November 2011

MAN-day Monday – ‘How Old?’

by Lesley Oman on 28 November, 2011

Happy Monday everyone

Only a few more sleeps until it’s December and I am able to openly sing Christmas songs with out getting the stink eye. My grinch husband worked too long in retail when at University, and insists that the Christmas season shouldn’t start until Dec 1st. Well, what he doesn’t know is that i am actually listening to Christmas songs on the music channel just now…. mwuahahaha!

But enough about Christmas, its MAN-day Monday, so its time to share a masculine card.

This one is for a man, perhaps a dad or an uncle, who has a sense of humour. This paper is from the Cosmo Cricket 6×6 pack called Joy Ride, and i thought it had an awesome colour mix that would lend itself to a masculine card- the purples and greens mixed with the orange gives a playful tone and the mismatched size of numbers make the pattern really eye-catching. I also love the way that the letters are a font that almost look a little scrawly. (It kinda reminds me of my otherhalf’s writing , heehee)

The circle was a journaling sprout form jillibean soup. It actually had the number 1 on it, but i covered this with the question mark sticker. To add some cohesion I mounted this on a piece of purple cardstock cut using my circle nestabilities, this also made the circular element stand out a little more. A few squeezes of the corner chomper and i was done.

Because this was a 6×6 pad and i covered a 4×6 card, i had a 2×6 strip left over so i threw together another quick card. I love these little stickers from paperchase – they look so cute!

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Christening Card for Julebug

by Lesley Oman on 24 November, 2011

Ever feel like you’re running on empty? You want to go faster, work harder and do better but your body just refuses to do it. Thats how i’ve been feeling lately. I guess between being a mom and working full time, baby classes and life in general, its taking a toll. Last night I got to spend a little time in the craft room and the difference it made was incredible! Crafting really is therapy! I’m still tired, but I don’t feel as frustrated and ready to explode. I love it, don’t know what i would do if i couldn’t get my craft on!

This is a card I made last month, for Juliet’s Christening. I wanted an elegant yet a girly sweet card. I dug through my stash of papers for TEN minutes before i found this paper. I knew it was in there somewhere! {I really need to organise my papers using a better system….one day! }

I am sorry to say that this paper is old. I have faint memories of buying it in a shop in Hamilton, when we lived in Glasgow, and we haven’t lived there since 2006…eek! So its actually really old! Sorry. I probably shouldn’t mention how much i love it for projects like this. Y’know, the way that it is elegant, cute, full of gorgeous typography and with just the right amount of religiousness. (is that a word?)

The metal ring is from Making Memories, and the angel is from Meiflower.co.uk of course. Check out their site for lots of other cute charms.

Off for a wee rest now.

have fun

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MAN-day Monday: Summer Banner

by Lesley Oman on 21 November, 2011

Happy Monday everyone, Happy MANday Monday! It’s time for another boy-centric project here at Hungry Heffy Crafts.

Today I am sharing a project that is for my 5 year old nephew. Joshua and gang came to visit during the summer, and we had a blast! It was so amazing getting to spend an extended length of time with him and his brother Lewis, because even when we go back to Ireland for a visit, we usually only get to cram in a few hours here and there.

I think the boys really did have fun during their stay, and not long afterwards it was Joshua’s birthday, but rather than make a birthday card, I wanted to make a little something for my sweet Godson that he could keep to remind him of the fun and adventures we shared. I decided to go for a banner that could be displayed on a wall – after all his lil bro Lewis is still young, and I don’t want little hands prying off embellishments.

So confession time…I totally suck at posting things. Joshua’s birthday was in August, but the project wasn’t finished in time. Fast forward a few weeks, the project was finished, but not photographed. Flash forward another few weeks and its still hanging across my craft room wall. Grr! Sometimes i frustrate myself sooo much! BUT now that it should have arrived with him, i want to share it with you.

For the basis of the project I used a scrapbook stack by We R Memory Keepers called 72 and Sunny. It is a fabulously summery collection that really do make you smile from ear to ear. I love the way that there is a good selection of different patterns in the stack, which all coordinate with each other nicely. The one frustration i have with these paper stacks is that there is usually too many glittered patterns for me. I know some people like that, but i would rather add glitter myself wherever i want it.

I used a scrap piece of paper to cut the banner shape and then used this as a template. I kept the width to 4 inches which made best use of the 12 inch scrapbook paper. The guts of the project has a photo, and then there is a generic flag at the start and the end.

One of the pages featured an alphabet which reminded me of flash cards, and i thought it would be cool to use this on the project. You can see that each flag which has a photo also has one of these letters as an embellishment.

I used some satin ribbon to string my flags together to make a banner, but i realised that i could also use binding rings to bind them all together to make a mini book. Perhaps i’ll tell my brother to do that once Joshua wants to take it down from his wall.

This was such a fun project, and i loved cutting out the little shapes to add as embellishments. Because they are all from the same stack, it makes it so easy to create a cohesive project. And aren’t those turtles just the cutest! ♥

Have a great day. x

Thanks for stopping by, and don’t forget that you can still check out the Thanksgiving Project Tutorial below (plus 4 free journaling cards to download)

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Give Thanks: A Thanksgiving project VIDEO (+ free downloadable journaling card)

by Lesley Oman on 16 November, 2011

{Scroll to the bottom to see more pics and the videos}

Its that time of year again.
Orange and red and yellow and golden brown.
Cinnamon and nutmeg and ginger.
Apples and chestnuts and PUMPKINS!

I’m pretty sure that if it was a competition, Autumn would totally win.

Even though I am on the wrong side of the world to call Thanksgiving one of my national holidays, we usually still celebrate it in our house. Every year we spend the day with our good friends Jeremy and Sarah and a gang of other people to celebrate gratitude. It’s so lovely to take a moment from the hustle and bustle of life, sit down and reflect upon all the things in your life that you are truly thankful for.

A few years ago I made a project to take to Thanksgiving Dinner, and it was really fun. I mean REALLY fun. I’m sure there were a few laughter induced tears as we read out the notes that each person had jotted down on their journaling card. Of course there was the usual ‘i am thankful for my wife, my family…’ but there were also a few unique, funny answers too. When I shared that project with you, I gave my viewers a chance to download the journaling card that i had made for the project (click the link at the start of the paragraph if you wanna go get it for yourself).

Last week as I drove along the tree-lined, windy British roads on the way to work, all of a sudden I felt Autumnal. The trees had exploded into vibrant colours and bright, rich leaves floated down through the air, falling like confetti onto the bonnet of the car. It was so beautiful…& I started to get excited.

Thanksgiving is on its way, and before I start thinking about the food side of things I wanted to make a project for the table this year. Once again I designed my own journaling card to use as the basis of the project, one for each person in attendance.

This time I have made a video tutorial which walks through how i made this project, so that you can make one too if you like. Kinda like a free craft class i guess. Also, just like the last time, you can download the journaling card so you can use this on your projects. All you need to do is to click on the sign up tab at the top and become a free member. This will give you access to all the free digital downloadable elements. Be sure to also sign up to our newsletter so that we can let you know when new stuff is available. Also, all newsletter subscribers are automatically entered into any competitions we run on Hungry Heffy Crafts. Great, huh?

Here’s the videos, I had to do them in two parts, and there are some more photos below that so you can see more of the project.