Bird Silhouette Tag

This mixed media lark can certainly become a bit addictive, I've been playing with lots of ideas since I last blogged, but they've not been going to plan, this weekend I found out why, I was using the wrong mediums for the job.

I've also discovered that the gesso from The Works is not the best medium for the job and if you want to use distress inks, neither is Modge Podge, because it acts like a resist and won't take water based inks! You can still use archival inks, but I don't have as many colours of archival as I do distress. Another downside of Modge Podge is it leaves your project feeling 'sticky' and as if it isn't dry and yes this time Jennifer I waited, a whole 24 hours!!! lol! 

So I invested in some Pebeo mediums thanks to Jen's input, she's becoming my mixed media guru if I'm stuck she offers advice and gives me her invaluable insight and product recommendations and ones to avoid. So based on what Jen recommended I picked up some Pebeo clear, white and black gesso and some gel medium. I still want to get a few other mediums, like Phosphorescent Gel, DYNA Bindex and Crackle Paste/Glaze but that will come with time as I learn more about playing with the mediums.

What mixed media is doing is encouraging me to use more of my Tim Holtz stuff of which I have an awful lot of but I don't often use because the style isn't suitable for sending cards to people I know which sucks! But mixed media gives me the chance to make home decor, journals, tags and so much more using my precious Tim Holtz stuff that its making me giddy!

This tag project didn't turn out exactly as I planned as you can see from this photo, I originally coloured the bird with Peacock Feathers and a touch of Fossilised Amber but on the parts that had been treated with Modge Podge the ink wouldn't stay put.

I decided that the bird didn't pop (I originally typed poop lol) enough because it was coloured too much like the background. So I added black sparkle pen over the distress ink and used some 'Buttercup' Archival Ink to colour the tail edge, under belly and the face and throat. I think it worked out a lot better although I think it may have been better in hindsight to use brown rather than black. Another change was the decoration at the base, originally I was going to attempt to create a nest with hessian strands and place some polystyrene egg shapes I picked up cheaply at Hobbycraft but I couldn't get the next effect right. I decided instead to use flowers made using my Tim Holtz Small Tattered Florals die set and coulour them with Mustard Seed distress ink to tie in with the yellow parts on the bird.

I added copper embossing powder to the feet, beak and tail tip using a Quickie Glue pen and some 'Copper' Darice Whisper Embossing Powder and then used an Indigoblu flourish scroll that came free in a set with a magazine to add some detail. The backing papers came from a 'Classic Elegance' pad by Melissa Frances that I won along with some pearls when I had a letter printed in one of the card making magazines a few years ago but I hadn't got round to using. I looked over to the side of my desk and I saw a feather I'd cut using the feather die from the Tim Holtz 'Feathers & Ravens' die set and it just cried out to become a wing on the bird, I tried it and it worked perfectly, so I gave it a bit of sparkle and a gold spine and added it to the bird.

I wanted some sparkle so I decided to use some Tonic Studios Nuvo Glimmer Paste in 'Peridot Green' through a Bo Bunny stencil, it did the trick, adding sparkly translucent texture to the tag. Once the flowers were attached I added some Nuvo Glitter Drops in 'Honey Gold' which finished them off nicely. The sentiment comes from one of my Tim Holtz sets "Life Quotes CMS227", which I have only used one of the stamps on one previous occasion. I seem to collect Tim's dies and stamps and then don't use them, because taking them out of their packets and using them somehow sullies them, OMG I'm turning in to my brother with his Star Wars collection lol! 😂😂😂

In an seemingly unrelated, but related occurence, Simon had a long weekend off work which gave us a rare chance to get out on a weekday to visit our local National trust place 'Calke Abbey' and whilst there I noticed something I must have seen many times before but hadn't really registered, an example of 19th century mixed media!

When I got back I did some research and discovered that the Three-leaf Draught Screen at Calke has a wooden frame which had been covered in canvas. On top of the canvas a vast assortment of images have been stuck down including cuttings from books and magazines, coloured prints and caricatures from publications of the 19th century. The screen is double sided, both sides can been seen in better detail on this National Trust Draught Screen page. On one side there is a large print of a little girl in the centre, each panel showing a different image and above the images of the girls a romantic country scene, other smaller prints arranged around them included Father Christmas, Kittens and a lot of flowers and butterflies.

One side includes a print of Sir John Everett Millais painting "Bubbles" originally known as "A Child’s World" which featured the painters Grandson William and was painted in 1885. Millais sold the painting and copyright in 1886 to Sir William Ingram, the owner of the London Illustrated News, he reproduced it as a colour plate and included it in the Christmas issue of the weekly magazine. The then managing director of Pears, Thomas J. Barrett, who by all accounts was a pioneer of modern advertising methods in the 19th century, saw the colour plate and realised the potential of the picture to his company. He contacted Ingram and purchased the original painting and exclusive copyright for the princely sum of £2,200, he then contacted Millais who at first was reluctant but eventually gave his permission to add a bar of Pears soap to the painting so that Pears could use it for advertising purposes.

The collage technique used on things like the Draught Screen was and is known as decoupage, a crafty pursuit that survives to this day, and whilst this version at Calke Abbey isn't the best example, it does make me wonder about the girl or woman that created it, where she got her images and why she chose those ones in particular? Apparently the art of découpage dates back to the 12th century when Chinese people first started to use paper cut outs to decorate windows. Although it didn't get the name we know it as today until the 20th century the word is derived from the French word découpeur which means to cut out.

According to this History of Découpage page, Victorian Nannies taught the girls in their charge the art of découpage, and some of the old examples of the technique used 30-40 layers of varnish built up over the collaged images, each coat sanded down to a beautiful smooth sheen to protect the images. Some even had gold gilding added and images were sometimes hand coloured by the découpage creator. Who knew that seeing an old screen would lead to discovering so much, not only does it have links to crafting, it also links my love of Pre-Raphaelite art and botany, I'll have to be a lot more observant in the future, who knows what else I'll discover?

Review: Canon Pixma TS8151 All-in-One Wireless Inkjet Printer

There seems to be a desert of information when it comes to discovering a printer that is useful for a cardmaker come papercrafter, as I doscovered when I started to look, so I thought it may be a good idea to do a post on my latest purchase and my discoveries.

When I first started crafting in 2014 I had an Epson Stylus DX4850 Printer that enabled me to print on heavyweight card stock, sadly it died a death back at the beginning of 2015, so I purchased an HP Envy 4500 e‑All‑in‑One Printer, the attraction for me was their Instant Ink scheme, you pay an amount per month (I chose the £3.49 plan which allows you to print 100 pages a month), the printer reports on your ink levels and ink is sent out to you before you need it.

The day after my HP purchase I tried to print on some 250gsm card stock and was very soon disappointed, the card went through the printer and only half the design was printed, on some occasions it printed cock eyed, on others it just sucked the card in and spat it out again with NOTHING on it! At first I thought it was something that I was doing wrong, so I investigated every avenue and that's when I discovered that front loading printers like the HP Envy won't print on anything above 200gsm if you're lucky, 160gsm is the weight that is the maximum for decent print coverage.

So for over 3 years I've soldiered on, and if I needed to print out toppers I did it on lightweight paper or card and backed them on to mats to stiffen them up a bit, it was good for printing out backing papers but the colours were never true to the image I was printing. It was what I had, so its what I had to use, then a couple of weeks ago I wanted to print off some photos for some gift projects I was working on and no matter what I did, I could not get the HP printer to print on the photo paper, even the HP branded stuff.

I was stressing out really badly, when hubby appeared and suggested that maybe it was time for a new printer? I didn't want to just go out and buy any old printer, so I drew up a list of requirements, I knew I wanted the new printer to be able to print on 300gsm cardstock or greater if possible and it had to be able to print on photo paper giving good results. It had to be able to feed paper in from the front and rear and also be easy to set up and maintain, I'm tech savvy but not a tech wizard.

The printer also had to work with Windows 10, have easy to use software and a good level of support from the company if something went wrong. I asked around on a couple of card making groups and the Canon Pixma series seemed to be highly recommended. So I went shopping and came home with a Canon Pixma TS8151. The specs for my printer are taken from the Canon website and I've added them here in case they discontinue this model in future.

MAXIMUM PAPER INPUT	Rear Tray: A4, A5, B5, LTR, LGL, 20 x 25cm, 13 x 18cm, 10 x 15cm, 13 x 13cm, Envelopes (DL, COM10) Front cassette: A4, A5, B5, LTR.
PAPER TYPES	Plain Paper Canon High Resolution Paper (HR-101N) Canon Pro Platinum (PT-101) Canon Plus Glossy II (PP-201) Canon Pro Luster (LU-101) Canon Plus Semi-gloss (SG-201) Canon "Everyday Use" (GP-501) Canon Matte (MP-101) Envelopes Other Fine Art Papers Printable Discs.
PAPER WEIGHT	Rear Tray: Plain paper 64 - 105 g/m², Canon photo paper up to 300 g/m² Front Cassette: Plain Paper: 64-105 g/m2.
SHEET FEEDER	Auto feed from paper cassette.

The Canon Pixma TS8151 ticked all the boxes including having the ability to load paper/card from the front and rear which meant it would take card in the rear tray and canon say it works with paper up to 300gsm. It helped that at the time I bought it not only was it on offer in PC World, but Canon were offering a cashback deal as well, which made the deal all the sweeter. This baby also prints directly on to CD's, you can print from an app on your phone, it has a super easy to use touch screen making controlling it is easy. Granted it takes a little time to remember what paper/card goes in the front or the rear (well it does if your a 50 something menopausal women lol!) but its easy to use and gives brilliant results.

When I got back home with the printer, I decided to run a comparison of the printers, all the examples in the photos are printed on Navigator Ultra Smooth Paper 120gsm which gives ultra-bright colours and can be used with either inkjet or laser printers. Its good for printing photos, posters etc and has been my go to paper for a while now, so much so I buy it in bulk. One of the first tests I performed was to print out a backing paper as that's what I print most.

As you can see from the above image the Canon printer prints the image truer to what the image actually is, their is more colour variation, the HP Envy is flat almost 2 colours. Next I opted to to print out some digital images in both printers and colour them in, before I continue I'll explain that on the HP Envy I'd tried to print off digi images and it gave up because I thought I was just rubbish!

On each of the samples I used the same pens a Zig Real Color Brush pen, a Promarker and a Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen, the 3 pens I use most often. As you can see above every one of them suffered from bleeding or smudging on the images printed off with the HP Envy, and was the reason I didn't play with digital images.

The same pens (save for the fact I used a different colour of Sparkle pen on account of the fact that one of my cats Rosie decided to dive on the desk and knock the first pen off and it landed behind the desk where I can't reach without pulling everything out lol! Anyway as you can see the results with the images printed on the Canon printer have no bleeding, there was a little smudging if you went to heavy with the sparkle pen, but not so that it made the image unusuable.

To sum up, I know there are lots of printers on the market, but for the price the Canon Pixma TS8151 does what a papercrafter needs, granted there is a limit on the thickness of paper/card you can print on, but the print quality and colour is brilliant. I now have the ability to print on cardstock again and I can print and colour digital images and print off photos for using in projects. Be aware that the ink is a lot more expensive that the deal I have with HP. What I now do is use the HP for generic backgrounds where the colours don't matter that much and if I want to print on cardstock/paper that the HP can't handle I use the Canon or if I want to print a photo. Not everyone has that option, but it helps keep the costs down.

If you have any questions about the Canon printer leave them in the comments and if I can answer then I will respond. I don't work for Canon so I can't answer technical questions or techy questions.

Entering A World of Mixed Emotion Media

Hey lovely blog people :) today I'm posting something a little different, I dabbled with mixed media in a way a couple of years ago when I attempted to start an art journal. I bought a lot of supplies, had a go, but despite getting enthusiastic it went nowhere.

I tried to do two more journal pages after the one in the article linked above and they were unsuccessful, so the supplies gathered dust. In a way it was like when I first tried card making all those years ago, I tried, it didn't work, so I gave up!

Then recently the lovely Jennifer Kray showed me a couple of her mixed media projects and I was in awe. Jen took a cardboard Bisto pot and turned it in to a stunning floral work of art.

We had a conversation, it went something like Me: your project is stunning, but I can't do that because I'm not good with mixed media. Jen: I disagree, just go for it! She encouraged me to have a go, pointing out in a nutshell that everything is art and it doesn't matter what others think, its the fun you get out of it whilst you create, okay I'm paraphrasing but that's what it boils down to. So I found a tin and a pot of gesso and then I chickened out again and the tin loitered in my room glareing at me every now and again daring me to touch it.

Earlier this week Jen posted another mixed media project, this time a card that she'd created for the launch of the new Nuvo Diamond ink cubes and it took me back to France 2 years ago.  I was right back in the Musée des Impressionnismes at Giverny, and fondly remembering standing in Monet's studio and weeping like a baby with joy, yes one creation triggered all those memories and feelings!

Jen's work was stunning but I was still convinced that I couldn't do mixed media. Jen explained what she did to create the card and it seemed so easy, not much different to creating some of the backgrounds I create for cards. Yeah those things that I'm getting rather good at now, because I found my papercrafting feet and kept practicing how to walk! I wound up, with Jen's encouragement thinking that maybe I could do mixed media, so I dug out the tin and the gesso and I started playing.

I painted the tin with gesso, then covered it with angel hair paper before painting it with gold starlight paint. At that point the ideas flew out the window, I couldn't and still can't decide on whether I want a steampunk, bee or botanical theme for my up-cycled tin, so that project is on pause. It would have been easy to pack it all away and forget about it, but I decided to check one of the boxes under the bed to see what paints and things I had. In that box I found a little decopatch cat I'd bought to decorate and a pack of six 5" x 7" canvas boards I'd bought from The Works for about £2 when I was going to have a go at mixed media a while back.

So instead of giving up and whilst I wait for the muse to hit me for the tin, I decided to give the cat and one of the canvas boards a coat of gesso. More on the cat in the future, but for now, I'll concentrate on the board, because I now have a finished project under my belt, okay it isn't as grand as some of the creations that you can marvel at on Youtube and on an array of mixed media blogs out there, but it is created by me and I finished it whooo hooo!

I must admit that where the project went is not where I expected it to go and there has been a lot of covering up mistakes throughout the process. Step one, I added gesso, all good, then I added some paper strips and put mod podge over the top, again all good. I added some aqua flow pens and the lovely olde world lavender bottle image completely disappeared! So I painted over the papers with pearlised acrylic paint and added patches of metallic gelatos in pinks and purples, I then randomly stamped a Stampendous script stamp over the paint in Jet Black Archival Ink, although on the finished project its barely noticable, you can see it more on the photo below.

I wanted to give the canvas some texture but the only texture paste I had in was Ranger Transparent Texture Paste which dries clear, I added the texture paste you can see it in the picture above, it goes on white but dries clear. Once it was all dry I used my finger to add some Pebeo Gilding Wax in 'Empire Gold' and added some more gelato in darker purple on the edges of the canvas.

I checked my bits box and realised that I'm not really that well kitted out for mixed media, I haven't got lots of cogs, wheels, bits of jewellery or any of the other things in the stunning designs I've seen created. So I took a step back and BAM my Sizzix Tim Holtz Bigz dies hit my eye and I decided that the wish sentiment would be perfect. So I found some scrap packaging card I'd saved and die cut the sentiment out 3 times, glued the layers on top of each other and painted the whole thing with Black Sparkle Pen, then added a thicker coat of the gilding wax on top. The flowers are also Tim Holtz Bigz dies, but I made these almost 2 years ago and they'd been sat in a box with some others waiting for the right project to come along.

The leaves were made around the same time as the tattered flowers and sat in the same box, so when I opened it up I guess I did find some treasure, but the paper kind. The butterfly I got from The Range a while back in an assorted pack and it felt right for this project, so it got glued on along with the flowers and leaves.  After seeing so many stunning mixed media creations posted by highly talented and brilliant people like Jennifer I feel pretty nervous putting this project out there, but its my first and I actually rather like it!

It looks NOTHING at all like it did in my head when I began the project, but I do like the colours and the textures. The most important thing is I did it, I started a project and finished it, and I learnt things about myself. I also learnt that mixed media is VERY forgiving, and I discovered that I have lots of paints and other items in my stash already and the projects I've done over the past few days have encouraged me to use those items and other stamps and dies for the first time.

Now if I can just discover the difference between modelling paste and texture paste and figure out if I need soft gel medium and which glue is best for mixed media projects I think I can learn to embrace this new creative venture. So if any of you have tips on books or sites to find out more please leave me a comment. I've acquired some larger canvases that Si got to explore oil painting but never did so he's given them to me to give me more chances to create a masterpiece lol! More from me soon, I'm off out to enjoy a rare day of sunshine now, take care and thanks for stopping by :)

Wreath Builder Templates Now For Sale

I'm super stoked to announce that as of today I now have a Facebook Shop set up where you can purchase a set of the Wreath Maker Templates if you so desire, look for us on Facebook Cook's Cards & Crafts, send me a message letting me know how many sets you require and your PayPal email address, and I will send you a PayPal invoice, once paid your templates will ship to you as quickly as possible.

Let me just say that I'm not out to make a huge profit, I'm selling these because after Simon made them for me and I began to share photos of the cards I'd made with them, friends then asked if they could have a set and then their friends began to ask. The templates make creating wreaths so, so simple and have made creating this kind of card for me a joy and the possibilities are endless, so with that in mind we're selling them so others can create stamped wreath designs without spending an arm and a leg. 😍

What are the Templates?

The templates have been designed to make it easier to stamp circular shapes on to card blanks or panels to attach to cards.

They are printed on a 3D Printer by my hubby using a material called PLA. For those who don't know what PLA is, it's a rather versatile material called Polylactic Acid sometimes referred to as Polylactide.

It's a biodegradable and bioactive thermoplastic aliphatic polyester, which is derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch, cassava roots, or sugarcane. That's the science bit over lol!

Each template sets consist of 4 templates to fit card blanks for 3", 4", 5" and 6" shapes. You can stamp direct on to card blanks, see tip below. Each template is 1.5mm thick and has the size etched in to it so you know what size card you need for each template.

Will they fit in my stamping tool?

To use the full set from 3" to 6" you will need a larger sized stamping platform such as the Tonic Studios Tim Holtz Stamping Platform. If you have a smaller stamping tool you won't be able to use all the templates, here's the low down: -

Mini MISTI - Only the 3" template will fit in a Mini MISTI Stamping Tool or any stamping tool with a stamp area of 6" x 4.75" such as the Stamp Perfect by Hampton Arts.

Original MISTI - This size stamping tool will handle the 3" and 4" templates with ease, same can be said for any stamping tool with a stamp area of 6.5" x 8.5".

The 5" and 6" templates needs a larger stamping platform, and as I said above personally I recommend the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform by Tonic Studios, because that's what I have and its what I use, the TH SP has a 8.5" x 8.5" stamping area. FYI I am not affliated to Tonic Studios, nor do I recieve any benefits for recommending the TH Platform 😁

You can use other platforms with larger areas e.g. the Memory MISTI which has a stamp area of 12.25" x 12.25" and all the templates will fit inside

We don't currently offer the templates for sale individually but it may be possible to do so if there is a demand for single sizes.

How do I use the templates?

1) Pre-cut your card stock to the desired width, for the eaxmaple in this photo we used the 5" template so the card has been cut to 5" x 5".

2) Put the card in position as shown. N.B. you don't have to start in the diagonal, you can first place your stamp on the flat.

3) Place the first stamp of your design where you want the image to be and close down the lid of your stamping platform to adhere it to the lid.

4) Add ink to your stamp and close the lid, in the event that the image isn't crystal clear you can stamp again. It's important to note that your stamping template and card must NOT shift when stamping over the top of an already stamped image, if they do then your stamped image will become misaligned. So before stamping always check that the position hasn't shifted before you stamp.

5) After you have stamped the first image rotate your card stock 1 notch, if you want to create just 4 images then rotate 2 notches. In the above example I first stamped on the flat 4 times turning the card stock until I had the 4 lighter orange flowers in place. Then I shifted to the diagonal position as seen above and stamped and rotated to add the darker orange flowers. You then continue to build up the design using other smaller or larger stamps until you are happy with your wreath.

Can I clean my templates?

Yes you can! If you get ink on your templates it can be removed, for water based inks wipe with a soft cloth or baby wipe. For alcohol based inks or archival inks use a little hand santizer gel on a cotton wool ball or soft cloth to remove the ink. Do not wash the templates in hot water as this may melt the PLA or cause the shape to warp. Similarly don't use a heat gun on your templates as this will cause the PLA to melt.

What stamp sets can I use?

Any! The templates are fabulous for using with all those tiny stamps that often come with stamp sets that you wouldn't normally use. You don't have to use only floral images, any small stamps can be used, I've used snowflakes, tiny sea shells, butteflies and lots of other stamps.

In this kitty example I used a variety of small sized paw print stamps to create the wreath. I've also used sentiment stamps to create a wreath of words, again any stamp that fits in the area you're stamping can be used.

You can also stamp directly on to card blanks to make super quick single layer cards.
Top Tip: I recommend adding a couple of post it notes to the back of the card blank to cover the area to make sure you don't get any stray ink marks on the back of your card.

The beauty of using a template and stamping platform is it makes it so easy to create batches of wreath cards like the ones below, all you have to do is repeat the process on as many card panels as you require. Stamp all your first layers, then add the next stamp and continue until you have all the panels you wish to create. If you change ink colours make sure you clean off the stamp with a baby wipe before switching to another colour.

If you have any questions or want to know more, message me through Facebook or leave me a comment on my blog and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

More Wreath Stamping

Hello everyone I've been a bit amiss from the blog world for a couple of weeks, life issues sadly, and I need to catch up with all my friends posts and look at their creations. Speaking of blog friends, last weekend I finally got to meet one of mine, I was amused by the fact that she didn't recognise me, but did recognise Simon 😂 and I'll never let her forget it lol! The lady in question was doing a demo day at The Range in Leicester for Trimcraft and as that is not far from me I convinced 'the famous one' to take me to meet Shabneez from Happy Hijaabi's Papercraft Creations.

It was wonderful to meet her and the bonus was I got to sit and craft with her whilst we chatted, I made a little gift bag under instruction from Shabneez and she not only allowed me to put the double sided tape on myself, I got to play with scissors lol! I picked up a couple of dies that I'll be using soon from the Trimcraft/Dovecraft ranges, they were bargains at just a couple of quid each. I have to say that it was a lovely feeling to be crafting with someone else instead of just working by myself. I'm hopeful to be able to meet up with lost more of my crafting friends in the future and maybe even get to a workshop or two with them.

It was a grizzly day today, so i stayed in and played nice in the craft room 😀I placed an order with Craftwork Cards for a couple of floral stamp sets and used stamps from them both to make these cards (Painted Florals and Build a Blossom Stamp Sets). I ordered them the other day and they arrived this morning, so it seemed like an ideal time to play with the templates that Si made me a few weeks back.

I made 3 cards 5" x 5" and also 3 cards that were 4" x 4" using the 5" and 4" templates, he made a change to the initial design which you can see in my previous post DIY Wreath Stamping Template were I used the first template he made that was 3" x 3".

Watching me stamp, he realised that it wasn't neccessary to have a full square as a template because of the rotation. All I needed was 2 sides to allow for a flat position of the card and the diagonal position as you rotate round creating the wreath.

You start with your card aligned on the flat as in figure 1. stamp with your choice of ink and turn the card so that its on the flat again, doing this for the number of times you want to stamp the image.

You then swap to the diagonal and stamp your next image 4 times as in figure 2. in the image. You continue to do this with all the images and colours you chose to use until you are happy with the wreath.

Whilst it is possible to stamp a wreath with just a stamping block, accuracy can be a bit hit and miss. The templates are designed to work in a stamping platform.

The original sized MISTI is good for the 3", and 4" templates, but for the 5" and 6" you need a wider stamping platform such as the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform by Tonic Studios, which is what I use for creating my wreaths.

It's crucial that you keep your right angle flat against your stamping platform and keep your card flat against the sides of the template, if the cardstock shifts, then your stamped image will also shift. That isn't the end of the world, but it can look messy of you are stamping on top of another image. Depending on the size of your stamp you can stamp the same image up to 8 times

I'm thrilled with the way these templates work and how easily I can create colourful wreath cards, that can be used for so many different occassions, I'm already thinking about Autumn and Winter wreaths and I've been asked to make more of the kitten paw cards in my previous template post.

For the 6 cards I made today I used a selection of Altenew Cube Inks, the sentiments are also  Altenew and come from a set called 'Build-A-Flower: Sakura Blossom'. I stamped them with Jet Black Altenew Crisp Ink which is a lovely dark black and stamps crisp and clean. I added some bling to the cards in the shape of Nuvo Glitter Drops which added a nice touch of sparkle without being over the top.

I wasn't happy with the resulting layout of the finished 5" wreathes, I feel that I'd stamped too close to the centre and there wasn't enough room for the sentiment. So I decided to cut some circles to echo the shape of the wreath and stamp the sentiment on those and add them on some 3D foam squares.

It worked well, and I think maybe better than my original idea, although I do like the sentiment stamped direct to card like on the 4" cards in the first photo. I often make mistakes and find creative ways to disguise them so I can still use the panels, it took me a while to stamp these, so it would have been a shame if I couldn't make use of them.

In other news I managed to complete my 30 day no spend challenge last month, those 30 days went by a lot quicker than I expected them to, it was torture but in a good way. I spent time getting reacquainted with the contents of my craft room and rediscovering what stash I had and towards the end of the 30 days I started to organise and declutter the room that I craft in. I'm really pleased with the results now its finished, I've boxed dies and stamps by company and put all my adhesives in one box, gems and embellishments in another for example and the whole room is so much tidier and organised as a result, making it easier to craft.

I also got a happy surprise come pay day, Si had got his annual bonus at work and presented me with my own little bonus to spend on crafting goodies. So I did, cheers honey! I pre-ordered the new Nuvo Alcohol Markers, bought a couple of stamp and die sets that I wanted and picked up a storage rack for my alcohol markers. The 30 day no spend challenge really did make me reaccess what I buy, now I ask do I really need it, or do I just want it because its 'shiny' and can I make use of it for more than 1 card? I think it will be good to challenge myself every couple of months, maybe even have 1 no spend week every month? We'll see, but for now I guess as I'm writing this at 1:30am, its time I went to bed and got some sleep, I have another day in the craft room planned tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thank you for stopping by :)