It's a Creative World

Toothpick Pennants (or Flags)

Hi, Mandy here. 

I decided to have a go at making some toothpick pennants to embellish my scrapbook pages.  I really like having a pile of hand-made embellishments ready for when I want to add one to a LO.  A pennant is just a long, pointy type of flag.  Here are some I made...

At the end of this post I have attatched some free downloads so you can make a pile of your own.  Here are some examples of the printouts I did.  I chose to print onto kraft cardstock, brown cardstock, white (computer) paper, red and blue pp and some woodgrain cardstock... 

You need some toothpicks, scissors, glue and a selection of printouts on whatever paper or cardstock you want to use. 

It's super simple. Just cut out the flag (shaped like a diamond on the printable). Then fold it in half to make the pennant shape. I used strong, wet glue. Pop the toothpick where you made the fold, taking care to line up the edges so you don't get a wonky flag and press it closed.  My dd (below left) had a friend over and they thought it was hilarious to model the pennants for me...

There are quite a few choices (I did get a bit carried away making these printables!!).  If you plan to print onto darker paper or cardstock, select the printable that says 'for dark background' on the end.   Otherwise, save ink and print onto white or pale paper/cardstock.  The last download has no words, only small camera images. 

So please help yourself and as always we'd L-O-V-E to see anything you make, inspired by us at IACW.

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras and bw words same font

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras and bw words same font for dark background

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras and bw words mixed fonts

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras and bw words mixed fonts for dark backgrounds

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras and Colour words

Download Free Printable Scrapbook PINK Flags with Cameras and bw words same font

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras and bw words same font TEXTURED

Download Free Printable Scrapbook Flags Cameras no words for dark backgrounds

By the way, for the 'font junkies' out there, the little camera images on the flags came from a font called 'Kamera Dings' (TT).  Seriously yummy little camera images! 

 See you soon,

Mandy.

Spellbinding!

Hi today I thought I'd share with you a card I made inspired by the wonderful Sue Wilson at PartiCraft.  I have recently been playing with some of the newer Spellbinding products, got to love the dies especially some of the more intricate ones.

For this card I have used M-Bossibilies Garden delight and the centre is made using Shapeabilies die Moroccan Motifs.  

I have attached two of the larger dies together after scoring and folding a bit like the fans made as kids, valleys and hills! 

Do you remember making fans? 

Do kids still make them? 

It is a bit fiddly to attach together but I've found it helps to put the large layer onto a smaller circle die at the rear with glue dots.  This then also makes it easier to attach to the card background.

This card will not post in the mail in anything less than a box.....so I alway say...."for special friends only," or hand delivery.

That's all from me today, happy crafting,

Regards Erika.

Flower Centres From Embossing Powder

Hi there Kerry here

I was lucky enough to win some tubs of embossing powder earlier this year.  However I didn't really know much about using them so after a little bit of messing and trial and error I decided to google uses.

I stumbled across this video on youtube so had a little go.

It was definitely a case of trial and error.

I started by using a powder called Princess Pink which had a high glitter content but it didn't quite melt properly.

so I started again and used a Violet powder which didn't have as much glitter.  You have to be really quick to pour it into the silicone mold/mould (I really don't know which is the correct spelling) because it sets VERY quickly.  Don't worry if you did like I did and spill a bit around the edges because it easily snaps off when it is set.

and this is what I ended up with once it was set and I had carefully snapped the excess bits off

I added it to a felt flower - ta dah

Thanks for looking.

Some more of Project Life

I confess to being fairly far behind in my double page a month style Project Life....so this is my recently scrapped February pages.  For the 1st time the 2nd half of my page was done relatively quickly for me, I just sat down and got it done without too much deliberation which was great.  So the 1st part of February is dominated by the snow we had (it has been replaced by rain in April!), and a half term trip to the Dr Who experience.  Unfortuantely due to all the dark lighting our photos are not that great, but there is a small shotof my kids in the David Tennant version of the Tardis.  I love that with Project Life I include photos I wouldn't necessarily want to feature on a page, like the slightly merky ones, and also shots of food, don't know why I don't scrap them more, but it feels like part of Project Life to take pictures of the more regular things too....like my particularily good cup of coffee.

 

The food carries on to the 2nd page with pancake day, a trip to the cinema, my crepe at the end of a bike ride.  I used a very arty shot of tower bridge that my husband took and some cosmo cricket stickers, I journalled on the photo in white gel pen.  Last and not least was Valentines day...here is my card (which my husband still laughs at :D), and I cut out a tag and layered strips of paper behind the negative space of the word Love.  I'll leave you with a few more close ups.  There are loads of far more fantastic pages than mine out there like on Becky Higgins blog and Amy Tangerine's blog as just a couple for you to take a look at.

Something very old but new for me

Hi there! Laura here! A friend asked me to make a card for her fashion mad 16
year old nephew this week. That got me thinking! Boys!
Fashion....um.......blank! Girls are easy on this subject, with lots of gorgeous
stamps and bling. But boys? Then I thought of something I've never tried before.
Origami! It really must be the oldest craft technique going- around the 6th
centuary I think! S So I had a google and found some instructions on how to make
a shirt. This link  http://members.tripod.com/cecilia_liu/shirt.htm gives very
easy instructions (I'm not going to attempt to give any otherwise you will
probably end up with an elephant, hat or crumpled frustrated mess!) However I
have got a few pictues of my second attempt to share along with the card I made
for the friends nephew. After adding a tie and brad tie pin,I can see a fathers
day card in the making!

100 ideas

Hello! It's my turn today and I have been pondering on a new phenomenon in on some blogs - 100 ideas. The general idea is that you post 95 ideas and the reader supplies their own final 5. This is a great idea if you are having a day where your mojo has gone missing or the weather is too awful to venture out! A great example is on Keri Smith's blog.

So I thought that this might give you pause for thought for this week and for you to try to think of your own final five additions (after all 95 is an awful lot!) So these are mine:

96. Do something for someone else (I have never quite shaken the 'Do a good turn for others' from when I was a Brownie!)

97. Look through your crafting stash, be it wool, papers or material and decide if you really need it or if a local charity could use it in one of their art therapy lessons.

98. Make someone laugh

99. Recycle something, not in the bin but into something beautiful; old sardine tins, newspaper, a baked bean tin

100. Use a stamp you have never used before - we all have one lurking about that has never seen an ink pad!

So, here's the challenge... what will you think of, and do?!

Gabrielle x

Playing with media.

Last month I went to a Media weekend at Art From The Heart.  It was taught by Dyan

 

We arrived on the Friday evening to a pile of paper, textured, ribbed, watercolour, kraft etc. By the end of the weekend I'd made this:

It was a great opportunity to try out all sorts of media and decide what you liked using and what you didn't.  My favourites were the Dylusion Inks and golden acrylic paints. I found I preferred inktense sticks to artbars and pan pastels are so vibrant.

 It's amazing what you can do with stencils when you think outside the box.

We were all asked what our least favourite colour was and then given that colour to play with!

Mine was orange, but with a touch of pink and some gesso I actually found I liked it.

Here's a lemon and lime page:

This is my first attempt at Art Journalling:

A little twee maybe, but it says what I wanted to say.  I don't think it's finished yet.

It's great to dip in and out of and has helped keep my mojo flowing and is a great record of all the techniques we used and media we tried.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Lynne x

 

 

 

You don't need patterned paper

You really don't!

I have been using less and less patterned paper in my layouts lately. I am going to share a layout with you today where I haven't used any at all.

 

I started with some Studio Calico Wood Veneer Banner. I love to leave these plain but this time, I have choosen to cover them with some Cavallini Map Stickers.

 

I wanted to hang the banner from something so I drew in a plane...what do you think of the company name for my airline ?

I added some clouds and title, mixing up the alphas a little to add interest.

Next I matted a couple of photos with a doilly. I am loving the texture provided for this white on white treatment.

Lastly a few stickers, washi tape and journalling to complete the layout. And of course, my staple...buttons!
What do you think ?  I hope you will give this a go.  What can you do with a piece of white cardstock ? Quite a lot, I think!

Blogged with love by Ifa.

Home Sweet Home

Happy Saturday to my fellow crafters.

 

Today I have a homely little papercraft project to share, inspired by a recent article in Craft Stamper magazine.

The bird house in the magazine had been crafted using a configurations box as the base, as I had none of those I set to work making a cube from cardstock.

 

From the front

 

 

And from the rear

 

I added some little details to the sides too

I used a small glass vial as a 'plant' pot and filled it with roses.

 

And the labour of love was the 'tiled' roof, made from over 100 punched hearts.

 

I hope I have inspired you to have a play with your paper produts to create a little 3D project of your own.

Happy crafting

Tracey xxx

 

Blue and white china aka shrink plastic

Inspired by Eleanor's post back here which was inspired by my post here, I had a little go at creating a necklace with some shrink plastic and permanent markers.

Thing was, I had a cheap permanent marker pen, and I think it was none too permanent. It was all going fine until I applied a layer of Diamond Glaze to give a glazed china appearance to the necklace. As it was drying overnight, the ink bled out losing some of the detail.

So, then I tried drawing with my promarker to find that the pen bled on the plastic whilst drawing as if I was drawing on blotting paper.

Eleanor mentioned that she had used a Sharpie pen, and I knew I had one somewhere, so I spent about an hour hunting for it. I asked all the family members if  they had used it for something. No joy.  I located the black, red and green sharpie, but the blue one remained elusive. 

Until yesterday that is. We were outside doing a spot of gardening, and I look up to see my husband walking past with some seeds to plant, a wooden plant marker and guess what, yes, a blue sharpie pen! 

"That wouldn't happen to be the blue sharpie pen I was hunting for everywhere would it?" says I. "Oh, were you looking for it? " says He. 

Well, now I can attempt necklace number two. Hopefully with better results. 

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the inspiration Eleanor!

Doda

x