It's a Creative World

Adding some dimension to scrapbooking layouts

If you are anything like me then you may well have lots of craft supplies tucked away in a safe place, ready to be pulled out and used ‘one day’. Whilst sorting through my stash recently I came across a packet of paper clay that I bought to take an impression of my little boy’s footprint when he was tiny. In the event someone bought us a kit to use so my clay was relegated to the cupboard. When I re-discovered it I was determined to give it a new purpose and was really surprised by how easy it is to use and how non-messy it is.

 

I rolled the clay out using an everyday rolling pin and cut some shapes using cookie cutters.

It is also really easy to cut round other objects such as chipboard shapes using a craft knife.

Other shapes I cut free-hand into the rolled out clay using normal scissors, it was really easy to cut as long as the shapes weren’t too fiddly. Any wonky edges can be smoothed out easily with your fingers. With the clouds I pressed my finger tips into the clay to give more texture.

To stick with the subtle tones of this layout I coloured my clay shapes with chalks and cotton wool. I also used chalk to highlight the edges of the felt clouds.

To add dimension to my title I coated die-cut letters with a dimensional adhesive (such as Glossy Accents or Diamond Glaze). This works really well using letter stickers as well. I always stick my letters to scrap paper using repositionable adhesive to do this as it holds them still and means you can move the whole sheet somewhere safe and out of the way until they are all dry. It also protects your layout from any glue explosions!

This was a really fun project  and the shapes were really quick to make. It would be great to involve little ones with as the clay is surprisingly non-sticky. I hope this inspires you to add a bit of dimension to your layouts using paper clay J

Happy Scrapping!

Charlotte

x

Supplies: Paper clay by Eberhard Faber (Makins make this as well), patterned paper from the Basic Grey Mellow range

Embossed Mirror

Hi there, it’s Angela here again with another messy project!

Northern Ireland has finally got it’s own Ikea, so when I was visiting the other day, I came across this fabulous mirror for only 99p! So of course I grabbed a couple of them.

First of all I used Model Magic, which is a modeling clay made by crayola, which is extremely lightweight. Using the swirled embossing folder in the cuttlebug, I flattened out some pieces of Model Magic in random shapes. If you do this remember to place the folder with the join going in first, as the clay does flatten and extend, and could break the join in your folder (Voice of experience speaking here).

This produced fantastic results! I layered these onto the mirror, wrapping some over the edges, and left it to dry for 24 hours.

Once it had dried, most of the clay had adhered itself to the mirror, but some pieces were still loose – I added a small amount of PVA glue to stick them down, and again left this to dry.

Next I painted the entire frame with turquoise Lumiere Paint.

Once this was totally dry, I painted over the top with a Dark Blue Lumiere Paint, and while this was still wet, rubbed it over with a baby wipe – this removed some of the dark paint from the raised areas on the frame.

To add a little more sparkle, I sprayed the frame with Frosty Night Glimmer Mist. This tended to pool in some areas, so I dabbed them dry, as they would have taken ages to dry, and would not have given the look I was wanting.

I then over-stamped this all with a script text using purple stazon.

Once this was all dry, I adhered some microbeads randomly using baby blue liquid pearls.

Finally, I rubbed over the edge of the mirror and some small areas with Pewter Treasure’s gold (a type of rub-on wax) and the buffed it up with a soft cloth.

I hope this has inspired you to try something different with some of the tools you might already have around the house.

~angela~

A Hybrid Card ...

I love having the freedom of using both traditional products and digital products when making cards.  Today I have a card to share with you that combines digital paper and elements with traditional 'real life' rubber stamps and embellishments.

I've used one of the sweet Sugar Nellie stamps available from Funky Kits and coloured her with a combination of watercolour pencils, Marvy Le Plume brush pens and a waterbrush.  When she was dry I trimmed her white cardstock background and doodled and inked the edges.  I added a tiny diamond to her bunch of flowers to give her a bit of sparkle.

Once I'd stamped the image it was time to assemble the background.  I used a kit from The Shabby Princess and Photoshop Elements 5 as my editing programme.  I opened each piece of paper as a separate item and resized the blue to 14cms square and the green and the spotty to 12 cms.  I added an inked edge action from Atomic Cupcake to each piece and assembled my layers, adding the white border and remembering to add a drop shadow from the layer styles palette.  Two photocorners finished off the digital part of my card.  This is the document that I saved and printed as a jpeg image.

I added small brads to the photocorners, attached the stamped image with foam pads and added letter tiles (printed in Waterfalls font and then trimmed and inked the edges) to spell out the greeting.

(Shabby Princess digital kit, Sugar Nellie stamp, Creative Cafe brads, Atomic Cupcake inked edge action, Waterfalls font, Colorbox charcoal chalk ink)

Basic Felt Flowers

Hiya, today I have done some basic felt flowers, the idea came to me when I bought a hat for myself from a well-known supermarket, it had a bow on the side which I thought was a little boring, so decided to do something about it, and its now different to everyone else’s too.

I used two different colours of felt for each flower, you will need to cut one large and one small circle from one colour and one medium circle from the other colour.  Cut around the edge of each one making the circle wavy, then stitch all three together and fasten a brooch back or small safety pin on the back.

You can also decorate them further by using blanket stitch or running stitch around the edge of each flower, and/or stitch a flower in long stitch and French knots in the middle of the finished item, you can also use buttons or sequins to jazz them up too.

Happy Stitching

Trish xxx

*New Feature* - what to photograph in...January!!

Hello, and welcome to a new monthly feature, 'What to photograph in...' - here at It's A Creative World, none of us professes to be an expert when it comes to the intricacies of great photography, but we know what we like, and, with a bit of luck, we might give you a bit of inspiration to get out with your camera and get clicking. I am currently using a Canon EOS 350D, which does everything I need it to do (and lots more - I need to get better acquainted with the manual to make the most of its capabilities, something I've resolved to do this year!)

Taking good photographs at this time of year is very much dependent upon getting some decent light - which can be a challenge on dull, grey days, or the stark white, harsh brightness that comes with snow. There are plenty of professional photography websites and blogs with tips for photography in such conditions, but our remit is going to be more along the lines of what you can find in your local environs, and grabbing those windows of sunshine to get out snapping.

So, here are a few photographs taken in the last couple of days, a little view of what is 'out there' in my immediate surroundings:

I'm not sure how great it is from an environmental point of view to be finding blossom already on the trees and shrubs in January, but they provide small splashes of colour in an otherwise fairly bleak garden.

A couple of shots of indoor blooms; I'm not a particularly good gardener, but I am quite proud of that fact that I've kept this orchid alive and in bloom for longer than five minutes, and I wanted to document that:

As regular readers will know, I've just celebrated my birthday, and again, wanted a permanent record of an arrangement given to me by my sister - remember to take these as soon as you get them whilst the flowers are still at their best:

I went for a wander across the fields behind our house yesterday, whilst the sun was out, and found a falling down farm building which provided some interesting shots:

This next one is a bit of a cheat; this little fellow was taken in our garden, just not in the last couple of days. We have a very friendly robin who likes to visit, but he wouldn't play ball when I tried to photograph him yesterday morning!

And lastly for this month, in line with our ongoing A-Z project, if you're doing a Book of Me, and even if you're not, take some photos of YOU! I have resolved to take more photos of ME this year, including ones where I'm not all dolled up!! Warts 'n' all is the name of the game - regular, every day photos that you might not absolutely love, but which future generations will be delighted to see. This is me; no comb has touched this hair, no make-up has graced this face:

If you're looking for some fab, free photo editing software, I can't recommend highly enough Paint.NET - it won't do everything that something like Photoshop will do, but for a good introduction to photo editing, I don't think it can be beaten. Have a look - it's free, so you have nothing to lose!

Everybody say "cheese"! Happy snapping!! Jo xx

Recycling food cans!

Hello everybody!  Joanne here.  Here's an idea to use old food cans.  You can use any type of food can, but I prefer the size and shape of sweetcorn cans - they're perfect for pencil pots or for housing little gifts! Here's a few photos to give you an idea:

And here's how to do it!

1.  Take your can and give it a good wash and get the label off and any glue residue.

2.  Once dry, give it a good coat of gesso, inside and out.  Then apply a couple of coats of your favourite acrylic paint (again, inside and out).

3.  If you wish, you can then sand your tin to give it a bit of a distressed look, as I have.  Just sand little patches until you can see the metal of the tin again.

4.  Take small strips of patterned paper, ink and distress them if you wish and attach to the top and bottom of your tin all the way round using Mod Podge.  Once you're happy with your patterned paper placement, seal the whole tin inside and out with a good coat of Mod Podge.

5.  If you want you can now squash your tin a little to give it more of a distressed look.  Just squeeze gently at the top edge until it gives a little.  Don't squash it too much though or it won't stand up!

6.  If you want to add a handle, do this by punching holes at either side of the tin and threading through a double length of wire which you have twisted (this helps the ribbons stay in place).  One the wire is threaded through the holes, twist it to hold it in place, then thread ribbons through the twists in the wire around the handle and knot. Remember to add a label if it is for a gift, my label was made with a Sizzix die cut and rubons.

7.  Now it's time to decorate the front of your tin.  I have used a Pressed Petals chipboard letter "J", sanded and tied with a little bit of ribbon on my pencil pot, and a couple of Sizzix flowers on my Thank You gift tin.  Here's a couple of close up photos to demonstrate:

I hope you like these cans, the little gift tins are perfect to put a little present in of a few choccies or jewellery, and can be used afterwards as pencil pots or little plant pots by their recipients!

Thanks for looking and I'll be back soon! Joanne xxx

A to Z Art Journal - "A"

Good Morning all.

The big day has at last arrived when we launch the A to Z art Journal! We are soooo excited as over 100 people have signed up for the Art Journal!!!  So to start with just a few reminders:

You can get your A to Z art journal button by clicking here!

We have set up a special page for the project and you can get to it by clicking the art journal button on the right hand side of our blog.

We have also set up a gallery where all your work will be displayed. Email your work to us at [email protected] and we will upload pics at least twice per week.

So just to get started here a few ideas for the letter A:

Book of me/you: Adorable, Artistic, Angelic, Aventurous, Attitude, Academic, Artist, Abundance, Absent minded, Affectionate, Amusing, Animated

Book of baby: Arrival, Angel, Adored, Adjustment

Book of everyday: Adventure, Arrangements, AARRGGHH, Awe

Occasions/ Life: Anniversary, Adversity, Age

Tools and Techniques: Acetate, Acrylic, Altered Art

Journalling your A-Z
Many of you are going to look back at this project and remember how you felt when you created your A-Z. Why you chose the words you did to describe yourself or a loved one. Your opinions and ideals. Journalling is also creating, writing stories about who you were for your grandchildren. Let your imagination run wild.

"Angel" by Joy (altered art journal)

Materials:  Angel stamp (Stampers Anonymous), sheet music and glue (image transfer), ink pen, acrylic paints, crackle paste, fabric collage (heart, also crackled), lyrics (Sarah McLaughlin)

Techniques:  Stamping, image transfers, doodling (taken from the angles in the stamp), crackling, collage, outlining (pen)

I made this page after a loss of a loved one.   Art journal pages do help me work through feelings and ideas.

Andrea

I have set myself a personal challenge this year to use all those Tim Holtz alchohol inks that I have in my cupboard and have tied that challenge in with my A-Z project - a tag book.  Each decorated tag will be home to one letter of the alphabet and hopefully by the end of the year I'll have a record of my explorations of ink and all things messy!

With my name starting with an A my first tag just had to be pink and sparkly!

(Alchohol inks, Doodlebug chipboard letter, PSX Pixie Alphabet stamps, Paperchase acrylic gems, staedtler black pen and machine stitching)

Di: MY LIFE

I used a 'mind mapping' technique, started with the word 'Alphabet', and out popped the word ABUNDANCE. Yes my life is full of simple ABUNDANCE. For the letter A, I just scribbled and had fun with hand drawn letters and pens!

Jakey's book of the things she loves - the letter A

My book is going to focus on the things I love. First, I made an alphabetical list (not so easy for some of the letters!) then found a6x6 mini book with page protectors, as i think it wil be easier to make individual pages and pop them into sleeves. This way I can do the letters in any order as I find / print photos. My first mistake though, was to make my cover in a gorgeous funky paper - and then discover I didn't have any papers to match for the pages! So, actually my papges and cover don't really match... but what matter? I love the cover and I am enjoying makes the pages in an old fashioned BG I have stacks of. It'll look ok in the end, I'm sure.

I 'm keeping it simple too, with minimal embellies. Just stamps, doodling and punchies, and maybe the odd paper flower. My book won't cost much or take long to make, but it'll record lots of the things love, and perhaps be something nice for the kids and Grandkids to remember me by one day when all that's left of me are my albums lol!  :-)

Jake x

Jo:

I have decided to do A-Z books for both my girls, and I have been very organised (!!!) and gone through the alphabet and assigned words for each letter already, so that if/when I get a spare half-hour here and there, I can get out their books and not have to think about a word for the next letter. I'm using A5-sized Pink Pig journals as they're spiral-bound, so easy to scan the pages in, and quite flexible in terms of how lumpy the pages can get. I've done covers using an open font and watercolour pencils, as shown below:

And 'A' pages for both of them; Anja's is 'A for adventurous' and 'A for Anja', and Freya's is 'A for affectionate' - some of my pages will use the same word in both journals. I have tried to journal from the heart, and not worry too much about what I've written or how neat it is or isn't! I think it is important to write exactly what you want to write, and not to feel too constrained. I am also NOT going to get upset if something doesn't work exactly as I was hoping it would. I was very excited about using what looked like a fab set of MAMBI monogram rub-ons that I bought earlier this year, but they are possibly the worst rub-ons I have ever used in terms of ease of transfer - they just won't rub on, and the two As I used on Anja's page are cracked and shabby!! I am going to pretend they were meant to look this way. Anyway, these are my 'A' pages:

Caz: BoM

I have done my page about Art, and being an Artist. As creators of scrapbooks, cards, altered art, mini books etc etc we don't give ourselves enough credit for what we do. We are arTIsts, we creATe, we make beautiful things :)
To start with I stuck a page from an old book down on the RHS of my double page. Then I sloshed loads of paint around it and on the LHS page. I hand drew the letters A R T, cut them out and dry brushed some paint on them. And gave the edges an ink. I then, embellished, stamped and hand wrote my journalling.

Cath: An A-Z of Corey

All children are special, we all know that, I more than anyone. Corey was born 12 wks premature and spend his first 5 months in hospital so every single minute of every day is special. The smallest things in life we never take for granted. This journal is everything and anything about him :)

We can't wait to see your work! So get cracking and send it to us!

Love from IACW design team

Lollipop stick puppets!

Hello! And welcome to this, my first post of the New Year, and my 36th birthday!! My cake is groaning under the weight of all of those candles...!!!

It's the last few days of the children's holiday from school, and, after the excitement of Christmas and New Year, you might be looking for something to keep them occupied for a little while. This is something you can make for or with your children, they can be personalised and made to look like people you know, or you can let your imagination run wild with your own creations! I had a quick hunt through my crafting stash and gathered together some big lolly sticks (like the kind the doctor uses to push down your tongue!), some googly eyes, some glue, a selection of scrap paper (off-cuts from other projects), and a black pen to draw some features.

This is how my little people came together:

First of all, I stuck on their eyes, choosing three different sizes of eyes for a bit of variety, and because they look funnier like that! Next, I drew their hair in pencil on the reverse of some coloured card, effectively making a frame for their face with the hair. I then cut these out, cut fringes for some of them by making tiny snips with the scissors, and then stuck them on with my Glossy Accents. This is what they look like in their naked state (!!):

Next comes the fun part - dressing them! I made two boys and four girls, and the girls are definitely easier to dress as their basic shape is more accommodating - you don't have the worry of trouser legs!! It's important that you make sure you don't stick the clothes right at the bottom of the lolly stick - glue them at the top or waistband, to leave room for little fingers to manipulate the stick. The shoes are attached to the bottom of the trousers, or dress, not to the stick. I've used scrapping papers for my girls' dresses, and just added little details with my Sakura pen. And here they are, dressed and ready to dance to the tune of the kids' imaginations!

We've named ours, as you can see, and Anja has had a go at making her own with no help from me - it didn't take long at all, and she loves him!

Freya's sings beautifully, she's given a pop concert today:

And yes, that is a belly button you can see between her top and trousers!!!

We've had several performances starring our puppets today, and more than a few minutes' fun.

Happy crafting! Jo xxx

Funky Coasters

Today I have a quick and easy project, that is great to get the kids involved in too. And of course they make great gifts for grannies :)

I am sure we all use them, but why are most of the ones you can buy in shops so boring. I bought some plain plastic ones to decorate from http://www.bakerross.co.uk/ . They come in a pack of six, I used two of mine to make a coaster each for my kids to have in their bedrooms for their bedtime drink.

They are so simple and easy to decorate and use, they come with a pre cut piece of white card, which makes it very easy to cut your patterned paper to size. I just found two pictures of the kids that I liked and cut round them Then stuck them down to the patterned paper that I had chosen and already cut to size, added a couple of rub ons and they were done.

Unfortunately you cannot be bulky with these coasters as the top and bottom fit closely together so brads and buttons are a no no. I still think they look very effective, and are ideal for kids to use, I have four left so will do something pretty with them for our living room I think. Trish xxx

Thanks for visiting and don't forget it's A-Z kick off on Saturday!

little glass house

Hello, everyone. x 

The materials for this project are:  seaglass triangle, embossing powders / embellishments (for seaglass), mosaic tiles, ranger glass slide, glue, beads, string

The first step is to make the seaglass triangle.  This will become the roof of your house.

I added embossing powders, paint chips (see below)

and other tiny embellishments to make a colourful roof.  I used my melting pot to heat UTEE and add elements and embossing powders in layers to the glass.  You could also do this with a heat gun on a protected surface.

The next step is to make a small string of beads.   The end of the bead string will be glued under the roof, securing it to the house.  Set it aside when the string is done.

Next, add your mosaic tiles to the glass slide.  Make sure you leave a gap (at least a 1/4 inch) at the top to add the bead strings and glue the roof. 

At this stage, leave the tiles and beads strings to set in the glue.

Next, I used UTEE and a heat gun to give texture and shine to the mosaic tiles.  This is completely optional, though.  I also added a butterfly bead to the centre of the tiles.

At this stage, I used UTEE to fix a heart to the top of the house.

And now your tiny teeny little house is ready to find a home!  You could vary this project in a variety of ways, using smaller tiles, using Tim Holtz's faux dichronic glass, using glass paints, etc. 

 

xxx

Joy