It's a Creative World

Using Templates - Part 2

Following on from my previous post about templates here I thought I'd blog about a different type namely the Crafter's Workshop ones. I have a number of these fab items and I admit that I haven't used them as much as I could or to their full potential.

 

I decided to make a couple of projects using the same template but in different ways so started with this gorgeous design:

 

For my first project - a scrapbook layout - I used the shape to cut a piece of patterned paper as part of my layout background:

 

 

 

For my second project I made a clean and simple card.

I laid the template on the card and used a pencil to lightly draw the pattern on to the card before using a Ranger gold pen to colour the shape.

I also used a pencil to mark the placement of the dots before using Dimensional Pearls here. All that was left after that was to leave the card to dry before adding a ribbon. If necessary I can add a sentiment to the card at a later date:

 

Why not have a look at any templates you have already and try and use them in a different way.

 

Thanks for visiting IACW!

Jo xx 

Ribbon Flowers

Hi Lynne here

At the moment I seem to be adding flowers to everything I make.

Somtimes I can't find quite the right colour or shape so I decided to make some of my own.

They are really simple and all you need are some ribbons or strips of fabric, glue and a piece of paper or card.

For this one I used organza ribbon, not thinking clearly I stuck it on a piece of patterned paper which shows through.  I quite like the effect.

This was made using a strip of net fabric and stuck on white card.

You take a length of ribbon and stick one end onto a piece of paper with a glue dot.  Twisting the ribbon as you go you wind round the centre working out adding glue every so often to hold it in place. When you've made the size you want glue the final end in place and trim the paper / card to the edge of the flower. Then add a button or bling to the centre to complete it.

Twisting tighter gives you a smaller more compact flower.

I also tried using a strip of voile with frayed edges,

Do try making some yourself, they are great fun.

Lynne x

Puff tote

Hello, Eleanor here with another bag variation, this time with co-ordinating suffolk puffs, or yo-yos, stitched to the border. 

The material I used for the bag was the soft wrapping around a gift from a dear Aberdeenshire friend, Bobs, one of our past design guests, here. She knew I would eventually find a good use for the material, and this is my first project with it.

It's actually a print dating back to the 18th century, originating, not, as many believe, in France, but actually in Ireland. The French liked it so much, they set up a factory producing it in Jouy en Josas, and the fabric became known as Toile de Jouy. This particular print is called Lovers Toile,

 

Another popular print was

'The Miller, his Wife and his Ass' !

It's a sturdy, lined bag, (no, this is not the miller's wife, nor his ass)

with a beautiful traditional print, and one thing's for sure, no-one else will have one like it.

There are plenty of tote bag tutorials on here, here's one of mine, Pillowslip tote, and here's how you make  Suffolk Puffs, also known as YoYos!

Cut a square of fabric just over twice the width you want the finished puff to be, mine here is 7 inches:

 

Draw around something circular approximately the size you need, then cut it out:

 

Turn over a small hem and stitch all the way around with doubled thread for strength:

 

Back to where you started, grab the little knot and the trailing thread and pull:

 

Until it is all gathered up:

 

Tie the two ends together with several knots, and rethread the needle with all four strands, as you will use these to attach a button:

 

Stitch on your button and if wanted, sew all the way through to the back to attach onto your bag.

I chose 8 different toning buttons:

Oh, and  I still have enough fabric left to make a skirt. Watch this space.

Bye for now.

Doodling (2)

Hello, Alexa (simple scrapbooker) here, with some ideas on lettering ...

Doodling decorative letters, I thought, will be daunting. But I was wrong - it turned out to be a lot simpler than I realised! Here are some of the things I learned, in case they are useful to you too.

It's quite a natural activity - human beings have been doodling, I suspect, ever since someone realised that a stick poked into a  fire got some nice black charcoal-y stuff on the end, and you could make marks with it on the nearest stone. Monks in the early Middle Ages liked to use a contrasting colour in their lettering, even in books which were not heavily illuminated but were just the bread-and-butter collections of readings or sermons:

The quickest way to get started? Rule four lines, equal distances apart. Do I measure them? Nope, eyeballing is fine! Choose a softish pencil, and an eraser for rubbing out the lines afterwards:

Then make a few vertical lines, with the ruler if you're feeling anxious, and play around with the shapes. How many varieties of the letter 'A/a' can you make up?

 

Rectangles and curves with the odd flower growing out the top are easy to do. Here is the first word I ever journalled on a scrapbook page. Because it's on textured Bazzil, with the colouring in done in pencil, close-up it looks chequered:

Even a single letter at the start of a paragraph of journalling can be a way of adding something of yourself to a  layout. If you're anxious about spoiling a whole page, could you try it on a tag? Try taking a colouring pencil over the other black lines to for added effect:

One of the easiest ways of adding a doodled feel to letters, is to 'fill in' part of the shapes:

1 Draw an ordinary lowercase 'a' shape.
2 As in 1, then cut off part of the curve with a vertical.
3 Add an extra vertical to an existing one.
4 Cut off part of the curve as well.
5/6 Add little fillers to the ends of the letters.
7/8 Experiment with the vowels: try them oversized, or at an angle, or just normal size

You can mix up lower- and upper-case for a casual effect. Once you've coloured the shapes in the letters, they can look like this:

Just playing around on a piece of A4 will give you lots of ideas - don't be afraid to try anything. All you need to create your own alphabet is to consider: how am I going to do the verticals? and how will I do the curves? Once you have a 'theme' (lines, dots, triangles, stripes, on the letter, inside the letter, outside the letter) just go for it! Here's part of a page I did at the end of a swirls/flowers/patterns class with Maelynn Cheung some years ago:

 

Her book Doodling for Papercrafters is still available, and I can recommend it. If you are still very anxious about doodling, do each letter on a separate piece of card, trim them, and stick them onto a coloured background - this way, if one of them is 'rubbish', it can be discarded without having to redo the whole word or title. I do hope you\ll get your pencil and pen out and give it a go!

Thank-you for joining us here today!

Nifty templates for scrapbook pages

Hiya Claireliz here with one of my favourite scrapbooking tricks.

I usually scrap in 12x12in size, but I have a thing for shaped pages in my albums, circles, scrolls, scalloped edges you name it, but I can't draw & my cutting machine will only cut A4 size, so whenever I see a die cut or shaped piece of paper or cardstock I buy it, regardless of pattern (if its a shape I haven't got) Then using the sheets of white cardstock or paper that usually come inside the page protectors of a new album I make templates of the shape by drawing round the bought piece of cardstock or paper, cutting the shape out with scissors & saving them for use later on, I have a large bag of these that always accompanies me to a crop and its known as "the bag of trusty templates"

I have lots of shaped pages in my scrapbook albums & feel they just add that extra bit of interest to my albums.

This is a page I recently made using my circular scalloped template...

I cut the patterned paper centre circle by drawing round a large pan lid (yup, I went into the kitchen :D)

Here are a few other ways I have used my templates... this one has a small scroll sat inside a larger one

 

By cutting inside the line you've drawn with the template you can make a template for a smaller scroll shape, here I have used the large & small templates to make a frame which I have mounted on 3d foam pads...

Or using a scalloped square, again I have cut a frame from this but the inside line was just cut freehand with a craft knife, again the frame was attached with 3d foam pads

Hmm it would appear I also have a thing from frames too.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at what I've made & I would love to see any shaped pages that you create too.

Thanks for stopping by to see us on IACW,

Take care & come back soon

Claireliz

x

Maltesers Rocky Road.

 

 

Summer holidays are upon us again, so here is a little treat that you can make with the kids, or older ones can make on their own; of course, you don't need children to make this, but they are a useful excuse....

This recipe is taken from

'Good to know' recipes found at

www.goodtoknow.co.uk

And is a terrific resource for recipes.

 

 

Ingredients

 

• 175g pouch Maltesers
• 250g chocolate ,broken into pieces
• 50g butter
• 8 digestive biscuits
• 60g baby marshmallows
• Icing sugar to dust over

Method

1. Line a 22cm-square tin with parchment paper.
2. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over boiling water until it has completely melted. Remove from the heat.
3. Set this aside to cool for at least 10 mins whilst you get the rest of the ingredients ready. It's important that the chocolate isn't too hot when it is combined with the other ingredients or it could melt the Maltesers and marshmallows and take the 'rocky' out of this recipe!
4. Next, bash up the biscuits in a plastic bag until you have a good mixture of chunks and powder.
5. Finally, add the crushed biscuits, marshmallows and Maltesers to the mixture and fold with a spoon until all are lightly coated in chocolate.
6. Pour into the tin to refrigerate for at least 30 mins. Sieve over a generous dusting of icing sugar.
7. Cut into slices before serving.

ENJOY.

XXXXX

 

 

 

Stash drooling!!!

It's July which means that it's almost time for Summer CHA 2010.

For any crafters out there who may never have heard of CHA (WHERE have you been?!) it's the Craft and Hobby Association Trade EXTRAVAGANZA! In other worlds it's stash- shiny, NEW stash and lots of it!! It's where all the scrapbook and other craft companies go to show off their new wares and where the stores go to pre-order all that lovely stash!

Luckily there are some SNEAKY PEAKS of some of the loveliness coming our way available on Scrapbook Update.

I've trawled around a few of the sites to choose some of MY fave products that are headed our way.

From Prima lots of wonderful papers and embellies-LOVE those little butterflies!

 

 

 

  
 

 

 From October Afternoon a lovely vintage seaside look:

    

   

Graphic 45 Funky retro and they are right on trend with the Steam Punk inspired papers 'Steampunk Debutante'

 

 
  

Webster's Pages are as beautiful as ever, anyone else find it hard to cut a piece of their fabulous paper?!

 

Cosmo Cricket have several new ranges which are as quirky and fun as ever, but in a great range of 'oh so useful' colours!

   

     

Tim Holtz is adding to his range with more Alterations from Sizzix and some fabulous shadow boxes:

 


   
 

Glitz Designs is a company who hasn't caught my eye until now!   

 

So there's a quick zoom through a FEW of my favourites, I hope you saw something that tickled your mojo?!

Why not pop to Scrapbook Update yourself and have a browse through some of the upcoming goodies, it's a great way to spend an hour.....or two....or three!!!

Happy Crafting!

GlitteryKatie XXxxXX

 
 

 

   
  
 
 
 
 

Jellyroll Joy

Hi - Kel here again and I want to know:

Do you jellyroll?

It seems that the lovely people who spend their days making quilt fabric will never tire of ways to tempt us. In the beginning there was yardage and there were scraps. Then quilting seemed to have a revival of sorts and spawned a whole industry of quiltmaking fabric, supplies and books.

Then we had fat quarters - a great way to build up a wide collection of different colours and patterns. Fat quarters are such a tempting impulse buy too as they don't cost much and you can buy one just because you love it. A quick note for non-quilters to demystify the fat quarter: picture a square yard (or metre, whatever your preference) of fabric. Now divide it into four equal strips (cutting across the width) - that's a long quarter, which is fine for cutting out little pieces or more strips. If, instead, you divide it into 4 equal blocks (cutting across the width and down the length) and you have fat quarters, a more versatile piece for getting different shapes and sizes cut out.

Then we had charm packs and fat eighths and then jelly rolls and layer cakes and I don't know what else. All so lovely to look at, but sometimes hard to use. You either need to buy everything you need for the next quilt, or you use up a selection of a bundle leaving unwieldy scraps to store forever, or you don't know how much quilt a jellyroll will make. Hence the book market that follows the introduction of each of these pretty bundles - 12 Quilts from Fat Quarters, 10 Jelly Roll Quilts for the Weekend, etc (by the way, those are made up titles, at least I hope so!)

 I am always tempted by the jellyrolls, but was never sure where to begin. I was looking at jellyroll books at the quilt show and realised that I probably knew enough strip-based patterns to work something out for myself. Then my lovely friend bought me this jellyroll (the photo is from The Quilt Room in Dorking - my one of my local fabric haunts). 

I was going to do something simple, possibly a simplified log cabin, or bordered four-patches, but then I saw this beautiful quilt on flickr. I can work out how to do it, so that is the new plan. I had hoped to have some blocks ready tonight to show you, but plans for the Mr's birthday got in the way (which is a good thing in my opinion!).

I've sorted out the strips into pairs mainly matching the colour but mixing up the scale. The quilt will blend from red to pink to blue to green to yellow. The first step is to sew together each pair of strips along their length, then cut across these to end up with little two-tone bricks - joining pairs of these will give my four-patches.

I'll make a start this week and show you when I see you next. Thanks for stopping by!

x 

Sew a basket lining.

Hi from Caz!

Today i'm sharing my experiences with sewing linings for my baskets. I love baskets and I love to use them, but if using them for knitting or crochet the little sticky outy bits can cause havoc!

I was really lucky with this little basket as it already had a plastic lining which I cut out and used it as a template to cut my fabric.

 

I wanted a double sided side so the pattern was inside and seen through the basket on the outside too. Once I had cut, pinned and sewn the sides to the top bottom, I hand stitched the underside bottom on. It was easier to hand stitch this bit as the fabric by the stage was quite layered thick and as i'm not a very good seamstress it was easier!

 

 

On this basket I chose not to have a frill, so I sewed the lining around the top to the basket using fishing line.

 

A ribbon threaded through the wicker finishes this basket off nicely.

 

I have made a lining with a frill, and found it quite a challenge! I'm sure it's not really, but I overthink these things and complicate matter some what!

 

For the basket above, I used newspaper to make a pattern. I placed the basket on the newspaper and drew around the base (sticking quite close because the inside of the basket base is much smaller than the outside). For the sides I wrapped the newspaper around the basket and cut out the size I wanted.

I bought a cute basket a few weeks back in Sainsburys and i'm waiting for pay day to go buy some Cath Kidston fabric to make the lining :) LOVE those apples!!

Thanks for visiting and haPPy wEEkend :)
Caz
xx

Clicker Clacker

This is something I posted on my blog last year but have been thinking about making some more as Christmas presents so thought why not share the instructions here too.

I don't know the proper name of these things and have always called them Clicker Clackers because of the noise they make. I've tried to insert a video but if it doesn't show please click here to see the Clicker Clacker in action so to speak :)

You need 8 blocks to start. These can be blocks made of paper, wood or whatever. I used wooden blocks.  It's worth checking charity shop toy buckets for cheap wooden blocks, I've picked up quite a few this way.

 

You then need to hinge together 2 blocks so that you end up with 4 pairs. I used scrap card like so:

You see how I've positioned them? This is how the set-up needs to be but the two middle horizontal pairs need to have the hinge on the back. I hope that makes sense ;)

Next you need to hinge the top of the first front block with the first middle block. and then the second middle block with the end block and then the same on the bottom as shown by the green lines here:

 

 

And that's the basis of the Clicker Clacker. Have a play to make the hinges nice and flexible and then just have fun choosing your images.

I used double sided tape on the hinges and pictures. With a bit of play the tape starts to come away a bit so I would suggest using the tape while you are positioning but then something a bit stronger to finish it all off.

You need to allow a couple of millimeters between the bricks when hinging. Once the pictures are on it gets a bit snug.

When choosing your pictures either have a really large image that wont matter being segmented or if you have a group of people try and position each face on a block so they aren't obscured by a cut or hinge.

I hope you have a play, if you do be sure to show us a linky I'd love to see.

Thanks so much for reading this - any questions just fire away :)

Carmen x