as well which is great!

I love making boxes but just don't get enough times when I need them!  I had seen some tiny little milk carton boxes on Pootles Blog and thought they we lovely.  Sadly they were alittle too small for what I wanted but fear not as Sam, the lady behind Pootles had other sizes on her blog to make.  I used this one for the size but copied the idea of having round cutouts on each side from the tiny milk carton tutorial.  Both tutorials have videos to go with them.  Pop along to Sam's blog for more info!

Back to the ones I made.  I wanted to put little eggs in mine and they were just right for the mini milk carton.  I used a 1 inch circle punch for the cutouts but this meant that my eggs fell out as they were smaller so I punched out 4 squares of acetate that were alittle bigger than the circle hole and stuck them on the inside of each side panel.

To decorate, I made a little chick from the Stampin Up! Build a Bird punch.  I trimmed the tail of the bird to make it look more like a chick.  I then stuck it on the little peg.  I also punched out a few flowers and stuck these either side of the circle cutout at the front of the carton.

I filled them up with some solid chocolate eggs that I bought in Lidl. They are on offer at the moment so were 2 packs for £2.  Each pack is 200g and you get loads of little eggs in bag.  the foils were nice colours as well - turquoise, pink, green and gold.

The above photo was obviously after I had taken out the blue and majority of the pink ones!!  I tasted them to see how they conmpared to Cadburys and to be honest I probably would not know the difference!

10 eggs fitted nicely into the milk cartons though you could fit more in if you wanted to.

Hope you like these as much as I do!!

Back Again! A fab new Sizzix Basket #2 Die!!

Hi

I am back after a long break!  I started a job and it seemed to take up all of my time and left me with no time to craft!  It's only a temporary contract and due to end soon so hopefully I will be able to start crafting again!!

I've bought some nice crafting bits recently - this beauty arrived today!

I've been looking at it for weeks and tried to order it from the US through BIC on Amazon but they had advertised it incorrectly and then changed the photo to something else so the die that arrived was the wrong one.  Very disappointing!  Anyway I ordered it from Countryview Crafts for £18.99 - the die is a lovely little basket and just perfect to put chocolates in for Easter.  It is the Sizzix Basket #2 659897 and it is a 'L' sized die so works without the need for extended cutting pads.

This little basket measures approx just under 11.5cm long at it's longest part and 6cm wide and 6cm depth so a very usable size.  The die is a Bigz die and it creases the folds and punches out the holes for the brads to go in to hold it together so very little work left to do!  You just cut 2 of the main part and stick one on top of the other so that you have the triangle parts on both sides.  You then bring up the 2 triangle side pieces and line them up with the middle triangle piece and the holes on your handle and insert a brad.  Once you have done this on both sides you have your basket!

I had a play with this die and made a larger basket by cutting out 4 of the main basket part and sticking 2 together for each side of the basket.  I overlapped them so that I had a base double the size of the smaller basket.  See pic below

I pulled up the 2 triangle pieces on each side and put a brad in through the holes.  This left a large gap in the middle between the 2 ends so I cut 2 strips of card from the spare handle die cuts and punched a hole in either end and put through the brad that I had put through the side pieces.  I then took 2 o the handle diecuts and glued them together to give me a longer length.  I punched a hole in either end of the basket and handles and fixed them on with a brad.

The finished result is a different type of basket that is much larger - 18cm in length and quite sturdy.

**Note this is a rough prototype made with cheap card and I used brass fasteners just to test it out to save wasting nice brads!  I will make it using nice card when I have more time!

Hope you like thiis cuter die as much as I do!!!

Christmas Makes 2014!

Hello there - I've not had much chance to blog lately as I was busy organising a Handmade Christmas Market and of course making things for my stall at that market!

The Christmas market was last Saturday and was a great success.  We had some fantastic sellers and a brilliant crowd of people that came along to support us.  It was a very busy day and everyone that took part enjoyed themselves.

Now I can relax and have time for other things like Christmas shopping!  Yikes I have only just started mine!!  Will be off into town today to try and get as much done as possible!

Yesterday I made my Mincemeat Christmas cake - I just need to feed it lots of brandy and get some marzipan to cover it with!  We don't like icing so it will just be marzipan for us!  Very easy recipe and you can find it here.  It's a quick and easy alternative to traditional Christmas cake!

I thought I would share with you some of the tree decorations that I have made this year.

I also made my flannel reindeers - this year I used a variety of coloured pipe cleaners including red and white candy cane!

I also made some flannel crackers with soap inside of them as well.

I still have some great items available that are suitable for stocking fillers, Secret Santa, tree gifts etc over on my Facebook page Bumble Bee's Craft Den - pop on over if you are still looking to buy gifts!!

Well - I had better get myself prepared for some Christmas shopping now!!

Byeee!

Handmade Christmas Market - 6 December

Hi all

Just a quick one from me to let you know about the Handmade Christmas Market I am co-organising.  If you are in Bristol, UK and free this coming Saturday 6 December, pop along to it.  Lots of lovely handcrafted items from a variety of craftspeople so perfect for Christmas gifts. Details on the poster below or on our page on Facebook.

Hope to see you there!