Laura Rumble - Crafter

As part of my Secret Santa gifts I wanted to include something hand made.  I knew my lady loves bats so I set about making a ribbon bat.  I used 25mm black grosgrain for the body.  I painted the back edge of the wing ribbon with matte medium so I could cut to a scalloped edge without causing any fraying. For the body of the bat I used 10mm grosgrain and super strong double sided tape.  A couple of dark grey swarovski crystals for eyes and a deep V cut to represent the ears... and I added a plain hair grip (bobby pin) et viola! I'd love to hear what you think!

Secret Santa.  Blooming brilliant things to be a part of!  I was involved in two online Secret Santas, one run by Carmen and one by That Craft Place . Here is my haul from Santa Suzie ... Whilst opening these I was asked, "How does she know you so well?" by my Pet Crocheter.  It was amazing, everything was spot on - so very me. and here is my haul from Santa Virginia via Carmen ... Tons of stash!  And Virginia included this beautiful hand made mini album.  To be honest it is so awesome it needs a post all of it's own, which will follow when I can dedicate it the time it deserves! Brilliant!  Thank you That Craft Place , Suzie , Carmen and Virginia ! You can read about what I sent (in Carmen 's swap) to K on her blog here . x

For the final day of Crafty Ribbons Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations I have a door hanger to share with you... I've used my glitter thickers to send the message Do Not Disturb.  I reckon you could use this to exclude peepers trying to get a glimpse of what gifts you are wrapping up, or Boxing Day morning to see if you can have a lie in... obviously you wouldn't use it on Christmas Eve else Santa might not deliver to you!! I used the lovely holly basket ribbon for a big bow to finish off my hanger. It makes a beautiful bow. Join us at Crafty Ribbons Inspirations for your chance to win some giveaways from the last twelve days... Merry Christmas! x

  It's the penultimate day of Crafty Ribbons' Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations.  Today I have used my old trick of framing some of Ali's beautiful ribbon. I chose some Santas from the Vintage Christmas Past range, cut them to size and popped them in the mini frames. They now sit on my little shelf looking pretty! I hope you can nip over to Craft Ribbons Inspirations to see what the girls have made and join in the giveaway!

Day 10 of Crafty Ribbons' Twelve Days celebrations and I have another cute hanging decoration to share... I have backed a small embroidery loop with some Christmas paper and added a fancy bow.  Simple and cute.  It is really light so would hang on a tree or, as I have, hang on a door handle. I've used vintage ribbon in scarlet for my decorative bow.

I love me some gift wrapping!  (That sounds quite an American way of putting it - I need to stop watching so much TV!!)  But anyway, I do.  I love to dress gifts up with bows and flourishes. This lovely bunch of presents went to a Secret Santa, so I made them all coordinate. I've used wide green ribbon , a strip of tissue and maroon satin ribbon on the main present and just satin on the rest.  You can also see a little origami gift bag in the top corner - find out more from last years post ! And of course it's worth sharing the Rudolph beer again... Tee hee!

For day 8 of Crafty Ribbons' Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations I'm sharing eight presents... These are part of a Secret Santa swap so I can't tell you what is in them.  Don't they look so pretty though? I've used the entire range of Classic Christmas ribbons ... ...white and silver tissue and felt reindeer from Paperchase. I hope they make someone special very happy!

Welcome to day seven of Crafty Ribbons' Twelve days of Christmas celebrations. 'Seven swans are swimming' says the song.  Well, there is only one swan here but she is made of ribbon !  Grosgrain and swiss dots to be exact. And a little double sided tape, ribbon wire and a pair of googly eyes! Peebo! :) Join us over at Crafty Ribbons Inspirations for more Christmas makes and another giveaway.

It is challenge time at Crafty Ribbons Challenges - the theme is Penguin Pals, picked by me!  I love Bubbles the Penguin.  I even painted him on my nails... For my challenge project I have simply strung up a wire heart filled with baubles.  It is hanging on my craft cupboard door.  I like to think Bubbles is protecting my stash!! You can check out all things penguin here and then join us in our challenge !!

Here is my crazy make for day 6 of Crafty Ribbons' 12 Days of Christmas.  I can only describe it as a hanging decoration.  It is made from a tube from the inside of a roll of cling film, cookie cutters, silver card cards and a reel of ribbon . It is hanging on my door and is so pretty when the light hits it.  The cookie cutters and mirrifoil stars all throw the light in different directions making patterns on the door. Hop over to Crafty Ribbons Inspirations to see what my team mates have made and to join in the giveaway!

I'm going to let you have another peek at some of my wrapping... Envelopes needn't be boring... Wool works as well as ribbon (although ribbon is still my first love!) Little pegs can close gift bags and hold tags and pretty things! All bells are good!! As are little card bags and home made tags. I think I like wrapping more than unwrapping!!  :)

Thanks for joining me today for day 4 of Crafty Ribbons' 12 Days celebration. I have painted a light switch plate from That Craft Place and added a bow and button combo.  These represent the 4 calling birds from the Christmas carol. Pop over to Crafty Ribbons Inspirations for lots more makes and a little giveaway!

I'm here to share my crazy make for Crafty Ribbons' Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations. "On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three French hens..." Here is my ribbon hen.  She is made from swiss dot ribbon in natural and daffodil with the addition of two heart buttons colourised with a promarker.  (I found my red heart buttons the day after I'd finished my hen!!) This photo should surely be captioned 'it wasn't me'.  It looks like the chickens mug shot! I stiffened the ribbon with matte medium which has the helpful side effect of stopping the ribbon from fraying, helping get the curved finish on the bottom of the wings.

Helloo!  It is day two of Crafty Ribbons' Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations .  I made a tag for today... A little rant... I measured and carefully cut the corners to turn the rectangle in to the classic tag shape - were they even?  No!  So I held the bigger corner flipped over on the other side and trimmed.  Did it even it up?  No.  Sigh, I guess I'll always have wonky corners :) I've used Christmas cupcake sentiment , silver corrugated card that must be 12 years old (possibly older!) and used up snippets of red (from a previous Bev's Bag), silver and hearts ribbon .  Linking this up at The Playground for using up snippets of ribbon and old (almost antique!) card! Thanks for stopping by!

Here is layout featuring mainly Gossamer Blue stash and, well, Daisy's bottom! It is a lovely bottom, I'm sure you'll agree.  And the pompom tail.  And the legs stretched back.  Love her! I haven't shown the alphas to their best - they are metallic rose gold.  I needed more than one pack as I fell for them rather hard!  I think I was inspired by a sketch but I didn't make a note of which one...  The peach scallops left a rather lovely navy dot 'un-scallop' which was just too nice to chuck away so it found its way to the bottom of the page.  I love double sided papers :) Crafty Ribbons Twelve Days of Christmas starts today.  I'll be joining in from tomorrow so stop by then to see some ribbon-y Christmas makes. Thanks for stopping by.

Alas no tree this week.  I haven't managed to put it up yet.  But I have found something else to make me smile... I dressed the boys' beers up as Rudolph!! Self adhesive googly eyes, a pompom and pipe cleaners. Linking up at Friday Smiles

What do you think of this? Fun, huh?  I love it.  A simple white frame bought from a market stall a few years back covered with glorious buttons!  I've used buttons from lots of packs, you can find them here... allsorts , dolly , pastel hearts , sea breeze , jelly beans , gardening brights and a couple of spotty buttons too.  I had so much fun sorting through and deciding which ones to use! I used glue gel to stick the buttons down.  A hot glue woud work too but I like the wiggle time the glue gel gives allowing me to reposition if need be.  Of course I'm unable to go too long without using ribbon so I added some to a button and replaced the twine hanging thread with matching swiss dots . Here it is hung on the wall where it can be smiled at often! Thanks for stopping by!