Tweet Tweet Gift Treats for my Gingerloft Debut!

Happy Happy Joy Joy ! ! !

I made DT at Gingerloft Challenges and today I would like to share with you

my first post and my creations :)  

This is kinda a sneak peak to the Great Outdoors Challenge on November 14th,
and I am posting early due to the kids and I are heading out to the farm for a few days.  While I would normally load my draft before I go away and then upload it from my phone later the farm sadly has no internet or mobile phone reception :(  OMG Yes I know, but on the good side I have fresh country air and a car boot full of my crafty bits and pieces so I am sure to return with some more beautiful creations!

A sunflower seeds packet.
Image – Gingerloft - Sunflower Collage (July 2010)
Size- Height 10cm x Wide 8 cm.

3 Little decorative birdhouses.
Image – Gingerloft - Landing (July 2010)
Size- Height (from middle base to roof peak) 11.5 cm x Wide (house base) 5cm

Large birdhouse with opening door to place gift(s) inside.
Image – Gingerloft - Landing (July 2010)
Size- Height (from middle base to roof peak) 22 cm x Wide (house base) 13 cm

Hello, I am The Navy Wife and I live in a small coastal town in Queensland, Australia.  I am a wife to a navy man, a mother to 3 children, and a servant to one cat.

I have been sewing, crafting and card making for over 10 years now.  I enjoy it greatly and find it a passionate way to express what I am feeling and a great escape to give mummy some ‘time out’.  I do find I have somewhat of an obsession for off the page projects including items for home decor.  I love making projects suitable for gifting to friends and family and am always looking for gifting ideas and stepping outside of the box. I colour my images with watercolour pencils and I have a soft spot for non-coloured images as they can express so many feelings when combined with so many different mediums and paper.

I am recently new to the world of blogging and this is my first DT position and I am greatly looking forward to working with the Gingerloft images and the great aspiring design team.  Gingerloft have some stunningly beautiful images with endless project possibilities and having a peak around the Gingerloft Design Team blogs all the girls do some wonderful gorgeous work, I am sure we will all have a blast working together.  You should pop by for a look at their lovely work and give them some *love*. 

The Gingerloft Challenges run every two weeks and Tami, the Design Team and I would love if you played along with us.  There is no requirement of having to use a Gingerloft Image though it would be lovely if you did, and they also offer some pretty freebie images as well, pop over and have a peak.  I look forward to seeing you and your creations there :)

Fair winds and following seas.
The Navy Wife

Now for a little personal blog on these cuties. 

I have always wanted to make a paper birdhouse but have never gotten around to them so thought now was as a good a time as any (and as you can see I have become a little addicted to them lol).  I searched the internet for a pattern and tried some out but was not happy with the shape or the size or something about them so I ended up making my own in Mircosoft Word using the basic shapes.  Yes ... really it was that simple, and I love the fact that I was able to make the smaller ones just by changing a few shape sizes and removing the door shape. And I love the simplicity of just adding two spaced ringlets on the peak roof and threading through some ribbon to allow these to hang as cute little home decor items!

I made the large one first with the door opening and this is a Birthday gift for my dear sister.  She is a keen gardener and I am going to place some store brought seed packets inside along with the sunflower seed packet of my own containing my own harvested home grown sunflower seeds. 

(Excuse my fat fingers in this shot)

I was amazed how well my first one turned out and then that got me thinking of making a smaller one to hang in Chloe’s room that I could give her for a Christmas pressie.  Her colour is pink so I went with pink, brown and cream on her little project. 

Challenges for Chloe's Pink Delight :-

Fun At Fairy Knoll – Hot Mess (Fridays)  - I hot silver embossed the roof shingles.
Bah! Humbug – #43 fancy Folds (Fridays) - Birdhouse is a fancy fold.
Pile It On - #41 Furry Holiday cards (Sundays) - Contain animals, I have a butterfly and the bird.
* Color Chef Challenge - #68 Kraft, Cream & Pink (Mondays) - I have used pink, cream and brown (kraft)
Lexi’s Creations - #26 Anything Goes (Mondays) - As it says anything goes :) Love these ones!
The Crazy Challenge - #40 Things with wings (Mondays) - I have the butterfly and the bird with wings. **EDIT *** Made top 3 ! ! !

Now the general rule of thumb goes that if Chloe gets one then Emilie must have one too! So off I went again and this time I used purple for the little Miss Emilie’s room as that is her colour. (Oh the joys of having girls) lol.

Challenges for Emilie's Purple Beauty :-

The Crafty Purple Frog – Time for you to sparkle. - I have the glitter butterfly and the purple jewels around the door hole.
The Creative Cottage – #27 Someone special at Christmas - This is for my little darling Emilie.

The One Stop Craft Challenge Blog – Embossing (Saturdays) - I have silver embossed the roof shingles.
Paper Play Challenges - #44 Circles (Thursdays) - I have half circle puch for the roof shingle and a circle for the door hole.
Shelly’s Images – Think outside the box (Thursdays) – Never made a birdhouse but always wanted to and now I have (and secrety I have more to make! BFF's all have to have one too if I do !!!  ***EDIT I WON !!!

The Crafty Pad – 1 Circle and 2 Ribbons (Sundays) - I have the 1 full circle for the door hole and the ribbon to hang the house with, one for the butterfly tale and some for the decorative edge around the birdhouse bottom.
The Shabby Tea Room - #35 Lavender & Lace (Mondays) - It is themed to lavender (purple) the roof is a very light purple and I have the purple ribbon on the birdhouse bottom that is very lace like.

Now of course if the girls are both getting one then mummy needs one hanging in her room too! So mine was next :)  I went with a darker brown base and my roof shingles are from a cherry blossom design paper with pinks, browns, mauve and light touches of green through it.  I also heat embossed my shingles with gold unlike the girls that have been done in silver. 

Challenges for my little birdhouse :-

Pattie’s Creations Design Challenge – #3 - Christmas Card or creation (Fridays) - This is a Christmas gift for me and with many more on the list to make for others. :)
Stamps R Us - #8 Buttons and Bows (Mondays) - I have the butterfly bow tail and on the front of the house the pink button with a white kitchen thread bow in the the eyelets.

The Stamp Man Challenge Blog - #9 Christmas (Fridays) -  This is a Christmas gift for me and with many more on the list to make for others. :)
Charisma Cards - #44 With love @ Christmas (Thursdays)  This is a Christmas gift for me and with many more on the list to make for others. :)

On all the smaller houses I also wanted to highlight and add the touch of dew or snow so I heat embossed the roof shingle edges.  I heat embossed my shingles with gold unlike the girls that have been done in silver.  I have also mounted each layer of the roof shingles with foam tape to give them the dimensional appearance and they look stunning and so life like.  The butterfly ribbon tales have also been glued into place so that wavy look is permanent.  And of course they all hang, the large one included :)  I hope you like them and thanks for dropping by.

Fair winds and following seas.
The Navy Wife