Coming soon….

Starts soon!

Also starting 1st Feb at FiskarsCraft.typepad.com:

Polymer clay “wax seals” and butterflies

Hi all
Here I am again. I haven’t made flowers this time but butterflies and mock wax seals.

First of all the “wax seals”
I rolled up a ball of polymer clay and then presses a stamp into it.
Next I baked it to manufacturers instructions and I have myself my very own “wax seal” embellishments!

Flowers, butterflies, birds and pocket watches.

After that I decided I needed some butterflies to go with my flowers I have been making…..

Polymer clay beads for bodies and hand cut wings glued to body.
And rolled paper beads,with hand cut wings glued to body.
Both with flower Stamens as feelers.

Well got to go…. See you later…

Paper flowers

Hi all
I found a great tutorial online on how to make some paper flowers so of course I had to make some…. First the link to the tutorial is here——> kaiserCraft

Here are my flowers…

I used brads, rhinestones and flower stamens for the
Instead of an oval punch which I didn’t have – I used Fiskars oval template and Fiskars ultra shape express. And I glued to together with a glue gun.

Thanks for looking…
Now I have a lot of flowers. I need to make other embellishments for my stash…. Hmmmm what else? Stay tuned…

Cereal box greeting cards

Hi all
Another challenge to myself this year is to use up my draw of scrap papers..

Any patterned or plain paper in this draw is under a4 size (or printer size) categorised via colour and put in bags labeled accordingly.

I also had no plain card stock thick enough for greeting card bases the right size.
So I ended up cutting up the cereal boxes I have had stashed away for the time I needed them and made them into greeting card bases,……

And after a few moments (ok about 30 or so min) I ended up with a card for my hubby….

Stamp used is by Viva las vagas stamps…. The link for them is in my right sidebar.

Thanks for looking -see you again soon.

Altered Alice Challenge – stripes

Hi all I am back on the ball with the Altered Alice challenges…. Their first one of the year mentions you have to have stripes in the project…..

This is before….

As I didn’t have the room on my desk or needed yet another advertising calendar I decided to use this for all my altered Alice challenges this year.

Now here is what I ended up with….

Thanks for looking.
This was a very fun project for me.
It is the size of 8″ x 4″

Yea ok I still have a problem of where to put it but hey it’s better than a boring calendar.
See you again soon.

Personal CHA challenge – stamped layered paper tutorial

Hi all
I fell in love with the Prima “nature garden” papers in particular this one here…

I have endeavoured to see if I could come up with something similar… Here is my finished version…

And here is how I did it:

I gathered various supplies..
Brown ink pads of various shades.
Mid brown tan textured card stock.
Various nature type stamps of similar styles.

I cut out some frames from a piece of card stock. And used these to get a layered box effect with stamp pads and a bottle of ink spray I found in my stash.

I used various stamps in the darkest brown ink pad in blocks

Sponged on some green.

Sponged on some pink and stamped the script stamp all over in various places to tie it together.

And ended up with my masterpiece..

I also made up some clock faces. I printed out some paper from Tim Holtz blog in black lazer print and then inked them up with my ink pads….

Nothing like putting hand made embellishments into packages to make them look new and inviting. And inspirational to use,……

Well better go. I need to walk around the park to excersize while the kids play on the playground.
See ya later!

Personal CHA challenge – stamped grunge paper tutorial

Hello all, another tutorial….
This one is inspired by this pattern paper by Donna Salazar

This is mine…

I started off with white plain card stock with no texture.
Ink pads: night of navy, rich razzleberry, black.
Stamps: swirls, plants/leaves, distress stamps, script.

With the black I swiped lightly around the edges.

Then I inked and then stamped on a spare scrap of paper then onto the card stock.

Used the distressed stamps in various locations and lightly swiped the ink pad over the surface.

With the rich razzleberry I stamped the swirls and the leaves.

Next I took a damp cloth and put it on the ink pad and swiped the night of navy over the main part of the card stock.

Next I got a water pen and the rich razzleberry and coloured in the leaves making them solid.
And I was done…

Thanks for dropping by again.
Have some creative fun!

Personal CHA challenge – 2textured flowers with tutorial

Hi all here is a different fabric flower tutorial…. Inspired by the flower embellishments that are coming out in CHA

Here is how I did it:

You will need: three different pieces of fabric (I am using an old second hand top and scrap pieces from old projects), some rhinestones or epoxy dots, fabric glue or glue gun, needle and thread and some scissors.

Cut three pieces as above with scissors

With needle and thread hand sew in and out with a gather stitch then pull it firmly.

You will end up with this.

Now cut your petal shapes out of it with scissors as above

Next layer your plain flowers on the textured flower and sew or glue in place.

I also sewed the centre and gathered the centre circle. It can be glued.

Now even though the rhinestones and expoxy stickers are sticky on the back I made sure they stayed with some fabric glue.

And you are done!

Enjoy making some of your own flowers.

Personal CHA challenge – stamped patterned paper tutorial

Hi all, today is hand stamped patterned paper.
You know how I said to find your stamps and blank paper a while back? Well this is the tutorial you have been waiting for.

This has been inspired by: “heaven sent” by Graphic 45

Here is my version:

Here is how I did it:

Grab 4 stamp pads. I used… Stampin up pads – old olive, tempting turquiose, daffodil deight, regal rose.
One sheet of light tan plain cardstock, two different sizes of butterfly stamps, one small swirl stamp.

Ink with green ink pad and stamp the small swirl stamp onto spare cardstock and then onto your tan cardstock. This makes a light empression of the swirl stamp for the base pattern of your cardstock.

Stamp your stamp all over the tan sheet and make sure some stamps are off the edge. Go on be adventurous!

Keeping the green ink pad open, stamp the small butterfly over the sheet loosely.

Build your patterned paper with the larger butterfly and the green stamp pad.
Clean your stamps to stop cross contamination of colours.

Build your paper with the yellow ink pad and the two sizes of the butterfly stamps.
Clean your stamps to stop cross contamination of colours.

Keep building with the pink ink pad and butterflies.
Clean your stamps to stop cross contamination of colours.

Finish off with blue.
Clean your stamps.

Awesome! Your own butterfly cardstock! Yipeeee!!!

Personal CHA challenge – flowers with tutorial

Hi everyone. For years I have loved the fabric flowers on the market. I also keep wondering how to make them.

Now I have finally found out how to make one type…..
Here’s a tutorial for you….

Sheer fabric flowers

You will need:
Sheer white fabric
Stampin up! Re-inkers or other re-inker you prefer (I used tempting turquoise)
Flower stamens – spotlight stores or craft stores
DMC thread that matches your chosen colour (I used 392)
Fiskars Micro tip Scissors
Small wide flat lid that fits your flower and some water

1. Cut out three flowers. I used quicKutz cookie cutter dies nesting flowers.
2. Put 4 drops of re-inker in the lid and put a bit of water in it and mixed it then put the flowers in the ink to colour them – rest them on a stain resistant surface then transfer into a towel to dry naturally. (blotting takes out the colour) also do the stamens if desired. 4 for each flower is good.

3. Let dry for about 30min (I went off to do the grocery shopping and came back to them dry)

4. Stack your flowers and find the middle then snip a small hole.

5. Fold stamens in half and poke them through the hole in the flowers.

Eek ok so you have seen me – scarey I know!

6. Now get out your thread and secure the stamens in the flower by poking through the needle between the stamens and wrapping around…

7. Now to alter the actual first petal neat the stamens poke your needle half way through the petal and then through the middle of the flower pull firmly but not too much. This scrunched the petal a bit.

Now tie a knot in the thread and finish it off.

You have finished the flower!
Keep repeating for as many flowers as desired. Then Enjoy them by putting them on your fave projects.

Personal CHA challenge – art tiles

Hello all
One thing I like to see every year are the new releases of CHA.
For those who don’t know CHA is a craft and hobby expo and it’s huge it’s where everyone that is anyone in the craft industry shows off their new products for that season…. Open to retailers only I think. People from all over the world go…. Fiskars, Prima, Kaiser craft, Helmar, Tim Holtz, Rangers are only a few of the companies that show off there wears… Apparently there are hundreds. I’ve never been but every year there are enough vids on CHA so I don’t miss out.

This year I am tempting to recreate some products at home…..

Today I am focusing on Prima’s Art Tiles.
These look fun to work with and look like they are about 1 0r 2 inches square and already decorated.  Maybe made out of hardened clay of some type or plaster Paris?

Like most Prima products I don’t have them in my stash unless they are given to me or they are on sale. Yea I know I’m a cheap crafter but I can appreciate their style of products and really if I had the chance I would buy up their products if the cash was readily available in my wallet and I didn’t have to pay for postage from where ever to home.

So yes I’m cheap and yes I admit that I hesitate to buy their products because of price issues.
I am not hiding my shame.

So when I saw these art tiles in a sneak peek on the Prima blog I thought…. I can make those!

Above, what I have done is save all the product packaging from all those little embellishments I do buy and put Delight Clay in them using the packaging as a mould. You could also use Creative Paperclay if you are inclined. Delight clay when dry has a polystyrene feel to it. Creative Paperclay has more of a hardened clay feel. If you have plaster Paris try it out. But be careful with that stuff it heats up as it cures. Follow instructions properly and take care.

Now the clay will take about 24 hours to dry. Then you can pop them out of the “moulds” and if the clay is not hard then may need another half day drying time out of the Mold. So making these ahead of time for your project is recommended.

I will come back with results later.

One thing I like about using see through moulds is that you can see if the clay is in every nook and cranny and is flat in the mould. Cool aye!