It's a Creative World

TAGGING ALONG 2011

I've been playing along with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas this year and having a fabulous time!!

I know some people don't like his grungy style but  there is so much inspiration in his tags with ideas for using products and demonstrating new techniques!

It's certainly not necessary to have all the 'right' stamps and products either, you can see from my tags I do have quite a few dies and inks like Tim's but if I haven't had the  same stuff I've had even more fun improvising!!

So pop along to Tim's blog and enjoy the mojo boost!

Here are my versions of the 9 of his tags I've completed so far!

Merry Christmas and Happy Crafting!

Love,

GlitteryKatie XxxX

Cheap, Cheerful and Family Friendly

Hello! For today's post I thought I'd try and do three challenges in one post! This is a really expensive time of the year and so I wanted to make things that would be fun for us all to do with the family as well as be as inexpensive as possible.

The first idea was a canvas that could be a gift or small decorative item. I bought a small canvas from a pound shop and coloured it with Antique Linen Distress Stain and Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I used scraps of paper to make rosettes, inked Maya Road letters and embossed them. I added a ribbon from my stash (it originally came from a present so was free!) and a couple of trinkets. I often use these canvasses as they are so inexpensive and can be used as a platform to build on your ideas. If you have never tried using one before, buy them really cheaply and have a go - if you have only spent a pound then it doesn't feel so scary to use it! Cut out images, like Victorian decoupage, look fabulous on a canvas!

The second idea is a wreath.

I made this one with my children last year and was thrilled to see it had survived a winter in the decorations box! I covered a ring cut from a cereal box (using two sized plates!) and covered it with Tissue Tape. Then I die cut Christmas Trees and inked the edges before placing them on the ring. I added very inexpensive sticky stars on the top and a ribbon. To the bottom I covered an Adage Ticket with Glossy Accents and popped a tiny gem in there for a little more 'bling'! It looks really sweet in real life and I had lots of compliments!

The final project is a fabulously easy one which will keep your small people busy for ages!

My 11 year old daughter made these and intends on making more so my house will soon become awash with paper baubles! Simply stamp an A4 piece of card with your favourite stamps (or use old thicker quality wrapping paper) and colour the stamped images in. Cut out strips from the card of about 2cm wide and when you have about 8 put a small hole at the end of each one. Thread a brad through the holes at one end and secure. At the other end you need to secure a ribbon for hanging. Simply fan out the strips to make a bauble shape. My daughter will be thrilled that her craft is being seen by you!

I hope this has given you some inexpensive inspiration for decorations! As this my last post before Christmas may I wish you a happy and peaceful holiday and a wonderful start to 2012!

Gabrielle

From Sketch to Scrapbook Page...

Hi, Mandy here.  This will be my last post until March next year as I'm preparing for a long trip to Africa with the Charity I work with.  Before I go I want to share a recent scrapbook page and the process I went through from sketch to finished LO.  The colours are a little strange as they were taken indoors in artificial lighting as I didn't have time when it was daylight!  This happy little chap is my Nephew.  The photo is one my sister-in-law sent me last year when he was only 3 months old.  Seriously cute and no I'm not biased (!)

Sketches are a really useful way to get going.  Thinking up my own design takes longer and although it's very satisfying, sketches are quicker for me when time is short.  The pp is one of my fave Christmas ranges called 'Peppermint Twist' by Brenda Walton for K&Company.  It must be about 4 or 5 years old (or more) but I still love it.  Sadly the pp is nearly covered up but still makes me smile.  The embellishment layered cluster (bottom right) is what I made a stack of for the JYC class by Shimelle which I'm doing for the first time this year. 

So, the process of making this LO was pretty straight forward.  I think I've mentioned before that I find it very interesting when someone shares the 'hows and whys' of making something.  I'm nosey like that!  So I started with the photo (still on my hardrive, not printed yet).  There were no support photos so I knew it would be a one photo LO which is something I often do.  So, then I searched for a sketch that was suitable for just one photo.  I have sketches saved on my i-pad and find it very useful to flick through, then have out on the table while I work.  Jana Eubank has pages of fab sketches and they can all be downloaded.  Really great 'do-able' sketches.  I chose a sketch from Page 7.  It's the one second from the bottom on the right edge (dark black scallop circle).... 

Once I'd chosen the sketch  I then printed my photo out at home, size 5" x 7".  The only thing I did to the original photo was crop some of the background cushion away, but I sometimes add frames or touch-up my photos in PSE9, but not this time.  Instead of a solid scallop I decided to hand-sew a large circle with 3 sets of buttons around the edge.  At this point I really want to mention  SJ at 'Little Musings'  and her idea called 'Take One'.    SJ encourages folks to look at their own pages for inspiration and 'take one' idea away and use it on a new LO.  Well, the LO below is one of my own LOs from about 2 years ago and I used SJ's idea to 'take one' thing (the large hand-sewn circle with buttons) and use that on my LO about my nephew.  So in terms of the sketch, the sewn circle and buttons took the place of the large scallop circle. 

I drew around a large dinner plate in pencil to get an idea of the size and placement of the circle...

I cut a wide strip of pp and rummaged for a strip of felt trim (Funday by MME).  The embellishment cluster was already made as a JYC number embellishment (without number obviously!)

I sorted out some buttons in red, green, black and white.  At this point nothing is glued down, but I marked the cardstock in pencil, so I knew where not to sew as there was pp over that part.

I sewed the circle and buttons on the cardstock with green embroidery floss...

I inked the pp with brown ink around the edges and glued everything down.  Then I added the title (glittery red Thickers called Reindeer).  Here's a comparison with the sketch and LO so far... 

I decided to journal around the edge of the circle, which made the circle more pronounced and i think it takes the eye up the LO because it's very heavy visually at the bottom.  The journaling is always harder when you didn't take the photo yourself and don't have much of a story.  Mine says...

" ********'s 1st Christmas... He was only three months old and such a smiler.  Love how he has only one slipper on.  Seriously... the cutest Santa!"

 

Here's a close up...

 

This was such a simple and fun LO to make and although there's not much of a story, I do love that photo.

Have a great Christmas, see you in March x

Mandy.

 

Mobius Wrap

Time for some pretty maths:

The mobius strip or band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. You can make one with a strip of paper, giving it a half twist and joining the ends together to form a loop.

(image from Wikipedia) 

 Some time ago, back in April 2009 to be precise, there was a lovely pattern in a magazine called Sew Hip, for a cotton wrap, by Tracy Cushing. I loved it then, and I love it now. Yes, only 2 and a half years later, I have made this wrap, from a gorgeous Moda jelly roll called OZ.

A jelly roll is simply 2.5 inch strips across the width (usually about 44 inches) of every fabric in a range by a certain designer, in this case, Sanae, from Japan, and I bought my jelly roll from Patchkits .

This is a sort of step by step, with far too many photos, but I hope it makes sense. (And if you really don't want to see the step by step, scroll to the bottom of the post and you will see me and my Mobius Wrap completed. I love it. )

First of all, unroll your jelly roll and put the strips in a pleasing order. Or not, after all, they all look beautiful, so you could just swirl them around and take whichever comes to hand each time. For a medium size I used 30 strips, if small, it takes 28, if large, then 35. (There are 40 in the roll)

Trim off the selvedges:

Next, cut each strip in half to make 2 pieces, 2.5 x 22 in.

Lay your first two pieces wrong sides together, (the pattern on the pieces will keep changing, but the principle won't, it's just that I took hundreds of photos, and chose the best one for each step):

Next take 2 more strips and make a sandwich, with the above in the middle. Order of pieces is right side up, wrong side up, right side up, wrong side up (a close look at the following should make it clear):

Smooth these together, like so:

and stitch along the long edge, with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, as I have done in this picture, (even though the fabric has changed):

Next lay out one of another pair of strips:

and place your just stitched pair on top, see the order is always the same, right side up, wrong side up, right side up:

and add your second of the pair on top, wrong side up:

Pin:

and then stitch:

Continue to repeat the process with each new pair of strips until you have one pair left.

It's a good idea to backstitch at the beginning and end of each line of stitching, but if, like mine, your sewing machine doesn't like to backstitch at the end of the line, and bunches up the fabric annoyingly, you can always do this...

When you get to the end of the line of stitching:

swivel the fabric around like this:

all the way, and stitch back the way you came for 6 or so stitches before releasing and cutting your thread:

So, when you have your final pair of strips left, add them, and then press one long edge in by 1/4 inch:

Now lay your entire piece out somewhere, and admire them, taking a photo because they look so beautiful (and before the cat snuggles down on them):

Now stand at the long edge, take the left hand edge (the one you have pressed) in your left hand, and bring it to meet the right hand edge, giving it one twist:

lay it down:

Bring the short edges together:

Drop down the pressed edge, away from the other 3:

And stitch once more along the long edge. Here you can see that A is where you have stitched, and B is your last loose edge, with the pressed 1/4 inch. What you now have is a tube, with a twist in it, and a gap to close:

Bring that pressed edge up to cover the last raw edge, and pin in place:

Now handstitch using your favourite invisible method, like a ladder stitch.

Now you can topstitch all the way around the long edge, and there IS only one edge, that's the interesting mathematical phenomena of a mobius strip, so keeping stitching, all the way, one inch in from the edge until you get back to where you started. Add another line, a 1/4 inch in from that, and you have a double topstitch.

 

Your last job (phew), it's taken longer to write this than it did to make the wrap, lol, is to snip those raw edges to make a lovely fluffly ruffly edge:

Then wash (or just pop through your machine on a rinse and spin cycle) and tumble dry to free up the edges, and get rid of any lint:

Wear your wrap with a smile because the colours make you feel happy:

Bye for now,

Eleanor

x

 

What can I do with a broken salt cellar?

I've been staying inside today trying to keep cosy while wild winds have been whistling over most of Scotland. I found a nice relaxing little project to do and this is something that might inspire you to look in your cupboards and see what you can transform.

I own this pretty little silver salt cellar with cobalt glass insert and I will use it occasionally.  I also own another the same, but this one no longer has it's glass - not a whole lot of use. It is not worth getting an insert custom made for it,  so what do I do with it?

Make it into a cute little pin cushion, that's what.

I drew around the cellar and cut two bits of card a little smaller than my drawn lines. One bit of card I stuck into the bottom of the cellar to form a base which will hide any raw edges of fabric. Then I cut an oval of fabric for the top and a straight piece to go around the edges with a bit extra for gathering and turning under, and I stitched it wrong sides together. I turned it the right way around and stuffed it with dried lavender. Then I put the other oval of card on top of the stuffing and made a running stitch around the bottom edge of the fabric and gathered it together around the card and then popped it into the silver cellar. I could hot glue it in, but it is a firm fit so doesn't really need it, 

Every time I stick a pin into it I get a delightful aroma of lavender. I will really enjoy using this now instead of it being pointlessly stuck in a cupboard.

Perhaps you have some small dish or other small silver item that doesn't seem very useful at the moment. Why not turn it into a pretty little pin cushion to enjoy - or even give as a gift. Or if you don't own one but would like to, then keep your eyes open in the charity shops, you might just pick up the perfect thing.

I hope I inspired you today.

Happy crafting

 

Decorated Mannequin

Hi Debbie here with an altered car boot sale find.

 

These were 2 for 50p (I do love a bargain) and I decided to pretty it up.

I used plain paper to make a pattern and then vintage music paper once I was happy. If your mannequin is quite busty you will need two large pleats/tucks near to the middle.

I pleated lots of pieces for the skirt and joined them as I went along.

A piece of sticky ribbon held the pleats in place.

 

I cut out some small tags for the bottom of the skirt and hole punched them. All the edges were edged with dark brown ink.

The final touch was to pull the skirt out a little and add a little pink rose, I only had white ones, so I coloured this one in with a promarker.

Debbie x

 

The Smell of Christmas

 

When I was blog hopping I saw mention of Cinnamon Applesauce decorations and went googling to see what they were:

• 1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup white glue
• Bowl
• Plastic food wrap
• Rolling pin
• Wax paper
• Cookie cutters or a knife
• Ribbon or yarn for hanging

1. Mix cinnamon, applesauce, and glue together in a bowl. The dough should be as thick as cookie dough. Add a bit of water if the dough is too stiff.
2. Remove from bowl and knead. Put it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for at least a half hour.
3. Remove the dough, knead again to make sure it's smooth. Flatten/roll the dough between waxed paper until it's between 1/4" thick and 1/8" thick.
4. Cut out desired shapes, use a straw to punch a hole for the ribbon to hang. The circle of dough will pull out with the straw.

Gently place the shapes on a piece of clean wax paper. They will take 3-5 days to dry, and you will need to turn them over a couple of times a day for them to dry evenly and flat.

So I made some as I had some apples and a pot of cinnamon lying around and I have to say they smell DIVINE!!! I plan to add them to my christmas cards as decorations!

Anyway my children weren't very impressed with my FAKE biscuits- they smell was so delicious! So I have made REAL gingerbread men to keep the kids happy.

I found a lovely recipe HERE on the BBC website:

• 350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out

• 1 tspbicarb of soda

• 2 tsp ground ginger
  

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 125g/4½oz butter or marg

• 175g/6oz light soft brown sugar

• 1 free-range egg

• 4 tbsp golden syrup

1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

2. Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfim and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them. For decorations, use a skewer to make a small hole in the top of each biscuit.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled decorate with the writing icing and cake decorations.

I changed the recipe slightly-I used 3 tbsp of golden syrup and 1 tbsp of treacle.

Here they are all cut out ( I made about 30 large gingerbread men):

They cooked beautifully and smell DIVINE. I had to do a taste test of course and they taste as good as they smell!

Whether they will get a chance to be iced I don't know- I think they are going to be eated pretty quickly!!

So If you want a quick taste and SMELL of christmas think about whipping up a batch of these gingerbread men!!

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxx

From album, to adorning your neck

I am always tempted by beautiful silk flowers but find that I rarely use them on my layout pages. I bought this set of Prima Allure Jewel flowers.

I thought I could turn it into a pretty necklace. Here's how I went about it.

I made a suitable arrangement. I trace this arrangement onto white paper. I cut out the paper to form the base for my necklace. You might have to go over a few edges of the paper to ensure that the base will be completely hidden under the flowers.

Cut out a piece of silk roughly 1cm bigger than the paper template. Tack the edges of the silk to the paper.

Attach the flowers to the silk base using small stitches. This might take a while.

Add ribbon and a few charms and that's my flower necklace done. I was going to give it to a friend for Christmas but I think I might keep it.

by Ifa

Christmas is coming!

Hi everyone, so how are your Christmas plans coming together?

I am as always totally disorganised, I don't know why but I still get caught out every year and I always say....this time next year I will do better but in all honesty I tend to get worse!

So onto what I have to show you today. I have noticed that felt items seem to be really big right now and whether for yourself or a gift it is a great medium to "play" with.

For this poinsettia I have used the new Spellbinder die Layered Poinsettia together with red and gold felt, red stickles, thread and gold beads.  The dies cut felt lovely although I like to put it through my Calibur a couple of times just to make sure.  You also need to take care removing from the die.  I have used a couple of layers of the larger dies finishing with just one of the smallest, all sewn together and added to a brass badge pin.

The other item I wanted to share is something that I have been doing all year round.  This is a 365 day calender started by the lovely Kate at The Kathryn Wheel.  Every month we create a page with little spots to write our diary or even just key events in, this is my new one for December;

I have used my Distress inks to create the tree and background then my Spellbinder dies "Holiday tags" and Heirloom 2011 to create the kraft baubles.  I have used textured stamps to create the background both behind and on the tree.  The idea is that you fill a shape daily with whatever you want to, I tend to keep mine as a mini diary but some doodle or do both.  Why not follow the link above to Kate's blog where you can check out what everyone else has been up to, you will need to scroll back to the 1st of the month...did I mention I was playing catch up?

Just so you can get an idea of what they look like completed this is my favourite month "June" all finished;

Trust me to pick the only two trees I have done! 

I do think it is a nice thing to look back on especially as I seem to be so bad at doing any scrap booking just now, with special events mentioned on it I can always look back to match photos to dates.

As the cartoons say, "that's all folks!" (From me).

"Happy crafting!"

Regards Erika.

 

 

 

 

Using Novelty Yarns At Christmas

Hi there Kerry here

How many of us knitters have some novelty yarn in our stash that we will probably never use?

I know I certainly have.

I turned mine into some reasonably easy Christmas tree decorations.

It doesn't matter what size yarn you use. You might want to go down a size needle from the one recommended for the yarn so the knitted piece is denser and you are less likely to see the stuffing. So you will need a little bit of stuffing or tights or old bits of fabric to stuff your decoration.

The pattern is as follows working from the tip downwards:

You have a choice of leaving a long enough loop to hang it with or crocheting a chain. If you are crocheting a chain then chain 30 and slip stitich back into the first chain to make the loop. Transfer the loop onto your knitting needle and then knit as follows:

Row 1 - knit into the front and back of the stitch (abbreviated to kfb)

R2 and all even rows up to and including row 26 - purl

R3 - kfb on each stitch

R5 - knit

R7 - kfb each stitch

R9 - knit

R11 - (kfb k1) to end

R13 - knit

R15 - as row 11 (18sts)

R17 - knit

R19 - as row 11 (27sts)

R21 - knit

R23 - (kfb k1) to last stitch k1 (40 sts)

R25 - knit

R27, 28 and 29 - knit - this provides a garter ridge for the base of the tree

R30 - (p2tog p3) x 8 (32sts)

R31, 33 and 35 - knit

R32 - (p2tog p2) x8 (24 sts)

R34 - (p2tog p1) x 8 (16sts)

R36 - p2tog x 8

Cast off

You have the option of sewing on beads or buttons at this point or leaving it plain.  On the yellow ones I added buttons to the top to make a star.  I just added a few beads on the pastel eyelash ones and on the dark green ones I added lots of gold seed beads.

Turn it inside out making sure your loop is on the inside and start sewing the seam until you reach the garter ridge you made at row 28. At this point turn it the right way round and stuff it. Then stitch the bottom seam adding more stuffing, if it needs it, as you go.