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Author Archives: Carolyn

Custom furniture 

19 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Carolyn in Home decorating, Washi tape

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Tags

custom furniture, IKEA hack, washi tape, washi tape stool

Hello!

I have to say I am a little bit happy about what I’m going to show you today!

Until recently, I have been using an IKEA wooden stool (Frosta $14.99) as a bedside table in my son’s room. I recently bought him a new fancy bedside table so the stool has been sitting around while I figure out what to do with it.  

It’s about 6-7 years old, and while I have definitely gotten my 15 bucks worth, it’s really not that inspiring! 

But then this afternoon inspiration struck – washi tape!!!  Twenty minutes and a few rolls of washi tape later and voila! 

   

  

  

Now I have a fancy new side table / stool / plant stand / piece of art!  

Is there nothing you can’t do with washi tape?!!

Hmmm.  I can sense a trip to IKEA in my future …… 

Thanks for reading. 

Caro x 

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Washi-up your wardrobe

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Carolyn in Home decorating, Washi tape

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

coat hangers, craft ideas for the home, washi tape

As you know, I was recently given a gift of lots of rolls of Washi tape. Normally I’d make cards with them, but I’ve also been looking for creative ways to use washi tape around my house. 

Today’s idea is from something I saw on Pinterest – washi tape on wood coat hangers for your wardrobe.  

   
    
It takes a little practice to stick the tape down smoothly with no wrinkles, but that is the beauty of washi tape – you can pull it off and start again and it is still your friend! 

A group of these would make a cute little house warming gift! 

Thanks for reading 🙂

Caro  

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Putting some Washi gloss on lip gloss 

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Carolyn in Thoughts and comments, Washi tape

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chap stick, craft ideas, prettying up the ordinary, washi tape

Love chap stick?  Wish the tube was a little classier?  Washi tape to the rescue!

  I’ve had a few comments pulling this little number out of my pocket 🙂
Caro x 

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Wedding – Vow renewal card

11 Monday May 2015

Posted by Carolyn in 1 inch square, Labels collection, Wedding cards

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cards, I do, vow renewal, wedding

On the weekend I attended a wedding that was actually a vow renewal ceremony, as the couple had been officially been married for some time but wanted to have their “big day”.  Which posed a little bit of a challenge on the card front!  I played around for a bit with the idea of I Do x 2.  Here’s what I came up with:

I do x 2

I chose the colours (Night of Navy, Very Vanilla) to match their wedding invitation.   A dark coloured card base can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to writing the message, so I used my labels framelits to make a nice space to write the message.    

I was pretty happy with how it turned out – and it’s nice to have a little bit of spare time to be making cards again!

Thanks for reading

Caro x

-34.291244 150.943807

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Two minute kid birthday card

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Carolyn in General occasion, Kids cards, Kids party, Star, Using up scraps, Washi tape

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

kids birthday, Kids cards, using up scraps, washi tape

Hi

Just a quick post to share with you a card I just whipped up in less than 2 minutes for a kid’s birthday party this afternoon.  

I had a vague thought the other day that some washi tape I was recently given with stars on it might go well with my star punch.  A piece of card stock, a few strips of washi tape and a star punch and ta da!!!!

  
What do you think?  Not bad for 2 minutes? 

Thanks for reading 

Caro 

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Wonderful washi tape 

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by Carolyn in Home decorating, Washi tape

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

covered notebooks, stationery, washi tape

I warned you there would be a few washi tape posts on the horizon! Here’s my next idea for using washi tape. 

I was in my kitchen looking at a notebook I keep on the bench for …. well …. writing notes (!) and decided it was far too boring and ugly, and maybe washi tape could be its friend? 

A few strips of tape later and here’s my new notebook:

   

I think next time I’d probably stick a piece of card stock underneath the tape as you can still see a little of the notebook cover peeking through, but I’m much happier having this lying around my kitchen now!

Next up I was doing some work and scribbling some notes in a journal I take with me to meetings.  I usually stick a post it flag on a page where I need to make a bookmark, but then it occurred to me … Washi tape!

 

  

  

  

 Much more stylish than a post it flag!  My brain is now ticking over with how else to bring my craft obsession into the office!!!

Who’d have thought you could have so much fun with a little roll of sticky tape?!?

Thanks for reading. 

Caro x 

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Washi tape adventures

18 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by Carolyn in Home decorating, Washi tape

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

washi tape

Hi!

Two posts in quick succession. Don’t fall over with shock! Today’s post is a quick one, and probably the first of many involving washi tape in the next little while!  My lovely Mum gave me heaps of rolls for my birthday so now I’m going to enjoy finding lots of creative ways to use them! (For those who don’t know, washi tape is a kind of colourful paper sticky tape). 

My first foray was to put some on some iPod/iPad chargers to help me remember which is which and whose is who. 

   

They look so cute!  I’m so excited! We’re all about the pretty here at Caro’s Pretty Things. I can’t wait to figure out what other boring things around the house I can “pretty up”!

How cute does my charger look with my bag? 

 

 Stay tuned for some more washi tape adventures!

Thanks for reading. 

Caro x  

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When too many wedding cards are never enough!

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Carolyn in 3D / pop up, Cards, Embossing folders, Small Heart, Sweet treat cups, Wedding cards

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Tags

card layout, cardmaking, easel, gate fold card, sponging, stampinup, wedding cards

Hello

I don’t know how many times I’ve started a blog post by apologising for the length of time it’s been since I last posted, but here I go again!  Life just gets busy!

Today I wanted to show you some wedding cards I made for a dear friend’s wedding a few months ago.   This is a snippet of their wedding invitation, which inspired me to make not one, but three cards for their wedding!

IMG_7104

I tried to use their design as inspiration, and the colours they chose were uncannily similar to Stampin’ Up!’s Night of Navy and Very Vanilla.

Design one – wedding gate fold card

Gate fold embossed wedding card

Gate fold embossed wedding card - inside

Sponged embossing

(I used my sponge daubers and pearls to add colour and sparkles to the embossed flowers)

Mr & Mrs sentiment

(I love this teeny tiny sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments set)

Scallop wedding greeting tag topper

Design two – embossed wedding card

Embossed wedding card

This card actually used a Christmas embossing folder tipped on its side.  You’d have to look very closely to see the Christmas details at what should be the top!  Again, some sponging and pearl details set it off.

Sponging and pearls

Wedding day greeting

Design three – wedding easel shaker card

Easel shaker wedding card

This was my son’s favourite!  He loved the heart shaped cup and shaking the card to make a sound with all the little cut out hearts with the small heart punch.

Hearts in a heart shaped cup

Mr & Mrs heart shaker card

Wedding gate fold card (inside)

I loved them all, but ended up using the gate fold card as my card to the happy couple.  My son insisted on the shaker card being from him, and my parents ended up using the other card.  So none of them went to waste!

Please let me know if you’d like instructions for any of these cards and I can post the dimensions.

Which one was your favourite?

Thanks for reading

Caro x

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Super hero party invitation

25 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by Carolyn in Cards, Invitations, Kids cards, Kids craft ideas, Kids party, Owl, Punches, Word Window

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birthday party, clever ideas with punches, Kids cards, kids party, owl builder punch, owl punch, party invitations, punch art, super heroes

Hello!   Sorry it has been such a long time between posts.  Life just gets busy!  In my last post I showed you the card I made for my Frozen obsessed son’s 5th birthday.  I’m pleased to report he loved it 🙂

Today I want to show you the invitations I made for his birthday party.  He wanted a dress up party, but he (and I!) were going as super heroes, so he wanted to have super hero themed party invitations.   So here’s what I came up with – super hero owls!

Super hero owl party invitation

They looked pretty cute all lined up together:

Super hero owl invitationsHere’s a closer look at the super heroes, made from the Stampin’ Up! owl builder punch:

Super hero owls Here are a few pictures of how I put the owls together.   Basically I just used various colours cut from the owl punch, and the yellow belts are made from the word window punch.

Making super owl:

Owl punch cut outs

Building super owl!One tip – it’s easier to cut the yellow belt to size from behind:

Building super owls - reverse

Super owl - just needs goggly eyes!

Making spider owl:

Building spider owls(the black circle is also from the owl builder punch)

Building spider owls

Spider owls

Making bat owl:

Building bat owl

Making bat owls

Bat owl belts

Put them all together and you get some cute little super heroes!

Super hero owls

I have to say I was a little sick of making owls by the end of this process though!

Thanks for reading

Caro x

 

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Olaf birthday card (from Frozen)

01 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by Carolyn in 1 1/4 inch circle, 1 3/8 circle, 1 inch circle, Bird Builder, Birthday, Cards, Cupcake Builder, Jewellery tag, Kids cards, Kids party, Modern Label, Owl, Punches, Tutorial, Word Window

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Tags

Birthday card, Coastal Cabana, Dazzling Details, Frozen crafts, kids birthday, Kids cards, Olaf, Olaf the Snowman, punch art, stampinup, Winter Frost

Hello

Sorry I haven’t posted to my blog in a while.  I’ve been pretty busy with not much time for crafting.   I finally got a chance to make some stuff recently though, so I will show you a few things over the next little while.

It is my little boy’s 5th birthday today (where did that time go?!?) and, like seemingly most children, he is currently quite obsessed with the movie Frozen.   So I decided to tackle Olaf the snowman for his birthday card.   Here is the end result:

Olaf the Snowman card (Frozen)

 

The card background is on Coastal Cabana card stock with some (retired) Winter Frost designer series paper.  I used my dazzling details glitter to add some sparkly snowflakes in the background.  I wrote the greeting (“I like warm hugs” with my Coastal Cabana Stampin’ Write marker and punched it out with the word window punch.  I used the modern label punch to do the background, also in Coastal Cabana.  I put a couple of dots of dazzling details glitter on either side of the greeting for some extra sparkle.

Here’s how I made Olaf (all pieces punched from Whisper White unless otherwise specified):

The base of the snowman – 1 3/4 inch circle punch, with approximately 1/2 cm cut off the bottom

The middle of the snowman – 1 3/8 inch circle punch, with approximately 1/4 cm cut off the bottom

Head – the large oval punch

Feet – the two large circles from the owl builder punch

Buttons – the middle sized circles from the owl builder punch (Basic Black)

Arms – 2 x branches from the bird builder punch (Chocolate Chip).  I thought about trimming the leaves down to make the arms look slightly more twig like, but I decided that was far too much effort!)

Mouth – oval punch (cut off about 1/3 from the top)

Teeth – the base of the jewellery tag punch (retired).  If you don’t have this punch you could easily cut a small rectangle freehand.

Nose – I punched a 1 inch circle punch and then cut it down to an oval freehand

Nose – the candle from the cupcake builder punch (I also thought about using the candle from the same punch, I think either would work) (Tangerine Tango)

Eyes – I glued on some goggly eyes with some mini glue dots.

I drew on the eyebrows with a black texta and have since been informed by Mr 5 that I should have drawn on his hair as well.   Feedback was noted, hair has now been drawn on (although I don’t have a picture of that!).

Apart from the minor criticism about my attention to hair detail, Olaf was received with much excitement today!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll try not to be so long between posts next time

Caro x

 

 

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Carolyn Dalton

Independent Stampin Up! Demonstrator

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