Home Sweet Home - mark 2

Hi when I've not been busy with granny squares I've been dabbling with frames again. This one is bigger than the last one I found but I gave it the white treatment again.

No bunting this time but the flowers stuck......

.....those felt flowers, would you like to know how I make them? They are good for 3D projects and of course if you make your own  embellishments you get to choose what colour they are.

First cut five flowers shapes, I use my ever useful tattered floral die but if you don't have a flower die, circles would work just as well.

Take one of the flower shapes and fold it in half and half again so it's a quarter of it's original size. Hold it's shape with a couple of stitches at the pointed end.

Taking one the shapes as the base of your flower sew the quartered flower to the centre of the base with a couple of stitches. Repeat folding the other three shapes and sew them in position too covering the whole base shape.

Once you've finished you should have a fluffy looking flower. The felt gives it a very rounded shape and two back to back would give a pom-pom effect. (mmmmm now I'm thinking they would make lovely tree decorations.....don't get distracted!) If you make them from fabric they have a less structured look but are still as effective. It's fun to experiment with different flower shapes too.

Have fun creating.

Home Sweet Home

I have a bit of recycling to share today. This oval frame was a rather ugly shade of brown when I spotted it but I thought it had potential. The moulding was pretty and it looks so much better with it's new white look.

I used a couple of paper flowers that I bought last week at Alexandra Palace and added a couple made using my tattered floral die with felt and fabric. Taking the glass out meant I could string the banner across the frame and I love the blue of this Studio Calico paper set against the white.

Keep your eyes peeled for old frames that might not look very nice as they are but look a whole lot better once given a spray painted finish. It's also a good solution if you want to give a unifom look to a collection of mismatched frames and I think white frames give a modern look.

Let me know if you give a new lease of life to an unloved frame.

Pretty Paper Party - Strips and Scraps

I'm still partying and look I have another layout completed. I've wanted to scrap this photo for ages as I love the colours of the hydrangeas. It was taken in the Garden Cafe on a visit to the V&A.

I'm feeling good about not using new supplies and pleased to be showing off some favourite paper, although I still have quite a few sheets of the Noteworthy design. I know, I'm guilty of panic buying. Please tell me you've done the same.

I'm not entirely happy with this layout and I can't decide if I should add some stalks (stitched maybe?) to the flowers on the righthand side or if I should leave it as it is. They look like they're floating to me and need to be anchored.

I'll stop fretting about it for now and just feel satisfied that I've done some scrapping.

Like Pebbles on a Beach

Hi. Sorry I haven't been around for a while I do have a proper excuse so bear with me while I catch up and get back to blogging business. Last week I had a knee operation and progress has been good but I haven't been able to do much blog visiting and commenting so I apologise I'm not ignoring you.

Anyhow, excuses out of the way I wanted to share a little project I squeezed in just before my operation. The weekend was warm and sunny so we took a visit to Deal where we ate the best fish and chips on the sea front. While looking out to sea I was dreaming up a project as unlike where I live Deal has a shingle beach not sand..........mmmmmmm pebbles.

I was humoured while I set about collecting some pebbles and even got some help with some brought for my inspection, were they the right shape, colour, size? So in return I made him a paperweight, the one decorated with the bicycle. Can you believe the Silhouette cut that! You might recognise the CK tape and yep, the tattered floral die cuts too. The other one has a bit of simple paper doily - my favourite I think. All were finished with a good coat of mod podge to protect them.

And I promised to show you a view of the messy half of my craft room, I'm ashamed to say it still looks like this but I just concentrate on the tidy bit.

.....and don't think I've forgotten the high hat too it's on my long list of things to do.

Bye for now

Going Postal: Good Mail

Hi. You know when some envelopes turn up in the post and the contents are not quite a good mail day? You know the kind - bills. Have you looked inside the envelope, beyond the dreaded bill? Well if you do you may discover something to your liking. 

Remember my printed labels from my last post? I made this with the 'I Love Pinterest' one inspired by a project in the book I mentioned too.

In amongst my stash I found the perfect little pin stamp which I stamped onto some canvas. I stitched the label backed with a scrap of fabric onto the canvas. I then used a spellbinder label die as a template to trim my fabric. A bit like doodling on paper I hand stitched in black around the edge. A red felt heart, safety pin and kraft punched butterfly were added............and finally some paper flowers which I made from yes you guessed it - envelopes.

Just take a circle punch and punch out some circles. Scrunch them up (yes technical I know!) then fold over the edge to reveal the white side. You could grunge them up a bit more with ink and if you don't have a circle punch draw circles and roughly tear them out. I made some bigger flowers too with my tattered floral die.

I must have had a premonition about Julie's Going Postal series as a few weeks before she announced it I bought this journal - I haven't brought myself to write in it yet.

And thank you for all your comments about my Kindle covers they are much appreciated. If you are interested in purchasing one I will be adding some for sale soon. I shall point you in their direction when they are ready.

Bye I'm off to do a bit of pinning.

To doodle or not to doodle

Hi. In my journal post I mentioned that I'd used waste from cutting out shapes on my page but didn't actually explain how so let me put that right. If you feel nervous about doodling on a page then this idea might just help.

I created this bee by using the waste from the cut out as a template and stencilled the bee shape with some shimmering watercolour paint. When it was dry I traced the outline with a black pen.

I used the detail on the actual cutout as a guide of the other details to add to my sketch. If you don't have a digital cutter then you might own a die cut machine like the one I used to cut out these flower shapes from some grungepaper.

You can see from the paint around them that I've already used them as a stencil on another project but because the grungepaper is fairly sturdy they make a great template to draw around and that's what I did here with some doodled flowers.

Another idea for using cut out waste is to use it as a negative image as I've done here with the birds sat on a line.

I think sometimes to make the best of any cut out shape you have to get a bit creative.

This angel wing appears on a card I was asked to make but I wasn't quite sure how to feature the double wing shape. So after I'd opened up the software I got rid of the cut out parts on one side of the wing and cut it out. I added a tiny bit of glitter and folded the solid part of the wing behind the cut out part to give it a bit of dimension. Although this is on a card it would look brilliant on a journal page.

I hope I've given a few ideas I have to say I now love doodling. I'll be back soon to share some of my journal pages that I had a lot of fun creating over the weekend.

Happy Creating.

Absolutely Fabulous

Hi are you enjoying the lovely Spring weather still?

I've created a blooming tag inspired by recipe #34 at Chicken Soup. I first embossed the tag with roses and painted it with some pink craft paint followed by distress crackle in picket fence. The twine is twisted paper string which I coloured with shabby shutters distress ink and I made more of the paper flowers that I love so much finished with pearl centres.

I had a paper flower left over so after having a play with the Silhouette I cut out a frame and a bird on a branch by House of Three.

It's hard not to be tempted when visiting the online Silhouette shop and I downloaded these two files at different times but it struck me that they would look perfect together and make a great card.

I cut all the elements for the 'party chica' onto plain white cardstock and coloured them using promarkers and for her sunglasses added a touch of glossy accents. The other file was 'fabulous stacker'.

.....absolutely fabulous.

Bloomin Lovely

Today I have a 6x12 layout to share.

As it's fast approaching Valentines Day I thought I'd scrap a photo of the two of us. We don't really do Valentines Day but it's always a good opportunity to scrap a photo from the previous year. I know this one isn't from last year but I have another layout planned too. Last year I made a reverse canvas.

Scrapping the layout also gave me a chance to use my newly acquired bazill basics kraft and the paper is from the Glitz Love Nest collection. Something I've been doing alot lately is making my own backgrounds from inexpensive white cardstock and inking and stamping to suit whatever I'm making. Another homemade feature of the layout are the paper flowers. Since finding a brilliant tutorial from Gabrielle Pollacco I can't stop making them. The ones on my layout are made from book pages and white cardstock which have been inked with worn lipstick distress ink and spritzed with water mixed with a bit of LuminArte Sunburst mica powder. I don't know about Sunburst I look more like I have a 40 a day habit!

Once I started making them I experimented with different types of paper I think these are my favourites. This is how they start off, these ones are cut using the tattered floral die from some coloured notepaper. You don't have to use mica just plain water will do but you can just see the slight glimmer it gives.

This is what they look like layered up you could leave the centre more open and fix a gem or button but I quite like the fluffy look.

If you like the thought of making your own embellishments from your existing stash then visit the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog they have all kinds of tutorials posted today features page pebbles. I had every intention of joining in with their putting your own kit together this month but got too excited by making flowers.

Let me know if you make any flowers of your own I'd love to see them.

Happy Creating

It's a Start

Hi I have a little announcement to make - toot! toot!

I have finally added something to my Etsy shop. I'll admit it's looking a little lonely right now but hopefully it will have some friends to keep it company soon.

A sewing gift.......

The decorative stuffed heart is made from some fabulous fabric I found printed with cotton reels and I stamped the twill 'love' labels.

.....and you may well recognise the decorative finishing touch.....yes it's that die with one of my papercrafted buttons.

Now I've got my head around shop policies and taking some half decent photos I'm feeling a little more positive about the whole thing. Fingers crossed.

Anyone for Tea?

Hi and belated Happy New Year to you. Whilst I've been a tad lazy on the blog posting front I have at least still been creative. With the Christmas crafting done and dusted I like to start the new year thinking of new ideas and this is one of them............

 ...............a teacup candle. I thought these teacups I found were the perfect shape and size to make into pretty candles. Pouring the wax was a little tricky and then I hit upon the idea of using my ever useful tattered floral die to make a decorative flower to sit on top for presentation. You can just see the wick poking through. A label tied to the handle provides the finishing touch.

Although January has seen the beginning of some new ideas I've also returned to some old favourites too. A fabric apple and yet more flowers die cut with the tattered floral die. Perhaps I should write a book - 101 things to do with a tattered floral die!

Happy crafting till next time when I promise not to mention the tattered floral die, well I'll try!

Thrifty Tags

Hi are you all set for Christmas? Me? I'm still wrapping but apart from that I seem to be on top of things - at last!

To assist with the wrapping I made use of these fab little free, yes FREE tags that came with my Boden catalogue well I just had to use them.

I peeled them off the backing as they are sticky labels and stuck them on some card to make them a bit more substantial and punched a hole and that's it label ready to go.

Next dilema what to do with one of those credit card type vouchers? How do you give one of those and actually make it look like a present? Make a box, decorate and add a decoration and label (yes,one of those free labels.)

A bit more tattered floral overload - they make great bottle decorations too.

I wouldn't want you to think I'm a cheapskate I did make the effort to make some tags too. I just love the reindeer stamp from Whiff Of Joy and the stamp I used as the background is from PaperArtsy. And if you're thinking why is she telling me about the stamps now it's far too late for Christmas I bought some of mine in April! It still didn't stop the last minute crafting though. I hope I may have given you a few last minute ideas.

And finally all that remains is to wish all of you a

Merry Christmas

Cheers

Back to fabric and wool

After last weeks brief relationship with paper this week I'm back to creating with fabric and wool. 

After spotting some interesting looking wool I knitted up a cosy neckwarmer........

...........then I spied some more wool that took my fancy. Seriously chunky and such a lovely green, in fact the label calls it meadow green.

I wanted to try one in wool too so I chose a ball of Rowan 100% merino wool in a delicate shade of grey. It's not as wide as the green one but just as cosy knitted in moss stitch.

If you've visited any of the fashion websites recently such as net-a-porter or my wardrobe you might have spotted that snood type scarves are making a comeback. Don't worry they have definitely moved on since the days of Nik Kershaw! But seriously who can afford to pay nearly £100 for a scarf? Not me that's for sure. Once I have a collection together I plan on putting them in my online shop or if I ever get my act together in my yet to open etsy shop. Note to self: Sort it Out!!!

 And finally a sweet little wrist purse decorated with some felted wool die cut flowers. Yes, yet more uses for my tattered floral die - money well spent.

I have just realised that I have more to share of my crafty week but I've forgotten to take photos and as the clocks have gone back - IT'S DARK. Boo!

Say It With Flowers Gift Box

I often make gift boxes to give small gifts in and as I had a couple to make I thought I'd share with you how I made them. My gift box measures 10cm but you can use this technique for making any sized box and mine only used two pieces of cardstock and 1 piece of 8x8 patterned paper. As I make quite a few boxes I invested in a Coppernob scoring board but there are lots on the market to choose from and easy to make. I find that punching a small half circle in the lid section adds a professional finishing touch.



You will also need a piece of acetate and two nestabilities dies I used two from the labels 1 set.

Once you have cut your lid and bottom sections next you need to cut a piece of your chosen patterned paper so it fits on the inside of the lid (as below). Stick it temporarily with respositionable tape or as I used a piece of doubled over masking tape.

You want the paper to stay in place while you cut out the aperture - use the smallest of your chosen dies.

Next you need to cut a frame from the patterned paper using both of your dies, placed one inside the other. The thickness of your frame will depend on which dies you have chosen.

You should end up with two pieces which look similar to this

Cut your piece of acetate to cover the aperture but so it also fits the inside of your lid and stick down using DST removing the pattern paper first. Don't worry if it looks messy that's why we cut the first piece of paper to cover it you need to sandwich the acetate between the lid and the paper.

Stick the cut out frame on the front of the box lid framing the aperture and also the piece of paper on the inside. Next make up your box lid and bottom. I like to use tacky glue for this part and I also like to line the bottom section of the box with paper but it's not necessary.

Tip: use one of the offcuts from the first stage to make a matching gift tag.

Embellish the lid as you wish - my box is decorated with flowers and I made an extra one to fit inside the box which can be seen through the acetate.

Here is another version in green teamed with Amy Butler paper

I hope this tutorial has been useful - have fun creating