Oh yeah, I remember now, I have a blog!

Yeah, so, it's been a while since I was here. Sorry about that. It's not that I haven't been busy creating things, just that I tend to use Instagram more nowadays than the blog. However, I think I shall have a shot at getting back into the swing of blogging for a while and see how it goes.
Here is my latest endeavor. I made some cute little labels for a friend's hand knitted garments which she sells through a local craft shop.

I was able to use my Tonic Studios dies for this, it makes for a very cute little tag don't you think?

You can't really tell from the picture, but I have a strange way of doing the printing on my inkjet printer which results in a cool raised printed effect.

Unless you have a top of the range inkjet printer, the inks will run if the label becomes wet. I want to avoid this for labels and make them a bit longer lasting. I do this with embossing powder.

As my printed card is coming out the printer, I sprinkle embossing powder over the inked areas. Because the printer uses pigment ink, the embossing powder sticks to the printing. I then tip off the excess into a big plastic tray I have for the occasion and use my heat gun to heat the embossing powder as you would do normally.

This can be a bit messy and you have to be careful not to trash your printer. But it works for me anyway.

Anyone else do this?

Have a lovely day !

Pearly Pink Valentine Heart Box Tutorial

It's time for a little tutorial using some wonderful Tonic Studios products. Create this decorated heart gift box and make someones day with this special little trinket box made with love...

First you will need a little paper mache box to decorate, just like this one, plus a sheet of smooth white card for painting and die cutting. (A little suggestion -  when choosing your papier mache box, always pick one with as loose a lid as you can find to allow for the thickness of your paint and paper.)

Tonic Studios Supplies...

• Nuvo Acrylic Paints in white and metallic pearl white
• Nuvo embellishment mousses in peony pink, lilac lavender, cornflower blue and aquamarine.
• Tonic Funky Glue
• Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone
• Nuvo Crystal Drops in Wisteria purple
• Paper for lining your box. I used some 12x 12 Tonic paper I had (Romantic Cottage paper pack)
• Essentials Die Set - someone special
• Verso - First Crush Die set. 

INSTRUCTIONS

Prime your box with one coat of white acrylic paint .
Once dry, mix metallic white pearl acrylic paint with the embellishment mousses and paint your box and sheet of white card alternating the colours to create a variegated pearly effect. Use mostly pink with splodges of the other colours. Once dry, smooth  some glimmer paste with your finger all over the sheet of card which you will use to die cut your embellishments.

When totally dry, diecut your embellishments and glue to the box.

To line your box draw around the base of the box and then draw a line around 2mm insidewhich will be your cutting line to allow for the thickness of the box sides. Cut two strips to fit neatly in the sides. You can either repeat this for inside the lid, or paint inside the lid as you prefer. 

Decorate the edges of your lid with Nuvo Crystal Drops. 

I also glued some of the little hearts from the die cut onto the lid of the box. 

Now all you need to do is find a suitable little gift to go inside the box. Or better still...make one! 

There are other lovely heart dies from Tonic Studios that would work just as well for this project. Why not check out the full range on their website. 

Hope this gives you some ideas.
Have fun.

Thinking of you...

There are quite a few people I know currently going through some serious health trials. This "thinking of you" sentiment from Tonic Studios is getting used quite a lot. I love the letterpress look of this die and I always like to ink it first before running it through my die cutting machine. I always use a double layer of card to cut into...sometimes just a bit of scrap card behind...I find this makes the impression deeper and crisper on the top layer.

I have used the matinee purse rococo die to make a container for the floral arrangement as it made me think of porcelain flower bricks I have seen like the picture below - plus I am a bit of a blue and white china addict.

The papers are of course from Tonic Studios new Romantic Cottage paper collection. The flowers are from one of the Entwining Trellis sets.

Time to go clear up the mess I just made in my craftroom!!!

Have a lovely afternoon

Beautiful Butterflies

Who doesn't love butterflies. These are the new butterfly stamps that come with the set of three dies of which I have only used one on this occasion. The dies and stamps are interchangeable which means you have so many options. They are so pretty!

I have a feeling that these will sell out quickly when they are launched on Create and Craft TV this weekend.
May your garden be full of butterflies and blossoms.

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

These latest dies from Tonic are a few of my favourite things. Hearts and butterflies...dies and stamps. Gorgeous! I had to try the stamps out right away, and made this pretty wrapping paper and coordinating gift tag. I love how one of the heart dies has little holes all around, perfect for stitching.

Doesn't it look adorabubble.
I can't show you what's in the package just now. But I'll show you when it's been gifted.

Have a lovely day, and don't forget to check out the rest of my blog.

Tonic Studios Camelia Layering Die

This is a lovely set of layering dies to play with. So many things I could make with these. Here I've just made a simple little card for a friend - and a little gift tag to coordinate. These dies are part of the latest launch on Create and Craft TV.

Have a lovely day.

A Touch of Tartan

This is the last of the MDF units which I decorated for one of the most recent shows on Create and Craft TV. This is Tonic Studios Lyon unit, and I decided to go a bit patriotic on this one. OK, so there is more than a touch of tartan here. I had quite a job finding tartan papers, but I think it was worth it in the end. This little unit would be perfect for a gentleman's accessories. (Or for Bay City Roller fan memorabilia!)

The drawers were just begging to be lined in clashing tartans.

Time for my next project now....I'm going to be playing with paper clay.

Don't forget to check out the rest of my blog.

Have a lovely day
Bye for now.

Italianate cabinet...with mahogany effect.

 This is another of the units I recently decorated for Tonic Studios. This is their Verona unit. I chose to create a mahogany wood effect  for this unit using their Nuvo Acrylic Paints and Matt medium.
The base coat is Walnut brown. I applied two coats of this. Then I mixed up a glaze for the top coat . I used 5 teaspoons of  Burnt Umber, 5 teaspoons of matt medium and a half teaspoon of Black. I then brushed it with a large flat brush to create my woodgrained effect.

 I think it turned out quite effective. The die cuts on the top were cut from thin card painted in the same way and then the whole lot was varnished together with a gloss varnish.

 I laid out card cut to the size of the drawer fronts onto the design I had printed for the front of the drawers so that I could lay the design over the whole frontage.

 I think the crackle glaze looks amazing on this.

 And to think it started out as an MDF blank. It's amazing what you can do with paint, paper, glue and varnish isn't it!

Don't forget to check out the rest of my blog. 

Have a great day.

Vintage maps and letters

This is one of  my favourites from the most recent MDF units I have decorated for Tonic Studios. This unit is called the Lyon. I used maps from a vintage atlas and vintage clipart printed on my laser printer (mostly from the Graphics Fairy) .

I created the "air mail" border and printed it out and cut it into strips to go around the edges. I love the way it looks framing the letters.

I painted the drawers white, then colourwashed them with a blue glaze. I like the way the dragged effect looks. The little drawer pulls are strips of leather that was salvaged from a vintage chair that fell apart.

It would make a handy desktop caddy for stamps and other small stationery items. You could sit your pen pots on the top too. (If I'd had time, I would have made a matching map pen pot. )

Yup, I had fun with that one !

Have a lovely day.

Glittered drawer unit

I really went to town with the glitter on this Tonic Studios Verona unit and completely covered pretty much all of it with Tonic Studios Charcoal and Silver glitter. I can tell you , there was glitter everywhere for days ! I'm still finding bits actually !

It was hard to get a picture that showed off the sparkle properly. But you get the idea.

This would make a very glamorous jewellery drawer unit. (The little crystal handles came from Ebay, all the way from China. ) I know a little girl who'd love a pink glittery one...that is if I can ever face doing that much glittering again. I'm sure it's just like  having a baby, I'll soon forget the pain of it's birth!

Have a shiny day

Bits and bobs

Hi there, I'm just dropping by to show you a couple of  things today. First one is this delicate card that appears to have no visible means of support. I used acetate on the back so that I could retain the delicate appearance of this die cut. Such a delicate pretty die this one.

OK, so there is not much room for a long message, but enough room for a few kind words.

I made these little wooden drawer pulls for a project and then decided they were too big for the project in mind. However,  I am sure they will get used sometime in the future. But it has made we want to experiment some more making my own decorative pulls for drawers, so you may see more in the future.

Time flies...must dash. My little girl will be crashing through the door any minute looking for her lunch.
Have a lovely day