Dovecote & Moving House GIft

And now for something completely different - and a labour of love for 2 very special people..... namely my parents!! They moved house this week... after nearly 50 years in the same house!!!

My mother has always wanted a white wood dovecote - so this is what I made instead of the more usual Good Luck in Your New Home Card..... They were both chuffed to bits!!!! Though unfortunately she still wants a wooden one.... which will prove slightly more expensive!!

The template for the birdhouse part is one of Adela Rossol's templates - and is called Home Tweet Home. As soon as I saw this template I knew a dovecote was soon going to be made.....  You can find Adelas' fabulous templates here. http://creationsbyar.com/.

The rest is using Stampin' Up products. The doves are created using  the Bird Punch. The ledges for the doves to stand on with the 1" circle punch scored in half. The scalloped edge under the birdhouse is using the Scallop Edge Punch. The base is created using the Petal Card Punch and the Scallop Square Punch. 

You can't really see them on the photos....but note the detail on the birdhouse to resemble slats of wood - just simple scoring after I had cut the template out.....

SU! Petal Card Punch - Little Treat Bags - Tutorial

We had our first Craft Therapists team meeting of the year last week and I challenged myself to come up with a new use for a SU! punch;  a new technique and to use a stamp from at least 3 of the 4 free Sale A Bration stamp sets...... So no mean treat there.....

And this little treat bag is what I came up with!!! - suitably sized for the smallest of chocolate "bars".....  I absolutely love it....but hey I am biased..... though everyone else was WOWed by it too!!!

So here is the low down on how this was made....!!

• I punched 4 pieces from Baja Breeze cardstock using the Petal Card Punch to make the bag sides & the box in between.
• I folded over a tab on 2 of the pieces ( to make the little bag shape) I then stamped the SAB Sweet Summer floral spray at random in Chocolate Chip ink
• Then a New Technique......that I will call the White Magic Technique.... 
  I coloured in the flowers, leaves & berries using the Uniball Signo white gel pen ( my most used pen in the world!!). I then allowed it to dry and went over the leaves with an Old Olive marker pen and the berries with a Pretty in Pink marker - so so pretty!!! And I think very chinoiserie ( is that a  proper word???)
• I then inked up & stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock....
  The rivet greeting from the SAB Punch Bunch set in Chocolate Chip. ( then punched out as 1" circle)
  The flower from the SAB Punch Bunch set For You scallop tag stamp in Baja Breeze & Chocolate Chip
• The Twill Tape for the bag handle was also stamped using Chocolate Chip ink with a greeting from the SAB Happy For You stamp set and the Sweet Summer floral spray stamp.
  The leaves and berries were also coloured in using the Old Olive & Pretty in Pink marker pens.
  TOP TIP: use a bit of Snail adhesive to temporarily adhere the ribbon to a flat surface before you attempt stamping the greeting - easier to get the word straight when fabric is held straight in the first place!!! 
• Then a little box to hold the mini treat...
  I snipped off a flap off each of the other 2 Petal Card Punch pieces and glued the other 3 flaps together as 2 sides and a bottom - to make a little 3 sided box.
  TOP TIP: make yourself a simple little box guide to really help this glue/assembly bit - cut a 2" x 3 1/4" piece of cadstock ; with panel landscape - score at 2"; 1 1/2"; 2 1/2" and 3". Adhere using small tab side.
• I then glued the 2 bag sides onto the box front & back ( with the unstamped tab to the base)
• I finished the bag off with the twill tape adhered using Sticky Strip from the bottom, up one side, looped over to form the handle and then back down the other side & onto the bottom. 
• I then covered the twill tape ends on the bottom with one of the tabs I had snipped off before