Painting on a layout

Hello there

Today's posting is about a layout I've done for the Curious Scrapbooker's BPC class I'm doing. This week's theme is about using paint and in different forms and in different ways. I'm not keeping up with my Crafty Plan point which is do to a layout a week but that's a target, not a 'must-do'. I've really enjoyed it, although as ever with me, it took me longer than I would like but not to worry. I had the Pebbles' 'Cats and Dogs' paper already, so that of course had to be used. The layout was inspired by an email May sent us showcasing Dina Wakley and how she uses paint. I also used elements from a layout May shared with us in the handout and other ideas she's shown us over the last 2.5 weeks.



I stamped 'broken china' all over the blank page first - yes! Do like doing that and it's messy look is perfect for the subject of the photos - a doggie day out party. I also inked the edges, which I'm starting to do as normal almost now. The paint was put straight on the page and then scraped along with my ruler. Dina of course uses a palette knife but I didn't have one, so just grabbed my ruler. Again, it's messy appearance suits the subject of the layout.

This is how you deal with paint making your page curl and twist - my layout is underneath there somewhere!















The pawprint sections were from the edges of the Pebbles' paper - very useful.

The banner I created on Craft Artist from the Showtime kit. The title comes from some freebie magazine cut-outs which I inked with broken china. I used Tumbled glass Stickles on that, the banner and a bone on the paper. 

I misted the page, without the photos on, with Ranger's Perfect Pearl's mist.

I dabbed with a Ranger's Pearl Dabber- yet again, I like the dabs I did around the photos; adding to the messiness effect.

I stamped 'Happy Birthday' underneath Alfie and Nero's photo. I'm happy with how it helps create layers as such.
This is how it all turned out

It's a shame I didn't have better photos of the boys but these will help me remember the day with fondness.

Take care out there

Shrink plastic

Hello there

After my last mammoth post, here's another quickie. I watched Tim Holtz on QVC on Tuesday I think it was and he was promoting Ranger's line of shrink plastic and it's accompaniments....

..... as an aside, I can't stand the QVC presenters- it all seems so awkward and far too much describing of the goods and telling us exactly how many of everything is left 'in their warehouse' when of course, nothing leaves their warehouse for at least another couple of days after the show. Nowhere near enough time was spent on demonstrating.....

Of course, I've seen shrink plastic demonstrated before but somehow this really struck a cord; probably because I'm doing a project which is perfect for a little trinket or two.

Just how adorable is that little bird!? I created my first trinket (which I can't show you just yet as it's going on my project for a present) and was so excited, I had to go and show everyone of course. Chris in jest said "can you do a spoonbilled sandpiper then?" and I said,not wanting to be defeated "yes, of course". Chris recently went to Thailand for 4 days just to see these birds as they are almost extinct now. He went with his mate Pete, so this little shrink plastic bird will become a keyring to send to Pete. I created him by tracing  the picture displayed at the top onto the shrink plastic, with a Stabilo 'Write-4-all' permanent pen. I coloured him in with acrylic paint, so hopefully he'll be waterproof. I punched a hole in the plastic and then went to heating it with my heat tool. It took longer than I thought it would to start moving around and curling and then you have to continue heating until it lies straight, then stop.

It's hypnotic! Have a go.

Take care out there



I love this project but.......

Hello there
Last week, I think it was, I saw a great project by Heidi Swapp on  MyCraftChannel.com. It's a mini album with a magnetic closure flap.I almost immediately thought that this would be a great idea for a couple of events coming up for family and friends very soon. I've decided to attempt to put instructions on here as I found Heidi's video and written instructions with photos (on her blog), quite difficult to follow as there is so much black paper/card used. I also want to note a couple of things which made making it easier for me but you could always just watch the video.  Please don't be put off by the length of the instructions; that's purely because it's quite hard to get the words right for each section. Once you've done one, you'll want to do millions; as long as you can get over that first hurdle of how it all fits together.

Note - please consider using wet glue instead of a tape runner as it's so much more forgiving when you're lining up with the 'hinges'; which is what the 8x2 black cardstock pieces are.

So I got to making sure I had everything. I cut 10 papers down to 8 x 8in and also cut about 5 black cardstock piecesto 8 x2in and folded each one in half vertically. You also need two pieces of black chipboard 8 x 8. The reason it's black is because that will hide it more when you look at the album from the top or bottom. I didn't have any, so I improvised with some thick cardboard packaging I had. I wouldn't recommend that though as you can see it from the top and bottom.

I also ordered some business card size magnets from ebay (now you know what I did with the magnets I posted about a couple of days ago!), which it has to be said are brilliant for paper crafting as they are thin and have a self-adhesive backing. They cost £6.54 inc. postage for ten of them and since you need four per album, you can clearly make two with that. I might look again to see if I could get any larger packs as I'm almost certain I'll make plenty of these albums.

First cut two pieces of cardstock; one purple and one grey (colours optional of course but I'm naming them purely for the purpose of instruction) down to 12x8in (sorry about the inches but the instructions came from America). Score the grey piece at 8 inches and then again 1/2in along to the right. The purple piece needs to be scored 6" from right, and score 1/2" for the spine; that will be the flap which holds the magnets. Place the grey piece on your left and the purple on your right. Glue one of the chipboard pieces to the 8x8in section of the grey card. The purple card is lined up at the first score line on the left and glued to the back of where the chipboard is. It isn't long enough of course but don't worry as you put an 8x8 paper piece over that to hide the join. Glue two magnets on the left hand side of the flap section but to the right of the 1/2in spine; one on top and one on the bottom and then put glue on and around them and fold the remainder of the flap (on your right hand side) on top and secure.

Glue a 8x8 paper piece on the back of the album.

At the front of the album bring the grey card over to the front and ensure it's lined up to the spine score lines of the purple card. Put a magnet on top of each magnet in the flap and peel off the backing and then bring the flap over to the left and let it fall onto the grey side. When you peel the flap up the magnets will be in place on the left hand side and you can see it working - that's a good feeling. To prevent the magnets making marks on the paper you'll cover them with, put a cardstock piece, folded in half, to the left of the magnets - that serves to raise the top paper layer up to the same height as the magnets.
Now glue a nice 8x8 paper piece on top of that.


There's the outer casing complete.


For the inside get one of the 8x2in black cardstock pieces and place the fold to your left. Then put glue on the back of the bottom section and put it down so that the foldline is directly in line with the left of the chipboard piece. Glue a 8x8 piece of paper ontop of that back section, ensuring that you line up the left hand side edge of it right inside the black hinge. Place another piece of 8x8 paper face down on top of that paper and put glue onto the left hand side section of the 8x2 black 'hinge'- fold that on to the back to front paper and adhere.

I'm sorry about the lack of photos but I forgot to take photos from the start and the ones I did take were hopeless.
When I make another one, I will rectify the situation to make this post more understandable.



Get another 8x2 'hinge' with the fold on your left and glue the back of the right hand flap and adhere it to the back of the first 'hinge'. Put glue on the right hand flap of the black 'hinge' and place another 8x8in piece of paper ontop, ensuring the left hand edge of the paper is placed neatly upto the score line. Keep repeating that until you've used all four hinges.

Put glue onto the grey cardstock area and put the last piece of chipboard onto it. Put glue onto the back of the last paper piece of the album. Then bring that section over to the right and try to let it fall directly onto the back of the last piece of paper and adhere. 

Done. Decorate now to your heart's content.

So, yes I do love this project but....I feel very disappointed in this post as it gets lost in all the words necessary to explain how it works. I also forgot to take photos from the start. I have given you easy access to Heidi's video though, so it might help to inspire somebody. I can't show how I've decorated it until I've given it to the people it is for.

Take care out there

Guess work

Hello there

Here's just a fun little post to get your minds working and make you smile a little hopefully. The photo shows you what arrived in the post today - exciting!!! Well, it is for me anyway.

What do you think I'm going to do with these treasures?

How about this innocent looking candle holder? What could I possibly do with that? Paint it? Decoupage it?! WRONG! If you had been paying attention, you'd know the answer because it's part of this year's Crafty Plan posted about in January.

Take care out there and smile!

Welcome Sue Marie

Hello there

How rude of me and remiss to not say hello and welcome to Sue Marie who is now watching my blog.

WELCOME SUE MARIE :-)

I suspect you'll be more interested in my sewing projects but that's fine as I have plenty waiting to be done. Infact that may well be the area I choose to break into the 'business' world and try selling things. What exactly I'll do is yet to be discovered. I received the Craft Seller magazine last week with the brilliant tote bag as a free gift but I haven't got round to reading it yet.

Thanks so much for watching

Take care out there

Cats

Hello there

Today I had to make what I had intended on being a quick card, which was meant to be in the post tonight. Chris's sister's birthday is on Wednesday and it's Monday 20th February 2012 now. The subject of the card was easy as Pat loves cats. The actual card itself was also really easy, as I followed Melanie's instructions from ObsessedwithScrapbooking.com on youtube. All cuts are from the Create a Critter cartridge.

The base card is 5.5inch square.
The mat is 5.25in.
The circle was cut at 5in.
The cat was cut at 3.5in
The cushion was cut at 2in.
'purrfect' was cut at 1.75in

My issues began when I was doing the inside and wanted to add wording to the 'purrfect' die-cut. I tried Lyrical Letters first but I never seem to have much luck with that cut at 1inch or less but I kept perservering for alot longer than I should've. I tried a new blade, infact I even tried the deep cut housing unit for one particular cardstock I used. I even tried printing out the words onto the same patterned background as I put inside but that just wasn't good enough. I could've handwritten I know but that just didn't feel right either......

I don't have any alphabet stamps, so yes, you guessed it; I got rather distracted at one point looking at different ones online. The ones I liked the best were on the handyhippo site but they're almost £12 and there's so many other things I want, I can't justify that.

....back on track. I decided to go back to my old reliable Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and used the basic font from there, which worked well.

If I'd had more time I would've liked a slightly larger card with some ribbon or some wool to look like a ball of wool for the cat as I feel it looks rather isolated. Possibly some trinkets hanging from it's bow? I do like the black glitter type card I used for the cat as it looks better in 'real life' than in this photo.
I love the envelope which I created with the help of my Ultimate Pro. It's the same 'My Mind's Eye - totally girl' paper that I used with the card. The instructions for a 5.5in square card are brilliant, as the flaps are large and fit together well and the envelope is just the right size. That isn't always the case, although over the years I've adapted their basic formula for many envelope sizes to get them as I want them.


Take care out there.

I did it, I did it! I bloomin' well did it!

Hello there

After last night's none successful misting experience, tonight I'm smokin'! Thanks so much to a lady who calls herself 'Mary S' on BPS. Mary commented on my layout and suggested trying acrylic paint with a dab of water in a mister as she'd had similiar problems with her misting. I have to say here in all fairness to May Flaum, that she does mention that as an alternative mist in her videos and handout but it just hadn't connected with me clearly. Mary was there at the right time for me to listen and respond to her advice. I'm ever so grateful to her.

Look at that glimmer in the mist - total accident which just shows I didn't wash the mister properly after using cosmic shimmers last night. I love happy accidents

This is my first ever tag of my whole life! Now that's a dramatic sentence. I've no idea what I'll use it for but I love it, so who cares?! Only having one mister bottle was a bit of a bind as I wanted at least two colours. So I've wasted some blue acrylic paint I suppose but boy, two drops of paint  and faff cleaning it out before using the red, are well worth doing to make me feel happy like I do now.

 I used the Creative Expressions wine label stamping set and loved every minute of messing with it. I then put droplets of the acrylic paint mist onto the tag - more love involved. The piece de resistance was stamping on card which I had misted (of course!) and then cutting it out and then glossy accenting it. I'd never done that with a stamp before - WHY NOT??!!!

Happy times are here again

Take care out there

My misting layout

Hello there

Last night I posted my first proper project on the BPC Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide gallery for the first week of class. It was late at night on me finishing it and I didn't go to bed happy. I had used a scrap page of May Flaum's on the handout as the basis for my layout and I was happy with the way it all came together. I loved the grungeboard letters, which I cut with my Cricut. I was happy with the ribbon I found to go behind/beside the tag which says 'days'. I was much less impressed with the misting experience. I only have two mists and one is too dark for my layout and the other is clear shimmer; so none were suitable. I put a couple of drops of the blue spray into a mister with a bit of water in it but that was hopeless. I tried using some cosmic shimmer powder in a mister with some water and that is what I ended up using. A) I should've done that before laying down my items as one of my photos ended up getting some mist on it B) the effect is barely noticeable and not suitable for a layout about building work.

Since I had the cosmic shimmer dusts out, I put some of the green on my craft mat, added a couple of drops of water onto it and then mixed it with my brush and then painted over the base green letters of 'days' on the tag and then went mad and painted round the edge of it too, hence the final outcome. All playing and learning which I did enjoy. The outcome isn't brilliant but the playing was.

I created the effect on the turn over flap purely by dabbing a 'pumice stone' distress pad on my craft mat, spritzed it with water and then dabbed the paper onto it. I love the effect as it looks mucky as if the paper has been out on the building site. I expect I could've got that same effect by misting but without a mist of that colour, I couldn't.

I played. I learnt. Memory page created. That's enough.

Take care out there

A handmade Valentine's table

Hello there

The Valentine's table I had wanted was actually finished on time. It was all set at 4p.m and dinner is at 6, so I'm a happy girl right now.
The table started like this:

Maggie wanted to put the egg in the photo, as it does have it's role to play in the whole Valentine's table set up :-)

Now look at those placemats. You would think that they were ancient when you see the stains on them. They're only a couple of months old from Marks and Spencer. They're rubbish basically as the coating allows moisture under the edges and wrecks the appearance.

Hopefully you recognise the napkin box from a previous post.

I got the roses from Chris this morning after he'd given me breakfast in bed - what a surprise that was!

Next thing to go on the table was the sweet tree made by Joanne Taylor - please do visit
Jo's website for loads more goodies.








After that was the cookies which my daughter and I made together. The chocolate hearts were a lucky find in the cupboard. I created the heart shape on a couple of the cookies just by putting a cutter on the cookie and putting some icing in there and let it just fall into shape - I thought it was ingenious; much easier than using an icing bag :-)

 



Last but not least, came my placemats and coasters. After finishing the placemats, I was a bit stuck as I didn't have any of the bias binding left and to be honest, I wasn't keen on hand sewing more of that on as my finger was hurting as it was far too narrow for this project really. I've just seen the Simplicity bias binding and cord maker on tele and I NEED one NOW!! :-) It's on 'special deal' now too, so some contemplating to do in regards to that tonight.
..... as usual, I digress... back on track......

I nipped online for some inspiration with the coasters and very quickly came across the Fat Orange website which has a pictoral tutorial on making almost exactly what I wanted to make. After seeing how to sandwich the layers together - the batting goes at the bottom; which was a bit of a surprise to me as I'm a batting novice. After that I was off and running! Ta dah!! Finito!

A completed handmade Valentine's table- other than the table and chairs of course :-)





You can never have enough pretty things. After all this, Chris doesn't eat with us on a Tuesday as he goes to tennis but Maggie, Fiona and I were able to enjoy it and Chris enjoyed the surprise when he got home.

Take care out there 

A wha hey moment!

 Hello there

Take a look to the right of your screen; can you see the followers section? Yes? Great! Now, what do you notice that's different? Come on, I do hope you pay attention when you look at my blog :-) For those of you who are far too similiar to me and don't normally notice such things, the difference today is that it says I have eight followers rather than just seven. There's a NEWBIE following me! Wha hey! I am excited about that and also slightly intimidated, although I'll get over that pretty quick as when I'm typing my blog, I just type away; I don't worry about who's reading it or what they'll think. If people don't like what they read, I'm sure they'll move on very quickly. I enjoy my crafty things, so even if only a few people have a look, then that's brilliant as it's a few more than none!

Anyway, enough of me rambling on. I want to do a shout-out for Linda from The Crafty Network who is my new follower. I've been a 'part' of the Network for quite a few months now but I didn't realise until a couple of weeks ago that Linda lives in Warrington and then on Saturday at the Warrington Craft Fair, I met Linda and found out that she lives just round the corner from me. Linda set up The Crafty Network almost a year ago with a couple of other ladies but she now goes solo. The website offers advice, hints, tips, specialist articles and a craft directory of all it's members to help them promote themselves and learn some business skills. There is currently an article on there written my Maeri from the Make and Do Studio all about the very first steps involved in setting up your own crafty business - please go to the website of The Crafty Network to read that article and have a look around to see the whole array of things available. It's not just for local craft companies; it's for the whole of the U.K, so hopefully it'll build up into something great. On Saturday we joked about having a craft seminar type event. They have loads of them in America, so I can't see why we can't get together to help small businesses in these difficult financial times.

Right I'm off to try to finish all these placemats ready for tomorrow's handmade Valentine's table.

Take care out there

One down, three more to go

Hello there

I've finished one placemat! The sneaky peek I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago was actually bits of a placemat that I've just put together. Thanks have to go to Shinyhappywendi on youtube as her videos helped me to put it together neatly.

Other than me previously having trouble getting my machine to do zig-zag stitch, the main issue I had today was the bias binding, as I used pre-made, shop bought binding whereas Wendi made her own. Wendi's binding was also alot wider than the one I used and believe you me, when you have to hand sew the back of the binding in place, that makes a big difference. It was a constant battle to keep pulling it over the stitching from where I'd machine sewn it on the front. I also struggled with the corners. They're only for here though and I've got three more to do plus a middle table runner type thing to do, all before Tuesday i.e Valentine's Day. I like the idea (for the first time ever) of making the day a little special for everyone. Everyday is such a humdrum weatherwise and I get so fed up of it, so doing something out of the ordinary helps keep my spirits up. It might also stress me to the max trying to get it done so quickly but now that I've mastered one and learnt from that, hopefully the others will be quicker to do now. We'll see!

Take care out there

This one's for me

Hello there

This is quite a selfish posting as I'm typing it for my benefit really as it concerns my sewing machine and zig zag stitch. Over the last couple of days, I've tried so many variations of pressure, tension, feet, stitch width, stitch length but to no avail. I was at the point of throwing the stupid thing out of the window and actually enjoying the sound of it smash on the path. I've had this machine for over 15 years; it's travelled thousands of miles with me but I was so frustrated why something so simple was beating me, when I've zig-zagged tonnes of times. It was serviced in 2010 and declared fit for action, so it's not as if it's an abandoned sad old thing - he does get used regularly. Yes, it must be a he. No question.

Anyway... after a plea for help from Maeri at the Make and do studio in Stockton Heath, I carried on with practising different variations possible and I've now mastered it. I can't believe it feels like such an achievement just to do zig-zag stitch but hey, ho, such is life. I've taken a photo and I'm going to note down here what the set up is, so if ever in the future, I feel beaten again, I can remember about this post and save myself, so to speak.

I've got foot A in there.
Zig-zag width at just past 3.
Stitch length at 0.5
Pressure dial at 2
Needle thread tension at 2.3


It's a Janome My Excel 18W






This could possibly help someone else looking around the internet for help with this problem, so if this has helped you, please leave a comment about it, as that'll make me feel really good that I've helped someone and stopped them throwing their machine out of the window!

Take care out there - especially when walking under windows of houses where a sewing person lives!

Field Guide has started!

Hello there

Just a quick note to let you know that the Big Picture Classes Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide has started since yesterday. This weeks' topic as such is mists. I only own a couple; one being Carole's Crafts shimmer magic - aqua lagoon and the other being a Perfect Pearls Mist - perfect pearl no less! I also have some cosmic shimmer paints which can be mixed with water in a spray bottle and used to create a mist. May Flaum (the teacher) provides not only a handout with three projects on it with instructions but also a video inspiration. There is a chat facility which will provide four or five chances to talk live to May about anything we're concerned about with the class. The only snag with that is that they're done on PST time and we're 8 hours ahead of them, so when they start at 7p.m, it'll be 3a.m here - not sure as I'm dedicated enough to stay up until then to chat. There's a message board and there's a gallery for us to demonstrate our work. May also doesn't mind if you email her directly. I've done one BPC before and I thoroughly recommend them for value for money.

An order which arrived today courtesy of free delivery :-)

I don't own any masks as such although my Cricut will let me create those but yesterday Chris got back from Thailand and he'd bought a bottle of gin in Duty Free and the bottle had a plastic mesh thing around it.

Once I cut through this, it'll lay flat of course and I can use it as a mask! Not sure how it'll work but I'm certainly going to play and find out.
I'm not sure why Chris was upset that I was more excited about the mesh than him arriving home!? :-)  He'd only been gone 6 days anyway!











                   -----------------------------------------------------------

I'm frustrated with the project I 'sneaky peeked' the other day as the zig zag on my sewing machine is playing up, so I've made no progress at all on that.

                  -------------------------------------------------------------

This is the Papermania craft tote which arrived today. Not only was it delivered for free  like the other order I showed earlier in this post(well, I ended up having to collect it from the Royal Mail depot to be completely truthful) but it was FREE! I got it as an incentive bonus for subscribing to Craftseller magazine. I was going to sign up anyway, so I was mega chuffed to see this new offer they had. It's brilliant as I don't have anything like this at all to take my crafty stuff with me when crafting away. I'll have a fun weekend moving alot of my stuff into it, as I plan on using it at home as well, so if ever I go to craft classes, it'll already be packed up as such. It's got the sweetest little bottom section which zips open to reveal two plastic trays with divided sections to keep allsorts of gems, candi,sequins etc in.



Take care out there

p.s the gin bottle upcycled mask worked!!! Yee hah!

Here's the result I got on plain, boring white printer paper and Perfect Pearl mist - superb!

Steam punk-ish

Hello there

I've finally got round to getting some lace, so I can show this card I made using my MCS cd-rom 'Tinkering with steampunk'. My first one in fact, if memory serves me right. I've designed it too, so I'm happy about that.

You will notice a few errors though I have to admit. The first one is that I forgot to print double-sided on the card base, so the inside of the card is white rather than the 'mucky' paper look of the front. I rectified that with the envelope though, I have to say in my defence. I love the envelope almost as much as the card really. I created the actual stamp shape myself with a Gelly Roll pen;red star which is great when it shimmers in the light in contrast to the grungy look of the rest of the envelope.

The second error was the 'soutien-gorge' label on the top right hand side; I didn't print it in the right location to show fully on the card. I'm not worrying about this though as the card will go to one of my daughter's friends and I highly doubt they'll even notice. You could argue that it adds to the querkiness of it.

The flowers on the front were printed separately and once glued on, I put glossy accents on them and the way it makes the card react is great, as it shapes them for you and of course makes card come to life.
I was so pleased about the ribbon find in my stash, as the colour is perfect to match the swirly pattern on the top left hand side.It's American Crafts- Spring and Summer beetle.

I'm going to make more of these but learn from the lessons learnt. I'll enjoy making something that isn't being created from fresh.

Take care out there

P.S I've just checked and I lied! I have infact done another Steampunk card - I posted about it on November 4th last year. It's a good job I have this blog to keep me on my toes!

A sneaky peek

Hello there

I've wanted to use those words i.e sneaky peek for a long time and now I'm doing it! So often, you'll all agree, you see designers on their websites and fellow bloggers teasing us with photos of the tiniest area of their projects to entice us to come back another day. I saw one today from May Flaum showing the edge of a project we'll be doing on the Creative Scrapbooker's Field Guide course. It certainly has made me want to see more; alot more of the project and how on earth I'll manage with it. Only three more days!! Yee hah!

 Anyway, enough of other people's sneaky peeks. Here's mine!

It's a bit of a rubbish sneak and peek really as you can see it all! It's more of a preview of what's to come. I'll be making four of them with any luck. I'll maybe have to do a sneaky peek version 2.                                          

Take care out there

Three cards from one

Hello there

Today's post is about using a download I got for free from Nancy Watt via her newsletter this weekend. Due to bit of a printing error/strange occurrence, I ended up making three cards out of the one elements sheet.
The first one was using the blue shaded elements. This came together quite quickly, once I'd decided to use a doily. I knew I had the blue gems but whilst I was getting them, I found another little box of embellishments and I thought those flowers would look great and I was right, as they're a darker colour to stop it all being a bit wishy washy. The frame around the sentiment actually had a different 'inner' to it but I didn't want that, so I cut it out and then printed the Happy Birthday onto some Safmat, using MyCraftStudio software to ensure it was the right size and then glued them both onto the card.

The envelope was printed using a template available on the MCS sofware. I used a die-cut oval feature on the software to create the white space for the name in the middle of the envelope

The second one is a section of the element sheet which I made larger. I've used glitter paint on the wings and the antennae to give it more life, as well as shaping the wings. This envelope was a pre-made and bought one, which I used a print-out to cover the middle of the front.

 The third one took me the longest time to plan out and find resources for. Maybe as it was getting late; it's now twenty past midnight on me typing this and I started straight after finishing it, so forgive me if I make even less sense than usual. I'm really pleased with the toadstool peel-offs as I felt they needed colour but the pens and pencils were in my daughter's room and I didn't want to go and wake her up, so I tried my acrylics set but no purples there and there's no way I was mixing colours this late at night. So, I got my Cosmic Shimmers little storage box out and sure enough, there was the Lavender Shine little pot waiting for me to use it. I've never coloured inside peel-offs before but seen it done and it is ever so easy. The raised surface of the peel-off creates wonderful lines within which to keep the colour - brill! I edged the card sections the toadstools are placed on with Dusty Concord. I first used the border peel-offs on the vertical right hand side edge, as, to be honest, I hadn't scored the base card correctly, so I had that overhang. I had initially gone to cut it off when I had the brainwave to decorate it, and hence the other peel-offs on the rest of the card. The sentiment came from a pack of Glitterations by Anita's (Docrafts).

It's so hard to photograph shiny peel-offs with a rubbish camera!

The envelope for this was printed directly from MCS software onto a bought plain envelope. I didn't realise before tonight that you can actually select a custom size for your paper. I just got the patterned section the size I wanted it on the screen, made the paper size 7x7inches and printed. Which all sounds very clever but dozy me forgot to create the white oval in the middle for a space to write the recipients name. Not to be beaten though, I just cut out an oval on my Cricut, using the ever faithful Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, with the same card as I used for the little toadstools. Job done! Not bad going for a night's work out of a free download, even if I say it myself.

Take care out there

Hallelujah!

Hello there
Boy am I relieved! I've just finished making my dressing gown and if only you could hear the sighs of relief. I set off on this project with the intention of making a large blanket type dressing gown, nice and long that I could snuggle up in on cold winter nights, such as tonight. Often the ones I see in the shop either aren't a material I like or the wrong colour or they're too short......

on a bit of an 'aside', I was at the Make and Do Studio's open evening on Thursday night and this elderly lady was talking about all these sewing machines she's got at home not being used and then had the audacity to say that she didn't use them as due to affluence, she didn't make things anymore?!!! That's not why 90% of people do craft; they do it because they love it; because they want something original or personalised or to exactly fit their personal requirements. I don't make things because I want cheaper than anywhere else; that's a hard thing to do now anyway, with places like large supermarkets selling things for such low prices. I was too shocked to reply instantly at the time but I'm so cross about it now- no idea what she was doing at the open night then if that's how she feels.

Ok, back on track and off my little soap box.

If you are considering sewing something with this fluffy fleecy material, do read the advice on the websites I included on a previous post as they are relevant, especially about getting large white headed pins. My pins have small round heads in various colours but they were quite difficult to find at times.

Makes me look like a real big Mamma :-)

Good aspects of sewing with fleece

You can't see the stitching, so you can be as untidy as you like.
You have a very soft, cuddly material for your project.

Down sides to sewing with fleece
Very light and fluffy which makes it quite difficult to sew with a machine.
Very stretchy, so again making sewing more difficult.
It drops fluff EVERYWHERE once you've cut it. (I'm going to wash it separately before I can wear it)

I highly doubt I'll be using this type of fleece again anytime soon but to look on the bright side, that's another tick for my 'Crafty Plan', so that's a good start to the weekend.

Take care out there

Cutting grungeboard on my Cricut

Hello there

A very quick post about how to cut grungeboard on a Cricut; a) to help me keep a note incase I forget b) incase anyone finds this post via a search for 'how to cut grungeboard on a Cricut'.
I have a basic Cricut Expression and I used the following settings:

speed 4,
pressure 4,
depth 6 on the deep cut blade
a new mat 
Multi-cut 4

I also found that it cut better with the fluffier side down on the mat, which surprised me but that was my experience.

I have it on good authority that it's best not to use too high a pressure setting when using thicker materials, as it creates too much tension on the material and prevents the Cricut being able to glide it along smoothly whilst cutting. This has been proven twice recently on projects I've completed.

Hope that helps; if not, send me a message and I'll see if I can help.

Take care out there

I feel bad

Hello there

Today I messed up. I put pva over the top of Maggie's painting and bits of it smudged; especially the face of the lion. I even did a test run last night of the acrylic paint and all was fine but what I had forgotten was that we had done the sketch drawings with a black felt pen and that is what smudged. It's not ruined but it's not great. I feel so bad for Maggie. I've just printed a photo of it as it was last night, so she can take that to show her teacher. She can explain it was all my stupid fault. I should've done it on my painting first. I'm just so annoyed with myself. I'm not going to show it but like I said, it's not ruined by any means and perhaps we can touch up his face over the top of the pva varnish. The main character is absolutely fine. The teacher isn't expecting anything else from Maggie anyway, so hopefully she'll allow for my lack of experience and just revel in the fact that Maggie tried so hard with this.

I'll go to Hobbycraft tomorrow to see if they've got any Golden Acrylic Polymer Varnishes which I read about this evening on www.art-is-fun.com . If they have, I'll cover mine with it and Maggie could perhaps take that into school as well. I have got some Claudine Hellmuth multi-mediums which I got in preparation for my BPC class but I'm nervous of using those as they weren't cheap and this is quite a large project and I've only got the sample size bottles. Not sure, maybe I will just try that.

Poor Maggie coping with my hairbrained ideas. At least I try for her though and try to inspire her to do different things.

Take care out there