Thursday 19 July 2018

Two posts in one day, I'll meet myself coming back soon! 😁  I had a request for an exploding box for a wedding.  The brief was neutral colours with a hint of music and somewhere to put some money.  I made the cake using a circle of card for the top and strips of card long enough to go around the circumference of the circle then snipped into it along one of the long edges so it would bend and glue to the top.  I made three of these in different sizes and decorated with ribbon and paper flowers.


I made two pockets on the inside, one to hold a card for a message and one to hold some money.  I hope my customer likes it.


Good afternoon all,

Sorry I've taken so long to update my blog,  these gorgeous hot summer days are too good to ignore so I've been enjoying the outdoor life rather than being cooped up in my little craft room, but as the nights have been a bit cooler of late I caught up on a couple of orders I had in the pipeline.

This one is for a couple of bicycle enthusiasts 1st Wedding Anniversary.  I used a Kanban background card to make the gate with and cut some shapes out for the leaves and bikes on my Scan N Cut. My customer didn't want flowers but I felt it needed something, hence the leaves.  I inked the edge of a square piece of card, punched two holes in and threaded some paper string through for the sign,   I think the tones work quite well and was very pleased with the end result. 




Friday 15 June 2018

Father's day

Here's my latest card just in time for Father's day.  I used a docrafts stamp for the sentiment and assorted papers from various paper pads I have.  The wood background paper is from the Craft Sensations Vintage Garden pad, and the little hot air balloon paper is from their Colourful Fairytales pad.  I coloured some grey board bolts red and finished off with some cardboard cogs and a metal pocket watch.




Saturday 2 June 2018

Card Tutorial

Hi all,
Hope you're having a lovely weekend, this post is dedicated to a tutorial, while I don't want to state the obvious there are a lot of new crafters out there and hopefully this will help with a couple of techniques.  We are all familiar with mat and layering but I've combined this with some stamping and some flower making.



Here goes...

I started off with a 7" x 7" card blank, my first layer was from a Trimcraft paper pad called The Promise (8" x 8") which I cut down to 6" x 6".  My next layer was from a Grafix paper pad Shabby Texture.  This I cut down 12cm x 12cm.

Next I cut a banner shape in white card 11cm x 6cm

I have a Brother Scan N Cut so I cut 3 leaves in cream card and 2 3d rose shapes in cream card and  1 in the blue card. Please excuse the photos!!


To roll the roses take some tweezers and start at the end as shown and roll up until you get to the centre....

Now glue the roll to the centre of the flower.  Then with each petal fold over the end with the tweezers.

 Do this with the other two roses.
Cut two flourishes, I used dies from my stash (sorry I can't remember the make) and some small pieces of mesh.


Next I stamped a sentiment which was Dovecraft Floral Muse on white card stock using Chipped Sapphitre distress ink...I cut it out leaving a 1mm border all the way round and stuck it to the card using double sided sticky foam pads.


 Assemble and glue all the pieces on the card and Voilá!




If you like it leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Saturday 26 May 2018

As promised here are the pictures of the book I made on the course.  The case is covered in fabric tied round with a ribbon and inside are 4 small note books.  I used 4 different Japanese stab binding techniques.  I'm pretty pleased with the end result but I will make it again using the coffee stained papers. 



Sunday 13 May 2018

Well the craft fair I did last weekend was quite a success, the place was buzzing both inside and out (I was inside).  I think the weather had a lot to do with it really, a hot glorious day certainly brings people out.

As well as the cards I sold I had an order from a Lady who wanted one for her Aunt.  She liked my green and pink birdcage card but wanted it in green and yellow.


I cut out the birdcage using my Brother Scan n Cut machine.  I created the file and then downloaded it to the machine.  I made the paper roses by rolling the paper and then shaping the petals.





Sunday 29 April 2018

Coffee Stained Paper

Hiya

Just sharing what I have learnt today.  I have been on a bookmaking course, well actually, part 2 of a bookmaking course.  I did the first part last month where we made a case which holds 4 signatures.  We made the signatures today using a Japanese Stab binding technique. I'll post the pictures of the book soon but I haven't quite finished it yet.  To cover the signatures we created some coffee stained papers using very strong instant coffee and we sprinkled sea salt on while they were still wet.  Apparently the salt draws the moisture from the coffee to make very interesting effects.  Unfortunately they weren't quite dry enough to use so I chose some lovely papers to match the cover.

I was eager to get home and try some more of the coffee papers.  The first one was some sheet music which I heat embossed with white embossing powder to use as a resist.  I dabbed a weak mix of coffee on and put the cup on to make the coffee ring stain.  This turned out a lot better than I thought it would (first picture).  The second one I used a stronger coffee and ground sea salt and again using the cup to make the rings.  The third one I crumpled the paper up, straightened it all out and brushed strong coffee on then when it was dry gave it a good press with the iron.