Printable Advent Calendar Town Tutorial (video!)

I am excited to introduce my latest design - a printable colour-in Advent calendar town!  You may already have seen (or even made up yourself) my Advent calendar village and the houses in the new town are larger than the village houses.  They are all designed to the same scale though, so you can mix and match small and large houses to create your own Advent calendar with space for different sized sweets and gifts!
You could also make up the houses to use as gift boxes, or decorations at Christmas.

I have created a video tutorial sharing tips and instructions on how to make up the town.  I hope that you enjoy it!



If you have questions or comments please leave them below! :)

Visit my Etsy shop to buy the printable kits and make up your own:
Colour-In Advent Calendar Town
Colour-In Advent Calendar Village

Quick and Easy Watercolour Valentine's Day Card

I couldn't let Valentine's Day pass without sharing a card with you.  This one's really quick and easy to make - it's also a good excuse just to play with some watercolours!

Hot Air Balloons Birthday Card

Do you find that you go through phases of using different colours in your art or crafts?  I notice that I do - I could pretend that this is planned to look good on Instagram, but it actually happens quite subconsciously.  At the moment I'm going through a rainbow phase and want everything to look as colourful as possible!  So I used a rainbow colour palette to make this birthday card.

I made this card with the following materials:

• white card blank (A5 size when folded)
• printables; hot air balloon digital stamp, cloud and rainbow chevron background paper, rainbows border strip
• white card
• blue coloured paper
• watercolour paints
• coloured pencils
• black fine tip pen
• sequins and gemstones
• double sided sticky foam pads, double sided sticky tape and glue stick
• craft knife and Silhouette Cameo 2 cutting machine

First, I created a splattered rainbow background on the card blank using watercolours.
I printed the hot air balloon digital stamp onto white card, cut out with a craft knife and coloured it using coloured pencils.
Then I cut a ring of white card with my Cameo cutting machine, I also used this to cut a scalloped border from white card.
I mounted the white card ring onto cloud patterned paper, as a background for the hot air balloon.

A strip of blue coloured paper was mounted behind the scalloped border strip and attached to the card blank, followed by the rainbows border strip.

I attached the white circle with the clouds paper to the card with double sided sticky foam pads, then added the balloon - again with the foam pads to add dimension to the card.

A small piece of the chevron pattern paper was glued above the borders on the right side of the card, then I wrote 'birthday wishes' by hand with a black, fine tipped pen.

Finally, I added some sequins and gems for some sparkle!

You can find the Hot Air Balloon printables used in the project, and more, in my Etsy shop hfcSupplies.

PS. Have you seen the craft challenge I am hosting on my blog?  I have extended the deadline for entries to Thursday 21st July so you still have time to enter!  All you need to do is make something using my hot air balloon designs (some free printables are available through the challenge post!) for a chance to win a £10 coupon to my Etsy shop. Find all the details here > Craft Challenge Hot Air Balloons

Origami Box Tutorial

These origami boxes are fun to make and really useful too!  They're great for storing little bits and pieces from your crafty stash like washi tape, or for using as gift boxes. You can change the look of your boxes by using different coloured paper, patterned paper and by varying the size of paper.

I used some printable scrapbooking papers which I designed to make my boxes, from my Strawberries and Summer Garden sets of papers. (You can find these and more in my Etsy shop, hfcSupplies).
I printed the designs to fit on A4 white paper with a weight of 120gsm - paper this weight or slightly thinner works well for the origami boxes.

Before you start folding your box you will need to cut squares of your paper. The paper I used was 20.4 x 20.4cm (approx. 8 x 8 inches), this produced boxes which measured approx. 7.25 x 7.25 x 3.5 cm (approx. 2.85 x 2.85 x 1.4 inches).  If you want to make a box with a lid, cut one square slightly smaller than the other.

1. Start with your paper patterned side face down. Fold the square in half to form a rectangle.  Open out and repeat in the other direction.
2. Now fold your square in half diagonally, open out and repeat in the opposite direction then open out again.
3. Fold each point into the centre, then unfold to your square again.
4. Fold each point of the square to the point three-quarters across, as in the diagram below, then open out again.
5. Now fold each point one quarter across, then once again open out to the square.
6. Now fold 2 opposite points to the centre.
7. Push the sides up to start making the 3-dimensional box shape (see diagram below).
8. Finally tuck the remaining 2 corners inside the box. Your box should keep its shape on its own, but if you like you can use a little glue to secure the triangle points to the base of the box.

Now you are ready to fill your boxes!  What will you put in yours?  Share your makes with #myhfcmakes so we can all see what you have made!

PS. If you love crafty projects and would like some free printables, check out my blog challenge here! (You could even use the free printable paper to make some of these boxes!)

Craft Challenge - Hot Air Balloons and Free Printables!

UPDATE! The closing date for this challenge has been extended to Thursday 21st July!

Would you like free printables and to join in with a craft challenge with the chance of winning a prize? If the answer is yes - keep on reading!


I have been working on lots of new hot air balloon themed designs recently (which you may have already seen if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram), so Hot Air Balloons seemed the perfect theme for my first blog challenge!

What is the Challenge?

I would like you to create a hot air balloon themed card, scrapbook page, atc, tag or other craft project made using my printable designs.  You can use the free printables below, or something else you have purchased from my shop...

This hot air balloon digital stamp and spotty patterned paper will be available for you to download free until entries close on 18th July! Download them here. (Please follow the Terms of Use)

If you sign up to my newsletter by 22nd June you will also get 2 bonus printable patterned papers (which will be sent out in my newsletter on 23rd June)!

The digital stamp is approx 4 inches tall (you can print it smaller too) and the spotty paper comes on a letter size sheet (8.5x11 inches), which can also be printed on A4 paper.

You can find more of my hot air balloon themed printables in my shop here.

Challenge Rules

1. Create something on the Hot Air Balloon theme - using either the free printables above or something else you have purchased from my shop.  You can use any other supplies you like in your project.
2. Post your entry onto your blog or online gallery and include a link back to this blog post, so that other people can join in!
3. Enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, with a link to your project - please make sure I can contact you if you are a winner - either via your blog or by leaving your email address.  The link you submit must be for your project post, not a general link to your blog.
4. Your entry must be new and created (by you) for this challenge.
5. Up to 3 entries per person are allowed.
6. The deadline for entries is Monday 18th July 2016 (challenge closes at 11:59pm BST).
7. Winners will be announced on my blog on Thursday 21st July.  There will be 2 winners:
• 1 chosen by me - will win £10 coupon for my Etsy shop hfcSupplies
• 1 chosen at random - will also win £10 coupon for my Etsy shop hfcSupplies
8. By entering the challenge, you are giving me permission to share your entry as an example on my blog, website, facebook page and Pinterest board.

For full Challenge Terms and Conditions and Printables Terms of Use please see here.

For your inspiration, here are some I have made:

I hope that you enjoy taking part in the challenge, I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! I will be posting all the entries here on the blog, so do check back and see what other people are making.  Share your creations on social media with #hfcblogChallenge and please share a link back to this post so more people can join in!

Happy crafting!

Penny Slider Butterfly Birthday Card

It was my sister's birthday recently, which provided me with a good excuse to try out a new paper crafting technique on her birthday card!  Inspired by this penny slider card on PaperCraft Inspirations website, I decided to try making one for myself.  I had never made a penny slider card before, but it's quite straightforward to make one and they are really effective and fun too.  I will definitely be trying out this technique again!

For my card I used:

a white card blank

scrapbooking papers from DCWV's Citrus stack

the butterflies are my own designs, taken from my Butterflies Digital Papers set

lime green 3mm wide satin ribbon

rub-on happy birthday message

As this card involves moving parts I thought it was also the perfect opportunity to try making a (very) quick little video.  One of my goals/ dreams is to make craft videos to share on Youtube.  So this is me taking the first step in learning how to do this!  Have you made videos for Youtube? Any tips are welcome!

Mother's Day Card - Floral Heart Digital Stamp

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in the UK, so I thought I would share a photo of the card I made for my Mum.

I used the floral heart design from my 'Decorative Hearts' set of digital stamps (available from my Etsy shop).  I printed the heart onto white card and coloured it using watercolour pencils and watercolour paints.  By using shading, I have given the heart a 3-dimensional appearance.  (This design would also work well with decoupage, if you printed and coloured multiple copies of the heart.)

I cut the heart out and attached it to a white, hammer textured card blank using double sided sticky foam pads.  Finally, I hand wrote the message 'Happy Mother's Day' on the front of the card using a black PITT artist pen.

'I think you're purr-fect' Valentine's Card

Only 2 more days until Valentine's Day, so I'm just in time to show you this Valentine's card project! It's made with my new 'I think you're purr-fect!' set of digital stamps and Watercolour hearts scrapbooking papers (see more about these below), both of which are available as Instant Download from Etsy. Printables are great for last minute projects because you can download and print them straight away, so if you've not got your Valentine a card yet you still have time to make one!

Materials used:

• Hearts patterned printable scrapbooking paper
• 'I think you're purr-fect!' digital stamps set
• Card blank (I used one which was approx. 10 x 15cm when folded)
• White paper / card stock
• Scissors / craft knife
• Round corner punch
• Double sided sticky tape / glue
• Double sided sticky foam pads
• Watercolour paints / coloured pencils

1.  Print the scrapbooking paper background and the cats digital stamp onto white paper or card.

To do this, I first set up a document the size of my card in my photo editing program (I use Photoplus).  I copied and pasted in the scrapbooking paper background.

I then copied and pasted in the 'I think you're purr-fect' text digital stamp (.png format with transparent background) as a new layer.  The stamp is larger than my card, so I reduced it in size and positioned it to where I wanted it to print on the background.

I then pasted the cat image stamp and also resized this to fit my card.

Next, I opened a new document the size of the paper I would be printing on (A4) and copied in the background with the text stamp as one image and the cats separately, so it looked like this... 

2.  Cut out the scrapbooking paper background and glue to your card blank.

3.  Cut out the cats image as a square, round the corners with a corner punch.

4.  Colour the cats image - I used watercolour pencils and paints.

5.  Attach the cats image to the front of your card with double-sided sticky foam pads.


About the papers used in this project...
I used the green and white hearts patterned paper from my 'Watercolour Hearts Blue & Green' set of scrapbooking papers and my 'I think you're purr-fect' set of digital stamps.  Both of these are available to buy from my Etsy shop - I also have more heart themed scrapbooking papers in other colours and other Valentine themed digital stamps.

DIY Matchbook Notebooks

These matchbook notebooks are so simple to make and useful in lots of ways.  I often find I get ideas for new designs and things to make when I'm about to go to sleep, so I'll be keeping one of these to jot down ideas by my bed.  Being small, they're also great for popping in your handbag as a mini sketchbook (or for shopping lists) - especially if you're like me and cram a lot in your bag - I don't travel light!  You could also make them as favours to give away at parties or weddings - so many possibilities!

Materials:

Thin card / thick paper for the cover (see below for the scrapbook paper I used)

Paper for the pages - anything you like - white, coloured, lined or squared!

Stapler

Scissors / craft knife and ruler

Bone folder

First cut all of your card and paper to size - I cut the card for the covers of my notebooks 23 x 8 cm and the pages 7.5 x 10.5 cm.  You can experiment with different sizes!

Take the cover piece of card and measure and score 9.6cm from one end and 2cm from the other.

The number of pages you can use will depend on the thickness of your paper and the size of your staples. I used 12 pages in mine. Place your pages in the centre section of the cover, fold over the small end and staple the pages in place.

The long end of the cover should be able to just tuck under the short end when closed.

To finish off, I also added some patterned paper tape to the covers of some of my notebooks...

A note about the papers used in this project...

For the covers of the notebooks I printed scrapbooking papers, which I have designed, onto 240gsm white card.  I used the rows of budgies design from my 'Budgies' set of papers, flower pattern from my 'Jessica' set, yellow spotty design from the 'Sunflowers' set and green chevron from the 'Summer Garden' set.  All of these, and more, are available to buy from my Etsy shop.

Printable Colour In Advent Calendar Village

Today I wanted to share some pictures of my new printable advent calendar along with a little tutorial on how to make it up.

The advent calendar is a printable, colour in village with mini house boxes which you could fill with sweets or other little gifts.  It could be used in different ways - make it with or for your children and either colour and make up the whole village before the start of advent, or colour one house a day until the whole scene is complete for Christmas day!  I think the houses would look lovely along a shelf, windowsill or mantelpiece.  Alternatively you could have a treasure hunt - hide them around your room / house and find a new one each day.

About the kit...

The kit is available to buy from my Etsy shop - it is an Instant Download, so you can download and print the sheets as soon as your payment clears.  As it is a printable you can print the sheets as many times as you like (for your own personal use only) - so you could have one for each child, or print a new one to make up year after year.

There are 13 sheets included, to make 24 houses plus 2 tree backgrounds to complete your village scene.  Instructions are included on the sheets and it is simple to make up the house boxes...

The houses and trees comes as black and white templates... I coloured mine with felt tip pens and coloured pencils.  You can have fun choosing colours for your houses - will they be pastel, traditional or rainbow coloured?!

Once the colouring is finished, cut around the outsides of the house templates. (For a neat finish with straight lines, I used a craft knife and ruler but scissors would be easier - and safer! - for children).

Then score along the dashed lines (I used a bone folder and ruler with craft foam laid under the house).

Fold along the dashed lines, then start gluing the tabs marked glue.  I suggest gluing tabs A and B first, then C and D to the insides of the house.

Then glue tabs E and F to the inside of the roof.

Fold over the remaining tabs on the roof and tuck inside the house.

It is now ready to fill with sweets or a small gift!

I will be sharing more photos of my advent calendar village through December over on my Facebook and Instagram pages.  I would also love to see what your houses look like - what colours have you used and how are you displaying them?  If you share your photos on social media tag your pictures #myhfcmakes

Halloween Card

On Tuesday I released some new Halloween themed printables; I will be sharing some different ideas over the next few weeks on how you could use them - first up is this Halloween card...


Materials used in the card:
144x144mm white card blank
orange paper
black and white card
Halloween night sky scrapbooking paper (from this set)
Witch, cat and 'Trick or Treat?' digital stamps (from this set)
watercolour pencils
black and orange baker's twine
double-sided sticky foam pads
craft glue / double sided sticky tape
silver glitter glue
silver gel pen
black pen
hole punch

How I made the card...
First I prepared the digital stamps for printing; I layered the cat digital stamp so it slightly overlapped the witch image and printed them onto white card.  I decided to test out my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine's print and cut feature and was very impressed with how well it cut around the girl and cat - I'll be sharing a blog post about this another time!  You could cut around the image with scissors or a craft knife too.  The girl and cat were then coloured with watercolour pencils.

I cut a square of the night sky scrapbook paper, smaller than the card blank and mounted it on orange paper, then glued these to the front of the card.


The 'Trick or Treat?' word stamp was printed onto white card.  This was then mounted onto orange paper and I drew a striped border to match the baker's twine using a black drawing pen.  I threaded baker's twine through a punched hole before tying the twine around the card.

Using my Cameo I cut a bat silhouette from black card, you could also cut this by hand.  Drawing lightly around the very edge of the bat with silver gel pen helped it to stand out from the dark background paper.


I attached the witch, bat and 'Trick or Treat?' tag to the card with double-sided foam pads to add dimension.  Finally, I added a little silver glitter glue to the some of the stars on the background paper.

DIY Tutorial - Halloween Treat Bags

Today I have a diy tutorial to share with you to make little paper bags – perfect for Halloween treats!  It’s a simple and quick project to make with minimal supplies.  I made this tutorial for Halloween but you can make it with any paper you like – these bags would be great for so many other occasions; for giving gifts at Christmas or Easter or as party bags at Birthdays!

You will need:

• patterned paper (I used A5 sized pieces of my Halloween scrapbooking papers printed onto 120gsm paper)
• glue
• optional; baker’s twine, tags (I used my Halloween cupcake toppers printed full size and half size)

1.  Fold your paper into 3 sections – one narrow strip and 2 equal sized sections.
2.  Glue the narrow strip, so that it is on the inside
3.  Fold up the bottom of the bag – varying the position of this fold will alter the depth of your bag
4.  Open out the bottom fold to create 2 triangles
5.  Fold up the lower section of the bottom piece – fold it past the middle
6.  Fold the upper section of the bottom piece to overlap the lower piece and glue down
7.  Open out your bag
8.  You can seal your bag in various ways – I have folded over the top then punched a hole through the bag and tied it with black and orange baker’s twine, with a tag

If you like the papers I have used in this tutorial you can buy them from my shop – my Halloween range of printables includes scrapbooking papers, cupcake toppers, bunting and more.  I also sell coordinating baker’s twine.

Scrapbook layout inspiration - Basil my Guinea Pig

I have had a scrapbook album for many years now but have only made a few pages to go in it.  I recently came across Jot Magazine via Pinterest – it’s a new free online magazine on paper crafting and scrapbooking, and it inspired me to get my scrapbook out again!

My album is A3, a bit of an unusual shape with A3, A4 and B4 sized sleeves.  I think if I was to buy an album again I would use a more standard 12 inch or 8 inch square one, but I need to finish this one before I start thinking of doing another!

I made this page on my guinea pig, called Basil – I have so many cute photos of him and wanted to create a memory page of all the things he does :)

These are the materials I used (several of them are available from my craft supplies shop):

• 12x12 inch spotty scrapbook paper from a DCWV stack
• Coloured card and paper
• Photos printed on glossy photo paper
• Journal card from this printable Woodland set
• Leaf motifs from this printable collage sheet
• Baker’s twine
• Paper punches; daisy flowers, scalloped circle, round corner
• Mini brad
• Mini spotty button
• Alphabet rubber stamps
• Small amount of green thread

I used the round corner punch on the three main photos before mounting them on cream card.  The letters for Basil’s name were all cut by hand.

Before I glued anything down I carefully laid everything out to see how it would look.  I drew a faint pencil line for where I wanted the baker’s twine to be, which I then went over with PVA glue to stick the twine down.

I love these tiny spotty buttons!  They’re the perfect size for putting in the centre of a punched paper daisy.

I really enjoyed doing this page and won’t be leaving it so long before doing another.  I think the hardest part for me is trying to decide exactly what to do – there are so many choices!  Do you do scrapbooking?  If you’ve blogged about your own layouts I would love to see them – please leave a link in the comments below! :)

Quick Make for Mother’s Day…

Have you remembered it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday 10th March?  If you’re still looking for something to give your Mum here’s a quick project for a little card.  It could be made as a card on its own or used as a gift tag – why not attach it to a bunch of flowers for a more personal gift…
The card is made from one of the blank tulip cards on my sheet of Easter printable tent cards – the sheet also has daffodil patterned cards on it.
1. Print the sheet of cards onto white card.  Cut out one of the cards and fold in half.
2. Cut a strip of coloured paper and glue along the white space on the front of the card.
3. Stamp (or write) the letters ‘Mum’ onto white card.  Use a heart shaped paper punch to cut out the letters.
4. Glue the hearts to the coloured paper strip.
5. Add some sparkle to the card with tiny dots of glitter glue on the pink spots on the card.

Monday Make – Fish Birthday Card

Recently I’ve spent quite a lot of time on paperwork and planning the Christmas craft fayre, so thought it was about time I made something!  This fun birthday card didn't take long to make and features my copperband butterfly fish illustration.

To make this card you will need:

• Fish Cardmaking kit  OR  a card blank, fish printable scrapbooking papers and collage sheet
• gemstones
• white card
• glue, scissors, double sided sticky foam pads, corner punch

1. Cut out the butterfly fish and ‘Happy Birthday’ message from the collage sheet.  Cut a piece of patterned paper slightly smaller than the card – so that it lines up with the fold of the card and there is a border along the other 3 sides.

2.  Use the corner punch to make 2 rounded corners on the patterned paper, then glue to the card.  If you don’t have a punch you could use something round as a template (eg. a small coin) and cut the corners by hand.

3. Mount the birthday message on white card, then stick the message and fish to the card with the foam pads for a 3D effect.

4.  Glue the gems onto the card so they look like bubbles coming out of the fish’s mouth.  Instead of gems you could also try using sequins or beads.

Now you have one finished fish card!

You could make similar cards with some of my other fish too – why not try a clown fish card or cardinal tetra?!

How to make lined envelopes

All sorts of stylish lined envelopes are available for adding an extra special touch to your invitations and cards.  If you're looking for a coordinated look you can make your own...

I wanted to make a lined envelope to match my Pastel Buttons wedding invitation so have used the coordinating paper from my printable scrapbooking paper set - you can of course use any paper you like!

You can line ready made envelopes or make your own from scratch.

I found an old envelope which I carefully opened out and used as a template to make my own envelope from off white cartridge paper.

Make the liner template from an envelope.  The liner should be about 0.2 inches smaller than the envelope and level with the gummed part of the flap.

I layed the liner in the envelope and folded the flap down before glueing to make sure it was in the right place.  Only glue the liner to the flap so that it has room to move when the envelope is opened or closed.
If you're making your envelope from scratch it's easier to glue the bottom flap to the sides after attaching the liner.

Keeping with my button theme I finished this envelope with a little button stitched to the flap..