CASED: Vertical Sticky Note Pad & Pen Holder

Earlier this month I went to a crafting Play Date held by the lady that runs the monthly Stampin Up class I go to, and we played with the new Peaceful Poppies suite. I was in a bit of a daze and only really did some stamping and die cutting whilst everyone else was making full cards. partly due to the fact that I'd forgotten to take card blanks with me and my watercolour pencils doh!

I bought a selection of the 6" x 6" papers from the collection to bring home to play with, and brought home the bits I stamped and cut and over the past week I've been playing with them to make cards.

I was browsing Pinterest looking for some ideas at the weekend and this lovely project popped up by Rachel Tessman of Stamp Your Art Out using the SU Peaceful Poppies papers, I decided to have a go at creating one. The first one didn't turn out so well because I did the measurements wrong and the resulting project was slightly narrower than it should be, luckily it still allowed the post it notes and pen to fit in so I used it anyway.

All the measurements and info can be found on Rachel's blog post for the Vertical Sticky Note Pad & Pen Holder and in the video below. I've ordered some fun mini pens in a variety of colours off Ebay for making more and some more post it note pads as well. These can be made in all colours and for lots of different occasions.

A point to note though, in the video Rachel uses sheets of card that are US sized 8½" X 11" and she gets both panels needed from her sheet. However if you are in the UK and buy your card stock from a UK SU demonstrator (or use any UK A4 card for your holders) your sheets will be A4 (8.3" × 11.7") so not long enough width ways for the job. You would need to use two sheets of card stock and cut it lengthways to get the same length that Rachel uses.

You can get round this by cutting your panels at 8.3" (which is almost 8¼) and for the back piece cut at 8" all the other measurements are the same. The amended measurements for UK A4 card stock are as follows: -

• Front Piece that forms the pocket and front of the holder: 5½” x 8.3" scored parallel to short end at 2¼” and 2¾” and scored parallel to long end on each side at ⅜″ and ⅞″
• Back Piece that forms the back and stand 3½″ x 8″ scored parallel to short end at ½″, 1½″ and 2½″

All the other measurements are the same, what you will end up with is holders that are approx 8¼" high instead of 8½".

As well as the holders I did make some cards this week using the stamped panels I made and papers I bought at the Play date.

This first set were really simple to make, I just cut a sheet of 6" x 6" Peaceful Poppies paper up and added the larger section to a card blank I made from Rich Razzleberry cardstock and stamped a simple sentiment on it.

The remaining piece I used to make a bookmark and trimmed it with some wool scraps, again a stamped sentiment and the finished bookmark is good to go. Both were very, very quick makes and perfect for when you have flagging mojo.

I stamped one of the poppy images several time, coloured with SU watercolour pencils, the top one is stamped direct to the card panel, I added a sentiment and matted the panel on to black and then a silver card base then added a few black iridescent gems to the centre.

The second card I stamped the leaves in water based dye ink and then used a water brush to pull the green out from the edges to colour the leaf. I stamped the other poppies on a separate piece of card, coloured them and then fussy cut them out.
I made a card blank from Old Olive card stock and added a mat of black card and I stuck the leaf panel to the top of both.

I then adhered the sentiment panel to the card and added the fussy cut poppies to the card, again adding some black gems to the centre. I really love this poppy collection, its so versatile, when I first saw the dies I thought I wouldn't want all of them, but now I've had a chance to use them I can see that I do, I'm looking forward to next months play date already and craft class this week :)

Creative Craft Show NEC November 2018

On Friday I had a fabulous crafty day out thanks to my wonderful husband, I got to have a brief chat with Keren Baker one of my lovely Facebook friends who I've never met but she inspires me with her wonderful creations, you may know her? Keren is a designer and demonstrator for Fiskars, Winnie and Walter, Tonic Studios and Clearly Besotted. I played with Powertex, learnt to use the gelli plate correctly thank you Amanda Branston! I met an old friend and a new one, got oodles of new crafting goodies to play with and got the chance to try new products and techniques. Ooh yes and I wore a Unicorn headband and made a few people smile 😁

It was a day of discovery and even though I had a few mini panic attacks, Si was there to ground me and make me feel better/calmer, he's really amazing and senses when I'm having trouble coping and just appears and all is right with the world again. But I digress, and lets get back to why I'm writing this, we didn't arrive at the NEC until just after 10am the first thing I did was find the Lavinia Stamps stand so I could book a make and take session, so glad I did because Hazel informed me that there was just one session left at 4pm!!! On Facebook they had said to come early to book because the sessions go fast, I didn't realise how fast lol!

The hall where the Creative Craft Show was situated was very busy when we first arrived, so we decided instead of starting at row A, we'd go to the end and work our way back round, so pleased I did because we ended up in the 'Art Materials Live' area and wandered in to the Pebeo stand just as the lovely Jenny Muncaster started a mixed media demo using a selection of Pebeo products.

I truly didn't realise how versatile Pebeo paints were and that you could mix their glass paints with ceramic paints and also the Fantasy Moon and Prisme paints, and when you do, the effects are amazing. So much so, my first purchase of the day was a Pebeo Mixed Media Ultimate Kit, which contained loads of things to help me play with the techniques that Jenny demonstrated. Sadly though the Glitter Medium was missing, but the lovely people at The Art Shop Skipton who were running the Pebeo stand are already on the case and my missing medium will be sent out on Monday :) Heads up also if you have Amazon Prime, Jenny has a 6 part series on there called 'The Artist in You' where she shows some fab mixed media projects and other creative techniques.

After Pebeo I continued to wander and found the Crafts4Less stand which had lots of dies and other goodies for sale, Si liked the Sue Wilson Festive Industrial Chic Flying Santa die so I guess that die will feature on his Chrimbo card this year 😉

I also got the matching sentiment die to go with it and and a jolly set by Sweet Dixie called 'Christmas Jumper' that will make some quick fun cards. Whilst I was stood at Crafts4Less I heard someone call out my name, I turned round right in to a hug from my friend Sarah Jane whom I'd lost touch with. She is now the co-owner of White Gecko Craft Lounge in Dinas Powys and was there with her stand. It was such a surprise to see her there in the NEC with a stand but I was so pleased to see her, we're now Facebook friends so we can natter properly. As hard as it was I dragged myself away from Sarah and continued to shop and browse, I called at the Crafty Devils stand and picked up some Tonic Nuvo goodies and the Media Tool set to go with my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat.

I found the Powertex stand and donned rubber gloves to have a play with powertex, and discovered that it wasn't for me sadly. I do like some of the their stencils, plaster embellishments and their pigment colours but I didn't like the feel of the powertex and I didn't like the smell either. Some of the things you can make with it are amazing, but its a messy craft that I don't have space for. Still that's the beauty of shows like this, you get to try before you buy, saving yourself from another costly start up project you think you may like, only to find actually you don't and you've wasted a lot of money.

We went for a little break in the VIP area and got free coffee and cake YUM! It was nice to be able to sit down on a chair, in previous years we had to sit on the floor, so this year Si treated me to the VIP tickets which gave us fast track entry, a goodie bag (which wasn't anything to write home about really), a free area to store your purchases and there were make and takes happening inside, but I didn't try any of them because I didn't have enough time lol!

After the first break I'd made a note to visit the Craft Stash stand and watch their Facebook Live, so off we set for stand E10 only to discover it wasn't there! That's because some numpty in her eagerness to get there took a wrong turn and ended up in the Simply Christmas hall. A quick turn around and mad dash back through the Creative Craft show hall and we found Craft Stash, hurrah and watched the FB live even getting to wave at my crafty chums as well.

Next I visited the WOW! Embossing Powder people, I was amazed to discover that they now stock Pink & Main dies and stamps. I'd seen Kristina Werner use a Pink & Main set called 'Flurries' the day before the NEC and loved the card she made with the set, and liked the look of the 3 inverse stamps. I had an idea for using the sets but knew that it wouldn't be easy to find the set in the UK easily, so you can imagine my joy when I found it at the NEC and lots of other Pink & Main goodies to boot!

Next stop was the Inkylicious stand where I watched Emma Redfearn do a demo which was incredible, she showed lots of new techniques and ideas to try, watching her was quite mesmerising. After Emma's stag card demo I asked her about using the Splatter Circle XL stamp and she very kindly gave me a demo and let me take the piece home that she demonstrated.

Emma used Distress Oxides for this demo piece but she said you can use any inks. The trick is to put them in a line using the edge of the ink pad and leave a small gap inbetween so as not to contaminate your ink pad. She said that to use the stamp its best to use a stamping platform as its so large.

Once you've inked up your stamp, spritz the stamp with water and when you place the stamp on to the card the water spread out and mixes with the inks to fill in the gaps. I think the water that Emma used for spritzing had some mica in as the piece has a shimmer to it. Emma also showed me how to use a white Posca pen to create stars, it was a light bulb moment. The other discovery was the white gel pen Emma used, I have one by Ranger which to be frank is PANTS! It's very hit and miss, so I don't use it, I have a white Sakura gelly roll but that isn't always useful.

The one that Emma used is a Uni-Ball Signo Broad pen that contains pigment ink. I picked one up when I bought my other Inkylicious goodies and I love it, making lines is so much easier, it writes straight away, non of this scribbling on paper first to get it to work like the Ranger pen or trying to write and it stalling like the Sakura pen.

I bought a few more Inkylicious stamp sets and a couple of stencils, I couldn't resist the bigger brother Unicorn to the one that Emma used in the example above and of course the new 'Cat Face' and the 'Silhouette Stag Deer' stamps. I also picked up a a stamp cleaning mat, it was only £2 and I've used it already to clean stamps yesterday and it gets right in to the details on the stamps and cleans them so much quicker and cleaner than a baby wipe.

I couldn't wait to have a play with some of my new goodies when I got home on Friday but I was so tired after all the walking and Saturday turned in to a rather busy day, but I managed to get some crafty time in on Saturday evening.

I taped the Inkylicious 'Snowflake' stencil down on to a piece of card and used Distress Inks (Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire) and Ink Duster brushes to create the snowflake. before I removed the stencil I spritzed the inks with some shimmer mist and blotted off the water.

I left it to dry for a while, and then whilst the stencil was still in place, I stamped the trees and the stag with Versafine ink in 'Majestic Blue'.
At that point I removed the stencil, cleaned it off and used a Chipped Sapphire Distress Marker to create shadows at the base of the stag. Once that was done I ran the panel through my Big Shot in a snow effect embossing folder.

I made a card blank using some gorgeous 300gsm Ocean Blue lightly textured card I got at the NEC from Limetree Crafts and adhered the panel to it, all that needed to be done then to add some white highlights with my new gel pen and add a few sparkly gems. I still need to add a insert to the card so I can stamp and write my message but the whole card took about 40 minutes to make. I reckon you could make 6 or more in a couple of hours if you did everything in batch stages.

I picked up some of my favourite Black Smooth 260gsm cardstock as well whilst I was there, I was down to my last 5 sheets so needed a top up, Limetree Crafts card and paper is absolutely brilliant quality and a fab price. I also picked up some of their water colour paper and some of the card for using with alcohol markers, I'll be giving it a try in the next few days and see how it performs.

By this time it was 3pm, so we went for more free cake and coffee in the VIP area and had a bit of a sit and chill, after that we had a lesiurely stroll through the stands again on route to my lavinia stamps make and take at 4pm.

I was pretty nervous, especially when Si decided to go and look at some of the other stands whilst I crafted, but Amanda Branston soon had us all laughing with her gelliplate spa night anecdotes. I explained to Amanda that I'd bought a gelli plate last time I was at the NEC in 2016, used it once fluffed it up, put it back in the package and its been there ever since!

During the make and take Amanda showed us how to use the gelli plate and how NOT to use it and we got to play with inks, stamps and glitter. I was impressed with my little self, although when it comes to anything I make myself, my ever critical eye looked at what I made and found flaws. I stamped the the lowest hollyhock in the wrong place, the purple ink just didn't take, but that wasn't my fault, Amanda discovered after the session that the pad had run out of juice and binned it lol!

I added some water droplets as well but added too many and they were more like blobs than droplets. Add to that I didn't put enough ink on the fairy so her leg looked a bit patchy, but considering how nervous I was I didn't do too badly.

Lets not get started with the carefully putting pearl drops on the piece and adding lovely sparkly glitter to it, then promptly putting your thumb in it smearing the glitter everywhere when you decide to 'ground' the fairy lol!

I am very taken with the new Versa Fine Clair inks and I'll be adding them to my inking arsenal in the not too distant future. A few at a time though as there are 24 in the set at around £5 per pad, that's a lot of cash to pay out for a full set of inks. So picking a few and then expanding the colours is the way to go.

I need more flowers and foliage stamps for my lavinia designs, one day very soon I'm going to do an inventory of what I have so far and then make a kind of wish list (one of everything 😉). I do have Inkylicious stamps that I can use and some new fairy foliage stamps from the new Crafters Companion 'Enchanted' range. There were other purchases made and stands visited but I think this post is long enough already. Suffice to say I had a wonderful day, yes I did almost not go at two points, that happens a lot I build myself up to doing something then chicken out at the end. I think I did spend a little too much but at the end of the day I ended up with lots of new goodies and things to allow me to try new techniques, and lets not forget reconnecting with Sarah Jane and literally bumping in to Sheila a new friend from the Stampin Up classes I recently started going to 💖😀

Aerial Fairy Bookmark

Hello to you out there in blog land, its been a couple of weeks since my last blog post, I've had my 14 year old niece Zoe staying with me for a week and I introduced her to the art of card making and Distress Inks, she took to them really well and went away armed with some distress inks, a heat gun, embossing powders and ink and lots more besides and I look forward to seeing what she creates in the future.

The week went by so quickly and I didn't get to show her everything I wanted to, there were trips to some National trust places, Sherwood Forest and we went to see Mamma Mia 2, which we all really enjoyed, it was all I could do to stop myself from singing out loud everytime the cast did the musical bits lol! Now Zoe has gone back home it seems so much quieter here, not that she was noisy, but having an extra person in the house changes the dynamic and when they aren't there you notice it.

One thing that was odd was the inability to be able to wander into my craft room late at night when I couldn't sleep and play with ink and paper, now that I have my craft space back I've started creating again. Yesterday we went to a local craft centre and I picked up a lovely stamp from Lavinia Stamps called Aerial. It occured to me that despite having about 20 Lavinia Stamps stamps I very rarely, if ever use them. More of the Tim Holtz fear I think, I see people create stunning projects and feel I can't do the stamps justice, so I put the stamps in a box and look at them every once in a while. It's actually been over 2 years now since I did anything with the stamps and because of how pretty the stamps are its a crying shame.

Not using the stamps seems a stupid when I think about it, given how much the stamps cost me initially, the fact that if it goes wrong the bin will accomodate the mishaps and whilst I'm playing I'm learning in the process. So last night I decided to have a play with the new Aerial stamp and my trusty distress inks and make myself a bookmark. 😁

I cut a strip of watercolour card and shaped the top with one of the dies from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Baroque set, then I began to layer the Distress Inks. I used one of my favourite colour combos, Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry with bits of Milled Lavender, Victorian Velvet and some Black Soot to edge and ground the image.

Before I used the Black Soot I spritzed some water on the cardstock and blotted it after a minute to lift the ink. Pleased with the result I wanted to add a Moon to the image, I do have a couple of Moon stamps, one from Altenew and the other from Just Rite but the first was too big and the second too small. I sat thinking and my eyes hit upon the solution.

On top of my Distress Ink storage units sit a variety of items from Gamsol, glue, erasers and embossing powders. It occured to me that the small sized jars of WOW embossing powder were the right size for the moon I wanted to create. So I spritzed the lid with water, placed the bookmark on top and pressed down firmly making sure the cardstock didn't move around. After a minute I carefully lifted the bookmark off the lid and used a paper towel to blotch away the ink leaving a light moon shaped patch.

I think really I should have left it as is, but I attempted to edge the moon with a gel pen and I didn't get a perfect circle as my hand wasn't steady enough. Something else I need to work on, I decided to add some Pumice Stone Distress marker to the moon and again spritzed with water and lifted off and then gave the moon a lick of Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen. It helped disguise the messed up bit a little but its still not perfect, but does it have to be, its only for keeping my place in a book, and I've used chocolate wrappers, bits of ribbon, and torn pieces of paper before now lol!

I stamped Aerial, the leaf branches and mushrooms with Onyx Black Versafine Ink and added some Wilted Violet and Black Soot Distress Inks to the bottom to 'ground' the fairy. I added some specks of Stickles to Aerial's hair (Black Diamond) and dots to make stars (Crystal) and highlight the end of her wand. The final step was to use a hole punch at the top centre and thread some purple organza ribbon through.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out, imperfections aside, when I started the project, I was going to make a Winter themed card in blue and lilac icy shades with snowflakes/drops in the background, but somehow as I worked it turned in to this. I'm now wondering about making some bookmarks to give as gifts to friends. I actually started making some homemade xmas gifts this week. I made some Peppermint Foot Fizzes, just need to make some little boxes to put them in. I'm going to make some bath bombs as well and some notelet cards, this year I want almost all of what I give to friends and family to be homemade, I may even have a go at soap making, I've been wanting to try for a long time.

A Halloween Luminaire

I had the tree die for making this because it arrived from China yesterday, the rest of the dies are Halloween dies I already had. The Witch and Haunted House dies are by Impression Obsession and the bats are from some mini dies by Xcut called 'bats' believe it or not lol!

The Luminaire is constructed from 2 pieces of card stock that are 6" tall and 10" wide,scored at 4½" and then again 1" to create the flap that you will use to glue the two panels together. I used black card, but you can make your luminaire in any colour. Making the whole project was easy, at least it was after I found the vellum that had somehow gone AWOL in my room! I finally found it in a box with some A4 embossing folders and dies, no idea why it was in there but I was relieved to find it.

I originally saw a luminaire similar to this one on YouTube where Chari Moss demonstrated how to make one using Lawn Fawn dies. (See the video below).  Missing dies aside, its always nice to be able to see a project you want to make and be able to make it straight away because you have all you need to hand.

When I first started card making, almost every project I saw required me to buy a piece of equipment, some form of media or a die or stamp. These days I have a good supply of items that I can make just about anything, and I'm learning that if I don't have something specific that is required for the project, then I can substitute it for something else.

I'd coloured acetate and gloss card stock with alcohol inks before, but never vellum, but it was so, so easy to do and in no time at all I had four panels of vellum inked and dry ready for the next stage. I won't go in to detail with all the steps, instead I'm adding Chari's brilliant video for her Spooky Halloween Lantern project she did for Lawn Fawn, which gives all the measurements needed and she talks you through the steps to make the project.

I made some changes to the construction compared to Chari's design, I added strips of black card stock to the inside of the luminaire to cover where the insert 'tree' panel met the frame, this stops light coming out of the gap when the seams don't line up you can see what I mean in the video example.

On the next one I make I'll put strips of black glitter card on to the inside top panels of the luminaire to hide the glued vellum lines so that it looks neater and more decorative. I'm also going to make a card stock base for it to sit on, again it will stop unwanted light getting out at the base and will finish the project off nicely. My base will be separate from the rest of the luminaire though because if I permanently attach it, 1 won't be able to fold the luminiare flat when not in use.

I already have ideas for making a couple of different luminaire's, one with purple and blue alcohol ink backgrounds and an assortment of fairy dies and stamps. Plus I have a few more halloween dies I'd like to use, I think they will look good on the window ledge come Halloween to help decorate the house, won't need a pumpkin that way 😉

I think a 'falling leaves' autumn version may well be on the cards and I also want to make some for Christmas, I have a small flying Santa and Reindeer die and some of houses and village scenes, so I'm going to play with those. I dare say you could make one for every season of the year. I think I may even have a play with some of the silhouette cat dies I have and make a cat themed luminaire.

The top photos were taken without a flash so didn't show up the black glitter frames I added to the panels, so I used the flash on my camera to take a photo that does show the frame, sadly though the flash made the black card look a lot paler than it is lol!

An Owl For All Seasons

Hello dear blog world friend, I hope that life is treating you well? All is good here at Warts n All Towers, aside from the fact that I'm developing new product launch fatigue, not sure I'm liking the Christmas in July rush that all the card making companies seem to be doing right now. Too much pressure to buy and when I sat and thought about it, I still have "MUST HAVE" dies, stamps and papers that I bought last year that I still haven't used?!

So do I really want to add to my already bonkers stash with even more things that may not get used for a year or more? Especially when the things I bought this time last year still haven't been used, and are now turning up half price or less in the same places I bought them from? The answer is no, for me anyway, I want to concentrate on using what I already have with the exception of the Altenew Build-A-Flower sets and new colours of Distress Oxides and save some money for a Scan & Cut that I really want come the January Sales.

So with that thought in mind I went through my stash and I've sorted out lots of lovely new things to play with, previously unused, that will not cost me anything but time and effort to make. I found so many things that I'd forgotten I'd bought, one of which I bought again in the sales and now have two of, whoops! I discovered that I have a drawer full of glitter and foiled card that I forgot I had and paints and lots of other things I still haven't played with.

One of the die sets I found, was a cute Sizzix 'Owl & Fox Box' die set by Jen Long, I picked it up in a sale for £6 in December last year and its currently retailing at £11.00 to £14.99 depending where you buy it. When it arrived it went in to a 'to be used soon' box and has only surfaced this week to be played with! It took me 6 months to get around to doing anything with it, and there are so many other things I have that have been around for longer and still lay unused, like my Tim Holtz House Dies!

As far as the owl and fox dies go, I've decided to make some to hang on our tree this year with an assortment of human and cat treats in. I'm also going to make them in colours of the season as a stand by for putting small gifts in for friends and family. The boxes aren't big enough for a gift card sadly, but they will take small gifts of jewellery, a few scented tealight candles, sweets, and small hair accessories. I also thought about making 25 of them with numbers on their tummy and hanging on the tree with some gifts in as an alternative advent calender.

The finished boxes measure 9cm at their highest point (corner tip of face) and 7.5cm across at the top, base is approx 5cm, the die cuts and scores the area that needs to be folded to make the flaps to glue together.  I had a lot of fun picking contrasting papers for my 4 seasons owls and decided to colour their eyes and beaks to match colours in the papers.

I coloured the eyes and beak with Zig Clean Color brush pens and added a pupil of Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops in 'Ebony Black' to the centre. The finished beaks I covered with Glossy Accents to give some shine. The die packaging shows using just one wing per side, but I cut more and did some with 3 per side and 2 per side to give the owl more wing span.

These are the parts required for the owl, you need to cut 2 of the main pieces for the front and back, and 1 head piece, 2 - 6 wings depending on how many you want to use and two of the eye pieces, which will cut you an extra beak, which you can either put on top of the first to give some added dimension or save it for another owl.

The pads I have used for the Winter season owl are out of a First Edition 'Christmas Wishes' 6" x 6" Paper Pad, I have loads of them, I bought 4 of them earlier this year from Every Crafts A Pound when they were £1 each, cheapest I've seen them new since is £5.49. I picked up 3 of the 'Jingle All The Way' pads as well, and need to use them up. Note to self, stop buying paper pads, cheap or not because you have too many already!

Now I need to play with the fox die, and also the 'Owl Fold-A-Long' die that I bought at the same time as the Owl & Fox dies, I have it in my mind to get the Tim Holtz House dies out as well and create something for Halloween and something for Xmas with lights inside. I really do need to concentrate on using what I have and stop buying the latest stuff. Recent, and so far unused purchases include the Tonic Buildables the first wave with the Hedgehog, fox, bunny and owl, the Tonic Oxford Box die set and all its accompanying items. I bought it to make boxes for notelet cards to give to friends and family for Xmas, its still in its packaging! Out of the 4 Altenew Build-A-Flower sets at £28 a set I've bought so far, I've used just 1 of them! I've already un-subscribed from emails from some of the companies that keep tempting me. I just have to learn to be stronger, and buy less new items, wait until they are in the sale.

What's the worst that can happen? They become discontinued and I don't get to play with them, will my world really end if that happens? The other thing is to keep an eye out on Aliexpress and Ebay for clone dies, £2.99 for a die instead of £24.00 makes things sitting being unused give me less of a guilt complex. That said, so far as soon as the dies from China arrive, I play with them, I know not all the companies have cheaper clones, but if you look you can find dies from 'My Favorite Things', 'Mama Elephant' and 'Lawn Fawn' to name a few, in the meantime I have lots of lovely things to play with and create things with, what can I make next?.....

Creating Craft Foam Flowers

I've been captivated by the gorgeous flowers I've people making with a new (to me at least) material called Foamiran, which by all accounts is a very fine foam which is around 0.6mm thick and comes in A4 sheets, it can also come in 0.8mm thick sheets as well. It comes in a good range of colours and varies in price from around 99p. The Foamiran can be cut by hand using templates, or you can run it through a die cutting machine.

There are loads of YouTube videos showing the flowers being made using specialist dies and by hand, they can be coloured using lots of mediums to give the flowers some dimension. Check out Emilia Sieradzan blog for the low down on Everything You Need to Know to Make Foamiran flowers.

Making the exquisite creations is definitely on my crafting horizon but I have lots of things that I want to get this month with my craft allowance and more materials for new hobbies like the Rosy Owl dies and sheets of foamiran are not on this months crafty shopping list, that said I did want to have a play. So I decided to look and see what I had and see if I could make flowers with stuff from my existing stash.

In my stash I had some A5 sheets of pastel coloured craft foam that is 2mm thick and a large variety of flower dies to play with, I knew that the flowers I made would be a lot thicker than the Foamiran flowers but I decided to go for it anyway.

The first foam flower I made yesterday using my Sheena Douglass 'Wild Rose' die from Crafters Companion. The flowers were stuck together with a hot glue gun and I used Altenew dye ink to add some highlights to the stamen and petals. Sadly the ink smeared very easily and didn't colour the foam as I wanted it to. I also made the bee using a new die I treated myself to from Hobbycraft, more on that in a future post.

The centre of the rose I added a dot of 'Orange Soda' Nuvo Glitter Drops to add a touch of bling, I layered the large rose up with 3 lots of die cut petals and the smaller rose with 2, in hindsight it would have been better to just use 2 on both flowers. People who stamp the rose and doe cut mostly use just one layer, but I wanted to add more dimension. My first attempt wasn't too bad, but I wanted to make more flower shapes and try colouring the petals in other ways.

The pieces to make the flowers in the first photo were each die cut and then coloured and finally I used a Tonic Studios Floral Crafters Tool (12mm-8mm size) to round and curl the petals, it works on foam but not as well as on paper, below I've listed the dies and colours used : -

Purple Daisy - Cut from lilac craft foam and consists of 2 layers of the same size pieces, cut using dies from the Xcut 'Petal Posy' die set, plus a stamen cut from the stamen die in the Wild Rose die set above.  I coloured the petals with a 'Grape' Gelato and also a 'Metallic Purple' Gelato, the stamen I coloured with Metallic Gold and when the flower was glued together I finished it off with some 'Purple Rain' Nuvo Glitter Drops.

Yellow Marguerite - Cut from cream craft foam using dies from the Crafters Companions Floral Delight 'Pretty Petals' set in both sizes. I used a 'Lemon' Gelato to colour the petals to be more yellow in colour and once glued together I added 'Honey Gold' Nuvo Glitter Drops to the centre.

Pink Hollyhock - Cut from pastel pink craft foam using 3 different sizes of die from my Leane Creatief Multi Die 005, I used a 'Metallic Red' Gelato to colour the edges and finished off with 'Sherbert Shimmer' Nuvo Glitter Drops.

Marigold - Cut from peach coloured craft foam, I used the other flower petal shape from the Crafters Companions Floral Delight 'Pretty Petals' set to cut both sizes of petals. The centre of the marigold was finished off with 'Orange Soda' Nuvo Glitter Drops like the Wild Rose and I used a 'Mango' Gelato to colour the edges of the petals.

Forget-Me-Not - This was the only flower that I did as a single using the small and medium dies from my Crafters Companion Floral Delight 'In Bloom' set. I edged these with a little 'Blueberry' Gelato and finished the centres off with some 'Dandelion Yellow' Nuvo Crystal Drops.

As I took the photos of these flowers, I was still waiting for the Nuvo drops to dry, when the centres are completely dry I will cut some greenery from card and use the flowers on some projects I have planned. Whilst my craft foam flowers aren't as delicate and lifelike as the Foamiran flowers, they are usable for decorating cards and other items. I have a few other flower dies sets that I can play with next and lots of leaf and greenery shapes so I should get some good effects.

I found the best way to add the gelato to the petals was to use a baby wipe, just run it across your gelato stick and then 'paint' your petal. I have seen people colouring Foamiran with Distress Inks, I've not tried that yet medium on craft foam yet, I will and update this post if it works. The foam flowers have a nice soft velvet like texture to them and go together very quickly once you've cut, coloured and shaped the petals. I can see me making more of these even after I get my hands on Foamiran. I'm pleased that I managed to create something with what I had in, rather than buying lots of new things.

Completely Enveloped!

I'm not sure when it happened, or how, but I appear to have transformed from a being a card maker in to a papercrafter! It started with my frustration at the fact that I can only find white and cream card blanks and envelopes at a reasonable price locally. That and the difficulty of finding patterned envelopes in the same size as my card blank, coupled with the fact that sometimes I make a topper and its just not the right size for the pre-bought card I wanted to put it on, so I abandon the project or put it on a smaller or larger card blank so I have an envelope that will fit.

I decided last week that I'd invest in a couple of pieces of kit that would mean in future I could make my own card blanks in any colour and any size I wanted, and in any card weight as well. I asked the lovely people on the Docrafts forum to recommend their favourite score board and I used their responses to do some research and I ordered a trimmer and scoreboard which I'm waiting to arrive. I decided also that it would be a good idea to have a go at making my own envelopes, so I treated myself at pay day to a We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board.

It arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to get stuck in, so far I've made a few envelopes for A2 size cards, some for 5" x 5" cards and a couple of floral 6" x 6" envelopes. I've been using a variety of paper pads of 8" x 8" and 12" x 12" sizes I've picked up cheaply so far, I did make a few mistakes initially, I'm a get stuck in and don't read the instructions kind of girl, but I've figured it out now, easy when you know how and from this day forward I'll be able to make cards and envelopes to match, go me!

I just need to buy some lick n stick adhesive to add to the edge of the envelope for sealing in the card now and I've cracked it. Suffice to say I'm rather chuffed with my results, I can make any size from a 2" x 3.5" gift card size envelope right up to 6" x 8.5" envelope, which will cover most of the card sizes I make, I'm pretty confident that with a scoreboard I can make 8" x 8" size envelopes as well. If you can't get the hang of the paper sizes and where to score, American Crafts have produced a free to download Envelope Generator App for Android, I think there is a version for iPhone as well if you're so inclined. Using the app all you have to do is input the size of the card you need an envelope for and the app will tell you what size paper you need and which punch guide to use, isn't technology wonderful?!

I did a little further research today and discovered that using the envelope punch board you can also make paper bows and boxes to hold notelet cards in, as well as small envelope boxes for posting cards that have some dimension to them. I love the idea that I can do more than one thing with the punch board, and tomorrow I'll be having a play. I've found the punch board so useful already after just a day, that I'm seriously considering getting their box making punch board and a pillow box board, I already have their crop-a-dile tools on my wishlist for rounding corners on cards.

This weekend I also got round to playing with the box making die that came as part of the starter set for my Big Shot Plus. It makes a 6.5cm x 6.5cm lidded box, that can be used for making wedding favour boxes or small gifts to hang on the tree at Christmas. The box is the perfect size to put a votive candle, a couple of wax melts or half a dozen of your favourite herbal teas in to send to a friend :)

The set came with a floral die that cuts a floral panel in the box side or lid, some butterflies, hearts and a scalloped straight piece that you can decorate the inside of the box lid with, as well as some flower and leaf dies. I decided to use one of the tattered floral roses I made last weekend on the top of this box.

My box was die cut from an 1 x A4 sheet of Lavender Centura Pearl cardstock, although to me it looks dusky pink, hence using the pink flower to decorate the box. I closed the box with a small piece of pale pink organza ribbon, I'm going to have a go at making a fancier box this week using the other dies that came in the kit. The box in the video was made from card covered in pattern paper, it just occurred to me that I could use the same paper as the envelope to make a co-ordinating gift. 

Making Tattered Flowers

I love flowers and anything botanical, I think that's because of the herbaholic in me, recently I've found myself being drawn to creating paper flowers of my own, I've seen projects by some very talented ladies on the Docrafts forum over the past 12 months that have paper and vellum flowers as part of the designs, and they look stunning.

After playing with the Starlights paint to make flowers for some cards I made recently to send to friends, I realised that I wanted to create something a little more florally dimensional. I wasn't sure how to do it, and started to look on the internet and discovered some pretty stamp and die sets that can be transformed into 3D flowers, but it required me to spend around another £40 to get what I want and as I'm saving up for my holiday in July and then the November Hobbycrafts show, that's not something I want to do at this time.

Then I remembered that I had the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Bigz die by Sizzix on the shelf and I hadn't got round to using it yet, I think I was scared that I'd mess it up. But a very wise lady over the on the DC forum said we learn from our mistakes, and that we expect to get professional results straight away and get put off when we don't achieve them. She was talking about stamping and colouring, but I think that I hit that hurdle every time I feel like having a go at something new. We only get better if we practice and what's the worse that can happen, you lose some time and effort and it goes in the bin! I keep having a go at colouring and I get better each time and the more I do it, the better I'll get.

So I took the die off the shelf and cut 3 large flowers, 2 medium and 1 small out of pale pink paper, I lightly inked the edges with a finger sponge using 'Spun Sugar' Distress Ink. Then used a balling tool I picked up cheaply at the NEC in March, I shaped and moulded the paper in to more life like petals on the back of my 'Stampers Secret Weapon' board.

I did hit a snag in that the paper creased as I applied the pressure and at that point I almost gave up, but I decided to press on - pun intended - and used the balling tool on all the paper pieces. I glued them together and added an adhesive gem to the centre, and used a clear Spectrum Sparkle pen on the edges of the petals to give it a little shine, the finished flower wasn't perfect but for a first attempt I was pleased, thank you Emma :)

I showed the first paper flower to Simon and pointed out the problems and he said it didn't look that bad, and reminded me that nature isn't perfect. So I decided to have another go, Si offered the suggestion that maybe a thicker paper would help prevent creasing? So I painted some A4 sheets of white card with Starlights paint in 3 different shades: - Dried Rose, Dark Orchid and Cyclamen and waited for them to dry.

Once dry I cut out all the pieces I needed to make each set of flowers, From one A4 sheet of paper/card you can make 3 flowers. A 2 layer daisy, a large 5 layer rose and a small 3 layer rose. On the three cyclamen coloured large rose pieces I decided to stamp them with some Hero Arts 'Intense Black' permanent ink using the WOW De-Vine stamp I've used on a few projects recently, once layered the rose has the look of a baroque paper, and I kind of like it.

By the time I'd finished I had 3 sets of flowers and my initial tattered rose. I love the effect that the Starlights paint has given to the card making the flowers look almost metallic. I'm going to make more in different colours, but I think I may give the centres of the flowers different colours, I chose centres that matched the petal colours and in hindsight a contrast would have been better.

I'd like to use some of those fancy decorative brads, but I don't have any on my stash yet. I did find that using the balling tool got to be a little hard on my fingers after a while, so had to take a break, so heads up in you have problems with finger joints for any reason.

For the future, I think I'll measure the shapes and cut squares of paper/card to go over the area corresponding to the shape I want to die cut. Placing the card over the die meant I ended up with a few incomplete flowers that weren't needed. However if that paper/card hadn't been wasted it could have been used for other projects somewhere down the line. The downside to these kind of paper flowers is the dimension, to attach to a card and post the card would need a box of some description and I'm not currently tooled up to make boxes yet.

I think I may also try inking the edges of the petals to make them a little more defined.  All in all though, not a bad exercise and I can see a lot more paper flowers on my crafting horizon, I have more dies to cut foliage and greenery as well! That just gave me an idea... I could make lots of the flowers in matching colours and make my self a rosy floral wreath and if I create some pockets for dried rose petals in the back I could make them scented!

Art Journaling for Beginners

The title of this post refers to me :) I've been saying for a while that I would give journalling a try, after several years of suffering from anxiety and mild depression I was told that I needed to develop a more positive frame of mind. Having seen lots of examples of other peoples art journals over the past 6 months I realised that there are lots of positive messages stamps and stencils out there and also lots of lovely new crafting goodies to experiment with.

My main reason to start art journalling though is not just to try and give myself a more positive frame of mind, but to help put my feelings and thoughts into something that can show how I'm feeling when words don't always come easy. Must add I'm peri-menopausal at the moment and one of the delightful side effects is losing words and having 'dumb struck' moments, moments when you suddenly stop talking not because you can't remember what you want to say, you just can't remember what the damn word or words are that you want to use is.

I'd been thinking about keeping an art journal for a while now, but I kept chickening out because I can't draw for toffee, that's not true, I can draw a mean stick man lol! I've never classed myself as arty, I think I'm creative, I used to do a lot of cross stitch and I can do basic knitting and use a sewing machine. But to me, art is something that goes on walls in museums, its what talented people do who can paint, and shade and capture a likeness on a canvas, that's not me. Well that was how I thought until recently, now I'm firmly thinking that if it comes from the heART its ART whatever it looks like to others :)

So with that thought in mind I gathered together some of the new stash I got for my birthday last week, and opened my new art journal to the very first page, I first misted it with water then added some Crushed Grape and Calypso Teal Dylusions ink to the page in random squirts, then I used a paper towel to remove some of the ink. Next I took some stamps from Kaisercraft and stamped some text, I was a little wobbly these were training wheels and I was flying in the face of the fear that I shouldn't be playing with these things. I got a little bolder and used one of my new BoBunny stencils and some Wilted Violet distress ink to lay down the heART's, a message to myself.

Next I stamped and embossed the sentiment and used another of the BoBunny stencils and some Antique Rose Sparkle Texture paste to put some butterflies on the page. The butterflies are the symbol of my nervous thoughts, those "I'm crap at this", "This is a mess", "Stop doing it you obviously can't" type thoughts, but they also represent freedom to create and ART is in create as well. I had to stop playing for a little while so the texture paste could dry, when I got up from my seat and looked down at the page I said "WOW!" because I'd started something that looked good to me, and that's what matters, its my art journal, its not being judged by anyone and anything goes.

I've done a little on it each evening for a few nights, adding bits, like some stamped flowers, highlighting the butterflies, added some photos of me and some additional sentiments and its finished... Ta Da!

Well as finished as these things can ever be! The photos of me are rare moments when I stopped thinking what others might think, stopped worrying about potential negative consequences and let my inner child out, moments when I just did it, and do you know what, nothing happened other than I had fun! Putting this page together showed me a little something about myself, the whole point of the exercise, and yes I know its not up to the standards of some of the fabulous art journalers out there, but I'm pretty proud of my first page. Me using my hands, mind and heart to tell myself something that at 52 years of age I should already know, love yourself, adore your ideas and cherish every moment, every pen stroke and ink smoosh, it may not always look arty to others, but if it comes from the heART its never wrong :) Now my mind is full of ideas for the next page and the page after that...