The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap update

 A little while ago I made a felted image for a postcard as part of the Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap. I was very excited to receive the postcard above from my swapee (is that a real word?) Eleanor Reilly. 

She has put in so many lovely details (according to her blog, the red headed lady is inspired by me).

The theme is "Celebration"and Eleanor has cleverly included a whole miniature book of quotes about celebrating.

I love the texture elements she included.

Thank you Eleanor. It looks lovely pinned up on my inspiration board in my craft space xx

(P.S. I just wanted to add that Eleanor posted this on time for the swap and it's just me who's late adding it to my blog)

 

Colouring in

I am looking forward to getting back into sketching and drawing and creating some original artwork in the near future. I have the challenge of tidying the whole house first, excavating through the detritus of the summer holidays! I thought I would start my artistic journey off gently with a little bit of colouring in.

I bought this beautiful book called the Secret Garden by Johanna Basford. The illustrations are lovely and so detailed. I was a little concerned about the quality of the paper as it's not the thick white paper that Usborne use in their kids colouring books, but actually it works really nicely. I'm using my favourite Staedtler Triplus fineliners to colour. The pictures are so detailed that the colouring you can see above has taken me a couple of hours already. It is very therapeutic to sit and colour in.

Needless to say, all three of my kids have decided they need new colouring books ("Detailed ones Mummy, like yours") but I would rather they were colouring in than playing on the computer or watching the TV so I think the new books will be a good investment - particularly if it means they let me colour in my book without asking if they can "help"!

Wednesday Love: Stencil 201

Time for a little mid-week happiness and this week I was very happy to receive a new book in the post. It's called Stencil 201 by Ed Roth. I already have Stencil 101 but I saw this scrapbook page that used one of the stencils from this book and so decided to get it. 

Stencil 201 is even better than Stencil 101 as the stencil are made from plastic this time and come in a lovely envelope at the back of the book. There are 25 stencils in the book which costs £16.99, which I think is brilliant value considering the cost of individual craft stencils. There are lots of ideas in this book on how to use stencils on a wide variety of projects.

I have taken some photos of my favourite stencils in the book. I placed them on a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock so you can see the scale. 

Firstly, this cute rabbit which can be layered.

Another layered design and this time it's a skate.

I'm not sure I'd use the bit about War Over, but the rest of this stencil will be really useful.

And now for some general patterns (they are so versatile).

OK, so I've saved the best two for last. This typewriter (love it!)...

 ... and a camera - "Hurray" shout all the scrapbookers!!

UKS Blog Hop - Washi tape jewellery

Hello and welcome to everyone who's hopped over from Sarah's blog on the UKScrappers End of Summer Blog Hop - and hello to everyone else too. I hope you are having a great time looking at lots of inspiring posts (with the chance of winning a prize too!).

As I was thinking about which project I would like to do for the blog hop my eyes glanced around my desk and spotted some washi tape - it wasn't difficult as I have quite a collection now. I wondered if I could do something a little different with it. I did a bit of research (oh, how I love Pinterest) and came across jewellery made with paperclips and electrical tape. I had a go at making some using using washi tape and I was so pleased with the results. 

(By the way, if you like this style of jewellery, but don't fancy making it, maybe you could find the paperclip necklace they were selling on Anthropologie a while ago for $168 !!!)

So, I started out with a simple bracelet. Wrap some tape around a paperclip, then clip another paperclip on and wrap some more tape around. Continue until it is long enough - I liked the look of it going around my wrist three times. I love how the pink tape and yellow paperclips really pop with colour.

I used my needle nosed pliers to bend one end of the last paperclip to look like this (before adding the tape). It makes a great closure which is quite secure.

I wound it three times around my wrist, but found it went four times around my daughter's wrist. She really liked it, so now I'm wondering about making these with the Brownies too.

I also tried a multi strand necklace using the same technique, where each strand has one extra paperclip on than the last.

This time I used two jump rings and a proper jewellery clasp to finish it. 

This was lovely to wear as it is so light which makes it really comfortable.

I tried to get a bit more sculptural with the paperclips this time and tried to link them together in triangles. I did find it more tricky and there were quite a few occasions of peeling tape off and clipping and unclipping.

I think the design looks a little clearer when I'm wearing it.

I hope you like my washi tape jewellery.  If you want to carry on hopping then the next blog is Furrypig's blog. Hop over to see what she has in store for you. To be in with a chance of winning the prizes you need to leave a comment on every blog AND on the UKScrappers Blog Hop thread.You have until 6am 10th September 2013 to complete the hop. Good luck!

A little bit about me... I am a freelance crafter and I write for 3 UK craft magazines; Scrap365, Sewing World and Beads & Beyond. I love scrapbooking, Fimo polymer clay, patchwork and quilting, knitting, stained glass and mosaic.  I am mum to three young children and I'm also a Brownie leader and so I frequently blog about kids crafts too. My youngest child is just starting school and so I am about to embark on relaunching my career. Things have changed a lot since I started out being freelance (15 years ago), for example, for the first three years I didn't even own a computer! Please do join me on my journey of discovery over the next year as I am taking time to work out how to turn making lovely things back into a full time job. Hope you can come along for the ride.

Papier mache birdie

Recently the ginger one had to make a space rocket as part of a school project. I love these projects that the school sets as they always end with an exhibition of all the kids work and there is such a great variety of imaginative projects, from small intricate Lego constructions to huge cardboard box creations. With all the papier mache equipment out on the table I couldn't resist having a play too.

Here's my little bird. I made his body by scrunching up newspaper around the wire legs I had bent into shape. I then papier mached a layer of book paper over the newspaper, with a final layer of tissue paper over the top. I used Prima "crystals and pearls" for his eyes.

Here's the space rocket...

My other kids also couldn't resist joining in, so the blonde one made a giraffe ( it still needs some wobbly eyes)...

... and the boy didn't want to be left out so he decorated a tube, which he is very proud of.

Happy happy tape

Some craft materials make me happy. I can't help it, they bring a smile to my face. Today my two new rolls of washi tape have made me so happy - Black and white chevron tape and film strip tape - YAY!

Is it just me??

80's Glam Sharpie happiness

I was really excited to receive these new Sharpies in the post this week. Of course I am excited - it has a pen labelled "Legwarmer Orange". I am an 80's girl at heart. My favourite all time band is A-ha and I have loved them since I was 7. Ah... neon socks, leather straps around the wrists, big backcombed hair, I even had a royal blue wool dress with shoulder pads and a big black plastic belt.

I keep seeing Sharpies mentioned on craft blogs and Pinterest and so decided I needed to expand my collection, When I saw these on special offer, how could I resist?

Here are some Sharpie projects from around the web, firstly from one of my favourite craft bloggers, Alisa Burke...

Doodle Easter Eggs by Alisa Burke

Wooden key fobs from How About Orange

Leopard Tote bag from P.S. I Made This

Shrinky Dink Pendant from ModPodge Rocks

Red Shoes from The Hidden Seed

Tie Dye T-shirts from Sun Scholars

Wellie Boots from Giverslog

For more Sharpie inspiration, check out their blog. And if you are in need of some true 80's glam, click HERE

Holiday crafting with friendship bracelets

It been a busy summer with lots of days spent like this (see above), but I am a maker and I get itchy fingers if I don't have something to make with me. Last year I ended up buying a magazine and kit at a supermarket and learning to crochet. This year I decided to be a bit more organised and I was inspired by the front cover of Issue 16 of Mollie Makes, so I packed up a bag of embroidery threads and off we went.

I have only been able to make bracelets with diagonal stripes before and I was determined to learn how to make a chevron pattern. There is a great tutorial in the magazine. I got the hang of that one fairly quickly with great results. Then I found a website full of friendship bracelet patterns here. I spent a few days of frustrated knotting until I went back and read the tutorial about how to follow the patterns and then I really got the hang of it. As my husband says, "When all else fails, read the instructions!". I would recommend starting with the easier patterns and working up as they are usefully rated by difficulty.

The bracelets here are (L-R) one I made up (not sure about this one), pattern #32492, a chevron, and pattern #26109 .

I then had a go at a tricky one (pattern #59957)  and it worked out well, although it ended up being a bit short as the threads you start with need to be much longer than I anticipated. I really enjoyed making these and they were a welcome break of crafting just for fun, with no deadlines or expectations, just creative expression.

An artsy ornament

I signed up a while ago to an online class called "12 Artsy Ornaments for Christmas". It's hosted by Christy Tomlinson and has a selection of artists contributing projects, including two of my favourites - Donna Downey and Alisa Burke.

This was my version of Alisa's project and I've made a few for friends. I love how they turned out. When my six year old said she wanted to give presents to some of her school friends, I showed her the tutorial video and she had a go too. She made some very pretty hearts.

As for me and my house

In March I signed up for Emily Falconbridge's class "Got Paint" over on Big Picture classes. I love using paint. I think it soothes my soul and I know I'm at my happiest when covered in a little bits of paint. This class was about using paint in various ways in scrapbooking. I didn't complete all the homeworks as some of the techniques were things I'd done before, but it was great to get Emily's perspective and she showed us some wonderful pages. Our final project was a wood-backed larger piece of artwork and here's my results.

Half term was the perfect time get my eldest daughter to help me make the background of the picture.

The base is an old shelf and the beautiful background was pieced together from my scrap paper box. It's such a fabulous technique as the effect is so similar to patchwork but it's so fast to do.

The title is from one of my favourite songs we sing at church and the painting will be put up in pride of place in my kitchen.

Sparkly Snowflakes

This seems such an appropriate title for a project today! Come over to Bubbly Scrumptious to see more about these gift tags :)

Three little robins

This month's challenge on Vanilla Sugar was to make a Christmas banner. I started out arranging the pieces horizontally, but they just wouldn't work like that. I think it looks much better like this. Check out the other banners by clicking here.