Finally made something

Well, strictly speaking I didn't just make it,  I only finally got around to finishing this brooch that has sat in pieces in a box since last year waiting for me to get around to it. It is for a friend, so I hope she likes it.

It is hand drawn on a scrap of vintage linen and then bonded to two layers of felt. The body is copper wire and seed beads.

Vintage Paper Feather Bookmark

This is what I have been making in the last wee while. Vintage Paper Bookmarks from a Gaelic Bible from 1924. The Bible was already falling to bits so it wasn't going to be any use to anyone. Now it can take on a second life. These take a while to make. First I age the paper further with acrylic artists paints and some coffee. Then there is a fair amount of sticking and varnishing that goes on before I hand cut each feather - I don't use a pattern so each one is different. Then I wrap the ends with ribbon and embroidery floss before sealing them with a gloss varnish which makes them look like leather. The paper part is sealed with a matt varnish. I love the way they turned out. They are available in my Etsy shop.

If you'd like to get more updates and find out things that never make it to the blog, why not join my new facebook page.

Cupcake tic tac toe

I wasn't going to blog about this, but my husband thought I should - he said it was a really cute idea. (Aww I love my husband!)

I made this little game of Tic Tac Toe for my five year old by printing out my cupcake illustrations onto card and then laminating them using sticky backed plastic, and cutting them out. The board was simply made from squares of patterned paper stuck onto white card.

(The board size is 6 inches square.)

...and that's all there is to it!

Yet another journal

I wanted to show you this latest journal I have made. It was a request from Naomi (older daughter) for a little book to write down her photography ideas and inspirations. She wanted me to use vintage photographs on the cover. 

I wanted to make it more hard wearing than just a paper cover, so I used a technique to transfer a toner print onto fabric. This was my first attempt and so I could possibly have achieved a clearer output if I had worked at it more, but in fact I really like the aged worn look and think it works well for this project. 

I used a good quality sketch paper that will accept most mediums and sewed it together using a hidden long-stitch binding.

Because the paper was thick I made 6 signatures of four sheets each.

The picture in the corner of the above picture was my aunt as a child. She passed away yesterday at age 83. She had dementia and it was sad that she went downhill so quickly.

I liked the way the paper I used for the transfer had an almost vellum quality about it once it was used, so I used it for an inner paper.
I was really pleased with how this little book turned out and so thanks to Naomi for the inspiration, I shall be doing some more with the vintage photos. Watch this space.


On another note, I should be able to get with some sewing projects now as I have just picked up my sewing machine from the repair shop!!! 

another journal

 Another result of my recent bout of journal making. This one will be going in my etsy shop sometime I think.

 It comes in it's own little slip cover, just like my leather bible.

 It is made from some vintage leather and has multi coloured pages for jotting down or doodling anything that inspires you.

The word INSPIRATION on the cover is made from tomato paste tube, put through my little DYMO labeller. I'm putting all kinds of things through my DYMO at the moment just for fun! I'll show you more of that another post.

little email address book

This is a little personalised journal I made for a dear friend. She had some problems accessing her email and her contacts list, so once she got back into it I thought this would be a useful gift for her so she could make a paper back up copy of her friends email addresses - just in case.

She was delighted and thought it was a super idea. 

I love being able to make things for people...don't you?

and another one...

My poor family...they just don't understand why I keep making little boxes!

It gives me great pleasure to design and make them! I don't know why myself!

This is a little gift set I just finished. I think I will pop it in my Etsy shop soon...

It's a little journal with hand embroidered cover upcycled from denim from my son's jeans.

(It's OK- he had finished with them.)

The journal has a pretty bookmark ribbon, and comes with 4 little pencils, an eraser and a sharpener. Everything you need for a little sketching session.

The box is lined with smaller boxes inside- it took a while to get the template just right!

Actual size of the journal is 3" by 2, 1/4"

another box...

Another box !

What's inside?

a little handmade journal...

...to jot down ideas and inspirations

It's only little though...

...so my thoughts better not be too big!

cart before the horse

I'm slowly working myself up to doing some serious crafting, but I have a strange back to front way of doing things. I like to get all my little boxes ready before I start making the jewellery to put in them.

Actually I find it quite therapeutic to cut, score and stick. Now I am in the mood to try my hand at a little notebook or some other paper items . 

My other job for today is to embroider my little girls name onto a plain black fabric bag I have so that she can use it at school for her gym kit. Exciting stuff!


PS. Last chance to enter my blog giveaway ...drawing is tomorrow. 

Etsy Shop update

Hi, just wanted to let you know I am finally getting around to putting some things into my Etsy shop. Hopefully more will go in next week. 

My little girl will be going to school for the whole day as of next week. Think of all that time I'll have to start doing things once again. 9 o'clock until 3 o'clock. I am sure the time will fly by though, so I need to get myself a bit organised. 

You wouldn't believe the amount of time I waste just hunting for things for a project. I wish I had a special room only for my craft stuff. 

On that note, we have someone coming to view the house tomorrow. I am not holding out a huge amount of hope as they are still in the position of having to sell their property first, but at least we have some interest, so thank you Lord!


PS. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a cute birdy paper punch. 

It's card making time...

I've recently been trying out some new craft tools courtesy of Tonic Studios. I know I've not had a huge number of posts on my cardmaking, but it is something that does go on in the background here. Sometimes I sell my cards, but most times, I use them myself. Every so often I will fill up my box with cards so I'm prepared for all occasions. You're going to see a lot more cardmaking posts this year as I try out my new tools.

Here are the Tonic Tools I'm using for these cards...

Petal Pairs Punches

Crossing Heart Punch

Simplicity Power Punch - Crossing Rings

Shape mate and Rulers

Mini Heart Sider Punch

Royal Fleur 2 in 1 Punch

Border System

A young friend of mine has just got engaged and so it was time to make some engagement cards - one for my friend, and a couple to keep in my box as stock. I'm not sure which one I will send her yet!

I mostly use my computer printer to print out greetings. Sometimes I print directly onto the card blanks, and sometimes I will print a page full of greetings on nice paper and then just cut them out as I need them.

For some of these cards, I used a simple layout with a wave of colour at the bottom of the card. I used the shape mate tool and wavy ruler for the wavy line.

For the flowers, I have been trying out Tonic Studio's petal pairs punches which I must say are great fun to use - especially for someone who loves playing with paper like me.

For the card below, I punched a small circle punch through the petal pairs finished flowers so that the colour of the paper underneath would show through as a feature. I also used the crossing hearts and crossing ring punches. The ring punch is one of their new simplicity geared punches and it was a dream to use. Hardly any effort required! I can imagine if you were doing several hundred wedding invitations it would make light work of them! I backed the heart and ring punches with holographic card, it doesn't show up well in the scan, but in person it looks very effective.

For this next card, I wanted a softer more vintage feel to it, and so I chose a pretty floral to punch one half of the petal pairs. A small jewel in the centre of each flower adds a delicate touch.

I was able to use some of my thrift shop lace in the next card. This card uses one of my sheet of pre printed greetings. I used the crossing hearts punch to make a matching envelope too. I backed the hearts with the same metallic grey paper used in the card. I think this is my favourite card. I love the duck egg and silver together. It would work nice as a wedding invitation or wedding card too.

This one has a more masculine feel about it, even though it is floral, the choice of colours means it isn't too girly, and I think the royal fleur border looks great on masculine cards.

Because I enjoyed playing with the wavy layout, I rustled up a couple of birthday cards while I was at it.

I used my favourite tiny mother of pearl buttons to make centres for these flowers and on the wave, I used a small heart sider punch (with Tonic Studios border system) and then I backed the striped paper with a different pattern. Simple but effective I think.

In the card below I used a small circle punch to make a hole in the top flower of the petal pairs so that the bottom flower colour showed through. I used up the punched out hearts from the card above. (Don't you love punches where you can use both the punched shape and the cutout? No waste!)

Next cardmaking session I'll be creating some anniversary cards. My parents anniversary is at the beginning of February so I better get a move on hadn't I !

Oh, and here's a page you can use that is ready laid out with greetings for you to print and use in your cardmaking. Just click to enlarge, save to your hard drive and insert into your favourite DTP software and print onto some nice quality paper. It fits an A4 piece of paper. Chop up and use. Have fun!

a few more quick cuts

Here are a few more cards, just about to go in the post!

A quick cut

I mentioned to you in the last post that I am not very organised, and this was the case for my husband's birthday. It was the night before at around 10pm and I hadn't made him a card yet. I usually make him some kind of silly cartoon card, but I didn't want to disappear for very long, so it was a case of a speedy sketch and then a quick effort with the craft knife. From start to finish it must have taken me about 5 minutes (if I'd had more time it would have been neater.)
I was going for simple but effective with a touch of the naive - well that's what I'm telling myself! At least it was in keeping with the whole gardening theme we had going, and he thought it was really nice. I hadn't done any paper cut cards for several years, but now I have done this one, I think I may well be getting the knife out again soon. I need the practise!
It's the message inside that counts - but I'm not sharing that ;-)

Stuff

Last week was one of those weeks, and I am still catching up, so I still haven't managed to get the tutorial ready yet. We've had mice - and outbreak of lice (the joys of having young children) and we've had punctures and all sorts. I am still trying to catch up with the mountain of washing and ironing that has created, but i thought I would show you a few things I have made that haven't made it to the blog yet.

You probably already know I love black and white, but I also love red and white. The cushion and little quilt cover are my youngest daughters. Her room theme will be red and white once I get around to it. The quilt is make from a vintage cotton sheet and I used a red fabric pen for the design. It was one of those ultra quick spur of the moment kind of projects. The red heart on the cushion, is from a bit of fabric from my favourite skirt when I was a girl. It was actually Laura Ashley furnishing fabric. I wore it as a long skirt when I was about 8 or 9 and then as a teenager it was a not quite so long gypsy skirt. I loved it and have always meant to do something with it. I am sure there are going to be more projects on the way with this. It was just a quick fix with some Bondaweb (Wonder Under).

Here is a close up of the animals. My little girl loves these.

These are some lavender sachets made from linen from a pair of trousers I no longer wear.

OK, I must get on and do some work around here now. Thanks for visiting today!