Crafting a few handmade cards

Another of the crafty projects I enjoy doing is making handmade cards! With the scrapbooking papers/punches and the like readily available these days (even in my little country town!) - it is really easy to whip up your own personalised card. And I have found cost-wise, the bits of paper etc you buy are often on par with the cost of buying a ready-made card.

Here are a few I have done up recently:

50th Wedding Anniversary 

A special one for my Aunt & Uncle's Golden Wedding Anniversary 

Hello Baby

My adaption of a a design I quite liked on Pinterest. 

This one is for dear friend who's baby boy is due in mid-June 

Engagement 

For my recently engaged cousin 

AND in regards to paper - gift wrapping paper is a cheap alternative to scrapbooking paper! 50c for quite a large bit versus the $2+ for one square of scrapbooking paper. The $2 shops have usually got a pretty good range of wrapping paper and it's glossy too! I used a heart patterns one as the background overlay on the 50th Anniversary one. AND being a graphic designer and all - it is pretty easy for me to create a digital graphic and just print it out! The ring and the congratulations section of the Engagement card are both graphics I created. The best thing about this is I can get the exact effect I am after.

x Angel x

Engagement Gift Basket

So... a little while ago, one of my cousin's got engaged! Since I wasn't able to get to her engagement party (netball commitments!!) I decided to put together a little gift basket as a 'congratulations.'

I have seen images of these floating around Pinterest and absolutely love the idea! Especially when you are not sure/or set on any one item to give the couple.

Here is my basket:

The items I collected

Arranged in the basket

Wrapped up in cellophane

I included:

• Wedding Magazine
• Chocolate Letters (first initials of my cousin and her fella!)
• And my handmade card

Your local $2 shop usually has gift baskets and cello wrap for only a couple dollars - putting it all into a basket just adds that extra special touch!

Other items you might like to include:

• Bottle of wine & glasses (great for a wine loving couple)
• Engagement photo frame
• Wedding Planner Book/Guide
• Sticky note tabs
• Any wedding-related movie on DVD
• And anything else you fancy!

Are you making one? Would love to know what you have included.

x Angel x

Tinsel out having some exercise

Tinsel out having some exercise

Knitted cowl

After finally finishing my enormous crochet blanket project, it was time to pick-up the knitting needles and finish off another project I had started awhile ago (but lost focus on once I started the blanket!)

Cowl shown in full length

All bundled up

Sporting my new cowl

I used some Vera Moda Wool/Nylon blend that has these cute little tuffs every now and then and gave it a great texture. I used a plain knit on 4.5mm needles. In the end I used up about 3 skeins in total and the final cowl measured 130cm before I sewed the two ends together. This turned out to be ideal lengthwise to accommodate the bulkiness of the cowl (forget how wide it was!)

x Angel x

Nail Art : Outlined

This a nail art design I have wanted to try out for awhile now and finally got around to it over the weekend! I painted my nails in a nude colour then used a skinny brush to do the outlines in a hot pink. Then over the top with a top coat to seal. But this is an easy one and works a treat.

   

My outlined nails

I have Matte-finish top-coat (Rimmel) which is fantastic - only problem is it is a matte finish, good for some effects but annoying for most! Still on the hunt for a good shiny top coat finish... tried out a Sally Hansen one here and it was not too bad. But if you have one that you find great to use, would love to know!

x Angel x

My finished crochet blanket!

Hooray! Finally finished my blanket today!

All done!

Turned out very bright and colourful

All snuggled up in my finished blanket

304 squares in total
Measuring approx 1.5m x 1.3
Lots of wool + many, many hours of crocheting!

This is a great starter crochet project to do, particularly if you haven't had much practice at crocheting... but it does take a lot of hours to do! I have just used odds and ends of wool I already had, but it would look great in any colour scheme.

I definitely advise sewing together the squares as you go as it gives you a good guide as to how big it is getting, plus sewing the squares together is the most tedious task (I think anyway!).

x Angel x

Magnetic nail polish

Over the weekend, I decided to try out the Magnetic Nail Colour by Sally Hansen

After trying out a few other 'special effect' nail polishes, I was a little skeptical as to whether it would work or not, but to my surprise it came out with a wonderful result!

My magnetic nails!

I used the Polar Purple colour and was really pleased with the final effect! I applied a thin first coat, followed by a thicker second coat. Before the second coat had a chance to dry, just hold the magnet (supplied) over the nail for 10 seconds and see it move in front of your eyes! You can get different effects by moving or holding the magnet in different positions too.

A top coat is a must though as I found it chipped very easily.

Definitely pretty keen to try out the other colours in the range now!

x Angel x

IMAGE SOURCE:

Top : Sally Hansen

Blanket border

The time has come to finally add the border to my crochet blanket! Yay! It is a very satisfying feeling after spending soooooo many hours crocheting those little squares. All I am planing to do is use the granny square stitch and just go around the whole thing in black.

 

Round and round I go!

Round 2

Whipping around the edges is very quick!

x Angel x

My first crochet blanket

I've had many scrap balls of wool piling up since I was a kid and decided to put them to use by creating a blanket. Though I admit I have bought a lot more balls of wool since... However, approx 1 year later, here it is!

My bright and colourful granny blanket!

I have been crocheting granny squares consisting of four rounds (approx 8cm2), then slip stitching them together. Since then I have researched a few other methods of connecting the granny squares which I hope to try out in future blanket projects.

I temporarily had to stop crocheting altogether at one stage last year due to developing the cursed RSI or crochet thumb - which also proved to be major hindrance to catching the ball at netball! So technically, it should have been finished by now; but I only have 3 more squares to go, then the edging. Yay!

x Angel x

Lucky Day : Pandora

On Saturday, after 60 minutes of fast and furious netball, I managed to score a $20 voucher for the local jewellery store which just happens to stock PANDORA; love, love!

And with their current 'spend $150 for a free bracelet valued at $99' I simply could not resist having a little splurge.

Here it what I picked up:

PANDORA | Silver ring with 14 carat gold | $139

PANDORA | Pink Cherry Blossom Clip | $55

My new clip on my free bracelet!

I knew there was a reason I spend an hour every Saturday getting hot and sweaty :)

And it makes our win that bit sweeter too!

x Angel x