Living my dream

Prima Advent Calendar

Hi, as seen right here yesterday, I've got more detailed instructions on how to make the advent calendar.

To make these suitcase boxes,
I used the Tim Holtz Sizzix Bag, Suitcase die.

You can cut two suitcases from each piece of 12x12 paper, so I chose the double sided wintery North Country patterned paper range from Prima as it fits the Christmas theme perfectly and you can create two different patterned bags with one piece of paper.

Step 1:

Gather your supplies – see supply list.

Step 2:

Use the die to cut 24 suitcases ready for construction.

Step 3:

Lay out the patterns on a table in the order you think the patterns look best. You can now work from this line up to make your boxes.

Step 4:

Make all appropriate folds ready for construction.

Step 5:

Start constructing the boxes. You can either do this as you go or all at once. I prefer to do them all at once and get myself into a rhythm.

Start with the bottom of the box. Folding in the corners of the box and holding it together with brads. You need 4 per box (so 96 in total).

Adhere the lid to the box (it’s now looking more like a suitcase).

Adhere the handle.

Step 6:

To ensure the suitcases don’t open while hanging on the tree, use a hole punch (I used a Fiskars hand punch) and punch four holes in the two pieces of the bottom of the case (the opposite side to the handle). Once it is filled with your treat/goodies/notes then use a piece of ribbon to tie the sides together and leave a bit hanging for added decoaration.

Your suitcase is now ready for decoration.

Embellish the suitcase with flowers, rubons, chipboard, stickers, lace, buttons, etc and finish with a number (to use for countdown purposes).

Hanging:

There are two ways that I see the suitcases hanging.

• All joined together with ribbon that can then be strung around a Xmas tree (see enclosed photo).
• Each on an individual loop to be hung either on a Xmas tree or on a board made especially for them.

Tips:

If you wish to do any stitching, ensure you do it before you construct into suitcases.

If you wish to make the decorating quicker and easier, you can make the first suitcase your template, then simply make the same design on each box, changing only the number.

Add glitter to parts of your boxes and/or embellishments, giving them a more wintery, Christmassy feel.

Add a small bell to the ribbon tied on the bottom of several boxes so they twinkle in the wind.

December with Prima

HI everyone. Trina here. I'd like to share some Prima projects I've been working on in the last little while...

First a couple of 'day to day' LO's. Then a wonderful Christmas project I created a little while ago. And finally a 'teacher gift'.

This first LO was created with Prima's canvas, packaging and crystals.

I wanted to keep the photo the focus on this LO as it's so beautiful. By adding in the transparent packaging, I was able to add a pattern without taking away from the focus.

The canvas was cut, then sprayed in several different colours, before some black was splattered across it to tie it into the background.

Supplies:

541101 - SIIC Swirl with Fimo Black

890902 - Metal Treasures Street Lamps

549763 - Mistables

Other: 2 types of packaging, white tag, pen, thread, sandpaper

This next one has a photo Sharon took of my children and I on her recent trip to NZ. We went out sightseeing and she took this great photo. THANKS Sharon!

I included some old Prima (like the heart stamp, some of the flowers and leaves) and some new (the metal treasures, the vine and a couple of flowers). I've said it before and I'll say it again... I LOVE how you can mix and match ranges of Prima from a few collections ago to right now!

In this LO I also included bunched up pieces of organza. I love how you can colour them using inks or sprays to fit the theme of your work.

And now, because it's Christmas, I thought I'd share a fun advent calendar I made.

The idea is to hang it around your Christmas tree, and open one box each day of Christmas until Christmas day.

Each box was made using a Sizzix Suitcase die cut. Then put together and decorated. Each has been held together with a beautiful ribbon, so heavier items can be put into the 'suitcase' should you wish to.

I used the beautiful North Country collection to create this calendar.

Each suitcase is designed differently to enforce the idea that there is a new and special surprise in each one.

But I wanted them to 'match' as well, and so used glitter to bring them all together.

Die cuts are a wonderful way to keep your costs down when you're making such a large project. By using them to cut designs from Prima's paper you make interesting textural embellishments without the extra cost.

Because each one is being opened to collect the goodies inside, Prima's double sided papers are perfect for this project. Both the inside and out, look beautiful.

Patterned Paper:

843311 - Glacier

843243 - Wonderland

843274 - Icicles

843304 - Maine Meadow

843267 - In the Forest

843298 - Snow Fall

843281 - Forest Notes

843250 - Red Deer

553838 - mulberry 6x6 paper.

550110 - Prima alphabet sheet Pixie Glen

550097 - Prima alphabet sheet Romantique

551254 - Prima North Country chipboard stickers

550851 - Prima Flocked Rubons North Country

Vintage Swirls

Swirl with fimo brown

551490 - SIIC

552923 - Melody white

552589 - Jardinere

SA002 - White roses

552541 - Essentials

540456 - Rose Leaves

552008 - Twisters

890728 - Resin

Other:

Seam binding, white tags, Kindy Glitz (USA Equivalent Stickles), brads, Tattered Angels Glimmermist Hula Hoop, Button, Dusty Attic mini words, Dusty Attic Damask, Dusty Attic mini words, Dusty Attic Damask, Dusty Attic Fence, Fiskars punch, Die Cuts: Cherry Lynn Italian Flourish doilie, Spellbinders Fancy tags 3, Classic Scalloped circles, Tim Holtz paper rosette, Sizzix bag, suitcase.

For instructions on how I made this calendar, please visit my blog again tomorrow.

And finally I made this booklet as a 'thank you' to my son's first teacher. In New Zealand our school year goes from Feb-Dec, so our schools have just closed for the summer. Yippee!

As a class we worked on this together. I created the book, then all the children in the class drew a picture and contributed a photo of themselves to make a double page of each child. It was a very special project and we all had a lot of fun with our children creating their masterpieces.

This is what the front of the book looks like:

I've used a gorgeous resin piece to highlight a photo of the class on their first day, and it also reminds me of how as parents we'd all stand at the windows watching and waiting for the day to end.

Each page of the book was made from canvas. I cut out 20 odd pieces of cardstock in size 6x6", then cut pieces of canvas slightly larger.

I glued a piece of canvas to each side of the card. Then stitched them together.

Then for the front cover I used a Prima wall mask to create a design. To make it easier to block off pieces of the mask, I scrunched up some left over pieces of canvas and popped it randomly onto the mask.

Next I used some Glimmermist (riptide) to give a bright blue colour (Dan's teacher's favourite colours are blue and purple).

Once the base design is created you can decorate with flowers, resin, crystals etc.

I thought the word 'inspire' in the vintage trinket was perfect so had to be added!

The finishing touches were of course a ton of ribbons to add extra 'fluff' to the look of the album.

Plus tags stitched onto each page with the childs name.

As I write this post, we are still to give it to the teacher, but by the time the post goes live, she will have received it. I sure hope she likes it!

Here are the Prima supplies I used:

535315 - SIIC with flowers black

551186 - Vintage Trinkets

552985 - Gillian Aqua

538736 - Cameo Roses Turquoise

548858 - Corine Collection

549343 - Candy Gems Fruitty Tutti

548599 - Whisper Collection Sparkling

544102 - Cottage Blossoms Orchid

550004 - Brick wall mask

546649 - De Soie Col Bistro

553616 - Vermont Ivory 

Well, that's it from me for the year. Thanks so much for joining me. Have an absolutely amazing Christmas season and safe and happy new year!

See you in 2012! 

Christmas Cards

I have to admit I haven't made any cards this year. Eeeek. I thought I would, but well, hey, we all know what happens don't we?

I did make this special card though.

It's really very simple when you've got some gorgeous Prima packaging, a punch, Spellbinders dies, some distress ink and a few special embellishments.

So how did I create this card?

First I cut my own base from white card 12" x 6" (it's a 6x6 card).

Next I cut a piece of Prima ledger paper to fit inside the front cover, and using a Martha Stewart punch, I created a border.

I inked the border to ensure it stands out. I used Ranger Distress Ink Fired Brick.

I then used a piece of packaging from some old Prima I'd finished using. I love the colours and designs in their packing and often use for die cuts, or backgrounds like this.

Next I used some Spellbinders dies to cut a couple of shapes to help form a base for my large flower.

Then I threw in some other cute embellishments such as Prima's candy gems, resin, leaves, small flowers and flower centres.

TIP: A little while ago while talking with the ladies from the Prima DT, I discovered hot glue guns. I now use hot glue for 'most' of my adhering as I find some of the larger more heavy items need an adhesive that is going to stick well. It also dries really quickly.

The final step was to create a 'sentiment'. And I did this by using a gorgeous little stamp.

And now it's ready to send. I hope you get some time to create a few special cards this Christmas season.

Worries.

We've had a fairly emotion laden week. Between birthdays, weird emails, chickens being stolen by cats and other small disapointments I decided to try and alliviate some of the potential future issues and brought ourselves a new chicken house.

Yesterday, as a family we put it together. It was incredibly easy to make and only took an hour.

Now we have an area that is safe and big enough for our babies before they grow big enough to go into the 'normal' chicken area (or be sold).

Check out our efforts....

It came in the biggest box! Thankfully my car is big enough to carry it, even though it was bigger than what they told me it was.

We laid it out ready to assemble.

Then got to assembling it.

It was lovely to see Andy helping Matt do some drilling, while Dan and Sarah played in the empty box.
Then it was time to put the nesting box on.

and all of a sudden it was finished.

We decided to put it in the garden for now as it needs to lie fallow for a while, plus the chicken manure will be good for it.

They love it.

And so do we.

PS: Poor wee Blah. Being a bantam the babies are now the same height as her. So they don't all fit under her wings now. Luckily they have feathers so it is quite warm enough for them and they all just squash in together as close as they can.

One thing to tick off my list to hopefully prevent any further worries.

A new challenge at Get Picky.

There's a new challenge over at Get Picky.

It's all about words. I love to add journaling to my LO's so I didn't think it would be too much of a challenge, and then I started scrapping. And well, for some reason it was harder than normal.

I still managed to get a LO done.

This is one I mentioned in a post a little while back. I love these photos. And I love the feelings that go with them. I think I got it down in the journaling.

I used lots of lovely Prima, Martha Stewart punches and Prima Packaging.

Pop on over to the blog to see what the rest of the team has done.

Birthday baking

Well you guys know it's been the kids birthdays this week. And that means I do lots of baking. I never thought I'd be the type that gets into baking like I do. I don't know what happened to change? But it is something I enjoy so I go with it.

As M&S were having their birthday parties the weekend after their actual birthday, we had a little family party at home on their special day. I made a few treats....

Yo-yo's and chocolate covered fruit. I think there are strawberries, bananas and pears in there!

Cupcakes, chocolate brownies, and chocolate marshmellow cakes. Yummo!

Love that new glitter I found at Millies. Just sprinkle it on for a dash of elegance. I asked each of the twins what they'd like me to bake. Matt asked for cupcakes, and Sarah for 's' biscuits. Well, that wasn't really going to work so we settled on butterflies with her initials. I think she was pretty pleased with them.

And for the boys.....

I decided we also needed something savoury and made these scrumptious chicken pasties. Easy to make and both kids and adults love them.

Then it was onto their friends parties.

Matt had his yesterday. We went to Megazone. It was so much fun. I would totally recommend this for any boys party! And girls who like something a little different.

Matt asked for a 'gun' cake. So I checked out Megazone's photos and found one of their equipment, then drew the gun part as large as the cake I'd made. Then I cut it out, attached it to the cake with skewers, and cut around it.

From there it was pretty easy to decorate.

Getting a totally black gun didn't work, even after using a pretty strong 'commercial' colouring. Still Matt decided it actually looked better than it would have in black. Whew.

He particularly liked the trigger. LOL.

And decided exactly what decorations were needed.

Sarah's party was today. And anyone following me on Facebook will know the dilema we had this morning. Hopefully I'll go into photos etc for the parties another day. But here is Sarah's cake.

With us planning on going to Rainbows end, we decided to keep the cake in the same theme and went for a rainbow cake. That rainbow on top was made from pipecleaners. Easy peasy.

Again, Sarah had ideas on how it should be decorated and helped me a little.

But the best part was when it was cut...

I had seen two friends make this cake in the last year and with rainbows being the theme, well, it just seemed right to give it a go myself.

While I LOVE birthdays, preparing and holding parties, I've got to admit I'm quite happy to sit down with a cup of tea tonight and know I don't have anymore to worry about for a little bit now.

Later.

Prima's December BAP and PPP's

I notice these went up on the Prima Blog so thought I'd share with you here in case you missed them.

BAP:

This time round, I created a card. It was fun. I'm really enjoying taking the time to make cards at the moment. They are quick and usually easy and so makes the feel good factor come around quicker. Grin.
Now, funny story with this card. I made it, and was about to put on the initials of our niece and her fiance who it was being made for on and thought I'll ask Andy instead of getting up to look at the invite to confirm her fiance's inital. Well, he got it wrong didn't he?! LOL! So we get down to Gisborne and I have to quickly fix it, running around finding some glue, fancy paper, and alphabets. But we did and it was a lesson learnt! Grin.

For a look at the sketch and more designs from the incredibly talented Prima DT, click here.

The PPP this month is based on wonderful rich Christmas colours....

Check it out here for the actual PPP, and more amazing designs from the design team.

I was inspired by one of the team when she made a wreath to put in her house. I didn't know if I could do that, but thought I could do it on a LO, and that's exactly what I did.

I also gave the LO a fabulous border using Ranger's distress ink. Perfect for this type of LO.

The photo was taken in last years Cadbury Snow Globe down in Devonport. Gosh, we stood in that que for over an hour in the stinking hot sun, but it was so worth it!

Ok, gotta dash, Matt's birthday party starts in an hour and I've gotta do a few bits and pieces, but come back and visit my blog over the next couple of days for a peek at the cakes I made this year. FUN!