Making foiled flower decorations

Do you like the effect of these foil decorations on my greetings card? When you see them in person, they look like they have been foil printed onto the card because they are very smooth. Or perhaps they could even be peel offs. But no, they were much cheaper to make than that.

They started life as a roll of 3m Aluminium tape. The kind you use for DIY. All you need then are some flower punches. I've used my Tonic Studios flower punches here. 

All you need to do is punch out a few flowers and carefully peel off the backing paper- this is a bit fiddly- but worth it. Then apply to your card or scrapbook page smoothing it out carefully. Then use the bottom of a glass and rub in circular motion over the flower to burnish it to your page- this removes any catchy bits. For the finishing touch use a sharpish pencil and draw in lines and designs however you want the flower to look. I think the finished result is very satisfying.

For this one I used one of my Petal Pairs punches and a heart punch to make a leaf shape.

Believe me, you can get a whole lot of flowers out of one roll of tape. And you can use so many different punch shapes with this technique. Just try to keep to ones that are not too fiddly. 
Have fun, and let me know if you try this. 

making a throw...

I promised you I would show you how to make a throw from a cheap store bought fleece throw and some toile fabric the same size. The reason for using cheap store bought fleece was I figured that it was not as expensive as fleece fabric per metre - it would probably cost twice as much. The fleece cost me less than £3. The toile I had was a remnant so was not expensive either.  I have made this one a birthday gift for a friend. She doesn't read this blog - I hope!

Before you do anything to your fabric, you can embellish the fleece side- this is optional. I did an applique in felt and embroidered my friend's name. I chose a pheasant because I was looking at one in the forest at the back of my house while I was trying to decide what to do.

Once that's done,  pin the right sides together of your fleece and fabric. My fleece throw had hems- some don't, if they have hems, just keep your line of sewing in a bit so that you can lose the hem when you trim.

I used my newly serviced machine - why did I wait so long, it's running like a dream now! Sew right the way round leaving a gap of about 8 inches so you can turn the fabric. Trim the excess fabric off once you have sewn round it.

Turn the right way around...

...and press carefully.

Now sew twice round leaving about a 2 inch space between each border. I use a bit of masking tape stuck on the sewing plate of my machine to line up the fabric to. I used brown for my top thread and white for my bottom thread.

Don't forget to oversew the gap. 

And that is pretty much it. And if she is in the mood for fleecy and cosy she can use this side.

And if she is in the mood for a spot of toile, she can use the other.
I hope she likes it, and I hope I have inspired you.

Matchbook notebook tutorial

Here is how to make a little matchbook notebook.

I'll try to keep the instructions as simple as possible-

it's not rocket science after all ;-)

 Feel free to change the sizes to suit yourself. 

This is the size that works for me. :-)

Cut your card in a 2, 1/8" strip (I'm using A4 card)

I used my Tonic Studios handy Super Trimmer, 
Score your card at 1/2",   3/4",   3,1/4"   3, 1/2"
If you don't have one of these you could always use 
a ruler and a biro that has run out of ink as your scoring implement.

 Now cut to 5, 5/8"

 Tada! Now for the inside..

( This is an additional step you can do if you own a perforating tool like this rotary perforator.)
I like to add this step to my matchbook notebooks so that it is easy to tear a page out neatly from the stack. Each notebook only uses two pieces of paper.

  It takes more time to make, but I think the finished result is worth the effort.
Using the perforator cut longways down an A4 piece of paper at 1/4" , 2, 5/8", and 5".

 Then trim the paper across the way into 2" strips

 and then into 2, 3/8" lengths

 Stack them neatly, aligning them by tapping the edge on a flat surface, then clip together at the end opposite the perforations with a bulldog clip. I use a little scrap of paper to protect the stack from being indented by the clip.

 Using another scrap of paper the same width, make a little hole template with which to mark out the holes. You can see the diagram to get the right idea for hole spacing.

Pierce the holes in the cover using the same template.

 Using embroidery floss sew from the front to the back leaving a little tail to tie, then stitch back over so you end up with a complete stitch and two tails to the front. 

 Tie in a double knot and trim leaving about 1/4" for decorative effect.
I think this effect looks quite Japanese.

 Use a decorative punch for the front cover, or you can embellish any other way your choose.
I used my little birdy punch from Tonic Studios.

and there you have it. A lovely little gift item that could be used for wedding favours, or party bags, or any other reason you choose.

(joined linky party at http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com/)

Silhouette

Here's an easy peasy craft. Silhouettes are all over blog land just now, so I know I'm doing nothing new, but I thought I'd share my method in case you want to give it a try my way.

I've been meaning to do a silhouette of my little girl for a while now, little did I realise that trying to get a decent side-on photo of her could be so tricky! So, this is your first stage. Get a good profile shot against a light coloured wall.

Once you are happy with your image, adjust the contrast with your photo editing software and print out one the right size for your mount. You might need to experiment a bit to get this just right. 

I have to admit, once I had decided on this image and tried to cut it out, I realised it would look better if her mouth was closed so I printed a few more images until I was happy with the result.

I carefully cut around the edges of the picture rounding off the neck area in traditional silhouette fashion.

I then flipped it over and while it was held it in place with a tiny bit of double sided tape I drew around it onto nice quality black paper with a white sharp pencil.

Then I cut out the black paper, adding some wisps of hair with fine cuts made with tiny decoupage scissors from Tonic Studios. They are ideal for this. I also used my knife to cut out a few bits in the pony tail to make it look more authentic.When I was finished,  I flipped over the black paper and it was the right way round again.

Now it was time to decide on papers for mounting my silhouette. I chose some scrap booking papers and a page out of a vintage encyclopedia. I used the oval Shape mates to cut the apertures for the mount. I decided to do a double mount.

I wish I'd had the Shape Mate a long time ago. I once overpaid to get an oval mount cut for a vintage photograph. Now I can do it myself. (Do remember to use acid free card if you are going to mount old photographs.)

I laid it all out until I was happy with the result and then stuck the lot  together with double sided tape.  

I had an old frame that was a bit scruffy. It was once gold but now faded to a dull brown, so I gave it a couple of coats of artists acrylic black paint. 

I'm quite pleased with the result. I might try a few more now.

Someone else thought it wasn't too shabby either. I do wish I'd brushed her hair before I took this photo !!!

Vintage Leather

I finished this chair yesterday after I finally found the piece of leather I'd been looking for (while looking for something else of course). The cushion is one I made a long time ago. It is crazy patchwork and incorporates some hand drawn butterflies. It is trimmed with my favourite red pom poms. I love pom pom trim! Sad, but true!

Here it the chair in it's before state. 

It was another one of my £1 auction bargains.  I think it looks quite "gentleman's study" now. I love the look of the vintage leather, and I only bent a few of the brass upholstery nails in the process! 

I had a little scrap of leather left over, so I upcycled an evaporated milk tin and made a nice pen pot to go with the desk mat and the chair.

I cut the leather to size and then ran it through my "ready for a service" sewing machine before glueing it onto the tin. It's an easy make but looks quite classy. If you have any scraps of old leather, this would make a nice gift for the man in your life.

Hearts and Flowers part 1. - decorate a mug - easy peasy tutorial.

Here's a very simple little project to make a last minute gift for a teacher or auntie. It's lovely for your child to be able to give something which they have made themselves. Fill it with a cellophane bag of choccies tied up with pretty ribbon, and Bob's your Uncle!

Most crafters will probably have a heart and a flower paper punch in their stash. They are very versatile items to own. I'm using Tonic Studio's paper punches for this project. If you don't have any paper punches, then may I suggest that these ones would be good basic punches for you to start off your collection. (And believe me, once you've started your collection - you'll be buying more!!! )

You will need... a willing little helper. This is my sweet and creative 4 year old daughter .

A heart and a flower paper punch...

...and a bunch of other stuff. I have here some Pebeo Porcelaine paint, a sheet of acetate for making a stencil (although you could just as easily use paper for this), an old sponge cut into little blocks for painting, some milk bottle lids for the paint, some masking tape and most importantly, a plain white mug for decorating. I find Tesco's basics range brilliant for this. A straight sided mug is easiest to work with.

{Slight intermission where my daughter discovers building with the foam blocks is fun...I always save any foam from packaging...I think this foam might have come with a laptop computer. }

To start with, I cut a strip of acetate the right size to go around the mug, then after a little help positioning the shapes, my little girl punched them out. OK this was posed, she did need to press with both hands to activate the punch, but she did manage to punch out the shapes all by herself. We alternated heart/ flower/ heart/ flower etc. Now we all know paper punches are wonderful for using with paper to make cards and other paper items, but did you know that using them to create a stencil can be very effective too.

We fastened the punched strip to the mug with masking tape and then my little girl chose some paint. She mixed the colours herself using a cotton bud in the plastic lids.

Using the little pieces of sponge, she dab, dab, dabbed. Then mixed a couple more colours and did the same. We then moved the stencil to the bottom of the mug and repeated the process. Simple!

If you need to tidy up any areas simply moisten a cotton bud with water and clean up the edges a little.

Look what I did mum!

Now, you need to follow your paint's manufacturers instructions for curing and baking in the oven to fix the paint, then it's ready to give.

Of course you don't have to use hearts and flowers, if you have other punches that you would prefer, then go ahead - have fun! Let me know if you try this - I'd love to see the results.

I have another hearts and flowers tutorial coming up in the new year, so keep a look out for it!